Christmas Presents, Part 2

As promised, here are the last items for my grandmothers!

This is the second hat. I made this with a super chunky weight yarn. Because of this I ended up using 50 stitches in a round rather than 60, which was plenty.

The first scarf! Again, I used the infinity scarf pattern. Even with a chunky yarn I used the pattern exactly (except for using a J hook), but I made the scarf shorter than the scarves I've made with medium weight yarn.

This is the second scarf. Instead of four shells in a row I used to three, which worked out surprisingly well. I also used an N hook.

Even with slightly different construction, the scarves ended up being about the same thickness. I'm very pleased with how they turned out, especially because I needed to make modifications to the patterns I used. I even found a model!

Now that I'm all done with Christmas presents I can look ahead to other projects! Yay!

Christmas Presents

This was my first Christmas while knowing how to crochet, and so needless to say I put this skill to good use!

Above is what I made for my mother. 

The scarf is the same infinity scarf pattern I had used before because while I was making the first scarf my mom commented how much she loved it. I really like the yarn I used for this set. I found it in a local yarn shop in a small town about 30 minutes from where I live. My only complaint is that they tied to pieces of yarn together in the middle of the skein! UGH! You can see the awful red to suddenly purple transition in the picture. Luckily you can hardly tell when it's worn.

I used about one and a half skeins for the scarf and so decided to make this headband with the extra. Turns out I had the perfect amount! I created this by using a double crochet stitch with an I hook. It was very quick and easy.

This next set is what I made for a gift exchange at a family Christmas gathering. The rules were that it had to be a unisex gift, so neon orange and neon green totally work, right?

Matching hat and scarf! As you can see, I didn't exactly finish before my family had to leave... However, I did manage to barely get it done in time. Whew!

I was tired of making an equal size stripe pattern (plus I had less green than orange) so I decided to try out stripes of different sizes, and I really like how it turned out. Double crochet stitch with an I hook.

Lastly I am making a hat and scarf for each of my grandmas! Below is the hat I have finished.

This was the first time I worked with chunky weight yarn and I didn't realize how much quicker projects take when you use it. Too bad it's more expensive. I used my hat pattern from a previous post, same number of stitches in a round and everything. This made a looser hat, which was my goal.

And because it was Christmas, I had to include a picture with the tree! :)

Infinity scarf post: http://linz-craftingadventures.blogspot.com/2012/11/infinity-scarf-surprise.html
Hat pattern post: http://linz-craftingadventures.blogspot.com/2012/10/neon-green-beanie.html

Octopus Army

As the pattern says these octopuses are cute. Very cute. They do only have 6 tentacles though. These were made for my friends for Christmas and I've still got about three more to make...

I hot glued buttons on for the eyes since these are all going to young adults I don't need to worry about them being torn off and eaten (at least as far as I know). The mouths were made using black yarn and a yarn needle. Each octopus is different.

This one is for my friend who is studying abroad in New Zealand so I had to get her's done. The bow could've been a little higher but still very adorable.

For my boyfriend. Holding a quick and easy crochet heart :)

My first octopus. He didn't have a home so he will be staying with me, which is very ok. Since he was my first one I couldn't get all the tentacles to fit (oh no!), but I figured it out for the other ones. Needless to say, when the pattern says you have to squeeze them in to get all of them to fit, it's not kidding.

These are the other three octopuses!

This one is for one of my guy friends. And no, I had nothing to do with the color choice, it was all him. I am a huge fan of the top hat.

This one is actually for the same friend that received the dinosaur I made. The dinosaur's name is Ned and now he and this octopus can be best friends!

The last one! Yes he has three eyes. He's based off the purple pentapus from an episode from season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

These guys!! Adorable.

Octopus pattern: http://whimtasticalcreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/cute-little-octopus-amigurumi.html
Top hat pattern: http://whimtasticalcreations.blogspot.com/2011/04/top-hat-and-bows-pattern.html

They're Coming

What are they? You'll find out in about a month! :)

Infinity Scarf Surprise

She has no idea yet, but as a frequent reader of my blog she'll find out soon. My best friend of 13 years is an absolutely amazing person, and significantly more fashionable than I am. I hadn't created anything for her yet and I'd been seeing a lot of infinity scarves around campus lately and they look like something she would absolutely love. So combining this pattern (http://yarnchick.blogspot.com/2011/10/simple-shell-stitch-infinity-scarf-free.html) with some black, sparkly yarn will do the trick! :)

I really liked this pattern because of the shell stitch. It's unique and the scarf pattern almost has a vintage feel to it (as described by my boss). If you were to undo the scarf so that is was straight, it's approximately four and a half feet long.

Hey, look, it's a vertical infinity symbol!

The great thing about this pattern is that pretty much every female I've shown it to has said how pretty or neat it is!

So...surprise, Natalie :) Thanks for being an amazing friend!

Neon Green Beanie

As eluded to in an earlier post, I was working with a friend's basic beanie pattern, and I've finished!

Yay! I did modify his pattern a little due to the fact that I crochet tighter than he does. I looked a lot of places for a beanie pattern that I liked but didn't find any, so here is my friend's pattern with my edits.

Materials:
1 skein 4 weight yarn (you won't use the whole thing)
size I crochet hook
stitch marker
yarn needle

Directions:

Mark your last stitch in a each round with stitch marker, this pattern is worked continuously so don't join your rounds!

Rnd 1: 10 sc in magic ring (very helpful tutorial here! http://www.planetjune.com/blog/tutorials/magic-ring-right-handed/) (10)
Rnd 2: 1 dc in each sc (10)
Rnd 3: 2 dc in each dc (20)
Rnd 4: *1 dc in dc, 2 dc in next dc* repeat (30)
Rnd 5: *1 dc in next 2 dc, 2 dc in next dc* repeat (40)
Rnd 6: *1 dc in next 3 dc, 2 dc in next dc* repeat (50)
Rnd 7: *1 dc in next 4 dc, 2 dc in next dc* repeat (60)
Rnd 8 until end: 1 dc in each dc around (60)

Continue the hat until it reaches the length that fits your head!

IMPORTANT: When you reach the last four stitches of your last round. 1 dc in next 2 dc, 1 hdc in next 2 dc, 1 sc in next 2 dc, slip stitch in last dc. Fasten off and weave in loose ends.

Congrats! You finished! :)

In the very near future this hat may receive ears and spikes and become a dragon hat. Stay tuned!

Camo Scarf

I'd just like to start this blog post off by saying this is easily the ugliest thing I have ever crocheted. However, there's an interesting story behind it:

When I first started to crochet I was at Hobby Lobby shopping for yarn with my boyfriend. He's in airsoft so when he found this camo yarn he insisted that I make him a scarf from it. 

It took me awhile to tackle this project because I knew that working with a yarn this fuzzy was going to be difficult. Turns out I was right and that it is essentially impossible to see the stitches and so there was a lot of guess work in the beginning of the scarf...

Hence why the end is so flaired. About halfway into the first skein of yarn I realized that two was not going to be enough for a decently long scarf, so it was back to Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately in the time between me buying the yarn and starting the scarf, Hobby Lobby had discontinued the style of yarn! In order to try to avoid a crisis, I went with the most similar yarn I could find. 

Essentially the only thing the yarns had in common was the color. Rather than give up I just finished the scarf.

Only one of the ends is accidentally messed up; I tried to make the other end look similar. It's not as easy as it looks. Either way though it's finished and he likes it so that's all that matters!

Also, a special thanks to my boyfriend for his photography for this post! :)