Kitty Yurts!!!

I made a ton of fleece blankets with crocheted edges as my "portable projects" at the hockey rink, but then I ran across a pattern for a kitty den. I liked the idea, but I wasn't sure if my cats were actually going to take to it, so I didn't want to buy the expensive super jumbo bulky yarn used. (Also, I didn't really like the available colors.) Instead, I used four strands of worsted weight yarn held together. Figured that if they didn't like the final product, it was completely washable and so could be donated to the shelter.

Well.....I wasn't able to weave in the yarn ends for quite some time, because they fell in love.....

And then there was jealousy....

"Mom! She's in my sport!

 So now there are two kitty yurts in my house....plus I'm apparently in business to make them on commission! FYI - in case you also need kitty yurts - I bought four 6 oz skeins of the grey and two each of claret and charcoal (held those together for a more "tweed" look), and that got me almost 3 total yurts. (I had to buy more grey to finish the second "grey body" yurt. 

An F Bomb!

A friend mentioned that she wanted a crocheted F-bomb, so naturally I looked up a pattern - and found a free one! And then I had to try it. This is too much fun, and it was easy to make. I already had all the colors on hand, so no big deal. She'll still probably get this one, but I'm going to need one to keep, plus I think a few friends will get them for Christmas.

 

Portable Rink Projects

When you spend hours upon hours at the hockey rink on a weekly basis, you need a portable project to work on. First it was the cross stitched ornaments. Then I got cold, so I started doing fleece blankets. These are pretty simple - 2 yards of 56-60" wide fleece for adults, 1.5 yards for kids. I wash the fleece, straighten the edges, and curve the corners using a dinner plate as a template. Then I serge the edges to make it look more finished. And then I use my rotary blade that makes perforations in the fabric - about 3/4" from the edge. I mark the corners (basically where I feel the curve starts and ends ) with stitch markers (you can just eyeball it, but I'm obsessive). And then I do a row of sc around the entire blanket, folding the hem over as I go and doing (2 sc in first hole, sc in next) between the stitch markers. My second row is straight sc. After that, it's whatever stitch pattern I want. 

This is my rink blanket. It's the two rows of sc, then a row of V-stitch, then a row of (3 dc, ch 1) in every V.

 

This is for my niece - a shell pattern. Two rows of sc as described, then one row of shell stitch with ch 1 between each dc of the shell, then one row of sc into each stitch around.

This is her blanket laid out on a queen sized bed.

A blanket for our sports room - I found this NHL Original Six fleece on clearance. This one got the V-stitch edging.

A housewarming gift for a friend. This one also got the shell stitch treatment.

 I'm up to 20+ blankets so far this hockey season! They're easy and so much fun to make. And I don't have to count or pay much attention, so perfect while watching a hockey game! A lot of them became Christmas gifts this year. Obviously I didn't take pictures of many - just kept churning them out.