The Necklace

Pattern available at the new website here.

Spiralis Scarf

Pattern available at the new website here.

Ottellea

Happy Mother's (and Grandmother's) Day!!

 

This is Ottellea. It is named after my grandmother's middle name and the first name of my great grand-aunt (although a slight spelling variation).

This is Grandma Irene Ottilie in 1946. She was 22 years old in this photo.

The pattern is available for purchase at the following sites:

Ravelry pattern page
Love Crochet pattern page

Here are some details about the pattern:

Yarn: Fingering weight
MC (block sections) - approximately 600 yds
CCA (bobble sections) - approximately 460 yds
CCB (three mesh sections) - approximately 220 yds
CCC (two mesh sections) - approximately 120 yds
[Note: If you want to use three colors instead of four, combine the estimated yardage of CCB and CCC.]

Approximate Dimensions: 80" along the longest side by 30" at the widest point. Your finished dimensions may differ depending on your gauge and how the finished scarf is blocked.

Even though the pattern uses simple stitches, such as sc, sc2tog, dc, and dc2tog to mention a few, I would say this pattern would be for an experienced beginner or an intermediate crocheter. The reason behind this is you will need some familiarity with finding stitches at the end of each row. That is probably the trickiest part of the pattern.

 

This one is the Floral Ottellea. The yarns I used are as follows:

[Dyer, Base, Coloway]

MC - Shalimar, Aerie, Chamois

CCA - Knerd String, Fingering Weight, Cherry Garcia

CCB - Avalon Springs Farm, Pendragon, Hobbit House

CCC - Shalimar, Breathless, Enchanted

I call this one the Autumnal Ottellea. This was actually the first color scheme I used, but I didn't like how the pattern was turning out at the time, so I frogged it. I rewrote the pattern, made the Floral one, and then remade the Autumnal. Here are the yarns:

MC - Tempting Ewe; Ewe So Happy Sock; Lock, Shock, & Barrel

CCA - Hazel Knits, Entice MCN, Hoppy Blonde

CCB - Hazel Knits, Entice MCN, Concord

CCC - Hazel Knits, Entice MCN, Sedge

Some of the yarns I used are from Maryland local dyers: Avalon Springs Farm (find their yarn at local events and on their website), Tempting Ewe (exclusive to Clover Hill Yarn Shop in Catonsville, but also online), and Shalimar (see her website for stockists).

Happy crocheting!!

(Knitted) 1800s Hat-Scarf

Pattern available at the new website here.

1800s Hat-Scarf (Crocheted Version)

Pattern available at the new website here.

Two Pink Scarves

This Saturday, there will be a 5K walk/race by the Hurwitz Breast Cancer Fund in my town. As part of the event, the organizers requested pink scarves to be knitted, crocheted, or woven for walkers/racers who are breast cancer survivors. These are the two I made for them.

I started the pink and white one thinking I would do the interesting knot from the All Wrapped Up Infinity Scarf. The pink section is the pattern from the Pound of Love Hooded Baby Blanket. The white section is a granny square pattern from Heather's Crochet Blog. Unfortunately, I made the two sections too wide so the knot didn't work well. I just seamed the two together to make a HUGE infinity scarf. You have to wrap it around three times, but it still works well as a scarf.

The dark pink one is a fan or shell pattern that I haven't written up yet.

This brings my lifetime donation total to 689 items.

Cheers!

447 and Kiva.org

So the semester has ended, except for a final I have to grade once I get back from Akron, OH, which means I get to send Jee Jee (ARC) all the items I've crocheted for her during the semester.

Items:
-5 pairs of socks
-1 hat
-2 earwarmers (one is very small)
-1 cowl
-13 scarves

Now my total is 447 items donated since 2009.

So now to some of my thoughts (if you aren't interested in my life as a grad student, you can skip down to the next section on Kiva.org):

An update on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship: I didn't get it :D. I didn't want it since I don't want a PhD at this time and getting the NSF GRFP would have forced me into one. I'm still uncertain what I want to do in life. Now that I'm actually moving on my master thesis research (the reason why I'm in Akron), I feel better about paleontology. However, even though I'm enjoying it, I still can't see a future in paleontology for me. I think I still want to get a masters in chemistry and work in industry for a bit and then decide if it is something I want to continue with. A non sequitur, but I like teaching. I really enjoyed TAing GEO 404C Plate Tectonics and Earth History. In fact, I liked teaching more than I liked doing work for my thesis this semester. Meh. I guess we shall just let time tell...

Now to Kiva.org.

If you can't tell already (which actually you may not have been able to tell), I LOVE Kiva.org. To date, I've made 32 loans to 28 countries. Kiva is a microfinancing charity, in which lenders can loan as little as $25 to people all over the world (specifically in 64 countries). Usually, the people are in developing countries, although Kiva does have loans in the US. This is how the process works:

• The borrower requests a small loan (from as low as $150 to as high as $6,500, although the US loans can be up to $10,000) from a micofinancing institution (MFI) in their home country.
• The MFI disperses funds to the borrower and sends the loan information to Kiva, which then places the loan online.
• Lenders (ordinary people, like you and me) from around the world lend as little as $25 to any of the 300 to 3,000 loans listed at any given time (there are usually just a few hundred around the 17th of each month and usually a few thousand around the 14-15th of each month for reasons I will explain later).
• Your and my money is used to backfill the loan that has already been distributed to the borrower. This takes the risk of the loan off the MFI and onto you, which helps the MFI continue to provide more loans to be people who are looking to improve their qualities of life.
• The borrower repays the loan as set by the schedule of the MFI. The money first goes to the MFI and then to Kiva and then to you.
• The money arrives back in your account on the 15th of each month (everyone relends the money to new loans then so that's why there are so many listed prior to this date and so few after). You can relend the money to your heart's content or withdraw it.
• Kiva costs nothing to sign up or to use ever (of course not including the money you lend). If you follow this link, http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/feliciakulp you (and me) can get a free $25 loan to a listed loan of your choosing (this money will be repaid to Kiva, not you or me).

Now I don't want to scare you with the "takes the risk of the loan off the MFI and onto you" part. I have never had a loan that ended with a loss. Although I have had a few loans that were delinquent (a late repayment), they always picked it up during the next month's repayment. Overall, lending on Kiva is very low risk and in the process, you are helping someone improve their life, help send their children to school, help expand their business so now they can hire additional employees and in turn improve their lives, and so on.

To help give you an idea of what your money can help do, here are some details about some of the loans that I have contributed to:

• Countries: Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, and Zambia (28 total)
• I've donated to women, men, groups of one gender, groups of both genders, married people, single people, old, young, widows, widowers, mothers, fathers, a Palestinian refugee
• Some are taxi drivers or wives of taxi drivers, some work in motorcycle or car repair shops, some are farmers, some sell food and other general supplies, some are artisans and make clothes and jewelry, some wish to make improvements to their home or even just build one
• To see a full list of my loans: http://www.kiva.org/lender/feliciakulp
• Also if you are a Nerdfighter, the Kiva Nerdfighter team

Recently, I received an update from one of my loans (Made, Indonesia; jewelry artisan). Using the funds from the loan he requested, he has made the jewelry that has been listed on NOVICA and is available for purchase. Now, I'm not trying to promote him, but I am trying to give you the sense the the money that is lent to people through Kiva really does produce results and can true help their lives.

Peace.

Basketweave Scarf

It's a simple design that requires front post double crochet (fpdc) and back post double crochet (dpdc).


Pattern:


Materials:
Worsted weight yarn
I Hook


Ch 17. 
Row 1. Dc in third ch from hook, dc in each ch across. Ch 2. Turn. (15 dc sts)
Row 2. Dc in first st, * fpdc in next st, bpdc in next st. Repeat from * to the last two sts in the row. Fpdc in second to last st, dc in last st. Ch 2. Turn.
Repeat Row 2 until the scarf is the desired length.


You can change the width of the scarf by changing the number of initial chain stitches. However, make sure the number of initial chains is odd, or else the pattern will no longer work.

Puffed Shell Stitch Scrap Yarn Blanket and Scarf

56" x 43" Afghan

Since I crochet a lot, I have a plethora of scarp yarn. When I finish a project and have so little yarn left that I can't make anything with it, I tie one end of the yarn with other scrap yarn and roll it into a ball and just keep adding to the ball. I had four rather large balls of scrap yarn until last year when I found a use for it: I made an afghan and a scarf. 

Both pieces use the same basic pattern, a puffed shell stitch, which can be found here on Lion Brand Yarn's website under the name "popcorn stitch." The scarf uses 36 ch sts in the base chain, making it about 10" wide (which is a little too wide in my opinion). I don't know how many the afghan uses because it is currently at the Maryland State Fair (it got first place in Shell Stitch Afghan, Adult Crochet). 

Overall, to change the width of the pattern, use chains in sets of 3 for the base chain.


The purple scarf doesn't use scrap yarn, of course, but it does follow the same pattern. I think this has 21 base chain sts.


Cheers

Butterfly Scarf

A couple days ago I found the Olivia's Butterfly hat pattern by Valerie Whitten. It is a very easy and simple child's hat pattern that is perfect for a young girl. However, the pattern, like the Cluster Stitch Cloche, didn't have a scarf to go with it. So again, I made my own, and here is the pattern. If you are having trouble with the stitch that goes around all of the chain rows, Mrs. Whitten has photos of that stitch in her hat pattern.


Pattern:
Materials:
1 skein worsted weight yarn (about 250 yds)
J hook


Row 1. Chain 19.
Row 2. Dc in third ch from hook. Dc in next 2 ch sts. Ch 10. Skip 10 ch sts. Dc in third ch st from the end of row 1. Dc to the end. Ch 2. Turn.
Row 3. Dc in  next 3 dc sts. Ch 10. Sk 10 ch sts (from row 2). Dc in next dc and to end. Ch 2. Turn.
Row 4 and 5. Repeat Row 3.
Row 6. Dc in next 3 dc sts. Dc in first 4 ch sts. Dc over and around all ch 10 rows by bunching the rows together. Sk 1 ch st. Dc in last 5 ch sts. Dc to end. Ch 2. Turn.
Row 7. Dc in each dc across. Ch 2. Turn.
Repeat Row 7 until scarf is 2 inches less than desired length.

Finishing
Row 1. Dc in first 3 dc sts. Ch 10. Sk next 10 dc sts. Dc in last 3 dc sts. Ch 2. Turn.
Row 2. Dc in first 3 dc sts. Ch 10. Sk next 10 ch sts. Dc in last 3 dc sts. Ch 2. Turn.
Row 3. Repeat Row 2.
Row 4. Dc in first 3 dc sts. Ch 10. Sk next 10 ch sts. Dc in last 3 dc sts. Ch 1. Turn.
Row 5. Sc in first 3 dc sts. Ch 5. Sc in 5th dc st of skipped dc sts from last row before Finishing rows, going around and bunching together all of the ch rows. Ch 5. Sc in next dc st and to end.
Finish off.

Cluster Stitch Scarf and Accompanying Hat

Every year, I enter items in the Home Arts Building at the Howard County Fair. This year, I had made the Cluster Stitch Hat (see the comments below for a current url for the hat pattern), but in order to enter it in the fair, I needed an accompanying scarf. So I decided to make my own pattern. It worked out pretty well considering it won first in Scarf and Hat Set, Adult Crochet. It will be at the Maryland State Fair in a week. (Update: Neither the hat nor the scarf placed at the MD State Fair. There was a lot of competition.)

Scarf Pattern:

Materials:

3 skeins of worsted yarn (about 510 yds)

Large-eye blunt needle to weave in ends

I hook (I know the hat pattern calls for a J hook. For some reason, I used an I hook for the hat and the scarf. Feel free to use the J hook, and in fact I recommend it for the hat at any rate, since I can barely get mine over my head. Just keep in mind that a J hook will make the scarf a little wider.)

Stitch Explanation:

CS (cluster stitch) - (yarn over (YO), insert hook in next slip st, YO and pull up 1/2" loop) twice, YO and draw through all 5 loops on hook, ch 1. CS made. 

Important Note: For CS on all rows after the first row using CS, instead of inserting the hook in the next slip st, insert the hook from front to back and back out to front around the CS of the previous row. Treat these CS as if they are post stitches around the previous row's CS.

1. Ch 21.

2. Sc in second ch from hook. Sc across. Turn. Do not ch 1.

3. Sl st across in each sc. Ch 1. Turn.

4. Sc in the two loops facing front (i.e. the loops of the sc sts) across.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 two more times.

6. Repeat step 3, but end with ch 2.

7. Going through the two loops facing front, dc 1 in first st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, dc 1 in next 6 sts, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, CS 1 in next st, skip next st, dc 1 in next two sts. Do not ch. Turn. Sl st across in the top of each st and around each ch st. Ch 2. Turn.

8. Repeat step 7 twice, but use 6 hdc sts instead of the 6 dc sts in the middle. Follow the pattern of using dc in one row followed by two rows using hdc. This prevents the middle section from bulging and keeps it more even with the rest of the row. Continue until scarf is 1" from desired length. Ch 1 instead of 2 in last row.

9. Sc 20 st evenly across. Do not ch. Turn.

10. Repeat step 3 and 4 three times. Do not ch 1 in last row. Finish off. (Note: you could do one more row of step 3 before finishing off. I didn't, but now that I look at my scarf, I think it would look better with one more row of step 3.)

If there are problems with this pattern, please comment and I will try to fix it.