Christmas Crochet Blog Tour and Giveaway!

**The Giveaway may be over, but I'd still love to hear what your favorite Christmas Crochet projects are!**

I have a confession to make:  I'm a Christmas Craft Procrastinator.  I know, it's sad, but true.  I chronically wait until after Thanksgiving to even start THINKING about Christmas projects. This means that every year I stay up way too late most nights, and still don't get everything finished in time.

But not this year!  The folks over at Storey Publishing sent me a copy of their new book, Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree by Edie Eckman.  Kids, Christmas is finally coming early for the Dynamite family!!

The first thing I wanted to make was some new stockings for the whole family.  A few years ago tragedy struck and our beautiful, handmade stockings were lost.  That year I just purchased some dollar store cheapies, promising that someday I would make us new stockings.  Four years later, I've finally made good on that promise!

There were so many stocking patterns to choose from (9, plus many variations!) I couldn't choose just one.  Mims got the Mix-and-Match Stocking (in Gryffindor house colors!). I got the Colorful Stripes Stocking. Jake got the Basketweave Stocking, which was my favorite to make out of all of them.  The single color, but great texture, made it really fun to work on, and I didn't dread weaving in ends when I was done!  I think they look so cute hanging from the mantle!

There are so many great decorations in the book!  I'm planning to make some cool crochet trees for the mantle, and there are a whole bunch of felted ornaments that I'm just dying to make with Mims.  There's even a tree-skirt pattern, which I desperately need since I usually just throw one of those fake "snow" blankets around the bottom of the tree and call it good.  

I think my favorite patterns in the book are for the crochet stocking and mitten Advent Garland.  The little stockings and mittens work up so quickly (Oh, how I love simple, well written patterns!).  However, I don't plan to turn them into the cute garland that they show in the book.  I'm planning to use them as gift-card holders!  I'm going to stick a candy cane (or a burt's bees lip balm!) and a gift card in them, which I think will make a great handmade present for Mim's teachers, my teenage cousins, and I'm even making backups for unexpected holiday guests!  

 Isn't the mitten so cute?  I set up our tree just to show you how adorable it is as an ornament!

By the way, seeing the tree up so early this year was shocking to Mims when she got home from school.  "Woah. Um, Mom, you ARE going to put other ornaments on it, right?"  LOL!!!

The little stockings are also super cute!  The purple and white stocking on the left was made with Red Heart Soft, and the Red and White stocking was made with Red Heart Super Saver.  I only mention it because the stocking is MUCH smaller with the Soft, which might, or might not be a good thing.  For a gift card and candy cane, it really doesn't matter, but if you wanted to put something else in there, you might want to use a worsted weight yarn on the larger end of the spectrum.

I think that Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree is a cute little book, full of projects to decorate your home for the holidays.  It's just the right size to travel with you everywhere you go for the next 6 weeks!  Don't Christmas Craft Procrastinate!  Start your Christmas projects now!!!

Okay, so do you want to know the best part?  The amazing folks over at Storey Publishing are letting me give away a copy of Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree!  If you'd like a chance to WIN your very own copy of this awesome crochet book, leave a comment below telling me your favorite projects to crochet at Christmastime along with a contact email address!  The giveaway is open from now until 11:59 pm Sunday, November 16th!  I'll use Random.org to draw a winner on Monday, November 17th!

Psst!  If you'd like more chances to win, check out the other blogs on the book tour!  They're all giving away copies of the book too!!!  There are only a few more days left!

3-Nov Don't Eat the Paste

4-Nov Moogly

5-Nov Liberty's Yarn

7-Nov Rambling Designs

10-Nov Plus 3 Crochet

11-Nov Crochet Dynamite

12-Nov Jenn Likes Yarn

13-Nov Crochet Nirvana

14-Nov Yarning4aSmile

For even MORE information about Christmas Crochet for Hearth, Home & Tree, check these out:

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/christmas-crochet-for-hearth-home--tree/patterns

Storey: http://www.storey.com/book_detail.php?isbn=9781612123295&cat=Crafts&p=0

Facebook: Edie Eckman and Storey Publishing

Twitter: @EdieEckman and @StoreyPub

Instagram: @StoreyPub

xoxo

11/17/14 - - The giveaway is now closed! Thank you to everyone who commented!  I LOVED hearing about all your Christmas projects!!!

I used Random.org to pick a winner:

Congratulations to ajz!  I'll be sending you an email very soon!  

xo! 

Crochet Roses

If you follow my I Love Crochet board on Pinterest (and why wouldn't you?!  I'm a pinning rock-star! LOL!) you have probably seen that I went crazy pinning crochet rose patterns a few weeks ago.  I was crocheting a cadet hat for my sister, and I wanted to add a little extra to it, so I went looking for roses. The pattern that I liked the best (THIS one from Kati Crafts) was designed with small hooks and crochet thread in mind, but I wanted big, full blooms!  I used a size H hook and some worsted weight yarn and POW! I got some giant roses!!!

I ended up using one on my sister's cap, and I LOVE how it turned out! It looks SO good in person. I got the pattern for the cadet cap HERE from Sick Lil Monkeys.  It was so much fun to work up.

But THIS is what I'm the happiest about: I turned one of the roses into a giant pincushion!!

It's heavy enough to sit nicely on my sewing table, and the petals stick up nicely for me to poke the pins into easily.  I adore it!!!  I used to have a magnetic spot on the front of my old sewing machine, so I've never worried about pincushions before, but with my new machine I've been keeping my pins in a little dish which has resulted in more finger pokes than I like to remember!  Now my fingers will be nice and safe, and my sewing table is extra fancy!

xoxo

Yorganza Ruffles!!

Howdy Dynamos!

I just wanted to let you know that I just finished designing a project for All Free Crochet using Yorganza yarn!   It's called the Frosted Rose Toddler Dress and you can find the pattern HERE! It's for sizes 18-24 months!

Lucky for me I was able to cajole my adorable niece, Katy-bug, into modeling it for me!

I'm such a lucky auntie!!!

I even managed to get a pretty good picture of my mom and sister with the model!  Three generations of cuties!

Mims was my awesome model-wrangler!  She kept Katy laughing and facing the right direction, when they didn't need to sit for a break!

Talking about Mims, this is her Halloween costume this year.  Every year we try to take a picture with my grandma (her great grandma!), so this is Mims, my sister Sandy, my mom, and Katy with my Mema.  Sandy is dressed as French Toast!  Mims and Katy are Elsa and Anna from Frozen.  Really original, I know, but Mims desperately wanted to wear a matching costume with Katy.  The highlight of the whole evening, for Mims, was when they went trick-or-treating and everyone thought she and Katy were sisters.  LOL!  

xoxo

Pumpkin Love!

So, much like all the other white girls in yoga pants, I'm in love with fall!  My world is flavored with pumpkin pie spice! I'm dreaming of the end to this heat wave in SoCal so that I can bust out my boots and cozy clothes. It's just not right to spend all of September in shorts... However, the water park near our house is staying open through October because of the heat, so maybe it's not all bad.  It just doesn't feel like fall.  More like we're in Summer Overtime.

Despite the crazy hot weather, I've been festooning my abode with pun'kins! Every year I make Jake buy me these insanely expensive fairy tale pumpkins (as opposed to the much more reasonably priced carving pumpkins) to decorate the house.  I rationalize it by saying that if we buy them in September I can leave them out until the day after Thanksgiving and we're set for our entire fall decorating scheme.

However, this year I've decided to crochet my own pumpkins!  For a girl that is used to paying $15 each for the real-life suckers, this is quite a steal, since I was able to make 2 pumpkins from one skein of Super Saver.  Plus, I can snuggle with them on the couch, which real pumpkins don't enjoy very much.

I saw some gorgeous blue pumpkins on Pinterest (don't you just adore Pinterest?! I'm on there, like, 18 times a day.  Pinterest is my Facebook... but I digress...) so I had to make myself a blue pumpkin too.  It's a little darker than a real life blue pumpkin, but I'm claiming creative license here and adoring it anyway.

I'm really happy with the way that the stem of these pumpkins turned out. It's hollow, so you can bend it and it stays in place.  So cool!  The ridges make it look like a real pumpkin stem, which makes me giddy every time I look at them.  I was able to do it by using front-post half-double crochet, which I abbreviated to fphdc (so when you see it in the pattern, that's what I'm talking about).

If you'd like to make one (or twelve) too, here's how I made mine:

FAIRY TALE PUMPKIN
(to make one 9" pumpkin)
Supplies:
180 yards of worsted weight yarn for pumpkin body (for my pumpkins, I used Red Heart Super Saver in Soft White, Aran, and Pumpkin, and Caron One Pound in Azure for the blue pumpkin)
Small amount of green for pumpkin stem (I used Red Heart Super Saver in Tea Leaf)
Size J crochet hook
Polyester Fiberfill Stuffing - I used approximately 10 ounces
Yarn needle

(use main body color)
R1: 9 hdc in a magic loop, pull loop tight, sl st to first hdc to close round. ch 1 (9 st)
R2: 2 hdc in each hdc, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (18 hdc)
R3: (2 hdc in first st, hdc in next st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (27 st)
R4: 2 hdc, (2 hdc in next st, hdc in next 2 st) 8 times, 2 hsc in the next st, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (36 st)
R5: (2 hdc in first st, hdc in next 3 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (45 st)
R6: 2 hdc, (2 hdc in first st, hdc in next 4 st) 8 times, 2 hdc in next st, 2 hdc, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (54 st)
R7: (2 hdc in first st, hdc in next 5 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (63 st)
R8: (2 hdc in first st, hdc in next 6 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (72 st)
R9: sc in each st around, sl st to first sc to close round, ch 1 (72 st)
R10: hdc in each st around, sl st to first sc to close round, ch 1 (72 st)
R11-26: repeat rows 9 and 10 (72 st)
R27: (hdc 2 st tog, hdc in next 6 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (63 st)
R28: (hdc 2 st tog, hdc in next 5 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (54 st)
R29: (hdc 2 st tog, hdc in next 4 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (45 st)
R30: (hdc 2 st tog, hdc in next 3 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (36 st)
R31: (hdc 2 st tog, hdc in next 2 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (27 st)
R32: (hdc 2 st tog, hdc in next 1 st) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (18 st)
Fasten off, leave a long tail (like 2 yards)

Stuff the pumpkin! Stuff it very full, it will look lumpy and not very good at this point, but that's okay!  Just make sure it's stuffed very tightly.

Attach stem yarn anywhere along the edge of R32, ch 1
R33: (hdc 2 st tog) 9 times, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (9 st)
R34-41: fphdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1 (9 st)
R42: fphdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (9 st)
Fasten off, leaving a 18" tail.

Using yarn needle and stem yarn, whipstitch top of stem closed.  Fasten off and weave in end.

To make the ridges in the pumpkin I used a big yarn needle (trust me on this one, you need a big needle for this, the little ones will get lost in all the fiberfill).  I threaded the tail end of Round 32, and poked my needle straight through the center, from the edge of the stem out through the bottom hole of Round 1.

Then I used a running stitch and wove the thread in a (mostly) straight line back up to the stem.

I pulled the thread snugly to create the side indentation, and made a little invisible knot at the base of the stem to hold the tension.  Then I poked my needle back through the center and did the whole process again on the opposite side.  At this point, it's going to look like a crocheted booty.  Yes, I'm an emotional 3rd grader, because it makes me laugh.

Then I made indentations to create quarters.  Then I made an indentation between each of those lines, ending with eight plump ridges.

I pulled my yarn through the center of the pumpkin one last time and fastened it off at the bottom of the pumpkin, weaving in my remaining tail.

xoxo

Summer Vacation is Over!

Holy Schmowzow, Dynamos!  I don't know how it happened, but I lost control of this summer vacation.  Whole weeks slipped by without my knowledge, lost to daily swim lessons and play dates and one delightful week with the cows and the redwoods in northern California.

This is from our visit to the Muir Woods.  It was so beautiful!

I made twenty-five pounds of soap before the weather got too hot, and I discovered that I passed my one-year soap making anniversary with a grand total of 85 batches (totalling nearly 400 pounds!).

My kid read everything in the house this summer.  I found her in her room like this one day.  It was pretty hilarious.

I did virtually no crocheting over the last 6 weeks.  I know, sad face.  But something about having the kid home full time, and the hot weather, and the beach calling my name EVERY SINGLE DAY (we didn't go every day, more like twice a week, but it still CALLED every day. LOL!) made it so difficult to get anything done that took more than an hour to complete.  I did get out my sewing machine and whipped up some summer fun purses.  My one bit of crochet was making the flower for my denim hobo bag.  Yes, that's a Star Lord pin.  Are you jealous? LOL!  I know, you only get jealous over Groot...

Recycling a pair of jeans that were too big!  Win win!

The handles on this one are a little floppy.  Next time I will use fusible fleece inside and they will be perfect!  It's my favorite! 

This was my one bit of back-to-school crafting.  I used THIS tutorial to make some eco-friendly sandwich and snack baggies.  It was ridiculously simple, and they turned out awesome.  I didn't make the cute curved edge on mine, since I wanted to be able to "seal" them all the way across with velcro, so Mims's baby carrots and mini-crackers wouldn't roll out of the bag. She thinks they're cool, which is pretty good.  I don't know how many more years my handmade stuff is going to be okay at school, but she's in second grade so I figure I'm good for at least this year.  LOL!

How was your summer?  Did you make anything cool?  

Can't Win 'Em All...

So, in an effort to save some cash and get a little healthier, Jake and I have switched to only drinking water at home.  Now, this may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but for us, it's huge.  I am an iced tea-aholic (note: this does not mean Long Island Iced Tea, or Sweet Tea.  I'm talkin' plain ol' Lipton here.).  And I'm a LAZY iced tea-aholic, which meant that my morning didn't start until I was paying for my iced tea through a drive-thru window.  Being the kind and generous wife that I am, this also included a tea for Jake.  In our neck of the wood, this translates to $5 a day, or $150+ a month, on iced tea.  When we finally sat down and did the math, we were horrified (although the iced tea was our compromise after we did the Starbucks math a year ago...).  So now we've switched to plain water, and we're pretty happy with our choice (especially now that our caffeine withdrawal headaches have gone away).  Plus, the money we've saved has paid for Mims to go to swim lessons all summer!  Score!

Now that we're water drinkers, we are completely obsessed with our Nalgene water bottles. I've become such a water bottle snob.  It's hilarious, and completely ridiculous.  I love my water bottle so much, I don't go anywhere without it.  It's got a wide mouth top so I can add ice easily, so, of course, I ONLY drink ice water.  I know, I'm a nut.

However, I'm completely annoyed at the condensation that accumulates outside the bottle because of my ice obsession.  I constantly have a damp ring on my jeans from resting my bottle on my leg, and the front of my shirt is damp because of the bottle dripping condensation as I take a drink.  Annoying!

"Hold on a minute!" I thought to myself the other day, "I can crochet myself a solution to this minor, but immensely irritating problem!"  So I crocheted a sleeve for my beloved water bottle.  It was shimmery and gray and beautiful.  I slid it on the bottle, and it was perfection!  It absorbed the excess moisture.  My bottle looked so pretty!  I was a happy, happy girl!

...until I tried to drink out of my covered bottle.  The crochet stretched (as it is known to do!) and the cover started to slide around the bottle.  The dampness of the yarn made the bottle so slippery I wasn't able to maintain a solid grip around it, so as I took my sip, I suddenly discovered that I had 32 icy ounces of water rushing towards my face in an uncontrollable waterfall.  I doused myself, and half of our new couch.  Crochet fail!!!

So you will not be getting a pattern for a gorgeous one liter water bottle cover from me.

You're welcome.

xoxo

Mini Amigurumi

I'm not an amigurumi person.  I know that so many people are, but I've just never gotten into it.  However, I am VERY into crocheting in miniature, and my seven-year-old is very into tiny dolls, so when I went looking for some tiny projects to occupy some of my time this summer, Mini Amigurumi by Sara Scales seemed like a great fit for stretching my crochet muscles.

It took WAY TOO LONG for me to figure out that all of the instructions were written in British crochet terms, but once I finally read the patterns correctly, the instructions were clear and easy to follow.  I used embroidery floss and a size B hook and my projects all came out perfectly, adorably small!

Because they're all so small, I was able to work them up pretty quickly, and was able to turn them into some very fun last minute gifts for Mims and some of her friends.  Tiny crochet is a big hit with first graders.

And after a got the feel for amigurumi, I was inspired to try a project on my own.

It's Perry!  We love P&F around here, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me.  He's about the size of a quarter.  Mims wants me to turn him into a necklace for her, which I will probably do, if I don't turn him into a keychain for me! LOL!

xoxo