HDH gets a visit from the East!

Last night was our monthly HDH meeting.  We had the distinct pleasure of welcoming two new members to join us. It was exciting because they were from out of town and of the male persuasion!   After our potato dinner and bangers in the mouth, we sat down, turned on “The Devil Wears Prada” and got to work.  I had the pleasure of teaching Herman how to crochet, while Hazel taught Ken the stitches.  We both taught them the double crochet and it seemed as though we made some good progress.  After we explained the differences of knitting and crocheting as well as the difference between needles and hooks, the guys seemed to really enjoy their experience.  

I mean look at Ken, he seems excited!

Look at Herman showing off his stitches to Ken!

Herman seemed to really take an interest in the basics of crocheting, asking questions that we didn’t even know the answers too.  I feel it made Ethel, Hazel and I want to learn more about our favorite hobby and perhaps even blog about this more!  He now has earned the bragging rights to explain which end one should properly pull yarn from on a skein. (Writing this I now realize that I failed to explain what a skein is to Herman, not sure if Hazel told that to Ken…whoops!)

Ken started with a rather fuzzy and plush yarn and realized that this might not be the best yarn to use for a beginner project, so he checked out my surplus bin and picked a different yarn to restart his project.  He then couldn’t stop talking about how yarns differ from one skein to the next.  Anyhow, they both genuinely seemed interested in their projects and wanted to learn more!

After asking more about their needles and then having us explain to them for the fifth time that Hookers use HOOKS and not needles, Herman and Ken felt a little stupid once they realized their mistakes.

We've all been there. (Must click on photo to enlarge their amazing faces!)

Overall, we all had a great time catching up and crocheting.  We even got to watch some Arrested Development!  Stay tuned for more blogs to come this month!  It seems HDH took a little bit of a summer vacation from blogging, but now your inboxes will explode… I hope!

We all really got into our projects by the end of the night.

Happy Labor Day!

How are you spending you're Labor Day?  Im taking advantage of they day off by getting some crocheting done!

What in Yarnation - Toilet Decor

So I had the pleasure of going out to lunch with a fellow HDHer today, who reminded me that today is the last day of August and hence the last day to blog for it.  Unfortunately I had to finish my work day and then immediately get in my car and drive 3 hours away.  Currently half way through this drive, I again realize I have limited hours left to get this done.  So this is one of those moments where I'm thankful to have a smart phone. I've been taking crochet photos with it for quite some time now, and luckily have an awesome gem that I MUST share with the people of the internet... Another What In Yarnation blog, but this time about their most intimate of spaces, the bathroom. While visiting my dear friend in MN, I was again was able to stop at What in Yarnation, only at their new location. It was even more amazing than last time. Again they offered an abundance of crocheted and knitted projects all over the place. However my favorite craft of theirs that was on display was the one on their toilet. I was in awe of their craftsmanship of this purple decor with a beautiful white border (pictured), that i just needed to share this with the world. If you visit this place be sure to check it out. It was another great visit, complete with long walks to a bridge, sand volleyball and only two of the four out-of-towners getting poison ivy.  Crochet your bathrooms up with some amazing toilet decor, HDHers

Gift from Grandma

I'm writing this blog a little overdue (ok like 8 months overdue) but I'm still writing because it is something close to my heart.

One of my inspirations for starting to crochet has been my Nana.  For years and years I have memories of visiting my Nana and watching her crochet the same afghan pattern.  She always made it in a creme color solid, no stripes.  She left a 2" fringe on each row cutting off the yarn at each end.  It was this solid pattern that worked into the row below to make a raised diamond pattern when the afghan is finished.

I loved watching Nana work on the afghans, her fingers moved so fast it was like the yarn knew exactly where to go.  She had made so many of these, she didn't use a pattern, and often didn't seem to pay attention to what she was doing.  She had been taught the pattern years ago from her husbands, sisters, cousin in law... or something like that. Over the years it seemed like she had made one for almost everyone she knew.  This ones going to my sisters niece out east, that one went to my sister in California, the next ones going to my friend down the roads daughter.

I had asked her several times if she would teach me how to make one but she had this way of changing the subject before giving me an answer, I guess not this year.  A few years back my sister was given one for her birthday. I was so envious, for years I admired this afghan and now she got one.

Well finally my time came. The Christmas of 2011 was Hazel's year for the afghan.  The family was un-wrapping gifts at Nana's as is the tradition.  I opened up a gift bag, pulled away the tissue and saw the cream colored yarn, the diamond pattern and knew that was it!  Thanks Nana, maybe one day I can learn to make the same afghan.

Stitch and Pitch

To the hookers of hump day:

Let this be known that this is my first blog of this century.  I am taking the honor of writing about our first stitch and pitch at game of the season at Miller Park.  We were watching the Milwaukee Brewers play against the Toronto Blue Jays.  The event occurred on Tuesday June 19, 2012.  Let me tell all of you that are reading this that this was the event of 2012.  I would highly suggest that everyone who is able to attend these future events of stitch and pitch should attend because it was great.  To recall a few of the events of the evening: 

(beginning of game)

1. The starting pitcher for the Brewers was appearing in his FIRST major league baseball game.  Let me just say that he did fairly well for his first game...until about the 5th inning.  His first at bat he hit a double in left/center field.  He did not do well at his 2nd at bat.  The very next day he was sent back to the minor league.  

 (ABOVE: Pitchers first MLB pitch)

(BELOW: Pitcher's first hit, getting a double - made out at his second at bat - and left the game prior to his third at bat)

2. We were all getting our drinks of choice.  I got a free soda because a person the was in front of me with a DD coupon and was not going to be using it.

3. There was also a moment of mistaken identity...someone (no names will be stated) thought that there was a male stitcher a few rows ahead of us, BUT it was a female with a butch haircut!!

(the one on the Right)

4. I was learning how to not just do a new stitch, as well as a new pattern.  Some stitchers were getting frustrated my the number of questions I was asking.

(the blanket I was working on thus far, it is still a work in progress)

5. As we were getting prepared to leave the game some gentleman were attempting to sit in the family section with there alcohol and were promptly asked to leave the section.  If was fun to watch, cause the section was pretty much empty besides them sitting there.

It was an enjoyable, all be it hot, fun evening with the ladies of HDH.

(a mother playing words with friends on her cell phone, while her 10 year old daughter was crocheting)

The Last Frontier

I've recently returned from a trip to the amazing state of Alaska and I couldn't help but notice the crocheted products in all of the stores.  One thing that particularly caught my interest were these adorable headbands, hats, and fingerless gloves, I saw in several stores. 

Assortment of Alaska Chicks Products

All of these products are made by a company named Alaska Chicks.  Alaska Chicks is a company founded just in 2010, based out of Palmer, AK.  There products range from distressed furniture and home decor to T-shirts and hoodies, to crocheted items like in the picture.  For more products mad by Alaska Chicks, check out there website: http://www.alaskachicks.com/

Yarnbombing 2012!

Earlier this year my husband decided that he wanted to do a Geocaching-Road Rally Event on Saturday June 9th.  I was excited when he told me that this day also happened to be International Yarnbombing Day and he wanted me to create three yarnbombs to place along the route, for the twelve teams to find.  So I took a look at my yarn bin and realized that this was a great way to get rid of some extra yarn that wouldn't really make a full project. 

For my first yarnbomb I opted to use the largest hook I have, my N hook, and double crochet together three different strands of green yarn.  Then I added some big pom poms to it so it would be easier to spot since this would be out in nature.  I put it right along the course and some teams passed right by it, some wondered what it was and then realized 'oh, this must be a yarnbomb,' and some teams figured it out right away.

Of the 12 teams only 4-5 of them found this one.

For my second yarnbomb I wanted it to be pretty obvious, so I used my bright variant pastel yarn and created a basic ripple pattern.  When I was working on this at home I thought this was going to be a little big, but once I put it on the tree I realized I probably could have added a few more rows to it since the width of it was hidden due to the circumference of the tree.

About six teams found this nice large one.

And finally for my third yarnbomb I wanted to make an Owl.  I again decided to use more yarn that I didn't really have a project for and crocheted some circles a small beak and them stitched them all together.  This was the hardest one for the teams to find as it was placed along a hiking trail and used a dark variant yarn.  

Four teams found this owl yarnbomb.

Overall I was very pleased with how these turned out and excited that I was able to share my passion of crocheting to others through yarnbombing. I think it helped that my husband gave a substantial number of points towards each yarnbomb so teams really wanted to find them.  One geocacher even sent me the video below that showed how a lady in NYC completely crocheted over the Wall Street Bull on Christmas Eve 2010, which looks like it would have take a lot of time and money to complete, but good for her! 

I hope you all got to do some yarnbombing or see some yarnbombing of your own, and if not do some crocheting in public this week, as the fun world-wide festivities towards our favorite hobby continue!