Top 8 Posts of 2013

I know this should be a round-up of my top 10 posts, but I say tradition-shmdition!  Top is such a subjective word, so for today I'm going to define top as 'Most Viewed' this year.  So this is my Top 8 Most-Viewed posts of 2013:

#8

Lip Balm Keychain

#7

Door Bumper

#6

The Bacon Baby Blanket

#5

Dynamite Beret

#4

Dynamite Market Bag

#3

Better Than A Sock Bun

#2

The London Crochet Bag

And, with nearly 200,000 views, the Number One Most Viewed Post of 2013 was: 

Jaime's Butterfly

Thank you all for sharing such a fun year with me!  You can find more fun free crochet patterns HERE on my Free Crochet Pattern Page!

I wish you happiness and luck and amazing adventures in the upcoming year!  Love, love, love to you both now and in 2014, Sweet Dynamos!

xoxo

Happy Holiday

My Christmas was so much fun. We had a marshmallow fight with THESE marshmallow shooters (they were so easy to put together! I made a dozen in an hour!), and even though Jake chipped a bone in his ankle playing with his nephews a couple of days ago, he was able to shoot from the porch.  Mims came up with several accuracy games for us to play with them, and it wasn't until much later that she admitted it was her strategy to get us to waste all of our ammunition so she would "win". LOL! Diabolical! 

I hope your holiday was just as much fun!
xoxo

I recently just passed the 3k mark for Facebook followers!  Yay!  I am overjoyed and very grateful for all of the love and support!  I have the best Dynamos in the world, and I love each and every one of you!
Unfortunately, recent changes to Facebook have made it so that my posts only reach a little less than 10% of you lovely followers, so if you want to know about new posts and patterns you have to actually seek out my Facebook page (and honestly, who's going to do that?).  According to THIS article on AdAge, Facebook would like me to pay to "boost" the reach those posts (which is totally their right, and I'm not complaining).  It just doesn't make financial sense to me to pay for advertising when I'm using Facebook as a way to let you know I've posted a new free pattern.
I am still going to use Facebook, I love it and I think it's an amazing way to connect with all of you.  But if you'd like to get notified when I put up a new post, please consider signing up to follow me by email!  It's not spam, I'm not going to market to you, all it does is send my posts directly to your email box.  You'll never miss a post, and it won't cost me a cent!  Win-win, right?!
The box to sign up to follow by email is on the right sidebar!
xo!  Jaime

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright!

I didn't send out Christmas cards this year (or last year, come to think of it! LOL!!).  Lucky for me, all of the people who I would send cards to read my blog!  So, on this most merry of days, I am sending you all of my love and the very best holiday wishes.

xoxo

Katy's Booties

My niece is 8 months old.  Her parents are very successful and she doesn't need anything. ANYTHING! All of her wants and needs have been taken care of.  This leaves me in a bit of a pickle. What do you get for a baby that already has everything?!  

The correct answer is: cowgirl boots.  Actually, these are cowboy boots, but Katy's only 8 months old and she won't know the difference for at least another year and a half.  (Mims was about 2 years old when we tried to buy her a Batman t-shirt and she burst into tears.  "Girls wear pretty dresses, Mama," she informed me. She has since come around, because awesome t-shirts can be worn by anyone, but she wears her Adventure Time shirts with the flounciest of skirts)
I made the boots using THIS pattern from The Crochet Crowd.  I LOVE the little heel!!!!

These were supposed to be Mary Janes, but I thought they were so adorable without the strap, they looked like little flats.  So I have left it off.  The "cuff" part was really long on this pattern (unnecessarily long, in my opinion, unless you were making them for an abnormally long-legged baby) so I modified it.  If you've got a baby with normal sized legs you might want to try it my way too!
I used THIS pattern (also from The Crochet Crowd).

My modifications:
Follow the direction exactly as written through R10
R11: ch 2, in back loops only dc in each st around, sl st to first dc to close round (20/22 st)
R12-13: ch 2, fpdc around, sl st to first dc to close round (20/22 st)
Fasten off. Weave in ends.

Finish with Trim as written, and add a strap if you prefer.

I am sure that Katy and her mama are going to be very happy.  After all, a girl can never have too many pairs of shoes, right?  ;D

xoxo

**Just a quick FYI***
Crochet Dynamite recently passed the 3k mark for Facebook followers!  Yay!  I am overjoyed and very grateful for all of the love and support!  I have the best Dynamos in the world, and I love each and every one of you!
Unfortunately, recent changes to Facebook have made it so that my posts only reach a little less than 10% of you lovely followers, so if you want to know about new posts and patterns you have to actually seek out my Facebook page (and honestly, who's going to do that?).  According to THIS article on AdAge, Facebook would like me to pay to "boost" the reach those posts (which is totally their right, and I'm not complaining).  It just doesn't make financial sense to me to pay for advertising when I'm using Facebook as a way to let you know I've posted a new free pattern.
I am still going to use Facebook, I love it and I think it's an amazing way to connect with all of you.  But if you'd like to get notified when I put up a new post, please consider signing up to follow me by email!  It's not spam, I'm not going to market to you, all it does is send my posts directly to your email box.  You'll never miss a post, and it won't cost me a cent!  Win-win, right?!
The box to sign up to follow by email is on the right sidebar!
xo!  Jaime

Party Animals

Pinterest is MY happiest place on earth.  I know that a ton of people have been doing their own versions of those cute animal necklaces that Anthropologie sells for $38 apiece.  You know, the ones that are made out of the little play animals that you can buy at Michaels?  Mims and I needed a project the other day, so we got ourselves some animals and some funky beads/pom poms/ribbons and trims.  And some E6000 glue!  And we got to work!

 When we started, I thought I was going to give these away as Mims-Made Christmas presents, but she fell in love with all of them.  We decided that they would be very festive on our tree.

Jake's nickname is Bear, so we made him a King Bear to for his car (it's less fancy, but more regal than the others).  I made a hippo in a tutu for myself, and the camel is going to our favorite "What day is it?! IT'S MOVIE DAY!!!!!" buddy.

We turned the zebra into a necklace for Mims.  I love that she made it herself, and that we didn't spend $38 bucks on it.  In fact, I think our grand total cost for this whole project was less than $25.  Being crafty is awesome.

xoxo

Paperclip Ice Skates Ornament!

I love paperclip ice skates.  I do.  I love that they look old fashioned and vintage and they remind me of some that my grandma hung on her tree when I was a kid.

I really liked THIS pattern by Suzetta Williams (it's free, and her site is cute!), and it inspired my own version of paperclip ice skates.  Mine look a little more like the ones I remember from my grandma's tree, and they are so ridiculously quick to make I think I'm going to use them as present toppers this year too! 

I got my jumbo paperclips at my local Dollar Tree, 80 for $1.  Score!

PAPERCLIP ICE SKATES ORNAMENT (or present topper)

approx 1" tall

Supplies:

MC - skate color - small amount of worsted weight yarn (I used Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn, and Patons 100% wool yarn and both looked awesome.  Acrylic will last for a lifetime or two, if passing these down for several generations is important to you...)

CC - cuff color - very small amount of worsted weight yarn 

2 jumbo paperclips

R1: Using MC, attach yarn to jumbo paperclip and make 7 sc along the top edge of the clip (7 st)

R2: ch 1, skip first st, 6 hdc (6 st)

R3: ch 1, 4 sc, skip last 2 st (4 st)

R4: ch 1, 4 sc, change color to CC

R5: ch1, 4 sc (4 st)

R6: ch1, 4 sc, chain 8 

Fasten off, leaving a 4" tail for tying later. Weave in all of the other loose ends.

Make another skate, this time substituting:

R6: ch 1, 4 sc, chain 5 (so your skates hang at different lengths and you can see both of them when they hang on the tree)

Tie your two skates together as close to the chain stitches as possible.  Leave a 2" gap and make another knot.  Trim excess yarn ends from the top.

(optional) If you want to add a bow to the skates you can use a very small amount of CC (cuff color? LOL!) and thread it through the first stitch of R5.  Tie your bow and adjust it so it faces out when your skates hang. ;D

I also made an ice skate bookmark, by chaining 40 at the end of R6 and tying a matching pom pom to it.  It is so cute!!  I think I'm going to make some to go in all of the books I give this year... probably not for the guys... LOL!!

(Just as a heads up, if you like sci-fi and fiction this short story collection is really good.  Also, my dad - Illustrator James J. Eads - did an illustration for one of the stories.  Woot!)

xoxo

Katy's Teething Rings

My niece is almost 8 months old!  I can hardly believe it, this year has gone by so quickly.  Katy-bug is teething right now, and even though none of them have broken through yet the first one is close.

I decided to make her a set of teething rings for Christmas.  I made them out of cotton so they'd feel good on her gums, and her mom could wash them over and over.  I also gave them a nice long cord so that her mom could tie the rings to Katy's stroller, car seat or even wear them as a teething necklace while she's holding Katy. 

KATY'S TEETHING RINGS

Supplies:

Small amount of 100% cotton worsted weight yarn (I used 4 colors, but I don't think I used even an ounce of yarn for the whole project.  I think it would look so nice in just a solid color too!)

Size H hook

Yarn needle

Scissors

Links:

ch 16

R1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in each ch across (15 st)

R2: ch 1, sc in each st across (15 st)

Fasten off.  Leave a 12" tail.  Fold the link in half lengthwise (like a hot dog) and whipstitch the sides together.  Curl the link into a circle and whipstitch the ends together to finish the circle.  Weave in the ends.

Make 7 more, forming them into a chain by linking them together before whipstitching the ends closed.

Tie:

Using all 4 colors (or 4 strands of a single color) chain 65. Fasten off.  Trim the tails to 1/2" to make tassels.  Tie the tie through the top loop of the links (you don't have to tie it in a bow, but it looks cute if you do!)

xoxo