hooks + needles: how to resize a beanie.

hello there!
today i would like to share how i pretty easily resized the Urban Revival Beanie pattern by Vickie Howell to crochet a sweet spring slouchy for my little miss...

on the hook: chevron market bag

hi there.
it's wednesday and since i can't share my special order which is currently in process i thought i'd finally start on some cotton crocheting that i've been obsessing over.

spring colors + friendly monsters.

hooks and needles: an owl for valentine's day

hi there!

i'm so happy to introduce a new owl friend for little miss! i'm calling her val for now (really original i know, but nothing else has sounded right so far...)

i really love this little cuddly cutie and i can't wait for little miss to get her arms around her on valentine's day morning. i've asked joe three times this weekend if i could give it to her early, but i've been good and for now she's hiding...

this owl pattern was created by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches and i absolutely love it. Stacey is a phenomenal amigurumi designer and sells the cutest little animals and monsters in her etsy shop. she also sells patterns and kits to create your own amigurumi and has joined the new Craftsy.com team teaching great workshops and classes online.

i took the Nelson the Owl Workshop on Craftsy and let me tell you it was more than worth it! i highly recommend checking it out... it was very reasonably priced and it was so nice to be able to chat with the designer, ask questions about the pattern, and to share with others making the owls. the directions were easy to follow and very well explained.

now my little val...

she's actually not so 'little' - she measures almost 11" !! i made her using stash yarn left over from little miss's newborn blanket... her body, wings, and eyes were made with Lion Brand Baby's First which is a chunky weight. i didn't have any yellow in the Baby's First so for the beak and feet i used a double strand of some Lion Brand Baby Wool, also from my stash scraps. (yay for using up some of my stash, yarn shopping time!)

my owl follows the pattern exactly except for the wing construction and the addition of the cross-stitch heart...

for the wings i had to come up with a plan that would accommodate one wing's worth of pink yarn, cuz that's all i had. i obviously had a bit less than a full skein of my main color to start out with and the wing is where it caught up with me, not bad. i basically split the original wing pattern in half and crocheted it flat, 2 in each color, and then whip-stitched the two pairs together (right sides facing each other, then turned right-side out).

i have been wanting to do cross-stitch on crochet for awhile but hadn't quite found the right project... i thought this would be the perfect opportunity (and it was an easy peasy way to make it a special ♥ day owl!) i sketched out a quick grid and used some more leftovers bits.

overall i'm quite happy with how she turned out and am eager to make a few more. i think a snuggly owl would go great with a matching quick knit baby blanket as a go to newborn set. i'm so excited to see abby's reaction to it... tuesday morning is going to be so much fun!

be sure to check out Stacey's workshops, classes, and patterns available at craftsy.com - i really like everything i've seen on craftsy so far and i look forward to what's in store for the site. if you haven't checked it out, you should. there is something for everyone! i just signed up for Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster class taught by Stacey and can't wait to start (hopefully this week after i've gotten a little more work on this done...)

love.

making christmas: ornament wreath diy

 

hello again...

i'm back with part 2 of today's 'making christmas' diy!

for wreath #2 i wanted to make an ornament holder for a set of disney princess ornaments that little miss got for christmas last year. they are pretty heavy so i feel confident that you can recreate this without fearing for the lives of the ornaments you decide to showcase.

 

supplies:

wreath form

5/8" cup hooks (hardware)

ruler & pencil

glue (tacky or liquid nails)

 

let the glue dry overnight before crocheting the wreath or hanging any ornaments... preferably 24hrs but i totally could wait that long! then crochet the wreath as normal... simple statement wreath pattern by Good Knits! i used 1 skein of Lion Brand's Hometown USA in Monterey Lime.

when you get to each hook cover the hook base by crocheting around the hook. if you are following the pattern step 4 would be on the right side of the hook and step 5 is pulled through on the left side of the hook.

i started this wreath with an additional hook in the back to secure a ribbon for hanging but because of the weight of the princesses pulling it forward i decided to scrap that idea and just hang it directly on the hook on little miss's door.

if you have any questions let me know! please feel free to share wreaths that you've been working on or any crafting you've been doing this weekend to get your home ready for the holidays!

back tomorrow with this weeks review and plans for 'making christmas week 3'!

love.

making christmas: simple statement wreath

good morning!

who's excited to be getting into all of the christmas decorating? i know i am!

i'm very happy to be sharing my first 'making christmas' diys, and today it's all about this beautiful crocheted wreath pattern from Good Knits. if you are a knitter or crocheter the Good Knits blog is a must-read, must-follow! Lisa has so many great patterns available (for free!) and the items in her etsy shop are gorgeous. (check out her newly released pattern book Love Lace if you are into vintage lace patterns, it's so very lovely!)

i made this wreath with the 'simple statement wreath' pattern shared on the Good Knits blog.

did you miss that link? here's another... GET THE PATTERN!

once you get into a groove on this wreath pattern they are so quick to finish up! i maybe spent 3 hours or so on this one, in between chasing little miss around this past week.

i love this wreath pattern so much. it's so simple and pretty and so quick and cheap to make! i chose to use a 12" green styrofoam floral wreath form so that white wouldn't show through in case i didn't cover it 100% (i did, see troubleshooting in a min...) and the for the yarn i used Lion Brand's Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Cilantro. the red ribbon i used was recycled from a christmas gift one of us received last year that i saved. (free! reuse!)

troubleshooting. i'm a crazy tight, crazy overboard, all around crazy yarncrafter. i probably squeezed 3-6 (ok maybe 9) more single crochets than were really necessary on this first wreath to cover it. so in my opinion the loops look a little over crowded when i sit and stare at it, but my husband and everyone else who have seen it disagree so, you know. us crafters are always hyper critical of our own work.

i really hope you try out this pattern! it's so fun and easy... i think it'll be a great craft to do with kids too if you bought a smaller wreath form that was easier for them to handle. it's a great beginning crochet project.

i'll be back in a couple of hours with wreath #2 and how i turned this 'simple statement wreath' into an ornament holder!

love.

p.s. post-thanksgiving weekend was always the big decorating weekend at my house growing up... i'd love to hear how you spend your weekend OR how you have started decorating this season so far! ♥

hooks & needles: falling leaves garland.

i'm very happy to finally be sharing this quick knit that i did several weeks ago. it was completed during my 'black out' period where i didn't have a camera to get decent photos of the finished product. i love this garland and keep moving it around the house so it's already getting a lot of use. i can't wait until we move and i have a real mantle (or at least better spaces) that i can truly decorate to my heart's content.

when i was thinking about garlands for my fall decor i really wanted to do something knitted... both because i love knitting simple quick projects and because i had a lot of yarn left over from my sister's lap throw. the colors were just too perfect for me to pass up the opportunity to put all of those scraps to good use!

i found a leaf pattern after some searching online that was nicely textured and also allowed me to practice a symmetrical double decrease which i hadn't really used before. it sound complicated but it really isn't... i love adding new stitches to my bag of tricks and discovering that a crazy sounding stitch really isn't all that crazy!

you can find the pattern here...

as i said i used the same yarn as i did for the lap throw i made my sister which was 'cozy yarn' by 'loops & threads'. i didn't really care about gauge so i used US11 needles.

the symmetrical decrease is written as (sl2, k1, p2sso) and all you do is slip two stitches onto your right needle, knit the next stitch normally, and then pass the two stitches that you slipped over the knitted stitch and let them drop. at the end of the pattern there is also a 'p3tog' decrease that you can stitch symmetrically by again slipping two stitches purl-wise onto the right needle, purling the next stitch, and passing the two slipped stitches over the purled stitch. easy peasy right?

it may take a few re-do's on your first leaf but after no time you'll get it and won't even have to think about it! the symmetrical decrease creates this really great vein in the middle of the leaf and it was perfect to use as a guide when i strung all of the leaves together.

sorry about the mobile photo, but it was my only option at the time!

i hope you can tell from the photo but there was a perfect V and then loop at each decrease that i used to determine how i would string them all together.

if you have any questions please feel free to ask! this is a great quick project for any beginner knitter who would like something to practice on. you can use smaller yarns/needles for smaller leaves, you could use them individually to hang on an autumn or thanksgiving tree, use larger ones as pot holders, make a table runner... there are so many possibilities!

happy knitting!
love.

craft nostalgia: friendship bracelets.

happy friday friends!
earlier this week while catching up on blogs and pinterest i noticed that lots of lovely friendship bracelets had popped up here and there (and here too!) i thought... hey! i know how to do that! so with little miss and i still feeling a bit yucky and all of the other projects waiting to be started seeming a little too daunting while under the weather i pulled out my embroidery floss and went to town.

i immediately started thinking about summers past and was transported right back to my camp days. back then we made crazy bracelets... 2 inches thick... with names and hearts knotted into them... rushing to the counselors at every activity to beg for their clipboard to use. and we wore the hell out of those bracelets... NEVER took them off to go swimming or take a shower. i'm fairly certain i could still find some of them among my boxes at home or in storage (i know i have a hair wrap from a random trip to disney world tucked away too).

thinking back on those days makes me so excited to watch as abby grows up and discovers her world! i can't wait to start introducing some of my favorite craft activities from back in the day and witness as she spends countless hours tying knots and gluing things together. a whole new generation of crafters to experience the joy of making stuff with and share it over giggles, secrets, playtime, and great adventures.

i plan on making lots and lots more friendship bracelets during my lifetime... they never get old. i made abby a little bracelet of her own. she studied it for a minute and then decided she liked it enough to keep it on and go about her reading for the day...


very much her mother's daughter, haha.

we really are feeling much better so thank you for all of the well wishes here and on facebook. my little lovebug is a trouper and always has a sunny disposition even when not feeling so hot. (all the the extra cuddles we a big bonus this week!)

hope you have a great weekend!

love.

head down needles flying.

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been working for the past few days diligently trying to bust out a blanket for abby. i'm really enjoying it and really love how it's turning out. i started friday when my lion brand order came in. i'm using the baby's first line and i'm telling you this yarn is so soft and amazing.


i did have to start the project over once, which is a huge improvement from the last project. the border is a seed stitch and i had a totally preggo mind brain fart moment that turned into a jumbled mess. i feel like the more i do the faster i get but this is the first really big knitted project i've done. my goal is to have it completed by friday. i think i can finish it sooner but i don't want to put too much pressure on myself.

so that's what i'm working on. i'm holding onto a few layouts i just finished because i'm toying with the idea of submitting to a dt call for a million memories. i designed for them a few years ago and michelle is an amazing owner and has one of the best clubs & communities out there. with the baby coming i know i'm going to be creating so many more layouts and thought it might be a good time to get back out there in the industry... we'll see what happens!

i had a doc appointment today. all is well with me and miss abigail rose. my suspicion that she is currently sitting in a transverse position was confirmed. we still have many weeks for her to turn somersaults in there but i just wanted to know what i was looking at when my belly flattened out in this weird shape every time she stretches. i'll get a picture tomorrow since i haven't for a couple of weeks. 34 weeks tomorrow... so excited!!

ok, time to get back to work. i still have a few hours in me before joe gets home and i can rest my fingers! have a great night!

love.

the sickness + a layout.

been very sick this week. ok not very, but a head cold sucks when you are 8 months pregnant and can't sleep anyway. and i wish i could be like some preggo chicks and be all motivated during bouts of insomnia but unfortunately i just toss and turn, complain to the dogs, pretend to feel bad when i wake up joe, and mope. very healthy.

so with my time sitting around i decided to finally teach myself to crochet.


i have no idea what this little stripey number is going to be in the end. it was a "pattern" for dish towels (meaning just a striped colorway of single crochet rows)... but i ended up making it too narrow for my liking so i'm just going to keep working the length until i come up with something genius.

i finished this quickie layout this weekend but am just now getting around to sharing it...

i have a million nyc subway maps that i've been obsessed with using and i really liked making the banner out of some of our favorite neighborhoods and the bridges and tunnels we most commonly use.

so. i'm starting to feel better and am looking forward to a beautiful and productive weekend. joey and i will be visiting the not yo momma's craft fair in downtown jersey city on saturday. i'm pretty excited because we didn't get a chance to go last year... hoping to find some good stuff. anyone in the area should come check it out!

today i'm working on:

more crochet.
starting my first amigurami critter.
catching up on weekly gratitude.
kicking this cold 100% naturally.

so time for another cup of tea.

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love.