324 Donated Items!!

Life has been busy lately, with finishing graduate applications and the last fall semester of my undergraduate career not to mention the massive holiday rush on etsy. But since that has calmed down, I've had a bit of time to do some charity crocheting. Here are the spoils of my labor of love.


But I'd like to say some more things. One: If you are a bit of a math nerd (no shame in that :3) and tallied my donations from this and the last post, you'll find that it comes to 323. I converted my paper tally of my donations into an excel one and in doing so, discovered that my donations were actually 324. So I basically discovered that I can't count. All my 5s on the calc and stat AP exams and calc III in college have failed me. *hangs head*


Two: Crocheting for the next several months may be difficult given the amount of work I put on myself for this last spring semester. *sad panda*

Donated Items:
-1 baby blanket (the white one since in previous pictures)
-4 bibs
-3 earwarmers
-1 cat bed and cat mat
-2 stuffed animals
-7 pairs of mittens
-1 pair of booties
-4 scarves
-13 hats
-6 10" x 10" squares for a blanket

Also seen here are the four items my mom donated to ARC.


Cheers!

280

I'm so busy with biochemistry lab, so I'm going to make this brief. Total items donated is now at 280 with this latest shipment to ARC.

Items:
-11 hats
-1 pair of mittens
-1 scarf

-4 10" x 10" squares for an ARC project

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.

263

So I've been home for fair stuff for about 2 weeks. In that time, I crocheted a lot, as usual. Here are the items that will be sent to ARC this week, bringing my total to 263.


Items:
8 Pairs of mittens
5 Scarves (two are scrap yarn)
2 Ear warmers
2 Hats
1 Cowl
1 Child's poncho
1 Baby blanket (only the blue one in the picture; the white one is at the MD State Fair, but it will be donated at a future date)

Every Other Row Hat

Pattern available at the new website here.

Some of my entries for the fairs this year...

The Howard County Fair and Maryland State Fair are very big in my life. I've always entered them in Home Arts and I usually volunteer at both. I just wanted to share a few of my entries before I enter them later this week. Here are the two I'm most proud of:


Kangaroo and her Joey

It turned out great, but it was a bit of a pain to attach everything.










Black-eyed Susan Man

The building theme for the Home Arts Dept at the HoCo Fair this year is our state flower. I usually don't enter the building theme, but this year I had a good idea so I went for it. This is my design, but I took some of the pieces from other patterns as follows:
Legs - Squiggy, specifically
Head
Petals (this pattern has moved or has been completely removed as of 1/5/13)




The kangaroo got first and the black-eyed susan man got third at the Howard County Fair.
At the Maryland State Fair, the kangaroo got Honorable Mention and the black-eyed susan man got third. I never do as well in crochet as I do at the HoCo Fair.

243

In between studying for the GRE and working at the Smithsonian, I was able to make these five items which have been donated to ARC. And now I'm up to 243 items donated since 2009.

Items:
3 scarves (I actually knitted one for a change)
1 small hat
1 earwarmer