Supporting the Little Guy (and Girl)

I always like to support the little guy when I can. Keeping that in mind, I was browsing Etsy for crochet patterns and found these wonderful designers.

KTBdesigns I'm going to at least buy the pattern for the tool belt and tools to make for the boys for Christmas. I really like the patterns for the dishes. I didn't even know it was possible to make a crocheted frying pan!

Catcozy Sells a cute snowball and penguin pattern for a bowling game.

Delicious Crochet has a ton of cute patterns but I'm not so sure about the ones with the super mega photoshopped pictures.

Eureeka's Window is the creator of many innovative designs. I love the little television.

How about making your own Count Caterpillar?

Holland Designs Cute baby shoes patterns and more.

Sylver Designs I've admired these booties for awhile now. It is so hard to decide which pattern to buy!

Maria's Handmade Crochet and Jewelry Design I'm not too fond of the dessert patterns at this shop but I love the corn on the cob and watermelon slice pattern.

My4Heads - Creative Crocheted (& Knit) Concoctions pulled me in with the butterflies and seahorse patterns and kept me with the lizard and kangaroo!

Planet June has many patterns you won't find elsewhere like a guinea pig and a dolphin.

Beverly's Boutique is where I found the cutest little workboot baby bootie pattern. I wish I'd known about patterns such as these when my boys were babies!

Pitter Patter Patterns I so want to buy the pumpkin pattern sold here.

Aerie Designs carries a pattern for appetizers that is incredibly cute.

As always, Ravelry has a ton of patterns for free and for pay. Crochet Pattern Central has a huge database of free patterns. My Picot is an online database of crochet stitches. And you can watch videos of crochet techniques at NexStitch.

Single Crochet Foundation Chain

Just in case you've never heard of doing a foundation row instead of a foundation chain, here's a link to an explanation.

Bags, bags, bags

I just can't stay focused on one project at a time. In checking out my Google reader, I saw that Laughing Purple Goldfish had a post on an easy yarn bag by Lisa Gentry. I immediately wanted to do the bag as I'm dying to make myself a new purse. I haven't made a bag yet but I really want to. So I scrolled down and started reading about LPG's easy peasy crochet bag pattern/tutorial and was then led to the simple lining tutorial she made. I stand in amazement. I've wanted to do a crocheted bag with a lining but I was intimidated by thinking of sewing into crochet. LPG broke it down into steps so it looks so easy, I'm going to try it out! I absolutely love her blog and highly recommend it. Now if only she'd make a tutorial on how to add a zipper closure to a crocheted, lined bag (hint hint!!) as I love my bags to close entirely. I suppose if she doesn't do it, I can figure something out, maybe make the lining longer to add the zipper? Hmm...

Bought a Hook

I was at the store and of course I made my way over to the craft section. I bought a B hook and a C hook because I couldn't remember which hooks I needed for the Care of Magical Creatures CAL. Of course, like I always do, I forgot the E hook. My stash says that I have one but I can't find it (kids got into my stuff). I'm going to see if I can find it before buying another hook though because even though I don't need the C hook right now, I didn't have one so I can't bring myself to return it!

I checked out "Super Crochet Wonderful" from the library. There are a few cute designs in the book that I'd like to try out.

My yarn order still hasn't arrived but I'm hoping it will show up today or tomorrow.

Supplies for the Harry's Happy Hookers CAL

So apparently the Harry Potter CAL that I joined is going to be a Care of Magical Creatures theme. And, the items that we'll be crocheting will be surprises until the end! The person running it has given a list of items that we'll need.

Quoted from the group:

Hooks - B, E, G, and H (or those that suit the yarn you choose)

Yarn - WW or DK in : 3 (or more, get scrappy!) in varigated (your choice of colors, but try to make sure at least one is in bright or jewel tones), black, brown or tan (or a varigated brown or tan), light pink, green (this is the only color we might use a whole skein for), yellow (or gold) and whatever color you want to make your Owl. Also, black crochet thread in whatever size you have; embroidery thread will work as well. If you don’t have that, we will discuss how black sewing thread might be used.

Notions: tapestry needle, black thread (see above), eyes of your choice: google, safety, felt circles, beads or embroidered on. You will need various sized-eyes, from about 1/4 of an inch up to 1/2 inch. All of these projects, if you elect to put eyes on, would look fantastic will embroidered eyes, and that would be a safe option for children.

Remember, you can also add the cauldron muttix2 told us about as a catch-all for your Creatures or as a great way to give them as a gift!

Tee hee! I was mentioned as I told them about a cauldron! :) I love when I show people new things. Anyway, I have most of the stuff needed, I'll just need to buy:

1. Black crochet thread
2. Jewel toned, varigated yarn (I'll likely get some Peaches and Creme as that is a good deal)
3. Black, brown, and tan yarn (I have varigated tan but I'll need some black for the cauldron and will get it for something else as well. So I don't technically NEED this.)
   

Wow, that's all I need! Originally when I looked through the list I thought that I needed more but I have yarn in all the other colors. That's great as money is pretty tight right now.

Whatever I make with this CAL will work for my Christmas Year-round CAL as I intend to give the toys to my boys for Christmas.

Edgery Doo

http://www.edgerydoo.com/

Me wants it.

I Moved My Crochet Blog...

I moved my crochet blog from another blog provider to over here. I was trying out the other provider but I've seen that they don't offer anything different (at least right now) than what I have here and in fact less than what I'm used to so I moved my stuff over here. Simplicity and all that.

Yet Another CAL (A Sock One This Time)

Just joined another CAL. Ravelry's Recipe for SOCK-cess CAL group is starting a crochet sock CAL September 1st. Whew! Too many groups!! But I'm hoping the deadlines will keep me focused.

Progress on Belle's Round Ripple

After working on the blanket some more I've realized that my original thoughts on how many more rows I'd do were out of proportion. I didn't realize how quickly the blanket would work up. Since I last posted my progress, I've done four rounds of red, five rounds of pink, and I'm working on a row of red. I'm thinking that I'll do four rows of red (including the one that I'm working now), four of pink (maybe five, I'll see how it looks), and finish it with one or two rows of red. I think it should be big enough at that point. Of course, nothing is set in stone, I'm just crocheting it until I think it looks right. I'm trying to dig out a camera so that I can take pictures of my progress. I've found a camera but no batteries and no camera cord. I had a great camera but it disappeared one night, I think my kids might have thrown it away while they were cleaning one day.

CALs

Crochet-A-Longs. I am joining them because it is fun and it will keep me on track. Right now I've joined one in Ravelry's CAL group, Ravelry's Harry's Happy Hookers group, and a Christmas Year Round CAL on Crochetville. The last one goes until Christmas and the first two are monthly CALs. Fun!

Socks to Make for the Husband

http://www.crochetandknitting.com/mensock.htm

Cabled Socks to Make for Me

http://www.scribd.com/doc/211932/Cabled-Socks

Peanutzmom's Pattern Page

This page has lots of cool patterns that I'd like to try out. I need to get all this stuff on a disk or something and print it out. Peanutzmom's Pattern Page

Little People

Little People - my very first pattern - Crochetville Forum

I want to make this doll. I also want to use this pattern as the basis to make a gnome.

Want to Make This Sweater... Maybe With This Yarn

Baby It's Cold Outside | Crochet Me

This looks really cool. I also want to do a cute ruffled sweater that I found on Ravelry but this sweater looks pretty easy and cute. Plus, you can't beat three hours for making a baby sweater. I'm going to add it to my list.

I bought some yarn today. Two skeins of 100% Superwash Merino Wool Swish Worsted Weight in Merlot Heather dye lot 24092 that are 110 yards per 50 gram ball. Three skeins each of 60% Pima Cotton, 40% Modal natural beech wood fiber Worsted Weight in Hollyberry dye lot 24140 and Terra Cotta dye lot 23810. Spent too much as we are broke right now but I actually bought the yarn with a project in mind. I'm going to make a scarf each for my mom and my sister for Christmas. The other yarn will be for a baby sweater or longies.