Queen Anne's Lace Scarf

I finally finished another crochet project! I need to get this stuff done. I bought a lot of new yarn that I want to play with, but I have all of these UFOs hanging around my apartment, and I just can't justify starting something new without finishing these projects! So I'm trying to do a little here and there to finish some of these UFOs so I can use my new yarn!!!






I finished this scarf just the other day. I was working on it on and off. In totally I probably worked on it for about 4 nights--it's pretty easy. But with school and such it was hard to find enough time to sit there and make it :-)

I'm definitely happy with the results and can't wait to wear it out this week! Really easy pattern, I'd definitely recommend it!

Afghan for me---to match my new bedding!

So, this is the first official blanket that I am making for myself. I'm moving on Friday into my own apartment. I got some really fun bedding with lots of colors and such and I wanted to make myself a big blanket to go with it. I'm using Caron Simply Soft in white and 10 other colors. I wanted to make it 80" x 100" or basically large enough to cover a full sized bed. I'm making ten strips of ten colors each. The pattern is going to (hopefully) create a diagonal rainbow effect on the blanket. I'm using half double crochet as the stitch for this blanket (nothing fancy). It's creating a nice tight blanket that is not too heavy---it's also very soft but that's because of the yarn I chose I love SS! I'm doing 22 rows of hdc. Now, I planned this all out when I started creating this blanket, but now it seems to be much longer than I had anticipated. I even had measured out how long 22 hdc (with my tension) was so that I would get the correct size--they measured 10". Now they seem much, much longer. I just remeasured and one color block is measuring 11", which means I'll be adding an extra 10 inches to the length of my blanket. This is going to be one monster blanket. I can't changed it, unless I want to go back and un do everything I've done---which I don't. I'm almost done with the second color strip--which means only 8 more to go! My goal is to get this whole thing finished befor school starts on September 2nd.

I hope I can do it!

I think I'm going to attach the strips as I finish them so that I don't have to seams them all at the same time---I really hate doing that it gets so boring and I usually end up taking such a long time doing it. After it's all seamed, I'm going to add a white border to it of some sort. I'm not certain what I want it to look like yet, but I know it's going to be white.

Here's a picture from the Linens and Things website of my new bedding.

Ravelry

I'm obsessed with Ravelry lately. I absolute love the entire site. I find that every time I look at it (which is multiple times in one day) I find something new! Whether it's looking at a yarn I have in my stash (which btw I need to photograph and post) and then finding projects for that yarn or WIPs/FO that others are making/have made with that yarn or adding books to my library and seeing what projects others have made---I always find a new inspiration and something else to look at! AND I LOVE THAT!

I also like crochetville and that a lot of those users are also found on Ravelry. :-)

Just sharing my newest (and probably strongest) obsession!

Finished!

So, this past weekend, I finished that blanket I had started back in January/February. I haven't had time to post pictures yet, but I'm kind of satisfied with how it came out. It's a little lumpy which I don't like. I've done work with granny squares, but this is the first time I actually had to change hooks to adjust the gauge of the squares (the yarn was behaving poorly even though it was the same weight and from the same brand and line). So I'm not sure if that's the reason it is behaving weird or not. Oh well, it's nice enough for the gift, but I'm a perfectionist---so yeah.

I'll try to post pictures by tomorrow!!!

I'm finally almost finished with the baby blanket I started back in, January??, hmmm maybe it was February. Anywho, it's made of granny squares in green, yellow, and variegated and I'm currently whip stitching the squares together---and I'm finding this to be a daunting process for this blanket. And it's kind of puckering up at all the seams which I'm not happy about. I hope that once all the squares are together and the border is on, I can wash it and maybe that will help it out a bit. As soon as I can I'm going to post a picture of my current progress.

New blanket

For the past 5 days I have been working on making a new baby blanket for an upcoming event. I finally finished it yesterday! I'm finally getting back into the swing of crocheting--sometimes when it's warm out I find I just can't sit with yarn :-)

Now I'm going to try and finish a lot of the projects that I've started but just kind of left half done! I'm determined to finish objects!!!!!!

Update on the granny square baby blanket. So my original plan for that blanket was to make squares using 3 colors: multi-colored, yellow, and white. I changed my mind after I saw how nice the multi-colored and yellow looked and decided to do all the squares half and half with a white trim. Well, this weekend I ran out of the yellow with only 3 more squares to make in it. So, frustrated I went to A.C. Moore where I originally purchased the yarn---and guess what they're out of yellow. They have every other color except the yellow I was using. Harumph! So, I got a "pound of love" in a light green color that will match nicely, and I'm back to my original design of three different colors for squares. I guess I've kind of scratched the idea for white. Maybe I'll do it as a trim, maybe I'll single crochet all the squares together using the white then trim the blanket, I'm not sure. If not, I have a skein of white for another project. :) not that I don't already have enough yarn...hehee.

Baby blankets

I've been working on two different blankets for cousins that are expecting and family friends who just had a baby girl, Abigail Marie born on February 11, 2008. For Abigail, I made a blanket from Lion Brand Cotton-ease in Berry, Almond, and Lime. You can see the pattern here. And here's a few pictures of the final product!

And for my cousin's, I've been working on a baby blanket that's made of granny squares. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, so I chose a varigated yarn, a yellow, and white for the blanket. I've still got more work to do, but here's my progress so far. I've made 16 varigated squares with 8 more to go, and 20 yellow with 4 left to go. They're going to be joined with white and have a white border. Here's my progress!

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and as part of my New Year's Resolution, I resolved to only give handmade gifts if possible. So I made my sweetie something and my Mommy something. My sweetie got crocheted "Hershey" kisses. I was inspired by a pattern that I saw on crochetville.org. Here's the pattern. However, I quickly found that I was REALLY bad at following that pattern, so I just kind of free handed them. One actually looks like a kiss (well to me at least), the other's I've been told look like an egg warmer and a little pear...but it's the thought that counts right? :-) Here's a photo of them!


So, I made 3 different ones, cause kisses always come in 3s :-). I've been told the pink one looks like an egg warmer lol. The blue one has a face as you can see, but the other's do not. Also the white "paper tag" has little I LOVE YOU messages on it!
And here's what I made for my mom:

They are coasters that are made from those melty bead thingys. (Yeah, that's the technical term...) I made her a heart for Valentine's Day, a rainbow because she's always sending me good thoughts in the form of rainbows, one full of flowers because she like flowers, and a Jewish star because she's been teaching in a new job at a Jewish Yeshiva school for girls :-) I also made her a card, which looks like this....

UPDATE!!!
I gave Sweetie the kisses at the strike of midnight and Sweetie knew exactly what they were and was SO SO SO happy with them!!!

Brand new blog

So, this is the first entry of my new blog :-)

My plan for this blog is to have it be my "craft" blog--where I talk all about the stuff I'm making, show photos, etc.

A little background on me. I crochet--I'm totally addicted. I taught myself back in September 2006--my Aunt Helen tried to teach me when I was 5 or 6, but I never really got past chaining--though I wish I had! Ok, back to my obsession. I'm obsessed with crochet---I do it every free moment that I can. I'm currently a graduate student at Columbia University, so when I commute to school (from NJ) I crochet on the train and on the subway (hence the name Underground Hooker--get it? LOL). When I'm not crocheting, I'm looking at photographs of crochet that others have done. I also like to do other crafts...I dabble in knitting, though I'm not very good at it, I cross stitch, scrapbook some, make friendship bracelets, and other random crafts.

I've gotten big into recycling and giving only hand crafted (or recycled) gifts. I also LOVE photography and traveling. Though, I haven't done much of either lately because of school, I do enjoy them both very much.

So be sure to check out this blog and see what I'm up to in my crafty little world!

<3 Little Miss Crafty Pants aka The Underground Hooker