Salem, Massachussetts

This past weekend, the hubby and I took a drive up to Salem for our anniversary. The weather was perfect – crisp, sunny fall days, and not a stitch of rain until the ride home. The first full day we were there, I immediately dragged my husband to Courtney’s yarn shop for some shopping…the store was in full Halloween dress, of course!

Yarn on the brain –  this definitely resonates with a lot of knitters! I love Seed Stitch Fine Yarn…it is always beautifully decorated, with lots of little projects around to inspire creativity. Sadly, Courtney wasn’t there – maybe next year we will get to meet up for a little knitting session!

I did purchase some goodies, of course! I will share with you tomorrow, once everything is photographed. We took a day trip over to Marblehead, MA – and completely fell in love with the beauty of the town. We stopped at Crocker Park, which had the most amazing view of the harbor…

While walking through the winding streets of this sweet little town, we stumbled upon the house of one of my favorite bloggers! I was so excited! Can you guess who it is by the picture below? We thought we caught a glimpse of her in the window; she was probably wondering who the two crazy people were standing outside her house pointing. I wanted to cross over to the other side of the street, knock on the door and ask to see how pretty the Verte De Terre living room paint looked in person, but decided that might be a little stalkerish…

This town was so picturesque and lovely, that we are seriously considering a move here once the kids are all out of school.   We always enjoy our trips up to New England – there is something about it that just feels like home to us. The car rides were long, but I was able to finish my alpaca mitts, and get a head start on crocheting some small Christmas gifts…

I have a few more days off this week, so I plan on photographing some of my finished knits and casting on with my new yarn! I’ll share more tomorrow…

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a leisurely day.

This week has been insanely hectic (hence, the lack of posts), so today I am looking forward to a little bit of down-time! I think I’ll start by knitting some bunny ears and drinking hot coffee…

…then maybe I’ll bake some gooey chocolate brownies with this Mexican vanilla my sister brought me back from her trip to Mexico.

Ooh, and maybe I’ll work on crocheting a few garden squares –  after I take some pictures of my shawl, of course. How will you be spending your Thursday?

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a little hooking…

I might take a tiny break from my shawl – yesterday, I had to rip over 3,000 stitches due to an errata in the pattern. So today, I think I’ll crochet a few stress-free granny squares. I have a lot of this Berroco Comfort acrylic yarn from when I first started knitting, and thought it would make a sweet little baby blanket.

The squares are from Lucy over at Attic24 – this is her Summer Garden Square. Her tutorials are really well done – she takes pictures of every step, so that you can visually see what you should be doing! This is perfect for someone just starting out with crochet…like me!  Have a great weekend, everyone!

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birthday garland…

For my niece’s birthday, I whipped up a sweet little strand of garland for her dressing table, in her favorite shades of lavender, yellow, and white. I used a few different crochet patterns from around the web and Ravelry – let’s start with these large Vintage Circle Motifs from 1893:There are three of these, which used up all of my yellow yarn.  (Using up stash yarn feels so. good.) I then took out one of the middle sections of the pattern to make a smaller version – a set of two – this time in purple:While browsing crochet patterns on ravelry, I stumbled across a headband pattern that had this big, bold flower, which I thought sort of looked like a slightly reworked version of the circle motif. I made two in white, to break up the yellow and purple a bit:And of course a couple of tiny stars, from the fabulous Royal Sisters:But my absolute favorite have to be these little baby hearts:I can’t take the cuteness. I am going to knit a whole garland of these in red for Valentine’s Day, for sure.  The bigger flowers and circles could probably benefit from a soak in some fabric stiffener, so that they don’t flop over as much. To attach all the pieces together, I did a single crochet on the back right edge of one piece, chained 4, then worked a sc into the left edge of the next piece. I continued this way until all the pieces were attached. Then, on each end of the garland, I chained 25, did a sc to attach the chain to the back edge, then chained 25 more. This way, if she wants to tie the garland to something else, like a curtain rod, she can. 

Here are the links to the crochet patterns:

• Yellow Vintage Circle Motif: Not on Ravelry, found here.
• White Flowers: Ravelry or Creative Yarn Blog.
• Grandma Twinkle Stars: Ravelry or The Royal Sisters Blog.
• Hearts: Ravelry or Simple Beans Blog.

All were worked with a size G/4.00mm hook and Berroco Comfort worsted-weight yarn. 

Happy hooking! ~J

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light & sweet

Recently, it seems like all of my projects have been worked in dark, moody yarns – so for the next couple days I am going to lighten things up a bit with some pretty pastel crocheting. This lovely little bundle of spring is for a special project that needs to be finished by Sunday. What am I crocheting, you ask? Well, some:…flowery medallions, and:…miniature flowers, as well as:…little baby stars. I’ll show you the finished project next week! Have a great weekend, everyone. ~J

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summer washcloths…

My best friend recently bought a pretty little cape-cod style house in Maryland a few weeks ago, and as a house-warming gift for her little girls, I thought I’d crochet up some fun washcloths.  They are squishy and bright and perfect for playing in their brand-new bathtub!

I had quite a bit of Lily Sugar’n Cream cotton yarn lingering about, so I picked a few of the brightest and girliest colors and happily crocheted them while watching TV, or while sitting in the stands at my son’s baseball games.

They are just so cheerful, don’t you think?  And not only do they make great washcloths, but they also double as dishcloths.  I have a whole stack of these in my kitchen.  Washing dishes is always a little bit more enjoyable when you are using something that’s handmade.

These were a fun break from the monotonous, gray, never-ending sweater, which sadly did not get finished in time for my birthday.  The new goal is to have it finished in time for the She & Him concert we are going to on the 4th of July weekend.  We shall see.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far! ~J

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More from Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans

{Pattern: Donna Yacino}

I thought I would share a few more queue-worthy patterns from my new book, Comfort Knitting & Crochet: Afghans.  And while I think it’s nice to have a whole book devoted to one yarn, one could easily imagine these blankets being worked up in a variety of different fibers.  For example, I was immediately drawn to the Ethel pattern (above)- the crisp blue and white and openwork crochet is so perfectly beachy-casual, that I immediately thought how lovely it would look crocheted in a summery, dk-weight cotton-linen yarn.

{Pattern by: Donna Yacino}

This is the gorgeous Marrakesh pattern – it is worked in Tunisian crochet, which I had never heard of, but apparently, it involves using an extra-long hook.    With it’s saffron color and hand-embroidered flowers and leaves, this afghan has a bit of an exotic feel to it, and would be extra glamorous made in a wool-silk blend.

{Pattern by: Margery Winter}

Meet Lucy.  This is one Jaime loved, most likely due to the regal color choices of burgundy and gold.  I would use an alpaca-silk blend yarn to crochet this – something that would feel luxurious and soft against the skin.

{Pattern by: Donna Yacino}

Here is another crochet pattern that I fell in love with – Serpentine – and when I initially saw it, I immediately thought it looked like something you would find in an Anthropologie catalog.  I totally want to make this for my bed – in a delicious, decadent cashmere.  It will be perfect layered over my fluffy, white duvet once the weather gets cooler.

{Pattern by: Margery Winter}

Last, but not least, is the Ukrainian Tiles blanket.  I love the charmingly old-fashioned, classic style of this knit.  It begs to be worked in a pure, warm 100% wool.  This is the kind of blanket you use while sitting by the fire after an afternoon of playing in the cold winter snow.  The v’s and diamonds on the white border strips are actually hand-stitched on after the blanket is complete.  It looks like there is a lot of finishing work on this knit.

To visit the Ravely pages for these projects, just click on the pictures.  To see all projects in the book, click here.  Also, you can buy the book here.

Seeing as it is going to be 90 degrees around here today, I think I’ll stick with knitting my lace-weight sweater.  It’s way too hot to think about knitting and crocheting blankets! ~J

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