Category Archives: Crochet

Crocheting 85% Cotton Covers Made Dust

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Recently I crocheted these two covers, one for an infant in a seat, and one for a young girl.

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This newborn blanket is 22 inches by 29 inches and weighs a little over 13.5 ounces or about seven, two-ounce skeins of yarn.

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This blanket is  6 feet 5 inches by 4 feet 1 inch, and weighs a 5 pounds 8 ounces, after washing in hot water and drying on hot in the dryer.   The dyes are color fast with washing and drying in hot water, and in a hot dryer.    (This was about forty-four two ounce skeins.)

It was fun to work on this, and combine colors, but I learned that this yarn makes a lot of dust, which got on my clothes, rendering them un-presentable in a few minutes, piling up on the floor in little dust bunnies, and caused one of us to sneeze heavily, and repeatedly.

Then  I finished these projects ,  we vacuumed up the dust,   and then I stopped crocheting with this yarn inside the house.   The heavy sneezing stopped.

This yarn is 85% cotton, 15% polyester.    I believe these are OK to use after washing and drying in the dryer.

I attribute the dust creation to the yarn manufacture with short  lower quality cotton fibers.   I attribute the health effects  to my working rather intensively on these projects, because we did not notice this before, when I did smaller projects with this yarn.  Our home was a little like factory with poor air conditions because of this.

I think using a higher grade cotton yarn will not create so much dust.   And I’ll use up this yarn outside.

 

Colorful Car Seat Blanket

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Above is the front of an infant car seat blanket.

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And here is the back.

This little blanket, measuring twenty-two inches by twenty-nine inches,  is made with 17 colors of Premiere Home Size 4 cotton blend yarn using a Size G aluminum hook.  This piece can be machine washed, gentle cycle, in hot water, and machine dried on low.

The color palette was inspired by that of “Where the Wild Things Are”, by Maurice Sendak and consists of 17 colors from Premiere Home  Size 4 cotton blend solids, ombres, and splash types or dyes.  The stitch was fun to do, but more difficult to track, which is why it is asymmetrical.    It sure did allow mixing of colors, though, as claimed in the pattern  Hooked on Color Afghan  (http://www.allfreecrochetafghanpatterns.com/Geometric),  where I got the stitch basics, though I did not try to repeat the stripe order.  I compensated for the uneven piece edge by adding a framing border in Denim Splash, and a narrow outer rim of navy blue.

 

 

 

 

Two Christmas Placemats

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The second of a two place-mat set is on the right, and the one photographed before is on the left.

DSC08538 Each placemat took about 10 hours to make, and I enjoyed crocheting them while I watched (listened) to TV, or listened to music.  I used the same pattern, varying the location of some of the color blocks.  Both were done with three strands  with three strands of size 10 crochet cotton and a Boye size 00, 3.5 mm steel needle.The only downside to this activity, is that one sits while doing it.

They are about 15 inches by twenty inches by 20 inches. The one on the left is a little larger, and I attribute this to the fact that one of the strands in the border was a Herrschner’s size 10 cotton.  It is very slightly thicker than the other size 10 cotton, which could have been one of several other brands.  I needed to use the cotton of which I had enough to finish the color blocks, because if you use a different yarn, the color will vary, and the effect will be a bit different.

The gauge of a four inch by four inch square is about 19 double crochets by close to 10 or 11 rows

Not only are the dark green borders different here, but the one on the left is a bit more even, probably due to the slightly heavier cotton.  Not only is Herrschner’s size 10 cotton a little thicker, it has a little less of a shine.

One of the joys of working with this size 10 mercerized cotton is the slight shine and drape of the products.

In contrast, kitchen cotton has a rather matte outcome, and is often stiffer.

Both of these cottons are machine washable, cool, gentle cycle, with flat pieces best dried flat.

January 6, 2016 update.  Feedback was that somebody would have liked them better if there were four.  I’ll make two more.