Purple

Purple and Gold Multiplicity

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I decided to knit a Multiplicity purse for my sister since I loved mine so much. (See my posts about Multiplicity 1 and Multiplicity 2 for the others I made.) I chose a royal purple and mustard yellow, a play on her school colors of purple and gold. The only thing I didn’t like about mine is that it didn’t close. I knit button holes into the main pocket this time and loved the product!



Difficulty: Moderate

Time Required: 12 Movies

Overall Experience: Excellent

There’s No Place Like Home Mug

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For my 10-year high school class reunion (Am I really that old?), I was amassing $1 gag gifts to give away as awards.  (More on that in a later post.)  One gift idea on my wish list was a “There’s no place like home” mug, t-shirt, whatever.  Obviously I wasn’t going to find anything Wizard of Oz themed within my budget.  I had seen a bunch of cute DIY mugs on Pinterest.  One popular design came where people had drawn states with hearts over a city in sharpie on the mug.  I decided to do something similar for the reunion.  After researching many sites online, these are the steps that I followed to make the mug.  I will update this post if the design immediately washes off.  I thought it turned out really cute!

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Materials:

  • Mug
  • Pencil
  • Oil-based Sharpie markers
  • Computer/Printer (optional)

Instructions:

  1.  Buy a cheap mug at the dollar store or Walmart.  From what I’ve read, the cheaper mugs have a cheaper glaze that will melt.  The design you draw on the mug is supposed to merge with the melted glaze and become permanent.
  2. Decide on a design.  You may want to design the mug using a computer program.  I scaled a map of Indiana in Microsoft PowerPoint, put a heart over my hometown of Scottsburg, and typed the text I wanted next to it.  I wasn’t going to trace all of that on the mug, but it was useful to print it out to make sure my text size was appropriate.
  3. Sketch your design on the mug using a pencil.  I cut out my Indiana and traced it.  I free-hand drew the heart and text using the approximate size from my computer print-out.
  4. Draw over your pencil design using oil-based Sharpie markers.
  5. Allow the mug to sit for 24 hours.  I’m not sure if this step is necessary, but many sites included it.
  6. Place the mug in a cold oven.  Heat the oven to 450 degrees.  After the oven reaches 450 degrees, turn the it off.  Allow the mug to sit in the oven overnight or until it is completely cool.  The glaze on the cheap ceramic should have melted slightly and reset with the colorful design.

The mug should be dishwasher safe according to what I have read.  I will let you know how it turns out!

Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required:  15 minutes of work, about 36 hours of waiting

Overall Experience:  Excellent

Wedding Afghans

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An acquaintance who had been in countless wedding once showed me a crocheted blanket that a bride had made her.  She gushed about how that gift was the most meaningful bridesmaid gift she had ever received.  Since I crochet, I tucked that little tidbit of information away for later.  When I got engaged, I pushed my fiance to help me pick out colors so I could start on the pile of blankets I was planning on making.

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I decided to make blankets for our three bridesmaids and both sets of parents.  I had to make five blankets, so I needed to find an afghan pattern that I could make fairly quickly.  I have made many afghans that took me months to make.  I didn’t have that much time.  I had an afghan pattern pinned named “Super Quick Throw.”  The blanket was crocheted with four strands of yarn held together as one with a giant hook.  That’s about as quick as one can hope for.  The blankets crocheted beautifully.

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I do have a few tips:

  • The pattern is available free on the Red Heart website.
  • I bought yarn in bulk in our wedding colors.  I chose acrylic yarn because it holds up well and for the price.  It crocheted into a stiff, scratchy blanket.  However, after washing and drying each blanket once, they were completely transformed.  They became pliable and soft.
  • The pattern calls for a hook size P-16 (11.5 mm).  I couldn’t find a hook this size and ended up with a 10 mm hook.  I adjusted by crocheting to the correct size rather than the correct number of stitches.  The pattern is easy, so it wasn’t hard to do.  The rows that require a certain number of stitches have a three stitch repeat.  There is a two stitch “border” on each side.  This means that your starting row should have a total stitch number that is a multiple of 3 plus 4 stitches.  (As written, the pattern calls for 58 stitches.  This is a multiple of 3 (54/3=18) plus 4.)  I don’t remember how many stitches I used.  I think it was 70.  Whatever gets you to a 48 inch wide blanket.
  • I used the no foundation row starting technique instead of the chain start technique in the pattern.  Here is a good tutorial.  This technique keeps your tension from being off in the first row and is easier to measure your 48 inches.
  • With the same “size verses stitches” philosophy, you should repeat Rows 2-7 until the blanket is the length you want.  The pattern calls for 58 inches.  I wanted my blanket to be at least 60 inches so I repeated until I finished on a Row 7 with a length greater than 60 inches.
  • The edges of the blanket turned out a little jagged.  I finished the blanket off with a border.  I slip stitched in each stitch on the short edges and single crocheted along the long edges.  This cleaned the blankets up nicely.

Difficulty:  Easy

Time Required:  About 13 movies per blanket

Overall Experience:  Excellent

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