Stained Glass Coasters - a tutorial

I have been busy.  I haven't been busy with crochet.  So I really NEEDED to get busy with some crochet.  And I did.  In fact, I wrote a little tutorial to share with you.  AND... here it is.

So the other day, I was scrounging around in our "art room," (a room in the house that has evolved from being a kid's art room  and then changed to a music and recording studio for my teenagers and then changed to a bit of a storage area) and I came across this:

I'm not sure where it came from.  I don't plan to make friendship bracelets with it right now so I wondered if I could use it to do something CROCHET...

It's kind of like embroidery floss but thicker and less "splitty."  It comes with TWO EACH of every color you see pictured.  

I thought it might be cotton but it's not - as you can see it's wool and viscose.  Each tiny skein is just 3.28 yards.  That's not much.  The photo on the top left - the green squiggle there - well that's an entire skein!

so... I figured I'd have to get kind of creative with anything crochet.  I sat down and created a little tiny star/flower motif... I joined them together and created a stained glass coaster.

The first one I created looked like this:

I wanted a border around it so I made that addition.
And I wanted to re-create it and photograph the steps for a tutorial and now I have.

I sat here today and worked it all out for you.

And now I will present the step-by-step photo tutorial for the stained glass coaster. (Amer. crochet terms)

Make a magic (adjustable) ring.

chain 1, 8 sc in ring

Pull ring to tighten and join with a slip stitch.  Round 1 complete.

ch2, then sc in same stitch as join (ex 1)

*Skip the next stitch (see ex 2).  Then (sc, ch2, sc) in next stitch.  Repeat from * 3 more times, then sl st to join the round.

You now have a bit of a square (sorry for the blurry photos - I was outside with an camera phone).  Round 2 is now complete.

Perform the following stitches in the first ch2 space from the previous round: sc, dc, tr, dc, sc.  That completes your first corner petal.

Now, you are going to "dip down" to the skipped stitch from the second round and slip stitch in there.
That kind of defines a stronger petal shape.

*Into the next ch2 space (sc, dc, tr, dc, sc), then sl st into the skipped st from round 2, repeat from * 2 more times.  Finish off.

Ta dah! You have now completed ONE little star petal motif.  Pull the center string to tighten the middle and weave in the ends (if you are good you will weave in NOW) - often I'm lazy and wait to the end.  But it's easier to go on without little tails hanging about.

Next, grab another color and you will start right in on a second motif.

Complete Rounds 1 and 2 with the second color (pink in the example).  When you get to round 3, complete ONE petal (petal = sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) and one dip down slip stitch.

Then, complete the first half of the next petal (sc, dc, tr).  This is where you will make the join to the first motif.  Joining the green and pink motifs will require a join to the top of TWO petals.  I do the join on the second and third petals.  To make the join, I follow the basic procedure used by Lucy at Attic24 in her "join as you go method."  Basically - my method is the same concept.  Keep in mind that each joining stitch in this coaster pattern uses a slip stitch as the joining stitch.

So as seen in example 1 above, I have made 1.5 petals on the pink motif. In example 2, I put the hook through the two loops at the top of the tr-stitch on the green petal.  Yarn over with the pink and pull it through the green and pink loops.

In example 3 I have completed my first join and I have continued on to finish the rest of the petal by making a (dc, sc) in the same chain2 space.

Now, slip stitch into the skipped stitch from round 2.  Then make another half of a petal (sc, dc, tr), then make the second join with the green motif (see example 4) finish off the third petal by making a (dc, sc) in that same chain2 space.

Slip stitch in the next skipped stitch from round 2, complete one more petal (sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) - no joining needed on this one and  TA DAH!  Example 5 shows two happily joined star petal flowers.

I hope that makes sense.  Please feel free to contact me if you need further explanation.

Let's continue on.

The top left photo (above) shows THREE little motifs joined in a row.    When you get to motif to the second "row" of motifs you will need to join each motif at THREE of its four petals points rather than just at two.

When I join three sides, I like to make 1/2 a petal, join, then complete the petal.  Slip stitch (dip down), complete 1/2 of the next petal, join a second time (this time I join by going BETWEEN the joined space of the two motifs), then complete that petal.  Dip down slip stitch, then make 1/2 a petal.  Join one last time, complete the third petal, slip stitch and make a complete fourth petal all on it's own with no joining.

Remember a full petal is (sc, dc, tr, dc, sc) and a Joined petal is (sc, dc, tr, join, dc, sc).

Again, it's the same concept that Lucy describes in her join as you go method.  My joins are always done with a slip stitch for this project.  She clearly shows how to join on two sides and how to join on three sides.  She joins granny squares but the concept is very much the same.  My motif has only 4 corners, and no sides, so there are fewer places it needs to be joined.

Make and join three more motifs until there are a total of nine!  Voila!  There you have it.  A rainbow of tiny little star petal motifs all joined up together - three rows of three, a very nicely formed little square.

I decided that the motifs reminded me a bit of a stained glass window.  That's when I realized I wanted a border around the outside edge.  I came up with a really simple border - enough to just hold the square together and make it straighten out a bit.

Here's how.

Join a black yarn in any corner.  5sc in that corner.  *ch2.  dc into the same "dip down slip stitch" as in round 3 of the motif.  ch2.  dc over the join between the motifs.  ch 2.  dc, in the dip down slip stitch, ch 2, dc in the join, ch 2, dc in the dip down, ch2, 5sc in next corner.  Repeat from * 2 more times.  Now 3 sides of your square have a border.  On the last side, follow the same pattern, but when you get back around to the first corner join the first sc (of the 5sc) with a sl st to close the round.  Finish off and weave in all ends and clip them.

Easy, right?

And here's how that looks:

I love the way it seems like the flower motifs are floating inside the border, so unobtrusive!

Love it - and look how well it looks underneath of my icy cold water.  By the way - the icy cold water was a MUST HAVE for crocheting outside today cuz it was H-O-T and H-U-M-I-D today in my corner of the world. YUCK.

Feel free to share photos of your stained glass coaster on my facebook page if you make one!

Ta ta for now - Sher

Granny Patchwork Blanket Reveal

Here is the TA DAH moment for my Granny Patchwork Blanket.

And one a bit more full view.  The blanket is stretched out on my queen sized bed to give you a bit of an idea of its size.

This blanket project was made with Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller a Bamboo Ewe yarn.  It's a worsted weight bamboo and wool.  The yarn is soft and warm.  The blanket is a decently heavy weight even though the granny patchwork is not a densely hooked blanket.  It was hooked with a size G.

The blanket has 110 square of 5 rounds in each granny square.  I used the JOIN AS YOU GO method as shown on Lucy's blog at Attic24.

For the finished edging, I had to use the remaining balls of wool that could make it all the way round the blanket so I didn't have a lot of design freedom.  There are several rows of granny stripe followed by a bit of a linen stitch in single crochet.  I didn't follow a specific pattern for the edging - just winged it as I thought the yarn would last.

The overall color pattern was as random as I could make it.  I tried not to have a pattern at all and tried to space colors randomly to give the blanket a bright color mix.  The colors I used were: Twilight, Mermaid, Buttercup, Eucalyptus, Geranium, Periwinkle, Mercury, and Sprout - 2 blues, 3 greens, a red, yellow and grey.  I just wanted something bright and happy to liven up my living room.  This blanket will hang out with us on the couches as we snuggle in the living room.

What you can't see on the photos above is.....

Now I don't feel quite so bad that I have started a new ripple blanket since the granny patchwork has gotten its due! See the RIPPLE BLANKET PROGRESS here.
There is still the matter of a few ends to weave in!  Happy blanket snuggling where you are!

A Crochet Christmas

There was a LOT of handmade stuff going on at our family Christmas this year and MUCH of it was crochet!  There were also a lot of really cool DIGITAL gifts.  I've posted about it on my other blog HERE.

Are you ready for the big reveal?

These little crocheted cork toys are so cute!  I got the idea off of Pinterest.  Do you follow me there?  If not, click here and choose follow.

I got the idea for the Cork Warriors HERE.  And you can click HERE for the gnome babies.

Next up:

 

I used THIS BUNTING TUTORIAL but I made the triangles bigger by continuing in the same pattern for several more rows.  I also outlined each triangle in white with single crochet and added letters hand cut from felt and attached to the bunting with a very strong fabric glue.  I also stiffened the buntings with a product called StiffNQuick.

 

And there's more (yes, I was very busy making - and I was loving every minute of it!):

 



I began this stool cover using a pattern from Made in K-Town. Here is the link to the pattern post.  I started with the spring mandala and when I ran out of pattern, I just continued it on my own, making up stitches as I went until the stool was an appropriate size.  To make the stool "tuck under" and stay on the top, I decreased a few stitches in eachof the last 3 or 4 rows until I could just squeeze the cover over the stool seat.  After that, it just stayed on tight on it's own.

Not done yet...

 

I made two pillows for my daughter.  Each side of each pillow is a different pattern so she won't get bored with them.  I didn't write down the patterns because I was kind of making it up as I went along.  The pillow on the left is done in linen stitch in rows.  It's basically sc, ch 1, sk 1, sc, repeat and then the next row, sc in the ch 1 space and ch 1 over the previous row's sc.  There are a lot of links on the web for how to do linen stitch.  The pillow on the right is basic granny squares in a join as you go method.  I used the join as you go by Lucy at Attic24.  If you crochet - I'm sure you know her but here is the link to her process.

Here is another page showing the flip side of the pillows:

 

The back side has a patchwork chevron pattern - more work than it was worth.  I actually made triangles and sewed them together to create the chevron pattern the way you would a quilt - then I did big cross stitches to highlight between the rows.  The other pillow back is a variation on the linen stitch using 2dc instead of 1sc, but performing a similar pattern.  The pillows are totally crocheted closed, so they aren't removable without cutting the joining row of crochet to take the two sides apart.

 

Still not done (in fact there will be some crochet projects I can't show you because I forgot to photograph them both before and during Christmas!):

 

 

 

 

I was REALLY pleased with the way these hats and scarves came out.  There are two sets and one set was made for each of my college boys.  In the photo shown, they have switched their crocheted items.  They each gave one another a tee shirt representing their college, so they thought it would be funny to switch the gifts I made for the photo.

 

The hat on the right is called the brain waves hat and it was an AWESOME pattern and free too.  In fact the designer has other patterns I really liked as well.  I found the pattern on Ravelry.  Here is the link.

 

For the scarf on the right - the wavy one, I started out making THIS PATTERN (also from Ravelry and FREE) but after a few rows, I went on and did my own thing which worked out quite well... I added some fringe before I ran out of yarn.  I believe that yarn was a wool/acrylic blend that I picked up at JoAnns.

 

For the hat on the right I played around with two patterns and kind of combined them.  They were also both from Ravelry.  ONE is here and THE OTHER is here.  Of course, I didn't write down any of my variations as I had a lot of gifts to make and I was kind of taking it as it went.

 

Here is another shot of me modeling the items on the left:

 

 

Yet more!

 

 

This scarf for my sister was a great pattern.  I used this pattern to teach my beginning crocheters at the adult school course I taught this past fall.  She looks really cute in the pink.  Here is the link to the pink scarf pattern.

 

Here I am modeling the pink scarf since the photos I took of my sister were a bit blurry -

 

 

 

This Christmas, everyone got into the crochet action and here are some things my daughter crocheted and gave as gifts:

 

 

My daughter Sydney crocheted the scarf for Anna and made up the scarf pattern herself.

 

 

The crayon melt pictures are all over pinterest, but adding the crocheted touches was my daughter's idea.  Aren't these awesome?  And she managed to make these gifts while working two jobs and attending grad school.

 

A few final Christmas crochet items from me:

 

 

My aunt got a book mark (they are easy to mail).  I sent her the ripple one.  For the ripple bookmark, I used the ripple blanket pattern by Lucy at Attic24.  Get that HERE.

 

The granny square bookmarks are ones I just made up - one went to my daughter and another went to my German daughter (Katrin, who lived with us as an exchange student). 

 

The striped scarf bookmark went to my 6 year old nephew, Quinn, who is currently reading the Harry Potter series.  I thought it looked like a Gryffindor scarf!  I didn't use any pattern for that - it's just single crochet for 3 rows and then switch colors.  I did sc around the entire outside edge and added fringe to one edge however.

 

Finally, if you remember a few weeks before Christmas - I gave a little sneak peek of my holiday wreath.  Well, I haven't written up all the patterns but most of them I either found on pinterest and can be accessed through this pinterest board or I found photos of and figured out the patterns on my own - and again, I was so busy and rushed I didn't write them down - but many of the patterns were very cute so I may want to make them again - and in that case, I will record what I do!  The teeny tiny stars as well as the holly and red berries are again from Lucy at Attic24. You may be familiar with my other crochet wreaths in this series... I made a summer wreath and blogged about it here (which I entitled spring wreath but eventually felt it was more summery) and also a fall/autumn wreath which I simply LOVE! 

 

Here are the closer up and also the final results from my Christmas themed crochet wreath.

 



 

 

 

So I hope you liked my little walk down crochet lane at my Christmas house!  Did you notice that my photos of the crochet projects are digitally scrapbooked?  Did you also notice the beautiful Nordic papers that I used?  You can purchase the digital nordic artwork for use with my awesome Creative Memories Storybook Creator software package HERE or you can purchase universal Nordic digital art for use with photoshop or other digital scrapbook packages.  Happy Hooking for the Holidays!  Sher