Go beyond the granny square

I signed up for a swap that involves crochet motifs. This should be a lot of fun since it will be several small projects and I can try some new patterns. Here is one I found last night for a pineapple

My first attempt was wrong since I wasn’t reading the pattern right. It’s from the United Kingdom so over there a double crochet is our(America) single crochet. So once I stepped down all the stitches, it turned out a lot better.

While working on the crocheted Easter egg, I thought that it could easily be worked to make an egg cozy. You’ve probably heard of a tea cozy. Think of an egg cozy as the same thing - except for an egg. It could help protect hard boiled eggs or could be used to decorate plastic eggs.

The pattern is basically the same as the Easter egg but we don’t close it up all the way. Do one round of decreasing the stitches.

Add some fun fur and some googly eyes for a cute little monster. You could even use pipe cleaner for antenna and felt for eyes. I did use Caron yarn that is a little thicker than baby yarn. So just keep an eye on your size to know when to stop adding stitches.

Easter is fast approaching, so in honor of Easter, I came up with a small crocheted Easter egg pattern. This is a simple pattern and can be made in less than 30 minutes. So if you are tired of those plastic eggs or not a fan of hard boiled eggs, then give these eggs a try.

What you’ll need:

3.75 crochet hook (or use a small size)\
baby yarn(double knitting yarn)

Chain 2
Work 6 single crochet(sc) into first chain. join together
Work 2 sc into each stitch(12 stitches)
SC 1 and in the next stitch 2 SC. join (18 stitches)
SC for five rounds(5 rnds of single crochet adding no extra stitches)
SC 1 sc2tog(single crochet next two stitches to together) join(12)
Sc2tog for round
stuff egg with poly-fill
continue to decrease stitches to close up egg

You may have to move the fiberfill around for more of an egg shape.

Lion Brand has put up on their website some cute, free candy patterns. To view the links, you must register with the website. Registration is free. They have a lot of great free patterns, so it’s worth the few minutes it takes to sign up.

I absolutely love candy corn so as you probably guessed this is my favorite candy pattern. This is an easy pattern that can be worked up in less than an hour. In fact, you can probably make two in an hour.

Fill a bowl of this roll candy that looks good enough to eat. Ok, maybe not really but it is super cute.

Here is a lollipop pattern that would make for a sweet treat this Halloween. A bouquet of these would be an excellent centerpiece.

Now here is another cute piece of candy. This one is swirled and reminds me of those caramel pieces that have white swirled in them.

Wouldn’t all of these be a treat(or a trick!) to kids this Halloween? Some might appreciate the handmade gift while others will surely be looking for the real stuff.

This weekend I’ve been working on some crocheted cupcakes that I had planned to use as decoration for my daughter’s third birthday. My daughter loves my crochet creations, especially amigurumi. She thinks they all are for her!

She is also into Woody and Buzz Lightyear from ‘Toy Story.’ I had done one icing top in blue. I noticed this evening she had picked it off my work table and was using it as a hat for Buzz. It almost fit him but reminded me of the tea party that Hannah (Sid’s sister) has with a broken Buzz. She puts a cute little apron on him and a little blue hat with a flower.

So if you need a toy hat, then use crochet the icing for a cupcake. Leave it to the imagination of kids to think up news way of using items.

It’s crochet that looks good enough to eat. This free pattern at Lion Brand is all the ingredients to make a crochet sandwich.

You can crochet all the ingredients for a ham sandwich. It’s so cute and would be a great toy for a child. Plastic food always seems to get stomped on or lost. At least with this, you can clean it easily as well as it not lose its shape.

There are several different crochet patterns inspired by food. I could see my three-year-old enjoying this one a lot especially when she gets her play kitchen.

These cute crochet pieces also would make cute novelty pot holders. Imagine making several and joining together for a one-of-a-kind afghan especially for someone who works in the restaurant business. I love these small crochet projects that are easily finished in a few hours. It’s great to do these while working on larger projects just to take a break and remember that you can finish projects that you start. Of course, that might just apply to me with my at least half a dozen unfinished projects lying around the house.