Flower Garden Granny Square: Free Pattern

It's 32 degrees here so I'm thinking Spring and warmer weather!

 

Flower Garden Granny Square Bag Free Pattern Here.

Make a Spring Bag!

I love the texture of the raised flower and the Spring Colors.

Happy Crocheting!

Have you seen the new Yarn Bon Bons??

Aren't these the cutest little skeins of yarn you have ever seen?

From Lion Brands "The Weekly Stitch"

From Lion Brand:

Indulge in color with Bonbons, our collection of mini-skeins of yarn in 8-pack assortments. Perfect for amigurumi, craft projects, colorwork, embroidery, and embellishments, these packs are an easy way to add interest to a project or to craft with kids! Click here for patterns you can make with Bonbons.


Want to learn more? Watch a video about Bonbons.


Bonbons comes in 6 different assortments.


See all the assortments & order.

Baby Emma's Blanket

Baby Emma's Blanket

Design by Eileen Chrisjohn

Here is the link to the free pattern on Ravelry!.
Happy Crocheting!

Don't Forget to Vote-Which Online, LYS (local yarn shop--not box store) Yarn Is Your Favorite?

Just a reminder to please vote in the poll at the right--top of my sidebar for "Which Online, LYS (local yarn shop--not box store) Yarn Is Your Favorite?"

KnitPicks.com

 

Yarnmarket 

Deramore's has the beautiful colors of acrylic "Stylecraft DK" which is one of Lucy's of Attic24 faves.

Jimmy Beans Wool

 

Premiere Yarns 

Annies Attic

Mary Maxim

 

Garnstudio-Drops Yarn

Let's find out which online, LYS yarn is the best for all of us crochet bloggers!

New Poll-Which Yarn Do You Use The Most??

Here it is...

as promised...

a new poll for you to vote in...

Which yarn do you use the most?

Since the best magazine ended up being Crochet Today! which uses Red Heart yarn in most of their patterns. I thought we should just see what results come out of another poll where we vote for the most popular or favorite "medium" weight yarn.

With so many great yarns to choose from I sometimes tend to buy my favorite go-to yarn more often than any of the others. Do you do that?

I love to try new yarns, different weights, (thickness), and different fibers, cotton, wool, acrylic, silk, alpaca, etc. and blends of these yarns.

Of course color is a big reason I choose certain yarns.

It also depends on the project I'm making i.e., baby items, winter scarfs, afghans, summer shawls, etc.

So for this poll the question is which medium weight size yarn, (worsted, afghan, aran) is your favorite?

So here are the choices I came up with that I have seen my fellow bloggers use the most:

Red Heart Super Saver

This yarn is not one of my favorites but it is easily available since Walmart carries it. It is 100% acrylic and the texture seems rough to me. For small projects it works good like amigurumi. 

 Lion Brand Vanna's Choice

 

I only recently tried this yarn and sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't. It is 100% acrylic and not as rough as the Red Heart. It seems to be a little softer.

I Love This Yarn

This yarn is available at Hobby Lobby and is very popular with a lot of bloggers. It is 100% acrylic and machine washable and tumble dry, as are the others above.  I have never tried this but hope to soon. 

Peaches & Cream or Sugar & Cream 

Both of these yarns are my "go-to" yarns when I want to make any project in 100% cotton that are sturdy and functional for the kitchen and bath. They have an extensive color line and are machine washable and tumble dry. Be careful they will shrink so I suggest wash in cold and dry flat.

Caron Simply Soft

Caron Simply soft yarn is one of my favorites. It is 100% acrylic but super soft. It does split a lot which can be frustrating so I use special care when using it but the colors that are offered are so diverse I can use this for anything from a giant granny square afghan to cute baby hats & booties. I like how versatile it is and the way it lays and drapes for shawls and wraps.

Patons Classic Wool

Classic Wool is a soft 100% wool yarn for fabulous, resilient knit & crochet apparel and accessories. Gorgeous color palette! Great range of "stepping" shades, perfect for home decor as well as garments. This is my "go-to" yarn when I want 100% wool.

I know there are so many more great yarns out there but I only chose the ones I have found to be most popular. So, let us know which yarn you use the most! If your favorite yarn is not listed please leave a comment and let me know which yarn you use the most.

Happy Crocheting! 

Baby Blanket in Progress...

This is my current project...

A baby blanket made with Red Hear Soft Baby Steps yarn.in Binky Prints. 

I'm having fun making this one. I struggle with a pattern on this one. They all seemed to be too lacy, (holey) or too textured, (wafftel Stitch) and it didn't show the texture with this variegated yarn.  

So, I am just doing my own thing with a sc than a dc in the next stitch and so on. I'm loving how it is turning out. I am stitching in the back loops only. It's a very TV watching friendly pattern that is turning out so pretty. 

I'm not sure what edging/border I will use but I have a pretty soft yellow yarn for the trim.

Thanks for stopping by and as always...Thank you for your kind comments!


P.S.  Thank you for voting in my first poll! The winner of the best Crochet Magazine poll shows our favorite is ...

Crochet Today!

More polls coming soon!

Happy Crocheting!

Some Cute Crochet Baby Flower Hats!

I just couldn't wait to show all of you these cute little Flower Baby Hats from Crochet Today!

These worked up really quick with Caron Simply Soft...


This one is in Limelight Green with the flower made in Watermelon and the center of the flower is Sunshine.

Aren't they sweet? I gave the green one to my friend at work for her new grand daughter...

And this cute little Sunshine one is for my grand daughter, (whenever she get's here!) :)

Sorry for the bad pictures but I was so excited to show you I just took them last night...

The pattern is one of my Ravelry Projects

Happy Crocheting!

Hooking Up at FO Fridays

My Crochet Hero...Babukatorium!!

I can't say enough about Babukatorium, her crochet speaks for her...

She is amazing!! A true crochet artist!! I Love the colors she uses...and the designs are so unique. I hope to aspire to her skills someday, design my own patterns and projects, be as unique as she is and keep the prices low like she does, (see her Etsy shop). I love her freestyle designs and want to buy them all! These are only a few. Click on any photo to go to her flickr photostream.

Please take a look at her Etsy Shop etsy shop!


Now on facebook too!!! XD


Follow her on Pinterest


Craftster Best of 2011 Winner I'm a Craftster Best of 2011 Winner!
 Use this tag 3KCBWDAY3 to search on Google and read about other bloggers Crochet heros.

Happy Crocheting!

Color? How Do You Choose?

When I choose colors for my projects I am all over the place! When I look at my finished projects just for the last year it is very clear I don't have a "system" or any one color that I predominantly choose.

As you can see I am about as random as they come. It seems I am drawn to a rainbow of bright hues, nothing subdued in my selections! I have done extensive studies of how to choose the "right" colors for a project. Of course we all love Lucy's colors at Attic 24 so I studied her system of choosing colors and I just didn't get it!!


I don't have any art school training and I kind of have a basic understanding how the color wheel works but, I still don't know what colors look good with other colors and why.

Do I really want to know this much about color? No, not really. I just want to be sure the items I crochet are pleasing to look at and basically look pretty. Isn't that what we all want? Do we really need to know all this information about color theory, hues, tones, etc.?


Well, I think to a certain extent we do. A lot of us ask our readers/followers about our yarn color choices for our next project, so we can get reassurance that our choices are "okay". It's nice to know that others agree with our choices or don't as the case may be. 

Of course we can also check with the new "Color Generators." These are pretty cool but I still end up confused because they seem to be very random! 

This site called Design Seeds is pretty awesome if I want to take the time to use it. It will search for colors by hue, or even themes like flora, vintage, vacation, winter, etc. It seems to be more useful to me than just color generator. It gives you several swatches from a photo.


Okay, I have given you a lot of options for picking colors for your projects but how do I do it? I try to look at nature for my decorating and my crochet projects. If a flower is pretty then the colors in it will look pretty in a crochet project. Mostly though, I go with the yarn that is in used in the pattern. It looks good so why try and reinvent the wheel?

 I know this probably limits me in my choices but some sites like Lion Brand show the same pattern with different colored yarns. They also have a pattern that goes with the yarns you like so when you pick a yarn you would like to use, at the bottom you can see crochet or knit patterns made with that yarn. For example, I looked at the Amazing yarn and then crochet patterns and then I got lots of crochet patterns using Amazing yarn. How easy is that? Use this tag 3KCBWWDAY1 to search on google and read what the other bloggers are saying about color!


HAPPY CROCHETING!!