|
The Why
March 1, 2000
At noon I smoked my last cigarette. I’ve not had one since, not even a single puff.
I quickly realized that I REALLY! needed to have something to do with my hands. So I bought a crochet magazine and some yarn and began what I called the “No Rules” blanket. It would be the colors I decided, the stitches I decided and no one could tell me to do or not do anything! Given the relationship I had just come out of, I needed for there to be no rules.
I started by making squares of different sizes while on the bus in the morning and afternoons, and in the evenings as well. When I thought I had enough, I started making a center field of pink and incorporating the squares as I went along. All of this was done in single stitch, the squares in two different variegated yarns. When all the squares were in and the center field was a rectangle, I picked up my crochet magazine again and my next color and started to go around to make a border that would also increase the size of the blanket with several rows of double stitches. Then a thin stripe of red in a half double stitch. Then another color of rose/pink in double stitches. Then another thin red stripe. Then the outer rim in burgundy triple stitches, with the curved corners becoming rather ruffled.
It’s a strange looking blanket. And one I am most proud of.
Aside from a kind woman on the bus who helped me learn the triple stitch and some time with my new husband’s aunt, I am entirely self-taught. I taught myself how to read and follow a diagram pattern. I taught myself how to read and follow a printed pattern—errors in the pattern itself making that very difficult! Using magazines, I learned basic doily patterns. Using a granny square book, I picked one I thought looked fairly easy and made my daughter a baby blanket. I made her several blankets while pregnant and early after birth.
At some point I picked up a little booklet with six different sweater patterns. I found one of them to be so simple that I was soon making variations on their pattern. Thus my line of sweaters and baby dresses was born!
Needing something small and quick to do, and experimenting with stitches, I came up with the eyeglass/cell phone cases. Experimenting with bigger and bigger hooks, I made several different lap and baby blankets, some with one or two yarns in the stitches, some with three yarns to make a big, bulky stitch. Combining variegated yarns in multiple strands makes for some wonderfully unique patterns and colors in the finished products.
When you love what you do, it shows.
|
|
Two Projects In One
I have two projects going right now, but they both result in a donation to the Ronald McDonald House of NYC.
First, back on July 17th, 2010, I took all the blankets, sweaters and gift bags I had crocheted and delivered them to the RMH. It was a very hot day and the bag was very heavy. My husband carried the bag for me (thank you!) and Duchess handed out the very first blanket to a little girl just checking into the House for her stay. It was a fantastic moment.
Why would I take them in the middle of heat waves of Summer? Because hospitals are COLD in the Summer! I had recently sat in one for something like 12 hours and froze my BUTT off! There was no reason whatever to delay.
Being the middle of Summer and 95+ degrees, I didn’t want to be making more blankets or sweaters. I wanted something small I could work on quickly and make many of easily. So I found several patterns for simple caps. Now I’m making Chemo Caps. |
|
They’re so easy to make and I can take them with me on the bus and trains when we travel around the city.
I can work on one just about anywhere, and now have some 15 finished. My next donation is going in around the end of February at this point.
|
|
What we made for our end of September 2010 exchange. |
|
End of |
|
My second project is a Granny Square exchange. It’s very small at this point. A different number participate each month. The more the merrier~! If you would like to join, this is how it works:
You crochet or knit squares of any pattern, color and style (try to keep to acrylic yarns but certainly not mandatory) in 8” size. But no one will get upset if it’s a bit smaller or a bit bigger. Make as many as there are participants (minus one — don’t need to send me one to give back to yourself!) We ship every two months. I announce the cut off date for our next shipment and the next week you send the squares to me with $5. I use your money to ship back to you at least one square from each person participating. Our last exchange, we each got 17 or 18 squares!
When you have enough, you stitch them together to make a scarf, sweater, blanket, shawl, tote bag — whatever it is you want to make. Then you donate your item to your favorite charity. Some give to a Veteran’s program, others to the RM House. Others give to hospitals for the preemies.
Some women donate squares but do not want to receive any for exchange. That’s perfectly fine too!
If you would like to participate in the Granny Square exchange or donate a small sum to help me purchase yarns to make chemo caps with, email me at: tyler@taobytyler.com — Donations can be made through PayPal’s “Send Money” tab or you can tell me how much you want to donate and I’ll send an invoice. |
|
Exchange for end of |
|
April 2011 Donation to the |
|
Caps made & donated by |
|
Blankets made & donated |
|
Blankets, caps, wrist/arm warmers, & scarves I made. Scarves are made with squares from the Exchange. |
|
Auntie Tyler’s Crochet Garden Now Available in Kindle Just Click the cover! —>>>
A book of my crochet crafts from easy chemo caps and cell phone/video game cases to intermediate gift bags.
Plus an expert level double sided cross posted pattern.
I share techniques for making large three dimensional flower granny squares (some you can see below in the Exchange pictures), the Bouillon stitch and how to work with double ended crochet hooks
I include a couple humorous and touching stories from my stitching odyssey.
And you’ll find a page of pictures in the free sample download! I don’t know about you, but I won’t buy the book if I can’t see what’s IN it!
Instantly download to your computer through Amazon’s |
|
May 2011 Exchange and Donation
Not as many participants this time, but I loved the variety of colors.
The two smallest ones are prototypes developed while writing my first crochet pattern book. |