Designs by KN blog

As mentioned on the Designs by KN Facebook page, I’m currently re-reading (for the fourth time!) the fun-filled “Stitch ‘n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker” by Debbie Stoller.  It’s such a good read, colorfully and cleverly illustrated, and an excellent compilation of instruction, history, inspiration and patterns to keep crocheters amused and busy for quite some time.  Even if you already know how to crochet, you will find the author’s writing style entertaining, informative and humorous, and may pick up some useful tips along the way.

This week has been one in crochet mode, which is probably the reason I pulled “The Happy Hooker” off my bookshelf the other evening when searching for something to read before bedtime.  FOs completed include an assortment of Vintage Wheel Squares crocheted with stash leftovers of Tahki “Cotton Classic” accumulated over time.  Some of the squares will be used as home dec coasters or doilies, but I will probably assemble a number of them together into a larger piece such as a colorful patchwork table mat.

Earlier in the week, I used another stash yarn (Red Heart “Symphony”) to create this Shortie Shell Capelet.  I wasn’t really following my own finished pattern, but rather some first-draft scribbled notes in one of my design journals. After completing and photographing this version, I realized it doesn’t quite match the finished version shown on the pattern page but it’s close!  I was having so much fun crocheting round and round that I just went off on a tangent until I felt it was long enough to serve as a shoulder-hugging, soft and light-as-a-cloud accessory.

On a sad note this week, my heart goes out to the victims of the wildfires currently raging in our region’s foothills. I imagine there will be a need for comfort items for those who have lost everything, so will be ready to donate knitted/crocheted pieces or whatever is suggested, once the needs are known. Thoughts and prayers are with the families who have been affected by this disaster … also praying for some rain to alleviate the extremely dry and warm conditions that have turned our state into a tinderbox.

Hook yourself a good read at your local library, or find one through the vast assortment of downloadable titles now available online. After all, reading about knitting and crocheting can be just as enjoyable as the stitching!

Ah-choo! The first bout of seasonal allergy-caused sneezing just hit me.  Yes, spring has arrived.

My growing fondness for using up yarn oddments from stash is leading to more springtime scrappin’ projects. Over the weekend, I had an idea to use some sport-weight cotton scraps in a log cabin square, intending to work it into a small baby blanket. The square is one designed for a contest sponsored by Red Heart and Crochet Today! magazine a few years ago.  It was selected as one of twelve squares that were reworked into a coordinated color scheme and assembled into the Contest Favorites Heart Squares Afghan. My square (#3, February) was built in the log cabin technique and featured a heart in the center with touches of embroidered embellishments.

For the scrappy cotton version, I simply worked the basic square in five different colors of sport-weight on a size G hook. When it reached a size of 14″ square, for some weird reason I decided to fold the corners to the center.  When I did so, an unusual graphic pattern resulted.  After slip-stitching the seams on the back side and inserting a 12″ pillow form, this was the result:

Here is the original square as published in the magazine.  The free patterns for each square in the afghan are available on the Coats & Clark website:

Photo by Rose Callahan, copyright Crochet Today!/SoHo Publishing

Another cotton project completed over the weekend is this aqua version of my newly-released pattern Sunny Day Mob Cap:

On Saturday afternoon, we took a short road trip to visit family, so of course I took a car-travel project with me. I grabbed a few leftover single balls of Cascade 220 wool and set to work on my fave “when I’m too tired to work on anything else” project — Knit Hat (for anyone!)  So far I’ve completed three of them, which will eventually be donated to a charitable cause.

Time to visit the Designs by KN craft room to see what scrappy projects can be put together next.  Sure hope I don’t spend the whole day sneezing instead of knitting and crocheting!

The sunshine has returned, the stomach flu bug has departed, and spring has officially arrived.  To celebrate the changing seasons, I’m happy to announce the release of two new patterns for little ones.

First off, for your crocheting pleasure, here is something sweet for baby’s feet!

Cheery Cotton Baby Shoes 

And for knitters, here’s a hat to protect tots from the spring and summer sun:

Sunny Day Mob Cap

Although I didn’t plan it that way, these two patterns coordinate well enough for a nice little gift set!

The advent of spring also means sunshine and cheer for baseball fans!  We’ve been watching spring training games on TV and eagerly await Opening Day. Yesterday I grabbed some purple yarn off the shelf and began crocheting.  Soon I held in my hands a new hat to wear to our fave team’s home games.  I stitched up a “Better Late Than Never Beanie“ in Colorado Rockies team colors (purple, black, white) and look forward to wearing it.  From past experience, we know that there will still be some bouts of winter weather greeting us when sitting outside at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, so this hat will come in handy on those not-so-sunny days of spring.

Hope you enjoy these new (& not-so-new) project ideas.  Watch for more in the coming months from Designs by KN … and if you’re on Facebook or Pinterest or Ravelry, stop by to visit us there too!

Thanks.  Wishing you all a sunny day!

… to bring you minor surgery and the stomach flu! Both events are responsible for the lack of recent blog posts from DBKN.  I’m only just now recovering and beginning to feel human again.

It’s a bummer when your daily knit/crochet fun is interrupted by illness. Once over the worst of it, I received a request from DD for a gift for an upcoming baby shower she has been invited to … something for a little girl, in pink.  My standard go-to gift for baby girls is usually Lacy Baby Hat and Scalloped Lace Baby Socks, but this time I added a blanket.  Worked in various pink and white yarns from stash (Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Baby Sport and Impeccable Worsted, TLC Baby Amore) this gift set includes a modified version of the Garden Path Baby Blanket I designed for Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street Collection, Book 3:

It was a pleasant way to pass the hours until my strength and appetite returned. Now to stay healthy for awhile and move ahead with more springtime knitting and crochet projects … and blog posts!

Time to spring ahead … not only with the clock but also with new projects. The last batch of FOs are tucked away for future needs, whatever may come along. My second box of donations to the Ravelry group “For the Children of Pine Ridge” arrived at its destination this week. With those projects completed and out the door, it was time to start new ones.

Yesterday I intended to work with leftovers of Tahki “Cotton Classic” (one of my fave yarns) but discovered one lone ball of a beautiful coral-colored yarn in stash (Lion Brand Yarns “Microspun”.) I started crocheting and in just a couple hours created this “skinny scarf” version (one square wide) of  DBKN’s Old World Scarf:

Such a pretty color for spring!  I’ll get back to the Tahki “Cotton Classic” soon.  Over the next week or so on the Designs by KN Facebook page, I’ll be featuring several DBKN patterns that have been worked in it, such as this favorite V-Stitch & Shell Cap:

A few days ago I decided to create a striped version of the Cuddle Cable Baby Blanket. Since there was a quantity of red, white, and blue yarn in stash, it quickly became dubbed the “Election Year Blankie”:

Of course, a new blanket attracts cats like a magnet, so our 20-year-old Patches (found out today she’s 96 years old in human years!) took advantage of a quick snooze when it was set aside for a few minutes …

The accumulated stash of this and that from 40 years of knitting and crocheting revealed a new surprise yesterday: a quantity of another lovely yarn, Filatura di Crosa “501″, which has been hidden away for several years. It’s a sport-weight in a soft cream color.  Over time, different projects were attempted with it but nothing was ever quite right.

Then I remembered the perfect project to match this yarn:  my #16 Basketweave Pocket Scarf from “60 More Quick Knits“!   Since I’m enjoying some free time this weekend, the scarf is progressing well …

This is a good project to work on while watching baseball spring training games.  Looks like there’s a game on TV right now, so off to knit and enjoy!

P.S.  Received some good news the other day which I hope to be able to share soon.  Stay tuned!

The scrap-yarn “octopus” described in the last post has been duly untangled. There are many neat little balls of cotton yarn sitting quietly in the craft room now, awaiting their part in future projects.  The odd assortment of squares and UFOs found tucked away in a mystery box in the closet have progressed to a finished state.  I have no idea where the original patterns or yarn or ideas for these UFOs came from;  I only know they’ve been hidden away for a very long time. Here are the results …

The cotton yarn shell-stitch blankie:  a few more rows were added, then a shell border was worked all around.  FO!

The “Learn-to-Knit Afghan Book“  (by Barbara Walker) squares:   four of the squares were joined and bordered with yarn from one of the cream squares that didn’t fit in so it became a baby blanket.  FO!

The yellow and green crocheted squares:  four similar-size squares were joined with yellow yarn from a 5th square, then bordered with dark green from the 6th square.  Another baby blankie. FO!

The cotton vest pieces:  the fronts and back were joined, then a subtle decorative border was crocheted all around.  FO!

With the completion of these projects, I started on some new ones.  Colorful leftovers of Cascade Yarns “Fixation” cotton/elastic yarn were among the scraps discovered, so it is being turned into fun Kiddie Socks to be donated to a charitable cause:

I didn’t have any toddler/kid-size feet available to try them on, so the household statue cats filled in as models:

Guess I’ll be starting on those 1,000 dishcloths next.  At least baseball spring training has begun and games on TV will be an enjoyable accompaniment to the knitting and crocheting.  Yay, spring!

I really do have to stop opening one of the closets in the house. Every time I do I discover a “mystery box.”  If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you may have noticed that I seem to spend a lot of time organizing gobs of yarn scraps.  Today’s discovery was a box of accumulated cotton yarns, probably enough to make 1,000 dishcloths when teamed up with the cottons already organized and tucked away in drawers.

You may also have noticed that lately I have been in a scrap-happy mood, attempting to make useful projects for donation to charitable causes  (see the latest here and here.)  Since I have been crocheting and knitting since college (with a couple stints assisting in needlework and yarn shops) and since folks know I spend every moment of free time handcrafting, it seems that all breeds of yarn choose to live at my house!  I am grateful for all of it and am happiest when playing with ideas for turning the scraps around:  what comes in the door as skeins, cones, and balls most of the time goes out the door as finished projects to aid someone in need.

I’m not a quilter but admire quilters immensely for their ability to piece fabric scraps together so accurately and to make thousands of tiny stitches that result in quilts of grandeur.  Today for a bizarre reason (you don’t need to know)  I temporarily hung our one scrap-happy quilt (a Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern that took 5 years to make by hand) in front of a shaded window. I was stunned by the stained-glass effect and had to photograph it, as I did 32 years ago when it was first completed. DD was a baby then and this quilt will remain in our family as an heirloom (but don’t look too closely, it was a scrap-happy project at the time providing hours of enjoyment, despite the clumsiness of the piecing and stitching):

These days my hands are busy with knitting, crocheting and designing, so many pleasant hours are spent creating projects with yarn scraps that keep appearing from the closet!  Among the finds today were these “treasures”:

The UFOs include a cotton shell-stitch blanket (which is far enough along that it will be easy to finish), pieces of a cotton vest (fronts & back just need assembly and finishing with an edging), miscellaneous afghan squares, and cotton yarn scraps galore, some dating back to the 1990′s.

Also discovered were these knitted squares, an attempt to work through the “Learn-to-Knit Afghan Book” by Barbara Walker. I only got this far but will probably turn them into a lapghan for charity:

These crocheted squares will definitely be assembled into a comfort for someone:

Several completed doilies were also found. These just need freshening, blocking and setting out on display around the house:

Now back to the matter at hand. I think I have spent more time in the past two weeks frogging and rewinding than I have knitting and crocheting, but unwinding, sorting, organizing and repurposing can be considered pleasant tasks as well.  It gives you time to think (and I keep thinking, wow, I sure have a lot of work ahead!)

With the UFOs and larger pieces set aside, I began untangling the cotton yarn “octopus” living in the box:

Bit by bit this long-hidden mess will become organized and added to my yarn “paintbox.”  I plan to finish the almost-completed UFOs first and then start repurposing the assortment into useful baby things, hats, and oh yes … dishcloths!  (There are several DBKN patterns to choose from including My Fave Dishcloth, Wedgy-Edgy Dishcloth, Blue Twist Dishcloth, Crocodile-Tiki Cloth and Shell Point Cloth.)

Time to get back at it. As I said last time, scrap on … and be careful about opening closet doors!

I had some minor surgery this morning (nothing serious) and as the doctor finished stitching things up, I thought to myself  “How weird to be stitched on, when I’d much rather be the one stitching … with yarn!”  Later in the day, comfortably back at home, I did get the chance to do some stitching of my own.

In the last Scrappy post, I explained how I was converting a bunch of sock yarn scraps into “scrappy” child-size socks to donate to the children of Pine Ridge Reservation through the Ravelry group “For the Children of Pine Ridge.”  Pairs #1 through #3 were completed at the time of that post, but afterwards I worked on pair #4. Here it is, in scraps of Special Blauband:

A few days ago I discovered yet another box of old yarn scraps tucked away in the closet. The yarns in this box, along with several UFOs, were mostly worsted weight, so I switched gears and changed from working on thin sock-yarn scrap projects to a larger project. I call it the Scrappy Strips Blankie for Pine Ridge:

It started as a 6” blanket square but I decided to continue working in longer strips, using up various yarn scraps in a myriad of brands and colors (Red Heart Super Saver, Bernat Camouflage, Caron Perfect Match, etc.)  I crocheted four strips with random color changes as each scrap skein was used up. Due to a looser gauge and the variety of yarns used, the finished strips ended up a bit wider, at 7”, but it worked out well.  I joined the strips with slip stitch seams, then worked a border all around (three rounds of single crochet followed by one round of reverse single crochet). The finished size is 30″ wide by 36″ long. This was really fun and I’m inspired to do some more stash busting with projects like this.

Unlike the stitches my doctor put in today, which will be removed in 14 days, I sure hope the scrap yarn projects I’ve stitched for Pine Ridge hold together for a long time to come.

Scrap on!