Introduction and a year in review

Hi, My name is Charity and my friends have encouraged me to start a blog.  I am still unsure if it is to showcase them or they just are telling me in a kind way that I don't need to constantly flood their facebook walls with all my cooking and crocheting type posts, LOL!  I am unsure where to start except maybe I should catch up on what I have been up to in the past year with some of my crocheting projects and do a year in review type post.  Then, later on I can go back and write a little something about each one in detail to catch anyone up on the technique, or pattern or whatever.  I think that would be easiest and then fill everyone in on my more recent projects that I am working on.  This way I can get a little more organized, and go from there.  Let's have at it shall we?

It all started in early 2012 when I got serious about crocheting.  I had started about 10 years earlier but never got totally into it.  I taught myself with one of those kits that comes with a how to crochet book and a few hooks.  I made a few blankets and started a few more and at that time in my life I kept running into people that would discourage me.  It is most likely because I was not very good at it yet, because I would crochet them blankets and they would refuse them...  But then again, those people are not in my life any longer either, and now I have people in my life that are far more supportive of my creative attempts.  Anyway.....  into the closet the first blanket that I completed in 2012 went for a long 10 year rest when I pulled it out and finished it.  The squares that I had started were all a bit off from all those years ago but I pushed through anyway and threw it together.  It was not the prettiest of blankets but it is functional and I did learn a lot of stitches along the way.  It was a pattern from Leisure Arts on how to crochet 63 different squares and stitches.  It was a great pattern to learn stitches but terrible for beginners because blocking is important and I did not do this.  Also, some of the stitch counts are off on the final squares making assembly a bit tricky.  This blanket is functional however so I keep it around and that is what counts.  It is imperfect but a reminder of my early attempts at crochet.  The yarn colors were not my choice for something I would want for me.  I made a few early attempts with blankets and all for other people.  Some I gave away but they were simple single or double crochet designs. This was the first real pattern I attempted.

Next I decided to take on a new project.  Not one that I had picked out the yarns for someone else, or one that someone else picked out the yarn, but one for me.  It was all about me after accomplishing such a task.  I am a big fan of Lucy over at attic 24.  I loved her arrangement of the granny squares.  So, I heavily modified her version and basically just followed the layout and made it my own completely.  Here it is finished and it is huge!  It is big enough to fit a king size bed. It took me about a month to crochet and I finished it last Feb. 

I wanted to try my hand at a chevron design next.  I always loved the way the designer Missoni treated chevrons.  I got busy making this one.  I followed the simple rules for a chevron and the design with the layout of the colors and how I mixed them is completely my own.  I made this throw for a friend.  It took me a long time as it is single crochet as I did not want the little holes that double crochet leaves behind in a chevron.  I also put this blanket down for the entire summer and did not pick it up again until the fall.  I was able to ship it in time for Christmas where it now resides in it's happy new home. 

Next I made this cherry blossom set.  I actually made several but this is for myself.  I did not use a pattern but the design is something I saw someplace else and I winged it with creating my own pattern for everything.  I will need to re-visit this one and anything else that I made not using a specific pattern and write out a tutorial on here one of these days.  I really like how this set turned out although there is a lot of hand sewing with the flowers and such.  I wanted to pump out some smaller projects for Christmas gifts and this is why I made several sets.  Plus I had a bunch of the off white yarn that is discontinued, and figured it would be a great stash buster. 

This is not one of the prettier things I made, but I winged it and made a  Super Mario Goomba hat.  It was for a 10 year old boy.  He loves it, that is all that matters.  

 

I have always loved Twinkie Chan and have followed her since her early days on Livejournal.  I was so happy when I discovered that she had a book out.  Twinkie Chan Fashion Goodies for Fashion Foodies.  A little girl wanted this for Christmas.  I did not use the thick and chunky yarn required for it though.  I turned to my stash of acrylic Red Heart yarn and pumped this out.  It made for a smaller gingerbread man, which was perfect for a 7 year old girl.  She absolutely loves her new scarf.  I did go out and purchase the thick and chunky yarn to make another one for myself but that remains on my bucket list for now. 

I wanted to make my neighbor down the street something nice, as she has always been a sweetie and been there for us when we needed her.  When our van caught fire and we were without wheels, she took us to Costco shopping every month so we could keep stocked up on groceries.  I wanted to find a way to thank her so I turned to my stash of scraps.  I loved the hexagon blanket that Lucy made on attic 24 so I got busy with it.  I did not like how the hexagons did not not make the blanket square so I winged it and made the half hexagons to straighten up the sides.  My neighbor was absolutely thrilled with her new blanket when I gave it to her.  

This blanket I actually finished up on New Years Eve!  I wanted to use up a lot of the scraps in my stash.  I loved this blanket pattern for a long time.  It was the same with the circles above but instead of making them into hexagons, they were put into lacy beautiful squares.  I haven't even had a chance to put this on my bed yet.  I hope to make some pillow covers to match at some point as I think it would look nice on the bed together.  That will be a future project.  

 Now I am working on a version of  The Babette, but it really isn't a Babette... as I don't have the pattern for that blanket.  I am winging it and making my own Babette inspired blanket.  I look forward to sharing it here in the future.   I made other things through the year like dish cloths and pot holders and other small projects that are boring and functional that I am not going to bother blogging about.  All in all a pretty good year for crochet.  I can see just from making this post just how far I have come from those early projects and it is really apparent with the one I finished up a year ago while cleaning out the closet.

I will re-visit some of these projects in the future and write more in detail as I have time to give them the full attention they need.

Anyway, that is my year in review from last year, and my first post on this blog.  I created this blog years ago and never did anything with it... I think I need to keep a record of my projects.  It will be fun to see how I progress over time and hopefully one day be writing my own patterns to share with the blogging world.