Learning Ripple Stitches While Sitting on Airplanes

Spent all of last week house hunting for our upcoming move. So I took a new crochet project with me for the airplane rides and evenings at the hotel. It is coming along nicely I think and it made the flight less nerve racking so double win.

For those interested I am using the following materials for this project:

• 50 Ripple Stitches (Annies Attic: Crochet) by: Darla Sims pg. 30
• Caron Simply Soft Yarn: Pagoda
• Caron Simply Soft Yarn: Soft Green
• Premier Yarns Deborah Norville: Snow White

Who Ever Thought Crocodile's Could Be So Beautiful?

So ever since I started exploring and checking out more about crochet I have been in love with one particular stitch: The Crocodile Stitch.  Every single time I see this stitch I ooh and awe over what it was used to make whether its a pair of baby booties, a shawl, a hoodie or gloves I tend to go pin happy over it on pinterest.  Well last Thursday I purchased a book with only projects for that stitch in it called: "Crocodile Stitch Fashions" By: Lianka Azulay.  I don't think I could pick out a favorite project in the book because I love them all, but I can share my experience with the first project I tried.

On page 24 is the Crocodile Stitch Cloche and attached to the hat is a simple and beautiful flower.  I also found a free tutorial for just the flower here at Bonita Patterns Blog.  So after finding this book I bought some beautiful variegated yarn to try it out with.  9 different skeins to be exact.  Okay yeah it's probably a little bit overboard, but I have ideas for all that yarn and I promise to share what it turns into as I use it this summer.  Since Thursday whenever I have a few free minutes I have been making flowers.

I have to say that I was quite surprised with how some of my flowers looked when I finished.  You can never quite tell how it will look with variegated yarn until you actually make it.  And several of them didn't turn out anything like I had expected.  Like this blue flower to the right for example.  I would never have guessed that the light blue would be out towards the tips on most of the petals; or how the black and white one had its colors on the same side of each petal.  I had really expected them all to mostly look like the pink and purple flower below with lots of little patches of color sprinkled throughout the flower.

I began and once I had finished the first petal I started to worry.  The center was hanging open and it didn't look anything like the lovely stitches I had been drooling over.  I even asked my dear husband what he thought because I didn't want to fail at my favorite stitch.  After stressing about it I took a deep breath and decided that if I can pull out an entire granny square to redo it for not turning out right then pulling out one flower should be no big deal.  After all its less work and less yarn then a granny square.  With my new found resolve I forged ahead and completed the rest of the petals.  The more of the petals I crocheted the better and more beautiful the flower looked.

Once I finished I took the time to stretch each petal a little and evenly distribute the stitches along each side to help them shape a little nicer.  You can do this by pinching the tip of the petal and sliding the stitches along the chain they are stitched around.  Once this was done I played and pressed each petal a little bit to help them overlap each other and lay nicely.  Eventually when I had them laying how I wanted I stuck a heavy book on top of them overnight to help them learn their shape a little bit.  This worked wonders and helped when it was time to attach all the fancy centers to them.

My daughters caught me attaching the centers and instantly asked if I was making these flowers for them.  So Sunday morning I let my daughter Seriah pick one she wanted to wear to church.  I got a whole lot more then I bargained for, because what I thought would be a simple headband with a flower clipped to it turned into a ponytail and a bouquet of flower hair bows.  It turned out cuter then I had thought it would and she was happy so no harm done.  She has always had her own sense of style though because from the time she was old enough to voice her opinion I was no longer allowed to help her pick new shoes.  Her teenage years could prove to be quite interesting.

Finally I finished off my flowers with hair clips.  The beautiful nature of these flowers though allow for such an array of choices.  You could use a hair clip, or a hair barrette, you could attach them to a shawl clasp, or a brooch pin.  I actually really like the pin idea because it would allow you to dress up a purse, hat or suit coat.  They would make lovely center pieces for wedding receptions, or a special dinner.  Or even fun party favors for a little girls birthday party, baby shower, or bridal shower.  The possibilities are endless.  I would love to hear and see any ideas you have on ways these gorgeous flowers could be used to enhance the world around us and the things we do.  So please leave me a comment with your ideas.

Since I have begun to work on further developing my talents and endeavoring to share the love of crafting with you I have decided not only to share my thoughts but to share some of these lovely flowers too.  I have listed them on my family's Etsy site where you can order them already finished and ready to use.  So head on over and check out what we have available right now at: Our Cozy Creations.

I foresee a bunch of these lovely little flowers in my future as I plan to figure out if and how you can make crocodile stitch multi-layered flowers too.  How fun would that be?  So check back and see what other crocodile projects I come up with as I explore this new passion of mine.

Nourishing A Daughter's Talent for Crochet

My oldest daughter Seriah amazes me each day.  Over the last couple of months her self-discovery in the crafting world has been full of bumps frustration, and fortunately success.  In the beginning of April just after my second surgery she decided she wanted to learn how to crochet while her Nana was here helping me out with childcare and recovery.  She tried patiently to listen as her Nana went over the basics and got her started; and I listened to words I knew nothing about like slip stitch, single and even double crochet.  Once she got the hang of it she wanted nothing to do with an actual pattern and set off to create her own masterpieces.  These included: a variegated rainbow sleeping bag & pillow for her stuffed kitty cat, a bracelet, ring, and hat for her four month old baby sister.  She even designed a play toilet and made up her own stitches.  I will never admit to understanding what goes on in her head I mean a toilet???  I can't explain it, but she was creating and discovering a love for crafting.
Can you believe for not following any kind of a pattern my daughter was able to create something so cute and interesting for her sister? 

So I asked her if she could learn to make anything in the world she wanted to what would she like to make.  Her answer as some of you with girls yourself might guess:  Elsa, Anna and Olaf from Disney's Movie "Frozen".  Which she has been in love with ever since the movie came out last year.  So I hit pinterest and tried to see if there was anything out there that would help with this request.  You can check out my Disney Movie Frozen Board here for tons of costumes, crafts and party ideas.  I found 3 patterns that looked pretty good for a novice crocheter like my daughter and were reasonably priced.  You can find those patterns by Sahrit Freud Weinstein on Etsy here:  Olaf, Elsa & Anna Patterns.  I think they are some of the cuter patterns available and for a great price, I couldn't beat that someone else had already done the design work and directions.  She was stoked and went on a Nana-granddaughter date to go buy the supplies she would need for them.

Immediately she set to work on Olaf.  Choosing the largest crochet hook I own and with her loose stitching I predict he is going to be pretty big when he finally gets finished, but she insisted that she wanted him big so I "Let It Go"  HaHa.  Then the frustration set in.  Her Nana showed her how to read the pattern and sat next to her for the first several rounds.  Once it was dinner time the evening filled with normal things like meal prep and clean up, bath time and bed time for the kids.  When all was said and done Nana and I didn't get back to checking on Seriah until the next day.  Where lo and behold she had finished off and stuffed the bottom snowball for Olaf.  This left much to be desired, since she had quit reading the pattern and hadn't bothered to try decreasing as she was supposed to, she just zigzagged her yarn across the opening and called it good.  I spent at least fifteen minutes trying to help her understand why following the instructions was important and ultimately had to take out about half the work she had done and find her place on her pattern again.  My poor girl was completely deflated and her Olaf project has sat in her crafting basket ever since.  But when I ask her about it she continues to promise me to finish it after her next project so I continue to hope.  Otherwise I will probably make one of them for her come Christmas time in the hopes of inspiring her again.

In the Bible we are taught:  "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Proverbs 22:6

I firmly believe this goes hand in hand with the parable of the talents.  Which if you missed that post you can read it here.  I remember growing up as a kid dabbling in or watching my mom dabble in so many different crafts.  I think it gave me the confidence to be willing to try most projects at least once.  And I am truly enjoying trying to nourish that willingness in my own children knowing that if they see it and learn it now it will stay with them when they are adults.

A Puff Stitch missing its Puff - My very first Granny Square

Bravery and determination have finally gotten me started and what did I start with?  The very squares that had originally made me think that crochet was only for little old ladies.  HaHa!  I guess the joke is on me because I have to learn the basics somehow.

It's called a Cluster Dome and was designed by: Jean Leinhauser.  I used a book borrowed from my mother titled: "50 Fabulous Crochet Squares" on page 8.  The one thing about this book is that is doesn't tell you how to start, do basic single, double or triple crochet stitches or end colors.  This left me frustrated at night when I knew I couldn't call my mother to ask for help and eventually had me searching the Internet for some answers.

What I found is a wonderful website: "All Free Crochet" It went over the basics for me with simple clear instructions for the moment when I couldn't remember how many yarn over (YO) I was supposed to do again for a certain stitch.  You can sign up for a free account which gives you access to all their free patterns and even allows you to store the crochet patterns you are interested in from their site.  This is awesome because it makes finding something you liked so much easier to do again later.

My center ring of puff stitches and the second ring of puff stitches were so close together in the book's example photo that there was no center hole in the square or any space between the two rounds of puff stitches themselves.  Obviously mine looks nothing like the picture.  So my mother who has been crocheting for many years says tighten your stitching it's a tension problem.  And I thought to myself tension problem?  My frustration levels are starting to rise I am plenty tense.  But I didn't give up.  My goal was to make enough of them to have a 20 inch x 20 inch blanket to donate to the hospital for my mother's Angel Blanket project when I am done.  So I laid this one square aside and started again, calling it practice and having every intention of trashing it.  Before I could do so though, my oldest daughter Seriah saw it and insisted that it was beautiful and she wanted to keep it forever.

Bless her heart my daughter's simple admiration at my first attempt to make something reminded me that nothing is perfect and that is okay.  The Lord accepts our best efforts in all that we do.  And as my crafting was something I wanted to further develop this first attempt was good enough because I had tried my best.  I absolutely love this quote by Chieko N. Okazaki "I've learned that the Lord didn't do it all in one day.  What makes me think I can?"  This is from her book called "Being Enough" page 81.

So I guess that means I can't expect my very first square to be perfect.  Here are the next three squares I made of the same pattern.  It might be difficult to see but they look the same and are the same size and are a hundred times better then my first attempt.  They still don't look puffy like the photo in the pattern book, but at least it is something I can be proud of when I finish it and donate it to my mother's service Angel Blanket project.  More to come as I get the other squares finished and attempt to sew them all together.

Beginning Adventures in Crochet

So it's Memorial Day and I can't post without first saying thank you to all our armed forces who work so hard protecting our lives and liberties both past and present and future.

Crochet has always been something that I thought old ladies did once they couldn't do much else physically.  I know that is awfully judgmental and shame on me but there it is.  I have since come to learn otherwise.  For me it started in December right after Christmas when I was finally able to come home from the hospital.  My sister-in-law Ana Burton who is super talented and who I have always admired for all the crafty things she does gave me three
of the cutest pairs of crocheted shoes for my baby girl.  Didn't she do an amazing job?  You can follow her on Pinterest here.  These shoes got me thinking.  If a talented woman with a young daughter of her own can do it then just maybe it isn't just for my great-great grandmother.  So I asked her to show me some basics while she was here helping with my kids while I recovered.  And I learned a couple of things.

First Wing Needles for sewing machines actually do have a purpose; something I had never understood every time I passed them by in the sewing department buying my quilting and sewing needles.  Second they made this amazing thing called "Wonder Invisible Thread"  That when used together with a wing needle and the star stitch on my sewing machine will actually do the edge punching for you so you can crochet those fancy trims on baby blankets without all the fuss of prepping and piercing the fabric.  I was stoked and ready to give it a go, convinced I would never want to crochet anything else except baby blanket trim. HaHa!  Then she went home and all I had managed to do is sew a ring of stars on a 4x4 piece of fleece to practice with and learn how to start my thread around the edge.  Where it is still sitting to this day six months later.  But I promise I have every intention of getting back to eventually.

 Not long after that I had a wonderful gift given to me by my friend and visiting teacher Nadia Taylor at the time.  It was a beautiful handmade crocheted white baby blessing dress.  I was stunned.  Not only that she (who I would never have guessed actually crocheted) would actually have taken the time to make something so beautiful for me.  Immediately I knew that this was the dress we would bless our daughter in at church and the little white shoes would go perfectly.  Again this loving gift inspired me to reconsider my thoughts on this hobby called crochet.  I knew then I had been hooked and crochet was going to be a new hobby for me for a while and I would be learning more then just blanket edging.  So now to all those men and women out there young and old who have known for much longer then I how lovely, relaxing and fun crochet can be, I have seen the light and my eyes have been opened.  The yarn drawer I added to my craft room is already overflowing and I have oodles of projects in mind for the future.