Filet crochet pillow cover

I finished a filet crochet panel:

That I used for a pillow cover:

I charted a pattern adapted from Ouvrages de dames... edited by Jule Trigoulet (see the top design on page 9).  A .pdf is available of the chart that I made--I used DMC Cebelia cotton size 10 in ecru, with a 1.4mm steel hook.

I love how it turned out!  I had started the crocheted panel to be a curtain, but then tossed it on the bed...next to the pillow that had a cover which was wearing out...

Now I'll look for curtain ideas!

February Hat

I call this my February Hat, because it's still so cold out that I want a warm, wool hat, but it's also the month that the plum blossoms emerged in the garden, looking glorious, and there are still winter winds coming through, causing the "snow fall" of their petals.

The pattern is "Tigress Hat" by Kim Salazar, but I wanted more of a cloche, so I added a row of stockinette before the crown, and two more rows of stockinette before the brim, and it fits down over my ears, keeping them warm. The yarn, Rowan Harris Chunky, is much softer after a cold water soak and blocking. The hat used almost all of the skein, 75-80%.



The flowers are crocheted in DMC Cebelia cotton thread size 20, with a size 11 hook, with pink embroidery floss around the center to evoke the look of the plum blossoms. The pattern is the flower part of “Narrow Violet Edging,” from Rita Weiss’ Crochet Edgings.

Cedric and coral

Cedric loved his visit to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Besides the seahorses, the coral reefs were his favorite--he's long been a fan of the IFF's crochet coral reef, so he loved the opportunity to see the real thing.

Repaired laundry basket

The handles broke on the laundry basket--all the handles--a long, long time ago. Duct tape had served--served it best--but that wasn't good enough. We didn't want to put such a huge hunk of plastic into the trash. There had to be a way.

So Paul cut the broken top of the basket off, and drilled three holes every place it was solid, as you see in the photo above.

Then I made some "tshirt yarn" according to Polka Dot Pineapple's excellent tutorial on how to make a ball of "yarn" out of worn out tshirts.

Then I started crocheting:
(I'm sitting on our bed, and the cover, by the way, was crocheted by my grandmother. Yes. I'm sitting on it. We use our things.)

After a row of single-crochet (the American term) around the top with a size J hook, I then started another sc round, making a chain where each handle used to be. Then, I did another row of sc over that. It took two tshirts:
The basket lost a little structural integrity (it squishes a bit easier), but it works really well. The handles are comfortable and stretchy, yet strong. And the loss of stiffness isn't really a problem--the new, crocheted top of the basket is very soft, so the basket with the laundry can be squished under one arm.

(All photos by Paul. Thank you, Paul!)

Free Tibet bracelet pattern

This is as close to politics as this blog will ever get; Timson is rather uncomfortable about public political discussions, but he had a lot of fun making this bracelet, and would like to show it off:

I came up with this bracelet because I was looking for something I could wear frequently that conveyed this message but all I could find were those plastic message bracelets, and I'm trying to reduce the amount of plastic in my life--I couldn't find anything so decided to get creative.*

The pattern's very simple--I've made it available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file, for free here, but if you like it, please contribute to either The Tibet Fund (U.S.), Free Tibet (U.K.), or the organization of your choice that supports Tibet or Tibetans.

*For just one reason to reduce your purchasing of plastics, see the Discover magazine article, The World's Largest Dump: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.