Lion Brand V-Stitch Shells

I went sort of crazy on this V-stitch shell and made it in three different colors (one was intended as a surprise for my dd but she informed me that she didn't care for it before she even knew it was going to be for her - sigh). I used Bernat Tots; I love their vibrant pastels but boy, the yarn really sheds all over the place. This turned out to be very annoying (I even carry a small lint brush with me when I wear one of these tops!) and it's pretty much what deterred me from making a 4th shell in Bernat Tots Grape. I already purchased that yarn though, so I guess I may actually have to use it for a baby item. However, especially because I have a skirt in mind that I want to wear it with, I still intend to make this top in lavender, but will most likely use Lion Brand Cotton in Grape instead.

Spring Flowers for Mother's Day

Here's a basket of spring flowers that I crocheted for my mom for Mother's Day earlier this year. I bought the pattern from the Mary Maxim website. I don't like having to assemble items, just want to crochet and move on to the next crochet project (lol!), but luckily my sister was visiting that weekend and helped me hot glue the pieces into place. Her experience with silk flower arrangements really came in handy.

Summer Sweaters (all pictures are click-able)

These sweaters are from what might be my most favorite pattern book - Crocheted Sweaters by Susan Huxley.

The first two pics show the sweater I made from the "Bright Idea" pattern. The main attraction for me with this sweater was the shell trellis pattern border, it was a lot of fun to make. I am actually in the process of making this sweater again, this time at the request of my mom, in totally different colors. While I enjoyed making the sweater, I dreaded the idea of working with this yarn again -- Lion Brand Microspun. Love the weight, but it splits a lot. I recently found out though that the splitting is not that bad once I changed to a Clover Soft Touch hook.

Below is another sweater I made using the "Two-Way Tee" pattern in this book. The pattern called for a double-knit/light worsted yarn, but I took a chance and used a worsted weight -- Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. As I should have expected, it came out okay, just heavier weight than it was meant to be. I made it a 2nd time using Patons Grace (pictured below in fuschia). In the close up, I tried to show the stitch detail in this pattern. The bottom half of the tee is worked horizontally, the top half worked vertically, in two different stitch patterns. The neckline is also 2-way; you'll notice the round neckline in the first pic and the square neckline pictured below.

I made all of these sweaters 2-3 years ago. They've gotten a good deal of wear and I am now noticing, after taking these pics, that I have some loose ends to weave in and pilling to attend to. :-\