Category / Craft

Things that I’ve made

by princesshotflash

Row 97

Yes, I’m still slogging away at my Scheepjes CAL 2020 blanket. I’m on row 97 out of 105. I probably wouldn’t call it “slog” if I wasn’t crocheting a blanket in the hottest part of summer. I see the end coming soon and have been pushing to finish each row I work.

This is row 97 of my CAL 2020 blanket.

D’ Histoire Naturelle is the most challenging pattern I have crocheted. I’ve learned many new stitch patterns and techniques. I was close to quitting around February, took a two-month break. And I was able to tackle what I perceived as the most complicated section.

  • start with a half double crochet (hdc)
  • Yarn over (yi)
  • move needle behind hdc
  • yo, bring needle to front (should have 3 strands on needle)
  • yo again
  • bring needle behind the hdc again
  • yo, bring needle to front, you should have 5 strands on needle
  • yo, then pull strand through the 5 loops

I took a few pictures of myself working the current new stitch–pearl stitch. I could see using it as edging. Pretty cute. Oh, by the way, please excuse the shots. I should invest in a tripod if I’m going to continue to do these types of images.

I’m shooting for the end of August to finish the blanket. I have eight more rows to go and MANY ends to weave in.

by princesshotflash

Row 80 out of 105

Phew! I’m on row 80 of my Scheepjes CAL.

Row 80: Two sides done, 2 more to go. It’s as wide as my double bed with 25 rows to gow.

Part 5 has been harder than the dreaded part 4 (lacy corners). Could it be the repetitiveness of these rows or is it that I’m not paying attention. Whatever it is, there has been lots of adding rows, counting, cursing, and ripping out, repeat.

I guess I need some encouragement to get me to the end. This is what the blanket look like so far. It’s much bigger than I thought it would be.

by princesshotflash

A project from my queue

I started this a while ago, sometime during the pandemic. It’s this pillowcase I made with vintage Japanese fabric a long time back. It has begun to fray. I took off with the intent to patch the fraying pieces with some new material. Then I happened upon several articles and videos on boro.

Boro in Japanese means ragged or tattered. I grew up with the term boro-boro when you wore clothing that was falling apart. Boro is a style of patchwork using old cloth and sashiko (running stitch). Here’s a link to an article I found on boro. That goes into more detail. I love that some of these boro pieces are generational and turn into something new again. The graphical quality and direction that the stitches add to the patches are what I like about boro.

I decide to use this pillowcase as a sampler of different stitches and applique to find something I like. Maybe come up with my style. I also wanted to test out if I like hand-stitching.

I started off doing the basic running stitch, learning how to get my length consistent and find a size I like. I purchase sashiko thread and needles (sidebar: I’m a sucker great packaging and the packaging on these needle are great)from Amazon. I got the traditional off-white color. I do have a bunch of different embroidery threads that I could use also.

This is where I started. Working it as a sampler to teach me about boro and sashiko.

  • Adding a patch on top the old
  • practicing the stitch
  • holes in the Japanese crepe fabric
  • patches
  • more stitching
  • more patches
  • stitching and patching
The start

I stopped and hung it on the wall for a long while as I worked on my many other project sitting in my queue. I think I got tried of stitching and not sure where I was going. Then just this week I picked it up wanting to start stitching again. I think I’m seeing it more than a sampler. I might have to make a new pillowcase.

  • little buds
  • shiba inu patch
  • falling blossoms
  • flowerss

Here’s where I’m at. I know it isn’t finished. I hope I’ll know when it will be.

by princesshotflash

Do you see elephants?

I finally got back to my d’Historie Naturelle blanket and made it past part 4, attaching the corners. I was avoiding putting them on because I thought I my have made a mistake and need to rip apart what I had done and that just got me not wanting to do it.

To my surprise, I did’t ripe it apart.

corners attached, phew!
Started on the flames row, I thought they look more like flower bud.
I’m not looking forward to weaving the ends in.

Part 5

I thought I would never get pass part 4. Part 5 starts our simple and pretty straight forward. I get to the famous elephant rows, simple repeats and simple stitches. No crazy triple trebles (uk term) in the next two rounds. How bad can it be?

Bad! I shouldn’t crochet when I’m stressed out (Dad issue). It’s only two rows with an easy pattern repeat along each edges. Well it must be hard enough to make the exact same mistake–1/2 treble (uk term) NOT double crochet (uk term)-TWICE! And I had rip it out to the beginning of the first of the two row. Sheesh! Annoyed. I ripped out, bundle everything together and threw it in the corner fix later! Ughhhh!

I wake up the next morning and determine to make this right, and TA DAH!

No ears but I’m not ripping them out again!!!

I can see the elephants!

from a text from my sister

There are two per repeat, facing each other, eight in total. The original pattern has them with no ear and I did find a link in the comments of the video for elephants with ears but I wasn’t going to rip them out again just for the ear. I like how they look, cute!

I hope to continue on till I’m done. Working a little everyday till I can show you this finished project. I should slap myself for stopping during the cooler winter month to only start back up in when the weather has turn to almost summer in my neighborhood.

For my birthday, I picked up another crochet pattern for bag and both the yarn. Corfu bag from Outstanding Crochet and Catona yarn from scheepjes from Wool Warehouse.

There are other projects in the queue before this bag but I couldn’t pass it up. More projects to come. Stay tuned.

by princesshotflash

How could I forget to . . .

The beginning

Post about Scheepjes CAL (crochet-along) 2020: d’Historie Naturelle. This pattern was designed by Scheepjes Blogger Christina Hadderigh from A Spoonful of Yarn. I’ve been working on it since October. This is was my first CAL and a pretty dificult one to boot. It comes as a kit and seeing all the posting about it on FB and Insta, that persuaded me to purchase it. I got the color way Herbarium and pink, orange, and green color way.

If you read the information about the CAL, it takes about 11 weeks. And yes, it’s 5 months since I started and I’m only half way done. I kind lost steam mid-January. I’m hoping this post will shame me into finally finishing it. Here are picture of what I’ve done. Remember there were a lot of ripping out as I would find mistakes.

  • Mistake: I switched the greens.
  • one of the bees

Sometimes you just have to let the mistake be a happy one.

-princesshotflash
  • keeping up with the ends
  • first part of the butterfly
  • French knots
  • leaves, bees, and butterflies

With this CAL, there were YouTube video for each section. Without those I probably would have a pile of yarn, trying to figure out what to do. A Scheepjes Blogger Esther Dijkstra from It’s all in a Nutshell did the videos. She had a calming voice and pointing out area where to watch out for as it was difficult section.

  • Ends
  • magic loop
  • done with the squares and medallions
  • attaching together
The difficult section
one of four corners

This is where I’m at, all four corner ready to be attached to the blanket. I know this this will need all my attention and time. That’s my excuse I’ve been using to get to the next step. I need to get to next step because the elephants are there. Hopefully, I’ll be done by my birthday so I can buy another kit. I’ve gained a lot of confidence and knowledge from this project. I’m still in AWE of Christina Hadderingh design skills. I can even figure out how she visualized in her head. I’ll hope she know she made many people happy and proud their work.