January 2015 Projects

I've been really bad about blogging, so I wanted to share what all I made in January.

I love this crochet ribbed hat pattern, so I wanted to make one for myself.  However it's a baby hat pattern which uses worsted weight yarn, and I wanted to use chunky yarn to make a hat for myself.  With a J hook and Cascade Pacific Chunky yarn I made a 6 row flat circle, then I ignored the 4 increase row in the pattern, and I added an extra post stitch row.  For the cowl I chained 100, joined in the round with a twist in the chain, single crochet in the first 2 chains, hdc in the next 2 chains, and dc around.  When I got to the beginning again I dc on the other side of the chain.  Then I just dc in every stitch until I almost ran out of yarn.  Then I hdc in the next 2 stitches, sc in the next 2 stitches, and slip stitch in the next 2 stitches.  Its a great one skein project.  However the hat used up 1.1 skeins.

I made a 2nd infinity cowl the same way that I made the blue one above. 

I also made a few more crochet baby ribbed hats.

All of these baby ribbed hats are for charity - A Child's Light.

These baby hats are a gift for someone who is having twins.  The hats will match the babies' bedroom.  Here is the elephant appliqué pattern.

Here is another smaller infinity cowl using an H hook and Cascade Pacific worsted weight yarn.  Then I made a matching peaked hat using this pattern.  The trick to making it fit right is to put 10 stitches into the beginning circle instead of the 8 that it calls for.    

I made a 2nd peaked hat using Caron's Simply Soft yarn.  This is my favorite winter hat to wear.  It's warm, looks good on me, and the slight brim on it keeps the snow off of my glasses.  

I made another pair of Tunisian crochet slippers, this time for my aunt.  They only take a day or two to make.  I used Cascade Pacific Chunky yarn and an N, K, and J hook.  The N hook needs to be a Tunisian hook, but the others can be regular crochet hooks.  Here are my pattern notes: Work up 20 rows of simple stitch, after the decrease row switch to a K hook, then after you finish what the pattern says, switch to a J hook and slip stitch all the way around.  The slip stitch row will make sure that your slippers do not fall off of your feet.

I did a Valentine's swap with 2 people, and I sent 3 other people a small Valentine's package.  In those  packages were some crochet heart coasters.   One person got a set of 4 coasters and the 3 smaller packages had one heart coaster in them.  This was an easy pattern and a great way to learn how to make a mitered square.  In fact I recently made just the mitered square without turning it into a heart.

I used two different fair isle charts that I found to create this personalized ornament for one of my swap partners for Valentine's Day.  The bonus is that she can also use it for Christmas as well.  Instead of stuffing I put a styrofoam ball inside of it.  I used size 2 needles and Cascade Cherub DK yarn to make it.

Then I did the same thing for my other swap partner.  

I also made these great crochet braided cowls.  The pattern is very easy.  Its so easy that many of my new students made one.  For these 2 cowls I used Carons Simply Soft yarn and a size I hook.   You can make this cowl in a single day.  

Here are the 5 cards that I drew for my swap partners and the 3 smaller packages.  

So far I've received one of my swap packages in the mail.  My partner made me a hat, a donut, and she gave me a bunch of patterns, a purse, a sparkly pen, 4 note cards, a fish notepad, a squeezable heart, and a drawstring bag.

I'm trying to get a jump start on Christmas by making fair isle ornaments for gifts.  

I don't always have a place to keep my iPhone while I'm working out, so I made this belt cozy to put it in.  I used this pattern to create the musical note appliqué.  The actual belt cozy pattern I made up on the spot.  It's based on other phone cozies that I've mad in the past. 

I also made a braided cowl for myself using Cascade Pacific yarn, as well as a matching slouchy hat.  

I taught my boss how to make cute elephant magnets, which became part of some goodie bags for a baby shower.  This is the one that I made.  I plan on making several more.  

I made 12 more squares for my sampler afghan during January as well.  Not all of them are pictured here.  So far I have finished #48 - 70 & 75.  The sampler afghan starts with swatch #48.  There will be 30 squares in all.  I am using the book 101 crochet stitch patterns & edgings to make it.  I don't recommend this book though, because there are a lot of typos in it (like a chain 7 where there should be a chain 1).