Our HDH Christmas Presents

Merry Christmas from Hump Day Hookers! HC and myself got together one hump day and opted to use our spare yarn to make some cute little snowman ornaments, it was a great way to use left over yarn. The people I gave it to this year, absolutely loved it.

What you need to make your own:

Styrofoam Balls

White Yarn

Orange Felt and thread

Fabric Glue

Little balls

Green yarn to crochet the bow.

I think you can figure out how to assemble this and I don't really feel like blogging about it, so if you have any questions on the steps just comment below.

Hope this gives you some good ideas for next years' gifts. Next blog post - 2011!

A Lovely Christmas Gift

Last night I was at my parents baking Christmas cookies when my mom was reminded that she 'needed' to show me a gift that she received a few days ago (picture below).

A family friend of ours also loves to crochet and she had made this special snowman for my mom and dad as a Christmas/Thank you gift. I wish I would have taken a closer picture of the snowman's hat as it looked real cute close up. What Christmas gifts did you make for your family members this year??? STAY TUNED to see what the members of HDH made!

Dear Crocheting, You're So Last Summer?

I normally get quite annoyed when the differences between knitting and crocheting are brought up. It probably has something to do with the reason knitting is so much more mainstream, and THAT got me thinking about other things I hate that are mainstream. While I do enjoy some mainstream pop/rock music, I prefer stuff that isn't heard on the radio. One of my favorite bands from college was Taking Back Sunday, and one day while listening to the radio on a run I heard one of their songs. I was taken back, how could THIS SONG be on the radio! What a bunch of sellouts! (same thing happened with NFG and the Plain White T's.) I got so annoyed that I changed my ringtone from Taking Back Sunday to something different, I didn't want to be like everyone else. Then a few months later that song and band were long forgotten and that song was their number 1 or 2 hit wonder on the radio waves. That's when I re-professed my love of all things Taking Back Sunday. So long story short, this gets me wondering, will I one day be upset when I get old and all my old-lady friends are crocheting? Will I embrace them and show them how it's done? Will I finally be able to accept that knitting really isn't a "bad cousin" to crocheting? Probably not, but hopefully many years from now I will remember that if I ever give up on the norm that is crocheting, that I'll come back to it when all my friends have arthritis in their hands or just forget to crochet, because they can't remember what they like to do, due to dementia!

Happy Hands

At our monthly meeting last night it was brough up that maybe we should incorporate some "warm up" exercises before we start crocheting. We're all aware that we're not getting younger, many of us have a future of arthritis to look forward to and it only makes sense to do some excercises to help strengthen the hand muscles we don't use while crocheting and stretch our hands out a bit from the repetitive motion. In my research on hand exercises I found two helpful sites for some crochet specific and arthritis exercises.

The first site is http://www.crochetsoiree.com this site is full of interesting crochet information. According to Crochet Soiree, crocheting can put you at risk for carpal tunnel syndrom due to the repetitive motion with your hands clentched. Crochet Soiree's solution to that is to stretch your hands and build up the muscles used for opening your hand. The full article and exercise instructions can be found here: http://www.crochetsoiree.com/tips-n-hints/view/5220-avoiding-carpal-tunnel-syndrome/

The second site I looked at is the world renownd Mayo Clinic for some athritis exercises.
This article can be found at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/arthritis/AR00030
I found this to be particularly helpful since it incorporates a series of pictures with the description of the hand excercises.

Halloween Costume Idea

While, the following picture is clearly a knitters Halloween Costume. I like where she's going with it, and think this would make for the perfect costume for a crocheter, if you just added hooks instead!

Click here to read about her if you want

Eco-Friendly Crochet

So I was recently having a discussion with a friend on what do you do with your old plastic bags. I know more people are bringing there own re-usable cloth bags to stores, but there are so many bags that still end up in our landfills. Everyone's heard the buzz words "Green, Sustainable, and Eco Friendly" but while browsing one of my favorite crafty DIY sites, Etsy, I came across this inspiring idea. The ultimate shopping bag to eliminate all other bags.

This pattern uses 20-25 grocery bags which I'm sure you could find around your house or your friends and family. Once completed you have one sturdy, reusable tote so you don't have to use new non-recyclable plastic grocery bags at future trips to the store.

The complete pattern and how to can be found on the Etsy website, http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/how-tuesday-how-to-make-plarn-crochet-an-eco-friendly-tote-b-7773/

Wisconsin State Fair Idea

Last month I made it over to the Wisconsin State Fair and went into the craft exhibit hall. While there, I noticed that were a mulitude of cases filled with crocheted (and knitted) items. All were awarded some type of ribbon. After talking with some people there I realized that you only have to pay $1/item and can enter as many items as you'd like and can win money on more than one article. I'm thinking that next year each member should submit an item to the Wisconsin State Fair and see how we rank.

(One of the cases at the State Fair)

Spell check please!

I saw this photo on a friends facebook and figured they wouldn't mind me copying it. That being said there are two groups of people that can appreciate something like this, both of which I belong to, those who can not spell, and those who crochet.

I've never seen a hat with a crotch before but now I know what they look like.

HDH Initiation

A few months ago when Hump Day Hookers was just starting out, our dear friend Em wanted to get a little more serious about crocheting. She wanted to join our group and made it to a few meetings, but we never really gave her the proper welcoming. At our meeting last night she was starting out a new skein of yarn and well, I just gutted the thing! Poor Em has something of a huge knotty mess on her hands... Someone may argue that I actually had no idea what I was doing as I was trying to get the loose end out, but they're crazy!

(Em with her huge knotty mess, courtesy of HDH!)

ANTM inspires HDH!!

As you are aware ANTM influences us here at HDH. A few weeks ago we saw a photo shoot where the models had to work with the light that was shown through lace. This instantly inspired us to do a photo shoot where we worked with the light through our crocheted afghans. While we don't have a studio, I think we got a few gems, like the one below.

With the light idea not really working for us we then just decided to throw the afghans in a pile along with ourselves (see picture below).

Not sure which one is better, but hopefully one of them is Tyra worthy???

Crocheting World Record!

Last night I heard on the news that there was a World Record set for the most hookers crocheting simultaneously in the same place. While their number of hookers is far more than the few members our elite group has, possibly one day we can break this record!

Here's an article to detail this awesome day: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/06/2010-06-06_record_stitched_at_citi_field.html

Crochet Chic is in!

I have just a quickie here... The June 2010 Cosmopolitan has Crochet Chic as one of the top 6 trends on the rise right now! Glad to see this epidemic is taking off.

Grandma Projects

Yesterday was my grandma's 100th birthday, so I thought I'd write a blog about her, the one who first introduced me to crocheting, although she never taught me, she pretty much made it as cool as it could be. As a kid I always remember seeing her crochet (and occasionally knit - but I can forgive her on that) evertime I visited her. I was fascinated by her skill and speed, she is much better than I'll ever be. The sweaters she made were awesome, granted if I posted pictures you'd beg to differ... as a result of 80's and 90's fashion. But some items she made are timeless. In fact just the other day my mom gave me a huge bag filled with an afghan and matching pillow that I received from my very first Christmas. I was taken back by the smell of nostalgia as I opened it.... why can't my projects smell like that? I have countless pillowcases, doilies and blankets from her. And while she hasn't crocheted in about 8 years, I still aspire to be at her skill level.

T-Shirts

So, we have come to the conclusion that any semi successful organization needs to have there own T-shirts to make them official. After months of deliberation on what the shirts should look like, how they should be made and who should get them we have made some decisions. Approximately two weeks ago at our HDH meeting our first trial shirts were created. Since we are all about making things on our own we decided to attempt the print out iron on type of logos. Now drum roll please......

Poodle Beer Cover

A few years ago my brother bought his house, and after days of deliberating 'what would be the perfect housewarming gift,' I came across a pattern in a magazine for a little poodle. I'm sure you've all seen a similiar project at your grandma's house where there was a poodle like this covering up the extra roll of toilet paper, but this is the ultimate housewarming gift for a man... a beer cover! I'm proud to say three years after giving him this crocheted project it's still displayed in his kitchen for friends to see, all of which have asked for one. This pattern can be found in the July/August 1997 issue of Hooked On Crochet! As you can see I also created a tiny little green scarf for this dog (just used a dc). This was the perfect touch since he had received this in the winter.

The perfect gift for a man's housewarming.

Vintage Gift

About a year ago a dear friend of mine came over and handed me a wrinkly brown bag with a smile on her face and told me it was a present for me. It wasn't my birthday or any special occasion so I wasn't expecting any gifts. I cautiously looked in the bag not knowing what to expect and found something you can't find in just any store. I reached in the bag and first pulled out "Baby Bootie Boutique Sandals" a crochet kit from Annie's Attic circa 1979. Next I pulled out tennis shoes, then Indean moccasins, cowboy boots and even saddle oxfords. It was a brown bag full of baby bootie crochet kits! No I wasn't expecting or even thinking about having a baby of my own, my friend simply understood my passion for all things crochet. When I found out that my friend was going to be a grandmother, a few months later, I had to put my talent and her present to good use. I decided to make the cowboy booties.

Here are some pictures of the final product. Needless to say my friend was thrilled to see them!

Hide your feminine hygiene products??

I admit, I love to find unique patterns to crochet, but when I stumbled across this dousie, I may have thrown up in my mouth a bit. I mean why would anybody want/need this??? I believe these little crocheted things actually draw more attention to the product at hand.

21 Afghan Patterns

Just came across this link on redheart.com, that has 21 crocheting patterns. It even includes a pattern for a snuggie!

http://www.redheart.com/Libraries/DocumentLibrary/Afghan-Patterns-from-Red-Heart-eBook.pdf

Classic Style Afghan

Here is an intermediate level afghan that Lisa made a few years back. Stitches used are sc, dc, and puff st. You can buy the pattern from the pamphlet 'Choice Afghans Book 0701' by Red Heart Super Saver (found at most craft stores).

[Pattern was modified to not do the post dtr stitch and instead just do sc in each ch, where that stitch was to be used]

It's starting!!

We're currently working on getting this group up and running and looking for images to use for our shirts.

...more info to follow.