Crochet to Go

Here's another baby boy gift. These were perfect for airplane crochet (no big balls of yarn needed), and did a great job of using up my bag of yarn scraps. From a pattern in Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies.

There are some interesting ideas on this site. Both of these concepts use salt to "freeze" the forms. You could do the same with starch or sugar - definitely worth exploring.

I absolutely love this - I can't wait to make it. A free pattern is available here.

Cupcake pincushion
Originally uploaded by sukigirl74.

There's nothing better than finding examples of your patterns! Here's a cute flickr find. The crocheter found the pattern on canadianliving.com (you can also find my duck pattern there, too).

IMG_0218.JPG
Originally uploaded by aliciamalia.

My best friend is having her first baby in a few months. I started off making a little hat, but it quickly morphed into a basset hound cap (they're big fans, and have a basset named Darrell). I'm excited to experiment with baby boy crochet - most of my stuff ends up looking quite girly. I think this is a good start.

I just love this sweater. I made a darker pink version about two years ago. The original source pattern was really oddly sized, and I've continued to tweak it each time. Next time, I think I'd like to continue the structured bodice through the entire arm length, and shift the pineapple pattern closer to the center.

Last week, I pulled apart half of a sweater. I was making modifications to a sweater pattern, and realized I was following the wrong instructions. Worse yet, it was for a sweater design I don't really like. Sigh.

This happens to me more often than I like to admit. I'm partial to vintage patterns, which come with grainy, b/w photographs - or no photograph at all. It's time to stop the madness! Here's my best solution so far: I've made a document with photographs of my completed projects. If it's my pattern, I've included the instructions. For everything else, I've noted the yarn used, hook size, source, and anything odd I ran into while making the item. Clearly I have a lot more cataloging to do, but it's a start.

Any other tips for organizing?

I made a trip to the post office last week for stamps, and was pleased to find a nice crafty option. They're perfect for all your thank you notes and belated holiday gifts.

Here's a quick one-off project I made for a friend over the weekend. His solution for keeping coffee warm in a french press was wrapping a towel around it - definitely functional, but not the most elegant solution. This cozy is acrylic (for easy washing), worked in half-double crochet (for bulk), and easily buttons on and off. Best of all, it actually works.

I had a great craft breakthrough about two weeks ago. When I work on a circular object (like a hat) I tend to change direction at the end of each row. While I like the look, one of the main reasons for doing this is to create a straight, unobtrusive seam. When I continue working in rounds, my seams tend to wander.

So: what's the problem? I was pondering the issue while working on the arm warmers below, and decided not to fight it. In fact, I'd intentionally have the seam circle the hat. Five samples later, I think I've got it down. I love the subtlety of the ridge, and how it elevates the basic hat above the expected. In the grid of details, the upper left image is the "wrong" side, the right the "outside".

Design Sponge is one of my favorite blogs. It's dangerous - I probably buy way more of the things I see there than I should - but always interesting and well curated. Last week's feature on artist Tricia Royal is a great example. I'm highlighting it because of Tricia's beautiful use of crocheted items. Both the doily and the blanket are, well, questionable - in the wrong context they could be really wrong. But they're working as accents. I love seeing creative use of heirloom items like this. And it's a great reminder that it's all about the design - even the oddest items can seem perfectly new when arranged properly.

So...the book signing. I signed with Meg, shown, the author of Craft, Inc. She's lovely, and her book is really useful for anyone trying to make money off a hobby. The signing itself wasn't particular successful for either of us, but I'm glad to have had the opportunity. It's fun just to be there and talk to people about crafting.

I definitely recommend checking out the new Chronicle Books Store (1846 Union in San Francisco) - it's well designed, well stocked, and a great place to look for holiday gifts. There are several boxes of labels I'd like to have, and their craft section is growing rapidly.

I've spent the day proofing a pattern for the 2009 edition of the Crochet Pattern a Day Calendar. The deadline is swiftly approaching - get your patterns in now! I'm definitely sending in my easy arm warmer pattern (picture shown), and hope to get organized enough to finish another 1 or 2 patterns in the next week.

Speaking of which, I just received my copy of the 2008 calendar. I have two patterns included - a mesh-weave scarf, and a pretty little clutch. The overall calendar is a bit hit and miss, but I did find several patterns in the 2007 edition worth making. If nothing else, it makes for fun browsing.

Chronicle just opened their second store, at 1846 Union Street in San Francisco. The Grand Opening party is this Saturday, December 1st. I'm going to be signing, along with a bunch of other cool folks. Stop by if you're in the area!

• 10:30-11:30: Children’s author Bob Barner will read from Dem Bones and will be signing copies of his books

• 1:00-2:00: Peggy Knickerbocker co-author of The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Cookbook and Georgeanne Brennan author of A Pig in Provence will be signing copies of their books

• 3:00-4:00: Get crafty with Alicia Bergin, author of the Crochet to Go Deck, and Meg Mateo Ilasco, author of Craft, Inc.

• 5:00-6:00: Artist Rex Ray will be in the store signing copies of Rex Ray Art + Design

This book puts together all my passions (well, at least crafting and celebrity gossip) in one horribly wrong package. Awesome.

I finally finished a baby gift I've been working on for weeks. It took shape around some wonderful goldfish fabric I found on repro depot. I wanted the colors to be fairly masculine (relatively speaking), and not the typical baby hues. It was also a great way to get through some of my odds and ends of yarn.

The pattern is really easy. I used the general shape I developed for the sleep sack I made in the Crochet to Go Deck. Each strap (2 side, 2 top) has two button holes to allow for a better fit.

My coworker Fabian is getting this. It's his first baby. He just finished this amazing mural for the baby's room.

The Lifetime network has posted three of my patterns online, just in time for holiday crafting! There's a blanket and pillow for the ambitious, and quick and easy jewelry ideas for last-minute gifts. You can find them here.

In honor of San Francisco's favorite holiday, here's a sampling of the best, the scariest, and the craftiest crocheted Halloween treats.

From upper left: Curbly features the ultimate way to candy-coat your cat; Frankenstein and Pirate Panda on Amy Gaines' flicker page; decorative pumpkins; Harry Potter & friends; and man-eating sea creatures (and much more) on this clever Japanese site.

And finally, What Not to Crochet features this beautifully executed (pun intended) saw scarf, my absolute favorite of the bunch.

I mounted my felted "painting" yesterday. It's not quite right yet - I think I'll have to nail a frame around the edges - but it's getting there. As you can see, it definitely fills up a wall.

Here's another (semi-)related project that I found interesting. Marilyn Rose created these spectacular quilts from her own late night pictures: She snapped photos of the scenes with her point-and-shoot camera "from behind the wheel going way too fast on the highway." Read more here.

I'm back on hats. I've finally finished (at least for now) my "basic hat" pattern, and have been experimenting with yarns, patterns, and variants. I really like the striped one.

The purple hat drops down slightly farther in back to keep more of your head warm, and has ear covers. I think it's going to be a lot warmer than the flap-less hat. This photo is certainly not one of my best, but as my friend Brooks pointed out, it has a certain anime (plastic?) quality that's interesting. So there you go.

It's done! This is actually my first felting project. I suppose if you're going to try something, go big.

I definitely still need to block this, and figure out a way to hang it (I'm thinking I'll stretch it over a wooden frame, but does anyone have a better idea?).

In order, these are pictures of:
1) The original painting
2) The crocheted, unfelted version (36 x 36 inches)
3) The felted version (26 x 36 inches - I'm not sure if it's normal that the work only shrinks horizontally?)
4) detail of colors
5) side-by-side comparison of before and after

I'm pretty pleased with the overall result. It was a lot of work, but it's going to look great on my living room wall. My only reservation is the felting itself - I'm not sure it's a better work because of the felting? I loved it just as much before. Hmm. I'm going to tackle an ocean scene next.

The crochet phase is done! I'm doing the actual felting tomorrow. Here's a glimpse into my process.

I originally took a jpeg of the painting and overlaid a grid in photoshop. It was good on screen, but not very useful when I was actually working. I couldn't easily print it out, given the number of rows (142 sc across, 180 rows high). Eventually I settled on the two visual aids shown here: one printout of the painting with 16 x 16 stitch squares drawn over, and a second handdrawn version showing where to place the accent colors. I used safety pins on the work itself to show the grid lines (shown in the last photo).

Other specifics: this is worked entirely in single crochet with a 5.5 mm hook. I used Lion Brand Wool and Patons Classic Wool Merino in cream, black, navy blue, blue, gray, purple, and green.

My felting project is almost done! It's huge - almost 4 feet x 4 feet - and within an hour of being completely crocheted. I love the way it looks, and am really afraid to felt it. I've decided to just go for it, though. I'll have pictures by this time next week.

This art exhibit looks amazing. Artist Jean Arkell has knitted mini reproductions of the homes of female killers - or the houses where they committed the crimes. I love the houses, and am even more drawn to the written descriptions of the crimes. There's a certain awkwardness to the prose that adds to the general oddness of the whole project. It's very straightforward, and yet slightly off. For example:

Christiana Edmunds was a 43 year old spinster who lived with her widowed mother. She had become infatuated with a married man, Dr. Beard. In September 1870 she brought a box of chocolates to the Beard's house and insisted that Mrs. Beard eat some over a pot of tea. Christiana had filled these chocolate creams with strychnine. Immediately after eating one Mrs. Beard became severely ill. As a result Dr. Beard accused her of trying to poison his wife. Christiana denied the charge and set about trying to prove that there was a poisoner at large in Brighton. She would pay children to buy chocolate creams from the same sweet shop that she purchased the box of chocolates for Mrs. Beard from. She would inject these with strychnine, then re-wrap them and pay another child to return them. The innocent shop-keeper sold on these poisoned sweets. On 12 June 1871 this activity resulted in the death of 4-year-old Sidney Barker. Christiana even sent poisoned cakes and fruit through the mail, addressing some to herself, to try to emphasise her innocence. She was eventually caught and sentenced to death but when it transpired that she was mentally ill her sentence was commuted and she was sent to Broadmoor. She died there in 1907 aged 79. It later transpired that no less than four members of her immediate family had died as a result of mental illness

Do you read Cute Overload? I only read it occasionally, as, well, it generally tends to be an overload of cuteness. A friend forwarded this link on. Yes, it's cute, and I suspect it's actually useful in Japan. When I was there (a long, long time ago), all fruit was carefully packaged individually. It was a nightmare of plastic and cardboard. As silly as it may look, this is an extremely green solution to a major problem.