Monday, July 30, 2012

It's Begun

The Olympics are in full swing and I am working my crochet muscles.  I spent the weekend watching the Olympics and working on my Ravellenic Games projects.

I am currently working on two projects, the "Sweet Eleanor Scarf", and "Dragon Shawl".  Both are about halfway done.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Gearing Up!

To jump start some projects/creativity and challenge myself, I have signed up to be part of Team Crochet during the Ravellenic Games 2012.  It is a fun challenge that Raverly.com hosts each Olympics. 

What is the Ravellenic Games?

Dates
July 27 - Aug 12, 2012


The One Rule To Rule Them All:
Challenge yourself by starting and finishing one or more projects during the 2012 Summer Olympics.

What will be a stretch for you? It could be a new technique, that first sweater or pair of socks, something massive, something delicate, or maybe finishing that monster in the closet. The goal of the Ravellenics is to support you in expanding your knitting/crocheting horizons.

HOW TO COMPETE
Pick an event, create project page with special tags, and cast on with thousands to compete. That’s it in a nutshell.
  • Mass Cast-On at July 27 2012, as the Opening Ceremonies begin in London!  No casting on before this moment! (with the exception of WIP/UFO event entries)
  • Official End time: 11:59:59 GMT Aug 12 2012 The closing ceremonies will be earlier that evening, but since the exact moment of the torch being extinguished is unknown, we’ll give you until midnight GMT. Each Ravellenics project must be marked Finished on the project page prior to the ending time in order to qualify for a medal.
  • What is Finished? Does it mean blocked? Ends woven in? Sewn together? Photographed? That’s up to you. See the big rule at the top: Challenge YOURSELF. Do you feel it’s finished without the ends woven in, or before blocking? Then mark it finished. If not, don’t. Be honest with yourself, and we’ll celebrate with you.
  • The Finish Line: Each event will have its own FINISH LINE thread on the Ravellenics 2012 board. Post details of your finished object in the thread(s) for the event(s) in which it is competing. (Details of what to post – link to project page and picture, for example – will be listed in the thread.) The FINISH LINE threads will be open for a day or two after the closing ceremonies, so if you can’t get a pic and post by the official closing time, just cross as soon as you can.
  • Medalling: BobicusMaximus will hand out medals (blog badges) to each finisher in the event threads.
  • Scoreboard You’ll be able to follow your team and event progress on the special Ravellenics stats page that Casey’s magic machine assembles out of all properly tagged projects. Chat and cheer in special threads for each team and event.
So until the "Games", there is little crochet getting worked on.  (or any other crafts)




* all content in italics are from the Raverly.com website.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Lucy Locket Lost Her Pocket


Every so often I like to recover my couch pillows.  It serves two purposes, changes the look of things and makes them fresh again.  I lay my face on these and like to know they are somewhat clean...wouldn't you?  Since my new favorite blanket is my jeans quilt, I thought it would be fitting to do the pillows in jeans as well.


While digging through the jeans to cut up, I came across my large stack of pockets and thought they would add some flare and functionality.  After they were all done, I was so giddy with excitement of what I could stuff in the pillows, I just started grabbing things off the coffee table and filling each pocket with something.



How I made them:
  • Using old jeans, cut 10" squares.  Each pillow needs eight of them. 
  • Sew four squares together to make each side. 
  • Stitch the pocket to one side. 
  • Sew the front to back, leaving one edge open. 
  •  Using a bleach pen draw design on pocket. (this could of been done before sewing)
  • Wet the pillow cover and throw into dryer to help fray the edges of the pocket piece. 
  • Using a blanket stitch, sew the last edge together.