National Crochet Month Post #6: Kitchen Rug

Last summer, I decided to try something new--making a crocheted rug.  I bought a whole bunch of cotton yarn (Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarn) in super bright colors and I got to work.  I decided to make the stripes random sizes and I quite like how it looks.  

What do you think?  

Here's a link to the post I made about this last summer.  

Crocheted kitchen rug is done, thanks to McLeod's Daughters

Yes, it's true.  I actually finished a crochet project!  My kitchen rug has been placed in front of the kitchen sink and now I can finally do the dishes and cook!  Just kidding.  Now I will have an absorbent cotton handmade rug to soak up all the stray drops of water that may find their way to the floor.

I used Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn made by Lily.  I originally used the stash I had but I did have to go pick up a couple more balls at Michael's.  I love bright colors and I am happy with the way the rug turned out.  I will need some non-slip backing for the rug before I will feel confident that it won't move around on us, but I have worked long and hard on this rug and I wanted to get it down as quickly as I could.  The colors are hot blue, hot green, yellow, hot purple, hot orange, and hot pink.

I started out by crocheting five rows of each of the colors but decided I wanted it just a little wonkier and not so rigid.  I just decided to crochet one color until I felt like adding another one.   I think the rug looks pretty nice and the colors make me smile.

So what enabled me to crochet so quickly when I normally take many weeks to do a project of similar scope?  Well, McLeod's Daughters of course.  "What is that?" you ask.  It is an Australian television show that aired from 2001-2009.  I was looking for a show to watch while I crocheted and this one fit the bill.  It is the story of Claire and Tess McLeod who are reunited after their father dies and run the family ranch, Drovers Run, in South Australia.  Being a prospective farm owner myself (some day I would like to be a lavender farmer), I was interested in the premise of this story.  You get to see sheep being sheared, bulls courting cows, a foal being born, and much more!

The cast is rounded out by characters who help keep up the place,  mostly female.  It is pretty cool to see a farm run by women.  Of course, there are the gorgeous hunky neighbors, Nick and Alex Ryan.  They make the show much nicer to watch as well.  I am currently in season 3.  If you're interested in watching it, check it out on Netflix.

One word of warning, if you watch multiple episodes of this show, you may start singing the theme song out of the blue.  You may need to watch McLeod's Daughters with closed captioning on and with an Australian slang dictionary at the ready.  And lastly, you may also randomly start speaking with an Aussie accent.

Well, I reckon I'd better go fix the fence on the chook paddock, mate.  G'day!

Yarn crafting projects in the works

I am lucky enough to be off most of the summer because of my chosen profession.  This down time is indeed soothing for my poor, tired soul.  However, I try not to idle too much because now I have much time to enjoy my hobbies, mostly undisturbed.

One of my most colorful hobbies is yarn crafting, especially crochet. I currently have three crochet projects on which I am working.  You may find it strange that I don't finish one project before beginning another.  But if you could see inside my brain at how my mind works, you would understand.  :)  

I love to crochet because I can turn a plain ball of yarn into a different creature entirely, but I get bored doing the same stitches over and over and over.  So I put one project down and start another, just to keep things interesting.  

My first project is a long-term one, a large afghan.  I have already made two of these types of afghans before, but this time I am making it big enough to fit on our king size bed.  I am using kelly green and white in Vanna's Choice yarn.  Two strands are held together and crocheted with a size N hook.  Using such a large hook enables the project to stitch up quickly.  Unfortunately, since I am making such a large afghan, it will also use many skeins of yarn.  I have already used 14 skeins and I have run out for the time being.  I usually get my yarn at Michael's or Jo-Ann but Vanna's Choice hasn't been on sale for a while so I am waiting until I can buy more.  It retails for $3.99 but many times it is on sale for $2.79 or even $2.50, and they give a 15% teacher discount, which leaves me paying around $2.37 or $2.12, respectively.  If I needed just a few skeins, that wouldn't be such a big deal, but I estimate I have at least three to five times more yarn that I've already used.  This is going to be one expensive and labor intensive blanket!  Here's a sneak peek of what it looks like so far:

My second project is called Americana Afghan.  I downloaded the pattern off the Lion Brand website.  It is absolutely gorgeous and made with a gorgeous yarn called Heartland.  Here is what the project looks like on their site:

This yarn in made in the U.S.A. and the different colors are named for various national parks in the United States.  The ivory shade is called Acadia, the blue is Olympic, and the red is Redwood.  It is super soft, 100% acrylic, and machine washable.  I currently have three out of the 20 panels done.  I had never made stars before and I am enamored by them.

For some bizarre reason, I thought I would have this done by this Fourth of July (I started it around June 29).  Yes, I realize I was off my rocker.  (Remember my brain is   But my friend Amy suggested I give myself another end date of Labor Day.  I think I can make that deadline, as long as I don't start too many other projects in the meantime.  

Speaking of which, the last project I have started was begun today out of necessity.  I was on kitchen duty this morning and I got lots of water on my wood floor. We haven't replaced the kitchen rug we got rid of a while back and so I mentally made a note of doing that.  But then my crochet-obsessed brain started thinking  "maybe I could crochet one".  I looked up a few online and decided that instead of buying more yarn (which I most definitely do not need), I should use what I have.  I went down in the basement and raided my yarn stash.  Here are the cotton yarns I have in my possession:  

I am going to just use a simple half double crochet stitch and make rows of colors  to form a 2' x 3' rug for my kitchen.  I think I will use the solids for sure but I'm not sure I'll used the variegated colors at this time. 

 Luckily, Michael's has these Lily's Sugar'n Cream yarns on sale this week.  Yes, I know I said I don't need more yarn, but I do need more yarn.  There is no blue and I can't make a rug without blue!  ;)  Here is my progress so far: 

So now that I have posted that I have started all these projects, I hope I will feel obligated to finish these projects in a timely manner so my readers can see them.  If you do see me in the coming weeks, please ask me about my progress on these projects, OK?  I am trying to motivate myself to finish them and that just might do the trick!  Thanks!  

(and get your projects done too!)