I had no idea that there would be such a big variance in the size of the squares.  Two inches is a lot, especially if you consider that there's only .75mm difference in the hook sizes.  I'm not sure how much thicker the worsted yarn is, but I imagine it's 1mm or less.  I'm a nerd at heart, and I'm partial to math and the role that it plays in crochet.  That means that I had to see what would happen if I made the same square out of thread!  This time I knew that the difference would be much greater, but how much?  As you can see it's half the size of the dk/sport square.  Now my love of math is elementary, so figuring out what yarn thickness, coupled with which hook size produces stitches that will make squares of what size is way beyond me.  What I do know is size matters.  And the only way to definitively know how big (or little) your square is going to be is to grab your supplies and get hooking!

I hope that you enjoyed my little foray into size, swatching and squares!  Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me.
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

For these I didn't bother to add a SC border, and since I didn't have matching lilac thread I used the crochet thread.  I cut a piece to length and pulled it apart so I could use just one of the plies.  It worked like a charm!

Well folks, I hope that today's tutorial has been helpful and that you might even be inspired to give this type of applique a try.  You can use this technique on so many different things.  On blue jeans, and denim jackets, shirt collars and pockets, pillow cases and sheets, curtains, tote bags - if you can imagine it, you can do it!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me.
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

The invisible join is an easy to master technique that will give your crochet pieces the smooth finish they deserve.  I'll admit that I avoided it for a long time.  I thought, why bother with threading the needle and "sewing" my stitches together when a slip stitch/finish off does the job quickly and efficiently? I finally decided to give it a try last year when I was doing a lot of thread crochet.  After working so hard to create even, perfect squares I was frustrated by the obvious lump the slip stitch left behind.  Like everything, it takes a bit of practice, but once you've done it a few times you'll wonder why you procrastinated for so long!

I don't always use the invisible join. When I'm making grannies I only use it on the last round, since you don't see the others.  I've found it works well with most yarns and is ideal with thread.  Along with being smooth and well, invisible on finishing rounds, the other place I like to use it is when you have to count stitches to make a border come out right.  There's no fudging or trying to cram the hook into the joining stitch.

To help you on your way I created this tutorial.  Lots of the instructions I've seen try to show you in two or three steps. While that may be ok for some folks I prefer to see how-to in as much detail as possible. Including how to weave in the end to ensure a secure join. (That's the part no one shows you!!)  Are you ready?

That's all there is to it!  While it's not necessary for every join, it's nice to have an alternative that gives your crochet project a smooth, even finish. Enjoy!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me!
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

Day Four: Color Review
What are your favorite colors for knitted or crocheted projects. Have a think about what colors you seem to favor when yarn shopping and crafting.

Only after writing this part of your post should you then actually look to see what colors you have used in your projects. Make a quick tally of what colors you have used in your projects over the past year and compare it to the colors you have written about. Compare this, in turn, to the colors that are most dominant in your yarn stash – do they correlate?

Color! Bright and brilliant, soft and soothing, warm, cool, shocking, neon, pastel, variegated, ombre - I love them all!!  Well, I suppose that's not entirely true.  I do have my favorites. In fact since I was young my favorite color has been purple - a passion I attribute to a long-ago obsession with Donny Osmond (I know some of you out there know what I'm talking about!).  My initial thought then is that purple would be the color I gravitate to when shopping for yarn.  Not so.  As it turns out I am much more of an equal opportunity color shopper.  My yarn/thread budget is small.  This year I made two major purchases.  The acrylics were for my series - The Granny Square Project (you can find the links in the sidebar if you missed it when I originally published).  The thread I bought because I love working with it and I was tired of using white.  Looking at these pictures makes me smile as I imagine all the possibilities that they hold!

I would have thought that purple would dominate. It came in tied for second - from the bottom!!  Imagine that!  The next big shocker is green.  12% of my projects were made from some shade of green or teal.  I never would have guessed!  So what color did I spend the most time with this year?  Pink.

How about that?  21% of the projects I counted were predominately pink.  What's interesting too is the variety of shades that I have in my stash.  I have everything from the palest almost white thread to a hot pink neon cotton yarn. The color that I used almost as much as pink is white.  I made a white shawl, wrist warmers, a hat, a doily, and a thread cross.  White was also the base for lots of granny squares.  In fact, the one big project that I'm planning is a predominately white granny style blanket.

Collecting the information for today's post has been really interesting.  I learned a lot about myself and my habits.  It was great to examine where I've been over the past year.  Not just the colors, but the type of projects I've made.  I'm looking forward to see what other Blog Week bloggers found out about their colors.  If you want to read other blog posts on this topic, please enter 4KCBWDAY4 into a search engine of your choice, or click here.

That's it for today!  Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me!  Please stop in tomorrow and see what day 5 has in store.

Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

Greetings Friends!
Isn't this country snowman just adorable?  I knew when I saw this bookmark at the library that it was the perfect candidate for a little paper crochet. Back in December I tried out the Sharp Hook (here's the post), and I knew that it would be just right for this project.  One of the advantages of the SH is that most of the time you don't have to pre-poke your holes.  While this can be convenient, I was having difficulty getting the holes in the right spot.  In order to come up with the same number of evenly spaced holes I had to use a ruler.  I tried to poke the holes as I went, but that didn't work very well.  I ended up marking them 1/4 inch apart first and then doing the poking.  It was a little painful for the finger on the "other" side until I remembered my leather thimble!  With appropriate protection I was able to move along quickly!

The bookmark is made of card stock and only printed on one side.  I glued two together because I thought it would look better being double sided.  Even with the two, I'm sure you would be able to make the holes using any small steel hook. Just get them started first, and definitely use (finger) protection!!

This is the first time that I combined paper and crochet.  It really is an easy project, and I'm sure there are more bookmarks in my future.  The hardest part is marking where the holes go, and that's more tedious than anything.  I can see using this technique to embellish handmade cards, or holiday ornaments.  To add a border to a wall calendar. Or,  even use it on photographs to create a unique frame.  Like anything in crochet, the possibilities are only limited by the imagination! 

Where will your imagination take you?  I'd love to hear your ideas for combining paper and lace!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me.
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

"A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles."
     ~ Washington Irving (1783-1859)

Perfection.  We strive towards it.  We practice to achieve it.  In matters of the heart it is often elusive.  But in crochet, all things are possible.  And so I set out to crochet a perfect heart.

There are patterns that make them in the round and those that work them in rows.  Some came close, but nothing gave me exactly what I was looking for.  I knew that creating a perfectly symmetrical heart was a matter of diligence, patience, and little geometry.  I learned a lot from all the different versions I made. Using the elements that worked the best from other patterns and through lots  of trial and error this beauty came to life! 

I made my thread hearts into bookmarks, and I included the instructions here so you can make them too.  If  they're not your style there are lots of other things you can do.  Thread hearts can be attached to a card with ribbon and given as a lovely Valentine.  Sew them onto a shirt, hat, jacket or pants pocket.  Sew 2 together and stuff for fluffy hearts.  Add a little cat nip to make a treat for you favorite kitty.  Attach one (or more) to a hair clip, barrette, or head band.  Hearts made with worsted weight yarn and an H hook are the perfect size for a coaster.  Add personalization by stitching you and your love's initials with embroidery floss.  Embellish them with terms of endearment (like the Sweetheart's Conversation Heart candies). Or just make them because they're fun and easy!

The heart in the pattern is made with #10 cotton thread and a #4/1.75 mm steel hook.  It measures about 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches.  The large heart in the picture above is made with worsted weight acrylic and an H/5.00 mm hook.  It measures about 5.5 inches x 5.5 inches.  You can make them with whatever yarn or thread and hook makes you happy.

No matter what you do with your heart, I hope it fills you with gladness and brings you a smile!

It's easy to loose your place when working rounds 3 and 4 so I created a PDF that you can download.  I point the corner of a sticky note at each step/stitch and move it to the next after working it.  Then if I  have to put my work down I know where to start!

Thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me.
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

Greetings friends and Welcome!  I feel like it's been ages since we've gotten together.  I've been working hard on holiday projects and as much as I love celebrating with family and friends I'm looking forward to settling down in the new year and getting back to a regular blogging schedule. 

Today I have something cool to tell you about - it's called the Sharp Crochet Hook.  A handy little hook that makes adding crochet edging to fabric a breeze. It allows you to work on the fly without pre-poking holes or sewing a round of the blanket stitch onto your fabric.

I've been working with thread a lot lately, but I had never tried to add lace trim to a piece of fabric. That is until Jessica Taufer got in touch and asked me to give her product a try. Jessica sent me the Starter Pack.  It arrived in a simple white envelope shortly after our conversation.  The picture above shows what I received.
The packaging is professional and it's clear that a lot of thought was given to the layout and design of the printed materials.   The Pattern Book has 18 different projects for apparel, accessories and items for babies & kids. The Edging Handbook contains 15 trim patterns that range in complexity from easy to advanced.  I was a bit surprised that neither book provided a section on how to use the sharp hook.  All of the patterns seem to start with "SC around the fabric".  While that is pretty self explanatory, as a newbie to edging I was hoping for a bit of guidance.  Especially when it comes to determining how many stitches I would need to make a particular pattern repeat work.  (More about that in a minute.)  As for the rest of the items, there is the hook itself.  It's a steel hook that does indeed have a more significant point than any of the ones I have, but not so much that it feels dangerous.  I'm not sure what size hook it is as it doesn't have anything stamped on it.  In the booklet it says, "Always use the Sharp Crochet Hook to crochet through fabric and paper, then switch to a size 3 (2.1 mm) crochet hook and continue using size 3 crochet thread, which is used throughout this book, or switch to a larger hook and use the yarn of your choice to complete the project."  I used size 10 thread and switched to a size 4 hook for my projects with no problems.

There is a set of 12 crochet hooks that range in size from 2.00 mm to 8.00 mm.  The common US letter sizes are not indicated, but I don't think that should be a problem since most patterns list both the letter and the mm size.  The hooks seem to be good quality and make a nice collection for a beginner (or starter) who want to have a selection of sizes to choose from.  I'm quite taken with the sewing snips and dropped them into my travel bag straight away. Scissors with a cap are a plus in my book.  The Yarn Wraps are a nice way to round out the kit.  They're just stretchy fabric sewed in loops, but they do the trick and I haven't had to worry about my balls of thread coming undone when I carry them back and forth to work.

Overall I am pleased with the entire presentation.  I'd like to see greater detail in the instructions, but that can be remedied easily enough with a simple flyer about "Getting Started".  I found that Jessica's web site provides additional information in the form of FAQs. The most important question though is how did it work?

The answer is really well,  once I decided what I was going to make!  To start with I made a coaster.  I had a bunch of cotton fabric hanging around so I cut a few squares.  I started at the edge and worked the single crochet across.  It was so easy that I thought, I wonder if I can crochet two pieces of fabric together to make a thicker coaster?  I grabbed two pieces and gave it try.  Imagine my surprise when I was easily able to poke through both layers at the same time!  I worked the single crochet along one edge.  I went back and counted my stitches and then worked that many on each of the three remaining sides.  I ended up selecting my trim pattern from the book Around the Corner by Edie Eckman.  Mainly because in Edie's book she tells you how many multiples the patterns are worked in so it was easy to pick one that would fit. 

Once I completed the coaster I was ready to give something else a try.  I've been working on bookmarks and thought one made of fabric would be a great idea.  Turns out I was right and it wasn't hard at all.  I cut two pieces of fabric the same size.  Then I cut a piece of cardboard from a cereal box a little smaller than the fabric rectangles.  After I pressed the fabric I used a glue stick to hold the fabric and cardboard sandwich together.  Using the sharp hook I worked a single crochet all the way around using the same number of stitches on the short ends and the long sides.  For the lace edging I worked (3dc in the same sc, ch 2, skip next sc) along each side and 5 dc in each corner.  Voila! A nifty double sided bookmark to go along with all the others I've been making!

Whether you are a seasoned thread crocheter looking to add trim to fabric, or you are a beginner interested in learning this beautiful and timeless technique the Sharp Hook is easy to use and makes a great addition to your crochet tool box.  I already have plans for adding trim to a vintage hanky, a denim jacket, and an apron.  With just a little time and effort you can easily turn a plain item into an one of a kind heirloom.  For more information you can visit Jessica on the Web and check out her full line of products.

I couldn't resist including this picture of our kitty getting in on the action.  She always has to be the center of attention!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me.  I hope that you'll come back and see the awesome projects I've been working on.  There's lots of thread crochet, hats, gloves, and accessories for the home.  I'll share patterns I designed and finally finish up the Granny Square Project.  In the mean time, I hope your holidays are wonderful!

Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

Greetings friends!  Oh, what a busy month it's been!  No matter how early I get up or how late into the wee hours I toil there never seem to be enough hours in the day to get it all done! Honestly I'm not sure how you do it.  I suppose the up side of all of this activity is that I have plenty of projects to share with you!

If you've been visiting for a while you know that recently I've been working with thread.  I absolutely love this medium.  The delicate detail, the feel of the fabric, the sense of accomplishment when I've finished a piece.  Today I want to share a story of crochet,  kindness and social networking with you.

Like so many new bloggers, when I started this adventure I thought all I had to do was publish my posts and readers would flock to my site making me an internet sensation and overnight success (well, not quite...). But the reality is if you want people to visit you have to network.  That means visiting others on a regular basis and sharing thoughtful comments.  Taking part in on-line activities like CALs, a Year of Projects, and Blogtoberfest. Participating in some of the many groups and forums you find on Ravelry.  Creating boards of your favorite things on Pinterest, and following people you find interesting.  Tweeting your activities and posts.  And of course the big one, the one that I avoided like the plague - joining the world of Facebook.

Most of these have proven easy and fun to do.  I've met some of the nicest, most talented people you could ever imagine.  And while I admit that I don't really understand the whole Twitter craze I can say that I have come to enjoy my time on Facebook.  In fact, that's how I met Bonnier Reiner.  Bonnie is a fiber artist from California where she creates this beautiful hand-painted thread.  We don't know each other well at all, but Bonnie sent me a message asking if I would be interested in giving her thread a try.  Naturally  I said yes and about 10 days later a small package arrived.  To my delight there were (2) 50 yard skeins of a bright blue, purple, teal, and green thread, plus one with pastel shades of pink, green and yellow.  She calls them Rainbow Threads and you can reach her at [email protected] if you'd like to know about availability and pricing.  What I can tell you about is appearance and quality.  I tried the #10 thread (but she has others).  The colors are rich and vibrant (please excuse my pictures, it was too sunny and the color washed out).  The thread is mercerized (I think) and has a nice sheen.  It is easy to handle and flows smoothly on the hook.  It doesn't snarl or get knotted while you're using it.  The only thing I had trouble with was winding the skein onto my bobbin.  I think that's more from my inexperience though because I always buy my thread in balls or cones.  Once I had it wound into a useable form I set to work making these coasters.  They are about 4 inches in diameter.  The one on the right is finished.  It's 2 pieces that are joined on the final round.  From the one 50 yard skein there is enough thread to make at least 3 and maybe 4 coasters this size.  It really does go a long way as long as you use a second color for the back piece. In case you're interested the pattern is Safari Coasters and is available online from Leisure Arts.   I found it in the October 2001 issue of Crochet with Heart magazine. I'm always on the lookout for old magazines and I bought a stack of these at the thrift shop a few years ago!

I don't have any experience hand painting fiber, no doubt it takes time and talent.  I'm pleased to have had the chance to give Bonnie's thread a try,  and thankful that she sought me out and offered to send a gift to a stranger across the country.  For a long time Facebook felt like a cross between a high school cafeteria and a seedy bar after last call.  I was really hesitant to create an account.  As it turns out, there's a bounty of great folks looking to share their talents, ideas and knowledge. Who knew?? 

This has been a terrific experience.  I wish that I had more details on Rainbow Threads to share with you.  It's good stuff and if I've peaked your interest at all, please get in touch with Bonnie. 

I can't write a post on a Wednesday without telling you the latest book chat now can I?? Of course not!  Last week I read the new book by Kaya McLaren called How I Came to Sparkle Again.  It's been a long time since a book hit me the way this one did, and I hope that you'll check out my review to find out why!

Earlier today I finished the Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell.  This is the 20th Scarpetta novel.  I have been a huge fan of these books for years, but the last few just didn't do it for me.  It seemed like the magic was gone.  So I had mixed feelings when I started this one.  If you want to know what I thought, drop by Robin Reads & Writes later in the week for my review.

Allrighty folks,  time to say goodbye for another day.  I can't believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and that we're on the countdown to Christmas!  I miss having the time to write and I'm looking forward to that quiet time that comes during our New England winters.  A cup of tea and my favorite projects equal lots of stories to share!  And speaking of sharing, today I'll be linking up with a few of my favorite.  Please stop by and add yours to the mix.  The more the merrier!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me!
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

Hello, Hello!
I hope that you find my tips useful.  I think the most important one is to not be intimidated or afraid of working with thread.  I was quite new to crochet when I first gave it a try.  My early attempts felt awkward and looked a wreck, but something about the delicate fabric captivated me and I was determined.  Once I relaxed and allowed the beginning rounds to look a mess my doily started to take shape and I was hooked.  One of my favorite parts of making doilies is the variety of stitches.  Every round offers different combinations of stitches creating amazing patterns right before your eyes!

This week I've been working hard making bookmarks.  I'm having a great time with all the different colors.  In fact it's almost hard to choose!  I've been trying different granny square patterns and combining then with the beautiful borders from Around the Corner to make some very lovely designs (if I do say so myself!)

If you've been hesitant to try it, or think that you could never manage it I really encourage you to give thread crochet a try.  I know it's not for everyone, but you'll never know if don't give it  shot!  And anyway, what's the worst that can happen??  Another project in the WIP pile?  No problem we all have plenty of those!

I'm not sure how it happens, but the holidays are here (again) and I find myself behind on projects (again!).  Instead of getting down on myself, I'm just going to focus my energies a bit more on crocheting and a bit less on blogging. I like to get three posts out per week.  However for the next 6 weeks or so I need to make sure that I'm not stretching myself too thin creating unnecessary pressure. So I'll me paring back to only one or two posts each week.  After all, I do this for fun and the last thing that I want is for it to become a chore!!  I want the posts that I share with you to be exciting and interesting - not just dribble for the sake of publishing something.  I know you understand, and just think of the great projects I'll have to share with you!!

Even though I'm a day late I'll still be linking up with these amazing blogs to share my thread tips.  I hope that you'll pop in for a visit and share what you've been working on!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a bit of your day with me!
Until next time friends,
Be blessed and stitch & read with love!

Greetings Friends!  Welcome to the weekend!  What do you have in store?  Here in the US we have  long weekend.  (Queue patriotic music now!) We're celebrating  Veterans Day on Monday "to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good". Although I don't come from a military family I am thankful to all of these brave folks.

What do you think of this pile of thready goodness? I am so excited by all these colors and all the projects just waiting to be discovered!  Why so many you ask?  Well there's a reason of course!  I've had this idea to make book marks for the holidays in the back of my head for ages.  But I only had a few basic colors, and I wanted them to be fun and bright and happy.  Last month I decided to see what I could find.  I checked all my regular web sites and while the selections were large, each ball was between $2.39 and $4.59 for 300 yds.  Not much if you only want a few, but I wanted lots!! Finally I checked Amazon.com.  That's where I found this company selling 175 yd. balls for $1.69. I realize that per yard it's slightly more, but I like that the balls are smaller - since I'm going for variety here and really how much thread do you use to make a bookmark? 

Now that I have all of this fabulous thread I need to figure out what to do with it...

There are some lovely bookmark patterns out there, and I'm sure I'll be trying a few.  But I wanted to design something on my own.  My summer spent making granny squares seemed to be all the the inspiration that I needed.  Image the color combinations I could come up with!  After all I have 14 different colors to choose from!  This got me thinking... Just how many possibilities are there?  Now I'm good (enough) at math, but this was beyond my ability.  And then I remembered my blogging friend Angeliki (she's a physics major from Greece) who had helped me with this type of question once before.  I sent here a quick note on Facebook.

But my dear friend was not satisfied just giving me a simple answer.  No, instead she wrote a program that finally shows us the secret to

That's right!  All you have to do is download a file, plug in the number of colors you're using and it will tell you how many different combinations there are!  But it doesn't just give you the number, it generates a list of the possibilities so if you are so inclined to make them all you can print the list and cross them off one by one!  She's included the links and instructions on her blog.  I hope that you'll give it a try, and please be sure to leave a comment to let her know how it goes.

Now that I have the colors covered I need to try some different patterns.  To start with I used a classic granny with the granny stripe border. Next I'm going to pick some of my favorites from this summer and try putting them together with the classic.  I brought home a copy of Around the Corner: Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman that has 150 designs to choose from.  With all of these choices I'm confident that I'll have some stunning bookmarks to show you!  I guess you know what I'll be doing this (long) weekend!!

I have often told you how warmed I am by the support and kindness that I have experienced through my blog.  This is yet another example of the overwhelming goodness and willingness to help that makes me feel blessed to be part of such an amazing community.  Thanks Angeliki, and all of you who make blogging so much fun!

In addition to my fiber offerings, I like to participate in Five Minute Friday over at Lisa-Jo Baker's place. It's writing in the raw and if you've never done it, why don't you give it a try? It's really easy - you just:
1. Write for 5 minutes flat on this week's prompt with no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking - then post it just as it is!
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

Here's what happened when I spent five minutes writing on the prompt "Quiet"

You would think this would be an easy one for me, working at the library shouldn't quiet be part of my every day?  Nope.  Not at our library.  You won't find any shushing going on here.  Oh we don't let it get out of hand, but talking is not forbidden.  After all we are a community center.  We are a gathering place for all ages.  We encourage communication and building relationships.  Answering questions and sharing information.  And none of that came be done without a little noise.

But there is a difference between silence and quiet isn't there?  Quiet can bring calm and peacefulness, whereas the sounds of silence can scream harshly at you.  I can't imagine not having noise about me.  Not loud or hard noises, but the activity of life kind of noises.

And when I want quiet I look inside.  Because that is where it is most important to me.  That I can find a peaceful place to settle into and be undisturbed by the noises that surround me.

Today I'll be sharing my post on these terrific blogs.  Drop by and add your project to the party and see what everyone else has been up to this week.