Replies

1. 
   VKStitcher | Oct 23, 2007 11:28pm | #1

   Love your scarves!  You'll be ready (and stylish!) when winter comes.  You finish things so fast--do you take time to eat or sleep?  :-)

1. 
   rodezzy | Oct 23, 2007 11:42pm | #2

   Ha ha ha that was a good chuckle.  Yes, if fact when I reached home I took a meat loaf I had made Sunday that I didn't like, crumbled it up and added spaghetti sauce and Italian seasonings and turned it into a beef and mac casserole with cheese on top.  I ate way too much of that before I sat down to crochet.  I watched "Monster House" and the TV and "Godzilla" & "Van Helsing" on VCR.  Good junky movies to crochet by.  Don't need to pay much attention to them.  This is why I love my crafts, I don't have to think about stuff I don't want to think about.  We all have real life surrounding us, when I'm busy, I can close everything else out and revel in the glory of creating something pretty, useful and good.  It doesn't have to fit anyone else's standards, only my own. 

1. 
   VKStitcher | Oct 23, 2007 11:50pm | #3

   Rodezzy--the Fiber Artist and Creative Chef!  :-D

   I like to crochet while I watch TV too.  I can put my feet up in the recliner and stitch away, still keeping up with the story line.  But when I'm sewing I get too distracted to watch it.  But maybe that's because my sewing table isn't right in front of the TV like the recliner....

1. 
   rodezzy | Oct 23, 2007 11:58pm | #4

   Yea garment sewing needs your concentration, but some hand work allows for TV watching and some mindless assembly line sewing of a quilt top lets your mind wonder. 

   But knitting and crocheting is the best for releasing the mind to frivolous tv watching and phone conversations.  Both scarves were crocheted in single crochet.  The yarns give all the pattern.  Love these new yarns. 

1. 
   Josefly | Oct 24, 2007 02:03am | #5

   Very pretty scarves. How many types of yarn were used in the white one?

2. 
   rodezzy | Oct 24, 2007 06:38pm | #6

   Well, there's the base yarn, Caron medium worsted weight, there's some Yarn Bee Lucious, I can't remember one of them, but it's a very soft combined stranded yarn with eyelash in it.  Theres the Voodo, a mohair strand I carried along the worsted and a fun fur eyelash I carried with the worsted. 

   So that's about six yarns.

3. 
   Gloriasews | Oct 25, 2007 01:51am | #7

   Love the scarves!  Thanks for the yarn listings - I'm off to Michaels' sale tomorrow to get some luxury yarns - all my yarns are plain worsted (no excitement there).  I'm amazed that you only used the single crochet stitch - the yarns really make the difference!  Your Creative Cook casserole sounds good, too :)

    

4. 
   Josefly | Oct 25, 2007 05:29am | #8

   Thank you for the yarn list. It all comes together beautifully. From the answer you posted in another thread, I'm guessing that for this white scarf, you decided yourself which yarns to use together, instead of having a pattern which specified which yarns to use. Were all yarns used throughout, or only certain groupings in particular rows? In looking at the different projects you've shared photos of, it seems you have a nice eye for combining colors and textures. I especially like the idea of single color, multiple textured yarns.

   Edited 10/24/2007 10:44 pm ET by Josefly

5. 
   rodezzy | Oct 25, 2007 06:57pm | #9

   Yes, all of my yarn projects come from my big fat head (giggle).  I started collecting yarns a couple years ago when I noticed all of the new stuff coming out.  Lit a fire under my needles and with reading, buying and looking through books using the new yarns, I just jumped in.  I start by pulling all of the yarns in a color group that I want to work with, red, blue, orange, whatever.  Then I audition yarns I want to throw in of a complimentary color.  Sometimes I like that and sometimes I fight with my thoughts about how I really want to mix it.  I really wanted to use all of the same color family for the white.  The yarns are pure white mixed with tan or cream and off white.  Came out pretty good. 

   Basically I design as I go.  Two rows of this looks nice, this would be good for about one row, or I think I'll put another row of this on to make is stand out.  I'll run this with the worsted to give it more texture, and that's how my thought processes go.  Then I decide when I get to the middle to repeat in reverse to make it pleasing to the eye, or what they call symmetrical.  I do try to balance what I'm doing to give a balanced look even if I use another color combo, I balance it with the number of rows. 

   Yea, and one stitch (single crochet) that's what makes it go fast too.  They are really warm and comfy.  Single crochet closes the gaps, and stranding a thick and thin yarn gives a tight stitch.  I never worry about gauge because I work according to inches needed.  The scarves are chained at 100 to 120 stitches long to start so far.  I decide according to how I feel at the time.  Make it as long as you want.  I swear the scarf tells me from the picking of the yarn to the finish what it wants to be. (giggle).

6. 
   Josefly | Oct 26, 2007 01:24am | #10

   Thank you for that clear description of your process. Being able to play around freely really appeals to me, and that sounds like what you're doing. And listening to the yarn, like some people say they wait for the fabrics in their stash to speak to them about what to make them into! However, this is a dangerous idea for me - I have too much fabric, and I don't want to tempt myself to accumulate also a yarn stash, though I'm afraid I've already bought some yarn without knowing what I'll do with it. :>D

   Edited 10/25/2007 6:27 pm ET by Josefly

7. 
   Gloriasews | Oct 26, 2007 02:43am | #11

   What size hook did you use, Rodezzy?  And how long are those scarves?  Now that I have some fuzzy yarns, I'll start on a couple (Michaels didn't have any of the ribbon yarns - too bad - & I couldn't stand the mohair mixes next to my neck).  How did you obtain the pink puffies on the dark scarf - shell stitch? Or was it the yarn?

8. 
   rodezzy | Oct 26, 2007 06:17pm | #12

   Oops, I think I gave you the hook specs in the other thread, but glad to repeat.

   I have a set of L, M, N and P hooks I use for all of my ponchos and scarves. 

   For the scarves I've been using the N hook.  All of the ponchos and sweater coats I did last year was with a P hook.

   The pink poofs in the scarf is a yarn called Voodo.  It's in the yarn.  The strand is a heavy cord with a poof of fiber every two or maybe three inches in the yarn.  That yarn cost $5.99 or $4.99 per skein in the stores, I found it one and half years ago at the Dollar Tree Stores for $1.00 each and kept buying it until I couldn't find it any more.  I used it in most of my sweater coats.  One has the poofs across the back in deep burgundy.  The black poncho in the pics has the dark burgundy poofs too.  It's a great accent novelty yarn.  I put the last cream one in the cream scarf I sent pics of last week, and I only have pink ones left and mayby a burgundy one somewhere.

    

9. 
   Gloriasews | Oct 27, 2007 12:30am | #13

   Yes, you did give the info in another thread, but that's OK.  I'll have to look in our dollar stores to see if they have yarn - never thought they'd sell it, but then, they sell everything else - why not?  That's a great idea to look there - thanks!  (You're such a canny shopper).

   Gloria

2. 
   MaryinColorado | Nov 01, 2007 05:27pm | #14

   Those scarves are lovely!  You could sell them in a boutique!  I'd buy them for sure.  Mary

1. 
   rodezzy | Nov 01, 2007 09:35pm | #15

   You, my son, my grand daughter and others keep trying to hustle me to sell my crochet stuff.  It would take all of the fun out of crocheting/knitting/sewing for me to have to do it on demand.  Once I make an item, which is totally an original, I don't want to do it again.  I have to move on.  Selling stuff in the past has taught me that I would have to create on demand and repeat things a lot. 

   I do appreciate the fact that my stuff is thought of as "that good" to sell in a boutique.  So now I'm truly flattered that I am wearing the sharpest stuff in town. (giggle).

   Thanks for your vote of confidence, it is much appreciated.

1. 
   Teaf5 | Nov 02, 2007 04:04am | #16

   I applaud your decision not to sell your work!  Long ago, I did consignment work for an upscale boutique and found that working for potential customers took all the joy and inspiration out of the projects.  I learned that I love doing art for myself and for gifts but abhor trying to create something that buyers want or request.  Knowing I had to please someone else put a terrible damper on my imagination and energy.

   Since then, I've supported myself in another profession and have done art for the love of it.  I'll volunteer it, give it away or teach anyone how to do it, but I won't do it for sale because that just won't work for me!

1. 
   rodezzy | Nov 02, 2007 05:38pm | #17

   Thanks for your support.  I love to do what I do, when I feel like it and creativity hits my head.  Otherwise "forgetaboutit"! giggle

2. 
   MaryinColorado | Nov 02, 2007 06:01pm | #18

   I love unique clothing too!  When I was a nurse, my patients always complemented me on my "uniforms" and "scrubs".  They were always stylish and pretty colors or prints, dresses and jumpsuits, nice lab coats, etc.  But when I worked in the ER, I had to wear the hospital's boring scrubs that often didn't fit well.  (At least I didn't have as much laundry to do!)  (Then I'd buy cute watches and hair accessories so at least it made me feel one of a kind, ha ha.) 

1. 
   rodezzy | Nov 02, 2007 09:40pm | #19

   You have the same affliction as I, "the need to be an original"!  I love it.  I don't want to look like everyone else all of the time.  I am conservative sometimes and blazin' hot with color and whatever excites me on the other hand, and I love the fact that I can express myself like that.  The only thing I don't do is expose myself.  I'm too old to wear clothes that expose my body.  And, I'm too fat.  so I am conservative about that. 

1. 
   MaryinColorado | Nov 03, 2007 02:16am | #20

   Me too!  Even when I was young and tiny, I believed that what is left to the imagination is much more alluring!  A woman should have some "mystery" to her, and choose who to share her secrets with, whether they be physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual.  Not that we can't get wild and crazy and let lose from time to time, lol.  At least on the dance floor, huh?  Mary

2. 
   rodezzy | Nov 05, 2007 07:11pm | #21

   Yea, I danced til my feet hurt Friday night.  Had lots of fun.  Was home by 2:00 a.m.  Had to get the girls around 11:00 a.m. Sat. morn. 

   I don't know if I will have time to crochet any more scarves this month or not, but I will be sewing stuff.  I must finish my crocheted coat too.

3. 
   katina | Nov 05, 2007 07:42pm | #22

   Rodezzy! What about those boots?

   Katina

4. 
   rodezzy | Nov 05, 2007 07:47pm | #23

   Didn't get to the boots this weekend, but it's still burning in my mind.  Went out danding Fri. night, had the girls this weekend.

   I'm going to the photo gallery to post pics of this weekends fashion show on Sat. night. See ya there.

5. 
   katina | Nov 05, 2007 07:55pm | #24

   Good- thanks.

6. 
   MaryinColorado | Nov 06, 2007 01:07am | #25

   You lucky gal to get to go out and dance the night away!  I'm off to see your "fashion show".  Bet you and the little girls had fun too!  Mary

7. 
   rodezzy | Nov 06, 2007 01:13am | #26

   Yea, I love to dance, and like I believe I told someone in one of these threads, I only have one life and I'm going to ride this ride until the wheels fall off!

   I only go out dancing about two-three times a month.  I have to have somewhere to wear all the stuff I make besides work.  I stopped bowling, well I do get around, I shouldn't make it sound like I don't have anywhere to go besides dancing.  I do. 

8. 
   MaryinColorado | Nov 06, 2007 05:24am | #27

   There's alot of places to go and things to do here, but I have been out of the loop so long that it's difficult to find people to go out and play with!  (that are my age anyway, lol, can't keep up with those gals in there 20's and 30's so well.)  Mary

9. 
   rodezzy | Nov 06, 2007 06:50pm | #28

   I hang out with my own age group primarily.  The club has a mix of age groups, none too young.  They are generally 35 and up.  Most of these people have been hanging out with one another for 40+ years.  I love to listen to some of the stories of where they hung out, it gives a picture of Chicago in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90's. 

10. 
    MaryinColorado | Nov 06, 2007 07:01pm | #29

    Alot of people from Illinois moved to Boulder, Colorado in the 60's and 70's.  We all hung out together and had a great time.  So many parties!  I don't drink Tequila anymore....but that's another story!  We used to joke about having Tshirts made up like a club.  Mary

11. 
    rodezzy | Nov 06, 2007 07:10pm | #30

    It's great to have people to let your hair down with from time to time.  I also have a group that I play cards with and went out with them last night.  They called to celebrate a birthday, any excuse to get together (giggle).  Had a fun night.  Was sleep by 11:00 p.m.