What do you “watch”?

Do you have a favorite series to play on your streaming service while you do other things?  I have numerous that I will have on while I’m knitting or crocheting.  Many of them I have “watched” several times through.

 

Some of the ones I’ve watched and rewatched are Game of Thrones, Orange Is The New Black, Sons of Anarchy, Call The Midwife, Wentworth, Fuller House, Friends, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and Doctor Who.  I’m sure there are more but they are not coming to mind at the moment.  I’m always on the lookout for new series to watch.  Do you have any suggestions?

 

Currently, I have Game of Thrones on while I’m working on a knit dishcloth and a crochet amigurumi.  I like to have projects going in both so that I can switch when I need a break from one.  The dishcloth is an adaptation of the classic “Sunbonnet Sue”.  The amigurumi is a chick in  bunny button flap pajamas.  I plan on sharing pictures of both when they are ready.

 

Today will be a day spent indoors working with fiber and doing some housework as we are expecting some winter precipitation.  They are calling for up to 3 inches of snow.  Since I’m in the South, they have closed the schools for today.  Some may think that Southerners freak out too much over snow and/or ice.  We don’t normally get it therefore we don’t have all the equipment that our neighbors in the North do.

 

Well, I’ve gone off in several directions in this post.  Time for me to get back to my fiber though.

Time for a sale

I’ve recently been designing and writing patterns with a friend of mine.  I’ve mainly focused on knitting patterns while she focused on crochet patterns.

I decided to run a sale on my patterns.  You can find them here on Ravelry.  The sale is for 50% off all of my patterns.  It’s an automatic sale so you won’t need to enter a code.  It’s good through 11:59 pm EDT on Monday 4/24/17.

Here’s a few of my patterns that are available for purchase:

Up or Down? (Hat, Cowl and Fingerless Gloves available

Put A Bow On It Headband

Love Is In The Air Hat (messy bun & full hat options in pattern)

Love Is In The Air Cowl

Swirling Towers Cowl

Broken Diamonds Hat (messy bun & full hat options in pattern)

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Easter is just under two weeks away.  Are you looking for a cute and unique idea to make a basket for the little ones in your life?  Check out these four crochet patterns from Briana K.  She offers the options of a unicorn, bunny, dinosaur and dragon.  Something for everyone.

Unicorn

Bunny

Dinosaur

Dragon

They can also be used to make basic baskets to use around your house.  How about using the character ones or the basic as containers to make gift baskets for baby or bridal showers?  I could see myself using some of these when I’m working with fiber.

You can purchase any or all of the patterns on Ravelry.  Click on the names to go directly to the pattern pages:  Unicorn, Bunny, Dinosaur or Dragon.

I plan on picking up all four of them and any future basket designs she delivers.  If you don’t crochet and would like one please contact me to discuss.

I’m a chick with sticks today

I came across a sweet little hat named The Ellie while I was perusing Ravelry the other day.  It is only available in newborn size but I think it could be easily adapted to other sizes.  Part of what drew me to this pattern was that it had a stitch that I had not done before.  I have been working on expanding my toolbox of knitting knowledge.  I was a bit nervous about trying the “flower stitch” but figured the worst thing that would happen was that I wouldn’t be able to do it and would have to rip out the project.

Front view of the finished hat on my “baby”

 

I have numerous “leftover” skeins from working previous projects.  I think I have found a use for them other than scrap blankets.  My plan for the next time I make The Ellie is to attempt making the flower portion of the hat a different color than the rest of the hat.

Side view

 

My plan for these hats made from my leftovers will be to donate them to our local hospital system.  I also want to work on making blankets for them as they attempt to send each and every baby born with a fleece blanket and a handcrafted blanket.  This will be addition to working on client orders and designing/writing my own crochet and knitting patterns.

Close up of the “flower stitch”

If you are in the Fayetteville NC area and would like to work with me on creating items for the new babies at Cape Fear Valley please feel free to contact me.  I do have a contact at the hospital already.

Let’s try this again…..

I’ve been away from this blog for some time.  Many things have happened in my life since my last post in January 2016.  I’ve started a few new adventures.  One of those adventures is designing and writing patterns.  I am working with a friend in Michigan on this endeavor.  We are both bistitchual meaning we knit and crochet.  Currently she has been focusing on crochet patterns and I’ve been focusing on knitting patterns.  You can find us on Facebook at Two BiStitchual Girls and Ravelry.

 

I currently have a set of patterns out to our testers.  This set is comprised of a hat with messy bun or full hat options, hooded cowl, infinity scarf (with two different widths), cowl, boot cuffs and fingerless gloves (short and long versions).  This picture is from one of our testers of the cowl for this set.

Many thanks to Jeanette Wimberley for allowing me to use her picture.  I’m hoping to have the patterns available on Ravelry in the next week or two.  Maybe I’ll have them up in time for my birthday and do a sale.  Should I do a free pattern or offer a percentage off equal to my age?

Draining Day

Today was a long day.  A family friend needed to go to Durham for some medical tests and requested I accompany them.  Packed my bag this morning with my phone charger, 3 skeins of yarn, a hook and an adult coloring book.

I took the time spent driving and waiting to work on more beanies for the homeless.  Number 13 was finished and number 14 started on the drive to Durham.  Finished number 14 and started number 15 while waiting for first test to be completed.  Grabbed something to eat in the canteen and then headed to second test.  Almost completed number 15 during that test.  Didn’t get to hook on the drive home as I was the one driving.

Although it was a draining day it was a productive day.  I had numerous people ask me what I was making.  They also admired the Vintage Love Slouch that I had worn.  I think tonight is going to be an early night for me.  I do want to finish beanie number 15 first though.  I only have a few more rounds on it.

I hope everyone had a great and rewarding day.

Until next time, see you in the fiber world………..

Charity begins at home

Like most fiber artists I have a large stash of yarn.  Some were picked up with no particular project in mind.  Towards the end of 2015 I started thinking about what I could do to help the community.

I live in a Military town and we have a large population of homeless, many of them Veterans.  As I was looking at my projects from the past year and my stash I noticed that I rarely used my variegated yarn.  I decided to make up basic beanies in half double crochet.  I started making them on the first day of 2016.  As of this post, I have 8 completed beanies.  I’m able to create 2 beanies from each skein.  This will be an ongoing project for me.  I will be giving them to the Homeless Liaison Officer with the Fayetteville Police Department so that they will have them to give out as needed.

I’m not doing this for kudos.  I just want to be able to pay it forward.  I have seen many of our homeless population when I helped my Church serve breakfast at Operation InAsMuch.  I know that they are not the only ones out there though.  All I ask is that if you are also a fiber artist that you take a look at your stash and see if there’s a skein or two that you’ve had for some time that you have no immediate plans for and turn them into beanies.  I would love to see what you create.

All of the beanies completed since 1/1/16

The four colorways used so far

Until next time, see you in the fiber world…………

 

 

 

Happy 2016

I’m a little bit late on writing this post.  Better late than never though.  2016 is going to be a year of changes for Freund’s Fibers.  I’m currently working up a schedule to allow me to interact with all of you more often.  It’s one of my crafty resolutions for the new year.

I’ve also got two new projects for the community in the works.  One I’ve already started and will explain in another post.  I’m pretty excited about that one and the opportunity to give back.  The second project will be done but will vary on scale.  I’m waiting to hear back from my Local Yarn Shop (LYS) if they are willing to partner with me on it.  Crossing my fingers that they will as I see great possibilities there for both of us.

Did you make any resolutions, crafty or otherwise, for the new year?  I would love to hear what they are.

Until next time, see you in the fiber world.

 

 

 

Do you like saving money? 2 words. Dryer. Balls.

This is such a cool idea. I think this will be added to my list of projects I want to make.

Crochet Rox

Just made these blue dryer balls, now to felt them with some white ones I’ve done.

Save money and time while doing your laundry by using these 100% wool dryer balls. Toss them in your dryer with your laundry, and your clothes will dry much faster, and you will never need to use fabric softener or softener sheets ever again!! Another plus is they do not affect the absorbency of your towels, cloth diapers or kitchen towels, like fabric softener does. In our house, that is a MAJOR savings. We were using around 20 bottles of liquid softener at $5.99 each bottle, and 15 box of sheets at $7.99 each, every year. Using 5 dryer balls in each load has saved us at least $240 a year, not including the money saved on gas and electricity by shortening the drying time!!! Our clothes are static free, softer than ever, and…

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Articles of a Domestic Goddess strikes again

I had the pleasure recently of testing the pattern for the Timeless Capelet for Articles of a Domestic Goddess.  Donna has written yet another awesome pattern. She also has a variety of sizes ( XS – XXXL ) all in one pattern so that you could make it for the entire family from only one pattern.   You can find my project on Ravelry for it here.  I chose to follow her lead and craft my own button for it as I wasn’t finding what I wanted in the local stores.

Front view

Side view

Back view

Neckline

Stitch detail

Flower and handcrafted button

Close up of closure

I used Caron One Pound in Lilac for my capelet.  It looks great striped in two different colors as well.  Make sure to check out all of the projects on Ravelry.  I am considering making this in a lighter weight for summer and also a more luxurious yarn for those special evenings out.

Hope you love this pattern as much as I do.  Make sure to stop by and say hello to Donna on her Facebook page.  I’m sure she would appreciate it.

Until next time, see you in the fiber world…………..

Erin