New Ebook

Presenting our first ebook, "little projects, Fast and Easy Crochet", a collection of crochet accessories and garments. It contains 10 patterns (27 pgs) including 4 single skein projects and 2 unisex projects. Make great gifts for your loved ones or for yourself!

Spiral Ornaments

Here's a new pattern for Spiral Ornaments. Easy, quick and fun!

Slouchy Sunburst

Snowed in today so it's a good time to catch up. Here's my latest hat pattern, Slouchy Sunburst. I love this motif and when combined with the new slouchy looks tres chic!

Fortune Cookie Bag

I'm so excited that my Fortune Cookie Bag is being published in Interweave Crochet Fall 2009! I'm thrilled that it's featured in the five projects Inside This Issue. It's a fun little project - a simple shape is felted then cleverly folds into a bag. Pre-order now or on newsstands October 6, 2009.

Pleats Purse

Here's a new purse pattern, the Pleats Purse. Wanted a pleated purse for a while now and thought about sewing one in canvas or leather, then I thought why not a felted one. I knew exactly what I wanted, just had to work out the dimensions and stuff, took three tries to get it right, can't frog, ya' know. It turned out great, will be my fall purse.

Aurora

Has anyone else been feeling sluggish? Not sure if it's this weather or what I've been eating but I've been feeling sluggish and just icky for the last couple of weeks and forgot to post this. Anyways, here are photos of my latest shawl, Aurora.

This project came together in an interesting way. I used a similar stitch pattern for a traveling scarf and when it was complimented my friend Cerdeb suggested that it would look good with Noro. Anyways many months passed and I was thinking of what to make with some Noro Silk Garden that I had bought to make a shawl. Sometimes I see these lovely variegated yarns and they are so pretty I just want them but don't have anything planned. So I but some, sometimes just one or two skeins, sometimes a little more if I have a general idea on the type of garment, and then it arrives home and sits there for a while. Especially with variegated yarns, it's harder to figure a pattern because of the possibility of pooling? So I wanted to make something that deals with all these concerns, showing off the color, quantity of yarn.

You can take just about any amount of yarn in your stash and make a lovely kerchief, headscarf, scarf or shawl with Aurora.

Chevy Cap

Wow, it's been a while. Problems all year with the computer but tg that's fixed now. Anyways, here's a cute new hat, the Chevy Hat. When I made the Chevy Bag, as I was crocheting I kept thinking it would work well as a hat, I even put the bag on my head. Like the Chevy Bag, it's based on the chevron stitch and uses two colorways to create the stripes. It's funkier than I'm used to wearing but it's such fun, it's my new fav.

The Leaf Collection pt 1

Three new scarf patterns are available now that I think of as the leaf collection. Not sure if three constitutes a collection but it's how I see it in my head. Thought I would write about each of them here.
The first is Foliage. This design had been floating around in my head but it hadn't fully gelled yet, the yarn, how to make it, etc. I had been frustrated with variegated yarns and how they pool and read on Ravelry others felt the same. I love the beauty of variegated yarns, all the different colors and the way they transition but sometimes the way they work up on finished items doesn't do it justice with the pooling and the way they stripe.
Around this time, my swap buddy sent me two skeins of Noro Silk Garden in a swap, been wanting to try this yarn for a while, the colors are really lovely. While I was looking for a pattern for the yarn, my head put two and two together and Foliage came together pretty quickly after that. I love the way the colors pool and it shows off the yarn and the wearer of the scarf.

Multi-tote

Oh why are the simplest things harder than we expect. My latest bag pattern, the Multi-Tote is an easy pattern. But it was not so simple to make it work! Conceptually it seemed very easy, but I had to frog it so many times to get the lines and proportion right, so that it would fold properly and in the right place. But all that extra work paid off, I'm so happy with the bag, love using it, especially with the felted purse organizer.

Purse Organizer

The new website and blog is finally up! Thanks for your patience during construction. To celebrate, I'm posting this new free pattern. It's simple and easy, and so functional. I've noticed that unless I sew a pocket into the lining of purses, for the most part they are one giant bag. Well, I have a bunch of stuff, cell phone, lipstick, lip balm, hand sanitizer, biz cards, receipts, and more and it all gets jumbled together. I remembered seeing a purse organizer on tv and found it on the internet, then thought it would make a good felted project. It was so fast and easy to crochet it up, then I threw it in the washer a couple of times, blocked it and it was good to go. It works great. I can load all my stuff in it, roll it up and stick it in my purse, easy. Plus, it's so easy to change purses now. Don't know how I lived without it before. Download pdf instructions here.

Felted Tote

Here is the perfect crochet tote for all the stuff we like to carry around -- crochet projects, books, diapers, etc. It felt like it took me forever to work everything out, one of the hardest patterns I've worked on and I'm not sure why. Originally I just wanted a bigger bag to carry all my stuff that I couldn't or didn't want to put in my purse. And it seemed like it would be quite easy to construct, unfortunately all these hurdles kept popping up and I had put it on the shelf for a few months until I could figure it out.

One day I spied it out of the corner of my eye and I knew I had to finish it and I had these ideas to work it out and one thing led to another and it turned out great! Nice and roomy with lots of pockets for my crochet hooks and stuff. Thick and sturdy but not as heavy as leather.

tags crochet felted tote

Diamonds Cable Purse

I thought I was done with cables but I kept thinking of this pattern and I finally worked it out. Made with a good bulky wool, Rowan Big Wool, it shows off the lines and pattern beautifully. Roomy yet stylish. Slightly longer handles make it easy to grab and throw over my shoulder. Easy to find hardware. Professional look. The best purse so far. Not my grandma's crochet.

tags crochet cable purse

Clogs and more

It feels like I've been working on these slippers forever, but really just since last Christmas. My feet were so cold and sometimes the ribbing on socks really irritates my ankles so I decided to make a pair of slippers. I searched the internet and craft store for patterns and even made a few that turned out pretty nice.

I wanted a smoother feel so I looked for a felted pattern. Found some really nice knitted patterns for clogs and booties but I couldn't knit. Out of frustration I decide to come up with my own pattern. I experimented with a few clogs but they were sadly misshapen, so as the weather warmed they were relegated to a pile in the closet.

In September I thought about the clogs again and decided to tackle the problem from a different angle. I used a pair of well worn leather clogs as a model and worked on mapping the proportions and translating it to crochet. Then I approached it as a piece of sculture. I took a few years of sculpture classes and here's what we did, we put the model in the center and then work the 2D view, then turn 45 degrees and work that view, and so on and so on until you go all around and it looks as you wish.

So I did this and the pile of rejects grew and I was really committed now and one day I fished it out of the washer and it looked good! I made another one and it was still good! Then it was easy to make different varieties. The boots took quite a bit more but they were really worth it. I could make endless more varieties with fancy trims and hardware. I am very pleased with this pattern, I feel like it is my best so far.

Pattern available here.

tags: crochet felted slippers boots

Green Wool Purse

I like carrying a purse with a shoulder strap so I worked up the wool cable purse pattern in this olive green color and used a longer 20" leather purse handle. My personal favorite of all my purses so far, color, texture and a shoulder strap. The shoulder strap gives it a whole new look!

tags: crochet purse

"Suede" Shoulder Bag

I started this project early this year but with the warm weather it got stuffed in a drawer and neglected. With fall here, I pulled it out, worked out the kinks and wrote up the pattern.

For a while I wondered if this bag would ever come together, the yarn was too soft, blah blah blah, instead I worked with it's qualities and came up with a soft chic casual everyday bag. The Lion Suede yarn was perfect for this bag.

tags: crochet purse handbag

Blue blue

ob·ses·sion
Pronunciation: äb-'se-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly : compelling motivation
2 : something that causes an obsession

For a long while now I've really been into blue, not navy blue but blue-green, teal, turquoise. When I have a choice, I always go with the blue first. Sometimes I consciously think about it and pick something like pink, but then I'm compelled to go back to the blue.
Take this yarn, I really didn't need it, I'd been working on a few projects with Cottontots in different colors and I'm at the store and I just had to get it, no project in mind, I just liked the color so I got a skein. It sat on my coffee table and one evening I picked it up and started to crochet and it became this sweater. So I had to get more blue.

tags: crochet sweater

Cable Wristwarmers

I've always had a mental block about knitted cables ... somehow they are so lovely but in my head I thought so difficult, I couldn't do that. Well, I decided I would knit cables so armed with my clunky needles and Bernat Softee Chunky yarn in gray, this intrepid knitter (hah!) started with one twist and after a bit of awkwardness soon had one rectangle with thick twining cables! Cool.

I didn't want a scarf or a big project so I made another one and they became wristwarmers. Soft and warm. This was a really fun fast way to try a new, albeit intimidating stitch. Funny how these little things can make one so happy.

Technorati tags: yarn knitting wristwarmers

Newbie Knitted Scarf

Whenever I go to my lys I always touch Moda Dea's Cache yarn, it's so pretty, variegated wool wound with a touch of glittery gold. I picked up a skein at my lys and wanted a simple little project, something that would show off the color and texture.

Working with basic knitting stitches this lovely scarf is a great beginner project.

Technorati tags: yarn knitting

Newbie Knitter

I thought I'd try knitting again. I had an old set of metal needles and some yarn in my stash, but I was quickly bored and I'm not sure I'm even doing it right. A couple of books said it was easier for beginners to use bulky yarn and big needles so I dug out this bulky wool I had and dyed it some great colors for fall and winter. What a good excuse to dye more yarn!
Then I made some big clunky needles with a wood dowel using instructions on Craftster. That was really fun and they turned out nice too.

On to the knitting. I found a website with good video instruction and that helped get me started. Using stockinette stitch, this bulky yarn works up pretty quickly. It's so much easier to figure out. I think I've got the hang of purling but I'm still all elbows with the knitting stitch. The variegated yarn helps to see progress too. Along the way a couple of stitches disappeared while I was watching tv and being clueless about what to do, I frogged the whole thing. I guess it's good practice.

Technorati tags: yarn dyeing koolaid

Wool Cable Purse

I signed up for the Crochetville purse swap so there are purse possibilities swirling around in my head. I made this wool version of my cable purse and it turned out so nice I'm keeping it for myself. If my swap partner likes it I'll make one especially for her.

*pattern available here (edited to add).

Tags: crochet purse