Crochet this time around

I haven´t blogged much lately but I´ve crafted. Today I´m going to show you some of the crochet stuff I was doing couple of weeks ago.

I've been secretly following the Potholder swap thanks to Grumperina (what an amazing knitter). You should check out the flickr page (there´s another great group here). What a beauties these are. Who would have thought potholders could look so good?

I started looking around for a potholder pattern and found this one. It's a great pattern. It's simple and clever at the same time. You start the potholder like you would a bag (from bottom up) but once you've crochet enough you fold it over and sew the top edge and it's a potholder.



So I made this yellow one and I couldn't resist adding an embroidered sun (although I did find out that crochet fabric is not the ideal embroidery fabric). This potholder and a corresponding scrubbie (pattern) out of the leftover yarn. According to the theme of this post I should have done a crochet scrubbie. Oh, well ;)



I made a red one for us, but decided against the embroidery this time. My husband has reported back to me that it doesn't insulate very well but it functions well as a hot pad instead. Perhaps it would be ideal to make them a little bit bigger (mine have 35 stitches in the beginning chain) and put an insulating fabric inside before they are sewn up.

Another thing I've done is crochet slobber bibs. Normally bibs are made to catch most of the food but these are for younger babies. When the teeth start coming in (months before the teeth actually come in) they start to slobber and their shirts and onsies (samfella) become soaking wet.

A friend of mine was showing her bibs of on Facebook and she directed me towards the pattern (in Icelandic). But the first one I made came out a little big (the circle overlapped).



So I made another one.




I know they look the same, but they're not. The second one has fewer increases and extra rows. The edging is not included in the original pattern but I added it for extra cuteness. I'm happy how the second one turned out. It's classic and in a neutral color, that can look cute on either a boy or a girl. That was fortunate because the bib was meant as a teacher's gift (end of the school year) for Kamilla's teacher, who is going to have a baby. I didn't know the gender of the baby-to-be so white was a safe bet for me. I love how it looks in white and I'm not sure if I'll try them in different colors! Kamilla brought back a thank you note from the teacher and she says 'he will look cute wearing the bib'. So now I know. She is expecting boy nr. 3! (I was so sure it was a girl since she already has two boys).

Yellow everywhere

Do you know what happens when you graft stitches when you are tired? Ever wondered about that. Just look at the photo.



Yep, there is a twist!

At the retreat about a month ago I finished the last 3 squares (out of 24) and Nancy´s mom Constance was a lifesaver and wove in the ends for me. Now I´m in the process of turning every 4 squares into this:



Which creates 6 big squares, which will then be joined into a large rectangle and a border knitted around it.

The kids can already see the usefulness of the blanket.



When I got the idea to make this (an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern) over a year ago, I had no idea yellow would become such a popular color, or at least not consciously. I'm really happy with the colors and how it looks so far (save for the twisted square - argh!). I'll keep you posted (I swear).

Another project of mine is also yellow (or yellow-orange). It´s the sunrise circle jaket. I´m getting close to being done with the left front and beginning to wonder if I have enough yarn!



I have finished some smaller projects and there are plenty of stuff that I have taken pictures of (finished or not) but the photos don't always find their way to the blog, which is a shame, but you can find them on Ravelry (username sonjar).