Good gravy!

I haven't posted anything here in so long!

I have done some crocheting since I last posted, but haven't taken any pictures recently. I made my dad a scarf for Christmas and a baby blanket for a friend, but no pics of either (though if Amy wants to send me a pic of her little one in her blanket, I'd love to post it!).

I've also started learning to knit and have a couple of things on the needles. I've got a scarf I'm working on in an ugly greenish/yellow yarn that I mostly just want to get rid of (I don't know what possessed me to buy this yarn!) and then I'm working on another scarf with some pretty pink yarn for Faith on circular needles. It's working up much faster than the other one.

When either of them are finished, I'll be sure to get pictures of them!

Craft Show

Last Saturday I did my first craft show for this season. It wasn't terribly profitable, but it was still fun. I didn't get to do any shows last year, so it was good to be back in the "circuit."

Here are a couple of pictures of my table. When I got there, they already had the tables covered, so I didn't do all of the levels that I usually do, but I was still pretty happy.

African beads

I ordered some beads from Bead For Life last week, and just got them in the mail a few days ago. Last night I finally pulled out my jewelry making tools and made a few items for my upcoming craft show. These beads are all unique, each one being hand-made by a Ugandan woman. I tried to match up colors as best I could and made two pretty sets (at least, IMO they're pretty!).



The first one was made with red tigerwire, gold crimp beads, some glass and plastic beads mixed, and the larger Ugandan beads, a gold barrell clasp & a gold cage charm. The earrings are drops with glass & Ugandan beads on gold fish-hooks.




The next piece was made with blue tigerwire, glass beads, larger Ugandan beads, blue crimp beads & gold barrell clasps. The earrings are gold fish-hooks with glass and Ugandan beads. (cost: $12/set)

Basketweave Afghan

I crocheted this afghan last year, right before Christmas. I've made serveral basketweave afghans in the past few years, but kept this one for myself. It has 3 colors in it, and is crocheted with an I hook. To create the basketweave, you make a treble crochet (wrap the yarn around the hook 3x) and then hook it into the row of double crochets below the current row. It's a really simple pattern (as are most of the things that I make!), but I think it looks really nice when it's done. I don't work on afghans very often during the summer, but now that it's getting cold outside, I'm going to start work on a few larger items again. The craft show season is upon us, and I like to have a stack of these sitting around to keep folks warm!

(cost: $30-40)

Green bags (made in white!)

These are my earth day/recycle project that I've been working on. To make, you cut plastic WalMart/grocery bags into 1 1/2 inch strips horizontally and loop them together to make your yarn. Once I did that, I crocheted them using a half-double crochet with an N hook to make the bag you see. Very simple pattern -- the bag itself works up pretty quickly. The hardest part of this particular crafts is making the "yarn." (cost: $8-10, depending on size)

Welcome!

I've been crocheting for about 4 or 5 years, and it's one of my favorite things to do. I absolutely love creating something that is both useful and pretty. I'm not very good at photography or visual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.), but I love to create. I also picked up beading in the past year, and have made some pretty simple jewelry. It's rare that I don't have some kind of project in hand, whether it's making a purse, a pair of earrings, an afghan, a piece of clothing, whatever. At work, at home, in the car; really if I can carry yarn, needles & a little pair of scissors, I'll have some project with me.


I hope to be able to share some of what I've done on this site. I'm using this as a combination showcase and inspiration for me to go ahead and finish some projects I've got sitting around half done. I do sell my work, so if you do happen to see something that you really like, you can shoot me an email at BigMamaCrochet at yahoo dot com. I sell cheap -- mostly just to keep myself in yarn! If I post a pic, I'll try to include a suggested price somewhere in the post, but I'm not intending this as a sales site. Mostly I just want to have a place to preserve a copy of my work (since I give most of it away!).

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy and then do your own creating!