Crafting | Making it Home

Making it Home: Keeping domesticity alive in the 21st century.

7 Things You Can Make with Granny Squares (that aren’t afghans!)

By Trisha on January 29, 2013

The granny square: a classic icon of all things home-made by your grandma in orange, avocado, and UPS brown.

Granny squares have come a long way since your grandmother started crocheting, however, coming in all kinds of fancy variations, and even fancy shapes!

There’s still something nostalgic and lovely about the basic granny square, though. It’s a staple of learning how to crochet that teaches you pattern reading, tension, magic loops, chains, and how to use up all of your scraps lest any yarn threaten to be wasted after a project is done.

I like my granny squares hexagonal, usually, but I do have a stash of random odds and ends that have been turned into traditional granny squares at some point or another. This, of course, leaves me with a bunch of squares and nothing to do with them (but the yarn has not been wasted!). I could always just join them into an afghan, but I have a few other ideas up my sleeve…

Here are 7 different things you can make with plain ‘ol granny squares that are not afghans:

1. Granny Square Cup Cozy from Designs by KN
2. Jolly Little Goody Bags from Yellow Pink and Sparkly
3. Granny Square Afghan from Tangled Happy
4. The Ugly Granny Square Bag from A Life Like Vera
5. Get Your Granny On Bag from Vallies Kids
6. Solely Granny Squares Hat from Crafty Christina
7. Granny Square Fingerless Gloves (Ravelry link)

No matter if you’re a beginner crocheter or could do it with your eyes closed, now there are 7 more things in your personal arsenal to do with your scrap yarn and all of the granny squares you’ve hooked up!

{Tutorial} Easy Infant Car Seat Cover

By Trisha on January 8, 2013

I was a crafty fox this weekend. I finished not one, but two baby items. I’m only talking about one of them today, though…

So, remember about three weeks ago when I posted about stuff I wanted to make for baby prior to its arrival? One of those items was a car seat cover, like the one over at Cluck Cluck Sew. I finally gathered my wits about me and got to making one, loosely following that tutorial and a few others. It was a quick, gratifying, simple project.

Making stuff for babies is awesome. Moar instant gratification, please and thank you!

I highly encourage you to carve out just a few hours to make one of these for your next baby or baby shower. 3, maybe 4 hours will do, and you get a spiffy custom and useful object out of it.

Step one: Gather your materials.

Materials:

Car Seat Cover Materials

1 yard of print fabric for the outer (I used quilting cotton)
1 yard of backing fabric for the lining (I used flannel – this gives it some weight so it’s doesn’t just flap away)
1/4 yard of coordinating fabric for straps (a fabric quarter works well here, too – not pictured)
coordinating thread
6 inches of velcro

Step two: Prewash and dry all of your fabrics. This is important so that your colors don’t bleed or run, and it’s also just good practice. Then iron everything.

Step three: Straighten out all of your edges and cut your outer and lining fabric to 34″ by 40″ (this was roughly cut to cut and selvage to selvage for me, after removing the selvage on either side and straightening out the cut edges). Round your corners at this point using a cup or bowl or fancy edge rounding guide.

Step four: Sew your lining fabric and outer fabric with right sides together, leaving a space to turn your fabrics right-side-out.

Step five: Turn and top-stitch your cover.

Step six: Cut your strap fabric into two pieces measuring 5″ by 18″. Fold a 1/2″ hem around the entire thing, then fold it in half. Top-stitch around the edges so your final straps measure 4″ x 8″.

Kitty with car seat cover

Step 7: Sew a 3 inch piece of velcro to your straps. Make sure that you put the hooks on one side, and the loops on the other. Usually, placing these so that your hooks are on top and your loops are on the bottom is preferable.

Step 8: Sew your straps to the cover. I placed mine with the inner sides 12 3/4″ in from the long edges and 14″ down from the top. I stitched a 1 1/4″ rectangle spanning the entire width to hold them in place.

Step 9: Attach to a car seat and admire your work! Bonus points if you can get your cat to help you model it.

That’s it. It really is that easy.

Go off and make one for yourself, your sister, your neighbor, everyone! Keep those babies safe from curious hands and crazy winds.

Link up!

{Tutorial} Flat Crochet Join Technique for Granny Squares

By Trisha on December 11, 2012

Because I’m bicraftual, I often get asked which I prefer to do: knit? or crochet?

The answer to this is always, “Well, it depends.”

I find that knitting lends itself better to garments, and crochet better to objects, like blankets and toys. Personal preference, of course.

I have a ton of blanket and afghan patterns favorited on Ravelry (find me! I’m sassy-pants) of all different types – motifs, panels, and full size blankets.

The thing I like best about motif afghans, like granny square afghans, is the portability of the individual unit. I can easily make granny squares wherever I go, on the train, in front of the telly, and they are incredibly satisfying as instant-gratification projects.

The thing I hate most about motif afghans, is the process of joining the individual units. And weaving in ends. But joining the squares can be tedious and yarn needles can, kindly, carry on their merry way without me. I would much rather join all of my motifs either as I go or with a hook.

My favorite join these days is a simple crocheted join that makes a flat join with a slight, single stitch border around the joined motifs. It looks stunning in a contrasting color, and hides well if you use the outer motif color. It is as simple and easy as a single crochet join, but without the inevitable ridge that forms.

Flat Joining Technique for Granny Squares: A Tutorial

Needs:

Motifs – your granny squares, hexagons, or other motifs you’re joining for your afghan, cushion, etc
Crochet hook – use either the same size you made your motifs with or one size smaller, if that’s easier
Yarn – contrasting, matching, whatever floats your boat!

Method:

Step 1: Grab the motifs you’re joining. Hold them wrong sides together and locate where you will start joining the pieces, usually at a corner.

Step 2: Insert your hook through the back loop of the top motif.

Step 3: Insert your hook through the back loop of the bottom motif.

Step 4: Yarn over, and pull loop through all three loops on your hook.

In this image, you can see I’ve pulled my loop through the two motif loops, but not yet through the joining yarn on my hook. The loop on the left still needs to make its way through the loop on the right to complete the stitch.

Here I’ve completed the stitch. It’s basically a slip stitch through the motif stitches.

To join all of your motifs, just continue on with steps 1-4 until your pieces are joined. Finish off by cutting the yarn and pulling it through the final loop on your hook.

I’ve been using it on my latest project – a hexagon shaped blanket for the impending baby. The soft white makes a nice border and pulls together all of the different colors in my hexagons. After I get all of the millions of ends woven in, I’ll share the finished project, which will be the baby’s first handmade gift.

Do you have a different join that rocks your world? Tell me about it in the comments below!

Things to Make Before Baby Arrives

By Trisha on December 10, 2012

I have had a nursery theme picked out for our first baby for months now: Foxes (and other woodland creatures, but mostly foxes). This allows me to have all kinds of neutral green, orange, teal, and red stuff ready for the baby come April.

Unfortunately for me, owls are the woodland creature in vogue right now, and foxes are in short supply. I’m having a hard time finding fabrics that feature anything but owls or whales or mustaches, which makes completing a few projects a bit more challenging.

I’ve got a list of six projects I want to have done in time for baby.

First up: a crib sheet. Kelly over at Imperfect Homemaking just recently posted a tutorial on how to make a simple crib sheet out of any fabric you like! She uses fold-over elastic, but I think I’ll make a quick casing for mine and thread elastic through it. Either way, baby’s going to need some sheets.

Next I’m going to need bibs. My husband is a drooler, and apparently was always wearing a bib when he was a baby to help catch the drool. If this baby’s anything like him, I’ve got my work cut out for me here. Besides, it’s a good excuse to use up some fabric remnants that I’ve got and bibs are a great, instant gratification project. I’m loving the patchwork bib tutorial from Sew She Sews.

As I was hanging out over on Pinterest this week, I saw a tutorial for a hooded car seat blanket come up. These are adorable and I can totally see how it would be useful! I’ll probably make this out of not-theme-related fabric, so it matches the cars a bit better. Maybe chevron stripes?

Apparently you have to put clothes on kids, too. Onesies are great, but appliqued onesies are better! I have a few that I’ve embroidered on, but I’ve never actually done any applique, so I’m pretty excited to try that out and get cute baby clothes out of it.

I’m sure to have more blankets than I know what to do with. Between myself and all of my crafty friends, baby will have sewn, quilted, knitted, and crocheted blankets for every possible occasion, not to mention all of the receiving and store-bought blankets that will show up at the baby shower in February. Despite this, I definitely think I need to make a chenille baby blanket like this one from Aesthetic Nest. The more blankets, the warmer, right?

Colorado is well known for its sun, so I’ll definitely be making a car seat cover, as well, to help shield my sweet new babe from the sun and grabby hands. Allison from Cluck Cluck Sew has a simple car seat cover tutorial that I’ll be following to make mine.

I’m sure to come up with more projects the babe just can’t live without in the coming months, but April sure is sneaking in on us! I’m almost tentatively waiting until after this Saturday to get started on a few things, since we’re having an elective ultrasound to determine stubborn baby’s gender that morning. Wish us luck!

Crafty Goals for 2012

By Trisha on January 6, 2012

I’m not big on resolutions, particularly New Year’s Resolutions. I like to take life head on, and have been very humbled by the last few years to realize that sometimes I just won’t have control over the chaos that we call life.

Resolutions are usually so noble, too, like, “I’ll go to the gym 5x/week!” or “I will quit smoking” or “I will be debt free!” I know better than to try to commit to something of that scale (though, thankfully, I don’t smoke, so I guess I can commit to that!), since the last few times I tried, life has taken it as a challenge to purposely put me off track. Instead, I stay prepared for as much as I can.

Goals, however…I do love goals! I can’t imagine waking up in the morning and having nothing to strive towards, nothing to achieve, day after day. My zest for life would fizzle. As crafting is one of my biggest passions and motivators in life, I’m starting off 2012 with a list of crafty goals, hopefully to be completed in this year.

Sew myself at least 2 aprons. Being an avid foodie and frequent culinary entertainer, I have no excuse for not owning a single apron (GASP!). It’s well past time to remedy that.
Organize my yarn stash. Nothing big here, this is just an item on my to-do list that has been lingering for longer than I’d like to admit. I’m not yet settled on an organizational method, but it has to fit in my office/craft room closet.
Paint my desk. My office desk is already painted, but I did a really shoddy job, and I would love it to have a nicer finish and look intentional.
Organize the rest of my crafting supplies. I have a bunch of random bits and bobs (don’t all crafters?) that need to find a home. I need to get my “kids’ crafts” stuff into one bin, as well.
Try paper crafting. I’ve always been a yarn-crafter, sometimes venturing into sewing and fabrics, but have steered clear of paper craft. No more!
Try soap making. Another one of those crafts that has been sitting on my “Someday I’ll try…” list for too long. Cold process soap making, I’ve got my eye on you.
Finish a quilt. I have at least one quilt started, though I’m pretty sure at least one more started quilt will surface (see #4), so I should get one done.
Use up or donate half of my yarn. I am quite tired of looking at the piles of inherited acrylic. I don’t have any room to store new lovely luxurious yarns that I want, and refuse to buy any new yarn while my stash is at it’s current size. I want to start using beautiful yarns that make my heart sing when I see them! That means I have to nix some of the old.
Embroider Jaden’s portrait. I’ve been meaning to do this ever since my red Siberian Husky boy died just before Christmas 2010. I want to embroider a portrait of his grinning face to place on a shelf with his ashes. This will likely be a piece accented with many tears and lots of love.
Publish my first knitting pattern. And it will happen right here! I’ve got a few different patterns written down that I’ve been using, and I will be sharing them with you in 2012.
Make a chicken hat and photograph it on a chicken. I have two hens, and no chicken hats. This must be remedied. See this old post from Craftster.
Knit a pair of Bella mittens. I’m not a Twilight fangirl, but I love Bella’s mittens from the first film. You know, the gray ones with the sexy horseshoe cable on the back? I would love to have these done in time for the final film release (November 16th!)

I think 12 should do it, yeah? This isn’t a comprehensive list of all of the crafty things I want to make happen, but it should help keep me on track!

What is your #1 crafting goal for this year?