Rayon Straw Hat - 1960s Hats & Purses Pattern Strikes Again

This is another hat from the 1960's Hats and Purses pattern. This is view C (the easy version).

What's terrific about this hat is that it was made using yarn from my stash. No yarns were purchased to make this hat. I was poking around in my boxes of yarn, trying to find yarn that I was willing to part with for my son's Project Linus contribution, and I found the spools of Rayon Straw Yarn. We had purchased the spools a couple of years ago, then I decided to abandon the project I was working on for some reason.

This is the Rayon Straw Yarn I used to make the hat.

Bernat 100% Rayon Straw Yarn from BagsandBows.com

Close-up of center crown.

The hat worked up really quickly into a form fitting hat.

I will be heading home to see my family, and will give the hat to Alison who will test the hat for comfort, durability and color-fastness. She can provide a full report on her findings once she completes her job as my crash-test dummy. I know she will be so excited to contribute a blog post. Yay sis!

Happy crocheting!

It's a Bodice!

I've been trying to work on the Crocheted Party Dress as much as possible. After a couple of days of working on an event for the little one's school, I'm back to crocheting.

The bodice of the Crocheted Party Dress. 35 rows completed.

Shrug from the Modern Twin Set Pattern

Alison found this really cool cotton yarn at a thrift store. It was vintage Vendome yarn: Vendome Raps 100% cotton yarn. While we haven't found much information about this yarn, we decided that I should make something with it. The color is amazing; it's a beautiful green, a little emerald, a little leaf. A lotta fabulous. Generally, I hate working with cotton yarn. Most days I would rather poke out my eye with a knitting needle than work with cotton. But this yarn is different. It was soft, didn't dry out my hands, and looks so pretty made up - it has a bit of a shine.

Vendome Raps 100% cotton yarn.

With the yarn in hand, we had to find a pattern that would work for the weight and the amount of yarn we had. We decided to go with the shrug from the Modern Twin Set pattern. The Shrug required 6 ounces of a worsted weight yarn. With the holidays coming, we decided that the Modern Twin Set shrug would be the perfect pattern for this color and this yarn. (The color is all over the place in these pics. My little camera was having such a rough day - it couldn't decide where to focus. The color in the pic above is the closest to the actual color.)

Shrug in progress. Lifelines in use.

I was excited about the shrug, so I started knitting. It went pretty fast. It is a 2 x 2 rib, so mistakes are easy to identify and easy to fix. I added lifelines because I sometimes forget to look back on what I have just knit to make sure everything is in pattern. I don't mind fixing stitches, but I don't want to drop back to the beginning of the project because I don't  use my crochet hook to stop the stitches from raveling back to the beginning.

Knitting completed. Now it's just waiting to be sewn up.

Now I have to seam the shrug sleeves together. I'm a little nervous about it. I am looking at videos and websites trying to figure out what type of seaming to use. I will post pics once I have finished it.

Bound off edge - done in 2 x 2 pattern.
I used a stretchy bind off so the back will stretch,
and hopefully not distort, when the shrug is worn.

Happy knitting!

Kristen

Pinwheel Afghan - a finished object

The Pinwheel Afghan is complete. What started as a project to use up yarn from the granny square ponchos became a really bright, colorful and fun project.

Finished measurements: 38 x 64 inches.

The pattern called for a 1mm crochet hook and bunches of lighter weight yarns (28 colors to be exact). I don't have the patience to work with the tiny hooks, though I wish I did. For my afghan, I used an "H" hook and worsted weight yarns. We had a bunch of Loops & Threads Impeccable and Vanna's Choice acrylic yarns that needed to be used. I like the Impeccable yarn. It works up easily and once washed becomes pretty soft and snuggly. It wasn't splitty to work with, either.

When I started the afghan, I placed all of the yarns in a tote bag and would grab colors at random. That worked for a few "squares" but then I started getting a little crazy about which colors should be next to each other. I'm a little too tightly wound to let my hexagons create themselves.

The hexagons are easy to make and the pattern is easy to memorize. I made many motifs at my sons' baseball practices and games without having to look at the pattern. They were easy enough that I could carry on a conversation while working on the afghan.

Measurement of the each hexagon is
10 1/2 inches (measured across the middle).

The size of the afghan is smaller than the pattern, but I was running out of most of my yarns, so I stopped making the squares when I had enough motifs to lay out a lap blanket sized afghan. I steam blocked the hexagons to the same size on my ironing board. I placed pins at each of the corners, then fit the individual squares to the pinned shape and steamed away. The iron never touches the yarn. That would melt the yarn. I placed the iron about 1-2 inches from the yarn and pushed the steam button like nobody's business. I let the hexagons cool, removed them from the ironing board and moved on to the next hexagon.

Once the hexagons were pieced together we had to decide what type of edging to use. I had to have help on this because I hung up on having a rainbow edging and working in every color that I had used in the motifs. I knew the multi-colored edging would look awful, but I couldn't let it go. Eventually Alison & my crochet buddy talked me out of it. We ended up with the navy edging on the outside that really makes the afghan come to life. 

100% acrylic, worsted weight yarns:
Loops & Threads Impeccable and Vanna's Choice solids, along
with a few lost label yarns.

The pattern can be found in our Etsy store.

Free Monthly Pattern Download for September (crochet)

Alison was going through her vast, enormous, gargantuan vintage pattern collection and found these two Edwardian era aprons. If you are looking for a challenging crochet project, these may be it.

Pattern Info/Materials:
The apron pictured on top takes 4 balls of size 30 Cordichet, and a size 11 steel crochet hook
The apron on the bottom takes 2 balls of size 15 Cordichet, and a size 12 steel crochet hook.

Vintage Yarn Info:
Cordichet, size 30: 100% cotton, 6-ply, mercerized crochet thread. Small balls were put up in 80 yds, Large balls were 400 yds.

Click on the pattern link or check out the "Free Monthly Pattern Downloads" page to be taken to the free pattern compliments of eStitched.

Bestway Hats - New hat finished (knit)

So it's been awhile since we posted anything to the blog.... School ended, summer started and things went crazy from there.

I recently had a small chunk of time to make a hat. I was going a little crazy not knitting. I'm pretty sure my family would have encouraged me to knit more often if they knew how much I like doing it and how much it helps focus & relax me.

From the Bestway hat Three Hats pattern is The Cossack Hat. It is knit in bulky weight yarn, so it goes pretty fast. The vintage English needle sizes work out to a modern 10.5US (6.5mm). This was a quick project, small enough that I could throw it in my purse and work on it when I had to take the boys to some sports practice or another.

The pattern called for a vintage yarn: Sirdar Supreme, a bulky weight wool yarn. After hours and hours of searching, we couldn't find any info on this yarn online. I had a bright orange (safety orange) acrylic yarn that was re-purposed from an unfinished project that I had been given. While I think that the hat would work better in a wool or wool blend yarn, I didn't have to go out and buy any more yarn. That was exactly what I needed - no new yarn.

The first two pics show the color closest to what it actually is - though it probably doesn't matter since we aren't selling the old, re-purposed yarn.

As soon as I visit Alison and take some pics, we will post pics of the hat on a real, live person. My sad little styrofoam hat head doesn't do this cute little hat justice. Stay tuned!

Happy knitting!

The Bonham Fascinator

We have a completed project to show off. . . the Bonham Fascinator from the 1940s Fascinators Mantilla Head Coverings Scarf - 4 Knit and Crochet patterns.

This is a knit lace project. When Alison sent me the pattern, I immediately fell in love with it and had to make it.  I saw the black sparkly yarn and knew immediately that I was going to use it for the fascinator. I wasn't really thinking about how well the yarn would photograph. Turns out, black is really difficult to take a great picture of. That's why we have included a picture of the lace made in a dusty rose yarn.

Finished size: 55 x 22 inches (not including fringe).
I made slightly smaller than pattern called for.

Materials used:Vanna's Glamour Yarn
     - Yarn weight: Category 2 - Fine
     - Content: 96% polyester, 4% metallic
Circular knitting needles, size 10 1/2

The bobble sample:

Sample was knit with two different needle sizes. 

The top section was knit on size 8 needles. The lace is tighter and the bobbles are smaller. 

The bottom section was knit on size 10 1/2 needles. The bobbles are bigger and the lace is more open. The sample was not blocked.

Close-up of the bobbles.

 Blocking the fascinator:

On the blocking mats. It is neat to see the yarn relax and the lace pattern come to life.

I steam blocked the poly/metallic yarn. I started by inserting the blocking wires into the edges of the fascinator. Once I had the blocking wires placed how I wanted them, I pinned the wires to the mat (pins went in front of the wires to keep them from moving back and forth on the mat). Once everything was pinned down, I covered the edging with towels to keep them from flattening out with the steam. I made an edging sample to see if I liked the blocked or unblocked look. The blocked edging looked flat and lifeless to me.

Steam blocking the fascinator.
The iron does not touch the yarn. It is held above the yarn.

I held the iron several inches above the fascinator for several seconds and steamed it like crazy. This was the second time I had steam blocked a synthetic fiber, and I really like this method. It makes the shawl lay flat, and really makes the lace pattern open up. All in a relatively quick manner. I don't really have the space to wet block items, and even if I did our cats would have a heyday picking at the project.

Once I finished steaming the fascinator, I let it lay on the mat until it was completely dry. 

I purchased anti-fatigue mats from a tool company for blocking my projects. I join them together to make a blocking area that fits my project.

The pattern can be found in our Etsy store.

New Project in the Works - Pinwheel Afghan

There was a bunch of yarn left over when the two ponchos were finished, and I have to use it up so I can buy new yarn. Alison sent me the Pinwheel Afghan pattern,  and I knew as soon as I saw it that it was the project for all of the different colors of yarn we had left.

This is such a cool pattern. The pattern is easy to memorize and because it's a pieced afghan, it is a portable project. I am taking the finished blocks to my sons' baseball practices and games and weaving in the ends - while practices are taking place, or when the games get a little slow.

I am using worsted weight yarns and a size H crochet hook, both of which are significantly bigger than what the pattern calls for - but that means I need to make fewer blocks to complete the afghan. Yay!

{The finished blocks are about 9 1/2 inches. I will need about 42 blocks to make the afghan the same size as noted in the pattern. About 1/3 of the blocks are complete.}

70's Granny Poncho - It's a Wrap!

I am so excited for this post.

The 1970's Granny Square Poncho is finished. I had finished it a short time ago, but I needed to wait until we had a free Saturday so my 8 year old son could take pics of the finished product. He is turning into quite the little photographer.

This version is different than the photo on the pattern. On the pattern, the color changes take place every two rows. On my version, I had a color change every row. I am now really good at weaving in ends. I also learned how to crochet over the ends at the beginning of each row to almost "lock" the yarn in place. Weaving in ends is a great skill to have. I'm not afraid of having to do it any more. I weaved in (wove in?) the ends as I went so it wasn't completely overwhelming when I finished the poncho.

I consider myself an advanced beginner crocheter, and this was an easy pattern. Start to finish it only took a few weeks - working on it intermittently during that time (while watching TV or sitting with the kids as they did homework). I used 100% acrylic yarn from a big craft store.

I am working on another Granny Square poncho - this time with color changes happening every other row. The ponchos look completely different. We will be posting a side-by-side comparison once the 2nd one is completed.

Happy Crocheting!

Interested in making this yourself? Head over to our Etsy store for the pattern.

Project: Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan

 We asked our friend Michele, the speediest crocheter we know, if she wanted to make a "model" from one of the patterns in our stores. She picked a pattern from the 1930's - the Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan. It turns out that women in the 1930's crocheted a lot more than they do now and patterns relied on that innate knowledge gleaned when crocheting so much when they put the instructions together. These days, patterns contain a lot more detail. In fact, watching Michele right now, describing how much longer the pattern would be had it been written recently, is pretty entertaining.

So this is a picture from the pattern.

Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan

And, here is a picture of a single block from the afghan. It has taken the speedy crocheter (and mathematical genius) several attempts to convert the instructions to modern crocheting. We will be posting changes made to the pattern, and modern interpretations of the pattern over the next couple of weeks as she finishes the afghan. All of the changes will be added to the pattern.

The first change made was the yarn type. The pattern calls for Minerva Shetland Floss - a discontinued yarn. The Shetland Floss was a tiny yarn that was worked with a size 12 steel crochet hook. Michele decided that making 124 - 132 diamonds for the pattern would be too time consuming and not much fun.

The yarn Michele chose is Caron Simply Soft. Simply Soft is a light worsted weight yarn that works up easily and is really soft. The hook size she went with is a size 7. It was one size smaller than the yarn calls for because we thought it would make the diamonds a little more stable.

Using Simply Soft yarn made the finished diminished approximately 7 1/2" x 7 1/2".

More project updates will be posted - keep an eye out for them.


Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan listing on Etsy