Even More Crochet Projects

I crocheted a different style of beanie.  I was following a pattern for a cloche, but it was too short and too small, so I customized it to be another beanie that fits my head.

I decided to turn my piles of granny squares into vests.  I made the first one from a picture I saw on the Internet, but I somehow spaced out on the number of rows I needed and made it way too wide.  It's more of a shawl with arm holes now.

For the second vest, I used up the squares to lengthen it.  It fits much better.

I tried to follow a pattern for a dog coat that was online but struggled to comprehend the directions and ended up just making it my way.  Xander immediately tried to chew through it to get out of it, so I'll have to wait until he is more mature and has all of his adult teeth before letting him wear it unsupervised.

This was my first crocheted dog coat.  I normally make them out of quilting fabric and batting with a third layer of flannel on the inside.  I have to choose bright neon colors so that I can find the dogs when they wander off into the woods.

Xander's first fabric coat had a fake sheepskin fabric on the inside so that I could skip using batting and flannel.  He loves to rip stuffing out of stuffed animals, and I didn't want him ripping the batting out of his new coat.  Unfortunately, he figured out that the other dogs have stuffing in their coats, so he's been undressing the other dogs and shredding their coats.  His baby teeth are razor sharp so all it takes it one solid bite and whatever he bit into is destroyed.  So, I have to train him to leave the coats alone before I can make replacements.

I also tried my hand at making slippers.  I followed a YouTube video and was disappointed that the sides of the slippers were so low.  The slippers were more like toe warmers, so I added my own custom design to get a little more warmth and turn them into booties.  They can be worn three different ways.

I used "baby Bee" soft & snuggly Splish-Splash yarn from Hobby Lobby and it was a delight to work with.  So far, the majority of my projects have been with acrylic yarn.  I love how soft this yarn is and that the hook slides easily through the loops.  This yarn is designed more like a pipe cleaner, so there are no smaller twined strands to get caught up on.  Of course, the first night I wore these slippers to bed, the puppy got under the covers and tried to shred them right off my feet.  I have to keep reminding myself that the pleasure is in the process and not the finished product.

More Crochet Projects

For a long time, I was in the habit of cross-stitching while watching TV in the evenings as a way to wind down.  However, I don't enjoy finishing cross-stitch projects, so I just shove them in a drawer until I'm ready to add the straight stitching and turn them into a pillow or wall hanging.  That's why I haven't bothered to document each of those projects. However, since I learned crochet, I've been making much better progress toward the final products.  Here are some I've worked on in recent weeks.

This was my first scarf.  It is essentially just a bundle of chains -- a way to learn the most basic stitch.

I looked at a lot of beanie patterns and felt overwhelmed, so I did the simplest one.  I don't need another beanie but needed the practice.  I love this scarf.  I found an old skein of yarn in my collection that looked like it would make a nice scarf, and it did except I ran out of yarn.  I looked it up online to order more and discovered that it was from something like 2008 and is no longer made.  Fortunately, I found a second skein of the same yarn when I dug down to the bottom of my yarn pile.

My son and daughter-in-law sent me a skein of Red Heart Granny Squares yarn for Mother's Day and I got addicted using it to make granny squares, so I ordered a bunch more in different color schemes.

I made a wall hanging for my first project.

However, I ordered more of the same yarn, so I plan to finish this by making it into a blanket, and I will use the wall hanging space for a quilt... if I can ever finish it.  Right now is not the best time for me to be quilting because we have a young puppy who needs constant supervision, and quilting requires some concentration.  Crochet is a fairly mindless craft once the pattern becomes second nature.

First Crocheted Blanket

 

I've been learning crochet through books and videos, but I find that my aging brain can't hold onto too many steps for very long.  I decided to just practice two basic stitches over and over until they became habit.  However, I quickly bored of practicing without actually producing something, so I chose to make a lap blanket for the dogs and me to warm up with in the winter.  I started out with an old lavender skein from my stash, and I discovered that the yarn ran out quickly, leaving me with just a strip.  I couldn't find the exact same color of yarn anywhere, so I just picked up a dozen or so skeins of this multicolored purple, teal and white yarn at Hobby Lobby.  I decided to make the lavender strip a border, but then realized I needed a border on the opposite end too.  I ended up picking out a teal skein since a mismatched lavender would look like a mistake while an obvious conflict of colors would look intentional.  It really doesn't matter, because my dogs will shred the blanket in no time.  They already ripped holes in several of my quilts.  My Aussie pup's favorite thing to do is to untie and unravel rope toys with his teeth.  I'm hoping he won't discover any loose yarn on the blanket.  

The "lap" blanket ended up being more like a double-sized bed cover that doesn't hang down the sides.  It would probably fit a twin mattress just right.  It took a couple of months to complete, and my fingers have now experienced the joy of arthritis.  They are ready for a rest before the next crochet project, which will definitely be much smaller.  Something like a beanie, perhaps.