Past Couple Weeks Crafting: 3.19.23

The big news is that I finished my Learn to Tech Edit Crochet (LTTECrochet) course and have started to offer this as a crochet pattern designer service. My landing page is here and I am very excited to start this next adventure. I will be figuring out marketing and all that good stuff as I go.

Meanwhile, I worked on a few things this past couple weeks and here they are!

More Stamp Carving

I pulled out my stencil for my month grid in preparation for starting work on my Pagan Calendar for this next year. The rough edges need to be cleaned up a bit but otherwise is tis good to go.

I am hand carving the months and years that will be in the calendar. I also made stamps of the kittens names and did to caring doodling to play with patterns. I will be planning the large stamps for each month and hopefully getting stared on this in April.

Pattern Testing: the Shiloh Sweater

I was selected to pattern test this sweater for designer Oxana Sorokin through Yarnpond. I volunteered to make the 3XL size. This is a very fun pattern to work so far and I am excited to see how it turns out.

Pattern Testing: the Apricity Color Block Sweater

I was also selected to pattern test the Apricity Color Block Sweater for designer Lindsey Roe of Off the Beaten Hook. I am also testing the 3XL size for this sweater. The color blocking is starting out really well and the bulky yarn and larger hook make this project work up quickly.

Markers and Paint Pens

I may have mentioned “mark making” in my last post and as an update, I did in fact go out and buy a bunch of mixed media for more of this process. I really only had colored pens, crayons and watercolors for my first try and will be playing with paint sticks and oil pastels and all the things for my next go round.

Tarot Card Tapestry Patterns

I continue to work on getting my Major Arcana tarot card tapestry series off the ground. I have been working on this one for a year or so now and think I have finally cracked the code on getting the grid counts done in an efficient manner. I am sort of re-working the first two cards and I think after they are done the process will go much more smoothly for the rest of the cards.

That’s all for now, see you all in a couple of weeks for the next batch of crafting!

Past Couple Weeks Crafting: 3.5.23

It has been a crochet heavy couple of weeks. It all started with a snow storm that locked down traffic for just under 15 hours. We don’t get a lot of snow where I’m at and we certainly got more than we expected. Mainly, I have been working on turning the pile of mystery patterns I found last month into physical items. Some of them turned out to be pretty ok, others not so much.

Crochet in a car

I parked on US 26 after being in barely moving traffic for 3 hours. Working on this was a great distraction, but after another hour I drove down the shoulder back to the nearest exit and battel my way through town to get home. It takes me 40 minutes to get to get home from work usually. That day it took 6 hours that day. Which was apparently a shorter commute than others had. Would not recommend.

A weird slipper

This was from a pattern I wrote in 2016. I only made one to see how it would turn out. I will not be making the other one 🙂

A finished shrug

Here is the completed shrug from my last post. I love the pattern and how it turned out. I apparently wrote this pattern when I was a size small, however, because it’s needs to be graded up a bit to fit me. The pattern itself is at least written now so I can work on writing for different sizes.

A granny square sweater vest

This one is also a pattern that I think worked out well. I used this red sparkly yarn that I think gives it just the right amount of pop while still being something that can be worn in a casual setting.

Crochet hook case for crochet hooks

This is the make I am most proud of this week. While I was not able to do the Rose City Yarn Crawl in person due to the snow that week, I did do the virtual crawl and got a new set of Knitters Pride crochet hooks from the Knotty Lamb. I love using them and an so glad that I found them.

I wanted a case for them and was looking around for a pattern but ended up just winging this one based on a combo of what I saw on the webs. I used yarn that I got at a thrift shop and finally found a use for these buttons that have been hanging around for forever. It was also a very quick make, taking less than 4 hours all said and done.

Temperature snake update

Last but not least, I got caught up with my Planet June Temperature Snake crochet along (CAL). I love that each round is only 20 stitches so even if I am a couple weeks behind, it only takes me about an hour to catch up 🙂

I have some plans for continuing to work on patterns over the next couple weeks. I will be updating some of my larger patterns with the help of the light table at my parents house and hopefully finishing another sweater from a 2016 pattern. Maybe I will branch out into non-yarn crafting again as well!

See you all next time!

Past Couple Weeks of Crafting: 2.19.23

I typically use my phone photos section to track what I have done over the past couple weeks crafting wise. I did get a new phone and transferred a lot of pictures off of the new one so I hope i don’t miss anything!

More stamp carving

During the Bright Collective monthly meet up we did some stamp carving. I made some doodles and tried to do letters free hand and even though I made a mess of some things, the process was amazing! I also used my ink jet printer and made a stamp of my pool leagues team name which I will make patches with at some point.

Joining Crochet squares into a blanket

This Pagan Holiday Symbol square throw has literally been a year in the making. I started with Ostara (spring equinox) last year and just finished the last square with Imbolc (February 1st-2nd) this year. I love the way the crossed double crochet stitches add flexibility to the blanket and I am super happy with how this blanket turned out.

Machine knitting 8 hats

I had a cold the other week and not wanting to be “that person” I stayed home in hopes that I would not spread it. I can never just do nothing so I made several hats while binging Harry Potter movies. Using the Sentro knitting machine, I was able to make a 125 row double thick beanie hat in about 30 minutes. I still need to figure out how to make flat panels properly with it, but after this hat making stint, I am pretty sure I have the tube knitting function down pat.

Water color doodles

I’m just really proud of these doodles and wanted to share 🙂

Temperature snake start

I received my yarn order for my Planet June temperature snake and got caught up with January. I didn’t have any safety animal eyes so I used to really cute buttons my mom got me years ago. I think that they are perfect.

Stash of old patterns and a shrug

And finally, a stash of patterns that I started writing back in 2016, as far as I can tell. These were some of my first attempts as pattern writing and they were so fun to find. I have developed my style over the years and plan to dust them off and write them up using what I have learned since then. This shrug in the making is from one of the earliest patterns I ever tried to get on paper.

That’s all for now, see you next time!