Recent Crochet Orders

One of the teachers at my kids's elementary school contacted me and asked if I could make some sort of kitty hat for her two year old niece, and then something (non-pink) girly in stripes for the newborn sister.


A friend ordered an adult size newsboy hat (not pictured because I've already shared one previously). She said she already had all the flowers from having ordered the headwrap, so she may as well have the newsboy hat as well! LOL While we were discussing size, she asked if I thought I could make a coffee cozy with a bus on it, so I sat down and figured one out:


THEN, she mentioned wishing she'd kept one of the coffee cozies she'd ordered before Christmas for herself, so I suggested ordering one with a button, as a third way to use the flowers she's already got:


I've been meaning to make myself a cozy like that!

I also got an order for a matching kid and American Doll hat. I offered a discount if they let me borrow the doll (since Emily Grace doesn't have one) for a couple of days to test out a few hat designs to keep for myself as size guides for any potential future orders. Since this was just for me to keep as a size guide, I didn't mess with fun stripes or flowers or anything:


I also did one with ear flaps and tassels so I have a guide for future reference on placing the ear flaps, which is the style the family opted for (done in the school colors where the dad coaches and the older brothers play high school sports)


While I had the doll in my posession, I couldn't resist whipping up a little newsboy hat. Cutest EVER! (Again, not decorated since it's just for me to have a size guide)

Latest Crochet Projects

I've been wanting to work on a crochet head wrap, but hadn't gotten around to it. The perfect opportunity came along when a friend put in an order. I got straight to work on the head wrap and the interchangeable flowers. I'm quite pleased with how it all turned out!!


I've also been wanting to make Emily Grace a newsboy hat, but hadn't found a free pattern I was interested in, and hadn't decided on what colors to commit to. After doing the interchangeable flowers for the headwrap, it gave me the push I needed to work on Em's hat. I chose light gray since that would coordinate with just about anything, and I made a bunch of interchangeable flowers so she can change up her look. Here she is posing in the sparkly purple flower version


I ended up buying a newsboy hat pattern online because I just wasn't finding what I wanted in the free category. This hat comes out really thick and warm!


I made the kids beard hats for Christmas! I even lined the hats with leftover fleece from when I made them all pajamas and robes for their birthdays. The beards button on/off so the hats can be used seperately if they want, and it makes the beard a little more adjustable for different sized faces.


Lookin' tough!


Dan asked for a Mr. T beard hat after he saw the kids's hats, so I scrambled to finish it before he left for his quick trip to PA for the Steelers game at the end of December.

Zebra Hats

Back in November, I got an order for baby boy and baby girl zebra hats for boy/girl twins due late February or early March of 2013. Once the hats were completed, the lady ordering them asked me to do a pink/blue combo one for the mommy-to-be. I finished the orders awhile ago, but haven't coordinated getting delivering them yet.

I actually meant to post this picture yesterday, but I messed up the "schedule" feature and it didn't post.


Later in the day yesterday afternoon, as I was realizing my post hadn't posted, I also found out that the babies had been born that day--at only 26 weeks gestation. The girl weighed 1lb 4oz and the boy weighed 1lb 8oz. Please keep the two babies in your thoughts!

Holiday Spirit

Ignore the ugly plastic in the background of this photo... Our neighborhood is having a new water system put in (which has been going on for what feels like FOREVER now!), and someone decided that the shoulder where the school bus picks up the kids would be a fantastic place to leave giant piles of dirt covered in plastic (which still manages to make a really disgusting muddy mess in the rain!).

That said, here are the kids sporting their holiday hats! Connor's is a knit Christmas tree hat I made back when he was just a baby (one of my very first projects, and obviously I wasn't too clear on how to adjust patterns properly! LOL! This tree hat will fit him forever, I think!). Em's is a crochet hat I whipped up for her this month (she wants me to make sure and point out that the white stripes and the white flower are sparkly), and Jared's elf hat is a crochet hat I actually used a PAID pattern for.






Jared likes his hat so much, he's even been sleeping with it on!

Recent crochet projects

A small sampling of what I've been up to lately!

My friend Kaci asked me if I could make an elephant coffee cozy for her. I initially thought making a gray cozy with a trunk, eyes, and ears attached (so the cozy would look like the elephant's face) would be the easiest way to go, but it was an epic failure... I tossed THAT attempt aside and perused the internet for a free applique pattern, and would I couldn't find any, I inspected an image I found online and did my best to recreate it.


Kaci's sister emailed and ordered a whole bunch of cozies!


A teacher at the kids's school ordered headbands for her twin nieces


She also ordered tiger and raccoon hats for her nephews


Another friend ordered a baby hat in these colors for a baby shower she's attending soon


Emily wanted me to make a hat to use as part of the gift for a birthday party she was attending


Word of mouth about baby hats/headbands and coffee cozies have kept me VERY busy filling ordres the last couple of weeks! A HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported me with your business lately. XOXO

Coffee cozies here, coffee cozies there...

Coffee cozies everywhere!

It all started with a Facebook post of a my 16oz white chocolate irish cream frappe in a cute cozy I'd made myself


What happened shortly afterwards was an awesome whirlwind of compliments and orders! I've filled orders to the tune of approximately 30 cozies in all colors, varying flowers, and size requests over the last three weeks. I wish I'd taken a picture of my front seat piled with cozies as I went around meeting up with the recipients around town. LOL

Here is just a small sample of what I've done lately, per request of friends/family:


Even got some orders for some boy-themed cozies, in addition to the girly ones:


What I love about the cozies is that they work better than the cardboard ones available at the coffee stands, they're usable for hot AND cold drinks (keeps the cold and condensation off your hands for the cold drinks, and keeps your fingers from being burned on the hot drinks--not to mention helps keep your drink hot longer), and they're REUSABLE, which means less paper waste. Sort of a win/win/win if you ask me! *grin*

Baby Hats

Baby hats are probably my most favorite thing to crochet. They whip up so quickly, and purely based on the small size (though I'll toot my own own and claim some skill and design involvement as well! LOL), they're adorable! They're useful, cute, and parents love receiving the hats.

Here are two I made recently:

This is for my friend Kristina's son. She really likes the owl stuff for babies, but most of it is geared towards girls, so I said I would work on an owl hat that wouldn't be girly. I picked traditional boy colors, and left off the braids that normally dangle down from the ear flaps.


I made this one for a friend's new niece. I made it a little big so it would work better further into the fall/winter, instead of making a newborn size that only lasts the first month (if that).

Baby Hats

There is a teacher at my kids's school, who is due to have her first baby any day now. I love an excuse to craft, so decided to crochet a few baby hats as a little gift. I did two newborn-ish sized hats, and two that are a little bit bigger, so hopefully at some point, they all fit for at least a little while!


I couldn't resist doing a monster hat; it's so close to Halloween, and they're so much fun to make!

Mom's blanket

I had originally planned to crochet my mom a blanket as part of her Christmas present, but then had the genius idea less than a week prior to her birthday that if I gave it to her as a birthday gift, she'd have more time this fall/winter to use it, so then I made a valiant attempt at completing it in time. In less than a week, I was able to complete half of it (kids were off at camp so I sat around most of each day working on it!), but it took me almost three weeks to complete the last half with the kids being around again. Better late than never, right?

I forgot to take a picture of it with my good camera, so snapped one with my cell phone from my mom's house. Washes out the colors a bit, but you get the idea. I love how it calls for four colors, but is a three row repeating pattern, so the colors alternate through the pattern differently. Mom's favorite color is green, so I did the blanket in four shades of green.

Monkey Crochet

Emily got a little instruction book for crocheting tiny animals as part of a birthday gift from one of her good friends. Em's still working on the basics right now, but I was looking through the instruction book and found a monkey pattern! I figured it would whip up pretty quickly, based on it's completed size, so set to work making it for Connor.

Turns out, the tiny little monkey was a royal pain in the behind, and I told him he'd better be careful not to lose/destroy the little monkey because I wasn't making him another one! The other animals look like they will be much easier; it was the skinny little arms, legs, and tail that made the monkey so tricky. I was actually supposed to stuff the arms and legs and tail, and that was absolutely NOT happening. The little monkey is lucky to have his hands and feet stuffed! LOL

He still needs eyes, and I went ahead and added the green shirt "just for fun", but all in all, he's pretty cute, and Connor was thrilled to get him. Connor named him Tiny.

My kids's blankets

I never got around to posting pictures of the blankets I made for each of the kids for their birthdays, so here they are!


Close-up of some of the "sunburst" granny squares from Emily's blanket, plus the ruffle border


Close-up of Jared's zig-zag, or Chevron pattern blanket, in the requested Seahawks colors (as close as I could get to the colors anyway!)


Close-up of Connor's waffle pattern blanket, done in jungle-ish colors, with the intention of finding a cute crochet monkey pattern to make him to go with it (two-tone brown monkey wearing a green shirt)

Crocheted baby blanket

Here's my most recent crochet project, completed!


I had originally planned to have three cars along the road (one green, one dark blue, and one red), but the crocheted applique made the blanket a little thick/stiff, so I opted to just do the one car off to the side instead. I did the blanket using the same zigzag pattern I'd used on Jared's blanket, but swiped an idea I'd seen online by incorporating the road into the zigzag pattern. I love how it turned out!

Posting this blanket reminds me I still haven't posted pictures of the blankets I made for each of my kids for their birthdays... Better get on that!

When good ideas go bad...

Connor asked me to make him a monkey coffee cozy, and I figured it'd be pretty easy. Well, decently easy enough, but not very cute! hahahahaha!


It was a good thought, and he thought it was fantastic, so that's what counts...

Actually, despite having asked specifically for a monkey coffee cozy, when I gave it to him, he thought it was a wrist band, and wondered where the other one was. If it hadn't been tricky enough already just doing the face on the cozy (getting it small enough to fit on the cozy), I could be seriously tempted to make him two smaller ones to have as wrist bands. How hilarious is he?? Monkey wrist bands; he'll start a new trend!

Blanket Donation

I crocheted this blanket in order to donate it to the Community Inclusion Program auction, which my in-laws are very involved in.




I'd originally intended it to be a baby blanket, but it was pointed out to me by several different people that it was a great size to be a lap blanket for at the office, or at the computer at home... So I guess it could by hyped up either way! I forgot to measure it so can't be positive, but I'm guessing it's about 32in X 44in. Somewhere around there.

It got TONS of compliments from people who saw me working on it (I had it with me a few times at the dance studio while Emily was in class!). I'd started to second-guess the BRIGHT colors (in case you're interested, it's Caron Simply Soft yarn, colors Peach, Lemon, Persimmon, and Tangerine), but people stopped constantly and raved over how pretty the colors were, so I'm glad I went ahead and used them. Hopefully it brings in a decent amount of money. *fingers crossed* It's so soft and warm; it was hard to part with in the end! LOL

HATS!! (and more hats!)

I made Eva an owl hat as part of her birthday present (can you believe she's two??)


I purposely made it a little big since winter is basically over for this year; that way it'll for sure fit nicely for next fall/winter.


Alisa found a hat online that looked like hair, with some cute flowers clustered on one side, and asked if I could do something similar. Turned out pretty cute!


She also asked if I could make Eva's cousin, Bella, an owl hat as well.


I attended a baby shower over the weekend for my friends, Kristina and Jess, and their newly adopted son, Mikey. Couldn't resist making him a monkey hat, similar to the one Connor has!

Crochet projects

Along with my new crocheting skills comes a need to recreate the adorable animal hats I keep seeing on baby heads around town this winter...

Here's my first attempt at an owl hat:


And check out the adorable head it gets to be worn by (I worried from this picture that the hat was too small, but mom Kaci assures me it's just not pulled down all the way because she was in a hurry)


Big Sis, Elly, requested a monster hat


I was trying out a new stitch with some yarn scraps, so ended up making a small carseat blanket for Emmy (pictured above, and then a close-up view of the stitch below)

Yarn Projects

All three kids in their finished monster hats:


side view of Jared's (he requested a mohawk!)


The main reason I wanted to learn how to crochet was to be able to do different flowers. There are SO many more options for flowers when you crochet instead of knit. I sat myself down in front of some youtube videos and made these pretty flowers!


I was going to attempt a crocheted rose as well, but the power went out. Instead, I sat down and made a little hat in order to attach one of the flowers I'd already made to it.


The hat pictured above turned out to be too narrow for the baby I had in mind, so I ripped out a few rows, redid the ruffle, reattached the flower, and now I have a hat for a much younger baby (which I'll be sending off sooner than later, Kaci!).


Last, but not least, Connor's teacher had pinned the scarf on the left on Pinterest, and I hunted around on Google for a pattern that came close to what she'd pinned, and made it for her (on the right side). Crummy cell phone picture, but you get the idea!


It's much softer than it looks in the picture, FYI!