A late block and a beanie.

Wow almost a month since my last post and not too much to show for it. I crocheted this beanie for myself (modeled by my lovely cousin and my son) I used this pattern and Ultra Alpaca yarn. Raveled.

I final finished my last quilt block for last month's exchange and wisely chose not to participate this month. I would like to make myself a lunch bag for bringing to school and a catnip toy for the kitty but we will see if that happens. I have two tests next week and a paper due so I have other priorities this weekend.

New fabric and some coffee sleeves

This lovely stack of fabric arrived on my porch today. They are Joel Dewberry prints in 54" decorator twill. I am not sure what I will do with it but it was on sale so... I am thinking maybe baby carriers, maybe a purse like this, unless I have some other idea before I get around to using it.

My brother and I drove over to the other side of the state last weekend to visit my parents. While I was there and not busy with the kids or helping out my mom who thought she had broke her foot (turns out it was just a sprain), I made this quilt block. I found the paper piecing pattern at forestquilting.com and it is called "Chasing Geese". I think I just might have to make a rainbow sampler quilt sometime because I have been having too much fun with rainbows lately. On the drive over and back, and for a little bit at my sister's knitting group I made five coffee sleeves, one of which I forgot at my parents' house so it isn't pictured. I basically just winged it, crocheting until it seemed long enough and then increasing when it seemed like a good idea. They are mostly made from the little balls left over from knitting Pink Lady Bags. I think eventually I will get around to posting them for sale in my Etsy store, which has been much neglected lately.

Coffee Sleeve First try

I am looking for a pattern I really like for making some coffee sleeves and this is the first I have tried so far. I used this pattern by Theresa Gramt (on Ravelry). I think I may have to try it again with smaller hook, mine seems to have turned out a little looser than hers. I definitely need to try out the pattern for her apple cozy as well.

Crocheted Bowl

I also crocheted this little bowl while driving (well sitting in the car) to visit Oli's parents. I believe the yarn is Lamb's Pride bulky but I am not sure because this particular skein came from a thriftstore sans label. I think it was about a full skein but there may have been some of it missing. I made it using basically the same method as the little tote for Clara. However, I decided not to felt this since I was unsure what exactly the yarn was so I used an I hook rather than K and did a couple more rounds before I started turning up the sides. I think this little bowl will be used to catch the scraps when I am cutting fabric. It is about 6" in diameter and 4" tall.

Crocheted Mini Tote Bag

Clara is going through a stage where she likes carrying buckets around and putting things in them and she also likes walking around with my purse. She will even put the purse up and walk around with it on her shoulder (super cute). So even though my history with crocheting is not particularly spectacular, I decided now was a good time to give it another shot and thereby avoid some small diameter knitting in the round, which is not my favorite. I dug out some wool scraps and after a quick look for a pattern I decided I would just make it up as I went. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised, the bag went quickly and smoothly. I think quicker and more smoothly than if I had knit it. Altogether it took no more than 3 hours to crochet and that includes changing my mind a few times. I have a feeling I will be doing more crocheting in the future.

Raveled

Here is the bag before felting and below are the instructions, such as they are.

Pre felting dimensions (laying flat): 10" wide, 8" high, handles 16" total

Post felting dimensions (sitting up): Diameter ~6", 5" deep, handles 13" total.

Yarn: Feltable wool, I used two strands worsted for this. I used up scraps but I think altogether it was well under 100g so a single skein should do it.
Hook: I used size K or 6.5mm

Using magic circle technique (or whatever other technique you prefer) make circle with 6 stitches (green)
Round-
1: sc2 in each stitch - 12 stitches
Place marker at first stitch (I used a safety pin)
2: sc2, sc - repeat - 18 stitches
3: sc2, sc twice - repeat - 24 stitches
4: sc2, sc three times - repeat - 30 stitches
5: sc2, sc four times - repeat - 36 stitches
6: sc2, sc five times - repeat - 42 stitches
7: sc2, sc 5 times - repeat - 48 stitches
8: sc2, sc 6 times - repeat - 54 stitches
9: sc - 54 stitches
10: sc2, sc 7 times - repeat - 60 stitches
11-18: sc - 60 stitches
Switch to second color
19-24: sc - 60 stitches
Handle
25: slst to join round, crochet 10 stitches and turn
26: crochet first two stitches together, sc 8 st and turn
27-30: repeat decrease of first two stitches until your handle is 6 st wide
Sc each row until handle is about 16"
Increase at the end of each row until handle is 10 st
join to body opposite the other end.

Baby quilts and little acorn bag

Here is what I did early (for me) this morning. I got up with Oli, had breakfast with him then basted and quilted the second of three identical baby quilts. These were supposed to be gifts for friends who had babies at the same time as me but that didn't happen. Then ended up getting baby carriers instead. On this one I did a bit closer quilting than on the first. I didn't quilt over the stacks of coins and I like how that makes them puff up. Now I need to get the binding onto this one and quilt and bind the last. Luckily I cut binding strips when I made the tops so it is a little bit easier. 

I decided to teach myself to crochet in the round yesterday because I really want to make this little acorn bag. So far I think it is going pretty well. Though mine seems a bit pointier than the original... Hopefully this will go well because there is a lot of cute crocheted stuff out there. I really should be working on finishing my slippers.