Homemade Ice-Packs and Covers

Recently, my boyfriend had surgery around his belly button area. As expected, this resulted in some swelling and significant soreness.

After the one store-bought ice-pack we had on hand let us down, I spent an hour digging through Pinterest and other websites trying to find the best recipes for Ice-Packs.

This one suggested a Ziploc full of Dawn Dish Detergent. That one suggested Food saver bags with Hydrogen Peroxide(seriously....). This one recommended rubbing alcohol, and that one suggested vodka.

Seriously, I was about to lose my mind reading all the negative reviews for each suggestion when I just gave up and decided to experiment.

I had some bottom shelf mango vodka (70 proof) that we'd received as a gift 2 years ago, and were never going to drink. We'd opened it, that was enough....

I poured about half a cup in to two Ziploc quart-size freezer bags, and added about a 1/2 cup of water to each. After 3 hours, they were cold, but nowhere near frozen. I pulled one out and divided it between two more bags and added more water.

The result was perfect. Semi-moldable ice-packs that after a couple of minutes out of the freezer are perfectly squishy and stay ice-cold for well over an hour. Complete refreeze time only takes about an hour. We were on 30 minute cycles of ice-on/ice-off, so it was perfect.

1/4 cup cheap nasty vodka
1.5 cup water
2 Ziploc quart-size freezer bags


Add food coloring if desired.

Pour mixture into one bag. Seal. Place that bag inside the 2nd bag. Fold over the top of the inner bag. Seal the 2nd bag. Freeze. Bam! Instant ice-pack!

If you want more squishy right out of the freezer, increase the amount of vodka you use. Keep in mind though, this will also increase the freeze time.

Anyways, after a day of watching him fidget with this new ice-pack sliding out its towel wrappers, naturally, I broke out my hooks and extra yarn.

I chose fingering weight cotton blend yarn. I wanted it to be light and durable, as well as washable.

Check out: Comfy Fingering Yarn from KnitPicks.com

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Easy Ice-Pack Cover

Yarn - Fingering Weight (160 - 200 yards)
Hook - F

BAG

Chain 36
1) SC in 2nd CH from hook and in each CH across to last CH, complete 3 SC in last CH and continue with SC around back side of CH's to rear of first SC, complete 2 in same CH as first SC and join to with SL ST to first SC (72 SC)
2) CH 1, SC in same st and in every st around, join with SL ST to first SC.

Repeat row 2 to approximately 2 inches from desired length. (approximately 46 rows)

Do not finish off.


FLAP

1) CH 1, SC in same SC and in each SC across to side-edge, ch 36, sk next 36 SC(other side-edge), SC in next st and in each stitch across to first SC, join with SL ST to first SC.
2) CH 1, SC in same SC and in each SC across to side-edge, SC in each of 36 CHs, and continue around to first SC, join with SL ST to first SC.

Repeat row 2 for approximately 2 inches. (approximately 14 rows)

Reverse/Underside of Flap - SL ST flap closed at top so seam is on the inside(image below).

Notes: 

• I added an overlapping piece that can tuck over or under the top flap noted above, just in case the cover were to slip open a bit. This helped to avoid direct skin contact.
• Bag corners may pop out the bottom/top. Try a small piece of duct-tape over those corners. Or wrap the entire pack as a proactive step to avoid leaks.
• These ice-packs get COLD. Freezers will respond differently, but we had a little layer of ice on the exterior of our packs. Try giving them a quick wipe with a kitchen towel before putting them in your cover.

Enjoy!!!

My Ocean Star

I apologize for the long break. Life stepped in, and the blog had to take a backseat for a little while.

My boyfriend dropped this one on me a little over a month ago.

Chromium Star Blanket by Laura Lynn Hanks

He found this gorgeous rainbow version(right) posted on the internet and wanted one for our bedroom. It only took him a few minutes to convince me that I absolutely had to make it. I apparently think my Carpel Tunnel isn’t bad enough yet, so I agreed. We have a king size bed..... A king size! Oh heavens what am I getting myself in to....

Creator's Post on Reddit

We currently have blue in our bedroom. Lots of shades of blue. He decided after we moved in together, that we were going to shift over to green. Go figure.

Anyways, it's been over 2 years since I moved in, and no changes have been made. This is likely because I'm horribly gloriously stubborn and haven't found any greens that I like, so I've come to the conclusion that we will never decide on one color for the bedroom. Because of this, we went with a green and blue combination for the afghan.

So, after work that very day, we were on our way to Joann's to pick up yarn. He actually (*I let him*) picked out all the colors again, with the agreement that I would choose the order.

Here are the colors we chose, in order of utilization:

Dark Sage
Sage
Soft Green
Aqua Mint
Pagoda
Ocean
Dark Country Blue
Country Blue
Light Country Blue
Soft Blue

Starting with the Dk Sage and working my way out to the Soft Blue and then reverse.

All are Caron Simply Soft. I purchased 2 skeins of each color, but will likely need more for the outer green rows. I won’t know til I get there. Joann’s did not have the Country Blue, so I had to go to Michael’s for that one, as I didn’t like the jump from Dk Country Blue to Lt Country Blue.

This is a very easy pattern, and the result is very cool.

I changed the start a bit using a Magic Ring, then expansion row, and picking up the pattern a bit in row three, then completely in row four. I wanted the center to stand out a bit, so I did 5 rows of the Dk sage before the black row. I went with 3 rows of color with a row of black between each color.

Each black row in my version has the 5DC peak. Then the 3-rows of color have the 7DC peak as indicated in the pattern.

Currently finishing up row 36, with well over 500 stitches to the row. Be prepared, it gets monotonous. At least it’s easy to do while watching TV or pick up for a couple minutes here and there between other tasks.
 
Unfortunately, I foresee this as one of those projects that gets tossed to the side.

My intention is to pick up some little projects here and there to keep my enthusiasm for this gigantic mass of yarn from going stale.

We'll see!  Enjoy!

Granny Squares

(***Tip for attaching traditional Granny Squares while making them, included at the bottom.***)

Yes, even though I am clearly not done with the new afghan for the couch, I'm already planning my next project.

I mentioned previously, I get bored easily, so monotonous projects tend to take me months, while small or ever changing stuff I can get done in a day or few depending on the size of the project.


I'm considering a new granny square. I spent the last week flipping through thousands of images of granny squares or variations thereof. Some are more detailed than others, which of course has made me now desperately want to start one.

Problem. Granny squares are insanely repetitive, and then there's the part about sewing all the pieces together. Ug.....

The last granny square I started, was 5 years ago. 256 pieces in 4 colors. I made all the pieces. I sewed 18 of them together, and the rest sit in grocery bags at the bottom of a box. I found out about 2 years after making all the pieces, that there's an easier way to attach them. I'll include this little tip a bit later. So, spend countless hours sewing them all together and tucking all the ends? Or maybe throw them out and start over? Make 4 scarves, or any number of random other projects? Meh, alone they sit at the bottom of a box.

So how about spicing up the granny squares? 100 different patterns? Perhaps. Still though, sewing them all together is very frustrating, as is tucking 200+ ends.

Then looking at pictures like those posted below, makes me want to grab every scrap of yarn I have and get started.

By zigeunerfliede on Flickr

By peterp on Flickr

By Judith*Green on Flickr

Meme-Rose.blogspot.com

We'll see what I decide to do in the coming weeks.

On to joining:

There are many different ways to join pieces. I'm sure I've tried all of them. The easiest way to join traditional granny squares that I've found, is to join them while you make them.

1) Complete one square(Square A).
2) When beginning the final row of your 2nd square(Square B), line up with A.
3) Proceed with the pattern normally up to the first corner. Complete your three DC, ch 1.
4) Complete a sl st in the ch 1 corner sp on A, ch 1, continue with 3 DC to finish out your corner on B. Your corners should now be connected with a sl st.
5) 3 DC in next ch 1 sp on B, this should bring you to the next ch 1 space on A. Instead of ch 1, sl st to ch 1 on A, then ch 1, and then 3DC in next ch 1 space on B. Continue in pattern to corner.
6) Repeat steps 3 and 4, and continue with remainder of row.

The above steps will join Squares A, B, and C. When joining square D to complete a 4-square granny square, in the middle, you'll want to sl st in to the corner for both squares B and C. This will help to hold the entire set together.

In text this process can be very confusing. Sometimes it's just easier to see it in pictures. I found this pictorial walk-through from Sarah London Textiles to be incredibly helpful: How To Join Granny Squares

Happy hooking!

The best part of any crochet project!

 

YESSSSSSSSS!

Afghan OCD

(*Want the pattern? Skip to the bottom* Not everyone wants to read my rambling. I get it. ;-) )

I live in Oregon. I love it here. It's gorgeous year round. It also rains almost all year. So a prerequisite to living here, I have to like Grey and Green. No choice. I'm surrounded by it.

I also have a boyfriend who is ex-Army, but still a fan. Of course this also makes his favorite color olive drab. This basically ensures that whenever I ask him to pick a color for my next home-related project, his response will almost always be a shade of green. I had made him an afghan that he loves, pictured below, that is a perfect version of olive with a light sheen. In man-terms though, it's green. Good enough.

 

I love brown, orange, red, yellow, and blue. I know, the blue just throws the whole thing off.

When we moved in together, we tossed all his furniture and kept only mine. So our furniture is all shades of brown, and the decor in the bulk of the house is all shades of a deep sunset. Burnt orange, deep yellows, burgundy, and maybe some purples tossed in. This includes the afghan I'd made for myself years ago.

Everything has to match. When it comes to home decor, camping equipment, well anything really, it must match everything else it touches. If the colors or patterns don't match in some way, I can get a tad twitchy. I am not kidding. Up until last year when the wind destroyed our tent on a camping trip, ALL of our camping equipment matched. I am working on cycling everything now to match the new tent. Yes, I am pathetic.

Moving on.  ;-)

Well, we recently purchased a new couch. This means all new afghans and blankies, right?  I thought ahead and made sure the new couch had to be brown. And it was!  A nice chocolate brown with cream accents. So it matches EVERYTHING already in the house. YAY! We don't have to buy new everything now! Wait, something is amiss here....

That darned afghan. *hmph* The afghan that might as well be neon green next to our nice new coffee and foam colored couch.

Hmmmm, how to fix this....

I took(more like gently dragged) the man to Joann's and said "Any color you want." He whined and complained a little with a bit of a stomp and shuffle and the typical "I don't wanna.... *pout*".  Honestly, this I would expect any man to do when forced to select yarn for his significant other. I offered my desperate please-face, to which he then proceeded to grab the first green he saw within reach.

"No, it needs to be fluffy, and it needs to match the new couch." Secretly, I'm also hoping for acrylic, so it's cheap and easy to maintain.

He marched away with a little huff, but my man has always been good with the chore of picking yarn. Honestly, he's also normally very supportive of the trips to Joann's, although he will usher me through the store quickly to avoid me buying half the yarn section or spending 3 hours there just touching and comparing colors.

He knows what I like and what to look for and is also doing very well with the differences between colors.

For instance, they are not all purple.

Me: This is eggplant, and this one is plum. Those are royal, and that is lavender.
He: This is dark purple. This is light purple.

Hey, it's progress. If you ask him to find olive drab though, he'll spend 20 minutes looking for the EXACT shade, and he'll find it every time. Like I said, I'll take progress where I can.


Anyways, two rows over he's deciding between two colors. I convince him it needs to have brown in it to match the new couch, and 10 minutes later we've got a basket full of yarn and are on our way home. Little did I know how well his selection would work.

The Three Afghans

And Together

The colors he picked were perfect blends of both the other afghans. So while the green still doesn't match the couch, all three afghans go very well with each other, allowing them to blend much better. Right? RIGHT? *twitch* We'll just pretend.

Anyways, moving right along. These are not your normal lapghans as they are big enough for two to comfortably cover up.

My tan afghan was made with Red Heart - Light and Lofty yarn in Cafe Au Lait and Pheasant Multi.

The green was made entirely with Lion Brand - Homespun in Olive.

The mixed, which is still in progress, I am also using Lion Brand - Homespun. We chose Olive and Herb Garden. Herb Garden literally looks like the Pheasant Multi, but instead of tan, it's green.


The Lion Brand - Homespun isn't as thick as the Red Heart - Light and Lofty, but it's definitely softer. Red Heart yarns have always felt scratchy to me, even the baby blends.

So on to the pattern. (*PATTERN HERE*)

This is a very simple pattern. Below is a summed up and slightly modified version of this pattern from Red Heart.


I used a size P crochet hook, which keeps it loose and fluffy. A size N crochet hook would be perfect if you prefer a tighter stitch.

CH (however many you want)
Row 1: SC in 2nd ch from hook, *DC, SC*, repeat to end.
Row 2: If you ended on a SC, CH 3 and turn, *SC in next DC, DC in next SC*, repeat to end.
Row 2(Alt): If you ended on a DC, CH 1 and turn, SC in top of DC, *DC in next SC, SC in next DC*, repeat to end.

Repeat Row 2(and/or alt) to desired length.

For striping: 10 rows of your primary color, 2 of secondary, 2 of primary, 2 of secondary, repeat.

Like I said, easy peasy.

Enjoy!!!

A Doily Adventure

I loved this doily project so much, I felt it deserved revisiting. I made this one two years ago this week for my boyfriend's Mom's Birthday. It has become the centerpiece of her table during the holidays.

This pattern is gorgeous and very easy to work up if you pay close attention. The beauty is in the details. I spent somewhere between 24 and 30 hours on it. Which would have been far shorter, had I paid closer attention and not had to rip half of it out when I found a mistake. Worth every minute though, and I've learned a lot about doilies since.

I used J&P Coats Royale Classic Crochet Thread (Size 10) with a size C crochet hook. I wanted it big.

The name of the pattern is "Audrey" and it's written by Margaret Rost.

You can find the pattern book at the URL below, although I was lucky enough to find it at Joann's Fabric and Crafts on sale.

Amazon - Leisure Arts #2934, A Dozen Doilies

I do intend to start another from the same book soon. If you have a Ravelry account, I definitely recommend taking a look at the other patterns in the same book. Some of them are just gorgeous!

Ravelry - Leisure Arts #2934, A Dozen Doilies - Patterns

I used the pattern for "Anastasia" by Ocie Jordan, to get me rolling on the below project, taking her lead on the start of the pattern. I greatly expanded it, and used a J-hook and some old Caron Simply Soft that I had stashed away for a rainy day.

After I fixed the curling problem, I put it away. It's now been nearly two and a half years since I picked it up last. I may actually make an attempt to finish it.

My next doily project though, will likely be a rug. I've found some beautiful creations using multiple strands of yarn or cut up old sheets and a giant hook to create some gorgeous rugs from doily patterns. I'm rather anxious to try one out.

There are some really neat ones featured in this blog:

The Wool Acorn - Crochet Rugs Doily Rugs

And these for sale on Etsy:

Camille Designs

Hennas Boutique

Happy crocheting!

Pink Kids 1-Up Hat

I was asked to make a 1-Up hat for a friend of mine. Being a huge gaming household, I gladly accepted this challenge. There are no pre-made patterns on the Internet that I could find, and believe me, I spent days searching. That would have been the easy way out. lol

It took me 11 tries to get this pattern perfect. I made the green one, with patches. To me, it appeared to have bulbous cancerous growths. Ick! Not a fan of sew-on patches....

I made a 2nd green one incorporating the white in to the pattern instead of sewing patches on after. Although I didn't care for it, my boyfriend loved it.  I don't expect him to ever give it back. lol

The tiny spots were too tiny and the big spots were too big. As well, the hat was just too big. Getting closer though.

I spent hours perfecting the pattern and many more making prototypes.

Increasing the size of the circles, decreasing the size of the circles, increasing rows, decreasing rows, adding to the border, removing rows from the border, dots or lines, sc's or sl st's, until I figured it all out. w00t!
 

 I am very happy with the final result. =)

Meet Me =)

I've been running another blog for a while, but I never really thought to share much about my crochet. So here I am figuring it's about time I did.

I love crochet. LOVE IT! It's calm, relaxing, and I can do it while watching a movie if I prefer. I have been crocheting for nearly 30 years, but only quite heavily for the last 12. I've used crochet to get me through a failing marriage, a divorce, and two layoffs in the last 3 years. It's quite therapeutic and in many instances requires a life-distracting amount of focus. =)

While crochet can be amazing, I do get bored and frustrated easily, and with that I'm always hopping from one project to the next. Friends and family hope I finish one before I move to the next, so I tend to stick to little projects. Hats, scarves, booties, socks, and other items, I can finish in a day or two. Afghans and sweaters tend to take me several months. I have bags and other containers full of partially completed projects all over my house.


My current job, thanks to the economy, allows me to crochet while taking technical support calls. So I get to crochet ALL the time. Believe me, I do. There's is nothing more frustrating than a customer screaming at me for something they did to themselves. So while they swear, ramble, cry, and/or occasionally threaten my life, I'm working on the crochet project of the day. I have a bag that I take everyday that contains three different projects. This practice is what keeps the paychecks coming in. Otherwise, I would have left my current employer after the first harassing customer I'd gotten. I am not a huge fan of my job, so crochet keeps me from doing something crazy that will land me in a chain-gang. (I do intend for this to be the last time I mention my job, in this blog.)


I enjoy the challenge of a difficult project, and the thrill of completing it. I am not a fan of unnecessarily complicated patterns or one that may be missing steps. I love all kinds of patterns from the divinely intricate to a simple SC hot-pad. But I tell ya, if a pattern tells me to SC in the top of a DC, there had better be a DC there for me to work with. All too often I come across very nice patterns that are missing entire rows or the verbiage is so screwy I have to make my own modifications. While normally simple, it can be cumbersome and frustrating when you're on a roll and have to stop to figure out what the creator actually meant.


It's because of this, I've started making my own patterns. Some are more complicated than others, but because of my short attention-span, I tend to write patterns for beginners. It's a lot harder to mess up. lol ;-)

As well, I do hope that if you notice a hiccup in one of my patterns, you'll please take a few seconds to let me know. I spend hours combing through them repeatedly to ensure there is nothing missing, so a helping hand is always appreciated.

I have a background in writing and management, so I am hoping that my posts do not come across as too formal.

Some of my patterns will be free and some cheaply priced. I do have an Etsy store, but I choose to be relaxed about it instead of pushy. So if you want to visit, please feel free. Otherwise, please enjoy the free patterns I offer.

All my best!