John's yarn crafts

Tasty tasty yarn

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:46:00 +0000

The Cake Journal Blog whips up a different kind of knitted treat this week...

yes, you can knit

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:34:00 +0000

The TSA (airport security people) blog on the lighter side today and remind us, yes, we can Knit and Crochet on planes.

Funny pic

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sat, 09 May 2009 02:44:00 +0000

OK, not my work, but I couldn't resist passing this link on

http://pictureisunrelated.com/2009/04/29/knitting-mummy-can-ride-subway-well-i-never/

Or click here

Snowflakes

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:30:00 +0000

I made an attempt at crocheted snowflakes. The looked good, but blocking them makes them look less than perfect. Then again, no two snowflakes will look exactly alike, eh? :) As a gift I took one of each for my friend. The previous pics show some of these being blocked (and has the pattern for two of them). I chained a small loop in green thread so they could be hung on a branch easily. the three are shown here on my tree (and I hope I remember to take them off my tree and wrap them up :-) The stiffener/glue left them awful stiff. I'll have to water it down a little more when I do the next batch.

The five sided start was the most difficult - it's one of those patterns that wasn't very good, and left a lot to the imagination. Actually, now that I see them far away on the tree, they all look a lot better. Guess when you look at things too closely you'll see all the flaws.

Happy Holidays to everyone!!!!

Scarf

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:16:00 +0000

I put together a scarf for my cousin's son. (First cousin once removed) My cousin suggested some colors. I like this stitch. It's a simple back-loop double crochet. but when you change colors every row, you get a two-sided type of look. I hope he likes it!!

The truth is out

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:44:00 +0000

Stephen Colbert exposes the 'radicals' among us. What did you stitch today???

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Just about there

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:28:00 +0000

Amazing how you can get backed up on projects.... Finally gotten to my blocking. The petals came back into shape nicely.

Since the holidays are approaching - the pattern, as promised. It's an old December Beauty from our friend the Panda Man.

I got a stiffie

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:15:00 +0000

What better to do while watching history being made than to give my first shot at stiffening doilies. I have two snowflakes I made that I want to try to stiffen to see if that will work well enough to turn these into ornaments.

Stiffener is basically glue. You soak the doily in it, squeeze it out, and block as usual. When they dry they should be 'stiff'. To what degree that is remains to be seen. if it doesn't work well, we'll have to make up a plan B. :)

The both look less-than-hexagonal while pinned, but hopefully that won't be an issue once they are hanging.

The upper left one is Pretty Snowflake from jpfun and can be found here. The lower right is Fans Snowflake and can be found here.

Almost there

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:06:00 +0000

Finished! Just needs to be blocked...

Progressing

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:55:00 +0000

Filled in the Red round. there's our Poinsettia look forming. Another white round and then some green (leave) fringe afterwards. hmmm - if I finish this one, maybe more before Christmas???

Xmas begins

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:54:00 +0000

Started a doily for someone as a Christmas gift. Got the center done. Looks pretty good even without blocking. The center is white and about 4" across. Some red pineapples come net. I'll post the pattern link when the doily is finally finished. Think I'll make August??? :) After finishing all those blankets, it is nice to get back to doilies. And, they're a little cooler to have in your lap in the midst of summer...

Blue/Yellow/Grey Ripple

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:29:00 +0000

This latest afghan was my full size donation for our Project Linus effort at work. As you can tell, the wave/ripple pattern has become one of my favorites. it's easy and I can do it pretty much without looking while watching TV.

This one started with the dark yellow, which was some 'factory' remnants, the blue and grey. I threw in the lighter yellow because I didn't think I'd have enough of the dark to complete the project. Turns out I did, but, well... But as it ended up, the two yellows together made it look a bit nicer.

Of course, I started late and was rushing to finish. I dreaded this, as the first of June Boston had a bad heat wave, so there I am with an afghan on my lap trying not to sweat on it. Plus, crocheting and a number of other things was giving me some shoulder pain, so I had to watch how much I stitched each night.

Luckily, after the heat wave broke, and it got really cool, so having a growing afghan was nice. So nice in fact that the day I finally washed it the weather was chilly enough I put the afghan on me (still warm from the drier) while watching TV. Wow, fluffy warm and snuggly. Probably the only afghan I've though of keeping for myself. ;-)

This ended up being the 4th afghan I made for this Linus effort, but the only large sized one.. I'll blog more on the donation when those photos become available.

Time marches on

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:36:00 +0000

Wow. I didn't realize I did so little in 2007. Was a busy year. Well, this is busy now. I'm in the middle of three different projects. One is a 'standard' baby blanket, you've seen those pics before. I'll get pics of the new works up soon then!

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:31:00 +0000

Here's a scarf I made for a friend for Christmas. Another friend in the work stitch club brought in a similar scarf and shows up a stitch her sister-in-law (I think) had showed her. I picked it up and tried it at home, and it turned out pretty good.

I'm a crocheter, but this is a knit piece, called a Shaker stitch. Basically you have an odd number of stitches on the needle. Then k1, k1 in the stitch below. I found a nice yarn at a local Wakefield shop and away I went. Turned out nice. It's a light stitch, very soft yarn. And of course purple is her favorite colour. :)

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 03:44:00 +0000

Well, I'm finally done.

I got too busy to work on the afghan, and then wasn't done in time!!! I crocheted my little fingers off in the week before I was to gift it. Even got some extra rows done on the road.

But all came out well. I gave the completed afghan (pictured) to my sister over Thanksgiving, as we exchanged Christmas gifts at that time.

As you can see, I think she enjoyed it very much. I think the colors will work well with her new paint scheme. It may even get cold enough in North Carolina for her to use it! Believe it or not, I think I brought cold weather to NC with me - it was in the 40's. I had to use one of her old afghans - wish I could have unwrapped mine and used it. hehe.

But the work continues. I have one scarf almost done, and some wild dreams of doing a second one by xmas (yah, right). Maybe I'll just try to work on a doily snowflake instead. I'll have to start work in July in order to make next Christmas. :)

- J

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:03:00 +0000

Hey everyone. I got a few folks asking about the pattern for the 'wavy' afghan. I usually post patterns with my pics, but the book was at the office. This is a pattern from "300 Crochet Stitches" - one of the harmony guides. It's a basic ripple variant - not sure how copyrighted such things are if they appear in dozens of books. :) This one happens to be called "Ridged Chrveron Stitch (pp30). It's a basic ripple, 3 up, inc2, 3 down, dec2. Done in the back loops to give it a bit of texture.

I'm 1/4 - 1/3 done - hopefully I'll actually finish it in time. :-)

- J

Next afghan

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 22:36:00 +0000

Here's the next big project. Big being large in size. And next being the latest one started, aside from the other three I'm in the middle of. :)

This is for my Sister. I haven't made her anything yet, and she has a new home, so I figured it was time. Plus, I liked the ripple pattern I used for the charity afghan, so I thought I'd use it again. (I so that a lot :-) Hey, maybe the pattern will make its way into a scarf.

Anyways, she's got gold and burgandy in her room, and grey goes with everything. Plus with even and off rows, there's a 'yellow heavy' and a 'yellow light' side, so it's kind of reversible. Not too bad.

I think she'll enjoy it. We'll see in a few months.

Charity Sampler

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:57:00 +0000

Just wanted to give everyone a sample of the blankets donated. It's a small image, butyou get the idea. You can see my wavy afghan in the center. The mint green forward on the left is also one of my baby blankets.

First Charity stitch

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:12:00 +0000

Well, may as well start the blog with my latest work. OK, it was finished int he Spring, but what can you do.

We have a S&B at work (Stitch and Bitch - although at work we have to call it the politically correct Stitch Club). We decided to do something for charity. I took the lead, and chose Project Linus (www.projectlinus.org) as our first recipient. Eventually we donated 23 blankets. I submitted 4. 3 were basic baby blankets - 2 verigated baby yarn, and 1 mint yarn. I wante dto make at least one full size blanket, so I picked a generic wave ripple. The colors, while dictated by a yarn donation, went very well together.

The blankets have been donated, and have already made their way to those in need.

It all begins...

noreply@blogger.com (John Mc) — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:43:00 +0000

Hey Everyone,

My web pages being a pain to update, I'm moving my craft stuff to this blog. Here's the into from my web pages. I'll post my works as I create them. :)

- J
------------------
As if I didn't have enough bizarre hobbies, I also crochet - and now knit.

I'm just a creative kind of guy. String art. Photography. Building models. So when I saw the "teach yourself to crochet" book in the store, what could I do. Besides, I had a coupon.

But it was not out of the blue. Mom crocheted a lot. She was the afghan maker as we grew up. So I was at the crochet store so I could look for yarn colors for a new afghan. On my bed is a red, white and blue one that I've had since I was a wee McLachlan, so I figured it was time for something different. So while in the store I saw the book, and well, I got hooked. Get it. I got hooked. never mind. I've since taught myself to knit as well (with the help of an informal class). There are some things you just can't crochet. But we'll see where the knitting takes me.

So I'm well on the way for something else to suck away all my time. At least this is one of my cheaper hobbies. :)