Coffee Cup Cozy

Some sugary creamy coffee in my cup :)

Since I am highly dependent on caffeine and love my coffee I decided to make the popular cup cozy that you can find pictures of all over the internet.

It's a very easy and instant gratification projects. It doesn't use much yarn so you can use extra yarn you have laying around or pick up some to match your home decor (I lucked out and had some Sugar n Cream brand lime green yarn on hand - which matches my living room) I am a huge fan of bright big buttons so this project just screamed my name.

 You can look it this and pretty much figure out out it's done just by looking. I used the tuturial that I posted below but since each cup if different in size there isn't any set pattern. I will tell you the steps of what I did....


*Start by making a chain, you want your chain to be a little bigger than the cup. Wrap your chain around the cup to check the size, you want about and inch extra.
*Pick your stitch, I used Single Crochet, but you could use SC, HDC or DC. It all depends on what you like best. (for these instructions I'm going to use SC)
*SC in each stitch, ch 1 and turn, repeat until it becomes the height that is appropriate for the cup you want to use it with
*Now you want to SC down the "short" side (not the side you have been working on)
*Chain 3 and slip stitch to connect the two sides
*SC up the other "short" side so that now you are back at the "top"
*Attach the button to the opposite side
*You will now want to put the cozy onto the cup
*Chain enough so you can wrap it around the button and slip stitch it back into the sitch where you started the chain
*Fasten off and weave in the ends




I used this tutorial for my cozy: Cozy Pattern
 Tip: When it comes to making the chain to go around the button I suggest switching to a smaller hook size. I used an H (5mm) hook for the cozy and a G (4.25mm) hook for the button chain.


On mine I didn't do standard Single Crochet stitch, I did in the back loops then once turned I did in just the front loops, then the back and so on. I noticed when you do the in the "back loops stitch" you end up with a stripe type of line on the reverse side and I don't really like that so I found if you go from back to front then all the stripe lines are on one side. I made the side with the stripes the inner side, I really liked how it came out.

Coffee Cozy

Now go brew up some coffee and kick up your feet with your adorable cup cozy!

"Divine" Beanie OBESSION

Divine hat

So when my eyes first landed on a picture (the exact same picture as I posted to the left) of the Divine beanie an overwhelming feeling came over me:
1. Holy crap, I want, no need......NO, I MUST make this beanie!
2. Intimidation, it's looks very complicated
3. Do I have enough yarn to do one right now?

I had never used a back or front post stitch (I'm still very new to crochet) so I watched a tutorial, did some practice stitches and felt confident enough to get going on the pattern. 

Once I got started I couldn't stop, I've made so many of these hats already! I highly recommend this pattern, its easy and awesome! You can finish it in one day, gotta love those instant gratification projects!

Me wearing the Divine hat with "alternative" border stitching

 Alternative border: I personally really enjoy "skull cap" style beanies so I decided to make my hot pink hat more of a skull cap rather than a beanie. If you would like to do that also its simple. After you finish  Rnd. 7 on the pattern (SC around) do 1 more round of SC in each stitch and boom, you're done! 

3 finished 1 still in the making   (all with Caron SS)

Link for the pattern: http://www.rheatheylia.com/index.php?page=patterns&id=10

Divine beanie

* I used this website for a couple of the pictures because their pictures were perfect and really showed the detail, also because it was those pictures that made me fall in love with the hat and decide to make it.

Finding FREE Cute Crochet Patterns...YIKES!

"Free" is not always free when it comes to searching for crochet patterns. I always seem to get reeled into a site by the claim of free patterns then I get there and its only 1 super crappy free pattern, ugh!


When the idea of learning to crochet was first presented to me it was in an article about how to reduce your stress levels, I decided that crochet seemed like a perfect stress busting craft. Since most (nearly 100%) of the stress I had was all revolved around money (and how I have none!!) a cheap hobby would be ideal.
The idea of buying a pattern for $5+ rubs me the wrong way. No disrespect to anyone who spends lots of time designing patterns, I know you work very hard and you should earn some cash for your hard work. If I had the money I would buy your patterns in a quick second!

After going through hundreds (literally)of websites/blogs trying to find the best free patterns I thought to myself...there must be so many other people out there doing this also so I figured I could track my projects and share them. I ONLY make items with free patterns! I would think that after going through Caron, Lion Brand and many other yarn brand websites I could come up with more free patterns than my wishlist of paid ones.....but it's about even so my hunt continues, I have many many awesome patterns that I'm excited to try out and hopefully you will join me along the way :)

The Pretty Puffs Slouchy Hat with Matching Scarf

I saw a picture online of this beautiful beanie/beret that used a few rows of puff stitch and it looked amazing so I knew I wanted to try it. I went to the website and tried to find the pattern and failed, the link was "broken" UGH! I saw comments from many people asking where could they find it or one similar to it. After searching and searching for the pattern I managed to find 2 websites that listed the pattern, it was identical. Now I have no clue which was the original poster/designer of the pattern so I thought I would post both links. I also found a site of this girl who loves the pattern and made the hats in many different colors and cool color mixes. she inspired me to make it more than just 1 color.

Inspiration links: 
Color inspriration
Ravelry page

Pattern links:
Link #1
Link #2

For mine I used a multi colored yarn for the puff stitch rows and a single color for the rest. I used Caron Simply Soft brand for both colors of yarn.

Puff Stitch on Pretty Puffs Slouchy Hat

I REALLY liked how it came out so I tried to find a scarf pattern that would match and I couldnt find one so I just created my own. I thought it looked nice with 1 row of puff stitch going down the scarf, I tried to make the stitching on the scarf match the "headband" part of the hat


Here's the Ravelry page for this scarf - Add it to your library!

Scarf: 

Make a chain the desired length you would like for your scarf
Row 1:   SC down the entire chain, Ch. 1, turn.
Row 2:   SC across, Ch 3, turn (If you are using 2 different colors like I did you want to switch your color before you Ch. 3)
Row 3:   Puff stitch in first stitch, ch. 1, skip next stitch and DC in the next stitch, ch1. Continue to Puff stitch, ch1, skip one stitch, DC in next stitch across, ch 1 (you're going into every other stitch). Ch 3, turn
Row 4:   (If using 2 colors, switch back to original color now) SC in each stitch across, ch. 1, turn

Repeat Row 4 until the scarf is as wide as you want

 
For my scarf I decided to go with an offset row of puffs but if you would like your row centered then simply add more rows of SC before you do your row of puff stitches, or you could also do more rows of puff stitches versus just one. There is a lot of freedom to mix up the pattern so have fun with it.
Enjoy :)

Pretty puffs beanie and matching scarf

My completed scarf, I love the super soft fringe

V-Day cheer

So with some pink and red yarn in hand and V-day approaching I wanted a cute, easy and fun project to bring some V-day cheer into my little apartment. As I was looking online to find some projects I kept coming across wreaths which were all adorable but I did not want to make 20+ flowers or hearts and put them all on a ring tube thing that I had to go out and buy = waaaaay more work and money than I wanted to put into it!

Crochet hearts

Crochet heart

So.... I decided to make my own. It came out pretty cute and did not take long to make so I thought I would share how I made it.

1. Find an old cardboard box and use a mixing bowl or any large bowl to trace a circle
2. Measure 1 inch around that circle all the way around and cut it out. You will now have a cardboard ring that is 1 inch wide.
3. Make a chain about 1 inch longer than the length of your ring.
4. Single crochet in the chain and make 5 rows of single crochet (I used a J Hook)
5.  Use a tapestry needle and use the borders of the piece you just made to sew the piece onto the ring. I used some scotch tape to hold in it place and worked my way around the ring. The back side will look messy but that is okay.
6.Once you get to the "top" where both ends of it meet attach it with the tapestry needle and use the extra to make a loop for it to hang from.
7. Make some hearts, as many as you want, whatever sizes you want and attach them

I made an amigurumi heart which you can find the pattern many place but I used this one:
http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2011/01/crochet-pattern-little-heart-plushy.html

(which by the way...I used crumpled toilet paper to stuff it since I didn't have cotton balls and didn't want to spend any $ on this project, you can see the white a little bit on mine but oh well)

Amigurumi Crochet heart

and I attached it to the top and made others of different color and sizes and just attached them where I thought fit. Here is the link to the page I used for the other hearts.

http://www.planetjune.com/blog/free-crochet-patterns/love-hearts/


Unfortunately my camera is not the best but I took these pics to share
(if anybody reads this..) and wants to make it and has trouble let me know and I will try to help.

Valentine's Day heart wreath

My crochet virginity

My crochet cherry was popped! My first project was a scarf which I think is the best first project. I did a single crochet scarf with a J hook and added some fringe to the end. I didn't use a pattern I just kept going till it was the size I wanted. I used a multicolored yarn, I'm pretty sure it was Heart Saver brand. I regret going with the heart saver because it is not soft at all but still very pretty. 

Hello Blogger!

So I recently took up the art of crochet and while learning and searching for patterns I quickly realized that anyone who's anyone in the crochet community has a blog. Although (no offense) I didn't find many with the focus on projects that I would make personally. Which are FREE, trendy and not ridiculously difficult. So I figured why not make a blog and share my experiences. Also, I thought it would be a good way for me to keep track of my projects and maybe share it with others....(that is if anybody even reads it)

Some beautiful colorful yarn

While learning to crochet I ran into a big issue, one I didn't think would be one until I went to watch tutorials on how to crochet. I'm left handed. I managed to find some great left handed Youtube videos for when I was just learning to make a chain, SC, DC etc.

I overcame that small hurdle and now I have successfully completed many projects! I feel like I have a accomplished A LOT for a beginner, I don't mean to toot my own horn (but toot-toot!) I've only been at the hook for a month now and I can do: slip, single, halfdouble, double, triple, front & back post and puff stitch. WOOO! I've gone a little crazy with it. I'm going to document my projects and share them.

Thanks for reading! :)