Committing

Hi everyone!

As ever, it's been quite a while since the last time I've posted. I'm amazed, despite the radio silence, I've still gained a few followers over the past months, and the number of views of my one video and followers of my Youtube channel just keep rising. Thanks to all of you for being patient and for believing that one day I would come back to this blog!

Also, food for thought, The Stingy Stitcher is already more than two years old! Hooray!

As far as an update on my life, I have begun my second year of medical school. Now that classes are no longer graded pass/fail, and the sheer amount of information has increased by so much, I've tried to put a lot more focus on my studies.

In fact, I've been trying to turn around a lot of things in my life recently. I have to-do lists everywhere reminding me of what I need to do, ranging from remembering to do the dishes to taking care of the handwashing to cleaning out my email inbox. Here is just a sampling of the things I've been trying to address in life:

1. Maintain a budget
2. Daily studying regimen
3. Cooking as often as possible
4. Keeping my room clean (you have no idea how difficult this is for me)
5. Keep crafting!
6. Updating my blog

Aha! Did you catch that? Essentially, as an exercise in responsibility, I am committing to updating this blog every day of November! Woo-hoo! Super-exciting, right?

Obviously, I can't promise every single post will be an in-depth tutorial or some kind of "Ta-da, I finished another project" type of post. Some might just be a collection of photos of my many WIPs, or collections of my inspirations. Some may have nothing to do with crafting at all. The purpose of this is for me to practice a little accountability.

I hope you guys join me in this step toward (maybe) becoming a little more mature, and I hope you enjoy it. I'm around that age when I really need to start acting like an adult. Or at least pretending I am one. ;)

See you soon!

-Annie

A "Humerus" (hahaha) Interlude

Hi all!

Just here to drop in and let you know that I am, in fact, not dead. It's been a blur of finals, moving, travel, and summer interning since I last posted, and I'm still hopping around frantically to complete a billion tasks that need doing.

Anyways, I just finished my first year of medical school with a group of absolutely fantastic people. If you're curious about what the life of a first-year is like, check out the video below, made by my hilarious classmates for our class show.



Hope to be posting with real crafting news soon!

-Annie

News!

I can't believe this! My instructional video for the Forever 21 infinity scarf has over 27,000 views, and my channel has over 200 subscribers! This is pretty modest in the world of YouTube, but it's definitely beyond anything I ever expected! Thank you all so much for your kind words and your interest!

Important thing: the post I've linked above (and here again) is the new MASTER POST for the Forever 21 infinity scarf. If you have any questions, please check there first! If after reading, you still have questions, comment or send me an email, and I will update the post ASAP with my answer.

So I wanted to share the work of a few people who have made use of this pattern, and hopefully it inspires more of you to try making this scarf and adding your own unique touch to it!

First up is Emily of Just Stringing Along. She made four scarves using my pattern as an inspiration, but made a little modification (I LOVE that!): she replaced the treble crochet with a quad crochet, and let me just say, her scarves look ridiculously cozy. Check out her blog post to see all three!

The next two lovely ladies sent me emails with photos. Danette used a lovely, bright yellow for hers:

And Martina did something really pretty: she used different colored yarns (two shades of green). And then she shipped this lovely thing off to her sister as a gift!

Like I said, use these ladies' work as a starting point for your own unique works. I hope to see even more people using this pattern and sharing their results. Your scarves are beautiful, ladies, and thank you for sharing!

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back (relatively) soon with a new post! Ta-ta!

-Annie

Necessary Evils

It seems that all the "important" things in life are always the more difficult and awkward to address.

Backstory: My school is hosting a silent auction, and I was considering making some items to donate. When I they asked for the estimated monetary value, I decided to do a quick search to see how much people are charging for handmade items.

Lo and behold, during my search, I found someone selling a product that, for all intents and purposes, looks exactly like something I've provided a pattern for. Which brings me to the topic of today's post.

I post patterns on this blog because I want people to know how to make the pretty scarves and hats they see online. I value my ability to say, "I could make that," and I want other people to be able to say the same thing when they see easily craftable items being sold for high prices.

As I say in my note (in the left column), you are all perfectly free to sell items you make from my patterns. It's fun to make money doing something you love. However, and this is very important, please provide a link to the pattern you used. I want your customers to have the same freedom you did in using a pattern I provided for free to make something for your own use (whether that be to keep, gift, or sell).

I know this is counterproductive to the seller. And I know the particular pattern in question is simple, and it is not impossible that this seller came up with it on her own. Also, as far as I know, I have no legal clout in this.

However, in the spirit of fair sharing and good faith that I have found are a huge part of the online crafting community, I hope that people will be honest.

Thanks for reading, guys.

-Annie

The New Year begins!

Hello everyone! As always, it's been a long time since I've posted, and yet again this will be more or less a quick in and out to update you guys and say hi. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

My first order of business is to give you guys a huge thank you! The video I posted on the stitch used in my Forever 21 scarf has over 7000 views, and I have more than 70 people subscribed to my channel after just 1 video! I know that's small potatoes in the YouTube world, but it makes me feel warm inside that people are interested by what I do. Stay tuned, YouTube viewers, as another video is (eventually) forthcoming, although this one is oriented toward fashion rather than crafting. I hope you all will like it!

Also, I wanted to submit some proof to you all that I have actually been crafting during my long silences. So here are a couple of the things that have been occupying my time.

Pictured above, a shirtdress I picked up at the thrift store. It was much longer before and made me look absolutely ridiculous, so I had to hack off several inches, and now it's stylin'! Action shots will come in the future.

At the top is my new tote bag, made using this tutorial. The gray is a suede fabric, and the print is blue and gray with black characters, cranes, and other very Oriental-looking designs.

Below it is a black infinity scarf made using a lacy pattern from the book The Harmony Guide to Crochet Stitches, called the Open Crescent stitch. It's a great book I picked up for just a few bucks from a resale shop. I used Caron Simply Soft Black yarn and a G hook.

The gray is a scarf I made for my boyfriend using the free Lion Brand Thermal Scarf pattern. It's super stretchy and warm, and I might end up making my own in a more colorful yarn. I used Caron Simply Soft Heather Gray and a J hook.

The two turtles I have there are the first of 7 turtles made as presents for some of the friends I've made here at med school. Clearly not as much crocheting got done over break as there should have been. >_>

The black hat is a (possibly) work in progress. I wanted to imitate the hat I wore in the photo below, but I can't figure out knit cables to save my life.

I used another pattern from the crochet stitches book to try to imitate cables, but it doesn't involve post stitches, but puff stitches instead. I say possibly a work in progress because my original intention was to add a brim, but I'm not sure if it's necessary. Also, the ribbing (which was added on using this tutorial) is just a tad tight, enough so that every time I put it on I need to fuss with my hair in order for it to look right. Still, I'd say it's already a pretty rocking success.

It was also made with Caron Simply Soft Black yarn and an H hook.

This white hat was made using the famous Pretty Puffs slouchy hat pattern. I learned a lot from this hat. I was not using the same weight of yarn as she did or the same hook size, so I couldn't be sure that following her pattern exactly would get me the results I wanted. I was using DK weight yarn (sorry, don't remember the brand) and (I believe) a J hook. I ended up only needing to add an extra row of increases to get the hat to fit right, but it took me three tries and lots and lots of frogging to figure that out.

So that's what I've been up to! For 2012, I have so many projects I want to tackle, and I'm really really excited for the new year! Did you guys make any New Year's resolutions? Do you also have a massive list of crafty things to accomplish?

Thanks for sticking around! I will see you next time!

-Annie

Infinity Scarf: The Master Post!

A note: Changes have been made in this post to address the myriad questions I have received about this scarf. Please refer to this post for answers to your questions, and comment on this post with any other questions you might have. I will reply ASAP as well as update the post itself with my answer. Let me reiterate that this pattern is extremely flexible, so I am hesitant to provide you with things like yarn weight, hook size, number of rows, etc. Make it how you like it!

Another note: Youtube user beautytipsbyshane brought up an interesting point in a comment on my video. This pattern doesn't have an official name. I am proposing that it be called the Crossed Clusters stitch. Thoughts? Any suggestions of better ones?

Hello all! It has been too, too long! In the rush of everything that is medical school, all of my projects and even the first birthday of The Stingy Stitcher have passed by already.

Unfortunately, as usual I have very little time, so today's post will be short and sweet...hopefully we'll have time to play catch-up another day!

This is a more detailed version of the Infinity Scarf pattern I posted here a long while back. A couple people were (understandably) confused by my vague instructions, so here we go again!

Forever 21 Infinity Scarf

Dimensions (relaxed): 8 inches wide and 56 inches long (before joining the ends)
10 pattern repeats, 57 rows
Dimensions are not concrete. This pattern can be easily modified to be whatever width and whatever length you want.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft (worsted weight), 1 7-oz skein (366 yards)
Hook size: J
Again, this is nothing concrete. Use whatever yarn you like and a hook size appropriate to that yarn, then adjust your gauge to get whatever size scarf you'd like. Also, with scarves I do one of two things: I either keep going until I've used up one skein of yarn, or I keep wrapping the scarf around my neck until it reaches a length I like.

Pattern

Ch = chain

Sc = single crochet

Dc = double crochet

Tr = treble crochet (it is my understanding that triple crochet = treble crochet; at least, that is what Google tells me)

Hk = hook

St = stitch

Sk = skip

Notes:
- The beginning ch-4 always counts as the first stitch.
- The stitch marker isn't actually necessary, but putting that in the pattern makes it a little easier to explain.

For a scarf with 10 repeats:

Ch 36.

R1: Place stitch marker in 6^th ch from hk. Tr into next 2 ch. Dc into ch with marker. Remove marker. *Sk 1 ch (from the second tr). Tr into next 2 ch. Dc into the skipped ch. Repeat from * 8 more times (only one ch is left unworked). Tr into last ch.

R2: Ch 4, turn. *Sk next st. Tr in next 2 sts. Dc in skipped st. Repeat from * 9 more times. Tr into last st.

Repeat R2 as desired.

To make the scarf wider or narrower, add or subtract chains in your starting chain in multiples of 3.

Edit: A reader asked me how I joined the ends of the scarf when I was finished. The first time around, I just used a whip stitch and it was fine. However, the second and third scarves (haven't posted about the third one yet, but soon!) had foundation chains that were too loose, so I removed the foundation chain and used a whip stitch. The photo tutorial can be found here.

In addition, I made a brief video so you can actually get a visual of this. Please let me know if there is anything you would like me to do to improve on quality for this and possible future videos and/or patterns!

Thanks for reading, and I hope to be seeing you all again soon!
 

-Annie

Just popping in!

Hello everyone! I've been in China for the past three weeks, and apparently they block blogspot sites, hence the lack of posting for a while.

I'm afraid I'm at a very busy time in my life; I have to pack up for school this week and next week is days and days of orientation activities. Therefore, posting activity will still be low and will likely remain low for a long, long time, given the workload of medical school.

However, fear not! I still intend to squeeze in what crafting I can, as it's a great way to maintain sanity if properly managed, and I will be sure to share it with you in time.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Rachel of One Pretty Thing. A few weeks ago she featured my blue infinity scarf on her Crochet Round-Up, and I have to say, I was so excited about it. If you haven't done so yet, add One Pretty Thing to your daily routine of web prowling, because the tutorials and projects she features are gold, and I have found so many great blogs through Rachel's site. Thank you, Rachel, for all your hard work and for featuring me!

I'll be seeing you around, folks! Wish me luck as I adjust to the newest phase of my life, and keep an eye out for me on your GFC reading lists! ;) I'll keep you updated on the latest news on the crafting front!

-Annie