Flutterby Butterfly - a crochet photo tutorial

Did you see my Flowers & Flutterbys Crochet Wreath?  Click HERE and HERE for that post.

Well, the Flutterby Butterfly was designed as a special motif just for that project, but it's so cute, I'm sure there are many places a crochet butterfly motif would be perfect.

So - here begins a step by step photo tutorial that you can follow to make your own Flutterbys!

Here's how it looks close up on the F&F wreath.

You can find THIS tutorial and others also on my ravelry design page.

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.

A Little Dunk'll Dukkah

WHAT?  Just playing around with the concept of A Little Dunk will Do Ya!

Dunk is what I wanted to do - dunk with whole wheat bread in yummy stuff that is.

So, a few years ago I stopped eating added sugar and white flour.  Then for a while, I just tried to eat LESS sugar and white flour.  But it worked best when I was eating NONE.  My body doesn't need added sugar or white flour, so I'd rather feed it other things.  Plus, when I removed just these two ingredients from my diet, I lost weight, gained energy, improved my running, lowered my blood pressure and cholesterol, etc... It was ALL GOOD!

And then, I started letting lots of little sugary sweets and snacks and cookies and ice cream sneak back in.  Apparently I don't do well in moderating my desserts - it's all or nothin'

I LOVE chocolate, my son works at a bakery and bakes the yummiest things that he brings me home to sample, I get sweets cravings after every meal - so it works better if I JUST DON'T GO THERE, except on very special occasions.

That said, I do eat bread and crackers and pasta and rice but ONLY if they are of the 100% whole wheat or brown variety.  I prefer organic and non-genetically modified as well.  Because I choose to eat this way, I find just about NOTHING to buy in the regular grocery and do most of my shopping at Trader Joes, Whole Foods and the farmer's market. (TJs store brand products and Whole Food's 365 brand products do NOT contain genetically modified ingredients and their dairy products don't contain BGH - so I shop more easily at these locations).

Last week I was just craving some crusty bread to dunk in something sinfully oily.  I know - I can't believe I wanted that rather than sweets but I did.  I scored a baguette of 100% whole wheat with no added sweeteners at Whole Foods (Trader Joes only has white baguettes and that needs to change!)  So I came home with my crusty loaf and did this:

One Bowl with a slosh of oil dumped in.

A spoonful of Dukkah - yum, spicy and nutty.

A twist of salt and pepper (LOVE how well the TJs grinders work).

and later, a fresh clove of garlic minced and thrown in - tho. I did that after the first few dunks and after the photos too.

Now don't get me wrong... I could have simply finished the entire 2-foot long baguette - but I did not.  But I will admit to eating about 6" worth of the darn thing.  Boy was it yummy.  Give it a try!

Sweet Sevens - a crochet flower tutorial

I've got a project brewing and I created these sweet little flowers as one part.

I call them Sweet Sevens.  They are easy, and fast and sweet as can be.  Follow along below:

Here are the step by step instructions in a little photo tutorial.  ENJOY!

The Sweet Sevens are ONE of TWO new patterns I've created for my new project.  Stay tuned.

NOTE:  I used Knit Picks cotlin dk and Sugar & Cream worsted cotton to make the Sweet Sevens.  I used two hook sizes to vary the flower diameter a bit, size G (4.25) and 7 (4.5).

Ripple Blanket TA DAH! 5 weeks and it's done!

Thank you Melissa!

I love it that thanks to the Crochet-A-Long I joined 5 weeks ago, I have a beautiful new ripple blanket to share and enjoy.

If you haven't been following my ripply progress, check out the other posts about it HERE or HERE and HERE and also HERE.

I love it that the ends were so easy to weave in as I went along and for the most part I did so.  That made the blanket finish all the more rewarding.  Yesterday I took off the final few snips of woven ends.

My proposed blanket had 96 rows, but when I got to row 96, I just knew the blanket wasn't done.  I continued rippling along til I got to row 122.

There were 5 repeats of every color.  Colors were worked for two rows and each bright color had 2 rows of a lovely camel brown between them.

I'm very happy with the outcome.  The blanket is all acrylic yarn, so I finished just in time that I can still enjoy the blanket's warmth, but not be overwhelmed by it being too hot.

I love the stares I get from dog-walkers trotting up the sidewalk by my house while I hang my blanket in all sorts of outdoor arrangements taking full advantage of the outdoor light.  Yesterday we actually had a little outdoor light - the sun came out and the weather was warm and breezy.

Youngest child and I headed out for a 2 hour jaunt to the west by car yesterday to tour a college campus.  When I got out of the car I left my coat behind and was practically sweating in a light sweater.  The sun was bright and warm.  About 30 mins later when we went back outside with the tour guide I swear the temperature had dropped 10 degrees, the sun had disappeared, rain clouds threatened and the wind whipped up something whoa!  I had to run back to my car for an umbrella and jacket - and thank goodness I did.  By the end of the tour, the rain was pretty steady and the temperature had continued to drop.

By the time we got home, hubby was just arriving home from work and set right to work on a fire in the fireplace.  Youngest son turned on Snow White the Huntress (not impressed) for a last movie night before the end of his spring break.

This morning started early - with him leaving for school at 7am and me heading off to running group.  Seriously I have a love hate relationship with this never-ending cold weather.  I love the fires, love running in cold weather, love wearing sweaters and other long and covering clothes, love the feeling of being inside covered up by a new blanket on the couch feeling warm and happy, but I do miss the sun and the flowers, the bright lights blazing through the windows making sunny spots on the carpet, and college tours in warm and beauteous weather with lots of kids outside enjoying the day.

Well -this is the end of my ripply story.  Up next, working on a pattern, but it's also a birthday gift, so it has to be hush hush for a bit longer.  Did you see my newest free pattern on ravelry?  If not CLICK HERE.  I have a 3-part photo tutorial on the blog and the pdf is available as a free download on ravelry.

Happy Hooks! Sher