More Scarves...

The rest of the birthday and Christmas scarves I made...

I think Jack was getting a little jealous of the yarn...

Christmas Projects

Yes, I survived the holidays and a week of snow days and am here to tell about it!!  I worked on a lot of projects over the last month or so...mostly scarves for Christmas and birthday presents. Since the kids had an extended Christmas break, I also managed to do some card making and scrapbooking.

I wanted to show off my school spirit scarves for my daughters and my niece.

For the first two, I used this pattern.  It's a fast one to make, and I think the ruffle look is cute!

The next one was something different for me, and I absolutely loved it.  Pattern is here.

The snow has melted for now, but I have plenty of projects in case we have another wave of cold and snow.

Using Up Before Buying New

I like to use up yarn by making blankets based on the "pattern" by Warm-Up America.  By doing this, I can use whatever colors I have on hand and end up with a warm blanket to give away...eventually.  However, I have a tendency to want to learn something new from time to time.

Currently I have a couple of skeins of cotton yarn that I want to use.  That's when I found this pattern for a round coaster:  Since I cannot read a pattern for anything, I was thrilled that there are tutorials online to make it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlrr2EG-TzM and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PALSsljrEo

I didn't have multiple colors of yarn, so I decided to just use the variegated yarn and not do two different colors.  This is the first one:

It's definitely not perfect, but I'm excited to be able to finally crochet a circle!!  :)

On a different subject, I finished my other daughters infinity scarf...also my first: 

Happy Crocheting!

Be Still My Heart...

Based on this idea, I created a little heart wreath to add to my meager Valentine decoration collection:  http://fiberflux.blogspot.com/2012/01/tinyone-round-hearts-by-jennifer.html

 I believe the original instructions were to use old cardboard (like a cereal box) as the backing.  I decided to rethink that for mine, and as I was looking around for options, I found a round plastic canvas in some of the craft supplies I was getting rid of.  At first, I thought I'd cover the whole thing with hearts, but then I decided to cut out the center so it would be a wreath.

I decided to use some of the buttons out of my sewing box and added them with the hearts to the circle.  However, I had not covered the whole circle in yarn and little bits of the plastic were peaking through.  That's when I stopped at two hearts and added the pink yarn to the whole of the base.

I finished adding hearts with buttons and then added the ribbon.

This project cost me nothing!  That's what I loved the most about it.

Yarn, Yarn, Everywhere...

 

For the past few weeks, I have busily worked on a few crochet projects that I thought I'd share.

This first one is my first baby blanket, which was made for our new nephew who should be joining us soon!

This is a basic scarf I made at my daughter's request.  The variation in it from what I normally would make is that I crocheted the length of the scarf instead of the width and made my rows from there.

These two pictures are miscellaneous scarves I made.  The top two are wider, shorter scarves, and the bottom two are made like the one I made for my daughter.














My current endeavor is an infinity scarf.  Both of my daughters want one, so I'm trying my hand at them.  I did also learn how to crochet tiny hearts with leftover yarn.  I'm so proud!  :)  I cannot read a pattern and have limited crochet ability at this time, so YouTube is my friend!

Crochet Project: Gift Bags

About a year ago I decided I needed a new challenge with crocheting, since I only had taught myself how to make squared items, like scarves and blankets.  I was also looking for a way to use up bits of yarn that couldn't be turned into much.

Bernat has a free pattern on their website for a gift bag similar to this one.  (Their pattern has handles, which I didn't like when I made the first one.)  I know this wouldn't be much of a "challenge" to a seasoned crocheter, but I haven't been doing this very long.

Any leftover yarn I have from making blankets now gets turned into reusable gift bags that won't tear and end up in the recycling bin.  (This particular bag will have a different color tie eventually.)

This is a great small project to work on while waiting for an appointment or while picking up the kids from someplace.