Crochet, Crafts, and Creativity!
I like to shop just as much as anyone. However with so much pressure being put onto retail employees, and retailers as businesses, over the last few holiday seasons to work on and through the holiday (I know, I worked retail for the last 10 years) I do not wish to condone or support this. Requiring store employees to work on Thanksgiving or fear getting fired and Mall corporations requiring its stores to open earlier or they will incur fines, is just simply not nice.
Here are some updated details on my upcoming holiday shows!
SF Etsy Indie Holiday Emporium
Saturday & Sunday, November 29th & 30th, 2014
11:00am – 5:00pm both days
Pier 35 on The Embarcadero in San Francisco
Head on over to any of the links below to get details on this FREE event!
Etsy Event Details
Facebook Event
Yelp Event Page
Evenbrite Event Page
Triton Museum Holiday Gift Fair/Family Art Day
Friday, December 5th from 5:30pm – 9:00pm
Saturday, December 6th from 10:00am – 5:00pm
Triton Museum: 1505 Warburton Ave.
Santa Clara, CA 95050
I have recently become familiar with a line of 100% organic cotton yarn by a company called Galler Yarns – Inca Eco. I cannot get enough of this yarn, I love it. The feel of it is so soft and I love that it is 100% cotton too, which means many people who do not like, or cannot wear wool (like my good friend over at This is Sesame) could wear it and get the feel and look of wool without the super warmth or allergy risk.
While traveling in NY over the 4th of July holiday I picked up a few skeins of it and wanted to find some patterns that would make the yarn resemble a wool look but not be too bulky.
So far I have found a hat pattern and a chunky cowl pattern that I have used and really like with this yarn.
Over the summer I admit I have not been inspired to try any new patterns for very warm things like scarves or hats. In May I started to make a pair of gloves for a friend because I knew she would love this yarn and I wanted to try this pattern I found. It is August and I am finally done with the set!
Link to Ravelry Pattern
Yarn Used: Great Adirondack – Sirino Yarn in Peacock Continue Reading →
Come out to Rickshaw Bagworks up in Dogpatch, SF this upcoming Saturday afternoon from 11am – 3pm to check out the company store and shop for local curated finds from myself and my fellow SF Etsy teammates! Hope to see you there!
This show will feature some new items not yet available in my shop, keep watching my Instagram Account for more photos!
SF Etsy Pop Up Show @ Rickshaw Bagworks
July 26th: 11am – 3pm
July 10th – July 20th
Enjoy 15% off all Ready to Ship items!*
Use coupon code: EtsyCIJ14
*This sale excludes all Made to Order items and Custom Orders
Ok, so it has been some time since I have posted anything, apologies. However! I have returned with a few quick updates for you on some cool upcoming events and projects that are happening right now.
First up, next Saturday 28th I will be vending at the Triton Museum Midsummer Art Festival! So come by to enjoy some food, art, kids activities, music and of course local artists!
Second, local SF company Rickshaw Bagworks held a contest to design custom bags with the SFEtsy team this past month. It was a lot of fun going to the shop and seeing where they make the bags and design them. They do everything in house and were super fun to talk with.
Below is a mock up of my design, it is 3 crocheted floral squares set against some upholstery fabric I found at FabMo. While I did not win, I am super excited to have my flap turned into a custom bag!
More to come on my bag once it is completed!
I have also been working on some finger gloves for a friend for an overdue birthday present (I see in in July so it is still ok to be late), which I will post photos of once they are complete and on the hands of the lucky recipient!
I am also working on a mystery project so all I am sharing is the colors I am using right now, more to come when I am close to revealing the the project.
That is all for now, thanks for stopping by!
The Yarn
Company/Store: Malabrigo Rios
Colorway: Label says UNK 5007 currently not listed on the site so I am unsure if this is a commonly available dye lot
Weight/Length: 100 grams/210 yards per skein, worsted weight
Material: 100% merino wool
Hook size used: 5.0 H
Admittedly its been awhile since I have been able to crochet a lot recently. New Job has been taking up much time every week so I am trying to get better and squeezing in crochet time when I can. Fortunately! I am finished with this fun crescent moon shape wrap that I made with some Malabrigo yarn I picked up at Stitches West back in February. I wanted to try something a bit different than a standard scarf but since I didn’t have enough yarn to do something like a shawl or cardigan, I opted to look for a wrap in an interesting shape.
The Pattern
Name: Mezzaluna (Crescent Moon) Wrap (Ravelry Link)
Author: Nancy P
To clarify, since this pattern has a few iterations and versions, I used 2 of the included instructions. For the body of the scarf I follows the pattern titled Mezzaluna_Wrap_simplified_terms_by_Judy_OC. For the edging I followed the pattern titled Mezzaluna_Wrap_UK_English_Terms_by_dsweeney (Edging #2).
Once you figure out the repeat its pretty easy going for the body, and I like the look of the bobbles, not too many so it is not too heavy. The trim is a fun scalloped and picot trim. I added a row of sc around the entire piece prior to starting the trim on the outside edge.
I like how it turned out, the colors are so wonderful, reminds me of a watercolor painting of a flower garden. I have not blocked it yet, I am not sure if I think it needs it, it is soft and sturdy enough already.
Check out the finished item photos below, final measurements are around 56 inches in length from tip to tip, and at its thickest it is about 10 inches wide. I had 3 skeins of this yarn and have about a half a skein left so I am guessing around 500 yards total used.
Thanks for stopping by! If you have any questions about this item or how I used the pattern, please leave a comment below!
I had 3 skeins of this wonderfully colorful DK yarn I got at Stitches West from Zen Yarn Garden (color way OOAK in Serenity DK) and thought to make an attempt at a basic short sleeve cardigan. I hunted around for awhile and after reading reviews from makers, wanting something that was a basic repeat and could be customized fairy easily in case I needed to adjust the sizing. After a bit of debate I settled on this Chevron Lace Cardigan by milobo for a few reasons. 1 – it is worked from top down with (after a slight mod) no cutting/joining any panels, 2 – it’s a basic chevron repeat which can be easily modified from the start to the size that you want and 3 – it was not too lace-y or thick with the yarn I wanted to use.
Admittedly I am not one to like doing gauge swatches, but for this I thought I would do one, so I did, and after 30 rows, realized it was too short on the front panels and the arm holes were off, so I had to frog it back to the very beginning to add a few more rows, but such is life and learning, but at least doing that shows me that while it is good to do a swatch, sometimes you just won’t know exactly until you are half way done and that’s just the way it is!
I did a fair amount of editing to the pattern once I got past making the arm holes (using the FSC edit some of the makers suggested so you did not have to cut/join your yarn). I have copied below what I wrote for my Ravelry notes here:
“I followed the pattern to a degree, I started with 56 chains using a 5.5 hook with DK yarn on the thin side. I started the arms at row 13 and used the FSC option noted by a few makers of this pattern instead of breaking and rejoining, this worked out very well.
As I went I needed the front sides to be a little wider so for the first/last 20 sts on each side I did 1 increase and kept it for the remainder of the body. So 5 DC then ch 2 instead of 4 like the normal repeat.
After I got the length good I went around with a row of HDC around the bottom and switched to DC’s up the middle and then back to HDC around the collar to give it some width for buttons and an edge. I did this 2 times around.
The sleeves I did 4 rounds of DC then 3 rounds of HDC, then 2 rounds of shells. I also did 2 rounds of shells on the bottom edge as a finishing. Then added the black buttons about 2 inches apart. I didn’t block it prior to taking the photos so the front edge curls a bit, not sure if I will (too much work for something I don’t feel I really need)”
Preferably I wish I could have made it about 2-3 inches longer on the body, but it still fits just fine and is not too tight or loose, which I am super happy about. The buttons are 1 inch black plastic buttons that I put on about 2 inches apart because I noticed after I finished my edging it wasn’t laying exactly flat and was flaring out a bit at the bottom, so the buttons fix all of that which I am fine with. Overall I am super happy with the final result, it fits well and I will certainly wear it!
Here are a bunch of pictures I took of the completed cardigan with some closeups of sections.
Yay I am finally back!
Moving recently has put a wrench in my ability to keep up with my normal activities, since all of my yarn and camera gear was packed up for awhile. It is amazing how much work moving 4 miles away is after moving across the country 2 years ago and thinking that was tough! But we are finally moved in and although still putting things in their new places I finally got to my yarn stash yesterday! I had been working on a shawl project off and on for about a month in and around the move (luckily it was in my project bag so it was the only thing I could work on for awhile) and since it is finished I wanted to finally update my blog and post some new photos. 
I had a few skeins of Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable yarn in this ocean-y aqua blue green color called (conveniently) Tidal and thought it would work great for a shawl pattern I found called Schultertuch / Dreieckstuch (which after translating I believe means Scarf / Shawl) and while originally written in German, I found and English translation written by Michelle Iseman here (Link to Ravelry post).
Update 8/23/2015 – Another English version of this pattern can also be found here.
It is really fast to learn the pattern and quick to work up once you get going. I actually ended up buying 2 more skeins because the 2 that I had were not enough to make it as large as I wanted. I ended up having about a 1/2 a skein left once I got to a length that I liked. What is nice about this pattern is that you can use a variety of weights of yarn from lace to even aran and it would look nice. Although you could use larger, but I would probably stick to sport or worsted normally if I were to make another.
I made an additional row along the base line after I was done with the number of pattern repeats I wanted to give that side a bit more of a finished look. After I finished my last Row 7 I did the following across the base: (using Row 4 – 7 as the regular repeat) ch 1, *sc in dc from previous row (a Row 7), chain 3, sc in next dc (a Row 6), chain 3, sc in next dc (a Row 5) 10 dc in chains from a Row 4* repeat * until all the way across (see photo below for visual) 
Here are the final stats and photos, glad to be back!
Final Stats
Size: 72 inches long (measuring along base line) x 36 inches wide (from center of base line to point)
Yarn Used: 3.5 skeins Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable Yarn in Tidal (so approx 975 yards)
Size Hook: H 5.0
UPDATE: 1/15/2015 – Check out another shawl I have made using this same pattern and edging technique here!
Thanks for stopping by!