A work day - crochet top towels

Another scarf was finished this morning (my FAVORITE so far).  

Pattern:  Arugula Scarf

Size:  2" x 80"

This is the third of this pattern that I have worked up;  and other than adding more initial chains (due to the lighter weight yarn, I chained 300 to get the length to 80"), I followed the rest of the pattern exact.  

It is SO light and has almost a lacy weight to it, and the colors should blend nicely with any color.  I can totally see this as an accessory to jeans and one of those adorable cutesy T's that are all the hit lately.

I ended up using just a tad more than one skein of some el'chipo yarn from a bargain bin.  

Yarn label info:  "Flamme"  75% cotton, 17% acrylic, 8% polyamide.  50gr / 197 yards.  Made in Turkey.  It doesn't mention any yarn weight, but it has a "2" feel to it.

Then, feeling just a wee bit ambitious, I ACTUALLY ventured downstairs to the sewing room.  LOL. No quilting was in mind though.....  

My MIL sent me on the mission of working up some crochet-top kitchen towels for some craft fairs she has coming up this Fall.  She says they "sell like hotcakes," and last year she was asked over-n-over again by customers if she had any to sell.  She didn't;  this is one craft she doesn't do.  I think she would get some made up from one of her neighbors, but the lady didn't provide any to MIL last year.

So........

My kitchen-towel venture was attempted a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't liking the unpolished look of my first few.  The crocheting bit was easy-peasy, but it was the attaching-to-towel part that I wasn't satisfied with. 

My first trial was to simply stick the hook through the towel fabric about 1/2" below the cut edge.  Eh.....it was alright, but I was worried the top may eventually fray off from the towel.  [[Can you say 'christmas gift to family' this year? ;) ]]

My second trial was to use the method shown here (tutorial), but after stitching along whole edge, I didn't care for how the front or back looked.  I thought maybe folding the edge over and seaming it with the sewing machine would work.

Well..... it sorta did, but didn't.  The seam was WAAAY too noticeable!  [[Yup, another Christmas gift will be heading to some lucky family member!  LOL]]

So.....REVERSE THE ORDER, Amy!  Seam first!

So, that's what I did.   And then, using a blanket stitch (which I knew how to do after watching this tutorial!), I attached the yarn to the top of the towel, hiding the turned over seam so nicely :)

Then it came time to needing buttons.  I simply FORGOT to look through my MIL's button stash the last time I was at her house!  Duh.  However, one lil' amazing suggestion from the first video tutorial link (here it is again) had me working on my own crochet-buttons!  Genius!  I wouldn't have thought to do that!

And then, through no planning of my own -- it just happened from the way my tails ended up... I simply used those tails to attach/tie the buttons to the towels.  SLICK!  

On my latest towel, I tried tapering off the flap to finish off with a nice "V" edge.    

So NOW, after a bit of trial-n-not-really-liking-all-parts-of-attempts, I think I have this craft licked.  With Paul still snoozing away (he ended his last night of night-shift last night/this morning), I think I'll find a movie to have as background noise, and work on some more towels to actually give to MIL for her craft sales.

I think this qualifies for Kathy's "slow-stitch-Sunday."  Right?

Happy Sunday everyone!