Happy Thanksgiving!

My First Socks

I've had this stretchy sock yarn for an embarrassingly long yarn. When I started knitting in my 20's, I knew that at some point I wanted to learn to knit socks.

Then there was the 2010 sock fiasco where I tried to learn to knit socks, use dpns to knit in the round, and learn cables all in one project. I only finished one sock and it was so bad that I didn't even bother starting the second one and I've been terrified of socks ever since.

This pattern was actually supposed to be an open-toe pattern, but I decided to add toes anyway. I love my socks. No, they are not perfect. I still have to figure out how to get rid of the ladders between stitches. But, they are super comfy and, "Yay!" I finished my first pair of socks and can actually wear them!

Check out my Ravelry page here.

Crochet Bag

So I love Lucy from Attic 24's crocheted bags. She has a Crocheted Bag pattern as well as a Jolly Chunky Bag pattern. I had chunky yarn leftover from my needlepoint pillow. So, of course, I planned to make the Jolly Chunky bag. I got the right size hook out and put it with the yarn. Well, when I went to make the bag, I accidentally downloaded the Crocheted Bag pattern. As I finished up the bottom in the above picture, I realized this bag was going to be monstrously big so I started to make some adjustments.

Here the bag is finished except for weaving in all the ends. There were a lot of ends!

Peanut the dog is jealous that the bag is getting my attention instead of her.

And, it turned out terrifically. About halfway up, I started decreasing about every other row. I just kind of eye-balled it and decreased as it needed.

Crocheted handles seem to stretch too easily with my overloaded bags so I used some recycled nylon handles. I also added a green shoestring to the top so I can close it.

And I love the little flowers that were part of the pattern. I'm really happy with this bag.

A Cozy Wooly Blanket

As fall weather turns cooler, I bring out this blanket made from thrifted wool sweaters that I washed and shrunk before sewing together. It is backed with cozy flannel made from old flannel twin-size flat sheets that I had turned into a duvet cover before converting them to blanket backing. And, it is tied with scraps of yarn.

This is the coziest, wooliest blanket ever and my absolute favorite for cool weather cuddling. Mochi the cat and Peanut the dog seem to agree as they frequently take their naps on its wooly goodness. In fact, it might be time to start considering making a second blanket!

Redwork Towel

Here in China, the threads available, or, perhaps I should say, the threads I've found are fairly limited. DMC floss can be found in the cross-stitch shops at about twice what it costs in the US. Of course, here it's also sold by the yard if you prefer.

I found balls of this single strand, thick, cotton thread in black, white, and red from different street vendors and decided to see how it worked with redwork. I used the black and white threads to crochet art quilt embellishments.

This thread was not especially smooth to work with and knotted easily, but since I was stitching on a never-been-used flat diaper, that wasn't a major concern.  (Note: those new flat diapers are terrific art cloths!)

I used a single strand and did not double it for stitching. Also, because of the slight patterning of the cloth, the design did not transfer well and was really light in spots. Can you find the error I made because of this? Again, since it's going to be used to mop up spills and dry dishes, I wasn't too concerned.

Overall, crocheting with this thread turned out better than stitching with it. It worked fine for this project, though.