crochet : another baby newsie hat

Here we go!  I'm on a roll!  It's post #3 for Kid-Free Catch-Up!  Blog posts for days--wooohoo!

Today, I'm sharing my hands-down favorite baby boy crochet hat to make.

Soooo cute, right?!

I've shared the pattern before on this post, so hop on over and check it out, k?

quickie crochet hearts

Welcome to post # 2 in my Kid-Free Catch-Up Blog Series!  Gosh, that makes it sound so official, doesn't it?

I have some super cute and super quick crochet hearts to share with you today.
I made these to give as gifts to my students at the end of the school year (yeah, before this summer started--told you I was in catch-up mode!)

I found an adorable and colorful quote on Pinterest

Then it was just a matter of sitting for a couple of hours (listening to podcasts, of course) and hooking up 85 of them.

To make them even easier, I left the tails on (can I get a boo-yah for not having to weave in ends!), tied them in a knot and stapled the hanging part to the top of the printable. 

 After telling the kids how much I love them and how fabulous they are going to rock the second grade, I gave them a tip for those first-day-of-second-grade-in-a-new-school jitters: 

Put this heart in your pocket and remember how much all of your teachers at ___school love you!

The pattern is simple:

In a magic ring, ch3, 5dc, ch1, 1trc, ch1, 5dc, ch3, slip stitch.

That's it!  How easy is that?

crochet : baby booties

Hi there!

So I am enjoying 2 whole days of kid-free creativity (and cleaning and catching up and organizing).  Part of my catch-up is to write a few blog posts of projects and ideas that have been fluttering around here--things I have not had time to post with three boys home with me for the summer.

Here's the first in this series I'm affectionately dubbing "kid-free catch-up!"

Baby Girl Bow Booties:

I used the same pattern as the booties in this post, but added a strap.

Here is the pattern that I adapted from this pattern at Croby Patterns.

Use an E hook (3.5mm) and DK weight yarn.

Foundation for sole: ch 11, in 2nd chain from hook make 2hdc, hdc in next 8, 6hdc in last stitch.  Working up the other side of the chain, hdc in next 8, 2hdc in last chain (26)

Round 1: 2sc in next 2, sc in next 5, hdc in next 3, 2dc in next 6, hdc in next 3, sc in next 5, 2sc in last 2. (36) sole complete

Round 2: in back loops only, sc in each stitch around (36)

Round3: hdc in each stitch around (36)

Round 4: sc in next, sc2tog, sc in next 8, hdc in next, dc2tog 6 times, hdc in next, sc in next 8, sc2tog, sc in last (28)

Round 5: sc in next, sc2tog, sc in next 4, hdc in next 3, dc2tog 4 times, hdc in next 3, sc in next 4, sc2tog, sc in last (22)

Strap: slst in next 7, ch 11, in 4th ch from hook, hdc in each ch across, slst to next stitch on body of shoe. Use chain space at end of strap as button hole.  

Bow: Leaving a long tail for stitching, in magic ring work ch4, 3trc, ch4, sc, ch4, 3trc, ch4, slst.  Use tail to wrap around center as desired and stitch to top front of bootie.

Stitch a button to body at open end of strap. 

For right bootie, ch1 and turn to do slip stitches of bootie up the opposite side of shoe body.

I hope you enjoy this pattern and hook up some cutie little booties for the babies in your lives!

granny blanket : heat wave

Good Monday Morning, friends!

Please don't fall off your chair or spill your coffee, but I actually have my square done and ready for posting on time.  

And when I say "done" I mean finished, not correct.  Honestly I don't know what the heck was going on when I was hooking up this square last week.  Maybe it was the fumes of the pool chlorine and sunscreen.  Maybe someone slipped something into my lemon water.  Whatever it was, I messed this square up and didn't notice until I was photographing it this morning.  Take a look:

WEEK THIRTY FOUR || Heat Wave

by April Moreland

 Do you see it?  It's in the yellow round of dc on the left.  What the what?!?  And it threw off the entire rest of my square.  Case in point for counting stitches my friends (I'm so bad about that sometimes!).  Guess I know what I'll be doing while the boys swim today.  

It's still a beautiful square with an easy to follow pattern.

Edited to add: corrected square

granny blanket : pavo square

Good Morning!

So this week, I was bound and determined to get my square posted in time.  I sat poolside on Sunday afternoon hooking away while the boys swam:

lifemadecreations A little poolside #crochet while the boys swim. These #summernights are dwindling and I am determined to do two things: enjoy them while we have them and get this week's square posted in time for tomorrow morning.
2 days ago (Aug 09 2015 17:47:57) | Photo Filter: Normal | delete

Then exactly 4 minutes and 43 seconds later I ran out of grey yarn, 6 stitches from the end of the round.  Ugh!
No big deal; I've got this.  Ill just run to the craft store after dinner and pick up some more.
Except the craft store closes at 7:00 on Sunday and I arrived at 7:09 Ugh!

So here is this week's square, late again.

WEEK THIRTY THREE || Pavo Square
by Chris Simon

I did notice an error in round 5, noted below: