Teacher Appreciation Blankets 2017/18

So I haven't really been knitting and crocheting much over the past year, so there hasn't been much to update. I'm going to start trying to get into it again, though. I just finished this year's teacher appreciation blankets and am getting ready to start a sweater that my dad has requested, so I'll try to remember to blog about that. Obviously I'm an awful blogger, though, so no promises. But anyways, teacher appreciation blankets:

My son's teacher's favorite colors are blues and greens, so I dug through the yarns I have in my stash and came up with this color palate (yarn details here) and flipped through one of my favorite crochet block pattern books to find a block I thought would look nice. Here's what I came up with:

Block #35, "Tricolor Square," from the book
"200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans."

My daughter's teacher this year was obsessed with Star Wars. He has a whole room in his house dedicated to his Star Wars obsession, in fact. I spent a long time trying to figure out his favorite movies, characters, etc and designing his blanket based on that. Here's what I came up with for him:

Some graphs from here, and some from here.

Hi, I'm the World's Worst Blogger!

So obviously I am a terrible blogger. Sorry about that! It looks like I haven't posted a thing since July 2015... so a year and a half now. Maybe I should update and get back into it a little bit, huh?

I only have a few months left until I finish my Bachelor's Degree program (with a cumulative 3.7 GPA --I've been working hard!), and I am taking a year off before starting my Master's Degree program, so I should have a lot more time for things like blogging and making patterns soon. I have an 8 years old, 6 year old, and 2 year old (this Friday!) now, so they keep my pretty busy. My 8 year old just had her tonsils and adenoids removed a week and a half ago, so we've been recovering from that, recently. I have also been doing a lot of sewing and heat-transfer vinyl projects over the past year or so, which I can talk more about later on, maybe.

As for knitting and crocheting, I've finished a number of projects over the last year and a half --not all of the sweaters I was hoping to work on, but a couple! (By the way, you can always find what I'm working on or have finished on my Ravelry account --here-- if you're interested!) I am also working on finishing up a few more afghans/blankets at the moment, and a couple of little stuffed toys, and have been making quite a few of those new trendy bun hats, so stay tuned for pictures of those (I promise I'll do better with blogging!) Meanwhile, here are a few pictures of some of my favorites from the past 18 months:

My daughter is maybe not the world's best model, but I heard that fish lips and crossed eyes are
very "in" with the 8-year-old crowd this year. 😉 Pattern can be found here.

Pattern can be found here.

Pattern can be found here.

Pattern can be found here.

Pattern can be found here.

Teacher Appreciation Afghans

Sorry it's been so long since I posted! I'm not the world's best blogger, obviously. But, if you're open to excuses, I was on bed rest for 15 weeks, then had a baby in February, and then had to deal with colic for a couple of months after that... all while finishing my Associate's Degree and starting my Bachelor's Degree... so I'm just now getting to a point where life feels a little "normal" again. During that time period I did manage to work on an afghan for my daughter's teacher, which is something I did for her Kindergarten teacher as well and seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition. Last year I made a St. Louis Cardinals "graphgan" because her teacher was a big Cards fan.

This graph was from Loopaghans --message

her for a list of graphs she has available.

(Sorry the picture is such poor quality!)

This year her teacher was really girly, so I tried to go with something girly without being so girly that her husband wouldn't want it used on their bed or as a throw in the living room. It took a little trial and error to get the colors figured out, and I made a huge mistake on the second row by messing up every single hexagon... which led to me having to go with sort of a "striped" effect alternating the way the hexagons are meant to be and how I messed them up in the second row, but it ended up working out ok. And, if you're still open to excuses, I did have a lot going on that made it hard to concentrate on crocheting. I was pretty happy with the finished product though and do plan to make more hexagon afghans in the future using the same pattern, but it will probably be a while before I forget just how long this one took me. I made the teacher cry because she loved it so much though --she called it an "heirloom"-- so all the work was definitely worth it in the end!

I used a pattern by Lucy of Attic24 for the hexagons, and border #16 from

the book "Around the Corner Crochet Borders" (with an extra round).

Daisy Cottage Designs "Owl Toy"

Recently a friend of mine requested an owl stuffed toy for her niece as a Christmas gift, and since I asked all my friends and customers to get their orders in by the end of September, she had to order early! After doing some searching and pattern comparing, we settled on the Daisy Cottage Designs "Owl Toy" pattern (with a few modifications).

The pattern was very easy to follow and so easy that even a beginner could do it --seriously "first project" kind of easy, so if you're nervous about toys, this would be a great one to try!

The first modification I ended up making was leaving off the legs. Not that they're not cute, we just went with a simpler style this time. The second mod I made was to go with two colors for the body instead of just the one color of the original pattern. Another mod I made was adding wings to the sides, just as an extra little element to add to the "owliness" of it. I also changed the eyes and beak to my own style, which was just a personal preference. Instead of a flower we went with a bow, and voila! Cute little owl toy/pillow for a cute little girl. Hopefully she loves it as much as I do!

Happy Halloween!

My four-year-old likes to read. Not as much as my one-year-old, who is a bookaholic, but she does love reading. I guess really she just loves stories. It doesn't matter if they're in a book, on the tv, or someone is just telling her one. She just loves stories.

About two months ago I got her "Little Red Riding Hood" on my Nook --it's one of the "read to me" stories on there-- and she loved it. That was around the time we got our first Halloween costume magazine in the mail ... and Little Red Riding Hood happened to be one of the costumes in there. And so she made up her mind. She was going to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. And she let me know that her little brother was going to be the Big Bad Wolf ... and her daddy was going to be the Woodsman ... and her Grammy was going to be the Granny. (She ran out of parts for me I guess.)

I thought about just buying costumes from a party store or one of the costume stores on-line ... but money's been a little tight lately and the only wolf costume I could find was $40. And I wasn't even confident my toddler would keep the heavy hood part up, and he wouldn't ever wear it again, so I couldn't really justify that $40 to myself for an outfit for one night ... so I came up with my own costumes.

I didn't get a great picture of them together ... but this is what I could manage.

For my daughter's costume I thought about sewing a Little Red Riding Hood dress myself ... I mean, I'm not a terrible sewer and I've made little dresses before, I could have managed a Halloween costume ... but then I came across this great shop on etsy called "Lover Dovers", and they had the perfect little dress, so there was no reason for me to try to make something on my own. It was a little pricey for my budget, but my daughter is big on playing dress-up --she still uses the ladybug dress from Halloween when she was 1 year old  as the rag dress for Cinderella before she gets her ballgown-- so I know she will get A LOT of use out of it playing dress up. I did make her cape though. I was a little worried because I cheaped out on yarn and used Red Heart ... but I think it turned out ok. I used the Petite Purls "Capuchon" pattern (free) and it took me about three days of off-and-on knitting to finish. Very easy to follow the pattern and could be made in any color for any reason -- not just Little Red Riding Hood.

For the Big Bad Wolf I knew I wanted to make a hat, but it took me up until last week to decide on a pattern. I ended up combining three different wolf hat styles I found while Googling, because I just couldn't find one pattern I really liked. I knew I wanted fuzzy yarn and I ended up using Yarn Bee "Boucle Traditions Brushed Yarn" in Salt & Pepper ... mostly just because it was the only fuzzy yarn I could find in a grey colorway ... but it did the job. Everything else I just kind of made up as I went along until it looked right.

After that I improvised a couple of shoe covers with triangle felt "claws", hand-stitched a big white circle on a grey fleece jacket for the underbelly (hand-stitched so I could easily take the stitches back out to use the jacket as a clothing staple afterwards), stuck him in a grey long-sleeved shirt and grey fleece pants (also post-Halloween clothing staples) ... and called him a wolf.

They tied with each other for second place in their age division (1-4 year olds) and they won first place as a group with their Grammy (as "Granny") and Daddy (as the "Woodsman"). Not too shabby.

The Importance of Blocking

People often ask me what blocking is, and why it's necessary. I used to rarely block my projects, so I was definitely one of those people that didn't think it was very important. And really, a lot of projects don't need to be blocked ... but there are also a lot of projects that do. Lace projects almost always need blocking to show the pattern correctly, for example.

I'm certainly no expert on blocking, but it's hard not to see the importance of it when you compare the two pictures below:



The picture on the left is a "slouchy" hat straight of the needles -- no blocking. As you can see it just looks like a regular beanie, maybe a little too long. The picture on the right is the same hat after blocking. You can see how the cables have spread farther apart and the shape is completely different. The purl stitches between the cables have a natural tendency to give the hat a ribbed appearance. After blocking, the hat takes on a completely different look -- no more ribbed appearance. And you can see how blocking the hat around a small plate gives it the shape necessary for a slouchy hat, as opposed to the tubular style it takes on while it's on the needles.

There are several different methods of blocking, as each fiber and project requires it's own specific technique to ensure you don't ruin your yarn or mess up your project while you're blocking it. For an overview of some of these techniques follow this link: "How to Block Knitting". (If anyone has a better link they recommend, leave it in the comments, please!)

Hopefully the pictures make it easy to see the importance of blocking. It's a hard concept to explain (especially to non-knitters), but it makes a big difference in a finished project.

(P.S. - The pattern for the hat shown above will be available within the next few days! Stay tuned!)

Another Mermaid Photo Prop

Pattern can be found at Caleigh’s Clips.

I knew I was going to end up making several of these. I just love the crocodile stitch and how pretty the yarn works up. This time I tried out the Prism¹ colorway with an Amethyst² top and crown. As much as I love the colorway of the tail, I had a really hard time coming up with colors to match for the top, crown, and flower. I originally wanted to do some sort of magenta color to make the top really "pop", but the colors I tried just looked out of place in the end. Then I tried a darker purple, and it still didn't really "go". Then I thought about a turquoise or green ... but nothing quite looked right. I'm happy with the Amethyst, even if it's not what I really had in mind. The flower I like for the most part ... I just wish I could have found a blue that matched a little better for the bottom layer. I'll have to keep looking for next time. And the crown was the most frustrating. I didn't want it to be the same color as the top. I wanted each piece to "pop" separately, on their own ... but no other color looked right for the crown. I tried green, blue, and that golden color you can make out here and there, but they all looked very wrong with the rest of the set. Oh well I guess. I think the flower headband is cuter with the set anyways, lol. :-P Overall I think it turned out pretty cute though. Hopefully when I see it modeled by a sweet baby girl I'll like it even more!

1: Lion Brand "Tweed Stripes".
2: Hobby Lobby "I Love This Yarn".

Leah the Little Mermaid

I have been really enjoying finding patterns for and making newborn photography props lately. This one I was especially excited about. I loved everything from the yarn, to the crocodile stitch patterned tail. And the sweet baby girl modeling it for me just topped it off.

(Photos of baby Leah are courtesy of my wonderful friend Leslie--Leah's
momma, and our friend Brigid who does amazing photography.)

The pattern is "Mermaid Princess" from Caleigh's Clips' Cuddle Critter Cape Sets (try saying that ten times fast!). If you are a crocheter and haven't checked out Caliegh's Clips, you need to. She has some incredibly original and creative patterns and they're all very well written and easy to understand. She even has video instructions for the more difficult techniques. It's just an awesome shop.

I've never attempted a crocodile stitch before, but I've seen several projects, mostly on Pinterest, that use it and I always think to myself how neat it looks. Once I found this pattern I knew it was the one I wanted to try out the crocodile stitch with. Luckily the pattern is written so well that it was a piece of cake to pick up the technique. Within a few crocodile stitches I was hardly thinking about it anymore. If you can double crochet, you can do the crocodile stitch.

I also loved the yarn the tail uses. It's Lion Brand "Tweed Stripes", and I was able to find it at our Walmart for under $5/skein. This specific colorway, "Lakeside", was even on clearance for $2.50! (I bought up all the skeins both of my nearest Walmarts had, lol.) I just finished up another set using the "Prism" colorway which I love just as much. I can't wait to try out the "Luau" colorway next, and maybe one of the primarily green colorways after that. I'm pretty sure I'll end up making lots of these sets just because I enjoyed the pattern and yarn so much.

For the shell top I got a little fancy and went with Red Heart "Shimmer" in "Lime". I wasn't sure if it would end up being too much with all the colors and patterns of the tail, but I absolutely love the way it came out. I think the subtle sparkle in the top looks really cute, and adds just the perfect special touch.

The pattern comes with the crown, but I thought it might be cuter with a little flower headband instead, so I went ahead and made both for Leah to try on. I love little crocheted flowers and I think the flower headband looks perfect with this set. I just love the way it all turned out and am so glad Leslie let me make it for sweet little Leah. I couldn't have asked for a cuter little model!

Foxes for Foster

A while back a friend of mine sent me an e-mail about a pin she found on Pinterest. She's having a baby in a few weeks and his nursery theme is "woodland" -- which obviously I love, being that it was my little boy's nursery theme as well. I even knit him a little fox to sit on his shelf that he now enjoys cuddling with in his crib some nights. Well, my friend is quite fond of foxes as well, and the pin she'd found was for a little fox photography prop. Heck yeah I can make a fox! I love foxes! So I told her I'd love to make it, and she told me she'd let me know when she had decided for sure about it.

Fast forward a few weeks and she e-mailed me again, telling me that she was going to go with just a fox earflap hat because it was more practical than a photography prop and she was trying to be good about her spending. Obviously I told her I could make that too! So I whipped it out real quick and sent it along in the mail.

But of course I didn't just make her the earflap hat, when what she really wanted was the photography prop. Does she know me at all? Come on! So I whipped that up too and added it as a little surprise.

(Pattern can be found here.)

She got them today and luckily had no idea I was sending both. I always get worried when I give surprised that I haven't done a very good job at keeping the secret and that whoever the surprise is intended for has an idea, which makes it not as good of a surprise. I'm not very good at keeping surprises in -- I get too excited, lol. This time she really thought she was just getting the earflap hat, and now we're both even more excited (if that's even possible for her) to welcome baby Foster into the world and see him model his new fox set. Hopefully she'll let me share a picture when she gets one. :-)

Sorry I'm a Sucky Blogger!

I'm sure you've noticed by now that I'm not the world's best blogger. Sorry! I get distracted for a while by "real life" and slack a little on here. I'll try to get better about it.

Lately I've been working mostly on newborn gifts (a set I did for twin girls is shown below) and bow and flower clippes and ponytail holders. That's been taking up most of my knitting and crocheting time so far this summer. But my goal for the summer is to get a few sweaters done before the cold weather hits. I am moderately obsessed with little knit baby and children sweaters. I think they're just so cute when they're well done. I've wanted to make some for my kids ever since my daughter was born almost four years ago (Eek! My first baby is going to be four this month! How did that happen?!), but I've just never gotten around to it. I always put it off to do other projects thinking that eventually I'll get around to making the sweaters I want to make. Starting yesterday, it's my mission to be working on one sweater at any given time between now and when I start getting cold-weather orders again. Hopefully I'll be able to show you all some cute ones soon!

I Think I Can ... I Think I Can ...

Do you ever have projects that you just can't seem to get right? I'm a bit (that's an understatement) of a perfectionist, so if something isn't  perfect I frog it and start again. The project I'm currently working on has been completely frogged 4 times (so far). I just can't seem to get it right. I'm putting all the blame on the yarn. I do not like Lion Brand Homespun yarn. It is so hard to work with! I am always losing my count or having trouble picking up my stitches with it. The finished product always ends up so soft and cozy ... but I just have the worst time getting to that finish line. I will say that crocheting with Homespun is much easier than knitting with it ... but it's still very far down my list of favorite yarns. I need to get this project done by Friday, so keep your fingers crossed I don't end up having to frog it again. I should have some interesting pictures of this next week for you guys. ;-)

Lion Brand Yarn "Bunny Blanket Buddy" (Knit Version)

This pattern has been in my binder for a while now. Like ... years. I just have never gotten around to making it. It's called "Bunny Blanket Buddy" and you can find it on Lion Brand Yarn's website. It's a free pattern that has both a knit (here) and crochet (here) version.

I used Baby Bee Dreamy Baby Chenille in "Boo Pink" and I think it's just the perfect yarn for this project. Super soft and cuddly, which is exactly how a lovey should be.

I started out with the crochet version, hoping to save myself some time since crocheting is quicker than knitting. I got a few rows into it and frogged it. It just doesn't look as good crocheted. It was ok, but I knew I'd much prefer the knit version, so that's what I went with.

Overall I like the way it turned out. There are a couple things I would change though. Next time I will definitely lengthen the ears. Maybe even twice the length they are in the original pattern. One of my friends commented that it looks a bit like a dog the way the ears are now, and I agree. I think they need to be quite a bit longer to give it a much more obvious "bunny" look. I also think I will make the head a little shorter next time, but only by a few rows (maybe 3" instead of 3.5").

One thing I absolutely loved with this pattern was the way the head was knit. It's a technique I've never seen before (Has anyone else? Have I been living under a rock or is this as awesome as I think it is?) and I wish I had a million more projects to do with it! At first I was confused and thought the head was coming out as a flat rectangle ... which I wasn't very happy with. Then at the very end it suddenly pops open with a little hole for stuffing, and what I thought was a flat rectangle was actually a little pocket! It blew my mind! (Totally not exaggerating -- ask my husband. I was so excited about this!)

Overall I thought this knit up pretty cute, and I think I'll love it once I make those alterations I talked about. It may end up being my new go-to baby gift!

Simple Crochet Bow - with Pictures! (Crochet Pattern)

This is a simple little bow that can be used as a hair accessory or embellishment for a number of projects. It takes less than a half hour to make (seriously 10 minutes or so once you get the hang of it) and is easy to adjust to different types of yarn -- just go up or down to an appropriate hook size.

Download the PDF version here!

My little girl modeling the bow on a headband.
You should have seen the out-takes. She is
not a very cooperative little model, lol.

Materials:

• Worsted Weight Yarn (I used Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn")


• Size "H" (5.00 mm) Hook


• Tapestry Needle for weaving in ends

Abbreviations:

• ch: Chain


• sc: single crochet

Gauge:

Not crucial for this project.

Step One:

- Chain 15 sts. Sc in second stitch from hook and then continue with "Row 1".
- Row 1:  sc in each st, ch 1 at end and turn
- Repeat Row 1 three or four more times, depending on how thick/full you want your bow to look.

Row 1 was repeated three times in this example. To see an example of four rows scroll to the bottom and see the purple bow.

Step Two:

- Make a sc border around your whole rectangle. (Just sc in each stitch around your whole piece.)
- When you come to a corner sc once in the corner st, ch 2, and then sc again in the same stitch -- this will keep your piece looking more like a rectangle and less like an oval. (Feel free to skip this if you want the edges of your bow to be very rounded.)
- Weave in any ends you have so that they'll disappear under the center wrap when you finish your bow.

Step Three:

- Pinch the bow in the middle so that it folds up sort of like an accordion.
- Make sure that both edges are facing the same direction.
- Tie a small length of yarn around the center to keep it cinched.
- Trim the ends so they're easy to hide when you wrap the center of the bow in the next step.

Step Four:

- Using a longer length of yarn wrap the center of your bow until it looks finished.
- Tie off in the back and trim the ends so they'll be easy to hide when you attach your bow to whatever it is you choose.

Step Five:

- Attach your bow to an alligator clippie, barette, hair tie, or headband ... or really anything else you'd like ... and voila.

Row 1 was repeated three times in the pink bow and four times
in the purple bow. You can see the slight difference in fullness
between the two.

To make a headband:

... like the pink bow is attached to in the above picture simply make a chain the circumference you need to fit, slip stitch the ends together (making sure the chain is facing the same direction all the way around), and weave in the ends to finish it. Then attach your bow.

Tiny Textures Newsboy Cap

I just love a cute newsboy cap. I love the vintage quality of it, while still being current enough to keep your kid from looking dorky. This is a pattern I've used and sold a few times before, but everyone always seems to want it in Ivory tweed, so I was excited to make it in brown for a change yesterday. The pattern is called "Tiny Textures Newsboy Cap" and it can be found at Speckled Frog Crochet. It's become one of my better sellers, and you can see why. It's adorable! My little man will definitely be getting one come fall. I'm thinking I'll go with light blue for him to makes his bright blue eyes pop. This particular hat is a surprise for a friend who is having a baby in July. I made it in the 6-12 months size, and I tend to have a smaller gauge then your average crocheter, so I'm crossing my fingers it will be the perfect size for the cold months.

Pattern from Speckled Frog Crochet.

Long Time ... No Post

I'm finally finished with the work in progress I last posted about. Between the 20,000+ single crochets and my thumb deciding to spend a week too tight to bend, this blanket took forever. Foreeeeeeeever! But it's done and I think it turned out nicely. I was surprised at how nicely Red Heart yarn softens up after a couple of washes. I was a little worried it'd be too stiff and coarse, but it's very nice for an acrylic yarn (after washing, that is).

Hopefully now that my thumb is feeling better I"ll be able to get more accomplished and get back to posting again!

Wordless Wednesday #3

Why yes, I did completely forget to post a Wordless Wednesday last week. My thumb has been giving me major "sticking" problems and I've been having trouble finishing projects because of it. Whoops.

Rainbow Granny Stripe Blanket

I told you I'd be finished with my "WIP Wednesday" project by today! I finished late last night (and I mean late, I didn't put my hook down until 3:00am!) and washed it this morning so I could take pictures. Here it is:

This wasn't for anyone in particular, I just really wanted to make a rainbow baby blanket. Since I ran out of yarn for the blanket I was working on (last week's "WIP Wednesday") I needed something else to keep me entertained between smaller projects, and since I had most of the colors to start this, I did!

The pattern is "Granny Stripes Afghan", free on Caron International's website. I went up a hook size, from H to I, to keep the blanket soft and flowy since it's a baby blanket. I used Caron Simply Soft in the following colors: soft pink, light country peach, sunshine, pistachio, soft blue, orchid, and white for the border. I also added 24 additional chains to the beginning to make it slightly larger, and used a scalloped edge instead of the edge given in the pattern to make it read a little more "baby". It took me 4 days of crocheting --only in the evenings, mostly after my kids had gone to bed-- and was just about as simple as a pattern could be. If you want a quick project I certainly recommend this!

WIP Wednesday - #2

This project should be finished tonight or tomorrow -- hopefully!

Cloud-Soft Shells Blanket (WIP)

I've been working on a pattern out of the book "Our Best Baby Afghans" by Leisure Arts. It's made up of shell stitch and v-stitch, and is very simple and repetitive. I am loving the pattern because it's very quick, has great texture, and I can see my progress after each row. I'll definitely be using this pattern again.

I chose Caron Simply Soft Paints for this project because I loved the "Driftwood" colorway. I've used Caron Simply Soft about a million times before for various baby items, blankets, etc and have always loved it. I'm not the biggest fan of the sheen it has -- I don't like that for every project, but you can't beat the softness. I assumed that the Paints line would be the same ... but I've been disappointed. Paints is much coarser in texture. When I washed my swatch with fabric softener and dried it with a dryer sheet it didn't soften up at all. I tried a second time in hot water, hoping that would get out all of the chemicals and dyes that could possibly be making it feel rough, and it still felt the same. I'm not sure "Simply Soft" is an appropriate name for the Paints line.

I used an I hook for this blanket, even though the wrapper on the yarn recommends an H. I should have gone up to a J even, and have been considering frogging what I have completed and re-starting with a J hook, but I'm 3 skeins in already. If I ever use this yarn again (which I am not sure I will) I will not use anything smaller than a J hook.

Three skeins of Simply Soft Paint. (Remote is for size reference.)

Speaking of 3 skeins ... that's nothing. I'm going to need probably 4 more skeins to finish, and that's before I add the border. Which means I'll need 4 more skeins of the Paints, and 1 skein of regular Simply Soft in a plain color (I'm thinking off-white with a single crochet brown border on the very edge) before I've finished this blanket. That's a crazy amount of yarn to me for a crib-sized blanket. I guess what they say about crocheting taking 3 times more yarn than knitting is true. I've never used more than 2 or  maybe 3 skeins to finish a [knit] crib-sized blanket before, and I'm not even halfway done with this one. Hopefully I can keep going as quickly to finish it up as I've been going so far. Crochet certainly works up more quickly than knitting, even if it does take a considerable amount more yarn.

WIP Wednesday - #1

Since this is my first "WIP Wednesday" I'll explain it a little. "WIP" stands for "Work In Progress". Each Wednesday I'll post a picture of my current "work in progress", but I won't include info about the pattern, yarn, hook size, etc until that project is finished -- kind of like a "Wordless Wednesday" post too. Here's the first one: