How To Darn A Sock

Sewing:
How To Darn A Sock

Make Your Own Checkerboard Buttons

I get a newsletter from knitting daily.com. Even though I don't knit I find lots of usefull things to use with my crochet. I think this tutorial for homemade Checkerboard Buttons that was in todays newsletter is just darling.

Cut four 1 1/2" (3.8-cm) and six 1⁄2" (1.3-cm) circles out of cardboard. Cut a 6-yard (5.5-m) length of yarn and thread it on a tapestry needle. Beginning at center of wrong side of form, wrap yarn around cardboard circle from top to bottom two times, then again from side to side two times (Step 1).

Turn form over and rotate it 45 degrees so that previous wraps form an X. Working from top to bottom, wrap yarn around form from side to side 10 times for large buttons (Step 2) and 8 times for small buttons, covering the cardboard between diagonal lines of X.

Working right to left, wrap yarn 10 times for large buttons and 8 times for small buttons around form from top to bottom, using needle to weave yarn over upper half of horizontal threads and under remaining threads a total of 5 times for large buttons and 4 times for small buttons, then under top group of threads and over bottom group an equal number of times (Step 3).

Crocheting cleaning aids, Help or Hindrance? Plus another great Free Pattern

My focus for Living from Scratch seems to be my cleaning supplies . As you can tell it was time to replace my supplies and I have been looking at what I can make instead of buy. Now I need to start putting my replacements into actual use. After our deep freeze and all the snow, we have defrosted in the warmer weather. Our driveway and yard has turned into a bog now and the forecast is for rain every day. The trucks sink into the driveway when they sit for a few minutes so now my driveway looks like a bombing zone. You don't want to see the state on my floors, they look like barn floors. I can clean them every night then by noon they look like I never cleaned. Lately my cleaning philosophy has been what's the point? but I can't stand it anymore. So today it's back to cleaning.

I did find this great pattern at

Instead of using disposable covers, crochet an economical reusable cover for your flat mop, sweeper or duster. The cover easily slips on and off for cleaning. Maybe I should crochet this before I start cleaning ☺

Click here for pattern in crochet

Click here for pattern in Knitting

My Kitchen Scrubbie was looking Scary

Time to replace it, but I'm not buying anymore. I found this great pattern at Crochet Patterns Only. Judith Prindle created this by translating a knitting pattern to crochet, so there's a link to the knitting pattern if you would rather knit it then crochet. The only changes I made is I used cotton yarn and I cut some netting into a long ½" continuous strip by *cutting the fabric to within ½" of the edge then making another long cut parallel to the first (going in the opposite direction) to within ½" of the edge --repeat from * until all the fabric wanted is cut. Wind into a ball. I then crochet the pattern using both the cotton and netting yarns together. I also found that I like the stiffer netting not the bridal veil type.

For the link to the Crochet Pattern click here.

For the link to the knitted pattern click here.

A quick note:
When I crocheted the flower dish cloths from my 1/14/10 post, I added the netting yarn to the final rnd. That gave me a nice scrubby edging  for when I am cleaning off the table or stove and I come across those stubborn dried spots.

Great crochet and Knitting organizing templates

Well now that my Kitchen is pretty much organized it’s time to turn to the craft room. I found these great crochet/knitting page organizers to download for free. Designed by Grace Schnebly and posted at
She states “Ever since I started knitting, I have been looking for a way to keep track of all my FO’s as well as the projects on my to-do list. I wanted a book that was fun and easy create, that could be totally customizable to fit my needs, and that I could continuously expand. We created these six journal template pages to do exactly those things. These templates are free for you to download, so you can print out as many as you would like to create the knitting journal of your dreams.” –Grace
There’s a template to download for:

* a Knitting Journal,
* a Crochet Journal,
* a En Queue for projects ready and waiting in line… keep track of all the projects you’ve already got the yarn for—even decide how high it is in priority,
* a Liste D’attente to keep track of what you have in your stash with this waiting list for your yarns,
* a Vouloir Faire so next time that killer yarn sale comes around you'll know exactly what to buy before it's out of stock, a Needle Inventory so you never wonder if you have a pair of size 3 DPNS? Or how about a size G crochet hook,
* a Mes Notes to keep your notes all in one place and easy to find. These pages are great to have if you need more room to fill out notes on other projects or if you want to start writing down ideas for an original pattern,
* a Mes Conceptions a few of these handy sheets in the back of your journal and you will always have space to sketch your designs,
* Graph Paper to chart out your own color or lace designs. Choose either a square grid or a rectangular grid that is closer to the shape of a stitch.

All these templates are downloadable as PDF’s

at http://kathrynivy.com/patterns/extras/knitting-journal/