Art, Craft and Needlework, November, 2013

[Nancy]

Way to go Ivy!
I worked on the current knitting rainbow project last night so happy to have progress. Settled on a k2 p2 pattern finally.

I will use that as a reward after a round in the kitchen.

[Harriet]

Elizabeth, how pretty, and how fun that you added creative interest to the pattern yourself. Glad you got a photo.

[Ivy]

I crocheted a "Lavender Bloom CD Hot Mat" as a CD Coaster for under the hand pump soap in the main/guest bathroom tonight. I chose emerald green for 5 rows, which fit over the CD and the "blooms" or spiked edging are in bright orange. These colors tie in with the dress on the Thanksgiving angel and the pumpkin on the pilgrims' Happy Thanksgiving sign. It's a nice pattern, easy-to-do, and can be done in variegated colors for holiday gifts, too.

Here's the link:

http://jahodnett.tripod.com/is77.html

I'm considering making some to match 1 neighbor's kitchen colors and 2 in Christmas colors.

1 neighbor's would be a variegated yellow-white center with yellow spiked blossoms.

1 other neighbor's would be red-white variegated center with red spiked blossoms.

Also, there is another "Spiffy" CD Hot Mat there, which is neat, too. The link is:

[url]http://jahodnett.tripod.com/id5l.html[/url] (I can't "figure out" why this link won't come up when I view the submitted message. Help anyone?)

Last, but not least is this "CD Coaster," which is plain or can be done in variegated. It makes a great coaster for a mug of coffee or cup of tea or can of beverage, too.

http://www.marloscrochetcorner.comcdcoaster.html

I love a variety of them.

[BookSaver]

Let me try to get those urls, Ivy.

CD hot mats:

Spiffy = http://jahodnett.tripod.com/id51.html

Lavender Bloom = http://jahodnett.tripod.com/id77.html

I couldn't get them at first, until I clicked on one and then erased the letters after tripod.com. That took me to the lady's home page and then I followed her links to her patterns.

These are very pretty.

Edit to add: OK, they seem to be working for me. This is how I did them:
Open the pattern page in 1 tab and this site in a 2nd tab
On the address line in the 1st tab, highlight the entire address
Hold down the ctrl key and the c key to copy the address
Use the mouse to click over to this site, and start a post
Ctrl v to paste the url into the post screen

I didn't have to designate them as urls on the post screen, it just knew that's what they were.

Sorry, I was not able to get the one from Marlo to work at all. I couldn't even find that site to see the pattern.

[Ivy]

Thank you, Booksaver, for trying. Perhaps Marlos Crochet Corner is no longer there and my pattern's old. Thanks for figuring out the other 2 though.

I wanted to tell you how popular "infinity scarves" are. They're long crocheted or knitted circles, then they are twisted into a figure 8, to make them more dense around the upper chest neck area. Well, DD now buys her scarves, regular long ones, from Goodwill and other thrift stores. She takes the long rectangle scarf, ties knots in the very ends, then twists them into a figure 8, puts them over her head and fixes them pretty with her clothes and blazers or jackets and coats. They're super-looking. What a great idea for silky scarves or knitted or crocheted ones, which are long a rectangular!

I have some patterns for infinity scarves from Ravelry, but I do believe they can be found at Red Heart's site, Caron's site and Lion Brand Yarn's site, too.

Also, an idea just hit me..... Couldn't a person take about 3 different colored contrasting or blending colors of several strands of yarn, then braid them, and make a braided infinity scarf, too? That sounds pretty to me. Also, I imagine a person could sew a circle from a rectangle of wool or whatever material, to make an infinity scarf. The ideas are endless and they always show a pretty outcome.

[Ivy]

Hello! There is a pattern set at Caron's main website, which doesn't have the link on my printed pattern, but I'm assuming it is:

http://www.caron.com

The pattern is called "Her Infinity & His Fringed Christmas Cactus Scarves." They used Dark Sage (green) and Autumn Red for her infinity scarf and a K-10 (6.5mm) hook for her pattern. His scarf has a fringe and it's Tunisian Crochet. They look very pretty for a couple to wear as a set, if "your" man-intended is "into" scarves. My man is not.

I came across 1 infinity scarf at Ravelry, designed by Kathleen Rogers. It's in Aran weight (knitted worsted medium weight) yarn, the 2 skeins are used crocheted together with a crochet "P" size hook. It's such an easy pattern to follow and to also tailor to fit your own needs. The basic is holding the yarn double, ch 78, sl st, wihtout twisting, ch 1. Do 1 sc in each ch st around, join, ch-1. The pattern for rounds 2 - 3 are plain sc around, join, ch-1. Round 4 is sc in back loop around, join, ch-1. Then you repeat rows 5-6 copying rows 2 - 3, then row 7 is that sc in back loop around again. You follow this until the last round 12 when you sc in back loop around, join, join yarn to base of foundation round and sl st around the front loop, fasten off, work in ends. You can block it if you want to, too. MY idea is how versatile this pattern is! You could come up with these possibilities:
1- You could do HDC
2- You could do DC and alternate with SC rows
3- You could do SC, HDC, and DC alternating.
4- You could make the scarf wider if you wanted.
5- Or make it narrower.
6- You could take some ribbon, to crochet through it, for contrast.
7- You could make a great big rose, attach it, to "fancy it up" and make it more feminine.
8- You could do something drastic, like Treble crochet followed by SC.
The ideas are endless, actually!

There also was one using an "N" crochet hook, where they did ch-67, skip 2 ch, hdc into 3rd ch from the hook and hdc to the end, turned, and ch2, hdc into each hdc to end, turn, and just go 10 rows and take a twist at the end, join the two short ends together, to make a mobius infinity scarf. They made it in striped colors and variegated, it's very feminine and very pretty. Here, too, you could let your imagination reign making your scarf wider or narrower, too.

Every single year, it seems like I do hot pads, potholders, hanging dishtowels, etc... But I have some older friends who walk, so the 2-strand infinity scarf would be good for them to tuck into their coat at the neck, to keep warm. I think they'd go quickly, to crochet, because they're done with the thick hook. I'm putting my thinking cap on.

Happy Crafting, Knitting, Crocheting, Sewing, Drawing, Painting, etc... to all of you! Have a great Holiday Season and enjoy creating. It's relaxing, for me, at least. The finished products are always worthwhile to see, too. I'm off to do some afghan edging and then it's time to make a "Mario" and a "Luigi" caps for the youngest 2 grandsons. I'll slowly plug along at it until I'm done. I'm taking my time, so not to stress out or overwhelm myself. I'm enjoying each baby step along the creative pathway as I journey through the holidays. Who knows? I may even make myself something special to wear, too.

[Ivy]

I got to row 29 at last! Need to get to 42 to "see" how it looks (the afghan) and possible row 43, for the border. Looking good!