The Shtick I Do

Still working from sunny Florida and I have to admit I'm enjoying the beautiful weather. Who wouldn't? I made some more dish cloths using the Scrub It! yarn from Mary Maxim. I was curious as to how many dish cloths I could get out of one skein so I decided to find out.  The green cloth was made straight from the skein using a pattern I found on Ravlery called Simple and Practical Dish Cloth  from Stitch 11 . I used this same pattern with the leftover ends from the blue skein and  almost  got  a nother full dish cloth out of it. The pattern calls for 16 rows before doing the finishing round and I got to row 14 before I ran out of yarn. But no problem for a crafty crocheter, right? I just used the multicolored skein leftovers and did two rounds of the finishing stitches and it came out great!      The next thing on my agenda is to tackle some of the patterns found in Kitchen Favorites  available fr...

The winner is  Sarah Lawson! Congrats to you Sarah for winning one copy of my Delores DeColores Slouch Hat pattern and one skein of Premier Yarns Serenity Garden in Gems. You have been emailed with details on how to claim your prize! 

Well, I finally hit over 300 LIKES on Facebook and now I'm going to have a Give-Away! THIS STARTS TODAY!!! One person (randomly chosen) will receive one skein of Deborah Norville's Serenity Garden Yarn in color Gems; PLUS a FREE copy of my Delores DeColores Slouch Hat Pattern !  This event begins on Friday, November 14 at Midnight and ends on Thursday, November 20 at Midnight. And you can come back daily for even more entries! TO ENTER: Visit my Facebook page at Crochet2002   and click on the GIVEAWAY Tab at the top of the page! Share with your friends and let's see who comes away with the prize! Peace and blessings, ~~Karen~~

Are you interested in contests? Especially ones where you could be the winner of  . . .  * gasp*  . . .   YARN ! If that sounds like you, then join me and others in the Design Your Own Wig Contest over at Posh Pooch Designs Dog Clothes . You could make yours for your pooch I suppose but the pattern is written for kids and adults and there are some spectacular entries so far. YOU STILL HAVE TIME! Entry deadline is September 19 with the winner being chosen on September 30. I'm glad I don't have to pick the winner, I'd have to pick 2 or 3 different ones because all the entries I've seen (you can look at some over on her Facebook page!) have been so good. I thought this would be a great way (not to mention get an early start) on a Halloween costume so I made one with a  retro 80's vibe. I love it! What surprised me was when my 18 year old son said, "That's cool"!! Imagine that!! My youngest daughter has already staked a claim for it =D ...

So, I had the opportunity to visit a Michael's store on Monday. As I was perusing the aisles I happened upon some fantastic yarns! Sadly I was on a strict budget and could only get a couple of things. As I was frowning and scowling at all the opportunities I had to pass, I saw some clearance yarns on one of the end-caps. It's called Caron United® and it was on sale for $.99 a skein! That's right in my budget guidelines! I chose two colors (Orchid and Aran) and on my way home I started working it into a solid granny square. What self-respecting "crochetaholic" doesn't travel with hook and scissors, right? My husband just shakes his head. I thought a lapghan would be a perfect project for this yarn. It's well constructed and soft enough to use immediately. I can only imagine that it's going to get softer as it travels through a wash cycle. Here are a few pictures of my squares so far and a link to a solid granny square tutorial!  Solid Granny ...

Been to the yarn store lately? Seen all that funky looking yarn that's just too cool to pass up, so you pick it up, play with it, put it back down, pick it up again and then it somehow magically ends up in your shopping cart? (We call those "buggys" in my neck of the woods) Well, I've done that exact same thing. Several times actually. As has my mother, who then sends said funky yarn to me and tells me that I can come up with something to make out of it. *insert confused face here* My lovely daughter Kat is here for a visit from Kentucky and we were discussing fiber flubs just like this and just what the heck we can do with them. So here's our list of what you can do with that irresistible yarn that jumped into your cart when no one was looking. ==============================   Image from The Left Side of Crochet Crochet Thread :   Bookmarks are great for those of us that still love books made of paper PLUS it's a great starter...

Keeping in step with the project theme of last week, I've made another beaded bracelet. This time however, it involves crochet. Gather your supplies and make a few of these! Materials : Assorted Beads (make sure the hole is big enough for your choice of thread) size E/4 - 3.5MM hook Crochet thread, yarn or Friendship thread scissors yarn needle bracelet closure Stitches used : (American Terms) Chain (ch) Single Crochet (sc) Slip Stitch (sl st) Step One : String your beads onto your yarn. Using as few or as many as you like. I opt to put extra on my thread because if there are extra when you're finished it's no big deal. Step Two : Chain a number that will loosely go across your wrist + 1. The "+1" is our turning chain and it's needed to make sure we don't use up the length as we work on the bracelet. Step Three : SC in second ch from hook and in each stitch across. Ch 1 and turn. Begin Beading Step Four : SC in fi...

Do you know what I mean when I say "center-pull"? If you've been working with yarn for even a short while, I'm sure you do. For those of you that don't it's simply pulling the yarn from the center of the skein instead of the outside ** shivers at the thought ** and not having to roll the skein into a ball. I work with Red Heart yarns a lot, the two main reasons being that the brand is readily available in a number of colors and it's pretty easy on the wallet. I have also come to love this: Is that not a great idea? Don't you wish ALL yarn companies did this? I do. Someone finally decided to make it a bit easier on us yarn-junkies and label the yarn to show us which end to pull from.  ** One quick note: I highly recommend the A side be avoided like the plague . . . just saying. ** Back to the topic at hand. If you do use the center-pull method, you've more than likely noticed how frustrating it can get once you're down to the ...

I came across this video for a headband while I was looking for, you guessed it, a headband pattern. My beautiful daughter, Maeghan, modeling one of the headbands. It's from Donna at Naztazia.com  and I love it! The pattern is easy to remember and it's pretty easy to follow along with the video. One note; she crochet's fast so you may need to pause it in order to catch up. There are also written instructions if you'd like to follow those instead. She goes over how to make the increases you might need for making a larger headband than what she makes in the video; they're simple and easy to remember. Her instructions are clear and concise the entire time even going so far as to put instructions up on the screen for you to read as well as watch. She has a BUNCH of free videos for you to follow along and/or grab the written instructions. I encourage you to browse and see what you can find that strikes your fancy. (I have my eyes on this one ) I do ...

Let's talk about my craft area for a moment. Now let me say that this is just my crochet area. If I'm making jewelry or working with paper of any kind I use a table. The typical thing I do , at the moment,  is make hats. You know this by now. So why would my crafting area get so disarrayed? Because I can't leave well enough alone, that's why.  I hop from one thing to another. Make a hat . . . practice a new stitch. Make two hats . . . try every new pattern I've seen today. Make a hat . . . experiment with using a smaller hook than recommended just to see what the results would be. Like I said, I can't leave well enough alone. BUT after a lot of losing hooks and yarn needles I'd finally had my fill of the yarn that suddenly became bothersome. And this I did not like. I love yarn! It makes me happy, but not this day. This day it was fast becoming my enemy. Threatening to overtake my entire desk! Flooding over the keyboard in such a manner as to ob...

That's hat #18 I'm working on, just in case you were curious about how I was doing in my 365 Hats for the Cancer Center . Hello everyone! I have something different for you today; a review of a product that I received as a Christmas gift. Crafter's Comfort Gloves by Dritz®Quilting. Now let me start by saying that this is my own personal opinion on this product and I am not in any way compensated for blogging about it.   The product says it provides these "Key Benefits": Back of the box. Provides mild compression for warmth, support  and to control swelling Open finger tips allow freedom to feel and grip Soft Cotton/Spandex allows skin to breathe and keeps hands dry Comfortable enough to wear all day and all night Available in Small and Medium I thought I'd address each "benefit" and give you my honest opinion. It's probably a good idea to let you know something about me. I've been know to be brutally honest in...