Sorry it has been so long since my last post a lot has happened since them. I currently am on a sewing binge I every so often get obsessed in one of the number of crafts I have taken classes in and am now obsessed with sewing. I found this lovely corduroy fabric at Wal-Mart

I decided I wanted to make a circular needle case to take out my few of those types of needles from the drawer in which I kept them.

Here is a view of the right side of the needle album.

Here is the right side of the above view.

Here is the case flipped two pockets to the right.

Here is the opposite of the 3rd picture.

As you have seen when I make one I feel like making another. I picked up the fabrics of the next needle case from Michaels what few fat quarters they have.

Now in this picture you can see from each different pattern on the fabrics where the pockets are.

I had to show you the inner two pockets.

And the view of more pockets.

Here is a larger view of the whole.

Since in the sewing mood I made this Crochet hook case for the few hooks that didn’t fit in my other two cases.

Here it is unrolled; I just love this bright fabric.

This is a sun glasses case I made out of scraps from the Circular Knitting Needle case above.

Here is a close up of the opening where I added snaps.

And the other side of the snaps.

I also have been inspired to finish up some of the projects I have laying around uncompleted. I had originally 15 incompletes on my list and I am down to nine, although I have thrown in some projects not on the list purely for the fun of it.

I have to mention I am graduating from my undergraduate degree in May unfortunately I was not accepted into the Speech programs where I have applied for my Masters degree. And I can’t be a speech therapist till I get that degree. Despite this development I am determined to reapply after working in the speech field as a technician for a year.

Micah’s Hacky Sack

All right after getting all my grad applications in the mail (It sounds so simple but yet so worrisome). And having back problems again, I have not been on top of my game lately. I’ve also caught the sewing bug and I have not even made a bookmark for a while oh well. Here is the Hacky sack pattern that after many tries and retries I finally ended up with.

Micah’s Hacky Sack

(For stripes change color every three rounds, at the end there will be four rounds in the last color to finish the hacky sack off)

You Need:
Hook: Size 5
Thread: Size 10
Poly Pellets

Create magic loop
Rnd 01: In lp make 11 sc. (11 sc)
Rnd 02: 2 sc in each sc around. (22 sc)
Rnd 03: [1 sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc] around. (33 sc)
Rnd 04: 1 sc in next sc around. (33 sc)
Rnd 05: [1 sc in next 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc] around. (44 sc)
Rnd 06: 1 sc in next sc around. (44 sc)
Rnd 07: [1 sc in next 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc] 14 times, 1 sc in next 2 sc. (58 sc)
Rnd 08: 1 sc in each sc around. (58 sc)
Rnd 09: 1 sc in each sc across till 3 sc remain, 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc. (59 sc)
Rnd 10: [1 sc in next 6 sc, 2 sc in next sc, 1 sc in next 6 sc, sk next sc, 2 sc in next sc] 3 times, [1 sc in next 6 sc, 2 sc in next sc] 2 times. (64 sc)
Rnd 11: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 12: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 13: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 14: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 15: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 16: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 17: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 18: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 19: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 20: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 21: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 22: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 23: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 24: 1 sc in each sc around (64 sc)
Rnd 25: sk 1st sc, [1 sc in next 6 sc, sk 1 sc] 8 times, 1 sc in next 5 sc, sk 1 sc, 1 sc in next sc. (54 sc)
Rnd 26: 1 sc in 3 sc, sk 1 sc, sc in rest of the sc around. (53 sc)
Rnd 27: 1 sc in next 3 sc, sk 1 sc, [1 sc in next 5 sc, sk 1 sc] 8 times, 1 sc in next sc. (44 sc)
Rnd 28: 1 sc in next 44 sc. (44 sc)
Rnd 29: 1 sc in next 5 sc, sk 1 sc, [1 sc in next 4 sc, sk 1 sc] 7 times, 1 sc in next 3 sc. (36 sc)
Rnd 30: 1 sc in all sc around. (36 sc)
Rnd 31: 1 sc in next 4 sc, sk 1 sc, [1 sc in next 3 sc, sk 1 sc] 2 times, 1 sc in next 2 sc, sk 1 sc, [1 sc in next 3 sc, sk 1 sc] 5 times, sk last sc. (27 sc)
Rnd 32: [1 scin next 2 sc, sk 1 sc] around ending with 1 sc empty. (18 sc)
Rnd 33: [1 sc in next 3 sc, sk 1 sc] 2 times, 1 sc in next 2 sc, sk 1 sc, 1 sc in next 3 sc, sk 1 sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc, sk 1 sc, 1 sc in next 3 sc, sk 1 sc, 1 sc in next 2 sc, ending with 1 sc unworked. (13 sc)
Rnd 34: sc in every other sc around, plus one into next round. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Any errors or suggestions please let me know @ ajsblu_eyes@cox.net

Snowflakes, Hacky Sacks, Sewing...

Ok here I go. “A number of months ago I came across a book by Delsie Rhoades called 101 Snowflakes at my local library. I borrowed it and started making snowflakes.” You remember that from last post this time I have more I made but had not yet taken pictures of. Here is #1 from that book. All the following I made for my mother, she said she wished she had more of my snowflakes, which I was giving away as Christmas presents. Some of the snowflakes below were a finials project one of many I started around finals.

This is #3 from the book.

This booklet is the one I got the below angel pattern form.

This angel pattern from a booklet called Angels, Snowflakes, & Garlands designed by Anne Halliday. I looked around specifically for angel patterns because they are what my mother collects. I made 4 of these angels as gifts this year.

This is #8 in white; I made this one in gold first.

While searching for angel ornament patterns I came across this used booklet I bought it.

And here is the only ornament I have made from it so far.

And this is #27 from the book by Delsie Rhoades called 101 Snowflakes.

And another # 14, that I made in gold for my Aunt and my mother really admired it so I made another in white.

And another #28.

And another # 61, you can see I really went to town on snowflakes this year.

I made # 33 for one of the girls I watch and it was too small in her estimation so I made her a different one. This was the second of this number I had made.

# 84 I love this one it is very delicate looking, well I love all of them really.

And last but not least # 88, which I made two of as well. All the snowflakes in this post went to my sweet mother.

Ok on to other things now I come to my brother who loves to play with these. He had asked me once if I would make him some more and I told him it was cheaper to buy them at $3 a piece than to spend the time it would take to make them. So all of these he purchased himself except the red one which is really the Psychotic Tomato designed by Regina Rioux Gonzalez aka Lady Linoleum.

I after many, many, many, trials of other peoples hacky sack patterns and they were not the right size or look right…. I proceeded to copy one of the existing hacky sacks my brother bought. And finally I got the first striped one.

After that I proceeded to make another striped one.

Then feeling like a change I was going to make a pokadoted yellow and black one but the pokadots were so time consuming I made only two stripes of yellow pokadots on black. Resulting in the below ball.

Next I decided to go full force and make pokadots, as one of my brother’s other hacky sacks had. This was very time consuming. I was also stealing away my brother’s hacky sacks so I could try to imitate them, thankfully I was not caught and my brother loved the hacky sacks when he got them on Christmas and very surprised.

These below pajamas were also another finals project I decided I would make around finals, like I had time to do that no. I didn’t finish these till January.

Another set of pajamas, I have to tell you they are so soft it is like one of those super soft stuffed animals but all over when I wear them.

Yet another project was this sewing pincushion trash bag set. My mother has one and it makes her sewing projects so nice the bag is for thread clippings as you sew or other fabric trash. The pincushion is for when you take out the pins as you sew.

Here is a picture of it on the wrong side of the serger machine. It is supposed to go on the right side.

After I made one I proceeded to make another out of remnants from my flannel quilt. It is more fun the second time through a pattern and quicker at least for me.

This thread was sitting in my thread bin annoying me for it was to thick for my normal thread work and to thin for yarn so I whipped out my new Crochet magazine and made Sunny Spread Squares out of it. These are all the squares I could make before the thread ran out. I feel much better about having these squares in my bin than that thread.

Oh here is a picture of the magazine I got the pattern out of.

Now my crochet hooks have a nice case to hold them but my knitting needles do not so I found the below pattern and made a Knitting needle case.

And here is what I ended up with; I received the most compliments from the male members of my family than I had ever received before. You see they liked the camo fabric which I got because it was a remnant and on sale. It was really gratifying I’ll have to make something in camo again soon.

And here is what I ended up with; I received the most compliments from the male members of my family than I had ever received before. You see they liked the camo fabric which I got because it was a remnant and on sale. It was really gratifying I’ll have to make something in camo again soon.

I’ve been bitten by the sewing bug so I bought some more fabric to match the brown ribbon I had from the camo knitting needle case.

I was able to make not one but two more knitting needle cases because I didn’t have to make the extra crochet hook flap so on the first case I had brown on the outside.

Here is the inside.

And I made the second case blue on the outside.

Here is a peek inside it.

With how crafty I have been lately I needed more storage so I bought some plastic storage bins to store and spread out what I have. And that concludes this post I’m glad aren’t you?

Stain Glass & Snowflakes

It has been so long since I have last posted. Ok here is what I have been up to. I finished my finals got good grades, took the scary GRE and finished buying Christmas presents. Not to mention helping my mother bake 7 types of cookies. All right on to some of the things I have made.

This is what I made in my stain glass class. I at one point thought it would be horrible to look at because of the thickness of the black lines, though now I am content with what I made and pleased with it.

This is the piece that my father made, he is the one that encouraged me to take the class with him, and we had a great time together. Now our stain glass pieces are hanging in the windows together.

This is a Christmas present that I made for my cousin who loves sunflowers, I made 7 coasters for her, and why 7 you might ask. Well I made 6 and looked at the remaining yellow I had and I didn’t have much left and could make one more coaster so I did. I originally saw a picture of this coaster as an embellishment but decided it would work well as a coaster. So I zoomed into the picture and worked backwards to formulate the pattern and ended up with this. I saw this embellishment on Fazendo Croche.

A number of months ago I came across a book by Delsie Rhoades called 101 Snowflakes at my local library. I borrowed it and started making snowflakes. The above snowflake is for a little girl I sit, she wanted her snowflake in bright pink. This snowflake is # 23 in the book.

This snowflake is for the afore mentioned little girl’s sister who also wanted bright pink. The snowflake is # 22.

I decided to make snowflakes this year as a gift for my Aunt who’s tree is what I call a designer tree with ornaments only in a couple of colors. Her tree is gold and white so I made the following ornaments in gold. This snowflake is # 57.

Also for my aunt this snowflake is # 8.

Another for my aunt this snowflake is # 19.

This one had and interesting stitch called Lover’s Knot, it is # 9.

I didn’t starch this one like the picture in the book, but it is # 13.

And Last but not least # 14.

More Babies

This baby hat I made not for anyone specific but to get ahead on the baby boom which is occurring in the people I know. The bonnet came from a pattern called Angel Kisses Dress which was designed by Anna. The bonnet size is newborn, the only problem I had was trying to figure out how much thread I would need to make the complete project, I still haven’t made the whole outfit so the question is still unanswered.


The little girl who will be wearing has already been delivered and is healthy so I am pleased.

This is another outfit for a member of my personal baby boom group. This was a challenging project, first I had to find a non-feminine outfit which is harder than it sounds. The pattern is called Little Boy Blue designed by Shifio; I also had to consider that we live in Arizona so it will not get too terribly cold. Here is an overview of the whole outfit.

This little hat I had to make twice the first one was too small.

This sweater was the most time consuming part of the outfit.

I had a fun time trying to create a theme for the outfit and wound up with bears. These cute little bear buttons were so darn cute I had to use them.

Even though I added buttons, I upon consultation with my mother thought the shape of the bear buttons would make them difficult to button up; therefore they became false buttons just for looks. I added snaps under the buttons to make the top easy to put on the little boy.

This bear patch goes with the bear buttons and bear theme.

When I got to the shorts the top of the shorts had a design that would suggest a draw string or ribbon to hold the shorts on the little baby, but this is a boy outfit so I got a length of rope that is classy looking.

Here is a close up just because, I had to knot the ends unfortunately for the edges didn’t sear though I was told that they would, oh well.

These booties also caused me a great deal of frustration. I generally crochet tightly so the first bootie was noticeably smaller than the second. I then pulled out the bootie yarn of the larger bootie and remade it but it turned out larger as well. I then made a completely new bootie and it matched the larger size one so I finally had the two booties.

Ok I got tagged by Ccat. I am supposed to do the following:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1st 7 facts about myself: Some random, Some weird. (you can choose which is which)
1. I have 4 brothers and no sisters.
2. I can not spell worth anything, thank goodness for spell check.
3. I just took a stain glass class with my father (it was a lot of fun).
4. Around finals I go on a frantic creative binge like I have all the time in the world when the opposite is true.
5. My worst recurring nightmare is that I lose my teeth. (I usually happens before a visit to the dentist)
6. I’m probably the only college student that goes to bed early Friday night.
7. I’m scared of the GRE.

2nd I am tagging Crochetroo, Mimi, & Tami.

Bookmarks + Baby Stuff + Stuffed Animal

It feels like it has been forever since my last post, I am stretched thin at the present with school and other commitments but awhile ago I crochet this cat called Amineko I got the pattern from Ccat’s website. First off I wanted to make the cat because I wanted to get rid of a tan color thread I got at a thrift store but I never really liked a lot. The tan thread is size 5 the brownish color is two different color browns I had that together make a size 5 thread which I hardly ever use. Second reason to make this cat was because I wanted to make something for my little brother. I gave him the option of an elephant, dog, cat, or rabbit and he chose this cat. He named it kitten, shortly after I made it for him he lost it which was sad because he was carrying it around everywhere with him. But eventually the cat was found hiding in a closet so I finally got to get a picture of him. (I used a size 1 hook on the cat if my memory does not fail me)

This delightful bookmark was designed by Ccat as well. Now I am normally not one for bookmarks with initials but I loved the delicate edging on this bookmark so I squeezed it into my crochet to do list. I as you can imagine have enough bookmarks so I made this bookmark with a friend’s initials as a gift. The initials are N & T by the way. I’ll have to make this bookmark again I enjoyed it so much. I used a size 7 hook I think.

This sweet hat comes from Mimi, she so kindly sent me the pattern that she designed. I did make some slight alterations I make 3 flowers instead of 1 and changed the edging around the hat’s brim so it would match the edging on a pair of booties I had made therefore I could give both away as one gift. I love the ripple effect of the brim and hope it makes some cute little girl look like a princess.

These booties I made from an old fashion pattern called Drawstring Booties, I thought the small grainy picture though poor showed a treasure and made them in bright pink for fun. I will have to make another pair when I have some measure of free time.

This is a Butterfly pattern I acquired on a foreign website which is called Fazendo Crochet. I doubled up on this variegated tatting thread that I got from my grandmother and used a size 11 or 12 hook. This pattern would do better in a solid color I believe, oh well. The butterfly I made was the pattern on the left or #23.

This bookmark is called Pretty Little Lady Bookmark my grandmother had an old magazine with this in it, sadly I can not remember the name of the magazine or date on it, I am not so slowly losing my memory. I started this a while ago but stopped due to a decrease in patience, but now it is finished.

Yet another Friendship Rings Bookmark, now I am getting tired of this pattern but, it is for the greater good of Christmas gifts, though I will take a break from this pattern for a while which will give me time to fall in love with another pattern.

Spike Tissue Holder

Since I do not own the stitch style I used, I am substituting a different spike stitch variations to what I used. There is a Spike Stitch Introduction that also will be helpful if you are unfamiliar with this stitch.

Spike Tissue Holder

Materials:
Thread Size 10 thread in 2 colors: Color 1 – black, Color 2 – pink
Hook Size 9 Steel (it has been a while since I have done this so I think this is the right hook)
Needle threader
Needle
Sewing Thread
3 Clasps

Make 2:
With color 1, Ch 62
1. Sc in 2nd ch from hk & all following sc.
2. (ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
3. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
4. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc (change to color 2).
5. use directions from row (B) 7 but only for 7 times not the 8 times it says to.
6. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
7. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
8. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
9. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc (change to color 2).
10. use directions from row (A) 13 but only for 7 times not the 8 times it says to.
11. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.)
12. repeat from ( to ) 3 times.
13. [ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.] repeat 12 times. With color 1 “the starting color”5. use directions from

When that is done you will have two halves, next connect the two sections with a sl st in each st across.

This joining will create a small joining bump. Get your small packet of tissues place it in the middle of your crocheted rectangle. Crab stitch along the sides the arrows are pointing to. (The red line is the sl st joining the two halves)

This is how it should look, then take the two edged and fold them over the tissue packet like you were wrapping a present. (White rectangle depicts where the tissue packet will go)

This is what you should see. Next crab stitch along the sides the arrows are pointing to. (The edges are folded like you would wrap a present with wrapping paper)

At this stage your tissue holder should look like the below picture except the middle edges pull away and you can see the tissue packet inside.

Finally you'll add fasteners with thread to the center seam so it will remain closed. I used 3, these clasps are invisible on the outside of the tissue holder. The red dots show the placing I used for the clasps. (The clasps should be attached on the inside of the tissue holder)

This is picture of clasp that is similar to what I used.

Your tissue holder should look like this now but the spike stitch pattern will be different.

This is the book that I borrowed that has the Spike Stitch pattern that I used for this pattern. If you have this book or can borrow this book, below is the pattern you use with it .

Make 2:
With color 1, Ch 62
1. Sc in 2nd ch from hk & all following sc.
2. (ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
3. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
4. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc (change to color 2).
5. ch 1, turn, sc in next 4 st, *Spike Stitch in all indicated stitches, sc in next 7 sts*, repeat from * to * 6 times, sc in last 4 sts.
6. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
7. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
8. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.
9. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc (change to color 2).
10. ch 1, turn, sc in next 8 st, *Spike Stitch in all indicated stitches, sc in next 7 sts*, repeat from * to * 6 times, sc in last 8 sts.
11. ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.)
12. repeat from ( to ) 3 times.
13. [ch 1, turn, sc in all sc.] repeat 12 times. With color 1 “the starting color”

Next go up to the top of this page and follow the rest of the steps.