Finally! A yarnie post for you! I know, I’ve had a lot of family photos and stories to share lately. Time for yarn!!
First, I promised you a while back that I would share how I have been taking my photos as of late. I have had several people ask how to get good pattern photos indoors, without good daylight. So here is my pattern photo corner in my basement.
I hung a piece of light blue linen from a joist with a few thumb tacks. When I need a table top, I roll my desk chair over, toss a bin lid across the arm rests, and drape the linen over top of that. When I need the dress form, I just stick that in front of the linen. There is very little natural light that comes into this section of my basement. However, there is a large and bright light right there, and it works well for me. I use the close~up setting on my camera, and then just snap a bunch of photos. Having a decent camera helps, though mine is not top of the line…or all that new…but it certainly does it’s job.
Here is the picture I got from the set up I just showed you. As you can see, it works just fine! I do tend to make some edits on Picasa, but not much.
Now I have a new fun project to share with you.
I tend to wear jeans until they can not be worn any more. Some people wear out the knees first, I wear out the inner thighs. Does this happen to you as well? I’m sure the smaller you are, the less it happens; but for those of us in double digit sizes, this tends to happen.
It seemed a shame to toss these jeans into a box for some future use, when I liked them so. And I have been on a skirt kick lately, so I decide it was time to transform them!
I cut off the inseam and outseam, cutting on both sides so the seams were totally gone. I then cut a bit more from the crotch area on both halves, so that they would lay flat. This took a few tries as I did not want to cut too much off. I just cut a bit, then laid it on the table to see if it was flat, then cut a bit more until it worked.
I decided I wanted to put a crochet border on the bottom, so I cut a few extra inches off the bottom. The extra bits were tossed in my “Jean Scraps” box. Those things come in handy! If I had thought about shortening the jeans before cutting them apart I could have cut the bottom few inches off first, then sewn the cut edges shut to make two bags. Just add a strap, a button loop, and a button, and maybe a fringy bit off the bottom, and you have a cute little bag!!
I have some great spring colors of Red Heart Super Saver that seemed just perfect for this project! What you see above is the start of the wedge I will put in the center front, and then I will make another for the center back. I will then make 2 more for the sides that start with a top that is an inch or two wide to account for the bits of the jeans that I cut out at the waist. I am making the wedges knit, and then I will add a lacey crochet bottom. I love mixing my stitching! I will also crochet a belt to go with my skirt.
I will keep posting photos through this project.
I am also crocheting a rug with 3 strands of Red Heart Super Saver and other like yarns from my giant bin o’ acrylic worsted weight yarn. I will write this pattern up and share it with you at some point. For those of you who are brave enough to give it a go without a traditional pattern, here is a quickie:
Chain 3, hdc into first chain, turn, hdc, sc, hdc in the first hdc. Then each row starts with 2 hdc in the first st (you can use a ch 2 for the first hdc, or a chainless starting hdc) then sc across, and 2 hdc in last st. For the “fancy” rows: (1 hdc, ch1, skip 1) across, then for the next row, 2 hdc in each ch-1 sp. Remember to increase on both ends! The other “fancy” row is just 2 rows of shell stitch: 3dc in first st, skip 2, (sc, skip 2, 5dc in next st, skip 2) across, both rows, on the second row the dcs are worked in the scs, and the scs are worked in the center of the 5dc shells. You may need to get a bit creative on the ends. I am making 4 rows of sc between the “fancy” rows.
This past weekend we took the girls to Disney on Ice. We got great prices on the tickets through the Girl Scouts. Kyla was feeling the need to be a blue princess ballerina. She was in quite the goofy mood!
Every morning I tell the girls to put on socks or slippers before coming downstairs. This morning Kyla got up before me and came downstairs with bare feet. When I came downstairs she was cleaning up her breakfast like this. Silly girl.
In really cool and fun new, I have a pattern in All Free Crochet’s top 100 patterns of 2013!
It is my Owlette Lovey pattern. The sample seen in the pattern (named Owlivia) was donated to the children of the Boys and Girls Club of Hoboken, along with many other handmade stuffed toys from the Craft Hope project just after Super Storm Sandy.
That’s all for now. Time to get hooking on that rug!
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