The Sweater Saga and a Crochet leaf pattern

I wanted to share the little pattern I came up with to crochet leaves, its after my sweater rant, below.

So about a month ago I woke up one Saturday morning and decided that what I needed in my life was a little discipline. I'm out of school now and I guess I was scared that I'd forget how to follow instructions. This concern led me to decide that what I needed was to challenge myself by attempting a knitting project completely out of character: a sweater knitted from a pattern. So I made my boyfriend (for some reason I couldn't drive myself on this very important mission) drive me to the bookstore to pick up a fancy knitting book with patterns that looked like something I actually would want to wear without changing up too much. After parking myself on the floor in front of the knitting section with several books open for quite some time, (My boyfriend tried to act like he didn't know me by looking at something else but then the computer books were just further down the same isle) I decided on French Girl Knits. The book is gorgeous and it looked like it had lots of committed followers on ravelry. So I got to work on a lovely sleeveless tunic and I am still working on it. Lace is lovely, but I am so slow at knitting it! Following directions, when it comes to a medium that can be quite creative, is just not my strong suit. No pictures of the sweater yet because the lace inserts had to be washed because I got chocolate all over them, and the other completed panel is being held together by a stitch holder on one side and the strap I took off my wallet on the other side (when you knit at work you have to be resourceful sometimes).

Speaking of directions, I've come up with a new little pattern to make leaves. Leaves are a big part of the more purplebecca-style stuff I usually do. This may seem a little simplistic to you hard core crochet types, but I was really pleased to find a way to get a teardrop shape as opposed to the diamond I usually end up with. Since, as you've probably gathered, I'm not that into reading patterns I don't know all the crochet jargon yet, but here's the pattern in English.

1. Place a slip knot on the hook, chain one
2. crochet into stitch just created
3. turn, crochet twice into stitch
4. turn, crochet 2
5. turn, crochet twice into each stitch
6. turn ,crochet 4
7. turn, crochet 1, crochet twice into each of the next two stitches, crochet one
8. Turn, crochet 6
9. Turn, crochet 2, crochet twice into each of the next two stitches, crochet 2
10. turn crochet 8
11. Continue in this manner until leaf is two rows shorter than desired length
12. Turn, crochet 2 together, crochet to center, then crochet twice into each of the center 2 stitches, as in steps 7 and 9, crochet to last two stitches, and crochet last two together.
13. Turn, crochet all stitches across.

This can be used to make leaves or flower petals, or rain drops, or anything you want!

Celebratory Knitting Pattern

Life is good for PurpleBecca, so I'm going to post the pattern for my dinosaur pattern instead of working on my paper that's due tomorrow!

DINOSAUR! Pattern:

I used 5 size 5 double pointed needles and a somewhat chunky nylon/wool blend

legs-on dpns cast on 6 stitches
-slide stitches to other end of needle, pull yarn around back to knit into first stitch
-Continue knitting i-cord for 6 rows
-Turn and purl across
-Turn and knit across
- Continue in stockingette stitch for a total of 6 rows
-Then push stitches to other end of needle and knit in i-cord fasion as before for 6 rows
-Make two of these

Body- Place the flat parts of the legs next to each other, this will be the belly
-Pick up stitches all along the belly, using one dpn for each side. I was able to pick up 3 in the "front", 6 along each side, and 5 in the back. Any differences will just give your dino its own special personality.
-Knit in the round for 5 rows
- transfer a stitch from each side needle on to the front needle (the one that had 3 stitches)
-Knit across side needle, knit last two stitches together on that needle
-Knit two together, knit 1, knit two together on back needle
-knit two togehter, knit across on other side needle
-Turn and purl across all three needles, but NOT the front
-Turn and knit across side needle, knitting last two stitches together
-slip first stitch on back needle, knit two together, pass sliped stitch over (one stitch left on back)
-Knit two together on other side needle, knit across it
-Turn and purl ( front needle is still left out)
- bind off side and back needles....either by 3 needle bind-off:
=place the two side needles together, with an extra needle (you can use the back one by placing a stitch marker through that last stitch) knit into the first stitches on BOTH needles. Do this again, then pass the first stitch on your right needle over the second. Continue this across, finally knitting and binding off that last stitch that was on the back needle.
-alternatively, you could use any bind off method and then sew up the center


Neck and Head
-Cut yarn
- Knit into five stitches on front needle
-knit as an i-cord (see legs) or on 3 needles in the round
-when neck is sufficiently long, knit in the back and front of every stitch, doubling the number, this will require 3 needles.
- knit around
-Increase stitches to form the "nose" Knit in front and back of stitches closest to the front of the animal.
-Knit around
-Knit two together all around
- knit two together all around
- Cut yarn, and thread end on to a yarn needle, string through all live stitches, drawing the head together.

Finishing:
weave in ends, stuff with poly-fil through the slit left in the belly, sew up belly.
You can also stuff the legs, but I just stuck a marble in each leg so he could stand up.