Crochet Me Crazy

I have been on a roll. I'm going to try to do a craft booth so I'm getting ready and getting serious about it. I'm making up a lot of small projects that take less time whipped out first to get some inventory built up. I'm going to put some effort into displaying items because I think it will help.

I'm making up a lot of these earwarmers...This is a free pattern you can find here: Ravelry: Everly Head Wrap pattern by Mamachee

I chose this pattern because it's quick to make and it's also pretty and not just a boring rectangle shaped earwarmer. I'm up to 15 of them made now since I took this picture....



I'm going to get my son to build me something that I can hang these earwarmers from that will make a nice display.

The ear warmer doesn't need a flower but Alison said she thought it would be cute with a flower so I decided I would make the flower pins and sell them separately. If someone wants a flower for their earwarmer, they can add it or not. I printed up these cards on card stock to pin the flowers too.



I'll work on boots cuffs and hats next. I have some ideas on how to display those as well but more about that later.

I have a couple of other pictures of some projects I've finished but I'll post about that later...I'm tired at the moment so I think I'll stop here.

Spent the day grocery shopping and doing errands yesterday with Alison. She's working today and I have been working on getting my house cleaned! It's been awhile and it's driving me nuts!

I'm trying to get my act together and get organized. I had my yarn in the spare bedroom but Jeff keeps filling the room up with more and more stuff. And Alison also uses it for her scrapbooking room. Even though my yarn is IN there I don't have room to dig through it to see what I have when planning projects...which is what I'm doing now. I worked on that afghan for so long...now I'm trying to come up with some projects so I have something to do this weekend at work. I moved all of my crochet yarn bins to my bedroom. It looks crappy but at least I can get to it now. So the planning begins...I've got a couple of crochet boot cuff patterns I'm going to try out...the Aislinn Boot Cuffs by Charmed by Ewe and Bipolar(Reversible) Boot Cuffs by Regina Graham. Also, I'm going to go for the Everly Head Wrap by Mamachee. Now to pick out my colors and pack them up to take with me. I've also got a Chevron Baby Car Seat Canopy on my hook right now but that one is a work in progress.

Here's a Cable Earwarmer Pattern I made last weekend....



This is a free pattern and you can find it here: By Jenni Designs: Crochet Women's Cable Ear Warmer Free Pattern

I'm going to take a picture of my Panes of Change Afghan this weekend for sure!! I'm completely finished with it and I've been carrying it around in my car but I never took a final picture! I really want to make another one of the Frank O'Randle afghans but I haven't gotten around to planning that out yet. No doubt it will involve yarn buying...and of course, who I make it for depends on my color schemes.

Puppies are 5 weeks old!



I had been making earwarmers and sewing flowers on. Then I got this idea that I should make the flowers interchangeable! I love this idea! I found a flower pattern with a hole in the middle and then sew the button onto the headband. The flowers button on and you can have endless color combinations! I've made flowers in every color of I LOVE THIS YARN brand yarn that I have. I've got 12 colors of earwarmers made so far.

Wow -- what a day today was. It's time for me to get to bed but I need to sit for minute and unwind so I'll take the time to post the pictures I finally took today. Sometimes wrangling my daughter for modeling is not as easy as it use to be.

After got home from work today, I baked some cookies for my daughter's dance class. They are having extra long rehearsal classes this week and it's a long time to go without food while expending so much energy.





So anyway....on to the CROCHET!

First up is this scarf. This one is a Christmas gift! The yarn is super soft. I needed a quick pattern since I'm short on time and I also didn't have a whole lot of this particular yarn so I needed a pattern that doesn't use much. Well, this one fit the bill and I love how it turned out!



Here is where you can find this super easy pattern:
Jenn's Quick & Easy Open Weave Scarf

I added more stiched to my starting chain and made mine wider.

I loved it so much that I used the same pattern to make this scarf, which is also a Christmas gift...



This the cowl I made to fill an order:



Last but not least, here is an earwarmer.

Had to get these headbands made today and/or finished up to take to the fall festival tonight!

Alison and I are staying really busy with various activities. Alison is staying busy trying to juggle her school work and all of her other activities. Homeschool co-op classes and field trips are keeping us busy. Alison has also added another hour of ballet to her schedule each week by helping with the Ballet 3 class once a week so she's dancing for almost 3 hours on Mondays. She loves doing it though! It makes for a very tired girl when she gets home though! I didn't realize how busy we were until we started looking at the calendar and trying to plan a trip to Six Flags, a trip to see Jeff's family, and a day for Alison to have pictures taken.

When I am at home, I've been spending way too much time crocheting when I should be doing other stuff! I'm am realizing how fast I must be at crocheting though because I started a baby blanket as a gift for my nephew who's having a baby. In two days, of crocheting here and there on it I had the main blanket finished and started on the border. I'm really close to being done already but I haven't worked on it for a few days.





This is made from the left over Berocco yarn I used for my sister's afghan. Really nice yarn. I'll probably be able to make a couple of other things to go with this gift like a hat and booties.

I took a break from that and made some baby headbands! I'm having a lot of fun with these! These are super quick to make and oh so cute! I wish I would've been crocheting when Alison was a baby! She would have had headbands to match every outfit!



Here's close-ups of two of my personal favorites!






I'm just doing a double crochet in back stitches only (so it'll be stretchy) according to a headband size chart and then using various flower patterns I have for flowers.

A friend came over yesterday and bought some of the baby stuff I've made. She also bought some of Alison's handmade cards! So that was nice. She took some pictures of Gracie and I.



Here's a picture of Gracie I took the other day from the window of my house. I had never seen her climb in the flower bed before! So she's the one who keeps knocking over the chickens!

No, seriously -- I have! Don't you agree? Now hopefully I will sell some of this stuff!! I even have two more sets of booties and a baby cupcake hat I haven't taken pictures of yet. I think my crocheting is getting faster. I can really whip the stuff out these days!

Well, today was a bit more slower paced...mainly because we didn't have anywhere we had to go.

Have you ever just picked up whatever yarn you had sitting by you and whatever pattern you had sitting by you and just starting crocheting it without much thought? Well, I haven't...until today. Alison has to use my computer to do her Algebra lessons on. I came in ready to sit down for a minute and check my computer stuff. She had my computer and I couldn't just sit there! I just grabbed what was in my basket...looked at my pattern stack and started crocheting this: No thought went into it whatsover...I'll post that picture later when I'm finished with it. It's turning out more of a child size hat I think and my color choices could have been better but since I was too lazy to walk upstairs for yarn then this is what I'll get. Oh well, it kept my hands busy. I am not a person who can sit idle.

I was going to post a picture of two ear warmers but when I went to upload my pictures, I realized I had taken another picture of the cream colored one I had already posted! The new one I made is the same color but the flower is different. Guess that will be tomorrow's post! LOL

Here is a brown one....



Here's how I made it:

J Hook and worsted weight yarn.

Ch 13

Sc in 2nd chain from hook and each chain across (12 sc); turn

Ch 1, sc in back loop of first stitch and each ch across (12 sc)

Repeat row 3 until you have 62 rows.

(You can make it less or more until your piece fits your head, just make sure it ends with an even number.)

Joining row -- now you will ch2 and turn; now you fold it in half and you sl st in beginning row stitch and the back loop of row 62.
(Back loop makes it where your ribbing pattern doesn't get messed up in this join; however, if it does I wouldn't worry about it too much. Just sew your flower on there and no one will see it!)

Sew your flower on! You can get lots of free patterns for flowers online.

Sorta an improvision on techniques I've learned making flowers but here is how I made the flower on this brown ear warmer:

Ch 6, join with sl st to form ring

1) Sl sti in ring. Ch 3, 2 dc in ring, ch 3, sl st in 3rd ch from hook (picot made); * work 3 dc in ring;
repeat from * 4 more times. Join to top of beg ch3. (18 dc)

2) Sc in next dc; *ch 6, skip next dc, next picot, and next dc, sc in next dc; repate from * 5 more times; join
with sl st in beg sc (6 loops)

3) * In ch 6 loop: sc, hdc, dc, tr cr, picot, tr ct, dc, hdc, sc; sl st in next sc; repeat from * 5 times ending with the last
sl st as a join

I think the flower is much too big on this. ...I think you should use a smaller hook on the flower so it won't be so gargantuos but that's up to you!

Well, today was a busy, busy day even though I was home all day. Since I had so little time, in my spare moments I just grabbed some yarn and started on another ear warmer. These are definately something I could make to sell simply because they are quick enough where you could make a decent profit. Maybe I should hit up some of the local shops around here.

This yarn is some yarn I got in my thrift store yarn find. I grabbed this yarn because there is only one ball. Tucked in the ball was the label....I was amazed to see that this is a Berrocco yarn and the price tag was $10 for this ball! Wow --- I have never paid that much for one ball of yarn! Thank God for thrift stores!

I made this ear warmer awhile back. I didn't use a pattern. I just did a rib stitch the length and width I needed. I figured the stretch of a rib stitch would be good for this. I made it to wear feeding the horses when its cold outside. I didn't finish it off and was wearing it with my ends hanging out! LOL! Thanks goodness I didn't finish it off because I decided it was too big so today I took some rows off and made it nice and snug. I finished it off and then added the flower today. Here it is being modeled by my sweet daughter:




I think I will need to make another one because she is going to steal it!

Tomorrow Jeff starts his job --- why am I nervous? I don't know...it's sorta strange but I am! He has to get up and leave really early in the morning to be in San Antonio by 8 am! Tomorrow will be our first day on our own around here. The kids have their chore lists ready to go.

Today we got some fence rolls from a friend and expanded Grace's yard. It's sorta funny because she still sorta hung out mostly in her normal area even though she could go further. Poor little girl...she's had such a hard time. Her leg hurts her to walk on it I think. Otherwise, she still seems healthy.