Books

The next best thing to bookmarks is a good book and I mean the really good book. I just had to share some of the wonderful books I have read lately. To start off with the book that got me going on a reading binge again. Now I am cynical when it comes to books probably because I have read too many books that are not good. I was at Barns and Noble picking up my Crochet-a-day calendar when it was on sale in January when my shopping buddy, my mother wanted to investigate some new reading material. So I went of the Science Fiction/Fantasy area and began reading the backs of some books when I came across Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. A book about a girl who became a poison taster, this was not your typical start to most Fantasy books so I decided to take a chance and buy the book. I love this book; it is the type that made me want to stay up all night to finish it because I can’t put it down.

When I finished it I was thrilled to find out there was a sequel Magic Study. Which I immediately made plans to acquire the next possible opportunity.

After I finished Magic Study I was disappointed that the next book Fire Study was not yet published, so I decided I needed to find another book that was good. Before I did that I got a hold of the audio version of Poison Study, and Magic Study and had my mother and brother listen to them, they loved the books. My father just left on a business trip so I loaded his ipod with both books and last I heard he finished Poison Study and loved it.

Now the next step of finding a really good book was before me that was not an easy order because I am very picky I generally do not deviate from my prescribed criteria for choosing a book 1. It has to have a female author (why because I can get into those books the quickest) & 2. it has to have a female protagonist (because I for obvious reasons relate to girls the best) Now do not get me wrong I will read outside my criteria but I have found that my favorite books almost always are in this structure.

I found the next book in much the same way I did the first with my mom shopping at the bookstore and me killing time reading the backs of books. I found The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan, this also was a book that I wanted to stay up at night reading, but this book was the first book in a trilogy. I then had to go out and get the next book and before you know it I finished the trilogy.

My next goal is to get all three books unabridged on audio without having to give and arm and a leg to buy them (so I can crochet and listen to them). Imagine my excitement when I found out there is a Prequel book as well as a Sequel trilogy to The Black Magician Trilogy I just finished, the only sad thing is they are not published yet.

Anyway I am back on the prowl if anyone has a suggestion feel free to let me know for I am in the mood to read, the only bad part is I cant read and crochet at the same time which is why I am a big fan of audio books.

Anatomical Heart Bookmark Pattern

Anatomical Heart Bookmark

Seeing as Valentines Day is right around the corner I thought I would share this.

Materials
Thread Size 10 thread in 3 colors: Color 1 – pink, Color 2 – red, Color 3 – blue small amounts of each.
Hook Size 8 boye or 1.50 mm
Needle threader
Needle

Main Body of Heart

**Note: do not fasten off, or cut thread unless directed to do so.
* Change colors the way depicted here: http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aa072697.htm

Row 01: (With color 1) Ch 10, turn.
Row 02: Dc in 3rd ch from hk, 1 dc in the next 4 sts, 1 hdc, 1sc, 1sl st, ch 3, turn. (8 stitches)
Row 03: Sl st in 2nd ch from hk, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 dc in the next 8 sts, ch 2, turn. (10 stitches)
Row 04: 1 dc in the next 10 sts, ch 2, turn. (10 stitches)
Row 05: 1 dc in the next 10 sts, ch 1, turn. (10 stitches)
Row 06: Sc in 1st st, 1 hdc in next st, 1 dc in the next 4 sts, 1 hdc in the next 4 sts, ch 1, turn. (10 stitches)
Row 07: (Drop the thread when changing color) 1 sc in next 2 stitches, (change color to color 2, though thread color 1 along) sc in next stitch, (change color to color 3, though thread color 1 along) 1 sc in next 2 stitches, (change to color 1) 1 sc in next 3 stitches, 1 sl st in next 2 stitches, ch 1, (pic shown is before the turn), turn. Row 08: (in this row you can pull up the dropped thread from the previous row) Sl st in 2nd st (skipping 1st stitch), sl stitch in next 2 sts, 1 hdc in the next st, (change color to color 3, cut thread of color 1, can weave in later) 1 hdc in the next 2 sts, (change color to color 2, cut thread of color 3, can weave in later) 1 hdc in the next 2 sts, (change color to color 3) 1 hdc in the next st, ch 2, turn.
Row 09: 1 hdc in next st, (change color to color 2 cut thread of color 3, can weave in later) [1 hdc, 1 dc] in next st, 1dc in next st, ch 2, (pic shown is before the turn), turn.
Row 10: skip 1st st, dc in next st, turn. (continue to the aorta instructions)

Aorta
Row 11: Ch 2, sc in next st, ch 1, turn.
Row 12: 1 sc, 1 dc in ch 1 of previous row, ch 3, turn.
Row 13: Sl st in 1st st, ch 2, 1 sc in previous row’s sc, 1 sl st in same st, ch 1, turn.
Row 14: 1 sl st in previous row’s sl st, 1 dc in previous row’s sc, ch 3, turn.
Row 15: Sl st in 1st st, ch 3, sl st in same st, ch 2, 1 dc in last st, ch 2, turn.
Row 16: Sl st into st right next to the pulmonary artery (the middle 2 blue stitches in the middle of the heart, which the green arrow is pointing to), dc in the last st of the previous row, then sl st into the stitch next to the previous sl st on the pink side not the blue side (the place the purple arrow is pointing to). Finish off.

Pulmonary Artery – With tip of heart pointed to the left
Row 1: (With Color 3) attach with sl st to 1st blue st, ch 2, dc in next st, ch 1, turn.
Row 2: 1 sc in the next 2 sts, ch 6, in 2nd ch sc & in the next 4 chains, 1 sc in next 2 sc, sl st down to the previous row, ch 4, sc in 2nd ch & the next 2 chains, sl st in next 2 sc.

Inferior Vena Cava
Row 01: On the free lp on the base of the 1st ch made attach color 3 with a sl st, 1 sc in same st, in 2nd free lp 1hdc, sl st in same lp, ch 2, turn.
Row 02: 1 dc in the last st, turn.
Row 03: Ch 4, sl st in the top of ch 2, to create a lp, fasten off.

TasselCut 4 strands of blue, each about 10 inches long, With all strands held together fold in half, insert hook in ch 4 lp at the base of Inferior Vena Cava, pull fold through sp, pull all loose ends through fold. Tighten; trim ends.

Pic is before veins are added

Veins
Thread needle with red thread then copying a similar pattern as seen in this picture, add veins with red. Do similar with the blue thread, fasten all threads off.

I came up with this pattern on my own so be nice and respect the copyright. I am alright with you giving this as a gift but do not sell the pattern or product, or use my pics and calling them yours is not allowed either.

Copyright © 2007 by Ashley Makins. All Rights reserved.

Busy

I made these before Christmas and was asked by a little girl why I had doilies hanging from my ears. I endeavored to explain to her that they were snowflakes but seeing as how she has been born in Arizona and does not yearly see snow she was still puzzled. The pattern for these was created by Starr.

This I made to hide my necessities and organize my purse. I had to come up with this pattern on my own because there was no pattern for one that looked appealing to me and was available for my use.

This is an old fashion purse pattern Lotus Flower Bag

When I originally viewed this bag the picture is small and grainy but I thought it would turn out nicely so I made it. I used a steel hook #5 there is not hook size given for the pattern. I gave this finished product to a little girl who I thought would enjoy it.

Here is the large picture.

This is a hat called X’s & O’s by Dot Matthews. I made it to rid myself of my yarn stash.

This hat and scarf I made for my mom because she expressed a desire for a hat and scarf I took her to the store and had her pick out a pattern she liked as well as the appropriate color. She has since told me she wants more embellishments on the hat.

This is the book I got the patterns from

But my mom decided she wanted a combination of these two hats so I had to be creative in combining the patterns. But she did want the scarf in the second picture.

This is my dad modeling his head light he got for Christmas, to read books in bed at night without bothering my mom with the light. He just harvested some lettuce from the garden when it was dark out hence his use of the light. He intentionally was trying to be silly for this picture in case you are wondering.

This is another Larynx I made, to fix the problems with the first model and come up with a pattern as I created it that was easier to duplicate. The first Larynx I gave to my teacher of the anatomy class.

This is an eyeball I made for my mother’s Surgeon who helped with surgery right above her eye. He had talked at length with my mother about passages in the bible that contained reference to the evil eye. So I sent this eye with her on her next appointment to go along with the bible passages she looked up. The pattern is from Regina Rioux Gonzalez aka Lady Linoleum in the 2007 Crochet-A-Day calendar.

These delightful creations are by Crochetroo specifically Christmas Beetles. This brown one is Closed Wings. I had these done for a little while but waited to post because I couldn’t get the pictures quite right on the black and green beetles, oh well.

Close up

This green one is the Full Flight Wings

Another Close Up

And this is the Open Wings version.

At least you can see this one better on the close up. These bookmarks I can actually get my brothers excited about not like my hearts and flowers bookmarks. I love all of Crochetroo’s creations and can hardly wait to see what she comes up with next.

Ok I hope you have guessed what this is; it is an anatomical heart bookmark. I was inspired by Girl Kris’s Ami-tomical Heart so I thought I could make my own anatomical heart bookmark easy to say harder to do, but here it is.

And I had to add a close up.