Circles of Service: Scarf #5 Finished

Well, I have officially completed my 5 scarves for the Circles of Service at church :) This was my final one to complete and it's been sitting 75% in my bag since the end of October. You can't rush these things, you know...

Here it is being modeled by the lovely Kelly :) This pattern is the Basketweave Crochet Neckwarmer which is a free pattern on Ravelry. I (obviously) modified it and made it longer to be a scarf instead of a cowl.

It's a really neat stitch - it's a basket weave texture which is seriously one of my favorites. Here comes the reason it sat so long though: I hate my yarn choice for this pattern! I love the basket weave and I love the colors of this yarn but combined together the color is too distracting and you can't see the texture. I guess i'm just a solid color yarn person. Thus, it sat 75% finished for months because I just didn't love it and would rather spend my time on something I actually liked. The scarves are being presented to the charity this week though, so I finally buckled down on Sunday and finished it up while watching the new season of Downton Abbey.

I made this scarf 72" long and it took 2 complete skeins of the yarn. Granted the variegated yarns come in a shorter skein, but this sucker has some serious heft to it from all that yarn. It's a very dense stitch so it would be great for really keeping you warm.

I'll have to make myself one from a better yarn later on - I love the pattern and it's really simple. Too bad I'm not completely in love with the result. I hope the recipient enjoys it though :)

Crochet Update: 1 More Scarf Finished!

I've been going a little crazy lately, so sorry for the lack of meaningful blog posts. I have volunteered to help with several craft related projects and it's been spreading me pretty thin. Every week on Tuesday and Thursday I go over to a friend's house and help teach the 8-12 year old girls from our church how to sew a dress! It's a crazy ambitious project, but we split it up so only 2 girls are working at a time for a few weeks and then we will start over again with 2 new girls. I'm also learning a ton! Cleo (the lady I'm helping) is a phenomenal seamstress and can pretty much sew anything and she is teaching me all kinds of things I've never done before. Ex. I did my first official French seams last week :) I knew how to do them in theory but had never actually done them before then. It's nice to have someone there to show you and let you know if you did it right. Mostly I am helping to do the more difficult stuff that the girls wouldn't be able to handle yet.

When I'm not over at Cleo's or doing the many other random household things I'm responsible for (being an adult stinks sometimes), I am usually working on my many random crochet projects. I'm still whipping out scarves, but as I'm almost done with my official 5 scarf quota I've allowed myself to work on other things as well.

I've had this one done for a few days but I just now got around to photographing it. At least I finally did!

I originally made this as a Circles of Service scarf, but I really like it so much I may keep it for myself - I know, I'm an awful person. I may still give it away, but only if I decide to make myself another one :)

 This is the Urban Shells Scarf which is a free pattern I found on Ravelry. This one was so much fun to do and it gives a great texture. It has scalloped edges all the way around and has 4 rows of ribbing on the top to give it more interest. I used Red Heart With Love in Mango for this one and this is the first project with this yarn that I really like how it came out. All the others have felts really thick and stiff, but because this one is so lacy it feels fine. Love it! I highly recommend this pattern for a quick project.

Also, last night I was feeling like something new so I decided to finally start my musical Reindeer stuffed animal from the Amigurumi Woodland Animals class on Craftsy :) I've had this planned and all the yarn bought for quite a while and finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I got the body made and I'm 2/3 finished with the head :) I can't wait to get him done!

I've also got another scarf that I'm nick-naming the yarn eater as it's taken double as much as I thought it would. It's cool, but I'm not 100% happy with my yarn choice - it's variegated and I didn't realize I didn't like it until I had already worked on it for several hours so I just kept going.

Anyway, I will try to post more frequently other then just the freebies I promise!

Circles of Service: Scarf #4 Complete!

Man, I am seriously on a roll. I can't quite believe how fast I've been able to make almost all of my scarves I was asked to make (5 is the requested number). At this rate, I'm sure I'll end up making more than what was asked mostly because I enjoy it so much.

This is my first time ever doing cables of any kind and I am absolutely hooked :) They are so satisfying to make. Sure, they take a little longer and you have to pay close attention to your pattern (unless you want to keep frogging back like I had to), but they aren't really difficult and they look fantastic.

I used the Crochet Cable Scarf free pattern on Ravelry for this and I can guarantee you I will use that pattern again. This is a great project to try your hand at cables for the first time and once you wrap your head around the instructions it becomes very easy.

Here is a close up of the texture - isn't it cool?

Even though I loved the pattern on this one ... I absolutely hate this yarn for it. This is the first project I've done where the yarn really messed up my end result and I have officially learned my lesson. I used Red Heart With Love in Bluebell and I like the color, but it is just so dang stiff. I keep having to straighten the scarf out at the sides just to make it look ok. Next time I make this I will use a softer yarn with a bit more drape to it.

Well, technically speaking, that's 4 down and 1 more to go. I already have a pattern in mind and everything :)

Circles of Service: Scarf #3 Finished

Well, this one was crazy quick to make. I picked the pattern and all and tried it out a week ago but I just couldn't get it figured out at the time so I stopped. I felt adventurous Monday night and I got the pattern figured out so then Tuesday I decided to watch Melancholia (beautiful film but incredibly depressing) and crocheted this while watching. I had made it too long by the time the movie was over and I had to pull some out (for the project they can only be 70" long). I just had to weave in the ends on Wednesday and it was done!

Look how big it is :) I actually really like this scarf and so far it's the hardest one to give away. I love the yarn - it's Lion Brand Hometown USA in Lake Tahoe Blue and it has just little flecks of other colors spun into it (like yellow and green and purple). The yarn is so big that it makes it feel really plushy and soft. It's like wrapping a narrow blanket around your neck.

The pattern is the Imogene Scarf from Lion Brand (t's a free pattern). The pattern calls for you to make it 140" long! That's nuts because his one is 70" long and I'm really surprised by how heavy it is so I can only imagine how much 140" would weigh. Plus, you'd have to wrap it around you a zillion times. I ended up using 2.5 skeins of the yarn. I have 1 whole skein plus the half left so if I can find another somewhere I will make another of these for me :)

This is great for a quick project that looks complicated. It would also make an awesome blanket!

Circles of Service: Crocheted Scarf #2 Complete

Well, I have finished my 2nd scarf for the Circles of Service project and I have to say I really like this one :) Well, I like the pattern ... I'm not so thrilled about the yarn...

Modeled by the lovely Shannon.

Isn't it cool? I used this Slant Stitch pattern which was a really nice pattern. The slant stitch is perfect for me. It's interesting enough to keep me busy while still being simple and repetitive enough that I could watch tv while I made it. I watched 2 of the new Sherlock Holmes episodes on Netflix while I finished this up on Wednesday night :)

Anyway, the yarn. I used Red Heart's With Love yarn in Boysenberry (in real life it's the darker color - that up close photo looks way lighter than it really does). The color is lovely and the yarn is plushy and soft. The only problem is that the yarn is so stiff it can pretty much stand up on its own. If I bend it, it stays bent. If I keep it straight, it stays stiff as a board ... not exactly the best thing for a cozy scarf. It's pretty though and it's definitely warm so hopefully the new owner will enjoy wrapping up in it :)

Circles of Service: Crocheted Scarf #1 Complete

I honestly wasn't sure I would have time to participate in the crocheted scarf project for the Circles of Service, but when my Aunt showed me how much she had accomplished in just a couple of days I realized that these scarves would slap out really quickly. So on Saturday night I went to Walmart and bought 3 different types of yarn specifically for these scarves. I got 3 skeins of Lion Brand Hometown USA (super chunky weight) in Lake Tahoe Blue, 2 skeins of Red Heart With Love (worsted weight) in Waterlily, and 1 skein of Red Heart With Love in Boysenberry. I spent about $18 for all of this and I know I will be able to make at least 4 scarves from it - not a bad donation :)

Saturday night I started hunting on Ravelry for free crochet scarf patterns that had a little pizzazz to them. I find that if a project doesn't have some kind of new technique or something involved I lose interest in it quickly. I didn't want anything super complicated, just a little added something. So I started the Butterfly Scarf in the Waterlily variegated yarn. It's just a simple double crochet stitch the whole way but you make cute butterflies at the ends :)

I worked for about 20 minutes Saturday night and then about an hour or so throughout the day on Sunday. Sunday night I started to think it strange that the purple color would go from being in a V shaped line to suddenly all over the place, so I looked a little harder. The scarf got skinnier at the end - I had dropped 2 stitches in 2 different places as I was going and I didn't even notice. The scarf was around 50 inches when I pulled it out to just 20 inches. It was so sad to pull out but it was driving me crazy.

See how it goes from a very uniform V to all over the place? Honestly I like the look of the purple being evenly distributed all over better, but it only worked that way because of those dropped stitches. Monday I got a nasty stomach bug (I still kind of have it today) and I pretty much just wanted to sit still all day. This was perfect for getting some crocheting done :) I finished the scarf last night!

I made it just shy of 70 inches long (that's the longest length for the abuse shelter scarf project) and it's 5 inches wide.

I actually really like that the variegated yarn made the purple color create diamond shapes in the fabric - it really makes the purple stand out like a special feature. 

See my butterflies? The one on the right is the one that I did last and I think it came out much better than the first one. The first one is kind of always scrunched up and it's hard to see what it's supposed to be. Oh well. Hopefully the recipient gets the idea :)

So, there's one down and 4 to go to hit my quota :) I'm planning what pattern to do for my next one. I'm glad I was able to finish is so quickly so I know I'll be able to do them all!

I'm Participating in the Circles of Service!

I hinted about this project back when I made the brown man hat but the project was still a secret. Now it's out in the open and I figured I would share with all of you :) The women's group at my church just launched our Circles of Service project where we will collectively make items for 5 different charitable organizations over the next several months. Each project has a 'circle' of women who have committed to make certain handmade items. Each group is holding weekly meetings to teach those who would like to learn or just for some company while you spend your time in service :)

As you can probably guess from my man hat, I am involved in the knitting group :) I'm helping the lady in charge to teach others who don't know how to knit but want to participate. Each Tuesday we are meeting at the coordinator's house for our group. Last week was our first meeting and I'm so bummed I didn't take any pictures! It turns out that the coordinator and I are the only ones who have ever knitted before, so I was pretty busy teaching the others how to cast on, knit, and purl. Some arrived later than others so a few only learned to cast on last time so I'm sure tonight we will be doing a refresher and then conquering knitting and purling. Hopefully some will be able to start their actual projects.

The project we are working on is called The Ships Project - this organization collects handmade hats and booties for submariners (knitted, crocheted, or sewn) since it gets so cold underwater, as well as 'cool ties' which are strips of fabric filled with water absorbent beads for the soldiers to soak and then wear in desert regions like Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm really excited about this project and so far we have about 8 ladies involved with our group plus a few more who are making their objects at home.

Being me (with my crafting ADD plus my love of helping out these types of causes), I am of course signed up for a few other groups as well :) Here are the other projects we will be helping with.

Handmade With Love Just For You -  This is an organization that collect hand crocheted scarves and gives one to each woman who check into an abuse shelter. It's just a special gift to congratulate them on getting out of their bad situation all while helping to keep them warm and cozy :) This is another project that I am helping with. Sadly I can't make it to the meetings (Tues at 10am at the coordinator's house as Wed at 7pm at the church), but I have already started making scarves. At first I was hesitant since I'm committed to the knitting on and I have another large project for something else that will begin in a few weeks, but I was really inspired when I saw how much the other women were accomplishing in a short period of time so I decided to take the plunge. I went to Walmart and bought 3 different nice yarns and I know I will be able to make at least 4 with all of it. The group asks that each member make at least 5.

Project Linus - Just as the name implies, this organization give homemade blankets to children in need. They give them to children in hospitals, children who lost their home to a fire, children who have been through a natural disaster, etc. Our group will be making fleece tied blankets - how simple is that? Technically they won't be 'tied' - Project Linus prefers just the slit and pull through method but that's still just as easy to make. I believe this group meets Wed night at the church.

Quilts of Valor - This is a wonderful organization that gives handmade quilts to wounded veterans. This is one of the bigger undertakings of our groups, but they will be working on quilts together as well as individually to lighten the load :) I believe this group meets every Mon at the coordinator's house.

Happy Mail - This is one of the simpler projects to be a part of. This organization is called Hugs and Hope and they provide all the information you need to send Happy Mail to a child with a terminal disease. All the kids on their list have diseases that they are not expected to recover from so they really emphasize that you shouldn't say things like "I hope you get better" or anything like that. They just ask that you send them a nice card or letter maybe with a coloring page or something else that the kids are interested in (they list all their interests on the site). The mail is designed to just brighten their day. How great is that? My husband and I have already picked out a few kids to start off with (we found a little boy who likes cops!) and we will be sending out some mail probably this week.

Aren't these great projects? I wanted to blog about them because no matter where you are from, these are national organizations and I know they would appreciate as many volunteers as possible. If you would like to participate in any of these, you can email me at ShowAndTellMeg@gmail.com and I can get you all the information you need. Even better if you are in the Titusville area and would like to help out, I can give you the information about meetings. Our group is organized by the Relief Society ladies at church, but none of these projects are church affiliated and we would love to invite anyone who would like to help no matter what religion. We have set a goal to make 300 separate items by the middle of January and we would love any help at reaching our goal :)