A New Beginning

Hello everyone! I have begun a new afghan this winter. This one is called Daisy Garden. I just love this pattern I found in 'Afghans by the Pound,' by Leisure Arts. I thought the name Daisy Garden was cute too. I just love the flower pattern to it. So what do you think of the color combination? I like it. The booklet showed like some rose colors but my craft store did not have the color I needed so I chose this purple combo. So have any of you been making any afghans this winter? I would love to see them. So leave me a comment so I can come visit you.

Happy crocheting from Granny Annie!

I'm Still Here!

Hello to everyone who drops in over here at Granny Annie's. I just wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned my blog. The truth is, I haven't been doing any crocheting. I've been taking a break, like the picture shows below. So I have no new projects to show you at the time being. But I have been dabbling into other hobbies. If you go onto my other blog, Peek-A-Boo Street you'll be able to see some of my other interests. If you'd like to see them, here's the link. http://peekaboostreet.blogspot.com/ Please leave me a comment so that I can be sure to check out your crochet projects or maybe some of your other hobbies and interests as well. Take care for now and I'll be back later. Love, Granny Annie ♥

Crocheted T-Shirt Rug

Here's my first finished project using strips of old t-shirts. I've never crocheted with fabric before.

You also can use strips of old sheets and pillowcases. I wish I would have known about this before I threw out all of my old sheets over the years. The old t-shirts with holes I had no problem cutting up. But the ones that my teenage son out grew, I had a hard time cutting up because I always give them away to charity. I was hoping that this rug would turn out as I was cutting up all the t-shirts that could have been passed down to someone else.

I think it turned out pretty good. My husband even liked the rug. He thought it looked store bought. Bless his heart. ♥ This rug I used eight t-shirts. I wanted it to be bigger but didn't have anymore colors that would match. I didn't want to add a blue to it so I finished it off as is. It measures 2 1/2 ft. in diameter. The size of the hook I used for this was 11.50 mm 'P.' It was a plastic hook and only cost a couple of dollars.

I put this rug in my home office were it wouldn't get much traffic over it. But it's pretty heavy duty and think it would be fine if you set it in a heavy traffic area in your home.

I did use a single stitch on this rug. I started off with a round but for some reason, it turned octagon on me. But a lot of people do crochet these rugs oval as well. There is a lot of info about this type of project over the world wide web.

Peeper, my little Schnauzer likes it. I always see her napping and sitting on it. =) Okay Peeper, I made it just for you.

I was thinking this would be great to crochet up some hot pads for your hot dishes and pans that were coming out of the oven or a hot pan from the stove top. I don't know if that would scorch up the t-shirts though. You'd have to try it first to see.

It was so much fun and so easy. Cutting the strips of t-shirts are a bit messy so I do that on my patio. Then you just run you hand and pull the strips to get the excess fibers to fall. Then you can roll it up like a ball of yarn.

So has anyone ever crocheted with fabric before? If not, maybe I have inspired you to give it a try. If you have, let me know. I would love to stop by your blog and see your finished project.

Crocheting With Fabric

Have you ever heard of fabric crocheting? I've heard about it from one of my bloggy friends here in blogland. You can find her blog in my sidebar where my followers are. I've never heard of it until Pat mentioned it.

I've heard of crocheting with plastic bags that you get from the the grocery market but never with fabric.

You can use cut up t-shirts like my friend Pat did. She made some rugs and a table runner. I looked it up on the Internet and it said that you could also use sheets and pillowcases. You can even rip the sheets in strips as you go. But of course your end result will have a more shaggy appearance. I like how you can just rip the sheets. It would go much faster then having to cut old t-shirts into strips, is what I'm doing right now. See the picture below.

No, this isn't a pile of dirty laundry. This is a pile of old t-shirts that I'm going to cut up. This is some of my son's old t-shirts. My hubby has a lot he said that he could give to me to cut up. Also in the picture above, can you see the two balls of fabric that I have already cut? I'm so excited. I just love new projects. I've also come to find out that it is very messy cutting up the t-shirts inside the house. So I've been sitting on my swing outside and I've just been cutting away.

You do need very sharp scissors to do this. And of course do this with caution so you don't cut yourself. It does take time. It doesn't go very fast. So my goal is to cut up a lot of t-shirt strips outside before the weather gets cold. Then I'll start on my project. I'm not sure what I want to make as of yet. I was thinking a rug or some seat-mats for my swing outside. I don't know if they will be done this summer because it's already at the end of the summer. But it would be a great idea. Because my wooden swing outside is so uncomfortable but beautiful and I just love to spend time out there on my swing. Also because I haven't done this before, I don't know if I would have enough cut up t-shirts for a project like that. That the thing with this project. How far will one ball of fabric take you. Maybe someone out there can tell us.

The way I cut the the t-shirts up to get the maximum usage of the old t-shirt is to start at the bottom of the hem. Cut into it on an angle. And just keep circling around until you get up to the arm pit part. I don't think you can do much more then that but maybe there's someone out there who can give me a hint on how to cut up the whole shirt. I have been cutting up the sleeves and saving them for maybe smaller projects.

The Internet said to use a big plastic crochet needle for the job of single or double crocheting. And when you need to add on another ball of fabric, you join the ends by knotting them together.

Well there you have it. My next crochet project. I will show you periodically what it looks like and what I decided to make in the up coming posts. And if I am having to much of a hard time with it and threw it to the back of the closet, then I'll let you know, either way. But maybe it's an idea that will work for you. I've never used fabric before so this is all new to me. But I'm looking forward to it.

So is there anyone out there who crochets with fabric?

It's Finished~

No, no I did not abandon my blog. Some of my viewers (daughter =) ) told me to get going on this blog. Lol. So this morning I finished up my unborn grandson's baby afghan. He will be here very soon. I was done with the blankie but I just had to do the finishing touches on it. You know, the weaving in of the tails and all of that good stuff. I do think it turned out really nice. To bad I don't know of a little girl being born because this would look really pretty with the pink and white. I'm keeping the pattern in case I'm in the need to hurry and make someone a baby blankie. This was an easy blankie to make. At the beginning I was having a little bit of some difficulty but then got in on the third try. Don't you just love "getting," meaning the pattern of a new project. That's like the best thrill of the whole process. Sometimes I'll even get bored with a new project that I've just begun. I'll be so glad that I "got" the pattern and just set it to the side to pick it back up months later. Maybe because I'm a self taught crocheter. So when I understand the pattern, I'm like "Yes! I did it, I got it!!" Sometimes the pattern is to hard for me and I'll go ahead and return the yarn. But that is after many, many tries and lots of swearing. =) My family know when I'm starting a new project and I'm not understanding the pattern after many tries. Anyway enough blabbering. Here are the pictures of the finished project. And just think, next month I'll be holding my new grandson in this soft blue and white blankie. You can click on the photos to enlarge. I'm not sure what my next project will be so the next time I post, hopefully I'll have an idea of what I want to make next. Have a wonderful and blessed Easter! Happy Easter!

My Crochet Caddy

Whenever I would crochet, I would have all of this stuff laying around. Paper and pens to take notes with. Scissors with scraps of yarn all over the place. Yarn and crochet needles. My handy dandy crocheters help book. The list just goes on and on. So about a year or two ago I went up to the craft stores to see what I could find. I found this little hobby caddy case. It sort of looks like a man's fishing tackle box. My hubby makes fun of me and asks me what in the heck is in there. I told him everything I need for my crochet projects.

Don't you hate when you get all settled in with your project on your lap and your getting into the groove of it all and then all of the sudden you have to get up to blow your nose. Or you've got a little piece of dry skin hanging from your fingertips snagging on your yarn. Your your lips become dry from counting out stitches. Or you just needed to get organized. You want to keep your scissors somewhere safe.

Well I took care of all of that when I purchased my hobby caddy case. I even took a picture to show you of all the stuff I usually keep in there to help my stay organized and to help me from having to get up from a project and losing my crochet spot or just losing that momentum.

As you can see on top, I have my pen and paper to take notes with. I have my mini measuring tape that always comes in handy for gage's and finished projects and so forth. My markers for counting. I even have a little nail file for all of those little hang nails or dry skin that keeps snagging on my yarn. I'd like to add baby nail clippers in there to.

The second tray holds some hand lotion, kleenex and crochet needles for threading in all those tails. The light blue are pointy and the dark blue are the blunt ones. I also have my chap stick. My lips always get so dry when I'm crocheting.

Then in the bottom of my hobby caddy case is my crochet needles of all sizes. See how I crocheted cases for them? It helps so that they don't keep clinking into each other at the bottom of the case. I also have my crocheters help book. I also keep my crochet patterns in there that I would like to make one day. There are a few of those bells from a previous project that I was working on. I crocheted little bells for my Christmas tree and they were giving me a heck of a time. I made a few and moved on. I'd like to go back to them one day. Because they are cute.

So there you have it. Just a few things to help me keep the important stuff on hand when I'm settling in to work on my crochet projects.

My hubby makes fun of me because of the kleenex. He says I'm always blowing my nose. He says, "I see you got your kleenex." I swear, guys no nothing about crocheting, lol.

So do any of you crocheters out there have a little caddy to help you stay organized? Or to keep the things close by in a caddy so you don't have to put down your crocheting project?

I'm still working on my baby blanket for my unborn grandson. I'm almost half way through now. I haven't been working on it to much but I have worked on it some this morning. I'll show you that when I'm finished. Happy crocheting!

It Just Goes On and On

It just goes on and on around here with Granny Annie.

What you are viewing is my very first afghan that I ever made. I don't know what year I made it though. I would have to guesstimate that it is at least ten years old.

Ok, so I got a little carried away. My first afghan measures out to over 8ft. by 5ft. Hey no laughing! So I went a bit overboard. Don't forget that this was my first afghan. But in all honesty, when I was making it, the afghans just measured out to short for me. Because my hubby is tall and I just wanted a big afghan that we all could use when we were watching t.v. or something. I didn't want one that left your feet hanging out and came only up to your chest.

But here are a few more pics with the details more visible. I didn't take care when washing my first afghans so it has a lot of those little pills (fuzzy balls) on it.

I got the directions for this afghan in "I can't believe I'm crocheting" booklet by Leisure Arts. I'm not sure, but maybe someone could tell me, that I can't scan the directions of the pattern to this post because of copy right reasons. I'm not sure though how that works and I don't want to get in trouble. So that's why I just informed you where the pattern came from.

Right now it's been sitting in my closet. Maybe I could wash it up and give it to my daughter who has her own home now.

I'm still working on my unborn grandson's baby blanket and that it coming along nicely.

I just ♥ to crochet. It's so much fun!

Please leave a comment. I would love to visit your webpages or blogs.

For My Unborn Grandson

I am starting a baby ripple afghan for my unborn grandson who will be here at the end of this May. So since he will be almost a summer baby I wasn't sure if I wanted to crochet him an afghan until I found this yarn. It just seems thinner to me and much more softer for a newborns little face. So I think that it could still be used when he is born. What do you think? Also what do you think of the yarn? Isn't it so neat? I've never used this type of yarn before. The picture will enlarge when you click onto it.

I just happened to stumble across it at JoAnn Fabric store. I seen the pattern on the paper cover of the skein. So all I had to do was buy the four skeins of yarn that it required. So I like how this pattern came to me while not really looking for a pattern. Because when I'm looking for one I tend to have a problem with making decisions on which pattern to choose from. I'm very picky and choosy when it comes to patterns because I don't crochet all the time. But I'm hoping that this blog will change that. So the patterns that I do chose, I want them to be perfect.

On the downside to this spontaneous find of a pattern is that it is to easy. It's for beginners. And therefore I'm not learning. I like patterns with a slight challenge. Maybe with a new stitch or something like that. But this pattern is pretty much your standard double crochet stitch throughout the whole pattern. But that's ok I guess. The good side to it is that it won't take me long to finish it. But anyway, enough blabbering and here is the beginning of the baby blanket. And of course I will post it to show you when I am finished. Which shouldn't be to long. I do love the yarn though and I would definitely use it again. It's so soft, I would love to make a scarf for myself using this type of yarn. It's sooooo soft.

What The Heck!

What in the heck! Now how in the heck did this happen. If you think, that I'm going to spend my day, trying to get this knot out of this yarn, your wrong. It's worth going up to JoAnn Fabrics and buying another skein for $6 and just tossing this mess in the garbage. Or I could save it for crafts. Please tell me that this happens to the best of crocheters...(sigh).

Under Construction

This new blog is under construction. Please keep stopping in to look around. I will be showing crochet projects that I have done in the past. Some stuff that I am working on now. And maybe we can give each other some tips along the way. I'm not a beginner in crocheting but a little past being a beginner, whatever that would be. We can move along together as we grow in our crafty journey together. But I would like to hear from experts at crocheting as well. That is how we learn our craft by conveying information to each other and sharing tips on this beautiful craft. I am a self taught crocheter. My sister couldn't teach me no matter how many times she tried to explain it to me. My maternal grandmother did some crocheting herself. Along with my mother. So I hope you all will stop back by soon. If you want to leave a comment to let you me know that you stopped in, that would be great. I'm so excited about my new crochet blog and I can't wait to get it up and running!