CAL with Wink - Marinke Slump Bag

As if I needed another project to start.  But I did.

 

I decided to join in with the Marinke Slump Beach Bag CAL with Wink from A Creative Being Blog.  We are using THIS PATTERN.  It's free!  And, tho. I LOVE the yarn used in the pattern picture, I wasn't able to get that yarn as it was on backorder, so I settled for using some stuff from my stash - good idea, right?

The pattern is easy, repeated rounds using a stitch that looks like crocheted knitting.

I guess it's a good thing I took this to my neighbor's knitting group on Sunday afternoon as I was the only Happy Hooker, aka crochet gal, in the group and at least it LOOKED like I was knitting.

After the knit group, the weather was still lovely out, so I decided to sit in the front yard and continue stitching.  Inside the house was the loud shouting and cheering of World Cup Soccer fans.  My hubby had moved our TV to the back screened porch and the kids and friends and hubby were all cheering along with the games.

I have to admit that I did set down my project every time they got really loud and ran in to see what action I had missed.  We have all been soccer players in this house, so we can appreciate a sport that is less popular in the USA than it is basically everywhere else in the world.  Tho. it seems that during World Cup, even soccer has a lot of fans around here.  All good.

I used a combo of yarn, all dk weight and a 4.0mm hook.  Some of the yarn was knitpicks CotLin and the other was Cotton-ish by Bernat which is a cotton/acrylic blend.  I somewhat followed the color scheme in the photo, but I am using one additional color (orange) and each of my color stripes is 7 rounds.  The color stripes in the pattern use 9 rounds.

I do plan to line the bag and put pockets on the liner.  I'm not sure how I will like the drawstring closure and I love handles, so I may have to make two handles for the bag.  We'll see how it goes.

I planned out the yarn for this project in hopes that I would sit and crochet while my son attended the freshman summer orientation day at his college:  Shippensburg University of PA.  However, I read a book instead - it was a quickie and cute, I'll be sharing that soon.

So while my son and a high school friend who will attending the same university got introduced to their college and registered for their fall classes, I read in an Adirondack chair under a tree on a lovely breezy day - not bad.

TATA for now, Sher

Triangle Bunting Tutorial

I know, I haven't caught you up yet with lots of things I promised to relate.  But, I thought you might like a new little photo tutorial first.

Even though there are many things I should have been doing instead, the urge to create something entirely new, an original triangle for a new bunting, I simply had to make this happy little bunting instead.  Of COURSE I had to share it with you - so enjoy.

Oh - and I made two - so if  you are more of a bluesy person rather than a multi-color person, maybe this inspires you.

For this project, I reached up to my stash of Sugar&Cream and Peaches & Cream worsted weight cotton and whatever balls or yarn fell down on my head are the ones I used - no lie.

This project used a size 7 - 4.5mm crochet hook.

So that's it.  I don't write patterns well.  So, I use a lot of photos to show and explain.  One day, I will learn to write a diagram.  I think this would be an easy pattern for trying a diagram.  I try to make the photos close up so that you can see the stitches.

This pattern uses American crochet terms.

So now go and make yourself a little bunting.  How happy you feel.

Enjoy!  Sher

Perfectly Pastel: Crochet Wreath Coming Soon...

I've been inspired by these:

Pastel flowers and whites!  Soft, whisper colors.  Not typical for me - I usually like brights and browns and big, big color.  But lately I've found inspiration from the palest of spring flowers.

I was also inspired by this:

A sweet little teal towel that my mom sent me as a gift.  It's so pretty and white and full of soft lovely herbs.  I haven't been able to bring myself to use it for drying off the dishes.  It's just been hanging in the kitchen looking lovely.  And see that little butterfly in the upper left hand corner - well that little guy was the inspiration for a whole new pattern (coming soon too)!

With all this inspiration, I headed off to audition the yarn stash for a part in a new wreath -

And I gathered a soft palette of dks and worsteds, mostly cottons.

I added a few of these (CLICK HERE FOR FREE PATTERN).

And after a few weeks of pattern making, designing, hooking, stitching, and weaving in the ends, they are all coming together for their big debut.

The wreath is done and all the patterns are up - tutorials made etc...   Go HERE to see the final wreath post. Go HERE to see the butterfly tutorial.

Double Crochet Wreath Instructions - LOVE!

Did you see all the instructions for the WINTER side of my double duty wreath?  I announced the wreath in this post HERE.

This post will discuss the other side of the double duty wreath - namely the LOVE side.

In the mid-Atlantic US, Valentine's Day collides with winter.  If you live in a part of the world where Valentine's Day is not wintery - you can of course make ONLY a LOVE wreath - or combine a wreath for an appropriate season on the other side of your love wreath design.

OR...maybe you want to design a St. Patrick's Day wreath - and make it double duty with your LOVE wreath.  The possibilities are endless.

There are two downsides to double duty.  One is that because the motifs on the back of the double wreath have some depth to them, the wreath doesn't hang as flatly against a hanging surface as single wreaths.  Two, because there are twice as many motifs on the wreath, it is in general heavier than a one-sided wreath and the the wreath pulls a bit where the hanging loop is situated.  A bit of wire reinforcement could correct this problem, or using something firmer inside the wreath (rather than recycled cardboard) may make the wreath pull less at its hanging point.  Anyway - live and learn, it was an experiment and I'm still happy with it.  I have been flipping from one side of the wreath to the other as I please and as I feel the need to enjoy each separate side!

The love side of the wreath includes three different heart patterns.  Visit my Crochet Heart Pinterest board for more!  Some lovely roses with leaves and a few strawberries.

Things I might change about this wreath if I were to create it over again - I would have a 3rd shade of grey instead of pink in the wreath base - making the colors of the motifs pop a bit more.  I would sew the big red heart at the bottom a little more close to the strawberries.  I would have made THREE strawberries at the bottom.  One big one in the center with 2 smaller ones flanking it.  Again, I'm always re-thinking my design.

Things I LOVE about this wreath - the four little hearts with the ruffly edges and the letters L-O-V-E stitched onto them.  AND... the fabulously easy and fun and fast to create patterns I discovered while making the wreath.  Hearts and flowers were awesome.

Let's get started.  How about start with the flowers, roses to be exact.

May Roses FREE pattern from Lucy at Attic24

There are a total of 4 of them on my LOVE wreath.  I also used the pattern for her little leaves.  Each rose on my wreath has 2 little leaves as well.  I used I Love this Cotton my Hobby Lobby and also CotLin dk by Knit Picks to make the roses.  I think I used a C or D crochet hook.

Strawberries.  I used two strawberry patterns.

This red pattern is slightly longer and thinner than the pink strawberry.  On both strawberry patterns I added little white specks with a needle and yarn.  I also found the green tops of the strawberry patterns to be written a bit confusingly and I kind of fudged them, but they turned out okay - in fact, I may have switched the tops from one strawberry to the next.

Strawberry Pattern #1 is here.
Strawberry Pattern #2 is missing - I must have incorrectly typed the link into my wreath notes and I cannot find the reference.  If you recognize the pattern for the pink strawberry applique, please let me know and I'll be sure to correctly credit it!  Make TWO or THREE strawberries using the pattern link I provided or search out your own crochet strawberry applique and add it to your wreath.

Both patterns were FREE!  Thank you so much for the kind pattern providers for sharing!

Next up - solid color heart.  I liked all the heart patterns I used.  This one, tho. it uses a magic circle, doesn't fully close it's gap because so many stitches are performed inside the magic circle.  However I still like the look and shape of this heart and have included two of this motif near the bottom of my wreath - one in a bright pink and another in red.  One yarn was a light worsted and the other was a worsted.  I believe I used an E crochet hook for both.  This heart was originally in a post on the Skip to My Lou blog and was used in a heart garland.  The link is below the photo of the heart.

The link to this heart pattern is here.

A little outlined heart is next.  It's slightly smaller than the previous heart and is "outlined" in a second color of yarn.

The link for this outlined heart pattern is found here.

The final heart pattern I used was a real favorite.  I altered it a bit and will explain below.

Here is the white heart with purple ruffle.  The heart is from the pattern thought the ruffle and stitching are my alterations.

I started with this heart pattern.   Honestly, I love the pattern just as it is written but needed something a bit smaller and more ruffly for how I had envisioned this heart.  So, instead of the row of double crochet that the pattern shows as the final outside edge of the heart, I added a new color (anywhere on the heart, I joined along the side) and did a chain 1 (counts as single crochet), then ch 1 and sc in the next stitch. *ch 2, sc in next stitch, repeat from * around to starting point of join.

To add the letters to the heart, I chose a 6-strand embroidery floss and used a darning needle.  I stitched using a backstitch and just free-formed it to make the letters I needed.  I tried to keep the total size of the letters consistent in width and height on each heart.

As with all my other wreaths in this series, I darned in most of the motif tails, leaving only a few long and used those to attach the motif to the wreath base.  I also used a matching embroidery floss to tack down the motif in integral places so that it would lay on the wreath the way I imagined.

Take a look at my other wreath posts to see how I cut the cardboard donut to go in between the wreaths and attach the two wreath sides together with single crochet and add a crochet hanging loop.

That's all - I hope you enjoyed the double sided WINTER / LOVE wreath.  Consider sharing photos of your crochet wreath creations on my Facebook Page HERE.