Hello from Po-hone-ix

I made it safely out to Arizona. There was some turbulence that was unnerving (nothing like this though) plus a cab ride where the driver seemed to make his job interesting by seeing just how close he could tailgate people. I was white-knuckled for the ride to the hotel.

But the five hours on the plane were quite productive in the crochet sense. I finished the first half of the “A” pillow.



I do love the color – vibrant and fun. I think the hook size I used worked well with the yarn but the overall size was much larger than anticipated. I didn’t bring my tape measure so I included my cell phone there as a reference.

I was hoping to make the entire alphabet as a learning tool for little Brodie but 26 of these might 1) be too big for little hands, and 2) too big to easily store the entire alphabet in a toy box. So this project may be re-thought to just be pillows for their names (Brodie, Grace and TBD). I’m also not a huge fan of the font. Something simpler – sorta like Arial font – might be better for learning purposes. If anyone has different and smaller alphabet crochet patterns, please let me know.

Speaking of TBD, s/he is due in June. The gender will not be known until the big day so I’m making a gender neutral blanket – which was also started on my plane ride out to the southwest.



So far, I do like the new Cupcake yarn by Lion Brand. I think as this blanket gets larger, I’ll like the overall color pattern more. Right now, it’s just a plain old granny square and I don’t like to give plain old anything to a new baby. I’ve got a back up plan if I don’t like the blanket when it’s done. And when TBD gets an actual name, then I can make the pillows for him/her.

I’m planning to make my trek to the Fiber Factory on Thursday night. They are open until 9:00 pm and I’m hoping to be out of work in time to walk over there and actually look around the store. Goddess knows, I’ll need to add an additional 15 minutes to my walk in order to get lost and then finally find the place.

The weather is nice, the work is going well - but I'm so looking forward to going home!

Completed Project: Alphabet Pillow

I never got around to posting about this project when I first started it - and now, here it is, all finished. A quick project that I could have finished in a weekend (but I stretched it out over two).


In Sesame Street fashion....This post is brought to you by the letter "J".

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Pattern: Alphabet Pillows Letter "J" by Woven ~n~ Spun

Hook size: J

Yarn:

• approximately 1 1/2 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in
  Off-White


• 1 skein of Bernat Baby Lash in Precious Pink

Size: 15" wide by 18" long

Modifications: I used a larger hook (J) and twice the yarn (holding two strands of the off-white yarn together) than what the pattern called for.

I used an F hook and only 1 strand of the off-white yarn to attach the two Js together. I did not turn it inside out as I was putting a border around it.

I also added a border. The border is two rows of double crochet using an F hook and the Baby Lash yarn. It covered up some of the messy joining and was a colorful and soft accent to the pillow.


Bonus photos:

Here's a photo of it prior to adding the border:


Here's one of the first "J" I made with baby yarn and a size F hook:



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This pillow is a gift and it was a way to do some stash busting. It is a gift for my niece, Jade, and I was going to make pillows for her entire name - but I ran out of yarn. And given the size of the "J", I'm afraid making similar A, D, and E could be a bit much to display in her room or in her crib.

As for the stash busting, the off-white yarn (which looks yellow to me) had been in my stash for years and the Baby Lash I picked up on sale a few months ago. While I would like to make the other 3 pillows, it would require me to buy more of all this yarn and that doesn't help reduce my stash. We'll see if anything fun is on sale soon.

I do love the way this pillow came out. I may make more of these and perhaps sell them on Etsy or at a local craft fair. Just an idea...