Go beyond the granny square

We are in the middle of a cold snap. Last night’s low was 28 degrees. This cooler weather has me looking up patterns for warm accessories. One really cool item is wrist warmers.

They are basically fingerless gloves. Gloves are great but it’s so hard to do some tasks with gloves on. These wrist warmers are easy to crochet up and different stitches can be used to add interest to them. Right now I do mine with half double crochet and working in either the front or back loop to get the pattern I want.

We are going to a high school football game Friday, so I’m making a pair for my daughter since she really doesn’t wear gloves. These do really help to keep your whole hand warm. Here is a simple pattern to try from Crochet Pattern Central.

This weekend we had our annual Trunk or Treat event with our local playgroup. The little one was Little Red Riding Hood. I crocheted the cape and after seeing her wear it, there are a few improvements that need to be made.

First, I still think the hood is too big. My husband says that it is suppose to be big like a cowl but I still find it way too big for the cape. I didn’t add the button to it as I’m not sure I put a button hole in it, so the cape tends to slide off her shoulders. A fix for this will be to add some sleeves inside the cape for her to put her arms. It’ll help to keep her warm and the cape on her shoulders.

I also added a hook made from i-cord to hang up the cape. Since this cape is at least two shades of red, my husband also suggested to make another few rows progressively darker so that the lighter hood looks to be part of the pattern instead of a mistake.

It was fun to make her outfit this year. This is probably the last year that I get to choose what she will be for Halloween. Hopefully next year she will want to be something that I will be able to crochet, too.

Halloween is fast approaching and many people will be crafting their own decorations. With the rising cost of food, why worry with buying pumpkins this year for decoration when you can crochet as many as you need? Small pumpkins are just plain cute and fun to display.

I created this small pumpkin pattern because I had wanted a crocheted pumpkin that had the characteristics of the fall fruit. One that would bulge out as it got taller and then fold back to the small size near the stem.

Here are the abbreviations along with definitions of terms used in this pattern.

Ch stands for chain, which is the basic stitch that begins practically all crochet projects. Start with a slip knot and then grab the yarn with the hook and pull it through the loop on the hook.

SC is for single crochet. A single crochet is done by inserting the hook into a stitch and then grabbing the yarn with the hook. Then pull the yarn back through the loop. Now you have two loops on the hook. Now yarn over, or grab the yarn again with the hook and pull it through both loops.

Sl St means to perfom a slip stitch. Insert the hook into the stitch and grab the yarn with the hook. Then pull the yarn through the stitch and the loop on the hook.

Sc2tog is the abbreviation for single crochet 2 together. This is done to decrease the number of stitches in a round. Basically you will begin a single crochet by inserting the hook and pulling the yarn through so that you have two loops on the hook. Then insert your hook into the next stitch. Grab the yarn and pull through so that you have three loops on the hook. Now grab the yarn and pull through all three loops.

This pumpkin measures three inches wide. Gauge is not that important for this project.

Small Pumpkin

chain(ch) 2

Round 1: Work six single crochet(sc) into first chain. Now join the last sc with the first one with a slip stitch(sl st).

Round 2: Ch 1. Work 3 sc into first single crochet stitch. Use a sl st to join with the second single crochet. In the third single crochet(of the six), work three sc. In the fourth, join with a sl st. For the fifth single crochet, work three sc into the stitch. Join it with the sixth single crochet with a sl st.

Round 3:  Ch 1. Work 3 sc into next stitch and join with a sl st into next stitch. Skip one stitch. Continue to work 3 sc into next stitch, join, and skip the next stitch until the end of the round.

Round 4: It’s time to decrease the size. Ch 1. Work 1 sc into next stitch and then single crochet the next two stitches(sc2tog) together. Repeat until end of round.

Round 5: Ch 1. Work one sc into each stitch all the way around.

Round 6: Ch 1. Sc2tog the whole round. Continue to decrease until the top of the pumpkin is closed up.

Stem of the pumpkin

Join yarn to the top of the pumpkin. Ch 1 and work four sc into the pumpkin in a circle.

Round 2: Sc in round (4 sc)

Round 3: Sc in round (4sc)

Round 4: Sc2tog (2sc)

Round 5: Sl st together the top of the stem.

There are many crocheters who enjoy doing what they love while watching TV. Last night I was working on some crochet pumpkins. I wasn’t following a pattern as I’m hoping to work up one to share here by the weekend. We got DirecTV last week so we are enjoying ‘information overload’ as we adjust to 250 plus channels.

We have a lot of movie channels free for the first 3 months. Last night I watched ‘The Davinci Code’ while I crocheted some pumpkins. Not all movies are good for crocheting. This one wasn’t and here’s why.

There were two groups who were after the same thing in the movie and keeping up with who belonged to whom was a little challenging. Also some of the movie is spoken in French, so there was some reading involved. Also not good for if you are trying to crochet as I had to watch the screen a lot instead of watching my crochet.

So some shows and even movies are better for crocheting along with. Those with complex plots or in another language are not the best. If you are not following a pattern and just creating, then any movie can work because you don’t have to worry about losing your place.

With Christmas fast approaching, I’ve been planning my Christmas crochet gifts out and actually starting to do a few of them. One I’ve been working on this week is a baby blanket for my great nephew who was born in September. I found this cute yarn on clearance at Hobby Lobby and bought 3 skeins. I should have bought more since I ran out of yarn before I finished my first idea.

I was going to make a huge square with a yellow border. Once that idea didn’t pan out, I’m onto my second one. Now I’m making 6×6 squares, with a slightly larger hook, with a 2 inch border. Then I will join them and use i-cord to put his initials on 3 of the squares. This idea will be a little harder to do than my first idea simply because I’ve never joined squares before. You join squares with a slip stitch and can use a different color to make it stand out or use the same color so it blends in.

This blanket now will take longer that I had anticipated. I feel the Christmas crunch already. It might be time to work easier projects along with this one so I get everything completed by December.

Are you ready for Halloween? We’re getting close but not quite there. There are plenty of cute free patterns from Lion Brand. Also many bloggers/designers are sharing their creations with the Internet at large. Here’s a sampling.

From The Crochet Dude, here’s a scary I want my Mummy bag. It’d be a frightfully cool Halloween bag.

Monster Crochet offers a cute bag applique for Halloween.

Here is a fall pattern. It’s for Indian corn. Wouldn’t that be attractive as part of any centerpiece?

If you are a member of Raverly, check the pattern section for more as well as Crochetville and Craftster.org.

Since I have finally finished the red cape, I’ve been planning my next project. There are several things I hope to finish by Christmas. Among them are a baby blanket, finger puppets, and cupcake purses. I also have a few projects for the home that include a butterfly rug and floor pillows. Now what do I want to crochet next?

It looks like it will be the baby blanket I found on Ravelry. The pattern is available through Lion Brand. I’m hoping to use some stash yarn to make it and pray that I have enough.

This simple blanket uses a v-stitch, which will be a new one for me. This is one reason why I want to try it now in case it doesn’t work out so well. The v-stitch is a double crochet, then a chain, then another double crochet in the same stitch. The pattern calls for two balls of yarn. That I have, so hopefully I will have enough as this particular yarn was on clearance and might be hard to track down again.

Hopefully the pattern won’t take long to do, and I can finish it this week. I really need to get moving on these Christmas projects as the holiday will be here before I know it.

The Special Olympics scarf project is just one of many charity projects out there that is asking for crocheted items for their cause. There are too many to list individually, but here are a few as well as some links to more encompassing sources and patterns.

Mother Bear Project asks crocheters to make a bear using their pattern(pattern costs $5) to send to children who have been affected by HIV/Aids in developing countries.

The Binky Patrol donates homemade baby blankets to children who need comfort. Binkies can be sewn, knitted, crocheted, or quilted. Most patterns are accepted as long as it is soft, washable, and can survive the highest setting in the dryer.

Crocheting Hearts is an organization that donates crocheted blankets to kids with cancer. Each blanket is prayed over and anointed before sending it to someone. They also ship to individual children, so you can sign up to have one sent to a child battling cancer.

Other resources -

Crochet n more has a great list of charities that is very comprehensive.

Crochetville.org also has an outstanding list of crochet charity causes.

Lion Brand has several free charity patterns if you are looking to donate something and need a pattern.

This Halloween, instead of buying those little plastic bags to stuff treats in, why not crochet up some of these easy Halloween treat bags? These were really simple to do and just really are made up of single crochet. I had made this pattern for eHow but wanted to share it here. You can whip up one of these in about an hour and one skein will make several.

Lion Brand has some trick or treat bags. Theirs are for the kids to use to collect their treats. Just do a search under patterns on the Lion Brand website. You do have to register - which is free - with their website to have access to their patterns.

Making your own Hallowen treat bag can be a treat in itself for the kids as they will have a lasting bag and something that can be used to carry books, toys, or even clothes in. A crocheted treat bag could definitely be a hit this Halloween. With such easy patterns, it’s a project that anyone can do in one evening.

The cape is coming along nicely. Only a few more rows until I get to the final step of finishing it. In the picture you can really see the difference in dye lots even though the color says it’s a no dye lot. Lesson learned as it is way too many rows and too much work to frog it now.

The final rows are suppose to be done in another color but I will stick with red since it’s Red Riding Hood’s cape. This is the biggest project so far that I’ve crocheted and it has taken me a week to get this far on it. It’s been a new experience to have a project take so long but it has been a lot of fun working on it since it’s just double crochet. I work on it a lot while watching television.

I will need it by October 25th, so at this rate I think I will make the deadline. That’s the date of our ‘trunk or treat’ playgroup extravaganza. Now if the three-year-old will wear it, then people will be able to tell who she is for Halloween.