The granny square squared

This afghan pattern I found and started quite awhile ago, but just recently resurrected and finished. I got a bunch of leftover yarn from my mom in varying shades of green and wanted to find a good use for it. I found this pattern, what I call a granny square squared. When I first started the pattern and got a little ways into it, it started getting kind of wonky shaped. I got kind of frustrated and gave up. After reading and discovering what blocking can do to a crochet piece, I decided to start it up again, and I'm glad I did.

The colors really did come out cool. I almost had enough yarn to finish the whole thing, I had to buy one more skein of the lightest color to finish off the edging, but that was it.

 OOooooohhhhh..... mesmerizing!!! 

I used my favorite edging, the scallop edge, to go around the entire blanket. 

It ended up being pretty big, and after washing it with fabric softener, all the misshaped-ness evened out. It also made the yarn super soft, which was a nice bonus.  

I gave this blanket to mother-in-law. I surprised her with it this last weekend. She had seen me working on it a long time ago and had commented on how much she liked the colors. She is conveniently using green colors in her living room, so all-in-all a perfect match :) 

I love spreading cheer through crochet goodness :)

Hey guys!! I made a sweater!!

Since it's no longer hat season, I spent some time trying to look up other crochet items that you can wear. 

Old man sweater? 

Nope. 

Skirt? 

MMmmm, might be cool, but kind of saggy I would think. 

How about a cardigan?

That could work!!

So I scoured Ravelry and found a few open type sweaters (didn't want to create a shapeless sack, and I don't really like sweaters to begin with). My husband laughed when I told him what I was going to make, he didn't think it would turn out, but I proved him wrong!!

I finally decided on this pattern after reading and looking at the 1,924 project posts that different people had created. I figured if that many people made and liked the pattern, it should probably be a good one :)

I made my sister one first, in white, to give to her for her birthday.

It turned out so good!! Even my husband was impressed. It's made as one piece, instead of making panels and sewing them together like some clothing articles are made. You crochet the yoke/collar, then split it when it gets to the length you want your arm holes to start. Then you skip some stitches, and go back and forth for the body. 

The pattern has a bunch of different size option, varying the amount of stitches to start out, or the hook and yarn size. I had some trouble on the front edge trim, ended up crocheting one double crochet per stitch instead of two, which worked out better for my tight stitches. 

Once I finished it, I blocked it by getting it wet and then laying it flat to dry. I haven't blocked anything before, but it made a huge difference in this pattern. Blocking helped all the stitches to lie flat and make the edges not curl up. 

After making my sister one, I of course wanted to make one for me :) One of the downsides of this pattern is that it calls for DK weight yarn, which is really hard to find at craft stores these days. All the cool colors are in worsted weight. The lighter weight is usually only baby colored yarns, and I'm not really a pastel colors person, so it's somewhat limiting finding different colors. The white was easy to find, but I wanted a colored one for me. After checking out Joann's selection, I went to Michael's to see what they had. I found this bright pink color that I really liked, so I made myself one in pink.

I actually didn't get a chance to block this one, you can see how the front edges are curled up a little bit. I wanted to wear it to church and didn't have time to block it. It should look a little better after blocking.

My red afghan

This afghan was a long awaited creation, one that was in the works for quite awhile. I spent way too long on ravelry.com, trying to find the perfect pattern, and actually ended up starting another pattern (actually got significantly into it, using up an entire skein of Caron 1 pound yarn) but then ended up taking it apart because I didn't like how it was turning out. But this pattern I finally found was just what I was looking for, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I wanted a red afghan for the love seat in our living room, and was looking to make a solid colored one with varied stitches, kind of along the look of an aran afghan, or one using a lace-type pattern. I originally started this pattern, but I crochet so tightly, it ended up being a brick. I also messed up repeatedly in the stitch counts somehow (I blame the pattern) so the edges were all uneven. So after using up an entire skein, I abandoned it and went searching for another pattern. 

I finally stumbled upon this pattern on Ravelry, the "Irish Lace Blanket". I was a little nervous about the pattern. It's made creating motifs, crocheting them together as you go along to create panels, then attaching the panels together. It ended up not being that hard after all, and the different steps involved help keep it interesting.

Instead of sewing the panels together as the pattern stated, I followed the suggestion of a comment on the pattern and slip stitched the panels together. This created a little bit of a ridge in the center of each panel, which I liked. 

I also changed the edging. Instead of adding tassels (which I can't stand making, so annoying cutting all those strips, then they always end up fraying or coming out, anyway), I single crocheted around the entire edge and added a shell border. 

The next picture, while showing how cute my little girl is, and how her choice in clothing patterns can be interesting at times, also shows how big the blanket turned out. Pretty decent size, enough to cuddle up with and cover the back of the couch nicely.

This is the blanket's home, on the back of the love seat. Created the perfect addition of red to that side of the room.

The swirly hat

A friend of mine requested some crocheted hats, and after asking what she was looking for, and having her pick out some colors, AND knowing her absolute favorite flower ever is a daffodil, I combined a few patterns I had pinned to create this beauty...

The hat pattern is found here while the daffodil pattern is found here. 

I really enjoyed the hat pattern, it was a fun and interesting pattern to make.

I attached the flower to the hat with some safety pins to give the option to wear the hat without the flower.

I liked the hat pattern so much I made myself one :)

I used a skein of multi-colored yarn that I had been saving for awhile. The colors looked really nice with the swirly pattern. I wished I could have done another round of single crochet around the bottom, but I ran out of yarn and didn't want to buy a whole skein for one row. 

Too bad it's no longer hat season, I guess I'll just have to wait till this winter to wear all my hats again.

Guy hats...

I went a little crazy making hats for Christmas gifts this year :) After making one, I decided to make one more, then one more... I found a good pattern for a generic, non-fussy guy hat. The pattern I used had two different variations, and I ended up using both of them.

I started out making this hat for my brother-in-law, Thomas. Both him and my sister are U of O grads, and have a lot of yellow and green stuff. The color of this picture is horrible, but it's a dark green hat with a yellow stripe.

TJ, my other brother-in-law, has a lot of orange stuff, so the dark grey body and orange trim fit him perfectly.

I wanted to make something for my dad, too, so I made him a hat with a black body, and a green and white stripe across the middle.

While making the orange stripe hat, I had Brandon try it on for size, having him make sure it was the right fit (him and TJ are around the same size). After I got it perfect, I surprised him with one, too. I of course had to make it blue, what other color would I pick for him?

Snowman hand print ornament

This post is very late, but I just gave the last of the ornaments as gifts a couple days ago, so now I can finally post pictures of them, since they're not a surprise anymore. 

I originally got this idea from pinterest or a friend, I can't remember which, but they really turned out great.

I purchased a bunch of clear ornament balls, and some paint sharpies from the craft store. I painted Madelyn's hand white, then had her carefully grab the ornament from the bottom, making sure all her fingers were evenly pressed around the ball. Once the white paint dried, I had fun painting features on the "snowmen".

I found this little rhyme to put in with the ornaments here.

I made one for a few different family members, and saved one for us to put on our tree.

They turned out super cute. Each snowman was a little different, depending on which finger it was made from, and each ornament was a little different depending on the amount of paint on her hand, or how she grabbed it initially. 

I wrote her name and the year on the bottom, then tied red ribbon to the top so it could be hung on the tree. 

Puppy dog hat

I'm pretty proud of this hat. I used the same basic pattern I've used before for the body of the hat (as in this hat and this hat), but made up the rest of it. A good friend of mine just had a little boy, so I wanted to make her a puppy dog hat. I looked online at a bunch of patterns for dog hats, but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so I just decided to make something up as I went along, and it turned out great!!

For the ears I basically just crocheted an ear shape by increasing and decreasing stitches, until I got the shape I wanted. Thankfully I wrote it down as I went along so I could duplicate it for the other side. Once I got the shape I wanted, I single crocheted all around the edges, then attached them to the top.

I only attached the ears to the hat at the very top so they would be able to be nice and floppy.

So cute! I haven't got to see it in person yet, we've all been sick and haven't been able to meet the newest addition yet, but my friend texted me a picture of her little boy wearing it, so it must have fit :)

Flower newborn hat

I hosted a joint baby shower for a friend, who is having a little girl after having 2 boys, so I wanted to make her something very girly for her new little girl :)

I used the same basic hat pattern as I used for this hat, but used a colorful striped yarn for the main body, and added a flower and trim using a matching yarn.

So cute. Baby hats are so fun to make, they're super cute and quick to finish, can easily get one done during nap time.

Fedora-style hat

My grandma has been undergoing chemo treatments, so I made her a hat to wear to keep her head warm during the cold, winter months. 

I made this pattern before for my mother-in-law here, and decided to use it for my grandma's hat.

I changed it up a little bit this time, adding a rolled rose instead of the bow, and making the band in the same color as the rose. I found the rose pattern here.

I used Madelyn for my hat model this time, although she was somewhat reluctant.

There, that's a better smile!!

My grandma was very happy with it and excited to receive it in the mail. I love making people happy with crochet hats :)

Hat with a brim

This hat pattern is my favorite and I would say "signature" pattern. I've made five of them now, and will probably end up making more. The original pattern was found here. I have since altered and perfected it, changing things like the hook size used, the number of rows, the front embellishment, and the brim. It's such an easy pattern, but looks very professional once completed. 

The first one I made was for me. I always end up working out the kinks on a pattern on my own version, while the subsequent ones get better and better. Mine always ends up being the practice one :( After taking these pictures I went back and took out a couple rounds to make it fit a little better.

After texting a picture of my hat to my sister-in-law, she requested one, so I made her one in pink. 

We had a white elephant gift exchange with some of our friends, so I made a purple version for my contribution gift. I don't know what happened to the picture of that hat, but it was pretty in a dark purple with black buttons.

My friend Marella, who I was kind of intending the hat for with the gift exchange, didn't end up with the hat, so I made her one in black for her baby shower gift.

I also have one made in blue for another friend, but I haven't gotten to the craft store yet to purchase buttons to finish it off.

After showing my husband different etsy sites and him seeing how they are selling their hats for around $30, my husband is excited for me to maybe create a store and start selling hats. This hat pattern would definitely be one of the ones I would make, takes only about $5 in materials, and around 2-3 hours of time, easily done during nap time. We'll see, to be continued I guess...