Wonderful Designer - Robyn Chalula

I wanted to talk about a wonderful designer who I love and aspire to be like
Robyn Chalula. But first a little rant on sharing:

I recently came across a conversation between an artist (not Robyn Chalula) and one of her fellow follower. The artist was going on about how low people were in trying to "copy" her and why couldn't they be unique like she was? Needless to say her comments rubbed me the wrong way. I  started thinking about how I get into this type of mentality when I make or create something and how I start to think that I am so smart for making something so unique, then having the wind blown out of my sails two days later when I see someone else has posted the exact same thing that I just made. So that got me thinking about this particular artist and how annoyed I was at her comment. It wasn't only  because she didn't  want to share her pattern, either purchased or otherwise, but I just couldn't believe that she was the only one on God's green earth that had thought of this technique. So I started looking and searching the Web for this technique and I found it. I found another artist who had done this technique two years before her. This new artist was even kind enough to sell her patterns on Etsy! So my search was over and I did not confront the artist who posted the comments because I didn't think it would make a difference to that person but only took on the chore of doing so to prove something to myself.
Humans have been on this earth for thousands of years, and yes some people are still inventing new and glorious thing, but for the most part man can only improve on what is already out there. So let's not think we are the only ones out there that have thought up of a concept and have "reinvented the wheel",so to speak and instead let's try to be a more kind and giving people. Lets make things better and share the love!
This is one great example of sharing the love. Here I found a wonderful new book by Robyn Chalula.
Crochet Month Designer Interview Series: Get to know Robyn Chachula! | Bernat Blog
I especially like the fact that she gives us a free pattern just to wet our pallets. If it's one thing I love is people who share their creations freely.
Don't get me wrong I know artist need to make money, but for those of them who freely share some of their work, I admire them for their generosity and kindness.

Spring Crochet Patterns

My Niece is having a birthday this weekend and we will all be attending her party. I decided to make her a few goodies. Now mind you I have no idea her measurements and, I will probably regret not getting them, but I really love surprising the birthday person.

The first item I made was from a book called the "DoubleStitch Designs for the Crochet Fashionista" by Erika and Monika Simmons. I'm pretty sure everyone has seen or heard of them by now. They collaborate with Red Heart Yarn on patterns. I picked this particular book because it has some very cool, and modern style crochet garments.

I must confess that I did goof the pattern up. It did come out nice but I was sort of winging it. I did have trouble understanding some of the pattern so therefore it doesn't look exactly like the original. I do love the way it looks. What do you think?

My second item was this Happy Days Halter. Oh the possibilities with this pattern! It comes in 3 different sizes (small, medium, and large) but can be easily altered to go smaller or larger. My daughters loved it and so I will be making one for each of them and they of course have already picked out their colors. This was a free pattern from RedHeart.com and I have posted a link directly to it.

Happy Days Halter

The third item I made was inspired by another pattern I found in the book I mentioned above from the double stitch twins. I call this my hip hugger cover.
I really enjoyed the process of not having to look up at a pattern and just going with what felt and looked right. I will be posting the pattern at a later date once I have tested it. It was very fun and fast and I really hope she likes all of the items.

http://stitchandunwind.com/spring-crochet-patterns-stitch-share-giveaway

Stash Busting Challenge Update

This is my first project for this challenge and it will eventually end up being a blanket for my one of my Daughters. She loves blues so I am trying to find all of my blue scrap leftovers to use up first.

My first color I used I crocheted until I ran out but fell short of finishing a round. I didn't like how that looked so I from then on I try to use up as much as I can and only go as far as my scrap ball of yarn will complete a whole row.

I am really liking how it is turning out, but it is getting harder and harder to use just my scrap balls of yarn. They seem to small, and the larger the blanket gets the more yarn it needs to make a complete round. I will keep going until I am happy with the size and if I do have to use new skeins I will.

Stash Bustin' Challenge

A week ago I joined Lanasdeana.blogspot.com's stashbustin' challenge.  I wanted to share this with all of you so that if your stash is getting a little out of hand like mine is for the space that I have, then this is the challenge for you.

Here are pictures of my stash. These are all my yarns that are in one location. I like the fact that I can see everything but not that it looks a little messy. For now this is what I have to work with.

These are yarns that I have stashed away in bags that are either leftovers or newly purchased. At the the moment I am working on getting these organized by type. I usually like to keep all the same type of yarn together. Unfortunately as you can see I still have a ways to go.

 

 

This bin holds projects that are already started. A friend of mine gave me 3 trashbags full of yarn and inside I found projects already started. They all seem to be blankets and afghans and unfortunately I don't like to work on those types of projects but hated the thought of frogging all of her hard work. The reason I kept them in here is because I truely hope to someday get the chance to work on one or more of the blankets and maybe finish.

These are my cotton stash. I usually use the size 5 and 10 cotton to crochet earrings and baby booties. The regular cotton I use it to crochet bracelets, hats, and bags and hopefully some dish rags!

  

These are my specialty yarns like eyelash, ribbon, lattice, chanille and several more. These I don't work with a lot because of how difficult it is to work with them. It's not easy to see the stitches when working with the fuzzy stuff.

 

 

Finally these are some of my leftofver yarn that I only have small balls of from different projects that I had made in the past. I have a plan for these but for now they are being kept mostly out of sight and I will let you in on my plans for this in the near future!

Well that's all folks! I will keep posting my stash busting projects to see how much of this I can reduce, if at all! Wish me luck.

If you want to join the challenge just click on over to lanasdeana.blogspot.com

Crochet Earring Hoops Pattern

Today I came across another web site called 

"The Yarn Box" and enrolled. I then notice that you could add your own patterns. I unfortunately had not written up any pattern of any of my original work. So here it is! I decided to write this up for you and to get me into the groove of writing my patterns down. 

You can also find me on Ravelry, Pinterest, Facebook, Flicker, and especially YouTube.

Crochet Hoop Earrings

Materials Needed:

1.5 crochet hook
Crochet cotton thread
Hoop earrings (any size)
(for this pattern I am using a 1 ½” hoop)
scissors
needle for tucking in tails
bead of your choice(optional)

Pattern Notes:
You can preload all your beads onto
your thread if you are working off of a spool, or you can cut your thread using 10 yards for each earring and then wait to load your beads when you need them.


Stitches used
CH - Chain Stitch
Sc - single crochet
Dc - double crochet
ESc - Elongated single Crochet

Base Row
This row is worked around the hoop earring
Make a slip knot and place behind hoop. Bring you hook through the front of the hoop. Grab the slip knot through the center of the hoop and round the hoop to make a sc. Continue making sc around the hoop making sure to work over your tail, till the end.
The number of stitches very depending on how big your hoop is. You can use the following as a guide, but please feel free to add or subtract stitches as you need:

for a 1 ½” Hoop - between 50 - 60 stitches
for a 2” Hoop - between 70 - 90 stitches
for a 3” Hoop - between 120-130 stitches

Take care not to make too many as they may fall off of your earring hoop.

Turning Your work

only on this row
you will need to also turn your stitches to face the inside of the hoop.

Do this every time you finish a row:
At the end of the row pull on the loop that is on your crochet hook until it measures 1” or more. Take your hook out of the loop and place it down. turn your earring around to the other side. Make sure your earring clasp is open and pass your working thread to the back of the hoop. Place your hook on your loop again and close up the loop. You can now continue working your new row.

Row 2
ch 3, skip 2 stitches and dc into the 3rd stitch on the hoop, *skip 2
stitches and dc into the next stitch on the hoop. repeat from * until the end of the row. turn your work

NOTE - Your stitches should be taught not wavy or loose.
If they are loose then you need to reduce the amount of stitches on this row by skipping more stitches.

Row 3
ch 1, sc in between each dc space. do this all the way across row. turn your work.

Row 4 (Beads added here optional)
with no beads
Ch 1, *skip 1 stitch from previous row, sc into next stitch. Repeat from * across.
NOTE - your stitches will start to look stretched out, this is what you want them to do.

with beads
ch 1, *skip one stitch, move one bead close to your hook keeping it to the back of your work  and sc into the next stitch. skip 1 stitch and sc into the next stitch. Repeat from * until all your beads are in place and until the end of the row. turn your work

Row 5

ch 1, *skip 1 stitch, sc into next stitch. Repeat across. finish off.

weave tail into 2nd row or pattern.

If you see flaws or mistakes in the pattern please leave a comment or email me and I will correct the mistakes.

bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4750041/?claim=h6hwukpss4w">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

I feel and apology is in order. I'm sorry if I have been neglecting my blog but for some apparent reason having a full time job and crocheting in the evenings to fill orders just doesn't leave much time for blogging! Not to mention cooking dinner, doing laundry, helping my girls with their homework, etc, etc..... Well I am here to let you know that I have recently given my notice at work. I will no longer be employed outside the home. I have made up my mind (and my husband as well) that I need my time to focus on my passion. CROCHET. Sorry to scream but that is how I feel. I have always put away my dream because it wasn't the right time, or not enough money, or whatever excuse I deemed reasonable enough at the time.

I only went back to work in August of last year but it didn't seem as fulfilling as I thought it would be. So needless to say it took up all my time, in fact so much so that I stopped volunteering at church, and the library. I was not a happy camper.

I hope that this new endeavor will be fruitful not only for my pockets but also for my soul, and I promise to blog on a regular basis from now on.

Thank you one or all who follow or have read my blog post. I greatly appreciate you hanging in there!