Transcription
Hello all my buddies, it’s Carmen, and wow. It has been so long since I’ve done a video. Just, any video. It is January 2021 that I’m recording this, and it has been a hot year and a half since I’ve recorded a Crochet With Me Video, so let’s get going!
I’m in my room, I have some crochet hooks, I got engaged, 2020 happened. Just all the bad things. And now we’re in 2021. My mom got a dog and he’s very bark-y, and so you may hear some of that, I don’t know if I can get all of it out.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to crochet one blanket for every month for 2021, and then I’m gonna donate them at the end of the year, because I don’t know anybody that needs blankets. I just want to use up my stash, and have an excuse to buy more yarn, of course, because, that’s what you’re gonna do.
Anyway, so I’ll show you what I made for January, because it’s actually the end of January now and so I’m gonna start my February blanket early. And I’ll show you what I got.
This just came today, you know where it’s from! So that yarn I got is the, whoa, where does it say? Oh, right there. It says its the Loops and Threads Charisma, and it’s the super bulky size.
So, I’ll throw up January’s picture on the screen right now. So, what it’s called is the Rippling Trellis Blanket. It is by Krista Kaggle (not sure if I pronounced it right?), and I’ll link the pattern down below for January. Basically what I used was more Loops and Threads Impeccable Solids, that’s the worsted weight, and then I used a bunch of Knit Picks Brava Worsted for the colors. The Impeccable Solids is True Grey, and then I used the colors Tide Pool, Seraphim, Fairy Tale, Avocado, and then that blue in the middle is Solstice Heather.
I tried to do a stash buster, but then I ended up buying way more grey than I needed because I played yarn chicken and I lost and I needed to buy more yarn. So now I’m ending up with way more grey than I started out with, but it’s okay, because grey is versatile, you know. Grey can be used for anything.
So now I’m gonna start the February blanket. Technically on the Ravelry, I used the “Yarnspirations” pattern, which I have downloaded. That’s what a Jacob’s Ladder is, basically you twist the, the holes in the middle, and then you make that fake braid down there. But actually what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna follow a tutorial that I found on YouTube, which, again, I’ll link down below for February but I’m still gonna call it the fake braid blanket, or whatever.
Oh, when I was looking on the patterns on Ravelry, I could only find the Jacob’s Ladder where it was open instead of the Jacob’s ladder that I’m going to be doing.
So my two hooks here, I’ve got an 8mm, and there’s no hook letter associated with it. I actually got this at Daiso and what I really like is that you can actually put your fingers anywhere on the hook. It might be less ergonomic than I guess these ones. This one, I can’t remember the brand, but this one’s a 10mm and it’s an “N”, so I assume this has gotta be like, an “L” or something. I have no idea. I can probably look it up on Ravelry, but I’m not gonna do that.
So I’m gonna try these both and see what happens. The YouTube pattern says I need to do a multiple of five plus two so I did 120. Um, plus two, so 122. Um, so, it’s gonna be a real long blanket here. I mean, a normal-sized blanket? Like, this is about 4ft?
However, okay. And then this pattern that I’m- this pattern, um, it says US13, which is an “N” in the pattern, but I was using this little baby one. But they said an “N” was 9mm, which this says it’s 10. And then I’m using an 8mm. Maybe I should just use the big one and do less? Yeah, I’ll do that.
So now I’m down to 102, and I’m gonna use the, uh, the “N”, which is, this is 10, so I’m fine.
What I plan to talk about today was actually frogged items. So if you’re not familiar with crochet terms, and I don’t know if they use the same, I’m sure they use the same for knitting as well, basically frogged items are items that you started and you got some part of the way through and you just decided to stop and actually you decided to get rid of all your progress; you just decided to pull all of your yarn out, and restart and do a full restart. Either you wanna use that yarn for other things or you’re just never going to finish the thing that you started and you just want to not waste that yarn so you decided to frog it.I wanted to talk about stuff that I have frogged or maybe wish I had frogged? And stuff that I just did never didn’t go through with.
So first on my list is, I don’t know if Sowmya watches my videos, but Sowmya, I was actually planning on making this cute little… I think I saw it on… this was like way long ago, maybe 10 years ago now? But I was planning on doing this cute little crocheted amigurumi heads? They were gonna be animal heads, and I was going to glue them to wooden dowels, so that they would be like little lollipops, and I thought that’d be really, really cute.
However, it just just never got off the ground. All I was doing was making amigurumi at the time, so I was okay at it, I guess? I have no idea why I never went through with it. This wasn’t like me, but I totally forgot about it until way after, like years after, where I was like, “Oh crap! I did start that, didn’t I?” and obviously I ended up just getting her something else for her birthday or maybe it was Christmas? But yeah, I just totally gave up. My brain was like, “nah, you’re not gonna make this. You- First of all, why? Why? Eh? I guess it’s cute?”
I mean, I still think it’s a cute idea and I kind of want to make it for a future house one day. But it just never got off the ground, and I definitely made the heads, and I definitely stuffed them. And finished them off. I just never got dowels, and I never put faces on the the heads, and I never finished the heads in any way, and I never finished. Actually, I don’t know where those heads are. I hope that they are somewhere, and are doing okay. I have no idea what happened to that. So yeah, that’s definitely one that I hope I frogged after I realized I was never going to be doing it, but I definitely don’t remember the end of that.
So if you have any projects that you don’t know the end of, tell me, because I just had this massive brain fart that I have no idea what happened to that one.
Another one that I frogged was: I was going through this granny square phase where I was trying to make these granny squares and you know eventually I would turn them all into like some kind of mish-mosh, hodge-podge granny square blanket, or something along those lines.I found this granny square that was like more intermediate and advanced, rather than beginner which is where I definitely was, and I basically still am.
It was called a friendship granny square? Maybe it was called a friendship mandala granny square? But basically you crocheted these rings, and there would be three rings and you would crochet them, you were supposed to crochet them- I can’t do a third ring because I don’t have a third hand but it was, yeah, it was like that, and you had to – I’ll throw it up on the screen – and you had to crochet them in a way where the the last one, the last crocheted ring would actually start the rest of the granny square, so that after you finish the rings you would single crochet around those rings and start a granny square from there.
And oh boy. I definitely did the rings, and I got to the third, I think I started doing the the single crochet around the rings, and that’s where, you know, my brain was like “I cannot do this, why are you making me do this” and I’m like “I’m so sorry, brain, I- I didn’t mean any harm, please don’t be too mad” and yeah, I definitely just frogged that one, and I just gave up, because it was just beyond a level of comprehension for my brain at the time and that’s definitely one that I want to go back and try again, just like Sowmya’s amigurumi heads.
One day I want to do that for my future house and decorate, but that one was just like I could not get what was going on, and I didn’t have any resources at the time.
This also was probably around the same time as the amigurumi heads but this wasn’t a time where I had Reddit or I could look it up on Youtube, and I don’t know if there’s a pattern tutorial video now, but yeah, it was definitely one where there was no way I knew how to get help for that, so I just gave up.
So the last one that I just didn’t go through with, or I wish I didn’t go through with. A couple of years ago I was making Christmas ornaments for presents to give away to my friends and I found this cute little fox pattern, and the rest of them are kind of amigurumi related, like I made a gnome, and I made some snowflake ornaments, ornaments that you fill in, and I made some Christmas trees, but this one was a cute little fox and I really wanted to make it, and oh boy was that pattern just not working with what I needed, because it looked terrible, and I still have the foxes in this room somewhere and I’m definitely, like, I kind of just want to rip them apart because that’s how much I hate looking at them. Foxes are some of the cutest animals that I love in real life, but yeah, oh my gosh I have no idea what happened there, and it’s definitely a high regret in my crochet career? A high regret that I made those foxes and you know, didn’t scrap them immediately.
So I’m almost done here, the foundation row is always my least favorite row. I’m sure it’s everybody’s. It’s these stupid chains that always take forever because you have to stick your hook into these tiny little chains, and I don’t know about you guys, but I always try to work on this side. On that bump side instead of this side, so you just gotta you know, just gotta try to wiggle your hook into that little bump there. And it’s just a lot of time, you know? It’s like, one day is your foundation row day, and then tomorrow I could fly through three rows and have it not be a problem.
So yeah, I’m gonna try to do these once a month again. I hopefully will update you on the rest of my blanket that, after I finish this, then I will show you for March, show you how I finished it, then I’ll start March’s blanket. It’s actually been really fun! January’s, the rippling trellis blanket just flew by and I was very thankful because, you know it’s been a while since I’ve had a good crochet session. Good crochet sesh? Crochet sesh? That’s a lot of shushing sounds. But yeah, I think it’s like my third or fourth blanket? And I hope to make a bunch of these! I love doing this, and I hope that when I donate them people like them?
This one looks like it’s gonna be a baby blanket, because it’s so pink? But maybe someone who really likes pink will want it. And yeah, let me know if you know of a good place to donate them. I was planning on donating them to a women’s shelter or a battered women’s shelter. Because, unfortunately or fortunately, women always end up there with their babies, so maybe babies and moms can both have blankets? Or maybe a homeless shelter. My friend, she’s a nurse, she says hospitals are always looking for donations. Yeah, lots of options, basically.
Okay, here we go, this is the last stitch and them I’m gonna count and hopefully it’s a multiple of 5 so I can move on?
Okie dokie, so I restarted. I should have the correct number now, so I’m starting on the second row, which the Youtube video says is a single crochet row, so this is just very repetitive, just this part, so I’m just going to end the video here. Sorry I wasn’t very interesting. I intended just to talk about the frogging and the cancelled projects.
I don’t really have a lot to say about the COVID stuff, I just hope you’re all home and safe and healthy. I’m so glad that we have a new leader here in the United States and hopefully he will bring us to a better conclusion to the pandemic than the previous administration has begun us, and that’s all I’m gonna say on the subject.
I’m going to wish you a good night or good day, whenever you’re watching this.
Let me know other things that you frogged, things that you’ve given up on. Let me know if you tried that friendship mandala ring, because that’s a tricky one.
Let me know what you think of my projects here! I’m really proud of my rippling trellis blanket, and I hope that this one will look just as good, and I can’t wait to start on the other ones!
Thanks for watching everybody, bye!