Designing for new blessings

I have a new granddaughter that arrived this past year.  What a blessing she is.  (Of course, so is her mommy and daddy and big brother.)

 

She arrived just after we had spent a week in my Colorado Mountains.  There were Columbine flowers all over those mountains.  I took these pictures because I just wanted to try to design these wonderful works of art.

 Here is another shot from the side view.

 

These wonderful flowers are so much larger than the domesticated variety but they do not come in all the wonderful color combinations as the tame ones.  I always try to grow these in Kansas.  Here is a shot of one of my efforts.

Now, something that seems to hold true with all my children and now grandchildren is that they are all bald.  I spent two years taping bows to my oldest girl's head just so people knew she was a girl.

 

I just knew I had to design a beautiful headband for my new granddaughter that would accentuate her beauty.  I have always wanted to crochet Columbines because they are so wonderful so I got to work.

 

First came the flower which can look so different when it is a side view or a front on view.  So after many, many hours of frogging steps I came up with the flower from both the side view and the front view.  My daughter loved them and suggested just making them into clip barrettes that she could add them to an already existing headband.  (I wish I had had headbands like these when my children were young).

 

So the pattern continued.  It included instructions for just making the clip barrettes and I continued to work on the band. 











It calls for really soft elastic because babies head are so tender and I chose to buy some of the baby headbands and cut them up to fill the elastic gap.

 



The pattern has a lot of picture tutorials to help others through the process of making this work of art.

I love how it came out.  God gives us so many examples of his love.  For me, His gorgeous Columbine flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow are one example.  Daughters and now grandchildren are are such precious blessings that even when I doubt that He cares, I just have to look at them and know my doubts are lies.  What have you found that proves God's love in your life?

 

 













changing colors in crochet

With all the joyous activity that surrounds Christmas, I have not blogged as often.  I am currently designing a nativity wall hanging which will be ready next year as there is not way it will be finished this year yet.

I am using a striped pattern for baby Jesus and I realize that a tuturial on different methods of changing colors might be helpful.  Here is a picture of the baby Jesus.

 

As the picture shows, every other row on the body is a different color.  I will show the way to change colors in the round without cutting the thread and adding knots to the work.

Using the last stitch of the row, in this case a slip stitch, pull the new color up from behind the work to make the first loop of the new row.

 

Pull the loop through and start the next round using your new color.  (In this case you go from gold to white)

 

 

This can be done also if you are working on an item that is worked in rows.  In this case, at the end of the row, make a ch of 1, 2, 3 or 4 if the next row is sc, hdc, dc or tr.  Drop the old color.  (I usually pull up a large loop so that it won't unravel as I work on the next row.) 



Insert you hook in the next row's color loop, turning work to work across the row in a new color.  Again, when done with that color, add a chain stitch long enough to get past the next row and switch to the new color.

 

Here is another switch, using the next color.



 

To break off the color, the best way I have found to hide the ends and not have a lot of knots is to lay the broken off color along the top of the row and crochet around it as you work the next row.  This way you don't have loose ends at the end of your piece that has to be woven in.

 

 

I love color work.  It helps to bring out the design of a piece and just add that something extra.  Learning some of these little tricks has made the process so much easier. 

 

I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Season.  Do you know of any other other nifty tricks for working with color on crochet?











Looks like Fall

I am back after a wonderful visit to my daughter in Tennessee.  We got to see our wonderful 2 year old grandson and meet our new granddaughter.  What a blessing they all are.  I made a darling headband for our granddaughter.  I am waiting for some pictures and then the pattern will be off to the testers so that I can offer the pattern to others.

When I got back, the weather had turned glorious and it has become increasingly difficult to stay inside.  So I have been out in the yard, walking down street gutters full of leaves and listening to the shushing sounds and smells of the falling leaves.  I thought I would share some of the wonderful Fall colors in Kansas.

The prevailing winds have been out of the North making the sky really blue.

 

 

 

 

Of course I love the red leaves.  (Red is my favorite color).

 

 

 

I am currently working on a Christmas crochet project design that may not be ready in time for this year but I am really excited about it.  I am also working on a new knit design that will be out in the near future.

 

I am really excited about all these ideas and I keep getting called to be out doors "shushing" in the leaves.  What is your favorite things about this time of year?







half double crochet cluster stitches and Irish Crochet

In designing crochet patterns I love the half double crochet (U.S. abbreviation).  It is exactly the right size to get to the the double crochet smoothly.  A lot of my work ends up using a half double crochet 2 together stitch.  When I go to youtube I cannot find a tutorial on this stitch so I thought I would make one here.

To make the half double crochet stitch (U.S. abbreviation is hdc):  It has a single wrap just like the double crochet. The needle is inserted into the stitch, I yarn over and then pull through the stitch.  Now I have 3 threads on my hook.  I  yarn over once again and pull it through all three stands on the hook.

I use a lot of half double crochet 2 together (abbreviation is hdc2tog) in my patterns also.  This is just two half double crochets in the same stitch.  Making one hdc, I don't pull through the three stands but instead make another single wrap and insert it in the same stitch.  I yarn over, pull through the stitch, yarn over and pull through all five strands on my hook.

I am currently working on a design that uses some Irish crochet techniques.  One of these is using 3 half double crochet cluster stitches (a form of a clones knot) which is worked in my pattern around the chain instead of in a specific stitch.  The 3 half double crochet cluster (U.S. abbreviation 3 hdcCL) just adding a third hdc to the stitch, yarning over and pulling through all the threads at once. 

It is closed with a slip stitch in the top. This made a pretty little knot on the spurs of the Columbine flower I am designing

Finally, I needed a little larger knot on some stamen for the Columbine flower.  For this I used a 4 hdcCL stitch.  Again, I made 4 unfinished half double crochet around the chain (instead of in a specific stitch), yarn over and pull through all the strands on the hook.





 Again it is closed with a simple slip stitch which makes a wonderful little Clones type knot on the end of the stamen.

The final stage to finish the stamen and spurs of the Columbine Flower design is to slip st around the chain that the cluster stitch is made on. 

Now I use the chain as a padding cord.  Instead of single crocheting in each stitch I single crochet around the chain the number of times specified in the pattern.

I love Irish crochet and have found that many of the techniques work really well with larger thread and yarn and comes out beautifully.  The Columbine flower is so beautiful and I just had to see if I could make something in crochet that would look close to the original flower.

I hope this tutorial is helpful and that it encourages others to not fear using Irish crochet techniques. It really is just crochet with some embellishments.   







Colorado Theatre Shooting

I was all set to make a post about crochet and then the Colorado theatre shooting happened.  Despite the fact that I don't live there anymore, I am still a Colorado girl, born and raised.  Most of my family of origin live there and the news of this shooting hit me hard.  I have been crying and praying since yesterday for those affected.  I just came across this blog post and it says what I couldn't put into words, so I am reposting it here.

So you STILL think God is a merciful God?!

      

(Maybe, just maybe God spared my life because He loves YOU and wants you to hear this..He wants you to believe that He loved you so much He gave His only begotten Son that if you would believe in Him you would have eternal life.)

“So, you still believe in a merciful God?” Some of the comments online are genuinely inquisitive, others are contemptuous in nature. Regardless of the motive behind the question, I will respond the same way.

Yes.

Yes, I do indeed.

Absolutely, positively, unequivocally.

Let’s get something straight: the theater shooting was an evil, horrendous act done by a man controlled by evil. God did not take a gun and pull the trigger in a crowded theater. He didn’t even suggest it. A man did.

In His sovereignty, God made man in His image with the ability to choose good and evil.

Unfortunately, sometimes man chooses evil.

I was there in theater 9 at midnight, straining to make out the words and trying to figure out the story line as The Dark Night Rises began. I’m not a big movie-goer. The HH and I prefer to watch movies in the comfort of our own home…where I can use subtitles and get a foot rub. I don’t like action movies. And I don’t like midnight showings. But, as I wrote in my last post, parents sometimes make sacrifices for their kiddos and I decided I would take my fourteen year old and sixteen year old daughters who were chomping at the bit to see this eagerly anticipated third movie in the Batman Trilogy. Twice I had the opportunity to back out and twice I was quite tempted. But something in me said just go with your girls. I did.

So I was there with them, fidgeting in my seat, some forty or fifty feet away from the man with the gun. It’s still a bit surreal, but I do know that when the seemingly endless shooting started, as my girls were struggling from whatever gas or chemical had been released, and we figured out what was happening, we hit the floor. I threw myself on top of my fourteen year old who was on the end of the row, straight up the aisle from the shooter. In that moment, as the rapid-fire shots continued, I truly thought I was going to die. And I realized that I was ready. I have put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the redeemer of my soul, and there wasn’t the slightest doubt that I would be received into heaven, not because of any good thing that I have done but because of His merciful nature and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Still, as I lay over my daughter, I began praying out loud. I don’t even remember what I prayed, but I don’t imagine it really matters. I’m sure it was for protection and peace. It drew me closer into the presence of God. When there was a pause in the shooting, people began to clamor for the exits. The girls and I jumped up and joined the masses. We had to step over a lifeless body, not knowing where the shooter was. We raced to our car and I dumped my purse, frantically searching for keys, looking all around, prepared to hit the ground. I yelled at Michelle to call Matthew and find out if he had made it out of the theater next door. She did. He did. We booked on out of there.

Why would you think such a tragedy would make me question the goodness of God? If anything, both of my girls said it made Him a much more real presence to them; the youngest shared this verse: Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your feet from being caught.

He is not the cause of evil, but He is the one who can bring comfort and peace in the midst of evil. It’s been amazing to see the outpouring of love from so many people after this unthinkable act. Yes, there was one evil act, but it is being covered by thousands, possibly millions of acts of kindness.

We have not yet slept, so the girls and I are overtired and a bit emotional. But overall, we are praising God and resting in His Goodness. I love this word of wisdom and encouragement from a former pastor of mine:

Up to this point I haven’t had words to say that would matter. Of course we are all glad that you and the family are safe. Of course we would all state the obvious that this is horrific and senseless. But those words still don’t carry weight that remain in the midst of the questions. Then it hit me… Do you know what the difference was between Job and his wife in their response to the tragedy of losing everything… Job 1:20 Job was the only one that worshiped in the midst of it. Marie, I know your heart and I’ve seen your worship lived out before your family. Before the weight of this becomes unbearable… worship. Your profile pic was not coincidence, not by accident that you changed it on July 15th, but a beautiful foreshadowing of your need to hear the cry of your heart and give Him praise. 

Though we don’t have all the answers, we do indeed listen to the cry of our hearts: When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? Psalm 56:3-4

God is always good.

Man is not.

Don’t get the two confused.

We will continue to praise and worship our mighty God, anticipating that He will bring beauty from ashes, as only He can do.

If you want to know how to pray for us: first and foremost, we need sleep. Somehow our bodies seem too wired. We also want the life that God has graciously allowed us to continue to live to not be a gift given in vain, we want our lives to draw others closer to Him. We do not want fear to dominate, for God has not given us a spirit of fear. We want His joy to be seen and experienced in all that we do.

Pray for the families who lost loved ones, and for young people who witnessed such horror. Pray for this to be an opportunity for God to manifest Himself in mighty ways.

As for you…we will pray that YOU might know His goodness.

Still grateful for this wonderful life,

Marie

 http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/#comments

God doesn't save us from this world's troubles but hopes that we will be a light in the darkness for others to find what I have found in Him and is with me through all of it. 

Washing red yarns and threads

I love the color red and so many of my thread crochet and even my yarn knitting includes red.  When I was young, (many, many years ago) red thread was color fast.  In the past 15 years I would not say that is true.  Nothing is more discouraging then getting a red and white piece done, washing it and having it bleed all over the white.

Here is another example of the red and white I love to use.

I always hand wash my crochet so that I can pin the shapes and just take the 'rumple' out of a piece I have been working on.

I have finally come up with a recipe for laundering reds that has not gone wrong on me yet.  I start with a bowl of cool filtered water.  I have a filter on my faucet.  Most city water has chlorine in it to kill the germs.  Unfortunately, it can also cause problems with letting reds bleed.  If I didn't have a filter I would set the water out on the counter over-night.  That would take care of the chlorine which will evaporate.

Next I add a small amount of laundry soap.  Now here is the magic ingredient:  white vinegar.  I add about a half cup or cup (depending on how big my bowl is) and stir it into the water.  Vinegar acts as a dye fixing agent.  It will help keep the red from bleeding.  I put the newly finished item into the water and let it soak overnight.  When I get up in the morning, everything is clean and the white is still white and not pink.  I allow it to dry in shape using pins if necessary or it can be ironed with a cloth over it to keep it from scourging.

This recipe has worked for me in the past.  If you know of another way to keep reds from bleeding, please let me know.  Since I love and use it so much I am always interested in other ideas.

Tin Woodman of Oz and Father's Day

With Father's Day coming up, I finally finished the design for my Tin Woodman of Oz reading character bookmark pattern.  I always liked this character in the Wizard of Oz characters because he thought he needed a heart and he had the most heart of all the characters.  I think my own father may get one of these on Father's day.

Like all my reading Character bookmarks, his head hangs out of the book for ease of finding the reader's place.  His arms with his ax can go inside the book or hang outide as well.

He is now available on my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/listing/100338124/crochet-bookmark-tin-woodman-of-oz

This is a fairly simple pattern to make although the silver metallic thread usually isn't in stores until Christmas time.  I usually stock up when the metallic threads come out because I really like them.  I know that they can be found on line right now.  A gray or silver thread without the metallic fiber added would work also.

The pattern uses the usual stitches such as sc, hdc, dc, etc. (these are U.S. abbreviations) and some front and back posts work.   It also has picture tutorials on areas that might seem confusing without pictures.

I think fathers often are characterized as having no heart because they don't use the words "I love you" as often as mother's, but their actions tell it all.  At least this was the case of my own father and yet I know how much he loves me by all the ways he is ready to help if I need it.  

Happy Father's Day to all the "Tin Woodsman" out there.