rathenarts

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still not blocked but had to try on

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An extra spoon for Disability Pride Month, for anyone who needs it. ❤️

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Hello everyone. I have finally finished my crochet tapestry that took 7 months and spanned 1 stressful move, 1 new job, and like 4-5 depressive episodes. So now I’m going to bother everybody about it for like a while.

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Tiny painting sketchbook prompt, finished!

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💙 made some earrings for my friend 💙

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I've been working on this cross stitch for a few weeks and I finally finished! Anyways here it is :D

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Tragic spaghetti ;_;

All dried and set up ready to stitch!

Oh, well, that's kind of upsetting. I bought this vintage kit on ebay, for [cough] money because it's a rare one and I really wanted it as a companion piece to Teresa's legendary "The Castle", which was the first big cross stitch piece I ever finished as a teen and I'm still proud of because fr that design is a monster with all the blended colours and quarter stitches. I figured this one would give me a nice hit of nostalgia but be (a lot) quicker to finish.

Alas, wherever this kit has been for the last twenty-odd years, someone there was a heavy smoker. The cellophane wrap wasn't even broken, but the threads and aida nonetheless reek of stale smoke and the aida is heavily spotted with brown. Guess I'll be doing some washing tomorrow ;_; but damn, I'm disappointed.

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Oh, well, that's kind of upsetting. I bought this vintage kit on ebay, for [cough] money because it's a rare one and I really wanted it as a companion piece to Teresa's legendary "The Castle", which was the first big cross stitch piece I ever finished as a teen and I'm still proud of because fr that design is a monster with all the blended colours and quarter stitches. I figured this one would give me a nice hit of nostalgia but be (a lot) quicker to finish.

Alas, wherever this kit has been for the last twenty-odd years, someone there was a heavy smoker. The cellophane wrap wasn't even broken, but the threads and aida nonetheless reek of stale smoke and the aida is heavily spotted with brown. Guess I'll be doing some washing tomorrow ;_; but damn, I'm disappointed.

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Finished! What was that... four months, and with several other projects in between? Not bad!

Incidentally I modified this a little - the pattern has French knots for the stars, but I didn't want to risk marring this gorgeous piece with my unreliable French knot skills so I used some spare seed beads left over from another project instead. I really love how they look!

Finished this finally! Worked from a kit: Dimensions Gold Collection "Morning Lake".

The gold collection designs are always so gorgeous, hnngh. I really love the detailing on the cabin and the boat:

Will be framing this one, as it's a little too delicate to turn into anything practical. Next up will be the companion piece, which is another log cabin but this time at night under the aurora. "Moonlit Cabin":

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really funny that many wireless earbud cases are almost the perfect size to go on the end of a watch chain in a waistcoat pocket. hashtag modern fob ideas

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is it widely known to crocheters that when you're doing a 90 degree angle on a piece with lots of rows/rounds, 2dc, ch2, 2dc is Too Many increases, and that you're better off doing 2dc, ch2, 2dc and dc, ch2, dc in alternating rows? bc if not, consider this a psa

like, to demonstrate - left piece is if you increase 2 along each edge, and right piece is if you alternate between increasing 1 and 2

left works okay on smaller pieces, but on larger ones the shape starts to distort - if you’ve done a large, center out square where the corners sort of puckered outward, that’s probably why

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BEHOLD!

THE BREADBOX THREADBOX.

my profuse thanks to @kelpywheat for the breadbox suggestion! I am wildly pleased with how it turned out :)

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Mini F-Bomb!

I did say I had a riff in mind, right? Well, here it is! (One, anyway. . .)

Tiny version! Made of embroidery floss.

. . .a significant bit, as embroidery floss goes. This was what I had left of a black hank when I was done:

(It took almost 7m of black. But it's still less than one hank, so I didn't have to join anything at least.)

Of course it's also too small for stitch markers - and unlike the butterflies, counting is not only important it's too much to just 'keep in mind' for these! . . .so I grabbed a d6 from the bag I keep near my worktable, and every time I completed one 'section' I turned it to the next number face, since the rounds are all 'repeat x6'.

Worked fabulously! (Even when I got to the straight round; I just counted off 5 stitches as a set.) And I'm quite pleased with the end result, little thing - one friend suggested they're for small oopsies. XD

Another friend suggested I should make a pair of them and turn them into earrings. XD

The thought had occurred to me, actually - I'm planning to make a pair of thread crochet butterfly earrings for myself, in asexual pride colours. ^.^

And for now. . . A family portrait? XD

Actually, I have another idea or two playing with the theme - another riff - but we'll see. . .

(Project on Ravelry)

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🧶 Cow hitch increase

Unlike all other single-stitch increases I know, this one is perfectly symmetrical. I’ve been seeing it a lot in my feed lately, so I thought I’d share it. Haven’t tried it yet in a project though.

It mimics the structure of a cow hitch knot - hence the name.

🎥 🧶 👀✨

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Damn it. I'm pretty sure the top one is wrong and I've used it for the last 2 projects. At least I figured this out.

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F-Bombs!

. . .which made at least a couple of my friends laugh immediately. XD

I've seen a handful of patterns for the general thing, but . . . I didn't follow any of those, I made a ball (and stuffed it), and freehanded the details before embroidering the F on the finished piece (in the same size yarn). The fuse is a chain with a slip stitch back down, and the neck is crocheted directly onto the ball around it, in two rounds of single crochet.

Several patterns I have seen involve crocheting the letter as a flat piece and then stitching it on, but I feel like that sticks out more than like. Spacing/sizing on the embroidery is surprisingly tricky, though!

They're solid, but small, made of soft cotton, and stuffed with polyfill. They're absolutely fun to throw. XD

Alas, I was getting frazzled and distractible, and I only made two before the market - sold both of them - but I've already made three more and another in progress. (Two are destined for sale - as in, an immediate, someone I know wants to buy them - and one is now with @mad-madam-m, who was delighted by the idea of them.)

I'll also make one for myself to keep because . . . I mean. XD

I may also have a riff on them in mind. . . We'll see if I get to trying it, and how it works out if I do. ^^;

(Project on Ravelry)

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vt

I hope this posts in order! @twink-on-the-brink​ @gracefulvaudeville​