GTA Donations 2013 Halloween and Christmas

This time my donations were a few Halloween items and some for Christmas.

  This is my wild neon colored Halloween blanket. See who had to assist me as I was taking my pictures. These are all Red Heart yarn. I did a simple double crochet and edged it with a shell pattern. I seem to be able to crochet faster just doing a no brainer double crochet so when I do blankets that’s what I tend to use as my favored stitch. I don’t do too many blankets because I just don’t have the patience to wait for it to be done.

This sweater was made from Red heart yarn. The variegated is called Bikini and I also used bright orange. By using the orange for the sweater sleeves and the hat trim I had enough of the Bikini left to make a second hat.

 

 

 

  The center  of this one is a circle in a square and then just double crochet around. The edging is a shell trim. I think the purple is Red heart yarn too but it may be Caron One Pounder.

Sometimes by the time I donate an item I don’t remember what yarn or pattern I used. Guess I need to start keeping a list.

That’s all I got done for Halloween this year. Now for some of my Christmas items.

This pretty little newborn set is made from yarn that I bought at our local DAV thrift shop. It’s hard to tell in the picture but it has a fine silver thread running through it. My 18 year old grandson said he liked the yarn because the silver in it made it look like it had snow on it. No idea what brand the yarn is as there were no labels on it. It’s kind of fine and very soft. Drapes really nice.

There was enough of the sparkly green yarn to get a second newborn blanket out of it. Just my standard double crochet for the pattern. I got a bit fancy with the edge and did a row of double crochet, then a row of 1 double crochet, chain 1 then double crochet again to make it look like filet crochet, then a row of shells.

This newborn blanket is made from silver threaded red yarn that I bought in the same lot as the sparkly green. Again there wasn’t a label on the skeins so brand is unknown. It’s very soft and fine like the green but the skeins were smaller so only got one blanket out of it.

 

 

This newborn cocoon and hat set is made out of Michaels store brand yarn. It’s soft and easy to work with plus economical. The pattern I used is from www.redheart.com and is called Holiday Baby Cocoon. The difference in this pattern is you double crochet between the double crochets on the previous row instead of in each double crochet. This makes for a thicker heavier cocoon in my opinion. Very easy no brainer pattern once you get the base made.

 

 

This is my snowman cocoon and hat. It was fun to make. I used this pattern from Karen’s Crocheted Garden of Colors. The pattern is here http://karensgardenofcolors.blogspot.com/2012/10/honey-bee-cuddle-sack-with-matching-hat.html and is called Honey Bee Cuddle Sack With Matching Hat. I used Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn. The last few rows I used some royal blue yarn from my stash to make it look like the snowman is wearing a scarf. The extra piece is just 3 rows of double crochet folded over and sewn on to hang like a scarf.

 

I used Karen’s pattern here again. I really like the pattern and it works up fast. The green yarn I bought at Goodwill. It is Caron brand Victorian Christmas Gold yarn, which is weird because the thread running through it is silver. Anyway the color is called balsam. I don’t know if they still make this yarn or not. It’s very soft.

 

 

 

Not real sure I like the way this one turned out but it’s not bad. I was trying to make it look like a Christmas tree with ornaments on it and trimmed it in gold to try and make it look like garland. The idea was there but not sure I like the way my execution of my idea turned out.

 

 

 

   I’m pretty sure the red yarn is from a partial skein I had of Michael's store brand yarn. Went as far as I could with the red I had and finished it off with Lion Brand Pound of Love white yarn. I thought using the black buttons would at least make it look something like a Santa suit.

 

 

  Well, Abby the black lab, the skunk, and their mom have returned home and are no longer staying with us.

 

I know our cat Rocky misses Abby. Abby would clean Rocky’s ears for him. She would just lick and lick for minutes at a time.

 

 

If Abby stopped and Rocky didn’t think she should be done, he would either walk under her and rub against her or he would nip at Abby’s back leg to get her attention to start up again. The crazy antics of our critters.

 

That’s it for now. Take care and hug your loved ones.