Getting (re)Started

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Aside from responding to comments here and there, I’ve had to back away from this blog and what I hoped to accomplish here. What I’ve realized over the past few years is that many of my goals have been based on what I’ve felt like I should be doing instead of what I’m truly passionate about. I’ve prioritized my career over what keeps me whole, so I’ve been working on balance. Earlier this year, I promised myself that I would prioritize music, which has resulted in many opportunities and positive changes.

I’m also rethinking how I want to use this space. Am I really a craft blogger? Probably not. Do I enjoy writing patterns? Not so much. What I do love is writing, so you may see more of my random thoughts, proud moments from my classroom, and book reviews here and there.

As I reflect on how the past few years have changed me, I find myself returning to “Going Slightly Mad.” It’s one of my favorite Queen songs, and in college I joked that it was my theme song. At the time, I didn’t have the words to express what I was facing with my mental health, and the lyrics fit how I was feeling. The song is somewhere between calm and upbeat, which was how I felt pressured to be all the time, even though that’s not how I felt inside. Right now it fits because I’m focusing on facing my fear of putting myself out there. Of making significant changes in my life and taking risks. Of trusting myself and my judgment. Some of what I plan to do may seem like madness to people who’ve known me, but I can’t let that hold me back. I can’t let fear of failure or judgment keep me from achieving my goals.

I know what I want my life to look like, I have so much support from those I love, and I’m excited to get started.

Double Sided Kitchen Scrubby – Free Pattern

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I love quick and easy projects. These scrubbies would be great to sell at craft shows or to give as gifts. They work up in no time at all and take very little yarn, so they are great for scraps.

Materials:
Cotton yarn (I used Bernat Handicrafter Cotton in Squishy)
Red Heart Scrubby Sparkle Yarn
Size H 5.0mm Hook
Size I 5.5mm Hook
Yarn Needle

Stitches/Abbreviations:
CH – chain
SC – single crochet

Pattern Instructions:

Square #1:
Using Scrubby Sparkle yarn and the I 5.5mm hook, ch 13
Row 1: sc in the 2nd ch from hook and across the row (12 stitches)
Rows 2-12: sc across
Fasten off and weave in ends

Square #2:
Using cotton yarn and the H 5.0mm hook, ch 13
Row 1: sc in the 2nd ch from hook and across the row (12 stitches)
Rows 2-12: sc across
Do not fasten off.

Assembly:
Line up your two squares with the cotton square closest to you.
Ch 1 and single crochet around the edges of the two pieces to join them together. 3sc in each corner to turn. Once you’ve gone the whole way around, fasten off and weave in the end.

It’s that simple!

Where did February go???

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My goal of posting every month only lasted a month! In my defense, I did have two posts planned out for February, but it was ridiculously hectic and bad weather kept forcing me to rearrange my life. I kept telling myself that I’d have time to post, but then I realized yesterday that February was gone. Oops! The good news is that I posted THREE times in January, and I have a lot planned for March.

March is National Crochet Month and I’m participating in TWO Instagram challenges. I’ve noticed that fiber artists are an incredible group of people, and connecting with them brings me so much joy. Yesterday was the first day, and I’m already having tons of fun with this.

These challenges are pushing me to share more of my ideas, connect with more of my fellow crocheters, be more creative, and improve my photography.

Definitely check out the organizers of these challenges. They have amazing blogs, Instagram accounts, and Facebook pages.

Oh, and definitely participate in these challenges!

Ribbed Floret Earwarmer – Free Pattern

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Instead of working on my WIPs, I’ve been playing around with different stitches and attempting to come up with combinations that look good. I decided to start with earwarmer patterns, since most of the country is colder than Antarctica at the moment! This pattern is a combination of floret stitches and back and front post double crochet. It’s fairly simple and it works up very fast. Enjoy!

Materials:
H 5MM Hook
Worsted Weight Yarn (approx 50 grams)
Tapestry Needle

Stitches/Abbreviations:
CH: Chain
SL ST: Slip Stitch
DC: Double Crochet
BPDC: Back Post Double Crochet
FPDC: Front Post Double Crochet

Pattern

Chain 17

Row 1: DC in the 4th chain from hook and DC across the chain. The three CH you skip at the beginning counts as a DC. (15 stitches)

Row 2: Chain 1 (counts as a SL ST), *DC in the next stitch, SL ST into next stitch. Repeat from *. The last SL ST will be in the top of the turning chain.

Row 3: Ch 3 (counts as 1 DC), *DC in the next DC, DC in the next SL ST. Repeat from *. The last DC will be in the top of the turning chain.

Row 4: Ch 3 (counts as 1 DC), BPDC around the second DC (remember that the turning chain counts as the first DC), DC in the top of the next DC, *BPDC around the next DC, DC in the top of the next DC. Repeat from *. The last DC will be in the top of the turning chain.

Row 5: Ch 3 (counts as 1 DC), FPDC around the second DC (remember that the turning chain counts as the first DC), DC in the top of the next DC, *FPDC around the next DC, DC in the top of the next DC. Repeat from *. The last DC will be in the top of the turning chain.

Repeat rows 2 – 5 until your earwarmer is the desired length.

Whip stitch the ends together being careful to match up each stitch, so the seam isn’t too noticeable.

Tutorial: http://newstitchaday.com/how-to-crochet-the-whip-stitch-seam/

I stopped after 49 rows (on a row 5), and I liked the way the seam looked.

Too Many WIPs!

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One of my goals for 2019 is to finish all my “Works in Progress.” I know that every crocheter has plenty of unfinished projects, but some of mine are pretty shameful, mostly because it wouldn’t take much to get them done. I have no excuse for how long these have been neglected.

LA Lakers Bear

Pattern from Cute Little Animals by Amy Gaines

I planned to give this bear to my sister because she loves the LA Lakers. I’m sure I started this at least six years ago, but never put it together. I had this elaborate plan to get purple embroidery floss and turn his shirt into a Lakers jersey. The good news is that she’s still obsessed with the Lakers, and her birthday is in April!

Scooter Pup

Pattern from Cute Little Animals by Amy Gaines

When my grandmother died, I inherited her yarn stash. She had a ton of soft baby yarn, so I started crocheting squares to put together into a blanket. I intended to give it to the next grandchild, but that plan failed when two of my cousins had babies due at the same time. There were only enough squares for one blanket. I decided to make stuffed toys for them instead, but didn’t quite get to it. All this guy needs is ears! There are four kids now, so I need to get moving if I’m going to give them their toys before they are too old!

Brain Hats

Brain Hat Pattern

I started making these for the Science March in 2016. I’m not a huge fan of knitting, but the I-Cords weren’t that bad. I think the problem is that I’m dreading the assembly step!

Greedo

Pattern from Even More Star Wars Crochet by Lucy Collin

I wanted to make as many Star Wars characters as possible before the craft show I did in November, but it didn’t happen. (I blame grad school.) All poor Greedo needs is arms and a mouth and then he’ll be able to agree that Han shot first.

These aren’t the only WIPs I need to finish, but they are the ones I feel most guilty about. I hope this post will motivate me to get them done!

How many WIPs do you have laying around? Maybe we should cheer each other on as we get them down to zero!

2018: Year in Review

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The good news is that 2018 was an amazing year for me. The bad news is that I didn’t blog about any of it, mostly because 2018 was ridiculously busy. I fully intended to write about crocheting, reading, and traveling, but I accomplished so much that I didn’t have the energy. Here’s a general summary of my year.

Crocheting 
My goal was to complete twenty-four projects, and I exceeded it. Here are a few of my favorite projects from 2018.

Pattern Links: The Friendly Unicorn, BB-8, Jawa, Porgs, Cross My Heart Sweater, Quick and Easy Unicorn Basket

My crocheting goals for 2019 are to finish all my WIPs (I have too many!), use my epic stash of cotton yarn, write down and post the patterns I create, and blog about my crocheting adventures.

Books
My goal is always to read fifty books in a year, but this year got a little out of control. I find that when I’m stressed and overworked, I gravitate toward very fast, engaging, and light reading. Since I started working on a second Master’s Degree, I’ve been obsessed with fantasy, and I tore through tons of series.

My favorites were A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, The Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs, The All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness, The Others Series by Anne Bishop, and The Echo Trilogy by Lindsay Fairleigh. I do not plan to break this record, but it could happen. I may just have to accept that 2018 may remain my high year until I retire.

Travels
If I took the time to go into detail about all of our adventures, this post would be ridiculously long. I’ll just summarize it by saying that our big adventures included Seattle and New York City, which were two of our best! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

NYC Adventure, June 2018
Mt. St Helens, The Space Needle, Mt. Rainier, Snoqualmie Falls, The Museum of Flight

It looks like 2019 will be full of even more adventures than 2018. My goal is to slow down and write about all the amazing things that happen!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Darth Vader Corner to Corner Blanket

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I’ve noticed that a lot of crocheters have been talking about finally being able to make things for themselves now that the holiday season has ended. I’m right there with them. After a craft show in November and trying to make gifts for the holidays, I decided to treat myself to something epic. I have been talking for a long time about making myself a Darth Vader blanket, and I’ve been intrigued by corner to corner crocheting, so I looked for a pattern and found absolutely nothing. I found this picture on Pinterest, a graph on a site for perler bead patterns, and this post from Ahookamigurumi with tons of amazing Star Wars graphs including the Darth Vader graph from Not All Who Wander are Lost, but nothing for a full sized Darth Vader blanket. Since I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, I decided to see if I could use the amazing graphs people have shared and my limited math skills to make a full sized blanket. Here are the resources I used:

Stitch Fiddle: I can’t remember where I first read about Stitch Fiddle, but it’s a site for creating graphs for projects. Now that I’ve used it once, I feel like I should play around with it more and write a full review because it has a lot of cool features. It even allows you to upload your own photographs to turn into graphs.

The most difficult part of this process was figuring out how many blocks my grid should be in Stitch Fiddle. I was able to find a couple pins about corner to corner afghan sizing, but my concern was that none of the posts took gauge or hook size into account. My advice is to crochet a few rows with your hook and yarn of choice and see how big your C2C squares turn out to be. Somehow mine ended up being perfect inch squares, which made my life very easy.

This post from The Crochet Crowd has a comprehensive list of afghan and blanket sizes.

This post from Lion Bran Yarn has been so valuable when I need to determine how much yarn I’ll need for projects.

This blanket is the result of all my efforts, and it wasn’t as difficult as I feared!

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, especially considering that there was math involved in its creation! It’s exactly the size I wanted (it turned out to be 52″ x 59″) and I calculated the right amount of yarn.

I used the following tutorials to learn corner to corner crochet. Check them out because I’ve learned so much from Jess at Make & Do Crew and Mikey from The Crochet Crowd.

Materials:

  • Approximately 901g of yarn in red
  • Approximately 197g of yarn in grey
  • Approximately 481g of yarn in black
  • Size H 5.0mm hook

I used Caron One Pound in claret, black, and medium grey mix, but I had a lot of black and grey left over. I bought more yarn than I needed just to be safe, but my calculations ended up being correct.

As long as you can do simple math, you can use the tools in Stitch Fiddle to make graphs for afghans in any size you want! You get fifteen graphs with a free account, but you can upgrade to a pro account for more graphs and features. Right now I’m still using the free version, but I may decide to upgrade at some point.

Now I’m hooked (bad pun intended) on corner to corner crochet, and I’m coming up with ideas for more graphs! I’m excited to create some completely original designs to share!

Snowflake Table Decor

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After my table runner disintegrated in the washing machine (maybe I shouldn’t shop at the Dollar Tree), I was in need of something to decorate my dining room table. I figured I’d crochet something, since I can do that. I kept putting it off because life was hectic and I couldn’t find a pattern I liked.

 

Before the holidays, I modified this pattern for a snowflake potholder intending to use them as washcloths instead. Everyone I showed them to said they were too pretty and that they’d use them as decorations, which gave me the idea to do this! Table runner problem solved!

 

 

 

To make the decorations (which you could use as washcloths if you really wanted to), I followed the pattern for the snowflake potholder linked above and added a row of double crochet before putting on the single crocheted border. I also didn’t put two together. I love the pattern because it is quick and easy. I have red and green ones for my holiday table setting, and I made navy blue ones for winter. Now I just need to figure out what to make for spring, summer, and fall!

 

Project #1 of 2018 complete!

 

2018 Reading & Project Challenges

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I’m not good at setting New Year’s resolutions, but I love participating in challenges. Maybe it’s because most of the challenges I join are public and everyone can view my progress. Outside accountability helps me meet my goals.

Every year I challenge myself to read at least fifty books, and I use Goodreads to track that challenge. After I failed miserably by only reading fourteen books in 2014, I decided to focus my efforts and never let that happen again. Since then I’ve surpassed my goal every year, setting a record of 108 books in 2017.

This year Ravelry is starting a project challenge, which I’m pretty excited about. I’ve always been good at keeping track of the books I read, but when it comes to tracking what I create, I tend to drop the ball. Participating in this challenge should help me keep track of and document everything I make. I set my goal for twenty-four projects, since I have no idea how many things I create in a year, and two a month seems reasonable. I have a lot of projects lined up because now that the holidays are over and I have no craft shows in the near future, I can finally make things for myself and share some of my own patterns. This challenge should also help me blog more because I’ll be sharing everything here!

My Favorite Scrubby Pattern & A Yarn Review

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A number of years ago, I found a great scrubby pattern, but I wasn’t satisfied with how cotton yarn worked. I made a bunch of scrubbies out of scrap yarn, but cotton didn’t dry very fast and I worried about mildew and other gross things.

Then people started making scrubbies out of tulle, so I gave that a shot. I HATED IT! First of all, cutting the tulle in half was a pain. It made a huge mess, and I’m not a fan of sitting around and rolling yarn into balls. Second, I can’t cut straight, so my scrubbies looked awful. Very lopsided and amateurish. I’m not even going to post a picture.

After that, I decided to give up and accept that scrubbies would not be my thing.

Not too long after admitting defeat, I was in Jo-Ann Fabrics and I was drawn to yet another sparkly thing: Red Heart’s Scrubby Sparkle Yarn . It was kind of pricey, but I had coupons, so I figured I’d give it a try. Needless to say, it changed my scrubbie life. The yarn works great with the scrubbie pattern linked to above, and you can get at least six scrubbies out of one skein of yarn (which makes the price seem a little better).

The best part is that the scrubbies are amazing. I made a few to share with family members and they loved them. They don’t hold water or soap and they are gentle on non-stick pots and pans! I know I’ll be making tons of these to sell at craft shows and give as gifts!