I'm Back! Crochet Blanket, Amigurumi and more

Hello All! I had to put a pause on Hello Lovely for a little while and focus on another blog I have (The Gallery) for a class of mine. I've been busy though!

I finished my first granny stripe afghan! This will be the second blanket I have crocheted, the first being a Christmas present for my mom (below). That was a monster. Nothing compared to the one I made for myself, it was made with Lion Brand's Wool Ease which makes it rather heavy. It's perfect for those chilly winter nights in Iowa, that's for sure.

After snuggling in that one I knew I had to make one for myself. I had started a granny square blanket a while back, but that just wasn't for me. You change colors too often, it takes ages. But granny stripe, that was another deal entirely. So I gave it whirl and fell in love with the granny stitch. It turned out pretty great:

I also made my first amigurumi doll. Amigurumi, pronounced ah-mee-goo-roo-mee, is the Japanese practice of crocheting or knitting stuffed animals and the like. For my first project* I made a crochet version of a kokeshi doll doll. It doesn't look too bad for a first time. I even altered the pattern some, which I got from TGLD Doll on Etsy here. I wanted a good pattern to start with and figured I could edit it a little to how I wanted. I have yet to name her so if you have any suggestions please leave a comment!

In other and also exciting news I will be graduating from college in May! Yay! So there will be plenty of apartment posts and DIY posts probably. Not to mention thrifting finds! Lots of exciting things happening! Can't wait to share them all!

*Cards on the table, I tried to make an elephant once before this one but was using the wrong hook and it failed so I'm not counting it. This was my first successful attempt

Failed Attempts

When you aspire to make things that you haven't made before, you are bound to have a few mishaps. This week I have had two crafty ideas gone awry. Both dealing with Valentine's day. I feel the universe maybe telling me not to celebrate this holiday of love. 

Fail 1:

The first was my attempt to make my own version of heart ornaments that the lovely owner of What No Mints (shop and blog), Sasha makes. She is as science teacher and I thought it would be cute to make her something adorable with a science edge. So I wanted to make her a heart with serotonin molecule on it (seen on WNM's sun below).

But sadly, sewing is a stretch as it is. Even mild embroidery was a fools attempt for me. My string knotted three times just trying to get the first two lines of the molecule sewn in, I couldn't seem to cut two sides of a heart that were the same size even when I held them together, and when I attempted to draw on the molecule the ink bled through the felt. It was an utter failure and I wasted so much felt in the attempt alone. I am hoping to still have some cute valentines to share after the big day, but so far it's not looking so great. I wish I had a picture to share of the mess, but I didn't think to take a picture of it in my frustration.


Fail 2: A while ago I made the cutest crochet hearts, 21 in total, in a big and small size. I used this tutorial at Skip to my Lou to make them but only used row one and two. (both to make the bigger size and just the one to make the mini hearts).

Big Heart and Little Heart

21 hearts!

So I was planning to make a garland, like that from the tutorial. But, grabbing my dusty purple yarn and going to work to string them all together...things went awry.

I first tried just threading the yarn through the top, like the tutorial does:

But, it just wasn't working. It was pulling the hearts together so the looked more like a circle than a heart. So then I tried threading it through the back which worked, or seemed to, until 5 hearts in I held it up and realized they all were going to fall forward so they faced the floor instead of people. 

So that failed. I think I may try to turn them into hair pins. Perhaps that's the best course of action at this point in time. Or ornaments. Or maybe I will be able to turn them into some sort of cute valentine for my loved ones yet. My mom already sent me her lovely crafty valentine, a homemade card! Isn't it wonderful!?

Do you have any lovely valentines that you've made? Send me a picture or link! I'd love to see what crafty things you all are doing for your valentines.

Stay Lovely,
Katelin

Hat Sizing Chart

I have been doing a lot of crochet in the past few days, and I realized one of the things I really need now is a size chart I can pull out whenever I want to make a specific sized hat or headband. So, I did some research and put one together! The head circumferences listed are very standard across all the sources I found, but I can't say for sure how accurate the hat heights are as there were only a couple sources listing them, but they sound about right (measuring from the base of you neck to the start of your crown).

Hope this helps you in your crochet or even knitting needs:

Keep an eye out for a foot sizing chart for booties, slippers and socks! Soon to come!

Stay Lovely,
Katelin