National Novel Writing Month, plus Crochet Patterns

A few months ago, I mentioned my ever so ambitious project of making twelve crochet patterns that were connected with the novel that I wrote for National Novel Writing Month.  It just occurred to me that… I never actually came back and said how that went!

Well, out of the twelve patterns I had planned, I managed to post eight of them to Ravelry during the month of November!  Another three were posted during the month of December.  The twelfth and final pattern was posted on January first!  I actually had all of them written in November, but getting them test crafted and published while simultaneously writing a novel proved to be my undoing.  If I ever try something like this again, I’ll separate them a bit.  I might write the patterns during November, but I’ll publish them in January or later in the year, so I’m not going crazy trying to do both at the same time.

If you’re a member of the Ravelry community, you can check out my patterns, here.

Ambitious Project

Every year since 2006, I’ve spent the month of November in a mad dash to write a novel.  I’m not alone in this endeavor.  It happens every year: National Novel Writing Month.  I’ve been able to reach the word goal of 50K words each year that I’ve tried it.  On top of that, except for last year, I was also able to finish the story within the month, which is my personal goal.

This year, I decided to challenge myself even more.  I decided that, since my story was full of crocheters, I would write a pattern to go with each section of the story.  My hope is to finish three patterns each week.  So far, I’ve been able to keep up with that goal.  As it stands, halfway through the third week, I have eight patterns out of twelve written.  Two have already been published to Ravelry.

The remaining patterns are planned.  Some of them have already been test-crafted.  I just need to write the pattern up.  The last pattern is going to be the biggest challenge, since I haven’t even made it yet.

New Patterns for Ravelry

These last few months, I’ve been doing quite a bit of writing and quite a lot of crocheting. The result of the crafting is this: I’ve got patterns that are now ready to publish! ^_^ Yay me!

A couple years ago now, I made myself a little doll. It came out so cute and snuggly that I decided to write the pattern up for others. At the time… it was because I couldn’t find a simple little crocheted doll that I liked. Now, it’s just a matter of finishing what I’ve started. I re-did the pattern and made a few edits to it so that it would be ready to publish. It’s my first amigarumi pattern and I’m proud of it. I hope others like it too.

This is the pattern… it’s called Madeleine’s doll because it goes with a story. I’ll post that story soon.

The other pattern… came about in a slightly different way. I was called upon in a group that I’m in to make hats to send to a Cancer Treatment Center in Maine. I made a couple using someone else’s pattern. Then… I was sitting in church with yarn and no pattern, so I made one up. It’s a simple, straightforward pattern for a crocheted hat. It works up quick in bulky yarn. Here is the pattern for the hat.

I’m really hoping that both patterns will be useful to others. I’m not looking to make patterns professionally, but it’s nice when I see that others have made things from patterns that I wrote. I wonder, sometimes, if the professionals feel the same way. Do they look at things people have made from their patterns and say, “Oh, I love how she did this!” or “Why didn’t I think of that alteration?” I know I do…

Anyway, having finished two patterns, I’ve gotten excited again about the idea of making my eurypterid ami. I have some ideas for a starting point and I’m going to try to get that done this year. I also really want to make a bull! ^_^ I’ll be using someone else’s pattern for that, though.

Get those WIPs Done

Here we are, about four months into the new year. I had a couple of resolutions when 2013 began. One of them was that I would start using my sewing machine more. Another was that I’d try to bring my stash under control. However, the main one was to finish all my works in progress.

For me, this means not only my crafting works in progress, but my writing ones as well. Each month, I’ve managed to finish two stories that were languishing, incomplete on my disks or memory sticks or the hard drive of my computer. It wasn’t always easy. However, it always felt good to reach the end of the story and be able to write those two little words all authors love: The end.

Finishing those craft works in progress was a bit tougher for me. I have so many new projects coming onto my hooks and needles that… I just don’t want to go back and finish those other things. I’m constantly looking forward at the next project.

Well, last month, I finally bit the bullet and grabbed one of my long-standing works in progress. It was a shawl that I had started last summer as part of a knit along. I’d stalled on it entirely partly because I had made a mistake on it – I forgot an increase somewhere along the way. A part of me wanted to rip it back, but… I didn’t want to lose all that progress. So, I decided that I would just bind it off where it was. To my joy, it was just big enough to make a lovely shawl for one of my little dolls.

In completing that shawl, I realized… it really won’t be so hard to finish my crafting works in progress. Just like with my writing, it’s just a matter of making the time to do it. Before the end of March, I managed to finish a second work in progress. Just like with the shawl, it left me with a feeling of joy and relief.

Do you have any works in progress tucked away in a basket or project bag, waiting for the time when you pull them out and finish them? What are you waiting for? Spring is a time of new beginnings. Why not pull out one of those older projects and finish them? Then, you’ll be able to start fresh.

Crochet in French

Back in January, I picked up a lovely little doll from the Hearts4Hearts collection. I love her face – there’s just something very enchanting about it. The problem is: there’s not a lot of clothes out there for them. Unlike my 18 inch dolls, no one locally is making clothing for them. There aren’t very many patterns on Ravelry or the internet.

Searching around, I also found that some of the outfits for the Groovy Girls will fit her. Also, there is a French company (Corolle) that makes dolls which are a tiny bit shorter. The clothing for the Les Cheries, as they are called, will also fit. The problem is… they’re rather pricy little outfits. I also found out that some of the outfits for the Dora Explorer Girls fit her. The problem there is two-fold: there are only four such outfits and… the proportions are a bit different. Dora’s legs and arms are very slender. Her pants and jackets won’t fit Natalia. Neither will her shoes.

I was able to find some free patterns – mostly sewn or knitted. Now, I can knit a little and I’m learning more all the time. I’m really still a beginner at sewing, though. That means most of those patterns are outside of my skill set.

Crochet is my first craft. If I’m going to be making outfits for Natalia, then it’s likely that I’ll be crocheting them. I found two collections of crocheted dolls: the Lily dolls from Lily (the yarn company) and a group of three from Red Heart. The Lily doll outfits are a good fit. There’s very little in the way of changing to some. However, others entailed huge changes, because the Lily dolls weren’t meant to have their outfits changed. The group from Red Heart was great! The outfits fit beautifully with almost no alterations.

Then… I found a good number of crocheted outfits that will fit her. They were so adorable! The patterns were, no doubt, well written. However, they were all in French.

I studied Spanish in school, which means there’s very little I can do with a pattern in French. I can toss it into Google Translate, but that doesn’t help much with the French crochet terms. Thankfully, I found a little site that gave me the basic information I would need: translations for chain, single crochet, half-double and double crochet are.

Armed with this… I looked back at those lovely French patterns. Now that I know what the crochet terms are, I can feed the patterns into Google Translate and get something I can work with. There’s this though: I know me and I remember how I learned to read charts in crochet. It won’t be very long before I’m looking at lines like, “3ml et un rang de bs, tourner” and saying, “Ah, chain three and a row of double crochet, turn.” Soon after that will be looking at that line and just realizing that it means, “ch3, dc across, turn”.

So… yes… I’m learning to crochet in French. My next challenge will be to crochet in German.

Day Twenty-four

Christmas Eve is finally here and we have the final section of our scarves. It’s actually the exact same thing that you did yesterday, but for the other side and opposite end. Pick up exactly where you ended yesterday.

Abbreviations
Ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
Dc = double crochet
St = stitch
Sk = skip

Instructions
Join yarn to last stitch of yesterday’s work, ch1, sc evenly down edge
Along end:
Row 1: Ch1, sc, *sk2, ch5, sc, repeat from * to end
Row 2: ch1, sc, (dc, ch2, dc, ch5, sc into 4th ch from hook, ch1, dc, ch2, dc) into ch5 space, repeat pattern in every other ch5 space, sc in last sc

Merry Christmas!

Finish off!

Day Twenty-three

So, today is the day before, the day before Christmas. You should be about finished with all of your Christmas preparations. At my church, we’re having our Sunday School pageant and I’m really looking forward to it.

Today’s pattern is going to be the edging for the scarf. Actually, this is just the first edging. Tomorrow, you’ll be doing the other side.

Abbreviations
Ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
Hdc = half-double crochet
Dc = double crochet
St = stitch
Tc = treble crochet
Sk = skip

Instructions:
Ch1, sc evenly down one edge
Along end:
Row 1: Ch1, sc, *sk2, ch5, sc, repeat from * to end
Row 2: ch1, sc, (dc, ch2, dc, ch5, sc into 4th ch from hook, ch1, dc, ch2, dc) into ch5 sp, repeat pattern in every other ch5 sp, sc in last sc
Finish off!

This is called “Crown Edging”, sort of appropriate for the birth of a king.

Day Twenty-Two

So, we should be nearly done without our Advent Scarves by this point. If you’ve been following along, you should have a lovely scarf to wear on Christmas Day.

Abbreviations
Ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
Dc = double crochet
St = stitch
Sk = skip

Instructions:
Row 107: turn, ch1, sc in each st across
Row 108: turn ch3, dc in same st, *sk2, dc3 in next, repeat from * to last 3 sts, sk2, dc2 in last st
Row 109-110: repeat rows 107-108
Row 111: turn, ch1, sc across

The last panel for our scarf!

Day Twenty-One

Seeing as the world didn’t end, it seems that we can carry on with our Advent scarf. That’s a good thing, since I’d hate to have left you all without the last four days of the pattern.

Today, we have a rather simple section, since it uses half-double crochet. However, we have the added twist of just going through the front loops.

If you don’t know what that means… Look at the top row of yesterday’s pattern and you will see little V-shapes along the top. We want to use just the one closer to us today. Even when you turn your work, you continue to work in the loop closer to you.

Abbreviations
Ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
Hdc = half-double crochet
FLO = front loops only

Instructions:
Row 102-105: turn, ch3, hdc in FLO of each st across
Row 106: turn, ch1, sc across (both loops now)

By using just the front loops, we get an almost ribbed design.

Day Twenty

Today, we are going to do a rather simple pattern that produces a really nice fabric. This stitch is called the granite stitch. I’ve also seen it called the seed stitch, which is similar, but just a tiny bit different.

Abbreviations
Ch = chain
Sc = single crochet
Dc = double crochet

Instructions:
Row 97-100: turn, ch1, *dc, sc, repeat from * across
Row 101: turn, ch1, sc across

Granite stitch!