Tunisian Crochet and a HUGE Tah Dah!!

I am so excited to let you all know what I've been up to lately...

It's been crazy busy with the holiday weekend and all but...I managed to squeeze in some time to try Tunisian Crochet and I have to say I absolutely LOVE it!!

It is so quick and easy and Kim Guzman's videos and her book, The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Tunisian Crochet is fantastic! I'm so confident now that I am going to make the Hoodie Sweater Vest that is on the cover right after I finish the scarf and hat shown below.

I am using Lion Brand's Wool-Ease white/multi color that has just enough sparkle to add a little pizzaz to my project. 

I am using just the Tunisian Knit Stitch, (TKS) that looks just like the Stockinette Knit Stitch. I cannot believe how easy this is! I haven't given up on learning to Knit just yet but for next few projects...it's gong to be Tunisian Crochet all the way!!



Now for the HUGE Tah Dah...

Most of you know my struggles with this ABC Baby Blanket but I managed to get it finished! I can't say its perfect but its done. I never want to see Navy Blue Yarn again! It was all worth it though when my daughter saw it and and laid Little Man down on it. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling all over so I'm happy I did it because it made her so happy!

That's all for now...I hope you all have a great week and...

Happy Crocheting!!

Crochet Baby ABC Blanket Almost Done!

I am so excited that my ABC Blanket is almost done and I'm loving it!! I am so glad I frogged the whole thing and started over. It looks so much better this time. It helps to use the same size hook throught the entire project! (Ha! Ha!) Just one more section and then bobbles all around and it will be finished!! What will I do next...?

Happy Crocheting!!

Knitting or Tunisian Crochet?

I tried my hand at Knitting. It was a very interesting experiment. I have never tried before or even had a desire to learn but I thought "why not?" So, I went to Hobby Lobby and spent $5 for a pair of bamboo knitting needles, size 7 was needed for my Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn. I watched a you tube video on how to "cast on" and couldn't quite get the hang of it so I watched another video and yet another video and finally found one I was comfortable with. Who knew there were so many ways to "cast on"?

Once I learned that step, it was pretty easy to pick up the "knit" stitch. I only did a little swatch at first, 10 stitches and 10 rows. It was pretty simple and I thought I should have tried this sooner! Then I had to watch another video on how to "cast off". It was a little tricky but not bad so I decided to make a dish cloth.

Well, everything was going fine but my arms were getting really tired. I was watching TV so I made some mistakes and didn't know how to fix them, (you know, like in crochet when you make a mistake you just rip out a few stitches and do them again), with Knitting you can't do that because you are transferring stitches from one needle to the other. Anyway, below is a picture of my dish cloth. Please don't laugh...oh go ahead and laugh...it is pretty funny!

I think I must have dropped a few... several stitches along the way and maybe picked up one or two!!

Oh well, I gave it a try. This is all I got done in two days!! So, in conclusion, I picked up my ABC blanket and was so happy and relaxed with it I decided that Knitting may not be my thing. 

I watched a couple of videos yesterday on Tunisian crochet and I absolutely LOVE it!! It was easy to do and I learned several of the different stitches in a short amount of time. So...I will make another dish cloth with the Tunisian crochet technique and let you know how it goes. So...stay tuned...

Happy Crocheting!

Keeping Busy with My Latest Projects...

My ABC Baby Blanket and Bohemian Oasis Afghan are certainly keeping me busy lately. I am on the next to the last section of the baby blanket, (D,E,F,G) but it has been difficult to work on this past week because our air conditioner was not working. Of course in Kansas we have been having above normal high temperatures lately and the baby blanket is very dense, (single crochet) so it is hot on my lap and the yarn is sticking between my fingers so it has been doubly difficult to work on it.

I have persevered though because I am determined to finish it as soon as possible because I have so many other projects running around in my mind that I want to get started on. As I said, this blanket has been a challenge for me. I was almost finished with it and realized I had started out with a G hook and somewhere along the line I switched to an F hook. It's kind of funny now but it wasn't when I had to frog the whole thing. I had some minor mistakes on it at the start so I just ripped out the entire blanket.

Somewhere I read to use toilet paper rolls to wrap your yarn when you have to frog something so I tried it and it worked beautifully! I highly recommend this method. I still ended up with some tangles but managed to salvage most of the yarn. At one point I was going to throw all of it away and go buy new yarn because it was so frustrating but I muddled through and I'm glad I did. If my daughter didn't love it so much I would have said "forget it", but she won out and now it's almost done and I think I finally have the hang of it.

I'm looking forward to joining my beautiful squares together on the Oasis Afghan. I have the black Fabel yarn by Drops and I think it is going to be a really pretty afghan when I get it done. This one is just for me. It will be so lovely on my bed and the colors of all the squares made from the Drops Delight yarn are so yummy.

You may have noticed from my recent posts that I am anxious to try Tunisian Crochet. It looks like knitting and gives you a tighter fabric than crocheting does. Kim Guzman is the Queen of Tunisian Crochet, (see the new Spring Issue of Crochet Savvy magazine here. Kim is on the cover!) I have had my Denise hooks for a couple of years now and haven't made one thing with them. I also have Kim's book, Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Tunisian Crochet.



I can't wait to try some of the neat patterns she has in it. Kim has put up lots of videos on YouTube as well so I should, (hopefully) be able to learn how to do it! I'll keep you posted on how its going.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you all have a great week! Oh...by the way...the air conditioner got fixed yesterday so everything is "cool" now!! :)

Happy Crocheting!

Honey Sweet Baby Blanket: Free Pattern

 

Another challenging blanket I want to make after I finish my never ending, (frogged many times) ABC Baby Blanket!!

New free crochet pattern from CrochetKim with video tutorials: Honey Sweet Baby Blanket!

 

Honey Sweet Baby Blanket
Tunisian Crochet Honeycomb Cable

designed by Kim Guzman © May 2014