Finished Friday - Rachel's Outfit, Shawl, Plarn Bag, Sponge Bob Hats, and Baby Blanket Border

If you would like to join me in this Finished Friday quest to get rid of all the half finished projects we all have... please blog about your project(s) you have finished the past week on Friday's, and come back here and leave a comment with your blog link. If this is successful, in the future I might set up a linky list you can join. Projects do not have to be projects you procrastinated on, they can be anything, sewing/crocheting/knitting or any other fiber art, and they need to be FINISHED! :)

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I never said you couldn't post about more than one item! I usually tend to do only one, but I'm changing it up this week! :) Hopefully this will also make up for the Finished Friday's I missed in the past few weeks.

My excuse for being MIA lately- fair judging starts in 63 hours.. err 2 1/2 days. And I still have LOTS to do. :)

So onto this week's Finished Friday! First up, a sewing project for fair - An outfit for my little sister Rachel. I have to admit, this turned out absolutely adorable, and it called for an impromptu photoshoot. :)

Had to take this picture... because you won't look at the outfit in the pictures below... only my adorable model!

Seriously? Little Diva! I had her put her hand on her hip and on the garage there, but she lifted up  her foot and put it on top of the other one!!

Not a fan of the bees buzzing around her head...

So I "threatened" to tickle her if she didn't smile!

Peek-a-boo! I see you!

My favorite picture!!

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Next up - a shawl/big scarf/wrap thing! I used a N hook (REALLY big for my non-crocheter readers), and reg worsted weight yarn to create the lacy effect. I used this pattern, and used ALL of the One Pounder skein. This shawl is going go to fair (if it makes it), and then I'll sell it on my other blog.

Yes, I used the shower curtain rod to model it for me because I didn't feel like it. I'm cool like that.

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Next - a plarn bag. I never blogged about it here (hello, I've blogged 7 times since the Block Party posts.. I kinda don't have breathing room in there to blog about such projects), but I made a rainbow plarn bag for my sister Anna awhile back. I took most of a day to make (6+ hours?), but I finished it in a day, and same with this one I just made the other day for my sister Rebekah.

It looks much cooler in person. Take my word for it.

This bag will go to fair, and then it will used by my sister and hopefully not get sprayed with water and rot. I used plarn (plastic bag yarn) and a strand of regular acrylic held together for stability. I changed the color of the acrylic to do the striping effect (same with the rainbow one). I did make up this pattern, since I HATE using patterns (no offense pattern writers), and I will write and test this pattern soon so I can share it with you so you can make your own awesome colored plarn bag! :)

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Next - Sponge Bob Hats. Ohh these were dreadful! They were for an order, and I will let you all know that if you want to order one of these, expect to pay $50 per hat, and expect it to take a couple years. Ahem. I am not in favor of making more. :) 

The pattern used is from Ashley Phelps, who is one of my favorite designers for hats. I've come back again and again to her patterns to use as the base for mine, and haven't been disappointed. I've used her Angry Red Bird, Angry Black Bird, and now SpongeBob. I also have intentions of using the Minion, Panda, Polar Bear, and I have a Monkey in process. So yeah, all her hat patterns. :)

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And lastly - I finished the border on this blanket. :)

Until Fair is a "Finished Friday",

Sarah :)

Plarn Scraps

I have been working on making plarn a little bit lately. I hope to make another plarn bag like the ones Rachel and I made for our mom's to sell on my other blog. I am keeping track of how many bags it's taking, and I might try a different pattern. I haven't started making it yet, I'm still working on cutting up the bags. Several people have generously donated bags to me, including my mom. I love raiding her bag stash, and she loves it that her bags disappear! :) The three bags below are all plarn scraps! They are the seams on the bottom and handles from cutting up the bags! That's a lot of scraps, and I can still recycle them by bringing them to the bag recycle box at the grocery store.

Fair Showing - Crocheting

Sorry it took me so long to get this post up. Below is pictures of me showing and some of my projects.

Showing my plarn bag

Showing my afghan

Showing Frosty (Frosty did finally get a face! :D)

I got Best of Show on my afghan! That is the item for my division - Beginning Crocheting. There is also Advanced Crocheting. I am not allowed to move up to advanced until I have been in the crocheting project 3 years. This is only my second year.

I got a 1st place on my fish!

Sorry this picture of Frosty is blury. I'll try and get a better one of his face soon. There is a red ribbon next to Frosty's head, but that was from somebody else's project. I got blue on Frosty!

Sorry this is sideways, it wasn't like that before I downloaded it. I got a first place and an Honorable Mention on my pot holders.

Sorry about this one too. I got a red (2nd place) on my baby set all because of ONE thread that I missed that was sticking out. :(

My hat and my scarf, I got a blue on both of them.

And my plarn bag, which I also got a first on.

I would have brought more to the fair, but they don't have enough places to enter things. I am getting that changed for next year. :) I'm very happy with how this years fair went, and I can't wait until next year! I give all the praise to God for giving me this talent to crochet, for how much I've improved, and how I did at fair!

The **TOP SECRET** Project!

Quite awhile ago, my friend Rachel and I decided to crochet a project for our mom's for Mother's Day (we did plan this before Mother's Day!). Unfortunately Mother's Day came and went before we could get together to start it. Our moms had no idea what we were making until we gave it to them. We called our bags our "top secret project" and nobody knew what we were doing until we were done, besides Anna and Rebekah (Rachel's younger sister) who helped make plarn for us at the end. We made these bags completely out of plarn and added a strand of white acrylic to the handle for extra support. This was Rachel's first big project and she did amazing on her bag, even though she doesn't agree she did a good job. It took us two times getting together to finish it, but we had fun working together and spending time with each other. We even won two Dairy Queen blizzards on the radio's Bible Quiz the first time we were working on our project. :) We had to fudge the pattern a little but they still turn out ok! Our mom's both loved our bags and we had fun making them! I brought mine to fair.

My bag

My mom and her bag

Rachel's mom and her bag

Frosty the Snowman

Awhile ago, I was looking here at online patterns for things made out of plarn. (If you aren't familiar with it, plarn is plastic bag yarn.) I found a pattern for a snowman made out of plarn. You can find the pattern here. He was so cute, I just had to make him! :-) So I started making some plarn. I used only Wal-mart bags, and other blue and white bags, so the snowman would be white with blue speckles. Once I finished the snowman, I made his scarf. In the pattern, the scarf was supposed to be knitted, but since the snowman is a fair project, and I was entering him in crocheting, I figured I better not make a knitted scarf. So I made up a pattern for a a little scarf. Then I made the hat. Since I could not figure out the pattern for the hat, and the hat wasn't turning out right, I made up my own pattern for a hat. I have made lots of baby hats, and his head wasn't much smaller than a newborn baby's, it wasn't hard to make up a pattern for the hat. Then I added a pom pom to the top of the hat. I named him Frosty. :-) He took a long time to make, but he is worth it because he is so cute. I haven't found any googly eyes yet, (I'm surprised my sister doesn't have any) and I haven't figured what I am going to do for the carrot nose, so he doesn't have a face yet. But, I'll post pictures of him with a face when I finish his face. :-) I probably used about 100 bags, and he's stuffed with the handles and the bottom of the bags (and all the pieces that broke).

Frosty the Snowman

Frosty without his hat and scarf