....as we say in NC,,,,,,

"Oy veh. as we say in NC!"

"Actually, we don't say that in NC. That's an affectation you picked up when you were in New York!"

"Affectation?!  Moi?!"

via GIPHY

"Yes, you!  Let's get to the point.

"OK,  in truth I'm sort of cranky because I feel like I haven't done anything productive this week.  Yes, I published a pattern or two, but no sales to speak of...."

"Then back up.  What is your big-picture objective.?"

"Lots and lots of patterns and designs, and being recognized as an authority."

"Where do you stand in meeting that goal?"

"I have 25 patterns on Ravelry, I am considering an e-book of my shawl patterns, and people say nice things to me."

"So you want more patterns, more published books, more public recognition in a way that can be measured."

"Exactly!"

"And you're having a conversation with a keyboard right now?"

"Actually, you [insert swear word here], you are helping me organize my thoughts."  

"Glad to be of service.  You will receive my bill at the end of the month."

"Not surprised."

"OK, mortal jackass, what strengths do you have that we can build on?

"Some people think I'm cute."

"No, I mean in the real world."

"I am good at writing patterns. I used to do business writing, so I am accustomed to writing in a fashion that is most clear to the largest audience. I also have a snappy sense of humor."

"Back to the real world, if you please!"

"I enjoy doing interviews for YouTube, and they seem to draw attention and favorable comments."

"What else?"

"Um......I like puppies?"

"YES!!!  That's it! A puppy project!  That will gain you the attention you crave!"

"Soooooo......if I urge people to do what they should be doing anyway--making dog sweaters and blankets for pet rescue organizations--that will benefit me materially?"

"Materially?  To whom do you think you are talking?  [see what I did there grammatically?]  I'm here for your soul, not your wallet! That is where your focus should be, too!"

"

Mmmmmkay, I'll tell that to the man when he repossesses my car next month......"

A new project

Good morning boys and girls, cats and dogs--we are an inclusive blog here!

I am announcing a new project. I had previously announced a project to create a pattern e-book to benefit The Hunger Project. I will complete this project, but not as soon as I had hoped.

My new project has to do with pet rescue, which should surprise no one. I want everyone who can to make dog sweaters and blankets and either send or hand deliver them to pet rescue organizations near you. If you have any kind of craft accessory projects you can do for cats, do that as well. Do not send anything to me, but rather to your favorite pet rescue organization. 

I'm not doing any kind of count, no contest, no giveaway. I simply want to encourage people to show some love to the rescue pets. I would be happy to hear about your projects, and whenever I can I will mention them on my Wednesday Free-for-All on YouTube, but I don't need to know. I just need for you to show some love if you can.

I have made several sweaters like this.
Click for pattern.

I have made several copies of this sweater, too.  
Click for the pattern.

Gosh, I'm good!

Scene:  A conversation between me and my Easton Cardigan, hanging on a mannequin

Me:  What would you like to tell the world?

Cardigan:  Um, I dunno. You're the writer. You designed me and created me. The ball's in your court!

Me:  OK. Well, then, here is a little back story. I wanted a cardigan of my own making to wear at a fiber retreat later this month. I had another one in the works, but it has problems. I saw another designer do a simple pullover using granny squares, and I thought it would look great as a cardigan, using two contrasting colors and two kinds of granny square, neither of which is the traditional granny square. (I sort of hate the traditional granny square.) 

Cardigan: That didn't take much prodding. Keep going.

Me:  Well, I had some nice budget yarn in two complementary colors, in sufficient quantity for a cardigan. (Two cardigans, actually. Maybe I'll make another design....)  Once I decided it was time to move forward, I got quite excited about it. I put aside two other designs I was working on--that were giving me difficulty anyway--to make it. I created the front and back panels very quickly, pieced them together, and hung them on the mannequin to ask the help of dear Mr. Gravity in how the pieces hang. (No, I didn't offer burnt offerings up to the god of Gravity, although it doesn't sound like a bad idea.) 

Cardigan: Sounds like all was going well!

Me:  Well, I also completed the sleeves quickly--stripes in the same colors as the squares--but they didn't match up! Ahime! After careful examination, I recognized that counting errors had caused my troubles, and I had committed those errors on both sleeves. I wound up reworking both, but that still didn't take all that long.

Cardigan: Where do you stand now?

Me:  Almost done reworking the second sleeve.  Piecing it together and then finishing with edging, collar, waistband, and buttons will be a piece of cake.  

Cardigan:  Yeah, yeah.....call me when it's done.

THE NEXT DAY

Cardigan: You've been manhandling me all day. What's the story?

Me:  I've finally got you pieced together and all the finishing done. You look quite nice, if I do say so myself!

Cardigan: No thanks to you! Gray tweed and rust tweed together? What were you thinking?

Me: Um, I was thinking those are two color ways that complement each other quite nicely.

Cardigan: Color way? What the heck is a color way?!

Me: Shhh! You don't want to anger the Yarn Police! It's what yarn people call a color. I don't know why. I would say the colors are this and that striped, but they would come up with a fanciful name and call it a color way. So you have two solid-color yarns with a tweed effect, so they are called gray tweed and rust tweed.

Cardigan: Feh!

Me: Don't give me any attitude, you! You know what frogging is, don't you?

Cardigan: Yeah, I know! It's what you did to my sleeves before you made them over.

Me: And now they're much happier and healthier sleeves. 

Cardigan: What an able-ist attitude! You hated my sleeves because they were different!

Me: Your sleeves were not people with disabilities. Your sleeves were components that did not match each other because I myself had made counting errors when creating them. So I recreated them anew. Call me cruel if you will, but would you rather languish at the bottom of a storage bin and be passed around from one thrift shop to another, or be worn with pride among other yarn crafters?

Cardigan: Oh, shut up and show the pictures! I'm done with you!

Me: Just one more thing--sewing in loose ends. This will be a pinch and sting......

LATE THE NEXT DAY

Cardigan:  What now?

Me: I just have to adjust the neck.  Hold still.

Cardigan: I will not hold still! I thought you were done!

Me: And I thought life would be beautiful. Shut up and let me do this!

Cardigan: This had better be worth it!

The finished product!  Finally!

It was worth it.

Ice Yarns on Parade

Yarnnut.com kindly provided some yarn so that I might work up some of my patterns, and they might feature some pics along with either links or printed copies of the patterns. I regret that I am this late in showing off these pictures of hats I have made with the Ice Yarn Macaron that I was supplied.  Here are some pics:

These are iterations of my rice stitch hat, the pattern for which is posted herein as a free pattern.  

All of my hat patterns are free in order to encourage creativity and charitable donations.  Please enjoy.

Story Time: Christmas Blanket

 

The sides are a little ripply.
I didn't follow the pattern instructions
to alternate smaller corner 
increases

Detail of the center.
Final blanket is about 54" square

A friend made a brilliant suggestion of telling the stories behind various finished objects. My first thought: "Blog content!" So here we have the story behind this blanket.

I had quite a lot of green yarn that I had bought for another blanket project. Long-time viewers of my YouTube channel will recall a blanket project I called The Big Green Monster. I recall working on it during some live streams, even. About 2.5 skeins in, I got bored, so I put it aside. At some point I decided I wouldn't pick it up again to finish, so I had several more skeins of yarn and a partial blanket to find a use for.

I had ordered the Christmas yarn from Herrschner's using a substantial discount. They had emailed me this discount code when their database told them it had been over a year since my last order. In addition to a few other things, I ordered two skeins of this Christmas yarn. I had started several different projects using this yarn, but decided against them all. None of them looked right because the variegated yarn was just too busy for the design. 

I then remembered having created a Spiral  Granny Square blanket, based on a design by Krista of The Secret Yarnery. I thought it might be a good way to use a substantial amount of both yarns. It worked! I showed progress on Instagram and on YouTube and received a lot of encouragement.

I had my Hat Not Hate YouTube live stream on July 25. I offered the blanket as a reward to anyone who would sponsor a substantial amount of the postage required to send the hats to Hat Not Hate, as well as  for other giveaway prizes. A generous viewer stepped forward to offer that sponsorship. Now that the blanket is finished, it will soon be off to the sponsor. She has already told me she plans to display the blanket on the back of her sofa during the Christmas season. She is happy. I am happy it will go to a good home. UPS is very happy at the money I've already spent on postage, and they will be happier still in coming weeks as I send this blanket and the hats off!  (Alas, the sponsorship amount has already been spent on giveaway postage, so the rest comes out of the Bearded Yarn Pockets, which aren't all that deep!)

Perhaps not a terribly riveting story, but I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The leftovers. There are still quite
a few untouched skeins of green

 

New pattern: The Gia Hat

Please note: I make all my hat patterns free of charge to inspire crocheters to make hats for charity, particularly for Hat Not Hate. Please feel free to redistribute this pattern, so long as you include this note and credit the pattern creator. Please visit my Ravelry store and consider purchasing a pattern that is not free.

This hat was created using Ice Yarn Macaron generously supplied by Gia at YarnNut.com, so of course I had to name it for her. Macaron yarn is labeled as a 3, which we in the US would call a DK, but I think it is more a 4, if not a 4.5. This pattern will work with any worsted or chunky (4 or 5) yarn and an 8 mm/L hook. If you choose a lighter weight yarn, you will likely have to adjust row counts and hook size.

My wedge terminology works perfecctly well with this hat, even though the top is done with HDC instead of DC. For more information about my wedge terminology, see this video.

For a larger hat, add a 6th increase round at the top and/or repeat rounds 7 & 8.

Yarn: Any worsted or chunky, such as Ice Yarns Macaron. Solid colors work well, as would some but not all variegated yarns. Self-striping yarns should change colors fairly quickly. Manual color control is also an option to created a striped effect.

Hook: 8 mm/L

Stitches:

Single crochet (SC)
Back-loop single crochet (BLSC)
Hafl-double crochet (HDC)
Double crochet (DC)
Front-post double crochet (FPDC)
Slip stitch (SS)
Slipt stitch to join (SSTJ)

Method:

1. Ch2; work 9 HDC in the 1st ch; SSTJ with 1st HDC.  (Alternately use the magic ring or a ring of chain stitches--use what works for you.) (9)
2. Ch 1; work 2 HDC in each HDC from previous round; SSTJ with 1st HDC. (18)
3. Ch 1; work HDC in 1st HDC, 2 HDC in 2nd st [HDC in next st, 2 HDC in next st] repeat bracketed instructions to end, SSTJ. (27)
4.  Ch 1; work HDC in 1st 2 HDC, 2 HDC in next st [HDC in next 2 st, 2 HDC in next st] repeat bracketed instructions to end, SSTJ. (36)
5. Ch 1; work HDC in 1st 3 HDC, 2 HDC in next st [HDC in next 3 st, 2 HDC in next st] repeat bracketed instructions to end, SSTJ.  (45 for this and all subsequent rounds)
6. Ch 1; SC in same st and every stitch below, SSTJ.
7. Ch 1; SC in 1st st, DC in next st [SC in next st, DC in next st] repeat bracketed instructions to end; add one more SC; SSTJ.
8. Ch 3 (counts as DC), SC in DC below, [DC in next SC below, SC in next DC below] repeat bracketed instructions to end, adding one DC at end; SSTJ.
9. Ch 1;  SC in same st and every stitch below, SSTJ.
10. Ch 1;  SC in same st; BLSC in every subsequent SC below, SSTJ
11. Ch 1; HDC in same st and every subsequent SC below, SS behind the original ch 1.
12. Ch 3 (counts as 1st FPDC); FPDC in every HDC below, SS behind the original ch 3.
13. Ch 3 (counts as 1st FPDC); FPDC in every FPDC below, SSTJ.
14. Ch 1; SC in same st and every subsequent st below, SSTJ
15. Repeat round 14.  Tie off.

Sew in loose ends. Bribe someone to model it on Instagram.  

If you have any questions, please contact me.  

Updated: Rice stitch hat with ribbed top

Please note:  I make all my hat patterns free of charge to inspire crocheters to make hats for charity, particularly for Hat Not Hate.  Please feel free to redistribute this pattern, so long as you include this note and credit the pattern creator. Please visit my Ravelry store and consider purchasing a pattern that is not free.

More pics to come later.

Looking at the previous pattern for the rice stitch hat, I was not satisfied with the rice stitch pattern.  I am now combining steps from two previous posts to make the rice stitch hat with a ribbed top.

This works best with a DK yarn, or something on the lighter end of worsted.  The photos above show samples made with Ice Yarns Macaron, which is labeled as a 3/DK yarn, kindly provided by YarnNut.com.  Solids work best, but a self-striping yarn that doesn't take forever to change colors would also work. So would manual color change. A hook no larger than a 5 mm (H) is best.  

This earlier post (video tutorial included) gives further insight if these instructions are not clear.  For further insight into my wedge theory of crochet in the round, see this video tutorial.

1. Complete your initial ring of 12 DCS. Create the initial ring in your favorite way--magic ring, ch4 & ss, ch2 and use the 1st ch as your ring--that's just you crocheting. Slip stitch to join (SSTJ) with the initial DC or initial ch3 that substituted for a DC.  (12 st)   
2. For round 2 we need 2 stitches for each stitch below. Ch 3 in the top of the 1st DC (or ch3), then FPDC in the post of the same DC.  Repeat for each DC in round 1.  SS behind the ch3/initial DC to join. (24 st)
3. Ch3, which counts as 1st FPDC. In FPDC from 1st wedge below, DC in top of next st, FPDC in post of same st.  For each succeeding wedge, FPDC in 1at st, DC + FPDC in 2nd st.  Each wedge has the pattern FPDC-DC-FPDC. SS behind the 1st ch3 to join.  (36 st)  
4. Ch3 (counts as FPDC), DC in next st., DC in top of next st., FPDC around post of same st.  Repeat for each wedge.  Each wedge has the pattern FPDC-DC-DC-FPDC.  SS behind the initial ch 3 to join.  (48 st)
5. Ch3 (counts as FPDC), DC in next st., FPDC in next DC, DC in top of next st., FPDC around post of same st.  Repeat for each wedge.  Each wedge has the pattern FPDC-DC-FPDC-DC-FPDC.  SS in top of the initial ch 3 to join.  (60 st)
6. Ch 3 (counts as DC), FPDC around post of same DC/ch3, DC in next DC, FPDC in next FPDC, DC in next DC, FPDC in next FPDC.  Repeat for each wedge.  Each wedge has the pattern DC-FPDC-DC-FPDC-DC-FPDC.  SSTJ in the manner appropriate for the next round, which should be without any increases at all.  If the disc is too large, it is possible to omit this round without ill effects. In fact, for children's sizes this would also work with only 4 rounds. Take care that every round from here to the end contains the exact same number of stitches.
7. If you did not work round 6 of the initial disc, ch 3 (still counts as 1st DC, forever and aye) and DC in every DC from previous round.  For the next round, ch 3, FPDC in post of next DC, [DC in next DC, FPDC in next DC] repeat bracketed instructions to end of round.  SSTJ.  If you did work round 6 of initial disc, omit this step. 
8. For the succeeded rounds, work a DC in every FPDC from the previous round, and a FPDC around the post of every plain DC from the previous round.  Join the end of every round in a manner to indicate the 1st DC of the next round--if the first st in the next round is to be a FPDC, join behind the initial ch 3/DC of this round, but if the first stitch in the next round is to be a regular DC, join at the top of the initial ch 3/DC of this round.  Continue working until hat has reached desired size.
9. Finish with a round of SC in every st.  Tie off.  Sew in loose ends.  Take selfie for Instagram.