Lastest FO: Crocheted Pickup Truck for Grandson

June 29, 2010| Lindy| 0 Comments | 5:16 pm

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Yesterday I finished a crocheted pickup truck for my grandson. He is 5 months old and almost to the point where he will be playing with soft toys, rattles and items that he can chew on.

This little truck measures about 7 inches long by 3 inches wide and is about 3 inches tall. At the request of my son, I did NOT put a little bell inside of it — but I thought about it! It was an easy pattern to crochet and it went together very quickly.

Details: I purchased the pattern from Stacey Trock’s Fresh Stitches website and downloaded it directly from there. I used Knit Picks Shine Worsted for the truck body and Peaches and Cream in black for the tires and the pickup bed. You crochet the truck body and cab in one piece, the front is crocheted separately as are the lights — which are sewn in place before you stuff the front and attach it to the truck body. The tires and the pickup bed are separate pieces and you stuff the body as you go. It’s soft and squishy, but you can actually put something in the pickup bed as it has depth.

I think my grandson will enjoy his first red pickup truck. 🙂

1 thought on “Lastest FO: Crocheted Pickup Truck for Grandson”

Amanda says:

July 1, 2010 at 8:48 am

Oh that is cute! You’ll have to make him a car now to go with it!

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Vintage Crochet: A Motif from My MotherVintage Crochet: A Motif from My Mother

I inherited my mother’s stash of crochet thread several years ago. The stash filled two large plastic bins with lids and I simply placed the bins in with the rest of my stash. From time to time, I have pulled a ball of thread from one of the bins, but I never really inventoried the contents.

Recently, my MIL asked me to help a woman who had contacted her looking for help in locating off-white crochet thread that might match what she had. The woman was trying to finish up a crochet project that had been started by her mother, but not finished. So, I went to the stash and pulled out all of the off-white crochet thread (about 10 balls). I gave the woman all of thread and it looked like there were several balls that closely matched her project.

While I was doing pulling the balls from the stash, I picked up a ball of green crochet thread and noticed that there was something tucked inside the ball…

I pulled it out and found this:

Pretty, isn’t it? Now why my mother tucked this little doily into that ball of crochet, I have no idea — but it was a pleasant surprise. I am guessing about how old this bit of crochet is — the ball of crochet thread it was tucked into is at least 20 years old, so it’s at least that old and I suspect that the pattern it was made from is even older.

So, I set about trying to recreate this motif. Mom’s is on the left and mine is on the right. It’s pretty close, but I am redoing it a couple of times more to make certain I have the stitches correct. I will be publishing the pattern when I’m finished, so check back here in a week or two.

Three patterns of snowflakes for Christmas 2024

Every year I crochet a number of Christmas ornaments to sell at an event held by a local club that I belong to. This year I made 36 crocheted snowflakes and 6 crocheted tea light holders.

Since these ornaments are made with crochet cotton thread, they need to be “stiffened” so that they hold their shape. In the past, I used a fabric stiffener I bought at JoAnn’s. Now, this stiffener is somewhat expensive. It’s priced at around $10 for a 16 oz bottle – that’s the best price I found online when I searched this morning. Sixteen ounces would be enough for this batch of ornaments – but using this product significantly adds to the cost of making these items. I have also tried using a spray starch to stiffen crocheted items, but it really didn’t give me the amount of stiffness needed for the ornaments.

A better solution is to make my own using cornstarch. Yes, you can use the cornstarch you have in your kitchen cabinet to make a solution of stiffener that works well on cotton crocheted items. Cornstarch costs roughly 15 cents per tablespoon, so it is cheaper to use.

Homemade Stiffener

Here’s the formula: Use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to 1 cup of water. Whisk the cornstarch in the water to blend it well and bring the solution to a boil while whisking continuously. Then set it aside and let it cool. Once it has cooled, you can dip each item in the solution and soak it a bit – then squeeze out the excess and pin the item to shape. Let it dry thoroughly.

Pattern: Re-created Vintage Crochet Motif — “Mom’s Motif”Pattern: Re-created Vintage Crochet Motif — “Mom’s Motif”

In my previous blog post, “Vintage Crochet: A Motif from My Mother”, I described how I had found this motif tucked inside a ball of crochet thread from my Mom’s stash and how I had re-created it.

I have finished writing up the pattern and it is available here: Mom’s Motif. I have checked this pattern for accuracy several times. However, if you download it and use it, please let me know if you have any questions or find anything amiss.

There’s a little more to the story of this motif. After studying on it for a time, I decided to check and see if this was the motif my Mom used to crochet me a tablecloth. And sure enough, it was. Here’s a picture of the tablecloth:

It’s lovely, isn’t it? Here’s a close-up of the tablecloth:

I am planning on taking the added step of recreating the patterning used to join the motifs into a single piece. This may take awhile. But I promise I will post it when I’m done.