Doozy Yarnblob and WIP

No, this isn't a very late Halloween decoration, it's a doozy of a yarnblob:

The above yarnblob is brought to you by RedHeart yarns; by now the yarnblob has been straightened out and incorporated into one of my current WIPs:

Yes, I am crocheting this one; I realize it's rare that I crochet, but the pattern (available for free here) was just too enticing to pass up. The pattern calls for three or more colors, but I went with just two; solid black (color 0312, displayed in the yarnblob above) and a lovely green hombre I hadn't seen before.  Both yarns are Redheart Supersaver yarns; the green is simply called "Green Tones," color 0629. I decided to go with solid black for the second color to highlight the variegation in the green.

For this project, I'm using a size US-K (6.50mm) hook as recommended in the instructions. It's an easily memorized pattern and works up quickly unless you leave it in a bag and forget where you put it.  (What? You've never done this?)  Once this one is complete I may try a second one in multiple colors. I suspect this would also be a great pattern for using up remnant yarns.

Doily of Doom

This is a doily I made years ago for my best friend's kitchen table:

Looking at it now I think I did a pretty decent job on it, but with one major flaw; it should have been 16 inches in diameter but my gauge was so tight that it's only about 12 inches across. As with most things I crocheted long ago, I didn't know much about gauge (okay, nothing about gauge) and held the thread so tight it dug into my fingers. Now, I would probably get a lot closer to the proper gauge but I haven't been adventurous enough to try any major crochet projects.

Sometimes Yarn Just Won't Do

My Hubby was recently working on some dungeon bits for our Pathfinder games and asked me to create some tiny bedclothes for the beds he'd made. I decided to use crochet thread and a tiny hook (1.65mm) and crochet them. Even so, it was really difficult to get them small enough. The pencil and 1"x1" background grid are for scale:

The evolution, left to right; final version far right.

I finally got it the right size, and even managed to make the sides turn down a bit so they'd hang off the edge of the tiny beds:

Final version, side view.

Vinal version, end view showing turned-down sides.

I even made some Mad Knittist notes as I went along so I could re-create the bedspread since my Hubby would need a dungeon-full of them:

Unfortunately, the very nature of yarn ensured that the tiny bedspread curled a bit, and at that scale, its own weight was not enough to pull it down. We suspected that even with gluing, it would still curl. Also, the depth of the crochet stitches made the bed nearly 1/8" wider than without the bedspread. Using the same 28mm scale as the character minis, that's roughly the width of a shoe. No yarncrafter in their right mind would make a bedspread that thick. Sorry, Aunt Lydia, but yarn just wasn't gonna do.

My Hubby, however, was undaunted. He decided to use paper, some origami-esque folding tactics and some shaved foamcore, and I think they turned out great:

The paper makes it look like they were patchwork-quilted, perhaps by the innkeeper's wife. My Hubby's full blog post on the beds and other dungeon bits can be found here.

Ship Ahoy

My Hubby and I were talking a while back about my blog pic (currently a picture of a tea cozy I knitted). We were talking about maybe making some kind of 3D setup with yarn and taking a photo, and I envisioned a Viking-style ship with scarf blowing from the mainmast and a ram's head at the bow. It was hard to explain and I didn't want to lose the idea, so I scribbled it out as best I could:

Clearly, I am just not an artist, so to explain, the mountain on the island is a cone of yarn and the shrubbery and trees are yarn cakes with DPN's sticking out. The cargo and shields on the ship are spools, and the main mast is a crochet hook. Those things on the sails that look like nails are supposed to be knitting needles. The single cloud is supposed to be a skein of white yarn and the oppositely-colored dots in the Yin-Yang symbol are supposed to look like the end of a skein or cake. It looked a lot better in my head than it does on paper. Perhaps for now I'll just stick with the tea cozy.

Dice Bag Liners

I've received an inquiry recently via the D20-Pathfinder SRD site about the liners I make in my dice bags.

In a nutshell, once the outer layer is complete, I use a thinner complementary yarn for the liner (often a sock yarn), adjust for the difference in gauge, and pick-up and knit inside the dice bag about a quarter-inch to a half-inch below where the drawstring will be. The outer layer is inside-out and upside-down for this part so that ultimately, the wrong sides of both layers will face each other and the user will see the two right sides. Were I to crochet a dice bag, I suppose I would do something similar but create the first row of the liner by crocheting on the inner loop only of the row where the liner is to start.

Hopefully that will help. If you need more information, please let me know and I'll be happy to answer any questions. You can also click on the "dice bags" label at the lower left of my blog here for pictures of what the liners look like.

Lost at Sea

Well CrapCat has reminded me that it's been while since I was able to post or even read my email or the blogs I follow, due to working a lot of overtime and catching up at home as a result. However, I've nearly completed another project, so stay tuned and bear with me and I'll try to make it worth the wait :-)

Meanwhile, here's a random pic of the castle blanket I crocheted with a cute kitten named Jet and his friend, whom I think is a stuffed pokemon: