WIP Wednesday - 1st Whimsical Birdie Ornie Complete

Hi everyone!! Well it is Wednesday and we received over a foot and half of snow since Monday! I'm loving the white landscape!

I started working on the cute felt ornaments that I wrote about in this post. They are pretty easy and probably a breeze for you that do needle point. I am a beginner and had to look up what a blanket stitch was. I found a great video tutorial here.

Not the best stitching I have seen, but it will be adorable adorned to the stocking I am planning on making. I have two more to finish and then work up some little felt ornies that I have been spying at on Pinterest!

I haven't really worked on much these past few weeks. I need to concentrate on Christmas decorations right now so I will have something up before the big day!

Everyone have a great week! Take a moment and hop over to Tami's Amis Blogspot.

Felt Ornament Kits - Christmas Time Decorating

Hello everyone! Well, December is upon us and it is time to begin the festive decorating of the home. I do love this time of year! Not only are we celebrating Christmas, but the ski slopes are open and winter skiing is in full affect!

I have gathered many crafty items to begin my month of Christmas crafting. I have a few garland wreaths that need to be decorated and hung along with complimentary garland. It is time to begin stringing up the lights and decorating the Christmas tree. I also purchased some burlap to make my Christmas stockings. I came across some really cute felt ornament kits.

I saw these cute little whimsical bird ornaments and just had to grab them. Granted I am not the best hand seamstress and embroidery seems to elude my abilities, I just cannot wait to make these darling little birdies!! The kit comes with everything you need including a needle! I think they will be very cute adorned to the burlap stockings I am planning on making. What cute winter projects are you making? I would love to hear about them.

Warm Up America - Knit or Crochet

Happy Wednesday everyone!! I am excited to be participating in a very special charity event. It is called Warm up America and all local Michael's Craft stores are participating. The organization is asking for crocheters and knitters to make 7" x 9" rectangles in any design you like or color and in January all Michael's stores will have a joining party.

As per the organization's website: "The beauty of so many different participants is that a WUA! afghan resembles a patchwork quilt of many colors and textures, just as the participants and recipients represent the varied faces of America." 

This is such a touching charitable event. All afghans are donated to 

• Women's shelters
• Nursing homes
• Children's hospitals
• Hospitals and hospices
• Daycare centers
• Veterans' homes
• Churches
• AIDS facilities
• Homeless shelters
• American Red Cross chapters

So join me and your local Michael's Craft Store and let's "Warm up America"!!! You don't have to participate through a Michael's craft store, you can also crochet or knit up your own rectangles and just send them to the Warm Up America! Foundation and they will join yours to the many others they will receive.

This is one of the squares I am wanting to work up. I am not great at reading a chart, but hopefully I will be able to muddle through. It is also a written pattern, but sometimes I become so confused with all the abbreviations.

I also purchased a wonderful fingerless mitt pattern from Sandra Paul of Cherry Heart through Ravelry. The pattern is called Cherry Basket Mitts. They are the first crochet mitts that really call to me to hook up!

Courtesy of Cherry Heart Blogspot

I am looking forward to beginning these today!!

Everyone have a wonderful week!! I hope to have these cute and comfy looking mitts completed so maybe a FO on Friday!!

Elf Hat & Snow Hiking

Hello everyone!! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but it has been a very busy few weeks for me and not much crafting has been happening.

Elf Hat Pattern

I am very much into the Christmas spirit! I have been perusing Pinterest and Ravelry for some Christmas ornaments and hat ideas. I found a great pattern for a pixie/elf hat on Ravelry and just had to sit down and make one. The Crochet Pixie Cap by Teresa Richardson is an easy and fun little cap to make.

I went with non-traditional colors of aqua and grey. The brim has a row of popcorn stitches that make it a little more whimsical. One great thing about this pattern is once you are at the width you want you just keep crocheting in the round until you reach your desired length. Also the pattern link has video instructions!! I find video instructions very useful when you are trying a new stitch. I had never done the popcorn stitch prior to this pattern, so having the video was great. I am now working on another cap that will be striped.

Snow Hiking!!

This weekend we had some phenomenal snow fall! Sunday was a day off for the husband and I, so we decided on a nice snow hike. Enjoy the few pics we took during our hike!

Enjoy your week!!

Pinterest Inspiration - Colorful Afghans

Happy Monday everyone! It's only a happy Monday for me because today is a holiday and I am able to enjoy a quiet Monday morning at home. And during my quiet time I was enjoying the many colorful posted afghans in Pinterest. With the temperatures dropping and the signs of snow, I am wanting to make more afghans! Here a just a few that caught my eye this morning:

Granny Square Garden by Past Perfect Patterns Etsy Shop

Lovely Stacked Afghans!! Flowers in the Snow by Sarah Dotson 

Sunny Daze by Laura Pavy

Well those are my Pinterest Inspirations today! I hope all have a great week!

I Love Yarn Day!!!

Banner courtesy of Red Heart website

Yes, today is officially I love Yarn Day! I definitely love yarn. I can just stand in a yarn store or isle for hours just admiring all the color and textures. I am notorious for picking up almost every skein and just squeezing it. Maybe my American friends and fellow bloggers remember the charmin commercial always telling the store guy not to squeeze the charmin. That's me with yarn!!

So what do you do for I love Yarn Day you may ask? Well, you can do a lot of things.

Check out the official website for I love Yarn Day Organization and check out what others are doing for this wonderful day!

What did I do for this special day? I have a WIP in my bag so I can work on it during any down time at work today. I also completed a really cute and fast project. I made myself a new crochet hook case using a pattern by Alli Hyer. You can find the pattern here. It is not only a useful project but it also taught me a new stitch, the star stitch.

 

 

A very quick stash busting project. What I love the most is that you roll it out and can easily find the correct size hook needed for the project you are working on!

 

Everyone have a great weekend! And enjoy today by making something with some of your favorite yarn!

 

WIP Wednesday - Still working with Tunisian Crochet

Happy Wednesday everyone!! I am still enjoying the Tunisian crochet technique. I started a new project that works with the Tunisian Knit and Purl stitches. The combination of stitches make a diamond pattern. This is a very intricate pattern where you must keep a good count of each stitch and row or it will turn out to be a disaster. I should know because I have already had to frog it twice so far! :( I did start out using a black yarn, but it was really hard to see the post that I needed to go into. I swapped it out to the ocean blue instead and it has been much easier to see.

I am going by the pattern Tunisian Knits and Purls are Diamond by Linda Rommerdahl. The pattern is written well in my opinion. I did re-format it so I would have each row written out. I like to be able to check off each row I have completed and the written pattern only goes to row 14 then tells you to repeat rows 4 - 14 until you reach desired length. A little copy and paste with some renumbering and I got myself a 3 page pattern! :-)

This will be a scarf once done, but will take awhile since I will need to do about 200 rows to make it the length I prefer.  I did modify row 2 and 3 from the Tunisian simple stitch to Tunisian double crochet stitch. I also found that if you do the first row in the spine of the chain stitch it doesn't roll up as much. The video below by The Crochet Crowd is a great tutorial on the different methods to begin your foundation row.

Enjoy the rest of your week! I am linking up with Tami's blog again this week. I am also linking up with Frontier Dreams. Take a moment and check out other WIPs.

Fall Foliage - Inspiration all around!!

Yesterday was such a lovely day that the hubby and I did a quick hike at Park City Mountain Resort. It was the last day for Summer/Fall operations. Time to start readying the mountain for ski season!!

From my last post, you saw where it snowed Thursday night. Well most of the snow has melted that is at the lower elevations. There is still some snow on the ground, plus the melted snow made the trail a little muddy. It was still great fun to do an afternoon hike. Here are a few pictures of the glorious fall foliage we are able to enjoy living in Park City!!

One of the many old structures you find around the town of Park City. This is actually an original part of a lift at PCMR.



I love that we are able to enjoy all the colors of Fall. From the deep reds to the bright yellows!!

You can see how muddy the trail was. Also the small amount of snow remaining mixed with the falling leaves is just gorgeous.

 

Fall is my favorite season and time of the year. It is filled with cold nights and perfect days. The vibrant colors are so very inspiring. It puts me in a creative state of mind. I begin working on Winter ensembles such as scarves and hats. It also gets me geared up and planning for Christmas décor. Is there a certain season that inspires you the most? Leave a comment and let me know which season and why. Everyone have a great week!!

Headwraps and Scarves

Last Friday I decided to walk home from work which is a 6 mile walk for me. It was a very nice day when I started the walk. Well, by the time I was 4 miles into my walk the weather became colder and it began to snow. I didn't have anything for my head to keep me warm, so I ended up with a head cold all weekend. What do you do when you are sick in bed all weekend? I crocheted headwraps and scarves!! Hopefully, these headwraps will keep the head cold at bay for the rest of the winter.

 

This is a very simple pattern that I found on Ravelry. The pattern can be found here. It is by blogger Frayed Knot. You can actually modify it by increasing the stitch row to adjust the width. I had to because of the yarn weight I used. The cactus flower headwrap was crocheted with Lion Brand Amazing yarn which is 1.75 oz weight and required an increase to 14 stitches wide. The Ozark forest wrap is made with Lion Brand Tweed and I increased to a 14 stitch wide wrap because of how tight I crocheted the stitches. The woodland tweed is also made from the Lion Brand Tweed and kept it at the 12 stitch wide pattern. This is an easy 1 hour project and great for a quick Christmas gift. I have a few nieces that will benefit from this pattern. :-) Plus my scarf thief has now also became a headwrap thief. I hadn't even sewn the button on the Cactus Flower one before my daughter snatched it up!

 

Since my DD wants to always own the items I crochet, she was commissioned as my head model! She added a little whimsical to the look by adding leopard spots to her makeup!

  

I have also made a couple of scarves to go along with the headwraps. I had already made a woodland tweed scarf, you might remember it from this post. It is an easy granny square scarf.

  

 

I made a scarf out of the Ozark forest colored yarn as well. It is the Spring Petal Scarf pattern. I loved how the sc and dc stitch combination makes this gorgeous shell.

 

 

Last, but not least, I completed the Tunisian Crochet Scarf! It turned out great. I did this one up without a pattern, but it is a pretty basic stitch. I just did 2 rows of Tunisian simple stitch, a row of Tunisian reverse stitch, and then Tunisian double crochet until I reached the length I wanted and ended it the same way I began. I made it into an infinity scarf mainly because Tunisian crochet really rolls up at the ends. I added a few buttons as well. 

 

 

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! I'm linking up with Tami's blog again this Friday. Please take a moment and check out other FOs!

 

Just a quick pic of what I woke up to this morning.

 

Snow and lots of it!!

 



WIP Wednesday - Tunisian Crochet Scarf

Hello everyone! I have falling in love with a new crochet technique this week! Yes, Tunisian Crochet has been my new passion these past few days. I was sparked by it when The Crochet Crowd uploaded a new Tunisian Crochet Series. It is a 10 part video tutorial and Mikey Sellick is a great instructor. If you are interested in a learning a new technique, I suggest checking out these tutorials.

I love how the yarn works up in such a great texture. This scarf can definitely be reversible because of the distinct stitching pattern on the right side/working side of the scarf and the soft look of the wrong side/opposite side of the scarf.

I am using Lion Brand Amazing yarn which is 53% wool and 47% acrylic. It is the Cactus Flower color scheme which is a gorgeous blend of bright magenta, mustard, deep orange, and dark brown. These colors to me represent Autumn! This yarn is a very light weight worsted at only 1.75 oz, so very breakable and hard to unravel back with if you make a stitch mistake. I know because I had to frog back about 4 rows when I realized I had dropped a couple of stitches, well the yarn broke and I could not unravel anymore. The scarf is now 22 stitches wide compared to 24 stitches when I began, but I figure it won't be noticeable once it is wrapped around your neck. :-)

This gorgeous scarf will be a set that accompanies a really cute piece of headwear. You will have to see the duo once the scarf is complete. ;-)

On a different note, the snow has melted that we received last week and the temperatures have been in the upper 60s. Yesterday, the hubby and I went on a short bike ride. The single tracks on the Park City Mountain Resort are covered in gorgeous fall leaves. I would have taken a few pics of them but once I am biking up these trails I do not want to jump off my bike plus all I had was my cell phone. But once we made it to McPolin Farm I did take a moment to capture a quick mountainside pic of the changing colors. It was taken with my phone so not a great as it could be, but I also read that if you want to take pictures of fall leaves you need to take them when there is a slight overcast to really pick up their vibrant colors. As you can see, it was a very sunny afternoon!

 



I hope you all have a great week! Take a moment and check out other great WIPs over at Tami's blog.



FO Friday - Houndstooth Crochet Scarf

Hello and a happy Friday to you! We had a small dusting of snow on Wednesday and Thursday! It's crazy to see all the snow on the mountains when we still have such green trees and grass. It won't stay, but it might mean we will have a great ski season! I'm crossing my fingers and toes!!

Well, just in time for the sudden drop in temps, I made a Houndstooth Scarf by Elk Studio. I wanted a classic look and I just love the classic houndstooth textile pattern. You just can't beat that classic black and white look for Winter especially a houndstooth jacket!!

It never fails when I begin making a scarf my little scarf thief appears. Yep, my daughter has already claimed it! Time to make another and this time make it in secret ;-).

Doesn't she look so satisfied with her steal!!

The scarf is shorter than what I normally make, but I ran out of the off white yarn and instead of buying more decided to just end it. My DD wants me to add buttons on the ends and I might do that if I find the right ones. I think the length is perfect to fit under her black pleated wool coat.

I'm linking with Tami's FO Friday page!! Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday - Flat Braid Joining of Dancing in Daisies Squares

Happy Wednesday!! I have been chugging along with joining my Daisy Squares. The flat braid join isn't too difficult, but it is slow going for me because it is a new method.

I do love the look of the braided join. Well, I guess I need to get back at it so I can finally finish this project.

It has been some crazy weather around the Wasatch Mountains lately. Right now it is hailing outside, but this morning it was around 63 degrees where now it is in the low 40s.  You gotta love this time of year when it is teetering on Winter and Fall! Everyone have a wonderful week!

I'm linking up with Tami's blog. Please jump over to her blog and check out some other terrific WIPs!!

WIP Wednesday - Pumpkins!!

Happy Wednesday! Yesterday was a crazy day for us. A horrible rain storm came through and knocked the whole city's power out! Luckily, by the time I made it home, my electricity was back on. Plus by the time the school was let out, my daughter did not have to drive with no red lights working.

The power outage gave me an extra 2 hours to work on some crocheting! Yay!! There is a positive side to every negative one, you know.

PUMPKINS!!!

 

What little cuties!! I found the pattern on Ravelry (my go to pattern and inspiration website). The smaller pumpkins are by Amiguria and the pattern is Pumpkin Amigurumi. The larger cutie is by blogger Crafty Jenn and the pattern is Little Fall Pumpkin.

The pictures were taken while it was still raining! But I did have enough sun light to capture their cuteness. While I was making myself a nice hot cup of tea, I had a little visitor outside my kitchen window. I have no idea what type of bird this little one is, but he was a tiny thing.

I have been working on my Dancing in Daisies Blanket, but I do tend to become bored and must start on a new project. :-( I hope to get back in gear on it this week and have it completed over the weekend.

Take a moment and check out other WIPs over at Tami's blog.

 

WIP Wednesday - Dancing in Daisies!!

I pulled out my project box/suitcase and began squaring up my daisies for my Dancing in Daisies Blanket. I keep my little project box on top of the entertainment center in my bedroom. I have a stuffed Eeyore that sits on top and guards my projects. Well, upon taking pictures for you guys of my progress I was photobombed!



Blocking my squares and who do I see, Eeyore photobombing!

I decided to go for it since he was already in the picture. So enjoy the photos.

If you have been following my progress, you know that I ordered the wrong color in the Red Heart Soft. I actually am glad for the color goof up change. I love how the daisies are more visible with the darker blue. My plan is to have the blue as the center border and the honey as my outer border for each square. I am then going to attempt to join using the flat braid crochet method. I have not tried this method and hope it goes well. Also, how many of you block your blocks even if the yarn is 100% acrylic? I didn't block on my African Flower Aghan. I think they all still lined up fine while joining, but I didn't like that the edge wasn't straight. So, I am blocking as a I go this time. I do like a straight edge when I go to do a border. I haven't decided on what type of border as of yet, but I still have plenty of time to figure it out. My plan is for it to be 9 x 9 rows. The blanket should in the end measure out to be roughly 55 x 55 before a border.

I hope you all have a great rest of the week. I won't have a FO this Friday, but hopefully I will by next Friday! I am linking up with Tami's blog again this Wednesday. Go and check out other WIPs.

FO Friday - African Flower Afghan!!

Yes, it is officially complete! I just cannot believe it took so long to complete this afghan. I know that I ventured off into other projects (who can work on only one project at a time) and so the process has taken longer than I wanted.

I just love it! It turned out so pretty. I decided on a simple border because the African flower squares are the show stopper. The border is a single crochet of the sienna color. It measures out to be 65.5 inches x 56.2 inches.

Joining the squares took a lot less time than I thought they would. I was able to have them all joined in just a few days. I do have a few squares left over because I decided to finally stop making squares and start the joining process. I plan on making a couple of throw pillows with the left over squares! I will definitely share the end results. So with no further adieu I present you with my FO African Flower Afghan!!

 

Just to note again that I used the African Flower Pattern by Barbara Smith on her blog, Made in K-town.  I used the Invisible Seam joining technique by Leonie Morgan to join all the squares.

 

I am linking up with Tami's Amis this Friday. Have a wonderful weekend!!