2015 Christmas Ornaments

Every year we each get one new ornament to add to our tree. Sometimes a store bought, sometimes a handmade, sometimes something we all collaborate on together. This year's ornament is inspired by Harry Potter, which I have been reading all over again through the year. I give you- The Weasley Sweater 2015 Christmas ornaments!

I found a pattern for little sweaters here and used each of our favorite colors to make unique and special ornaments. Then I just decorated them however I felt like and added a little initial for each or names. I love how they turned out and I plan on making some as gifts for some other Potter loving friends and family.

I'm a fan! I can't wait to hang these cuties up on the tree.

Crochet- Christmas Gifts

My favorite time of the year- Christmas!!!- is almost here and I've been hard at work on some gifts. One of my favorite things each year is deciding what I want to make and for who and pouring a little love into the stitches and wrapping it up prettily for Christmas morning. Here are a few things I've finished so far-

The first things I made were some lap blankets (I am still working on at least 1 but it might turn into 2 before the holiday is over). As of this blog post 1 blanket is MIA and I am still frantically searching for it. Don't ask me how it grew legs and walked off because I definitely put it in a bag in my yarn stash and it's not there. But it looks exactly like this one except in blue and gray-

Some pretty pot holders for my mom's friend-

And my favorite thing of all, 2 sets of Repeat Crafter me ABC animal appliques. 

These suckers took a while but they are SO CUTE. I have a very fun idea for a gift to give to the babies in our life and these animals play a pivotal role.  

What are you making for the holidays?

Hunka Burning Love

My mama's birthday is coming up in a week and that lady deserved a little something to make her smile. She has always been Elvis obsessed so what better way to say happy birthday than with her own Kind of Rock n' Roll?

I made him up as I went, taking some inspiration from a few sources. I wanted him to be a little peg doll type thing without limbs. He obviously had to have the white suit and cape and some awesome sparkles and that big beautiful bouffant and a crooked grin. I think he came out cute!

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Crochet Lately

Life has had a lot more downs the ups the past 3 weeks. I haven't wanted to blog about much. Depression is pressing down on me pretty hard and family struggles are daily life right now. But in the midst of all of that I've been doing a fair bit of crocheting so lets talk about that! Because it's more fun.

It is the last few months before Christmas so things are about to get hectic up in hurrr. I have some fun gift plans. We also have birthdays and a wedding and plenty of babies being born. I'm glad I made the decision to close up my Etsy shop for the year and take time to make things I wanted and make things for people. A lot less stress.

I can't remember the last things I blogged about my crochet and I am lazy right now and can't be bothered to look it up so I'll just start with a cute bear hat and monster bib for my BFF's baby boy. 

Husband's co-worker asked me to make her future granddaughter, due in September, this pretty shell stitch baby blanket and a fun football hat. I really love how they turned out. Pretty colors.

I took my little miss to see Minions and obviously she needed a hat to match! This has been a big hit. She's not even that big of a Minions fan but she loved the hat and we got a lot of compliments on it. This is a Repeat Crafter Me pattern. I just changed the border color to pink and added a sweet little pink bow to the top because it has been Miss Mae's favorite lately.

A new obsession might have started. This Amish puzzle ball was a cinch to throw together and I love it so much. I made this for BFF's baby and I plan on making more. One for each of my own kiddos and one for my nieces. This pattern is free. There is also a book that I am seriously considering buying that has puzzle ball animals! I want to make a dinosaur so bad.

A sweet little lotus mandala. I made a few and plan to string them up into a little mandala bunting.

Probably the most exciting start to anything in a while. I decided to put that patchwork blanket on the back burner. The tiny squares are just too much for my hands so I'll definitely finish it but I'll take my time and probably spend a couple of years on it. So the first born needed a new idea for a birthday blanket and I decided to try out a graphgan! This little beauty doesn't look like much but if all goes well it should have the Flash symbol on it when I'm done.

That's about it for now! I'm happy to have crochet as a distraction. It's especially needed now.

Lately... in Crochet

Just some fun crocheting happening.


The Ruth Lapghan.

Preemie hats for bereavement boxes for the charity Mommy to Mommy. They are SO small.

A bee-utiful blanket for my best friend's baby.

More for baby Edwin. That kid will never lack in cute crocheted goodness. A bear hat to make my best friend's Pinterest dreams come true and a sweet little monster bib just for funsies.





I finally feel like I am getting out of my crocheting rut and it feels good to be working again. I have a few projects currently going on and a few fun new things happening that I can't wait to share, including 2 new blankets. Even in 103 degree heat I'm hooking up the blankets. That is hardcore.

The Ruth Lapghan

My husband works in a little office with a lady named Ruth. Recently Ruth found out she had cancer (for the 2nd time) and has been going through radiation treatments and I wanted to make her a little something to show that we are thinking of her. The birth of the Ruth Lapghan.

The Ruth Lapghan

V-stitch with Picot border

Colors- Impeccable Loops and Threads in Aran, Soft Fern and Forest

Size H hook



It's just a V-stitch blanket. Super easy. I made it as wide as my lap and from the floor to my belly button to give plenty of room for stuffing it under her feet if she wants.

The edging is as follows-

Single crochet around the entire blanket, putting 2 SC in each DC post on the sides and (2 SC, CH 1, 2 SC) in each corner. Slip stitch to join when you've gone all the way around. Then repeat the following- chain 2, SC into the 2nd chain from hook, slip stitch to the next stitch of the blanket, slip stitch in next stitch, SC in next stitch and chain 2, etc.

I really love this blanket and these colors. Olive green is her favorite color so I wanted to include that. After starting I realized that Peter's blanket had similar colors and the next blanket I'm making will have the same greens and cream! Popular colors. But since they are so pretty, it's no wonder.

A Bee Blanket

My best friend is having a baby! I wanted to make her a baby blanket for the little dude. It took me months to think of what I wanted to make and only after she figured out that she'd be doing a bee themed nursery did I finally decide.

I was browsing Pinterest and Ravelry for some bee themed ideas and found a couple of cute bee hive looking blankets that looked adorable and I decided to roll with that.

First- all the hexagons.

Then I remembered I wanted to edge the hexagons in white, so that had to happen. And then I single crocheted those boogers together! This is the back view to show how many ends there were to weave in. Sob.

Next up- cute as can be little bees.

And ta-da!

 

 

 

 

Made with love for baby Edwin.

FO Friday

The past week has been pretty hardcore on my anxiety. I am not sure exactly what is up, it could have something to do with medication, but I have been really anxious on a regular basis. Especially last Thursday and Friday. I decided the remedy was picking up a crochet hook and making some small things. Potholders won out and that is how my wall of potholders was born.

Flower

African flower mandala

Strawberry

Owl trivet

 

The cherry potholder I made up as I went and the granny square one as well. At some point soon I will try to have a tutorial up on them.

 

 

I enjoyed it so much and it did such good for my anxiety that I decided to go ahead and make some more. My mom had seen these and loved them so I thought I'd make her some fun, fresh colored ones for Mother's Day. I like to get a jump on things, if you can't tell.

 

 

 African flower mandala potholder

 





Little Spring Mandala

This isn't a potholder pattern but I just did the mandala up to round 7 and then made a double crochet back for it (same as the African flower mandala potholder pattern) and then single crocheted them together and made the edge with *sc, hdc, hdc, sc, slip stitch into next 2 stitches, repeat*.

 

I'm so happy with them and I can't wait to give them to mom in a couple of weeks. I think I might make a couple of dishcloths to go with them and buy her a plant of some sort.

 

 

And that's it for me this week. We're gearing up for the daughter's birthday, which I am so excited for but also spending a lot of time with big fat tears in my eyes over how my baby is growing up so fast. That's just how I roll.

February Makes and WIPs

 

Other than working on blankets for my littles, February was not filled with a lot of crocheting. Much less than January for sure. The only things I really finished up were some Harry Potter Gryffindor house gloves, some 11th Doctor inspired gloves and that gorgeous round ripple baby blanket. Pretty cute stuff though!

 

 

 

 

Not a lot of WIPs this week, either. Just blankets. As usual!

I'm still around the same place with both kiddo blankets as my last update. I have to catch up on Ollie's, and Alice's hasn't been picked up this month yet. I have so many baby blankets to make. People have to stop getting pregnant so that my fingers get a break. I started a lovely little blanket for my niece-to-be and I'm so excited about it.

 

Size I hook

Caron Simply Soft in Soft Pink

 

I chained 92, single crocheted in the 2nd chain from hook and each chain across (91 stitches), chained 2 and turned, then sc, hdc, dc altogether in the first chain, skip 2 stitches, sc hdc dc in the next stitch. Do this all the way across and end with a single crochet on the last stitch. Chain 2, turn, do it all over again until you get the length you want. The width is easily adjustable by just changing your starting chain. You just need a multiple of 3 plus 2. So say you wanted a smaller baby blanket for the car seat. You could chain 60 + 2 = 62 and blammo. Easy peasy, right? I love this stitch. It's so textured. I used it making a little wallet type thing last week and was just like YES this is the perfect feminine stitch for my baby blanket.

 

My plans for this blanket are to make a fairly large one, one that can be used for the baby for a good while. I'm going to add a navy blue border because their nursery colors are pink and navy blue. I think the combination will be beautiful.

 

No plans for any other makes right now. Just trying to get through what I have! Blankets are a lot of work. I think today I'll pick up Alice's blanket and try to have it done by the end of the month so that April will be more free for crafting endeavors.



All the Blankets

I didn't do a WIPs Wednesday because I had a lazy day with husband. So here it is, one day late. It's all blankets all the time.

First of all, I finished the custom round ripple blanket and I really enjoy how it turned out. It took me a little longer than I expected because of needing more yarn but it's so pink and feminine and pretty. I'm calling it Pink Punch.

Alice's blanket, which needs to be done by April 25th as her birthday is the 26th, is coming along really well. This is the most recent picture I have of it but it's actually about a quarter of the way from finished now. So close! I had to put it aside for a week while I made the round ripple but I'll get started on it again in a few days.

Before I can start working on Al's blanket again I have to catch up with the first born's blanket. I'm 2 weeks behind. Womp womp. I just have to bang out 20 squares before Sunday and I'll be on track again. This blanket feels never ending. Thank goodness for setting goals and making a chart. I really need it to keep me motivated.

I'm not sure what I'll hook up next. I'd like to start working on some comicon things but I am waiting on the official paperwork and I don't want to get too ahead of myself before that comes in. We did find out that my BFF is having a baby BOY!!! so I'm thinking up some boyish ideas for her. A monster blanket, an elephant lovey, some soft scratch mittens, oh my. After that pink blanket, my hands need a little rest though, so it's Netflix binge watching for me. I ain't even mad.

Week 2 of Moody Madness, Wetland Weekend Fun

This weekend was lovely and warm and sunny with not a single drop of rain in our area, which was amazing.

Saturday we rested. I was sick from Thursday on (Thursday and Friday being the worst of it), so Saturday the husband let me sleep in late because he is a darling and then we laid around with the kids and were home bodies all day. <3 Love.

Sunday was much of the same except for some crochet work, some blanket work and a long walk in the wetlands.

We are lucky enough to live 10 minutes away from a state park that has an amazing swamp walk. A long boardwalk up on stilts that goes out out out into the wetlands. We discovered it a few months after moving here and it's a fun visit for us every few weeks. The kids love it. Running up and down the board walk, playing red light green light (or in our Doctor Who obsessed house it is a Weeping Angels version of red light green light with a lot of chicken dancing, twerking, funny face making weeping angel fun because hey, we don't actually know what they do when they're moving, right?), gathering giant leaves and pine needles and hiking.

The favorite pastime is snake watching, which isn't very productive in the winter but the kids don't care.

 

They could stay like that forever, just bent over watching for any snakes in the water/sludge/grass. Our first visit we saw 3 different snakes and they have been snake obsessed ever since.

 

 

But they could just as easily run up and down over and over all day.

 

 

More snake watching. The little miss is especially snake obsessed.

 

 



 

This park is really one of the most lovely places in our town. The swamp walk is only a small part of it. There are also ponds, swimming areas, natural water fountains, hiking trails, a huge open area with picnic areas and huge trees covered in Spanish moss. I love how it looks like we're in a melting watercolor. I always have to pause and really enjoy this view.

 

 



At home I worked on some new crochet patterns that I found and that I love and of course I added to my mood blanket. I still have to add yesterday's square but Monday through Saturday looks like this-

 

 

Happy, tired, happy, tired(sick), tired(sick), happy and Sunday will be happy as well. A pretty good week, even on the days that I was tired/sick.

 

 

This week I am focusing on some blankets for the kids which I am very excited about. Trying to pull their rooms together with some home made, love filled accents.

Welcoming Fall

Today is the very first chilly day of the season. Still not cold enough to make us turn on the heat, but enough that the kids needed a sweater going out today. It's also a very blustery, rainy day. I've enjoyed having that noise all day, the pouring rain outside and occasional rumbles of thunder and wind blowing leaves all over the street. It's a perfect lazy day.

My basket of yarn and a mug of warm cocoa with cinnamon are all I need. I am a lover of all seasons (although summer will always have the number 1 place in my heart) and I really enjoy these first hints of autumn. Warm drinks in pretty mugs, cute sweaters, leggings and tights, crockpot soups and most of all crocheting for the cold months ahead. I have been in a hat making frenzy! I made a ton of hats for people and then realized that I needed one for myself and so-

Tada!

 

 

My first hat just for me! I am in serious love. I've had some massive hat envy over Mary Margaret on Once Upon A Time! I spend the whole time I'm watching the show drooling over her wardrobe. Yummy stuff. Now I have my own chic crocheted hat to quell my hat lust. But not for long. That pink creation in the works in the first photo is going to be my next hat just for me!

 

 

In case anyone else is suffering from hat envy and wants to partake in their own crocheting hats adventure, here is the link to the 8 round hat I'm wearing-

 

 

8 Round Hat- So quick and easy!

 

 

So welcome Fall! Welcome beautiful hat season and colorful leaves and pumpkin everything! 

Onward to one of my favorite holidays- Halloween!