Zig Zag Baby Blanket.

I have not been updating very regularly lately. That is because I have been keeping a secret from you. I am expecting my second baby soon; like in 5 weeks. I feel like I have been struck with pregnancy brain double hard this time. I have been designing, but when it comes to writing the pattern out it is like I have a major brain freeze. I have a few drafts on my computer, but they just stare at me with sad eyes saying, "People do want to see what you are doing." One of these days I will get back to the program.

For this baby I thought it would be fun to knit for it since I crocheted a lot of things for my daughter. I started with a hat. It turned out okay. Then I made a dress, that ended up being way to small, I'm being told that this baby is measuring in the 80th percentile so I don't have high hopes of it fitting. I also made some leggings, they turned out great. When I get a picture of her wearing them I will post it.

Lastly I made a blanket. (I still have 5 weeks. I'm sure I will think of other things to make.)

I used a stitch pattern that I found on Purl Bee. The Rick Rack Scarf. I made 4 inch squares with the stitch pattern. I used a German twisted cast on, and cast on 25 stitches for 22 rows. For the cast off I used a stretchy cast off.

For the border of the blanket I really wanting to knit on a mitered edge, but I could just not figure out how to do it. So I compromised; went with what I knew and used crochet.  The stitch is a Tunisian Purl stitch and I chained 12. I made short rows for the corners to make the mitered corners. I finished off the edge with a reverse single crochet.

Some of you will comment, "but all the weaving of the loose ends." I know, I know it is horrible. I hate them too. This time though it was not that bad. I kept the ends really long and I wove them in using a yarn needle. Also it turns out my daughter really likes weaving in the ends. I think she did about half of them for me. So you can always hire your kids out to do the unpleasant parts.

I hope this brings you inspiration to create something that is completely different from the original.

Coil Baskets

I want to share some inspiration with you. I have been really jealous of all the home decorating sites that have the giant baskets that sit under end tables and such. You know what I am talking about. Like this one from World Market or This one from Pottery Barn. So obviously those are out of my price range. That meant I had to come up with something else. I had been seeing how to make crocheted coil baskets on Pintrest, so I thought that I would give it a try. I decided at first that I would use t-shirt yarn for the coil part, and size 10 thread for the crochet part.
It ended up being to small. But it is perfect for my daughter's Easter Basket this year. I love how it looks, even if it was to small.

I knew that I then had to come up with something bigger to use as my coil. We just moved again to another apartment and that means I took inventory of everything we had and if we really needed everything. I came across some clothesline that we have moved with 4 times and we still had not used it. I thought, "finally I can use this. I'm so glad we kept packing it up."
The clothesline was 100 ft, and it was just the right amount I needed. When I was done, in went "some" of my scrap yarn. I am designing another scrapgahn to help use it all up so be on the look out for it.

Recipe or loose guideline.

Size: The basket ended up being 11 inches tall with a circumference of 35 inches.

Materials: 100 ft of clothesline, 4 balls of Sugar and Cream cotton yarn.
Hook: H

I started by tying a knot with both the clothesline and the cotton together, then just using the cotton I made 8 sc around the clothes line.

Then I moved the clothes line so that it would wind around and I started to make 2 sc in the starting sc and then I made 2 sc in each of the next 7 sc (making a circle), With a stitch marker you can keep track of where your starting sc is, or like me you can just wing it, but I would recommend the stitch marker.

One the next level I made an increase st every other sc, the next level I increased every second st, the next level I increased every third st. I continued increasing in this pattern till I got to round 10.

 I made one more row of an increase every 10 stitches. At this point I had gotten to the part of the clothesline where it had stopped coiling around itself.  After that I just crocheted around and around and around. I ended with 33 rounds.


For the handles I crocheted 15 sc around the clothesline without going through the sc below, skipping 15 sc, then I crocheted 30 sc, then 15 sc without going below and skipping 15 sc, then I crocheted another 30 sc.

I also made this small rectangle one with t-shirt yarn and Luster Sheen yarn.

 

 For This basket I used t-shirt yarn and size 10 cotton thread.

 

These baskets were a lot of fun to make. I hope they bring some inspiration for you to think outside the box.

More Crochet Patterns You Will Love

Crafty Containers

Here We Go Do-Se-Do Scrapghan

Outside of the Box: A Simple Yoke and PJ Eater

I was in Goodwill the other day. (Lots of great craft stories start out this way don't you think) And I found this shirt.

Uh Yikes. 

When I saw it there was no way I was going to wear it but I saw a lot of potential for it becoming a PJ Eater. You can find the pattern for them here. http://sewfearless.com/patterns-and-tutorials/the-pajama-eater-pattern/.

 I think she turned out pretty well.

I still had some leftover fabric from the shirt. So I made this shirt for my daughter.

I took her measurements, and cut out two rectangles to match those measurements, I sewed them together and hemmed it on both sides. For the yoke I made a simple lace strip to go around the bodice and two more strips for the straps.

The repeating pattern for the lace strip is:
Row 1: Ch the amount of ch you want in multiples of 2, dc in third ch from hook, and in each ch
Row 2: Ch 4,* sk 1 dc, (dc and ch 1) in next dc* repeat to end
Row 3: Ch 4,* 3dctog in next dc, ch 1* repeat to second to last dc, dc in last dc.
Row 4: Ch 4, 1 dc and 1 ch in each 3dctog, dc in last dc
Row 5: Ch 3, dc in each ch space and dc across
Continue repeating rows 2-5 till you have the length desired.

If you would like to see an adult version: Go Here!