an owl friend. (and crafty catch up!)

hello.

things have been pretty unplugged here for the past few weeks but i'll play catch up a little later. first i want to FINALLY introduce the owl friend i've been spending a lot of my amigurumi-time with lately...

an army of duckies.

hello there friends.

i wanted to (finally, i know. more blogging will happen i promise.) share the BIG special order that kept me busy for most of the summer. cute aren't they!

these little guys were a special gift for the ladies of ScrapJammies at their summer reunion crop. i did 22 total! (whew, were my fingers tired!)

hooking for charity: purple stitch project.

hello friends. ♥  

meet my purple ninja... 

i'm calling her Sumire (japanese for violet, like the flower).

Sumire is headed to Camp Brainstorm in Bastrop, TX where she'll become the stealthy (and squishy) bestie to a brave girl or boy with epilepsy.

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.

"rubber" duckie.

good morning!

this weekend i finished up one of my duckie designs!

a little body work...

makes a much happier little whale!

a good start.

sunday was our monday so i already feel ahead for the week. love that.

not. happy. happy whale.

whale attempt #1.

while i wouldn't call it a horrible failure (the perfectionist in me would and has several times over the last few hours) i'm not thrilled with how my first whale turned out. normally i wouldn't share something that i wasn't 100% in love with but i thought someone somewhere out there might appreciate hearing the story of how this little guy evolved this week.

wednesday wip: easter swatches + a new underwater friend.

hello friends. 

whew. what. a. wednesday.

today has been a little crazy but why waste time being stressed when there are so many beautiful spring projects on my table just waiting to lift my spirits? 

a fishie giveaway!

i promised and here it comes...

but first a new finished squishie fishie to share....

4th and goal.

designing a monster. wiggle monster.

hooks and needles: a snoopy for my mom.

designing a monster. little lulu.

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.

what i'm working on.

hey there.

checking in.

i'm currently writing (and rewriting) a catch up post... but i thought while i have a tiny bit of time i'd share what i'm currently stitching up over here. 

one of my main goals this year is to really develop my crochet skills. last year i taught myself the basics of how to crochet and completed a few things... mostly in sc, dc, clusters, granny squares, etc. but i've really only scratched the surface. 

so to that end i decided to get some of my fall stash used up and looked for a sampler pattern so i could learn a few more stitch combos... i decided to try this Sampler Throw by Lion Brand because it called for a worsted weight yarn (which is what i had in stash), and i wanted to practice making "popcorn".

i'm taking my time with these squares. i'm trying to work on getting the gauge just right and keeping a consistent tension during the "special" stitches. must. stop. pulling. so. tight. i really like the zig zag surface pattern... it would make a nice texture for a baby blanket. 

i love the colors for this sampler throw. they are all Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight yarns in random colors that i picked up over the past year for separate projects. i ended up not using them and together i think they make a really bold color combo. i need one more color because the pattern has 5 different squares, i'm debating between a white-ish that i already have in stash or something else totally new.

i paused on that project this week to work on valentine's stuff. while valentine's day isn't my favorite of holidays... i'll admit that i do, kinda, love each and every holiday in a totally new way since having little miss. really any excuse for me to get her stuff, give her a cupcake, and make her cute things works for me. 

so one of the things i'm working on for her this valentine's day is this little friend...

i don't know her name yet. she's almost finished. i'll post more when she's all done. for now if you'd like to check out the really great and super easy pattern you can find it at Craftsy from designer Stacey Trock (FreshStitches): Nelson the Owl Pattern 

so that's a bit of what i'm working on for the moment... it's nice to be getting back to the blog again!

love.

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.

hooks & needles: a housewarming lap throw

crocheted 'housewarming' lap throw
size: 44" x 44"
yarn: loops & threads cozy wool
7 colors/ 2skeins per color +1 extra of border color
hook: P-15

good evening!
i hope everyone is having a good monday night... little miss is giving me a run for my money tonight but hopefully she'll be 100% settled soon. we might have caught joey's little cough but i'm praying we didn't.

today i finished a lap throw for my sister. she chose the pattern and i chose colors to match her new condo's great room/open kitchen. (on a side-note the condo is GORGEOUS and i'm totally jealous of it!)

the throw is just one large granny square with a stripe variation that i eyeballed on my own based on which colors i wanted to be dominant vs the accents. the border is two rounds of double crochet.

if you'd like to know how to get started with this style of throw there is a great pattern to use as a base from lion brand called the 'pansy patch throw'.

also... if you are new to crochet &/or knitting or want to get started check out lion brand's instructional videos and how-to's at their online learning center. they are very clear (in my opinion) and a great way to see if you are interested in yarncrafts. if i taught myself you can too!

if you ever have any questions about projects i post or my crafts of choice in general please feel free to ask... if i can't answer them i can always help point you in the direction of the resource that can!

tfl.
love.