Christmas lights

Tired of buying christmas lights only to have them burn out and have to replace them the following year? Why not crochet some lights that will never go out?  Love this idea...
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/holiday-lights-2

Perfect for indoor use or outdoor.  Hang them outside and people can see the "lights" during the day.  Hang them in a child's bedroom and have holiday lights without worrying about the kids playing with electricity! Make them to any color scheme you like. You no longer have to go from store to store to fine the right lights, make them in the summer and you wont have to stand in any long checkout lines.  This would also be a great project to use up all your left over yarn from previous projects!

What I Want For Christmas!

While shopping at Joann's this week, I came across this very fitting sign!

Crochet School

Happy hump day, all you hookers and hooker wannabes.  It's half way through the week and it's our official meeting day so I thought it would be a good to to share some info and everyone excited to crochet tonight!

This post is more for the wannabes, for everyone who has been thinking they would like to crochet but just don't know how to get started.  This site has a great tutorial of all kinds of crochet stitches starting with the basics!

http://issuu.com/lesliss/docs/crocheting_school

I got started in a similar fashion by picking up a basic crochet book and practicing some basic stitches until I felt comfortable jumping into a pattern.  I still reference that book from time to time when I forget a stitch.

V-Stitch Afghan

A few months ago my sister-in-law got me a bunch of yarn at a local garage sale. I think it was about 12 skeins total, however there were only 3 of each kind and color of yarn, which meant my projects couldn't be the huge afghans I'm used to making. That's probably a good thing since they take so long to make and I really don't need any more blankets. So I decided to make my niece a small child's blanket with the yarn her mother got me and give it to her for her third birthday, which was yesterday. For this project I decided to use Red Heart's Banana Berry (blue-green) yarn since she loves green so much. This was a super quick afghan to make as it used a V-stitch which allows you to crochet in a space versus a stitch... therefore you fly through the project.

I enjoyed the way the variant yarn created it's own pattern.

I didn't get to see my niece open this gift, but I heard that she wanted to sleep with when she went to bed last night!

The weather outside is frightful

December in Wisconsin, the weathers getting chilly, were sure to have snow any day its time to start thinking about bundling up for the long winter. I just came across this site with some great hat patterns, including a crochet cable pattern.

http://www.rheatheylia.com/index.php?page=patterns&id=10

I love this hat and can't wait to try making it!

Christmas gift ideas

Stylish Christmas gifts don't have to be store bought, they can be home made too! Check out some of these items I found at the holiday folk fair.

For Our Men

It's that time of year to make gifts for all the Lederhosen wearing men in your life! While at the Milwaukee Holiday Folk Fair 2 weeks ago, we enjoyed checking out the quality work on these babies!

Hallo Süße!!

We would have enjoyed it more if they were crocheted, but it does give us the idea to whip these up for those males that are closest to our hearts. So who's going to make some?

Go Pack Go!

This year is turning out to be a great year for Wisconsin sports. The Packers won the super bowl in February and continue to show domination with their 10-0 streak, the Brewers were the National League champions, the Badgers continue to keep the Wisconsin hype alive and the Bucks, well they're still in the NBA lockout... Anyhow it seems like almost every week at work there is a show-your-team-spirit day, where you can wear the apparel or colors of whatever team you're supporting that week. We had so many of these that I decided to make a Packers hat and scarf, since I was running out of T-shirts to wear. It was a very quick and simple pattern, using just a double crochet stitch. The last time I wore it to work, I received many compliments on it! However, when I went to lunch with a fellow HDH-er I apparently received looks from our waiter...

I don't see anything crazy about this ensemble!

With all our sports teams doing so well this year, this would be the perfect Christmas gift for someone were you can choose your own colors depending on the team you're recipient is supporting.

Now let's hope the Packer's get 11-0 on Thanksgiving!

Crocheted Spider Web

Yesterday was our company Halloween party where everyone had the option of dressing up and/or decorating their work areas. I was asked by one of my co-workers if I could crochet her a black circle, since she wanted to make a spider web. She then added the rest of the web with a crocheted chain stitch and regular yarn.

She isn't trying to look gansta, she was putting her
arms out to show off the extra legs she attached to
her shirt to make her look like a spider.

I think the finished project turned out nicely and lots of people were very impressed with it. She won an 'honorable mention for individual space decoration' (which yes, a prize was given for that), and was even asked to make a few more for other people's kids! After walking around the agency I was impressed by all the different Halloween decorations and costumes, and even stumbled upon this cute crocheted doll that reminded me of the ones my grandma used to make. I believe this doll is supposed to be the godmother/fairy for Cinderella.

I did get a few looks for taking this picture.

Cover a Body

I'm testing out this mobile blog upload feature. A few years ago I made my husband this blanket that conveniently covers a full body when needed.

Camping with the hookers

Although our remote member was unable to make it, the local members of hdh went on a camping extravaganza this past weekend.  With nothing but clear sky's and unusually warm weather, Saturday afternoon proved to be the perfect time to get some crocheting done.

Krochet Kids

Thought I'd share this short commercial I saw tonight:



It's great to see that these guys are making a life-changing impact using the art of crocheting, and that guys think crocheting is actually cool!

Plus isn't it nice that they're using updated patterns unlike many from sites that I see online?

Wedding Garter + Baby Headband

Earlier this month, a fellow HDHer got married, and I had the delight pleasure of being her Matron of Honor. Her wedding colors were navy with a touch of orange, so I had the perfect idea for her... crochet her a navy and orange garter, which would also be her something blue. It was a quick pattern I just put together and it couldn't have turned out better.

Doesn't the garter look nice on this model?

While I was finishing up on this project at the HDH meeting three days before her wedding, we discussed how this Wedding Garter would also make for a perfect baby headband. I personally think this is a great idea, to be able to reuse your own wedding garter for the next generation. What do you think?

A perfect 2-in-1 project for any bride!

Crocheting in the real world

While at a visit to the Columbia St. Mary's hospital in milwaukee I couldn't help but notice these delightful doilys croched by the mother of an employee for each department. Check out this one in the blue department!

Yarn-Bomb #2

The other day I went to run some errands in downtown Waukesha (candy cigs anyone??), and I was immediately drawn to this yarn-bombed garbage can. Someone took A LOT of time to create this bomb. I feel if I made it, I would want to keep it since I would have invested so much time and money into it, let alone it could be a nice sized afghan. Whoever made this must be quick and talented!

Yarn-bombed garbage can, and yes that is a
massive turd next to it... covered with flies.

I think we should start a new blog series on yarn-bombing that we've seen while being out and about. If you see one, please take a picture and send to HDH!

HDH Does Centerpieces!

A few weeks one of our long-distant HDH members came to town to celebrate her bridal shower! While home our other members joined her in some good old fashioned centerpiece making... complete with frappuccinos! We even watched Richie Rich and slept over in her parents living room. Now that's some quality craft-bonding time!

Hookers do time

About 2 months ago I adopted a wonderful dog from the humane society. The adoption process take a little bit of time and while I was waiting decided to look at the cats.  I was thrilled to see every cage had a crocheted afghan  in it!  This would be a great volunteer idea for any fellow hookers out there!

Finger Puppets

Last week the HDH girls ventured out to Summerfest to enjoy opening day. We all enjoyed some good eats, good drinks, great music and even a marriage proposal, but perhaps one of my favorite parts of that night was what we found walking around from tent to tent...

...FINGER PUPPETS!

While AGAIN these were knitted, we clearly could crochet some of these. Perhaps they'd make for some nice gifts for our friends with little kids. Or maybe we should make these for the WI State Fair coming up. So far, I've personally failed to start a project to submit.

If you login to the LionBrand site and search finger puppets , you even can find a pattern for a Barack Obama and a John McCain one to make!! Looks like the possibilities are endless!

Heather was so excited she had to put one on every finger!


Don't you want to make one??

Yarn Bombing!

Perhaps I was able to answer my question to my last post with "yarn bombing." Up until today I hadn't heard of it, but looking at one of the pictures in today's Oddee post seems to answer my question as to what was going on at Lyndale park. Also a quick google search provides the following image:

If you're wondering the date of the wedding at Lyndale park was indeed June 11, 2011. I think I may now get some good sleep because of this, and think we should "yarn bomb" something in our neighborhood too!

Turtle Neck Warmers?

So this isn’t really a blog-worthy blog, because numerous Google and Bing searches do not give me answers to the questions I have. Anyhow I shall write about this “amazing story” idea anyways. Two weeks ago I travelled up to Minneapolis for a cousin’s wedding. The wedding took place in front of Turtle fountain at Lyndale Park, and I couldn’t help but immediately be drawn to the turtles. They were wearing hand-crafted neck warmers. They looked like they were knit, but still it was June, so why on earth would a metal turtle need a neck warmer??? Could a random person (like the members of HDH) make a crocheted neck warmer for these turtles, or other statues perhaps closer to home??? Alas there are no answers to this blog and I guess this is yet another one of my crochet fails…

It's about time...

So I know I am way overdue for making a post on here, which makes me happy that I actually have two things to blog about (no you don't get them in the same day, so stay tuned). Although I have a million projects started that I never seem to finish, I actually have started and completed this one in a fair amount of time. MORE BABY BOOTIES YAY!! Booties are such fun projects for two reasons: 1. Everyone loves someones else's baby, the one you get to play with for a while and send home at the end of the day so you still get your full nights rest, and 2. They are quick projects!

So my same friend that I made the cowboy booties for is now getting ready for her first Granddaughter. I didn't want there to be any sibling jealousy right from the start so I had to make some special booties just for her. Now cowboy booties wouldn't be proper for a darling baby girl, I had to do something different, something feminine, so I went with the pink dress shoes with white ankle socks. Now what baby girl wouldn't love a pair of these??

Beard Heads

So while continuing our search to get us new T-shirts, I came across a site that also sold Beard Heads. Now I have never heard of them, but apparently they're kind of a big deal and sell for $30! Perhaps we can cross all the men off our Christmas list and get started on making some of these today!

Doing Something 70 Year-Olds Do?

What did you do this weekend? Our small HDH group decided to step out in public sans group shirts, and make a statement. We met at a local Starbucks and crocheted away. One of our members mentioned she was being ridiculed by family for ‘doing something 70 year-olds do.’ Since our infancy we have strived to break this stigma by being our cool selves, making non-grandma like projects - including cute booties, fun afghans, modern scarves and hats. We even had an America’s Next Top Model-type photo shoot! Grandmas aren’t doing that these days.

Anyhow, here's my finished Easter Basket that I made at Starbucks, using a pattern from Lion Brand Yarn:

I’ve always wanted to try a pattern that involved crocheting more than one yarn together at a time and this one called for three. It is a quick and easy pattern, and I opted to add buttons on the side to finish off.

I’m also thinking when we make our new shirts we need to add a blurb about ‘not your grandma’s definition of cool crocheting,’ but it needs to be more witty… I’ll get back to you all with more ideas.

Stitch N' Pitch Night

I know we were talking about going to this last year and missed it, so I wanted to spread the word that the Stitch N' Pitch at the Brewers stadium is Monday June 21st at 7pm! Who's interested?? Tickets are $25 and if we act fast looks like we get an awesome bobblehead.

Need more details, go here.

Our Kind of Hooker!

I want to take a moment to clarify that we're not the type of hooker one immediately thinks of when hearing that word. I was watching 30 Rock last night and thought I must share this short clip because I believe this video could be a shining example of what we'd be capable of!

Crocheted Treasure!

Once again I went hiking this past weekend with the hubby, looking for geocaches along the way. I was pleasantly surprised when inside one of these caches was a crocheted coaster! I ended up leaving the coaster behind so the next cacher could marvel at it.

Super excited with this find!

This has now given me an idea to perhaps crochet some other small items to leave behind when geocaching. Unfortunately the only thing I can think of is the banana tampon cover…

Crochet Fail - Wire Jewelry

About a month ago I took a visit to my local library and decided to take a detour over to the crochet books. I was in the mood to try something new, and I became super excited when I stumbled upon Crochet with Wire, a book by Nancie Wiseman that had multiple jewelry patterns inside. The next day I went to Michael's where I found their bead/wire section had a 40% off sale! All signs were pointing that this was going to be a great addition to my hobby.

Crocheting with wire is quite a bit different - there are new terms to learn and different materials to use. Once I entered Michael's I was a bit overwhelmed, but glad that I took this new book in with me. I had to figure out what gauge of wire I needed, and not only did I need to know the difference between a 5/0 and an 8/0 size bead, but I also needed to know where to find this information on the beads! (I feel this could have been more obvious.) So with my 40% off sale I purchased everything I needed to get started.

...then reality set in. I found crocheting with the wire, odd. If you make a mistake on a stitch, it's hard to get out and forever kinked (however, they do have a smoothing tool you can buy). I practiced with a tight stitch, an average stitch and with a loose stitch but never seemed to find my groove. Adding beads were easy, but perhaps too time consuming for me as they need to be pre-strung before crocheting in the correct count and color order. I took a break for a day and picked it up the next day, took another break and tried again. Finally this past weekend I returned all my unused 'crochet with wire' items...

Overall I didn't like my end result, and I didn't feel like investing more time mastering this new art was worth it. Perhaps if I had practiced a bit more, and not been obsessed with immediate perfection I would have enjoyed it, but as you can see from the picture below, this looks like a bracelet curling and curling around, however it's supposed to be a necklace.

Despite being wire, this can't be forced to lay straight.

I mainly disliked two things about crocheting with wire - my inconsistent stitch and the way the necklace would not lay flat. The two patterns I tried were aimed for beginner's, but I just didn't like how mine looked.

In addition to this necklace pattern being wavy it would not lay flat.

Perhaps in a few years I'll try and crochet with wire again...

Luck of the Irish

As March is upon us, so is the luck of the Irish. Many people may not know that the Irish actually had a big influence in crocheting in its early years. When the Great Potato Famine hit Ireland poor farm families needed a way to supplement there income. Women were able to crochet Irish Lace and sell it to the wealthy to embellish there clothing and home decor. This March as you're preparing for your corned beef and cabbage St. Patrick's Day dinner perhaps you can embellish your table decor with some Irish Lace.

For those of you that don't like to read patterns, here is a Irish Lace Demonstration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBWGTNM8SMU

The Year of Crochet

We are well into the New Year, with one whole month under our belt. With all the new resolutions and goals people strive for I think it's important to keep a little bit of fun in your life too. What could possibly be more fun than 2011 fashion and trends!!!

Besides crocheting, one of my favorite hobbies is shopping, weather it be window, online browsing or actually buying things. Now that the holidays are past all the new things for 2011 are starting to come out. One big observation I have made is that crocheting is making big strides in 2011 for being trendy and fashionable! Every where I look there are crocheted clothes, home decor, and accessories.

This is our year to make a statement with some of the things we've crocheted. Feel proud when you wear that sweater of hat you made for yourself and use the items you see in stores to inspire you to create even more!

Check out the links below for some my favorite things I have found online.

Cardigan: http://www.charlotterusse.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4393328
Pillow: http://www.pier1.com/Catalog/HomeTextiles/tabid/514/List/0/CategoryID/144/level/a/ProductID/29112/ProductName/Crochet-Felt-Floral-Pillowuu/Default.aspx
Tank: http://www1.macys.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=535511&PseudoCat=se-xx-xx-xx.esn_results
Bath mat: http://www.worldmarket.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10918685

Quick Weekend Project

If you're looking for a quick project to do in a couple of hours, I highly recommend looking at www.allcrafts.net. Last weekend I made the cute Amelia hat and I was finally able to finish today... only because I needed to go out and buy a button. This was a great project to make using up old yarn from previous projects. The hat that I made (shown below) is great because you make detachable flowers so the hat can match any coat/outfit you wear. So far I've only made a blue flower, as I only use one winter coat, but come spring, I may make a nice green one!

(Seen on my head for dramatic effect)

Please note: Should you plan to make this pattern and suffer from a big head like me, be sure to add plenty of extra rounds so the hat can cover your head.

What in Yarnation!

This past weekend I had the pleasure of taking a trip to Minnesota to visit a fellow hump day hooker who lives outside the Milwaukee area. It was a great weekend filled with consignment shops, wine tasting and a cute little yarn store called 'What in Yarnation!' Being a hooker who gets all my yarn from either Michaels or Jo-ann's I was immediately impressed upon entering and actually exclaimed, 'wow!' One of the six or so ladies knitting in the corner responded by saying, 'wow is right,' after all shouldn't that be everyone's immediate reaction after walking into a store for their favorite hobby?

This store was awesome! There were many different kinds of yarn, some that I've seen before, but most that I haven't. There were complete finished products to show off their patterns and the yarn, much more than the little swatches that most stores have. They were helpful and knowledgeable. They even had a wooden yarn ball winder... I have never seen one of these before, and I enjoyed watching them wind my friend's skein. But overall, my favorite part of the store was a small corner where ladies were chatting and knitting (crocheters are welcomed too!). I would love to find a store like that by us, and I intend on scoping out some places!!

I loved this store, and especially the sign they had out in front!

In fact, here's a list of places I'd like to go:

Knitch (Delafield) - They also appear to have a knitting/crocheting corner (http://www.knitch.net/index.html)

Yarn House (Elm Grove) - While they don't have a website, the reviews on Google look good.

River Boutique and Yarn (Brookfield) - They also seem to have a knitting/crocheting corner (http://www.riverboutiqueyarn.com/)

If you're ever in Cannon Falls, I highly suggest visiting What in Yarnation!

Fun Fact!!

Last year I took a trip to San Francisco where I finally had the pleasure to go to Alcatraz island and visit the prison. I found the different rooms and aisles of cells fascinating. While walking down one of the aisles and listening to our guide we found out that one inmate learned to crochet and taught some of the other inmates how to as well! Looking at the picture that I took below, looks like he had a very nice stitch, although I'm really not sure why he'd make a pink baby blanket??

Even prisoners think crocheting is cool!