New patterns and new pursuits!

My goodness!  It has been forever!

Just a heads up  - I've got a bunch of new patterns out and ones I am currently working on.  Here's a fun one.  Orange Crush Market Bag.  One skein of yarn, expands like crazy.  I seriously put a whole shelf full of yarn into it with room for more.  And then I emptied it and folded it up and put it in my pocket. It is specially designed to expand sideways instead of down, so that it doesn't drag.  Nifty, eh?

Lookie!

You can get it here on Ravelry. 

Also check out Desert Marigold here on Ravelry - a Delta crochet infinity loop scarf, also in less than one skein of Yarn Carnival High Wire 3-Ply.

Yarn Carnival is my new pursuit, and what has been keeping me incredibly busy. It is an Austin, TX based indy-dye yarn company, but I also have my own line of knitting accessories as well.  Currently, the yarn and accessories can be bought at Hill Country Weavers and The Knitting Nest in Austin, TX, and the accessories can also be found at The Lucky Ewe in New Braunfels, TX. I just bought the domain name for my own website www.yarncarnival.com.  I'm building the site now, but it will be up and running soon!

A quick hello!

Just a quick little hello!

I've been crazy busy writing and whipping up a lovely crochet shawl pattern that will debuting  (in a collection that I also helped edit) this Friday at Vogue Live.  As soon as it is live, I will be hooting up a storm about it, but I've been trying to not say anything about it.  You don't know how difficult it has been!  I can't shut up at the best of times.

Anyhow, I just got a little thrill today when a friend let me know that one of my patterns was mentioned in Alana Dakos' blog Never Not Knitting as one she used for making a gift for a friend.  Check out the little knitted owl on her post here.  The pattern (seen above) is Owls Two Ways, and both the crochet version and the knitted version are on the same pattern.  Yay for little owls!

Baby Luchadora

This is Rose, in a skull mask, looking like a miniature Mexican wrestler. I crocheted a skull from this pattern, crocheted around it, and my daughter put it on. An idea was born - baby luchadora. I put ties on it and she decided she must wear it to dinner, AND that we should go to dinner at Torchy's - a great taco place here in Austin, Texas. So, being a mother that encourages flights of fancy, we did.

Tying up loose ends...

This is what I spent the last 7 weeks on. Actually, I spent the last 7 weeks making 2 of these. And there is no final picture - because I am a dork and forgot until after I had already delivered them.

The project was to reproduce 2 copies of an existing Christmas stocking that was more than 40 years old, from a pattern that is more than 50 years old. I was given a stocking, a photocopy of an old pattern, and asked if I could make 2 new close copies, with new names for new family members. They were knit flat for part (the leg and instep), in the round for part (the toe) intarsia for part (twin scary Santas,) stranded for part (names on both sides, and weird crossed candy canes,) stripes (the toe again,) and 3 jingle bells each. There was a back seam, seams on both of the heel gussets, a braid in 3 colors covering the back seam, and toes that had to conform to the original stocking, not the original pattern.

The part above is the section of intarsia where I was using 9 bobbins, butterflies, and balls of yarn for something less than 1 foot wide. It would have been 11, but I chose to add the 2 pairs of single stitch eyes in duplicate stitch.

The colors of the original were hard to match, but the person that commissioned them was quite pleased, thankfully. They are odd, but vintage. Interesting to make, but the finishing took about 10 hours - each.

I am trying this month to design 2 more crocheted bodice dresses, but I also am working on restoring an old crocheted afghan (I'm guessing from the early 1950s.) I WILL photograph the process, and I can tell it will be a very interesting challenge. Starting with loom-made daisies, I will be re-making parts of it, and I will then be repairing other parts. I was given lovely wool to match colors with, and I am so excited. Last month, I also worked on repairing another old crocheted afghan. I love repairs. It makes me want even more to go back to school to do textile conservation. We shall see...

In other news, I spent a couple of lovely evenings with a crowd of crochet folk. I was asked if I would be interested in starting up a local crochet guild, and I said yes. If you are in the Austin area, The Knitting Nest on South Congress will be hosting a gathering of people interested, and we will form a local chapter of the Crochet Guild of America. Save the date: Sunday, June 12, at 2pm. There will be food! Call Stacy at (512) 291-8866 to sign up, so we know how many to expect.

I had to cancel the Countdown to Harry Potter classes that I had designed - next to no response. I suspect Voldemort at work here.

I actually got on Twitter (@oceanofstitches) and I find that all of my postings are almost in Haiku form. My brain does not thrive perhaps on the 140 character limit. Or is it less?

I have asked my husband to keep an eye on my facebook and twitter accounts. I need to post more, and it seems easier to tell him what to post than sitting here assuming anyone is reading what I say. Right now, I am doing that but I might have him post soon. This space is mine, however. I may have him put up some photos for quick posts, but probably not.

I am trying to come up with classes to teach at both shops for the rest of the year. I am also trying to come up with whole series of knit and crochet courses. Occasionally, I sleep.

So there are my loose ends for the month. Let's hope I will be free enough to post more often!

In the meantime...

While everything else has been going on, I have managed to design a little sundress with a crocheted top and a fabric bottom - children's sizes 2-8 (US). The pattern includes a full, photo-rich written tutorial on how to measure for and attach the fabric skirt to the crocheted top. This little mannequin is sitting in front of The Knitting Nest in Austin, Texas - looking all calm, cool and collected in the already hot weather here.

You can purchase the pattern from Ravelry for $5: .

I will be teaching a class on making this dress this Sunday, April 10th, also at The Knitting Nest. If you are interested, call Stacy at (512) 291-8866 to reserve your spot.

Crocheted goodness

I finished weaving all of the ends of this square yesterday, and it turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself. The pattern is Granny Nenufar (Waterflower Granny) by Bigu Osuna and I made it for the March Afghan Square as part of the 2011 Afghan Square Crochet-Along at The Knitting Nest here in Austin. I just loved it so much that I had to share it with you. I will be teaching a class on making this square on March 9th at The Knitting Nest and I can't wait!

Is it weird to get this worked up over a 3D flower square?

I delve into Tunisian Crochet

I am undecided about Tunisian crochet (also called afghan crochet.) It is easy, satisfying in it's simplicity, and has a squishy, dense texture. It is also FAST. Sounds great, right? My reservation is in the fact that it is repetitive. Forward row, return row - again and again. But it's speed makes up for that. And it's density makes it ideal for bags - and in this case, an iPad case. Mind you, the fact that I used lovely alpaca/wool yarn in this project helps a BUNCH. In the pattern I have included instructions for creating an iPad case, a large Kindle case, and a small clutch purse.

Get your copy of the pattern for $2: (Ravelry PDF download)

Owls Two Ways (free pattern)

I just popped in to post up a duet of free patterns - more owls. I created a pair of universal patterns for simple one-piece owls, one knitted and one crocheted. These 2 patterns are together in one PDF for FREE DOWNLOAD HERE! (Ravelry.com PDF download.)

Yay! More Owls!

New Post!

Whew! It has been a whirlwind of a month! First of all - Happy Day After Valentine's Day! I made these little crochet hearts for my family yesterday as my gift. But we celebrate for a few days, as love is important every day. I hope you are having a break in the cold (or hot) weather wherever you are. It has been crazy here! I live in central Texas, and while it gets a little cold here in the winter, it doesn't normally get below freezing for days and days! I know the weather has been horrid so far this year, but I hope it has given you a chance to snuggle up and craft.



I have been BUSY sample making for both of the yarn shops where I teach. I just found out yesterday (by randomly checking the schedule) that I will be teaching an extra class at the end of the month. So I whipped up an amigurumi cupcake (and a pattern) just for that. I might even be tempted to post it up.

In other news, I have been writing a blog post for a locally-based garment company - Emilime. I hope to write more of those soon, as well as getting a chance to blog here more.

Also, I have jumped into writing knitting patterns with charts using a bit of computer software. I will post soon to review the software I got last week.

Back to sample making - the set I am doing now is for a 5 month series - Countdown to Harry Potter - 8 Harry Potter-themed projects that are a mixture of knitted projects and crocheted projects. (Including 3 designs from me!) Check back soon for a full list of patterns!

Happy crafting!

Granny's Valentine Bag Pattern

I crocheted this bag to demonstrate 4 different granny styles of crochet. It is in 4 colors of Cascade Yarns Luna - lovely, soft cotton yarn that was a dream to crochet. It made me think of my own granny - these were her favorite colors, and she loved hearts (see heart side of the bag below.) The parts of the bag were inspired by Granny Mandala by Crochet with Raymond, the Granny Stripe Blanket by Lucy of Attic24, the Center Heart Square by Ginger Badger. The other side is a basic granny square, for which there are many patterns. I give detailed instructions on crocheting each piece and on the assembly of the bag in my FREE pattern.

Here is the lovely Granny Mandala bottom.

The traditional Granny Square side.

And last, the lovely Center Heart side.

I do give options for creating two regular granny square, or heart square sides. You can see the granny stripe strap in most of the photos.

Download it HERE on Ravelry.



Granny's Valentine Bag by Ana Clerc is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at oceanofstitches.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://oceanofstitches.blogspot.com/2011/01/grannys-valentine-bag-pattern.html.

Bubo Owl Pattern

I have just finished with ANOTHER crochet pattern (I know!) It is for a Snowy Owl, or any of the owls in the Bubo genus. It is just a nice owl-shaped owl, and I originally made it for my son, Badger. I took notes the whole time I was stitching, and it turned out so well that I want to make the pattern available.


Errata: I found 3 errors in the pattern and these have been corrected. Any new download will have the corrected version, and all those who have bought a copy have been sent a new version.

In the directions to the body of the owl: Line 29: stitch count should read (30). Line 30: count is (24). Line 31: Count is (18). Line 32: Count is (12). Added Line 33: sc2tog to the end of the round (6)

In the directions to the wings: Line 5: repeat bracketed instructions twice. Line 8: sc 6 instead of 7.
You can download it here for $5:

Snow Arches Pattern

I just finished writing up the pattern for his afghan block that I designed for the January installment of the afghan block crochet-along at The Knitting Nest in Austin, TX. I have never done a design for an afghan block, other than a granny square - so I was surprised that it worked so well. Pretty, no?

Download it for $3, HERE:

Happy Owlidays!

I hope everyone is having or has had a lovely holiday! I am calling mine an owliday, as I saw one of these fly over the window and land on the roof of my mom's home as we were opening gifts yesterday. It was absolutely beautiful. My mother has been telling me that she has owls, and from her description of the call and from the one I saw yesterday, I can tell you definitely that it is a Great Horned Owl. My absolute favorite!

Which makes the animals that I made for my kids even more fortuitous!

Here is the Snowy Owl I made for Badger. It has barred feather marking on it's head and back. I will be publishing this pattern on Ravelry next week.

Here is the sweet little Horned Owl I made for Rose. The pattern is Owlets from the Roman Sock Blog. Mine came out a little shorter and fatter than I intended, but it is so sweet and soft.

So happy owlidays, everyone! Hoo!

Make your own ornaments!

Two knitted stars, an elf hat, a short-row pickle, a mini sock stocking, and a double-knit Norwegian Star snowflake.

An African Flower motif stocking, 2 crocheted stars, a curved crocheted pickle, a lace snowflake, a lace heart, and a little elf hat.

Starting November 26th and 27th, I will be teaching 10 different ornament classes. There will be 5 each of knitting and crochet (being fair to the various needle arts.) Above are the samples I created for each class. Call or visit The Knitting Nest in Austin Texas to sign up. Different ornaments will be offered on different days - knitted ones on Friday the 26th, and on Wednesdays thereafter; crocheted ones on Saturdays starting November 27th.

Escape the house, make your own ornaments (or gift toppers.)

The next big thing...

I coulda been a contender!

I just wanted to say thank you to the many people who sent me cheering messages in the last few weeks. It was a huge help - and probably the very thing I needed. I was tempted to throw my hands up and quit the teaching thing, but I would have been quitting one of the things that I love the best. I really love teaching knitting, crochet, and jewelry making. I love seeing the spark of understanding and the frisson of inspiration spread to those I teach. I love to share what I do, and make more of us out there. I love passing the gifts of the incredible teachers I have had to the next person. Thank you for encouraging me. I want to say a special thank you to Stacy, the owner of The Knitting Nest (Austin, TX) for supporting my efforts and encouraging me to teach. I will, in fact, be teaching holiday ornament classes there starting in November - both knitted ones and crocheted ones!

I have been busy the whole time I was preparing for classes. The above mitts are for my brother Martin's birthday (I can say that - only my brother Nick actually reads my blog.)

I just finished some for Badger - leftover Malabrigo from his hat last year. Buttons to match.

Rose has some, also made from leftover Malabrigo, to match her hat from last year - which I will admit is probably still a bit big. I am starting on more presents for the holidays. I also have to make Rose a gnome costume for Halloween this week. I am making her a red, dotted skirt, a blue, flowered shirt, and a little white pinafore. This will all be combined with her gnome hat to make her the sweetest gnome baby. I might even embroider flowers on her pinafore - let's see how the week goes.

I recently got a care package from my dear friend Laura. It was chock full of lovely, but here is one thing that she sent - recycled yarn from Washington State! Yay! I even like the name - Smart Monkey. They are on Etsy if you want some yourself. There is a local group that does the same thing, and I will be checking them out soon.

Here is something else I have been up to - more jewelry making. This is a 1.5 inch wide wool felt rose, with glass beads, a silk and wool leaf with pearl cotton embroidery. I made it as a gift for my Chiropractor. She is a very nice woman, but she has really been an immeasurable help to me. I actually leave my house because of her. My back had gotten so bad, that I mostly did not leave the house. Now look at me - going out and teaching.

I made a wool felt, scrap silk, vintage button, and embroidered bracelet.

Lined in a scrap piece of linen.

And a pair of chandelier earring to wear when I feel special. These were actually class samples I made for the classes that I was to be teaching. I bought the supplies, and made them to my tastes. They are definitely mine. They are Bali silver findings and sterling silver wire, beads, and Swarovski crystal beads.

The crystal beads are my favorite color name ever - padparadscha. These are a sort of an orangish, brownish, reddish pink.

Wikipedia states that "Padparadscha is a pink-orange corundum, with a low to medium saturation and light tone, originally being mined in Sri Lanka, but also found in deposits in Vietnam and Africa; Padparadscha sapphires are very rare and highly valued. The name derives from the Sinhalese word for lotus blossom.^[8] Along with rubies, they are the only type of corundum to be given their own name instead of being called a particular colored sapphire. Padparadscha used to be a subvariety of ruby.^[9] "

So, I am on to the next big thing, which is good for me, and I hope for the good of all.

Rose's Birthday #2.

Cupcake gnome. Would you like some of my lovely cupcakes?

Rose turned 2 yesterday. My goodness, she seems so grown up. Well, as you may know, I planned a food theme for her birthday this year. As you may also know, my husband, son and I made gifts for her ourselves. Well, in addition to the whole market bag full of wool veggies, she got a few other things.

The cupcakes here are from my mom, and are HABA toys from Germany. My mom also found her a kid's apron with cupcakes from Williams-Sonoma. A half-hour of hemming and it was short enough for Rose. My dad got her a wood sandwich playset, also some other lovely wood toys. Her Grammie and Grandpa Bob are 1440 or so miles away and had us get some toys for her - wood trains, a LEGO, and some stuffed animals (characters from favorite story books.) Her great-grandparents sent a cute cat card and some birthday money - she picked out more LEGOs. She is a very happy kid to have so many people who love her.

Her brother Badger made her some lovely rice-filled bean bags and a bag to keep them in. I found some fruit fabric and some coordinating leafy fabric. Badger helped design the bag and bean bags, Mama sewed, Badger filled them. Badger also picked out the really bright ribbons and threaded them through for drawstrings.

One last minute gift was a green gnome hat. I figured that she might also like something special to wear for her birthday, seeing as her brother got a full suit of chain mail and some armor. I adapted the pattern from an adult size witch's hat pattern I found on sale for less than a dollar. Like the helmet, I sandwiched a layer of heavy interfacing between two layers of wool felt (only one layer, not two like the helmet.)

I thought she might like some flowers on it, but might want to change flowers or add other decorations; so I made the flowers removeable. I found the pattern for wool felt rose hair clips at the Purl Soho blog: purlbee. I made Rose one at the same time I made two rose buttons for her hat. The leaf is my pattern, though.

A nice simple button on the back - securely stitched on.

Buttonholes cut and stitched in matching pearl cotton embroidery thread. Now she can put on whatever she wants. Her comment was "It's so nice." Balm to my sleepy heart.

Her dad and I conferred on his gift. He was originally going to carve her a bowl and spoon out of wood. However, Rose as a tendency (being 2) of hurling her toys around the house with glee. For her brother's sake especially we decided to make her a bowl and spoon out of wool felt. Dad did some of the design work, Mama made the pattern and did the stitching. I think I will put this up as a tutorial in the next few days.

Here is my next project this morning. Rose currently really likes pink. She had her own piece of the pink fabric on the right and she likes it so much that she takes it to bed, and wears it folded around her wrist as a bracelet. I got some more yesterday to make her a skirt that she can twirl in. The fabric on the left will be gathered pockets. I will be sewing a lot in the next 2 weeks. I designed some knitting needle cases, and a local store will display them during a yarn crawl. I will show off the fabric next week (It is full of birds and trees.) I am also thinking of doing more with some lovely dressmaker themed fabric I saw the other day - hmm.

And because 11 veggies seemed like an odd number (literally and figuratively), I made Rose a chili pepper. Also, because it was funny. Again, I am easily amused.

The Value of Our Handmade Stuff

Here are most of the crocheted and knitted veggies for my daughter's 2nd birthday present. For some reason, the corn didn't make the shot. So we have (total) 11 veggies: corn, tomato, squash, lettuce, asparagus, garlic, beet, radish, carrot, and 2 mushrooms. I made 2 mushrooms because one just seemed lonely somehow.

As I have been making all of the veg for my daughter's present, I have been thinking of how we value handmade stuff. If you are reading this blog, you probably dig handmade already, but how much do you value it?

Do you buy local handmade in support of local artisans? Do you pale at the prices charged for it? I know we can all get a pair of nifty cabled gloves at discount stores for under $20, so paying $60 or better for what could be seen as the same thing seems exorbitant. Consider that the raw materials at retail prices can cost $20 by themselves. Consider that it can take 20 hours or so to knit a pair of gloves with a complex cable pattern. If we paid ourselves fairly for our time, those gloves would cost $220. Now that $60 doesn't seem so bad, does it? Besides which, the workmanship and materials used in the handmade pair mean that those gloves will last you longer than a month or so of fairly constant use. With care, you could pass them down to your kids. Over their lifetime, handmade goods cost far less than the mass-produced equivalent due to their better workmanship. You could pay $60 for one pair of gloves every 5 years (with hard wear) or $10 twice a year or more for store-bought - so $100 for 2 pairs of $10 gloves a year for 5 years.

Do we as makers value our goods as much as we should? Do we consider that when we do our best work, we should charge accordingly? We pay retail prices for our materials (most of us.) We spend HOURS making each individual item. Why do we then devalue our work when we gift it? We say "well, I made this, so if you don't like it, I understand" or some such nonsense (of which I am guilty as well.) Why are we hesitant to charge a fair price when we sell it? Are we really trying to compete with discount store pricing?

I spent HOURS on my daughter's present. I am spending HOURS on the market bag to hold her present. I will be spending HOURS on my son's birthday present - the fabric cutting alone is in it's third day. The materials mostly came from my stash, but I paid retail for all of them. Why do I feel a little guilty for giving them only handmade for their birthdays? No idea. Even though this was a planned thing, I feel like I need to do more. Do more than 50 hours of work for each one? Spend more than I already have, even if lots of stuff came from stash? Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Even as a dedicated handmade consumer and maker, I tend to devalue my own work. How silly. I put love into every stitch, love into every cut of fabric and moment at the sewing machine, love into choosing the materials and patterns.

If you make stuff, value your time, effort, care, and work. It is more than good enough.

On Handwork

I saw this short video over on the Mason-Dixon blog site. The importance of it struck so deeply that I felt the absolute need to share it here as well.

Wool Veg Continued

Well, I've been hard at the veggie-makin'. In addition to the lettuce, we have this large knit garlic from Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh. She has some really brilliant shaping techniques in this little item. She has some really brilliant techniques in general. Her patterns are less toy instructions than fiber sculpture instructions. I love this little garlic and may have to make every single thing in her book.
The pattern for this lovely beet was found on Ravelry. It comes out more like an heirloom variety - just perfect for what I am doing. The leaf structure was interesting to do.
The latest one that I have completed is a crocheted carrot from the book Tasty Crochet by Rose Langlitz. There are some interestingly placed decreases that make for a slightly irregular - and more realistic carrot. The carrot tops were also crocheted, but were an improvisation based on the knitted tops from the carrot in Amigurumi Knits. I only made 2, as Rose is going to be 2, and 2 demands slightly more simplified veg.

Next up, a Tomato.

Fuzzy Lettuce

I have started early on Rose's birthday presents: 10 kinds of veggies in a market bag. The first one is a lettuce from crochetsal.com . It was originally intended to be a fridge magnet using crochet thread. I used worsted weight Lamb's Pride in limeade green. I am using wool, or alpaca/wool blends, for all of the veg - the bag will be cotton. I am improvising the bag so that it is scaled for a 2 year-old. When I'm done, I'll put up the pattern.