Crochet Crazy

Some people have the fortune of being taught by someone face to face, the rest of us hail the praises of the internet and rely on various sites and stuff ups to get to where we get.

I didn’t have someone show me, I taught myself, why?

I woke up one morning, it was a Saturday, a day I normally would have spent 20 hours playing EverQuest which for those who aren’t up on these things was the first successful Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORG), while there are now more than plenty, when it started EverQuest (EQ) was very hard, it took many hours to gain a couple of levels and those who had reached top level were revered like gods and well all that’s out the window now, it takes around 24-48 hours if you sit down and try hard enough and frankly they are all too easy. But, I had spent 7 years of my life in EQ, and I woke up that Saturday morning with the thought of:

I pay 9.99 a month, plus say 20 per expansion (x3 as I had 3 accounts) to EQ. While I spend many many hours in there, what am I getting for my money. The stark reality is I can spend hours in game to get some shiny spell, or pretty armor, or whatever, but, its just a 0 or 1 in some database somewhere. If I were to be hit by a bus would I want my epitaph to say “She had a virtual life” no. So, I hit eBay having once seen someone crochet, and thought I would buy me a “stick” and some “string” – nick names I still use to this day for a hook and yarn/cotton. I came across a pack of 8 balls of cotton, and a hook for I think it was 2.99 apparently you can randomly get them from Lidl’s, if only I had known I would have bought them there!

So, I looked around and googled, and came up with this A filet pattern now, why filet? well, in short filet is very repetitive, but you make an interesting pattern, I probably should have started simpler, but.

Well it came out ok, not exactly wonderful, but it did come out OK. I was dead proud of myself. Believe me there are plenty of mistakes, but, I was proud all the same

I then made some scarves

I then following the rough approximations for size, in and out etc I followed a simple knitting pattern and in 2 days made:

Now, its not going to win style of the year award, but it is wonderfully warm. I had never completed a jumper in my life as a knitter – my mother had tried often enough, my husband of the time had insisted I “knitted” him one, and I did, it turned out majorly huge, I’m not kidding me and most my friends could have got in it all at the same time, it was far too loose in tension and well its warm but even Hagrid (from Harry Potter) would find it baggy.

I then made this

Which in short, is filet based again, but its lovely and I still wear it. In fact I intend to make one that’s slightly longer. This was done following another online pattern called “summer breeze” from Coats and Clark

Being a dutiful daughter, I then offered to make something for my Dad. Here’s what he wanted!

He wanted some chair back thingies.

I then made a baby blanket following a coats and clark pattern again

Simple idea, turned out nice I thought, mind you now I look at it and as always think, I could have done better, it needed a border really if nothing else.

I had had a friend at VMware for a number of years, but whom I had never met, and I got a call to say he was coming up in 2 days, now his wife was about to have their first baby, so, I made this – it grew really fast and I love it. My friend since left VMware and we lost touch.

I was almost late to work as I wanted to add a few more rows, again this really needed a border.

I then made me a bedspread, in a filet design, this took a while.

it wasn’t big enough really as you can see, and well, I’ve never used it. Shame really.

To continue on my learning I then did a ripple blanket, this thing is HUGE, like around 10ft square”!

I then made this for my oldest friends, and I apologise to them to this very day, I consider this to be the ugliest thing I ever made, and I didn’t plan it, and that turned out to be the main problem

Then I decided to learn Tunisian crochet, to continue on in my learning and made this for a friend and his first baby

It was a bit small, and well, I learnt a lot on that. The core thing I learnt was how not to change colours. The diamond in the middle I had kept the same ball of yarn between so for example between the purple is a line of yarn this line was too short and it pulls.. a gazillion knots is not the answer either. You HAVE to sew, and this is a pain staking pain in the ass thing to do. The more complex (nicer) the pattern, the more pain will be at the end, but, I do think it is worth it for the things you can make.

I designed this and for more on how I did that, read the How did I do that? section

My first proper granny square made for someone who never collected it sadly.

I loved the next one, i went back to Tunisian, again it was far from perfect, made for a girl at work and her baby

I designed this too! In hind sight it should have not had so much green and had the purple and white, as that section looks great, the green and purple do work together enough as colours, but, not like that. Sorry Alix. Hope Izzy didn’t mind.

Around this time the local area flooded, I mean like Noah’s Ark flooded, people rescued by helicopters the whole works. So, as our vet lost a lot of stuff in the flood I made them around 20 blankets for fluffies who had to stay at the vet as they had lost a load as they were in the basement and well that flooded to the ceiling. They were all pretty plain and looked a lot like this

I had measured the cages and did a bunch for each size.

Next came one of my best works (In my humble opinion) I designed this for a lady who’s in a wheel chair, I hope she still uses it coz I’m dead proud of this and was sorry to give it away in a way, as it was lovely and soft, great colours and a hell of a lot of work and stitch, and this was the first time I did the ends and everything right (there is a big mistake in it, and I hope she never notices)

With Tunisian, like knitting you work from bottom up, or side to side, or top to bottom, so each area of colour is a new ball / chunk of wool, so at some of the more complex stage of this I had around 40+ chunks of wool on the go, this was seriously frustrating as they would tie themselves together.

Next I made a design for a friend who’s a big fan of foxes, his nick name is Apheler.

I had some assistance from another friend (nicknamed Bander) to simplify the picture as I cant draw for toffee. Its nice to have good friends. I was very pleased with this, one ear did suffer a bit of a botch, but I know Apheler loved it, I hope he still does.

Baby blankets are a common thing to make for crochet people, so when my friend Petey announced the coming of his second kid, I had to make a blanket.

Once again I felt fairly proud of this, Petey is my longest standing friend and this turned out nice.

Continuing on I then made a gi top and belt for a bear for a friends birthday

and a hat

Which I lovingly refer to as my “sexy hat” but I made it, and its lovely and warm

and a blanket for my friend Chris

While its a plain blanket, I hope he likes it. I wish I had done more now.

I then started to design some other things and came up with

Which was based on a pattern I had seen

I made one

Which I gave to a guy at work when I heard his mother was terminally ill.

I then made

This was for my friend Timbo, who’s a massive Ferrari fan (cant you tell?) he was leaving to move to Australia and I ended up taking a week off to finish it! If I had had more time there would have been more of a border and stuff and I always have regrets don’t I? The week I finished this was the week me and my husband split, and the first week I took a karate class by myself. It was a hell of a week. This picture reminds me of how in 1 week so much can change.

I finally then made the blanket my Dad had wanted

He chose the colours, I wasn’t so keen myself

I then made the pattern bigger to make a bedspread, picked my colours and made

Once finished, I regretted the gold diamonds.

I then converted the pattern to a simpler one and varied the colours to make

Which I gave to a friend for Christmas – I now know for sure he uses it, makes me happy.

I then made blankets for two nice people who are brothers.

I then remade my blanket with better colours, I love this, goes much better with my walls ! Still, the couches being blue is a pain, but then they aren’t mine, I don’t like them, but I didn’t pay for them either, so, cant have everything. If they were brown like the brown in the blanket, this room would be great 🙂 (Update, in 2011 I changed my couches, I now have beige and brown couches, so this now looks very good!

Next a tri colour blanket, for no one, in fact, I’m not entirely sure why I made it – however, a friend who’s announced she is to have a baby maybe the person to receive it…

(I know I haven’t sewed the ends in on this yet)

I then read a lot about Bavarian Crochet, turns out in short, its a granny square type working but done in catherine/pin wheel stitch

Next, I made a cletic lap blanket, only took a few days

A friend was wanting a pudsey bear, while I couldnt make her a bear, I could of course, make her a budsey bear blanket. I hope she likes it

Inspired by Pudsey, my friend Petey wanted James Hunt’s logo from Hesketh Racing. Im sure he will love it.

So, there you have it, I have made a few odd things along the way not featured, a few scarves, finished a granny square blanket for someone. There’s a duplicate of my blanket with different colours I did, which I should post a picture off, but I will endeavour to keep this up to date with pictures of stuff I do.

 

Next a quick scarf I did

 

Then a nice baby blanket for Michelle who works in our work shop, whos due early June 2011,

The “minging” blanket

I started this mosaic crochet technique to try it, I liked the technique, but not so much the single crochets (each stripe is 2 rows) the colours I picked were bad, but it was a tester, however the completed article went to a guy called Stu who collects tapes from me at work.

“The blue blanket”

I saw a horrid horrid tunisian waistcoat – brown with orange design – but the orange pattern caught my eye, and inspired this blanket.

The tardis blanket – I made 2 of these! I know someone else who wants one too..

Tunisian entrelac, where you make small squares but going round and round in circles

Following watching a video from youtube, I made a 6 pointed star for Stuart

Tamzins Blanket

 

A new blanket for me

 

Following a much earlier disastrous ugly blanket, I made a new one for my friends Petey and sue.

The blanket has a pocket on the back which allows it to be folded up and stored like a cushion, obviously its a bit hard as a cushion but it makes it easy to store, carry and stick on your sofa or bed while you dont use it.. Im intending to make something similar for my new car!

 

I made a second evil blanket for Rachel who had to have an operation, this really doesnt show the detail well. it is a zigzag of the cadbury purple and black..

 

Ok – the next one is knitted, I hang my head in shame, but crocheted socks dont stretch, I did try, and they were just all saggy and weird, so, I knitted – without a pattern, my first ever pair of home knitted socks – oddly something I dont remember my mother ever knitting for me.

(Please note I apologise for the state of the floor, and my fat ugly feet.. but I do like that the stripes are basically the same on both 🙂