Crochet cuff

My friend likes bracelets. My daughter likes bracelet, necklaces, and anything sparkles. Even my son looking at his sister wearing necklace also wants to try it on. What makes jewelry so attractive?

I love them, too. However, doing housework requires me to take the bracelets off. But when I see the designs from the book "Simply Crochet" by Robyn Chachula, I told myself to give them a try.

I made these cuff, named "Mystic cuff". You can buy the book or find the pattern here on Ravelry. There's  also a blog post review about the mystic cuff that you can read here.

I had some thread left and used mulberry wood beads to make them. 

I tried another thread "Aunt Lydia crochet thread" size 10, peacock color and glass beads to make another one.

With the same thread, I tried another kind of bead with lighter color and used toggle clasp to make it look more convenient. 

This is the diagram 

And I am still making more cuffs to give my friends. I'm thinking of buying another color thread to make some more. 

Scarves for winter

It's been a long time since the last time I posted. Almost 1 year. yes. So busy with the new member in the family. I still crochet but have no time blogging about my crochet journey.

It's fall now. Christmas is coming. I'm planning to make some scarves to gift to the people I love - my in-laws, my American friends who I had no time to say good bye before I moved. Now let's review some scarves I made.

1, Bellflower scarf

This scarf I made by following a youtube tutorial. Go to Sheruknitting website and you will find a lot of techniques to learn. This is the first one I learn from it. Here is the link. I made it longer, long enough to cover my neck. My daughter really love it. The yarn I used is white and light purple - worsted weight. I love Romanian lace and cord from this website and will return to learn more.

2,

This is "Falling triangle scarf" I made based on the Crochet World pattern. You have to buy the magazine to have the pattern. Not hard, but this is the first time I wet block. It is so pretty and many of my friends love it. I intend to make some more using this pattern. However, every issue will have a free pattern posted on their website newsletter. You can browse each issue and find the free patterns you love.

3, This is the infinity scarf I made for the principal of my daughter's preschool. I made the other scarf with this pattern and gave it to my daughter's teacher for Christmas 2013. It was a harsh winter. The teacher told me she used it in the coldest days and it kept her warm. Her scarf was chocolate cupcake color, with pink and brown shades. Then the principal saw her scarf and asked me if I could make her another one. She told me she liked blue and white. Luckily, I have this yarn at home. More information about this yarn here.


The free pattern I used calls for Vanna's choice yarn, which is worsted weight (You have to sign up to reach the pattern). But this kind of yarn is chunkier. After several times I crochet and ripped up, I decided to use 10 mm hook to make the scarf soft, not too tight. So I have to calculate using a little math here. in the pattern using worsted yarn, it says 1 wave is about 4 and a half inch, 199 chains for 11 waves, 1 wave needs 18 stitches. I made 1 wave in this yarn, measured and calculated. So it is about 7 waves for the scarf, so 18 times 7, I will have the chains I need (126 chains).

4,
This is the scarf I made for my mom. In my country, it's not cold enough to wear a thick scarf in the winter. My mom lives in the South but my dad's hometown is in the north. They want to go to the north and enjoy holidays with my relatives this new year. So I decided to make my mom a scarf, using super wash wool I treasured. This is a graph pattern. The website has a lot of free patterns, but I'm not used to it yet. My mom can look at a crochet graph and make a lot of things, but not me. I have to look and write down the pattern a little bit.

Happy crocheting!

Christmas dress for toddler

Christmas was in the past. New year 2015 has come for almost 10 days, but I still want to show off my daughter's Christmas dress. She wore it on Christmas Eve to get the presents from a "fake" Santa - her word. She explained to me that she knew the Santa giving her presents in the room was fake. The real Santa was busy then in North Pole.

This dress was crocheted using Lion Brand Wool Ease yarn I had for 4 years. The pattern is from the back issue of Crochet Today magazine. I still love this magazine though it was closed. The pattern is named "Sunshine Baby Dress". I made one for her in Vanna's Choice yarn- Burgundy color, and she claimed she loved it. Yeah, my daughter loved it because it is swirly, and twirly and long. So I got the pattern out again and made her another one with Christmas color.

I made the edge with Lion Brand Wool Ease - Multi White. I didn't make the button, but used a piece of bias tape which has the Christmas Green color.  Et voila!

Double crochet socks

I need socks. My cold feet need wool socks. However, it does not seem how much I invest in Smartwool socks to be enough. Whenever I started slip my feet into socks, they sweat. Usually, I have to take them off when I stay home, and put them on when my feet feel cold again.

My first purpose when I started to learn how to crochet again is to make myself a pair of wool socks. It was the first time I came here in Illinois, in the frigidly low temperature in the mid-winter. At that time, I wore 2 pair of socks at one time, and felt my feet as if they had been stung by needles, then they were numb. The best way is to stay home, limit the time I was outdoor.

After 5 years, finally, i have my own socks. But not wool yet. Wool yarn is much more expensive than acrylic yarn. I have an abundant of acrylic yarn at home. I have collected them for my daughter's project. They are soft, not itchy, and most importantly, my daughter doesn't have cold feet like me. Dresses or cardigans, hats or scarves made by acrylic yarn are machine washable. I don't have to feel regretful to see my daughter play in mud though she prefers to play cleanly.

Socks from this booklet Learn to Crochet Socks for the Family by Darla Sims are easy to make. I tried this pair without reading the basic instructions at the first pages. The socks I made is named "HDC Doubles for Women". HDC stands for half double crochet. But I made mistakes. I crocheted in double crochet. But it turned out good. Just keep crochet, try on my feet. I did count the rows when I crochet the heel. Love this book. Next time I will try this pattern with wool yarn.

Flower Yoke Top to Dress

I wnet to Idea Store and spot an interesting Crochet Today issue. I bought yarn on sale thinking of making one thing from that issue. I finished it, a dress for my daughter, making it longer from the top pattern. I intended to show off a little bit, and discovered Crochet Today was not being published any more. So sad! I loved this Crochet magazine better than Crochet World or Interweave Crochet because its patterns are always clearly written and diagram included. One pattern was laid out at a time, not like others, the beginning of the pattern was on page 5, and the end was on page 60, for example.
Sigh!
But this is my daughter's dress:

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I bought Red Heart Baby Love yarn on sale in Walmart. The Banana Yellow made me think of her crazy about Bell in "Beauty and the Beast". But when I was crocheting the dress, she told me she already had a yellow dress. At that time, she was into Elsa in Frozen. Poor mom, always late and slow! But when I told her if she didn't like it, I can present it to her friend, she said NO. She tried on eagerly but refused being taken pictures. Perhaps mom show her off so much.

The above picture originally was from Crochet Today July/ August 2009. My daughter is 4, so the yoke for this size needed 9 flowers or 12 flowers for size 8 and 10. But I looked at the picture,  I thought the yoke would stretch and decided to eliminate 1 flower. So, my daughter's dress has 8 instead of 9 flowers. Therefore, the armholes are smaller.
I lengthened the top by adding 4 more rows at the end.
Just hope I can take other pictures when she wears the dress officially!
Happy Crocheting!

Think

I don't know why I keep thinking a lot. Not work anymore. The thoughts wander everything, from my friend's status on facebook or just a response under my note. Everything makes me think.

It seems better for me if I have something occupied my physical body, not my mind. Usually I desire to work. I know, staying home with my child is a kind of work. Homemaker is a better word than housewife. Nope, I am just a stay-home-mom, tired of thinking what to cook every day, bored of playing with my child though I know I have to embrace those moments. She is growing up. Time flies, and I stand still, at one place.

Crocheting makes me stop thinking in a while. Sewing makes me concentrate for a while. I want my whole day free of thinking, not just a while in the morning after dropping her off at her school and before the yoga class. Usually I want myself totally lost in something, which means I have to trade with my child's longing to be beside me. Her smile, her talk keeps me strong in the days I feel weak, just want to leave everything behind.

Just think. Sometimes I feel happy that I can still think. I still exist.

Flowers and shell beanie with brim

This is the beanie I made from the free pattern provided by Sarahndipities. The pattern is for adult but I used smaller hooks, different yarn, and crocheted few rows; so it turned out to be a toddler beanie.
Yarn: Red Heart With Love.
Hook: 4.5 mm
8 rows instead of 10 rows as mentioned in the pattern.

The flower pattern is from Lesley Stanfield's 100 flowers to knit and crochet.

I also made some flowers from the book, attached one to another white hat I made 2 years ago (so lazy to make any embellishments). The pattern for this hat is here. At first, I thought this hat didn't fit my daughter. I made one for her 2 years ago, feeling inspired and made some more using the same pattern. However, she tried it on, tried to fit it on her head and claimed this hers. Finally, she hid it with other hats she owns.

  My daughter even picked up a crocheted daisy and asked me to tie it on her plastic headband. Again, so lazy to make a flower headband for her.

Happy crocheting!