The site Crochet Me has a free e-book available. You have to be a member of the site, but membership is free. Once you sign up, you can download the book which is pdf format. It includes 6 crochet patterns for babies: a stuffed toy, toddler poncho, shell and posies stitch dress, matching dress and hat, cardigan, and a nursing wrap.
Can you believe that Halloween is less than a week away? In fact, one week from today I’ll be listening intently to see if we have any trick or treaters at the door and trying to keep my hands out of the candy bowl! If you are short on time but still want to get into the Halloween spirit, there is plenty of time to craft some very cool Halloween jewelry. This is one of my favorite holidays, so over the years I have designed a pretty long list of Halloween jewelry projects. You can find them all free and listed on the Halloween page of my About.com site. Most of them, like the Witch Hat pin pictured above, can be whipped up in literally minutes. Enjoy!
No, this is not one of my cats, who would rip me to shreds if I even attempted to put something like this on them, at least while they were awake 
This cat is modeling an adorable Crochet Candy Corn Pet Sweater designed by the DIY Maven, and you can get complete instructions on her blog. While she shows it on a cat, I can just imagine a small dog wearing this. I mean - how cute can you get! And it looks really easy to make, lots of double crochet stitches. What a great project!
I know he is supposed to be scary, but I think this amigurumi Count Dracula is too cute. But, alas, what isn’t cute when it comes to amigurumi? He was featured in the recent Lion Brand Yarn newsletter along with a few other Halloween friends. Here are links to all three of the free patterns:
If you haven’t tried amigurumi yet, all of these look easier than most projects, especially Dracula and Patrick because they don’t require a lot of different colors of yarn, and thus switching back and forth a lot. Wanda’s stocking are striped, so those looked a little more difficult than usual, but otherwise, that pattern also only uses a few colors, which normally equates to an easier pattern when it comes to crochet.
You get a two-for deal right now over at the Crochet Dude weblog. First, you can download a free pattern for this very cool pink purse. Drew created it for Breast Cancer Awareness month. Then, while you are over there, leave a comment on that same blog post the purse pattern is linked from (making sure to include your email when you do so) and your name will automatically be included in a drawing he has set up that includes various breast cancer appliques and the same handle pictured above for the purse pattern.
This is one of those techniques from the way-back machine, but I have to say I had totally forgotten how to do it! Thank you so much to Jean Campbell over at Beading Daily for posting a wonderful tutorial on How to Tie a Sliding Knot.
This type of knot makes the bracelet a little more adjustable because you can push the knots out (away from each other) to tighten the bracelet, and move them together to make it larger. One issue with bracelets is getting the size exactly right since most women will wear anything from a 6 1/2 inch to an 8 inch bracelet. The diameter of the beads can also affect the overall fit of a bracelet, so the sliding knot trick is very handy to create bracelets that can fit a range of wrist sizes.
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, then you already know what a big fan I am of the Lion Brand Yarn site and the numerous free patterns over there. Like a lot of folks, I get tired of having to “join,” even for free, every single site that has free information on it; however, I have always felt that it was worth it for this site. Now you can times that by 2,700 because that is the number of free patterns over there right now. In a recent newsletter put out by the company, it has announced that all patterns owned by Lion Brand Yarn (as in not including patterns created by outside designers but still sold through the site) are now free.
Now there used to be a ton of free ones any way, but this is still big news because that means even more free crochet and knitting patterns. Plus, I also recently found out that it has (for some time now) allowed the use of its patterns (again the ones owned by LBY) for use by anyone who wants to sell the finished products. So if you’ve been thinking of selling some of your finished crochet or knitting pieces but haven’t been able to because you aren’t into making your own patterns, now you have a place to get the patterns for free and sell the finished products.
Thank you Lion Brand Yarn!
I’ve been busy in the jewelry studio lately, so I wanted to share some of my latest tutorials with you in case you missed them over at my About.com site. Pictured above is a two-piece tutorial, one for the metal clay heart and one for the fiber and bead necklace: Copper Clay Lace Heart Pendant and Hip Hemp, Bamboo Beads and Copper Heart Necklace. I designed it so you can easily add or remove the heart pendant because I think the necklace looks good with or without it.
I also posted more starfish projects, and these babies have tons of sparkle going on because of the AB finish on the Swarovski starfish components. You really can’t get a full appreciation for the sparkle with pictures unfortunately. They just don’t do justice to seeing them in person: Swarovski Crystal Intense Sparkle Starfish Necklace and Swarovski Crystal Intense Sparkle Starfish Earrings.
Now that school is back in session, at least for people like me who teach during the second summer semester, life has been crazy-busy. It seems like I’m either working on grading papers or preparing for my classes that start in the fall, which is just a little over a month away, yikes! Then on top of that, I work on jewelry articles for my About.com site, so there has been little time to craft just purely for the fun it.
I have been treading, keeping my head above water, until the other day when I received a really nasty email from a student. I’m teaching web-only classes for the summer, which has its perks since I don’t have to physically show up for a class. However, one issue with web classes is that sometimes students become a little more aggressive (or maybe courageous is a nicer way to say this) with their emails. They say things they would never dream of saying to my face. I had such an email the other day, and it really put me into a horrible mood. I sent a brief, curt reply, but the whole thing just nagged at me the rest of the day, especially after the student decided to write me yet again with an almost equally bad reply. Like I said, this is not uncommon. In fact, normally this is the same student who will later write and ask me how he/she can bring up his/her grade and is there any extra credit available! Yes, believe it!
Anyway, I was really having a tough time getting out of this icky mood, and then I realized I needed to step away from the keyboard and the grade book and the other school work I was doing and have some fun. So, I picked up some gorgeous tangerine mist Vanna’s Choice yarn I had just received in the mail and started working on another amigurumi project, a totally cute little tiger. (The free pattern is from the Lion Brand site).
Amazingly enough, about 15 minutes into my crocheting I felt so much better! And, at least for a little while, I was not thinking about how or if I would even reply to the last nasty email I’d gotten from this student. When I did return to my work, I was much more relaxed. This is a lesson I need to remember. Even if I have a ton of work to do, the work will always be there waiting for me, but my mental health needs a craft break once in awhile!
To give myself a break from baby hats for awhile but still have something baby-like to donate, I decided to make a super easy granny square baby blanket. Even baby blankets can take a while to crochet, but you have got to love the good old granny square pattern to make life easier. Here are the supplies I used:
I hook
1 skein of TLC Baby Amoire
1 skein of yellow Bernat Baby Yarn
1 skein of green Bernat Baby Yarn
The final blanket measures about 36×33 inches, and it is super soft!
