Category Archives: Crochet

10 Easter Crochet Projects

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Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, so that means Easter is just around the corner.  This time I’m sharing a list of 10 Easter Projects from my Pinterest page.

1. Irene Strange’s Bunnies

I’m a fan of Irene Strange’s patterns.  I’ve done the Hopscotch Bunny  a couple of years ago.  I actually made several of them.  They are so cute and the pattern is pretty easy.  She also has the Bonbon Bunny, which I haven’t tried yet, but look how cute they are.  Both of these are paid patterns.

Hopscotch Bunny
Bonbon Bunny

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Yarnapolooza II: The Marcus Adventures

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Yesterday was our second annual Yarnapolooza.  Connie and I took the day off of work for our birthdays.  For Christmas this year, I adopted an Alpaca for Connie from Willowbrook Alpacas.  So this year’s Yarnapolooza was named for Connie’s adopted alpaca, “The Marcus Adventures.”  She even made t-shirts for us to wear, with Marcus pooping yarn!

YarnapoloozaII17

We started off our day visiting Marcus at Willowbrook Alpacas.  We were able to hang out with the alpacas and pet and feed them.  They are all so cute and we didn’t get spit on!  Bonus.  We also got to visit with horses, a goat, and Magnus, the chocolate lab.  Such wonderful hospitality!  Now I want an alpaca.  I wonder how my cats would react.  lol

Hello Marcus!
Marcus
Connie and I show off our t-shirts
Feeding an alpaca
Marcus sniffs my hand
Marcus wants the food
Connie feeding an alpaca
Breakfast time
Max is a suri alpaca.
Look at those adorable faces
Bye Marcus!

This year we ended up going to three local yarn stores and Hobby Lobby.  Kid Ewe Knot is my regular yarn shop and one of my favorites in the area.  I just think the selection here is awesome and the owner is so nice.  I found lots of pretty yarn to add to my stash here including a beautiful Mohair yarn.  What’s funny is I bought this same yarn in a different color last year.  At least my taste is consistent.

Next up was Hobby Lobby.  I was able to but a really soft lining for the hat and cowl that I made.  I found brown yarn that I was looking for to make a wig for Halloween.  I also bought some scrubby yarn.  I just think Hobby Lobby has the best yarn available outside of a yarn shop.

We drove out to Sewickley and stopped at Sewickley Yarns.  I ended up buying some cute sock yarn and this gorgeous yarn from Manos del Uruguay.  I’ve used their yarn before and just love it.  Connie also commented that I always find the best yarn and she never sees it.

We ended the day at Dyed in the Wool.  They has this amazing baby alpaca yarn that I was so tempted to buy, but I refrained myself.  I did end up with this amazing angora yarn.

I have a yarn addiction, and this annual trip really feeds my addiction.  Connie says I’m a yarn snob.  I think I just love yarn.  As the one woman said at Sewickley Yarns yesterday, “Why are all the yarns I like so expensive?”  And I responded, “Because you have good taste.”

Next year Connie says we should go on the road for Yarnapolooza.  Hmmm.  Taking a trip to another city to yarn shop for our birthdays?  That could be a lot of fun!

Hello from Kid Ewe Knot
Isn’t it beautiful? All that yarn!
Adding to my stash. ❤

10 Valentine’s Day Crochet Projects

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It’s not too late to make something cute for Valentine’s Day.  I’ve been pinning all kinds of Valentine’s Day crochet patterns on my Pinterest page.  Here are 10 crochet patterns that you should be able to get done in the next 10 days (not all 10, you have to pick one, OK, maybe two).

Valentines Day 2

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Russian Crochet

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One thing my time on Pinterest has taught me, Russian crochet is beautiful.  There are so many patterns that I pin, and the URLs are Russian.  In fact, I’ve pinned enough Russian crochet, that I’ve created a separate board for it.  Now it’s not always easy to find the patterns for what I’ve found.  But, many times I can find charts for the patterns.  So one of my goals for the year is to learn how to read charts.

Russian Crochet

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Mini Plaits Winter Hat #2 and Cowl

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I went back to Kid Ewe Knot last weekend and picked up my second skein of Galway Worsted yarn so I could finish my original hat.  This time I bought different buttons on Amazon and a different pom pom.  I think the second hat came out as well (although I still like mine more).

Mini Plaits Winter Hat 2 and Cowl

The original hat that I started, but the second hat that I finished.

One of my employees kept remarking about how much she loved my hat, so I ended up giving her the second hat.  Most of what I crochet, I crochet for myself, or gifts.  So since I already had a hat, the second hat was bound to be a gift anyway and she really liked my hat.

Mini Plaits Winter Hat 2 and Cowl 2

Both hats in progress. I made mine a size bigger than the original hat.

I ended up having some extra yarn left over from my hat, so I decided to try to make a cowl with the left overs.  I followed the same motif as the hat and just winged it.  Since both the hat and the cowl are 100% wool, I’m thinking of lining them both with a soft fleece or soft faux fur.  But, I have not gone fabric shopping yet.  Perhaps if I line them I’ll show off the end results.

Mini Plaits Winter Hat 2 and Cowl 3

My improvised cowl using the same motif.  It’s a little small, just wanted to use up the excess yarn.

Mini Plaits Winter Hat

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I wanted to take part in the season’s furry Pom Pom hat trend. I also wanted a hat with cables, so I searched around Pinterest and didn’t find anything I liked. Then I went to Etsy and found this cute Mini Plaits Winter Hat crochet pattern.

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With All My Heart Blanket

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The big trend that I am seeing everywhere is the With All My Heart Blanket. I belong to a couple of Facebook Crochet Groups (The Crochet Addiction and For the Love of Crochet) and I keep seeing pictures of this blanket show up on my feed. In addition, I’m seeing people posting their WIP of this blanket. It’s really beautiful. I’d like to attempt those interlocking hearts some day, but at the moment my to do list is too long.

The Etsy shop, The HatandI, also includes hats, ear warmers, and bags with the interlocking hearts. I suspect lots of people will be getting this blanket for Valentine’s Day and weddings this year. Keep an eye out for this new trend of the season/year.

Crafty Is Cool Crochet

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Another really cool Etsy shop is Crafty Is Cool Crochet by Allison Hoffman.  I had seen some of her patterns around and then saw them popping up on my Facebook feed.  This woman is really talented at amigurumi.  If you go to her Etsy site, she as 63 items for sale, and that is almost 100 percent patterns.  OK, 98% to be more precise.

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Note to Self: Always Buy an Extra Skein of Yarn

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I’ve been seeing these hats with the fur pom poms and I wanted to make myself one.  I also wanted texture.  So I looked around for free patterns and didn’t find anything I liked, then went to Etsy and found a really cute pattern and bought it.

I started making my hat the week between Christmas and New Year.  I was up New Year’s Eve until midnight trying to finish it.  I got so close, I just needed maybe 3 or 4 more rows, but I ran out of yarn.

Note to Self

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WIP: Four-Hour Fall Sweater

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I started this Four-Hour Sweater in the fall.  I have always wanted to make clothes.  So far the closest I’ve come is a poncho that I made about 15 years ago.  I was also looking to make an over sized sweater to go with my leg warmers that I made a while ago.  I thought they’d be cute with a pair of jeggins.

4 Hour Sweater

Well, I haven’t finished the sweater yet.  I did buy a sweater on Amazon to wear with my jeggins and leg warmers, so I didn’t feel as rushed to complete this.  Also, new projects popped up and interrupted the completion of this project, so it is now in the WIP pile and may never get completed.  In fact, if I do want to complete it, I may need to frog it and start over from scratch.  And that kind of sucks.

So far here are my observations:

  1. This sweater is taking me way more that 4 hours.  I think I’ve probably spent about 12 hours at least so far to complete one panel.
  2. I hate the Q sized hook.  It is awkward and uncomfortable to use.  In fact my hand would go numb as I was crocheting.
  3. This Q hook is annoying because the yarn does not slide on it.  The yarn keeps getting friction on the plastic hook and is slowing me down a lot.  I’ve tried finding other Q sized hooks but they are not that common, there is not a lot of variety out there to purchase.

I really want to start doing clothes and this looked like a quick and easy pattern to learn on, but perhaps I should switch to her other pattern, Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Pullover.  This might be a bit easier to learn with.  So I’ll add that to my to-do list, but I have a while till I could probably get to it.

4 Hour Sweater 2

My claw grip and the over-sized Q hook