Chalkboard Con-Tact brand

Made labels using  Con-Tact brand chalkboard vinyl for writing with chalk marker.
Setting - Silhouette vinyl. Needed to hold the 24 inch mat on the back of cutter - it wanted to get stuck in the wires and on back of the desk.

Fabric cutting with contact paper

Worked 23 cm Obitsu pattern, loaded to Silhouette software, edge traced, made 3 mm outline, cut edge.
Cutting mat + black swimwear fabric (double stretch, polyester) + ConTact clear matte on top.
Cut 12 by 12 piece from fabric using cutting mat and rotary cutter and slightly bigger piece of contact paper.
Burnish really well.
Settings - blade 4, thickness 33, speed 4 double cut. Blade 3  single cut didn't work at all.
Saved the Contact pieces to use as pattern template, they are still slightly sticky.

Secret of the stole I - finished

There it is - finished and blocked.

Secret of the Stole, hint #2

Secret of the stole

Yesterday the first hint was posted, and I managed to knit it in whole in just one evening. So far I like it. Here it is:

This is the picture of the sweater I am making. I am on row 17 now, right at the top.

Worked on the lacy sweater. 14 rows are done.

I swatched 4ply weight smooth silk yarn from colourmart.com. I am going to make a lacy sweater from an old magazine. I used size 1 (2.25 mm) needles and it came out to be perfect 28 stitches to 31 rows for 10 by 10 cm square after blocking. Just what the pattern calls for! I was really pleased to get the gauge from the first attempt. I am very loose knitter, so most people will need bigger size needles to get this gauge. The swatch was washed in hot water with a dish soap, then blocked. After drying it felt quite stiff, but some gentle shaking returned it to being nice and soft.

My Mom sent me a photo of this picture I made several years ago.

Bear Necessities

This pattern was adapted from Simply Knitting magazine (November 2006) to Tunisian crochet. I need to find buttons for the closure, but otherwise it is ready.

Crochetville Holiday Exchange

I received wonderful gift from andyM - look at this! Everything is so wonderful! Thank you! The green rectangle thing on the left is a crochet hook holder - very nice, another green rectangle is a bag, black bag is for storing yarn and it has many pockets and grommets to thread the yarn through and crochet right from the bag! Then there is a crochet calendar for the next year, and holiday pens and CD with holiday music, and cookies, and candy canes and tea, and holiday socks, and ornament with my name on it, and checkbook cover with space for placing pictures - I will put my kids pictures in there! Thank you very much, Andy! I love everything! I really hope you will like what I am sending to you!

Slim-Fitting cardigan

Ok, last one for today! There you can see where the leftover yarn from the shawl went. The pattern is called Slim-Fitting Cardigan and is found in Fabulous and Flirty Crochet book. I really enjoyed making this. My only complain is it is tapered to the bottom, and it ends below the waist, and it does not sit very much right down at the back. I would make waistline shaping, not taper if I would make this again. it would be easy to do since the ripple pattern goes on back and front only, and the sides are just plain dc's - easy to adjust for size and shape! Otherwize the pattern is good. I did not add buttons as I couldn't find the perfect ones, and also I am not sure it will look good all buttoned up at the back because of tapered shape. I am afraid it will pull at the lower edge and it will not show waist.

Tunisian Crochet top.

This one is made with Knit Picks Shine sport weight yarn. The yarn is so very soft, I liked to work with it very much, although it tends to split a little. Anyway, it is very pleasant to touch, I am looking forward to using this yarn again. The basic pattern was made with the same Knitware Sweaters program. it is Tunisian crochet in the round cardigan with the closure on the back (I stitched it shut almost to the top, leaving some space for a button and the buttnohole of ease of wearing) It has reglan sleeves and slightly shaped waist, and it is tight-fitting. I added narrow lacy edging to the sleeves and neck, and wide edging to the bottom.

Crochet sweater

This one was crocheted from Patons Fresco. I made a pattern using trial version of Knitware Sweaters program. It is crochet in the round top down, the stitch pattern is very simple *single crochet - chain one*. It was such a releif to just make one gauge square, like it and then make a pattern using my gauge, not someone else's. I am very floppy crocheter and knitter, and always have to use hooks and needles several sizes down from recommended, or the item will be huge. That was really great to use the program. It has some features disabled for demo version, but I could still make print the pattern. I think as is the sweater is a bit too blend, so I am considering adding some edging to it. And, yes, it is exactly the size I wanted it to be! No more pattern adjustments for sleeve and waist length!

Capelet an hat

Both made from a boucle yarn from Crochet! magazine (November 2007)

63 crochet squares crochet-along

This is my current progress on this afghan. I made 28 squares. I skipped about a half of the squares published in the book because I did not find those to be right for me. I think I will make couple more squares and then move to the 63 more squares book. There is going to be 9 colors in this afghan.

Crocheting bag

This bag was made in Berocco Softwist yarn. I made up this Tunisian crochet pattern. The bag is intended for crocheting or knitting while out in public or waiting for an appointment. It is worn around the left wrist and I put some yarn inside and crochet. I even crocheted while walking! It obviously works for small projects only. I used up two skeins of yarn for the bag. Next time I will make the handle shorter a bit.

Green Capelet

I do not remember where I got the pattern for this, But I really like it, and made three capelets with it as for now. This one is crocheted in a Yarn bee yarn, again, sorry, forgot the name - so much for procrastination!

Crochetville winter scarf exchange

This is the scarves and matching pins I got from Lisa. They are very soft and pretty and warm. I like the matching pins! Thank you, Lisa!

Aviator hat

This is a hat from Crochet! magazine (either September or November issue 2006), made with the yarns pattern is called for (another rare case of using the right yarn). Caron boucle for edging, and I forgot the name of the other yarn. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough yarn for it (it called for one skein of each) so I had to alter the pattern, mainly the earflaps are smaller.