Crochet!

Shaylee wearing my "laundry bag" as a hat.

The same laundry bag earlier on.
Purses I made for Shaylee and Halie:

In progress:

Super Quick Crochet Curtain Holders

Oh my, two blogs in one day! Nobody have a heart attack, ok? You'd think that blogging would KEEP me from doing stuff, but it's exactly the opposite. When I'm working and getting things done, I want to share! The thought of blogging about all the fun stuff I'm doing actually gets me excited to do more. I'm going to have to remember that for future reference.

Anyway, so about these curtain holders (I haven't a clue if that's what they're called, but they hold the curtains, so that's good enough for me). I decided the other day to put my plants in my bedroom. Until now, they've had two very bad options...either getting torn up by excited dogs in the living room, or getting very little sun in the dining room. So, I got furniture moved around, cleaned off my dresser, and laid down this nifty runner I got from my friend Jenna (thanks, Jenna!). Then I realized that I have no way to keep the curtains back. It won't do me much good to bring the plants into my room if they get no sun. I've been crocheting a lot lately (maybe I'll do a couple more posts to show my other projects over the last few days), so I knew exactly what I wanted to do! I'm not even going to attempt to write this like a crochet pattern, I'm just going to explain what I did.

I used an N hook, because I wanted these to be done quick (and it worked...it's going to take me longer to write the blog than it took to make these). I grabbed some scrap yarn (there's a lot of green in my room, so I grabbed green yarn...it looks nice!) For the first one, I just made a chain until I figured it was about the right length (I don't even know how many stitches I did, I didn't bother to count). For the second one, I chained until I had about the same length (minus the end loops):


Then, I added another 5 chains. I turned, skipped those five chains to make a loop:


...and single crocheted back to the other end. Uh oh, I think I'm missing some pictures. Oh well. When I got to the other end, I chained five again, and single crocheted down the other side (the bottom of the original chain). I doubt it would matter if you crocheted across the top, it would just be a little crooked (when you lay them out, one loop will be higher than the other). But heck, it's not like anyone's ever going to inspect them, right? (Well, unless you have a mom like mine who has to criticize everything you're proud of...in that case, just don't tell her! LOL)

Now, the first one I did, I didn't slip stitch the last stitch to the loop on the end. It left a little "pimple" thing sticking out, so with the second one I made sure to slip stitch, and it looks much better. Again, no one's ever going to inspect these things, so I'm leaving it.


All told, these curtain holders took me maybe 10 minutes. Rock on! I got my plants moved in, and I am a happy girl!

Making "Yarn"

I've had these two sheets hanging around my house forever. I kept trying to use them until the holes in the middle of them became a nuisance during sleep. (It always scared me a little when I'd hear a ripping sound in the middle of the night, and I'd have to take a second to wake up and figure out what it was.) I asked for some suggestions for what to do with the sheets, and one of the suggestions was to crochet them into a rug. That was my favorite idea. ;-) First step: make the yarn.

So, here's the sheet pile I started with (does that sound gross to anyone else?):
The first thing I did was to rip out the seams at the ends of the sheet. It was pretty easy. I cut the first couple threads, and then just stuck my fingers in and ripped.
Then I made small cuts along the end of the sheet:
And I ripped the sheet into 1- 1 1/2 inch strips (this part is very sneeze-inducing). This is what I ended up with:
Not quite as impressive when rolled up into balls:
And there you have it. Sheet yarn. I was pretty distressed once I got to this point because I realized that I didn't bring one of my millions of size N crochet hooks with me to Shannon's. I keep needing them, not having them with me, and buying an extra, so I have tons of them. May as well just put one in every bag I own and call it good, eh? That way I'll always have one on hand. Anyway, I'll be starting my sheet-yarn rug soon, and I'll blog about it when I do.

Crocheted Slippers

I've tried making a few different kinds of slippers, and these are my favorites. I won't lie, it's because they're the easiest to make. If there's a pattern that I don't have down pat after the first two times I make something, I scrap it. How am I supposed to wiggle the pattern around, change stuff, and make it even cooler if I don't even understand the original pattern, know what I mean?

But anyhoo, I'm sitting here at Shannon's house, and in addition to starting my Harry Potter marathon, I've decided to also crochet (and I brought about 100 other things to do, too...how long did I think I was going to be here exactly? Well, I won't be bored, that's for sure!).

Before she left, Shannon handed me a bag I didn't even realize I had left here. It had a half slipper that I had been working on for the lovely lady who takes care of our furbabies when we go out of town. So, this is what I've been working on for the last hour or so. I love watching my work go from this:

To this:
It's been a good day. I just have to add ribbon and I'm done.

Owen's Afghan

I finished Owen's Afghan! I'm going to head up to see him and his Mommy (my bff) today and give it to him. Here are a couple pictures.

Making A Home

I have dreamed for the last few years that I would one day be a homemaker. It appears that this isn't in the cards (at least not for quite some time), but I still enjoy making a home.

This afghan was so much fun to make. At the time, I was working over night at a residential treatment facility for troubled youth, and the majority of this afghan was completed while I was at work. It's mostly done in granny squares, with borders around each of three sets of granny squares.

I love to crochet. I'm currently working on another granny square afghan, this time for my brand spankin' new nephew. Here's a really bad cell phone picture of it (it's much bigger now):

My coworker recently made copies for me from a book that has patterns for crocheting little dolls (I forget what they're called), and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at those.

I tend to waffle back and forth between extreme laziness and an extreme desire to make a beautiful, homey, warm, inviting home. But even when I'm in my lazy phase, I try to take pride in the home I HAVE made, and all that I've accomplished so far. This afghan was a huge accomplishment for me, and I love it!