Monday, July 21, 2014


Hiya all!  SciFi Chris here, with another post for 3RC.

On Sunday, July 20, several members of 3RC headed to PNC Park for the annual Stitch-n-Pitch baseball game.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for a Pirates game.  The freebie totebag was very nice and filled with spiffy things.  There was a skein of Hurray yarn from Berroco.  It’s one of those novelty lace looking yarns, that came with two pompoms and directions for a braided scarf.  There were also two skeins of yarn from Kraemer Yarns, one black and one yellow.  Finally, there was a pair of knitting needles.  In addition to the bags, we also got a $10 credit for food or merchandise.  All of us took advantage of the credits, for food and beverages.  There was a raffle for pattern books, Judy and I each won books.  Since it was a knitting book and I don’t knit, I handed mine to Rebecca C.  She seemed very pleased with it.  Judy seemed to like the book she won, too. 

Speaking of winning, the Pirates won the game.  It was an awesome afternoon. 

An upcoming event is the Steel Valley Yarn Crawl.  They have accounts on Ravelry and Facebook.  The Yarn Crawl runs from August 1 to 10th, but 3RC is planning on doing our crawling on August 2.  We’ll be meeting up at Natural Stitches at 8 am, then heading out to Kathy’s Kreations in Ligonier.  The order of the rest of the shops is still being planned.  Here’s a link to the website of one of the participating shops, Kid Ewe Knot, that has more info on the Yarn Crawl and links to the official Ravelry and Facebook pages.



Here’s some photos of 3RC at Stitch-n-Pitch 2014:
















Sunday, July 6, 2014


SciFi Chris here.  3RC folks do alot of charity work, like Project Linus, premie hats, lapblankets/hats/scarves for vets, and raising money for Rwanda Knits and the vets.  Here's another charity project that 3RC member Judy has been working on.
 
Judy made many purple baby hats (they are purple, even if they look blue in the photo).  The hats are given to the parents of newborns to spread awareness of Shaken Baby Syndrome. The “Period of Purple” is the time period when babies tend to cry and cry, won’t be comforted, and it seems to go on forever.  Often folks call this ‘colic’ and it can be a miserable time, for parent and baby both.  Period of Purple organization offers strategies to parents on how to cope with the frustrations of a crying baby. 

Why purple?  It stands for  P – peak of crying, U – unexpected, R – resists soothing, P – pain like face, L – long lasting, E – evening. 

The website about Period of Purple, which includes coping strategies, can be found here: http://www.purplecrying.info/

The website about making and donating purple hats to help raise awareness about Shaken Baby Syndrome can be found here:  http://clickforbabies.org/index.php

The closest hospital to Pittsburgh that is participating in distributing the hats is in West Virginia.  This is where Judy sends her hats.  She is mailing off her hats at the end of September.  If you are interested in making some purple baby hats and donating them, she will include any hats folks get to her before the end of September.  Just bring them to a 3RC meeting (Saturdays, 2 -5, at the Panera’s near Magee hospital) and give them to Judy.

Hats should be washable, made of soft feeling yarn, and at least 50% purple.  The guidelines for the hats and some patterns can be found here:   http://clickforbabies.org/stitchers-club/

 

 

 

Saturday, July 5, 2014


Hiya, SciFi Chris here.  Most crocheters and knitters tend to have a yarn stash.  Piles of yarn that have been collected – leftovers from projects, yarn bought because it looked so spiffy, yarn for projects still on the to do list.  Likewise, I’ve gathered a stash of photos from 3RC that need to be posted to the blog that have piled up.   This blog is a photo stash busting blog.  The following are pics from the past couple months, taken at 3RC meetings.

This is Dianne, making a wrap basket.  Yarn is wrapped around cord or clothesline rope, each round is sewn to the previous round.  Keep making rounds until the basket is the size desired.  Different colors and textures of yarn give a wide variety of possible looks for the baskets.  I love the way the fuzzy yarn looks on the top edge.







Edith made this lovely bracelet from a pattern in Robyn Chachula’s book, Simply Crochet.  Robyn is also a member of 3RC and has written several excellent crochet pattern books.  The beads that Edith picked for the bracelet are perfect, the tiny purple flowers stand out great next to the varigated purples she used.




 
Lynn made this beautiful lace skirt for her oldest granddaughter.  The photos don’t do justice to the details of each layer of the skirt.



 

Constance is holding a blanket she calls “The Owl Hoots at Midnight” which was given to Project Linus.  The squares were donated to 3RC, the owl head and eyes were scrunchies made by other 3RC folks.  Constance made the rest of the owl, the book the owl is holding, and assembled all the pieces.


 

Carol has completed yet another Project Linus blanket, this one with bright and cheerful circles in each square. 


 
 
This past winter, I was homebound for 6 weeks, recovering from surgery.  A lot of crocheting was done.  One project was plastic bag holders for a friend of mine, for the daycare where she works.  She asked if I and/or the “Yarn Ladies” would be willing to make a few more plastic bag holders, smaller ones that could go on the strollers when they take the toddlers outside to play.  The “Yarn Ladies” of 3RC enthusiastically stepped up and made some holders.   Its a very quick and easy project.  Using cotton yarn, crochet 30 sc around a large hairband.  For 3 more rounds, sc in each stitch.  On the fourth row dc and increase every five stitches for 35 stitches total.  For rows five to 12,  dc in each stitich.  Row 13, decrease every five stitches to 30 stitches.  The last three rows are sc in each stitch.  For the strap, just chain 2 then dc five, which gives you six dc, for 11 rows.  Row 12 is sc.  Sew on a button that will fit through the dc.  For a larger plastic bag holder, just make more rows.