my first fingerless gloves

fingerless gloves seem a bit silly to me.  i mean, what is the point if your fingers are cold?   i need gloveless fingers or something cuz my fingers freeze before anything else.   my tomboy princess loves them though.   ok, i'll do it.

she chose a thicker yarn.   i included a picture of the yarn, label and hook i used.   one skein did one glove with maybe a yard left over, probably less.   

you know i don't know how to follow a pattern much less write one but here's the basics of what i did.   

chain 33

skip a chain and do a double, chain two and another double.   

skip a stitch and attach to the next stitch in your base chain.   repeat until the end of the row.

you will have several mountains.   ( i know i am super with technical terms)

for the next layer, place a chain in each high point of your mountains
half double in the back of the next stitch, just the back loop so you get that raised zig zag
and a double in the back loop of the center between the mountains. and so on

i did 11 sets of these two layers and in the last fill layer just crocheted to the first row to close the tube up.   remember to leave a space for the thumbs though. . . .yeah, i forgot on the second one.

this is a picture of the closing line from the inside and outside.   the inside has this seam and the outside looks continuous.     i was pretty impressed since i was making stuff up as i went along.

i still don't get fingerless gloves but i do like them because o can actually make them.   my friend wants a pair of piggy fingerless gloves.   i'll be working on that one here soon.

tp roll fish tank

my little blonde curls has developed a major fish obsession.   he has been coloring and cutting out pictures and taping them to the wall for a "fish tank" for quite some time.    we have a fish tank, but he has octopi and eels and whales in his paper tank . . . i guess he has a paper ocean on the wall, not a tank.   the other day, i was looking at the many tp rolls that accumulate and thought, "hmmm . . fish in 3d".   i flattened the tp rolls so they had a crease on the top and bottom, cut basic fish shapes and he painted, and i painted, and we made a large selection of tp roll fish.   they sat on my window sill for a couple weeks while school was starting and there was just too much chaos for finding tp roll fish homes.   this week, i decided it was time.

 TA-DA!   tp roll fish tank!

ok, it's a mobile, but you know.   it's fun.

we painted some strips of cardboard for the water and taped them to some wire bent into circles.   two strings crossing for the top suspension of the thing.   same basic principle for the bottom layer of water but longer strings and attached at the same top point so they both turn freely.     i used a large blunt needle to pull string between the cardboard and wire in the water sections.   i went with the easiest attachment, just pulling the string under the top crease in the fish.   you could get fancy and cut fins that stick out, tape the front together etc.   the fanciest i got was one fish he wanted "big".   i used two tp rolls glued together with a third in the middle to stabilize them.    i had some funky cut "sharks" too.   he wanted them to have open mouths.   i thought they looked like nothing but he was happy and that is all that counts.    i had to stick the needle though those, there just wasn't enough top crease to support them hanging.

next time, we are going to cut turtles out of the tp rolls and make coral for them to swim in.   since halloween is coming, we should really make some bats again.   those are fun too.   but that's another post.

lil's ladder

lil's ladder

i have enjoyed playing with the ladder braid technique quite a bit.   i used it for the  tiered waterfall braid and the sturdy ladder braid.     a ladder braid is simply taking a little section out of one side of the braid every time then braiding back into the next braid.

this time instead of just a ladder, the sections taken from the braids are then braided together between the mother braids.  
split the hair, i went with a diagonal but you could do a center vertical or whatever direction as well.  

do your top braid first so it stays out of the way of the bottom.   bring in hair from top and bottom as normal just take a small section out of the braid on one side every time.   in my case, it was on the bottom.   i have my daughter hold the sections up out of the way so they don't fall back down into my work.   you could use a clip or something too.

braid your second one now but now removing little bits on the opposite side, or facing the other mother braid.   (i hope this makes sense but the pictures should make it pretty simple if you are familiar with the process)

i left a section at the front to start my middle braid.   start the braid there and just add in from the bits you pulled out of the two mothers.

you could braid the three together or leave them like i did.   you could also run ribbon between the braids or down through the rungs of the ladder.   i can see doing 4 or 5 mother braids instead of just two.
lots of options with this technique.   have fun with it and enjoy!