Vertical Stripes in the Round

Horizontal stripes are awesome...

I have been wanting to do vertical stripes on a beanie for a while now. Horizontal stripes are great (and popular), but... they aren't the be all and end all of stripes! So, I tried changing the stripes in the row (massive fail) and I tried making the hat vertically, rather than in the round (sort of worked, but I wasn't a fan of the top of the hat). Then I gave up for a bit.

But... vertical stripes have edge!

But! I stumbled across an afghan pattern done in a shell stitch and my brain said "hey! turn that thing on its side!" and presto! an idea was born. I worked up a quick black and hot pink number last night to test it and I think it's safe to say you can expect more vertical stripes in the future from Baby Hooked Boutique!

It was actually pretty simple. I worked the hat in the round, like normal and alternated colors each round, just like with horizontal stripes, but used a shell stitch instead of a standard double or single crochet and voila! stripes on a beanie.

Scatter Crafting

If you're anything like me, you have several projects going at once and about a hundred ideas popping around your head for more. No? Doesn't sound familiar at all? I'm going to assume you're lying. Easy to do considering, I can't hear you right now :)

Back to my point. I'm really good at coming up with ideas for crafts (either for gifts, or Baby Hooked Boutique, or for *gasp* me). I'm OK at planning them out enough to buy yarn. I'm terrible at actually finishing a project that takes longer than 2 hours. The proof would be in the 2 unfinished Star Blankets sitting in the bottom of my yarn bin, that were supposed to be Christmas gifts for my nieces (or the rhino hat sitting on top of it, which was for my oldest nephew).

So, the goal for 2012? Get organized. Get better at follow through. Finish blankets before the girls start school!

Cotton and Bamboo and Wool! Oh, my!

It is so easy to get into the acrylic rut when yarn crafting. I mean, acrylic is readily available, comes in a huge assortment of colors, and textures and weights, oh and it's cheap. Relatively. But, it's also plastic, and doesn't wash very well (it gets rougher with each wash, unlike natural fibers, which get softer), and it pills, and well, it often looks like plastic.

Bright & Colorful! This is a great use for acrylic.

Don't get me wrong, a fair bit of the yarn in my stash is acrylic. You really can't beat it for color selection and a lot of what I make is photo props for newborn/baby portrait sessions which means color is the deciding factor. Well, obviously soft matters, too, but realistically, the baby will be wearing it for minutes, so color is more important. So, I do use acrylic yarn for those pieces more often than not.

Bamboo hat? Yes, please!

But, when it comes to making daily wear items (hats and sweaters especially), I like to branch out into different materials. There are so many materials that can be used for knit & crochet! My newest obsession favorite is bamboo. Bamboo is soft, and silky and luxurious. It's nearly weightless, but it's still warm. The fabric created with bamboo yarns have a terrific drape and softness like you wouldn't believe. The downside to is that the yarn is very fine (the one I've been working with is a fingering weight), so unless you double the strands and make a thicker material, it is kind of time consuming to work with. Also, it's silky, so you'll want to use a less slick (read not aluminum) hook/needle. Bamboo is one of the most renewable resources on the planet, so you can feel good about the eco-friendliness of your new bamboo wearables.

This crown is made from doubled bamboo. So soft.

Denim yarn is so fun!

Another great natural plant fiber, is cotton, of course! It is easy to find USA grown cotton, if you're really wanting to support the American economy and cotton is also a pretty eco-friendly material. There are lots of organic cottons available, too, that boost the eco-friendliness factor. It's very durable, so it makes great jackets. Cotton is awesome because it gets softer with every wash, and it develops character over time. The downside to cotton is its weight. A 100% cotton sweater made from worsted weight yarn is HEAVY! All that weight can cause the garment to lose its shape over time. Cotton has a matte/natural looking finish, rather than a silky/smooth finish. The color selection isn't nearly as good as the acrylic's, but there is a terrific variety readily available at any store that sells yarn. The coolest cotton yarn? Denim! That's right, knit your baby real blue jeans!

No need to fear the cold when you're wearing
wool on your noggin!

When it comes to warmth, though, you're still hard pressed to find something that beats good old fashioned wool. There are so many varieties of wool available now, from Alpaca to Merino to Cashmere and even wool blends, chances are really good that you can find anything you need in wool. Personally, I have a lanolin allergy, so I have to super careful when it comes to wool. Baby Alpaca and wool blends work really well for me and they are so soft. Gone are the days of itchy, scratchy, rough wool sweaters! Another cool wool trick is to buy plain white fisherman's wool and dye it yourself. Wool holds color a lot better than most plant fibers, and acrylic is just un-dye-able (look who's making up words!). Can't beat that for color control and availability!


So, while I'd never tell you to dump your acrylic completely, I would strongly encourage you to give some new fibers a try, too! A bamboo sweater or a cotton jacket, anyone?

Crochet Color Changing Tutorial

Most crochet projects require (or at least look best) with multiple colors. Color changes are simple in concept, but in practice they often look sloppy, especially when done mid-row. The following steps will walk you through a professional looking color change!

On the last stitch BEFORE your new color, drop the old color before finishing the stitch.

Remember, the loop you pull through at the end on your stitch actually becomes part of the next stitch in crochet.

Finish the stitch in color B.

Crochet away in color B. When you're ready to change again, follow the same process of dropping your current color before pulling the last loop through.

Finish the stitch in the new color and crochet away!

This method gives you a very clear and professional transition between colors!

Pattern Books

I tend to be a pattern creator, rather than a pattern follower. I like love to read patterns, but rarely to they meet my criteria for actually buying yarn to do the project. What is my criteria?

• I would wear/use or expect someone else to wear/use the finished result.
• The yarn can be flexible (i.e. doesn't require XX type from XX brand, otherwise will NOT drape/wear/look good). It's a rare occurrence that I want to make something from the EXACT yarn as the pattern creator.
• It has to be interesting. You can only make so many rows of standard double crochet. At some point they have to criss cross, or you have to throw in a treble or something. The yarn has to be REALLY sexy for just one stitch to be enough to keep my interest while making or wearing the item. Yes, I just called yarn sexy (or at least capable of being sexy)...

That said, imagine my surprise when today at Michael's I found a book of Plus Size Crochet Fashions that I actually had no problem plunking down $10 for. I have never bought a crochet book for patterns for me, because usually, they look like this:

Which is great... if you want to look like a "business lady" from 1987. If, let's say, you'd like to look like a stylish mum-of-all-trades from now? You'd be better off with this book:

OK, the cover isn't great... but, the patterns are. The book is Plus Size Fashions by Annie's Attic Crochet.

One thing is certain, my next project for me is coming from this book.

The Shrug

I've been knitting a bit lately, as my current crochet project (which will be featured soon) is huge and sometimes I just need a break. I'm calling it YCADD (yarn crafting ADD) but in reality it's just boring to crochet the body of a 3x top down sweater. All the hard work is done and it's just wash, rinse, repeat for enough rows to cover the belly. So, when the boredom strikes I turn to knitting a small project to break it up.

The most recent small project was a shrug for my nine month old niece. The pattern is from Mason-Dixon Knitting - Outside the Lines. For the most part I found it to be a fun and quick little number to put together. I'm a slooow knitter. At least it feels that way, because I'm a fast crocheter. So little is important. I am going to tackle a top down sweater for me in the knit soon, though. Tangent! So, like I was saying, knitting shrug for niece to break up boredom.

The sleeves run even with the bottom of the shrug and the edging creates a little turn down collar.

It was a really fun and fast project. I love instant gratification! The little cable at the raglan seam was perfect and between that and the moss stitch border and seed stitch edgings it kept me very engaged.

On the other hand... there are things I would change were I doing it again (and I might). Firstly, the sizing in the pattern is off. I made a gauge swatch and found I needed to use smaller needles to match their stitch count. however, after knitting a couple of inches it looked like I was making a sweater for a Barbie doll. So, I switched back to the larger needles, still much too small. So, I used the "4 year old" size instructions with the size 5 needles and came up with a shrug that just fits my nine month old niece. Mind you, she is a little porker and wears 12m-18m clothing. But, you see the size was still way off.

Really, Minta, YOU are going to call ME a porker? If that isn't the pot and the kettle...

Also, I think it would fit better if a few stitches were cast on under the arm. It's a little pinched at the bottom. Maybe that is the desired look? The front isn't shown in the book and from the back it looks spot on. But, for comfort, I'd add a little bit of space under the arms.

And that's it. Other than those two issues, I love it.

Who is The Plus Size Hooker

Me! Duh...

Who am I? I am Minta and I'm all about the yarn crafting. Especially crocheting and knitting. The thing about yarn crafting, though, is patterns for we well endowed ladyfolk are rather sparse. The remedy? Well make my own, of course!

Now, that doesn't mean I never cast on/chain up using someone else's pattern, because I totally do. But, more often than not I read three or four patterns for "something like" whatever I want to make, then merge them into my own pattern.

Most often I'll be creating for myself, my baby boy, or my niece and nephews. But, every now and then you'll see something pop up for the other plus sized grown ups in my life. (We travel in packs, you know.) I'm a big fan of top down sweaters and hats and blankies. Right now I'm kind of stuck on top down sweaters. By "kind of stuck on" I mean "obsessed with." I always seem to have at least three projects going at a time, so variety will be great.

If you want to check out some finished projects for sale you know I totally have an Etsy shop... http://babyhookedboutique.etsy.com.