Chevron Cowl

The Chevron Cowl from the winter 2010 issue of knit simple is final complete.  And I love it. The pattern is a simple chevron stitch. The designer is Jeannie Chin. The yarn is Red Heart’s Ecoway, which I had not worked with before. http://www.redheart.com/yarn/eco-ways. It is hard to believe that yarn made from “30% recycled polyester from plastics found in soda and water bottles” could be this soft. I love the sheen of this yarn.  The colorway is sand and mushroom. The yarn is listed as a 4 weight, but I found it to be just a tad bit finer than other 4 weight yarns in my stash.

The pattern suggested a size I hook, but after making the gauge swatch, I found that I needed to go down a size to a size H hook.

I did find an error in the pattern. In rounds 2 and 3 you will find instructions that that say to “skip 2 ch”; it should read skip 2 dc, so don’t let that throw you off.

Here is my beautiful niece Amanda modeling the cowl for me.  This picture was taken at Amanda’s bridal shower. She is dressed for the shower and not for modeling the cowl per se, but none the less, she was gracious enough to model the cowl so that I could show you the finished object.

Teach a Young Person How to Crochet

On March 28^th, seven members of the Missouri Valley Needle Arts Group volunteered to help 23 members of the third, fourth and fifth grade elementary school learn to crochet. This was done in honor of National Crochet Month.  Our lesson was two and a half hours long, and students were able to come and go, however, most students showed up at the beginning and stayed until the end. We had four learning objectives for our beginner crochet artists:

·        hold the hook

·        hold the yarn

·        make a chain

·        fun

I’m happy to say that we accomplished all of our objectives and several students asked when the next lesson was going to be.  It is amazing what you can make with a simple chain. Students crocheted: hair ties, necklaces, bracelets, bookmarks, belts, and shoelaces.  A couple of students tried to see who could make the longest chain.

If you are interested in doing something similar, my advice is to keep it simple and keep it fun. One adult volunteer to three students is about the right ratio. Use large hooks, H I or J, and bright worsted weight yarn. Variegated colors were popular with the students.  Our group furnished the hooks and the yarn, and there was no charge to the students. We worked with our local library on space and advertising. One of our volunteers bought extra hooks and yarn so that every student that wanted to take home a hook and a skein of yarn home could. It was not my original intent to provide a free hook and yarn for every student to take home, and I know that many groups may not have the resources to do this. But I can tell you the kids were very excited about leaving with their own hook and yarn and several were seen leaving with more than one skein of yarn.

I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures of our crochet event. If you have any questions about hosting something similar, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

National Crochet Month

As all of you crochet fanatics know, March is National Crochet Month. And in honor of National Crochet Month, the Missouri Valley Needle Arts Group is going to
 promote crochet.  On March 28th we are hosting third through fifth graders to a come and go crochet class which is set up as an after school event.

Our plan is to show these young people the very basics like how to hold the yarn, and the hook, and make a chain. The chain can be used to form a friendship bracelet or shoe laces or a bookmark, and knowing young people, they can probably think of other uses too.

After the event is over, I'll  post a follow up as to the success (hopefully) of our endeavors, and may have some tips to share in the event that you like this idea and want to plan a similar event.

Yarning Away

The postman came yesterday, actually it was the postwoman. She brought me a package of yarn. YEA.  I just love it when I get yarn in the mail.

I’m going to crochet this Chevron Cowl. which is pictured on the right. It was designed by Jeannie Chin.  The pattern appears in  the winter 2010/11 issue of Knitsimple Magazine which is shown on the left.

 The yarn is Red Heart Eco-Ways which is a recycled blend. The yarn itself is quite soft and has a nice sheen to it.

I’ve been looking at and admiring this cowl for a full year, and I’m excited to start it.

I’ve been musing about a project for the Premier Yarn. It is a chunky weight. This particular color is called Red Bayou. It is Serenity from the Deborah Norville collection.

I’m not ready to share my plans for this yarn just yet.  The project  is still in the “thinking” stage.  If I can get it from thinking to doing, I’ll let you know and I'll publish the results.

Potato Chip Scarf

Here is as picture of my second effort at the Potato Chip Scarf.  On my second attempt I incorporated the wrap and turn technique. The result was much better, there are no little holes showing from working the short rows.

Here are the instructions incorporating the wrap and turn technique

Cast on 20 stitches

Knit 8 sts, wrap and turn, then knit back

Knit 6 sts, wrap and turn, then knit back

Knit 4 sts, wrap and turn, then knit back

Knit across

Repeat the series until the scarf is the desired length then bind off

I used yarn from Hobby Lobby, called, I Love this wool, and size 13 needles.

Visit to a LYS

I have to tell you about my adventure to a local yarn shop in Kansas City, Missouri this past weekend. My husband and I were enjoying a weekend get away with my niece Stacy and her husband Bill. On Saturday we visited the National World War I Museum. I had scoped out a local yarn shop to visit, and it turns out it was only a few miles away from the museum. So after we were done with the museum visit, our husbands decided to walk back to the hotel while Stacy and I hailed a cab for a trip to the yarn shop.

We asked the cab driver if he was available and he said yes.  Once inside the cab we gave him the address.  He started driving but then told us this was his second day on the job, and he had no idea how to get to the yarn shop, so he called a friend on the phone for directions.  I knew we were in trouble then.  He and his friend were not speaking English so I had no idea what was being said, but apparently his friend wasn’t much help.  Next he handed me his phone and asked me to put in the address of the yarn shop into his navigation program which I did, but when I pressed navigate it didn’t.  Next I got out my phone and keyed  the address using my “Places” app, thankfully that worked.  Mind you  we are driving in the wrong direction up to this point.  I ended up directing the cab driver using my navigation and telling him where to go, and when to turn. 

 We did get to our destination which was The Studio. The real kicker to the taxi ride  came when we got to the yarn store, our cab fare was over $16.00 for the  original 2.8 mile trip. My niece handed the cab driver a $20 dollar bill and he gave her back $2 saying he didn’t have any more ones! We were just thankful to be at our destination

We did enjoy our visit to the yarn shop. I purchased one hank of yarn from Pagewood Farm U-Knitted Nations, called Swagger, colorway Lavender Fields a 100% Merino Wool, and 3 balls of Berroco Blackstone Tweed, greenish in color a 65% Wool, 25% Superkid Mohair and 10% Angora Rabbit Hair. All  will be knitted into scarves, the Merino yarn into a scarf called Winter’s Tale designed by Cindy Craig, the pattern was free and available at the store. The Berroco yarn will be knitted into an infinity scarf designed by Stephen West called Purl Ridge Scarf.  The Purl Ridge Scarf pattern is a free Ravelry download in case you are interested in downloading for yourself.

Our trip back to our hotel was not quite as eventful. A lovely customer at the yarn store offered to give us a lift to the nearby Sheridan Hotel where we were able to hire another taxi.  Before we got in we asked if the driver knew the location of the Crown Plaza Hotel where we were staying. He said he did. Next we asked about how much the fare would be, it seemed reasonable so we got in and arrived back safe and sound to our hotel with purchases in hand.

If you are ever in Kansas City I do recommend that you make a visit to The Studio. They are located at 1121 West 47^th Street, Kansas City, Missouri.  The staff  and patrons were friendly, and helpful. They had a great selection of yarn to choose from, and I will definitely visit this yarn shop the next time I’m in Kansas City.

Yola

My crochet mentor, Pam McClung, owner of Pam’s Patterns told me some time ago about a free web hosting service.  I finally found the time to check it out. The site is called Yola. 

Yola offers limited free web hosting, and also offers more bells and whistles for a fee.

The site is really pretty easy to navigate, and you can have a webpage up and going in no time at all. They even provide a PayPal shopping cart which is great if you are selling patterns like I do or selling anything for that matter.  It would also be great if you wanted to create a personal webpage or a family webpage.

You can customize your site, change banners, and colors, and add pages, and pictures and photos and videos all without having to know html code.

Right now I’m operating the Loess Hills Creative Crochet on a shoe string, and Pam has taught me how to use  free services to promote my business.  Everyone likes free, right!

If you are looking for a way to have a web presence and don’t want to create a blog, and don’t have a lot of idle cash, Yola may be just the place for you too.

Check out the webpage that I created on Yola  for “free” and let me know what you think.

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