Diagonal Striped Crocheted Pillow

I just finished crocheting this diagonal pillow using the colors that I used in my Cath Kidston granny square afghan.




I just love the stripes.  I found photos of several of these pillows on Pinterest and followed the link to this blog:   The 8th Gem .    She made her pillows using moss stitch.  I really like the look of half double crochets, so that's what I used.  Here's how it looks on our bed.  Think I need more?

The pillow is made by crocheting a chain that is the same length as the diagonal of your pillow form.  You turn and crochet (I did hdcs) back down the chain, add a stitch in the end, and crochet down the other side of the chain.  You keep going around that center chain, creating a tube that fits diagonally around your pillow. It's quick, easy, and I love the look.

She doesn't show how she closed her pillow, so I just made this up.  I stitched about 5 inches in from each corner and then slip stitched along the opening adding loops so that I could button the pillow around the form.  This way I can change to another pillow cover easily.

 

I should be working on UFOs, but I started and finished this pillow pretty quickly.

 I hope you take some time to take a few stitches each day.


Thanks for stopping by! 

Granny Square Love

Sorry.....I was tweaking some settings on my blog and accidentally took this post down.

This is one of the crochet books that I got for Christmas.  Granny Square Love by Sarah London is a great little book for granny square inspiration even if you already know how to make granny squares.




I love this photo with the little yarn balls in the bright colored plastic strainer!  

Look at this colorful market bag.  If I make this it will probably be used to carry a yarn or quilting project.

Christmas stockings.  I've thought about changing out our usual Christmas stockings.  We have the red velvet stockings with the white cuff, and our names are "written" on with glitter.

This pillow would be nice if you read in bed or if you have small children around.

 

These projects look like they would be pretty quick to do either for yourself or they would make great gifts. I think the granny square is my favorite crochet block, and I'm glad it is making a comeback all over the internet.

Here is the granny square afghan that I finished this fall.








  I hope you are finding some time to make a few stitches today.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Still Making Christmas Ornaments

I am still in Christmas mode and have been making  Christmas ornaments.  This little crochet stocking is pretty easy to make.  The pattern is over on Angie's (Sucrette) blog.  You can find the pattern, Little Christmas Socks, listed over on her side bar.   I think several of these would be cute all crocheted together in a chain.  This was my first try.  I think I need to move up a needle size on the next one.  The "lumpy row" by the heel is where I crocheted over my threads.  Next time I will take time to sew them in instead.  I also realized that I grabbed the wrong size crochet hook after I was finished.






Last year my daughter and I made these tiny Christmas stocking ornaments from a pattern that she adapted.  She drew up the fair aisle designs.  You can see how small these are compared to my Starbucks mug.



You've seen all of those neat red and white knit Christmas ornaments all over the internet.  This is my first attempt at knitting a Christmas ball.  I love these things, but it has been so long since I've knit anything on double point needles that it just felt awkward.  So I have to practice on this one for awhile.  I'm thinking that maybe I can come up with a pattern that is knit flat and then stitched up afterwards.  I know the time to work on Christmas things (at least for me) is right now while Christmas is still fresh on my mind.  Stay tuned.

 

If you have a pattern or a link for these knit Christmas balls, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Crochet Year In Review

Here is my crochet year in review with a little bit of knitting thrown in from time to time.

During the winter, I worked on two afghans plus a quilt for my new grandson, Daniel.  This is the finished wavy ripple afghan that I gave him.

This was an attempt at the afghan you see above.  After I crocheted awhile I saw it was going to be too long and narrow.  I tried adding a border but wasn't satisfied with it.  It is in a sack somewhere with more yarn to be repurposed next year or donated.




Two baby hats I knit for Daniel.



This is granny squares set with a granny ripple crochet.  This is as much as I've finished.



I made a few cotton dishcloths.  Here are just a couple of them.





I crocheted this granny square afghan as a gift for a friend's granddaughter.






This was a crochet along that started with two squares of fabric sewn together with a buttonhole stitch around the edge finished by crochet.  I just made the one square.



I get a lot of email about my Mitered Square Sock Blanket.  I started it awhile ago but once in awhile I pull it out and add a few squares.



I rewrote the tutorial to show how to join the squares and add squares on the sides.



This is my progress on it to date.



I buy fleece remnants at our local fabric shop, go around the edge with a skip stitch blade that I ordered on line, and crochet an edging on them.  After I've done a few, I donate them to our local chapter of Project Linus.




I found this photo taken this year and don't know what (or where) it is.  I don't know why there is the one plain gold row and the rest is granny stitch.





I had this photo posted on my blog for this past year, but I think that I finished most of this giant granny square afghan last year.

I might have made it larger and added this Ole Ole border from Sucrette's blog this year.

This is a pile of granny squares for my Cath Kidston granny square afghan.

Here it is finished.

I made a couple of African Flower blocks.  I'd like to make more of these in 2013.

This was a Babette Blanket that I started.  I just don't really like it, so it is a bag somewhere.

Knit entrelac scarf.  Two more skeins to go.

Here are my three attempts at the Mixed Stitch Afghan stitch along over at Little Woolie's blog.  I started this over three times and started a pillow, but there is one part of it that just won't lay flat.  So I started my own mixed stitch blanket over again......also in a bag somewhere.

Katrin over at Cattinka blog started me on Dragon's Tail scarves.  This is my first one.

I made this one as a Christmas gift for my daughter-in-law, and I have a third one on the needles.

In the fall I started this shell afghan.  

And I finished my granny stripe afghan.

I hope you have enjoyed my year in review yarn projects.  

Thanks for stopping by my blog.  It's been nice getting to know many of you this past year, and I appreciate your comments.  I hope you will visit again in 2013!

 Happy New Year to you!

Crocheted Christmas Afghans and Tree Skirt

Here are some of my crocheted Christmas afghans.  I'm late posting these, but I've been a bit under the weather the past week.

This one is a simple ripple.

Shell afghan in red, white and green.  Here is my shell afghan tutorial link.



Big granny square afghan made with red/white/green variegated yarn.  This one was made by my Mom.

Another big granny square afghan.  I made this one.

This is one of my white Christmas tree skirts made from this pattern on my blog.  I think it looks much more elegant in the white and silver glitter yarn.  It's an easy pattern in any color combination, and I like how it looks under the tree.



We had a nice Christmas, and hope you did, too!

Thanks for visiting!

Easy Crocheted Hexagon Christmas Tree Skirt

This is a tree skirt that I made for our family room tree years ago.  I think this was before I knew much about matching yarn dye lots.  This is really a simple pattern, and it is quick to work.  I also have a couple of these tree skirts in off white glitter yarn that I use under two of my other trees.

 

Worsted weight yarn  (about  15 ounces)  I'm not really sure that I used that much.

Size I crochet hook  (I usually just use whatever the skein of yarn calls for)

Round 1:

Chain 27

Double crochet in the 4th chain from the hook;  *in next chain work (DC, chain 1, DC) (for the corners); double crochet in each of the next 3 chains; repeat from * four times; then work (DC, chain 1, DC) in next chain, double crochet in each of the last 2 chains, chain 3 turn.  Now that is the hard part..... (I tried to count the chains

Rounds 2-???
Skip 1st double crochet, double crochet in each double crochet around, working (DC, chain 1, DC) in each chain 1 space from the previous row.  Chain 3 and turn at the end.

Keep going until the skirt is the size you want.  For my big tree I did 46 rounds.  For smaller trees I did 30 rounds.

Happy crocheting.  If you have any questions email me at lakrug@comcast.net.  This is a really quick pattern, and I have made it many times.

I hope you are almost ready for Christmas and that you take time to at least pick up your hooks a bit each day.

Thanks for stopping by today!   

Granny Stripe Afghan Finish

I just finished my granny stripe afghan today.  Here it is on our king sized bed.  It is just a bit short of covering the whole bed, but it is really heavy and will sure be warm.




Here is a photo of it taken sideways on the bed.  I think maybe it would be better used this way on a smaller bed.  Or I could always fold this one down and leave it at the end of the bed.

 

I first did a single crochet border doing two rows of each color, but it ended up being too tight and started curling.

I ripped out all of the single crochet borders and did one row of half double crochet in each color.

I love this afghan and hope to finish more of my UFOs in the New Year.

 

You can find my Granny Stripe Afghan tutorial in my blog post here.

Hope you are finding time to take a few stitches every day.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.