fairest of them all

My love for crochet started because -- plain & simple -- I wanted to be able to somehow duplicate the delicacy & beauty of a doily.

And I am just head-over-heels, in love with this pattern designer...

Elizabeth Hiddleson

I found one of her patterns in this magazine:

This one is ~ Fairest of Them All.

And this pattern truly is!

The crochet thread is Coral 
Classic 10
by Aunt Lydia's
hook size 7

I read that Elizabeth Hiddleson began designing crochet thread patterns in the '30's and did this in her 'spare time' while working a full-time job & raising 2 children.  She designed over 200 patterns & lived to be 101 years old.  (Her birthday would have been this Thursday, January 31.)

Indeed ~ the fairest of them all.

Miss Lovey

When I was little I made a billion Heart People out of construction paper.  Yes.  A billion.

They hung all over the house and my scissors could not move fast enough to keep up with how many hearts I wanted to adhere together.

Sadly my construction paper days are over, but not my days of dabbling in yarn.

And if you can make Heart People out of paper ~ well...why can't you make them out of yarn?

This is Miss Lovey.

And she was made out of hearts, of course.

This is my most favorite pattern for a crochet heart -- ever.

After making 2 of my most favorite crochet hearts, I stuffed it and edged it with single crochet in white.

Button eyes, embroidered floss mouth, 2 tiny hearts for a barrette & heart-shaped hands & shoes for Miss Lovey.

It took me awhile to figure out how to make the arms & legs.  With paper, I would accordion-fold strips for the arms & legs.  So what to do with crochet?

How 'bout corkscrew arms & legs?

It's been awhile since I have done this stitch but I watched this as a great refresher on how to crochet a spiral/corkscrew.

I think she is lovely. 

♥ ♥ ♥...

a quaint heart

A heart.

For Valentine's Day.

I wanted something quaint & simple and seeing as how I had these gold rings from a crocheted belt that I was going to make...well, how about putting them to use for this?

A simple single crochet around the edge of the ring.

Round 2 is a super easy scalloped edging of ch 5 into every 4th stitch.

Then onto a heart.

The pattern for this I got from Nicky Epstein's book:  crocheting on the edge.

Traced the bottom of a vase & cut out a circle from cardboard and fabric...

...I folded and glued the edges down.  Then glued all of this to the crocheted ring.

Adhered the crocheted heart to the front & found a tiny, antique button in my button tin that was just perfect for this.

Quaint indeed.

I SPY: vintage granny square christmas tree

I just had to make this...

...after I spied this

A vintage granny square Christmas tree.

The dear 93yr. old woman that I take care of had this in her stash of Christmas decorations & when I saw it, I was like 'hey, this is crochet!"

Anything that is crochet
& anything that is vintage & crochet
& then anything that is vintage, crochet & Christmas-y!?...

More than fabulous!

She originally bought the granny square Christmas tree in the '70's -- which you can tell from the scratchy, almost brittle feel of the yarn -- but still ~ I just.loved.it!

So I started thinking that this would be so easy to make.

Because it's just crocheted granny squares ~

...in varying sizes.



Green granny squares with a white edge.

The original tree had 6 granny squares so that's what I made.

From largest to smallest.

And then it's just a simple flip of the bottom edge to form the boughs of the fir tree.

Time to embellish.

I tied the ornaments right through each bough of the tree to attach & keep the tree together.

And crocheted a nice, chunky, brown trunk with just simple rows of dc stitched in the back loop only to give it some texture.

A remake of something  so vintage-y.

And speaking of vintage -- I thought this was soooooo cute & my kids thought it was more than weird -- I also spied this at Ruth's house on the shelf in her bathroom...

Yes.  That is her knitting that she is doing.

dressy towel-topper tutorial

I made one of these dressy towel-toppers last Christmas just by 'winging it' you could say.  No pattern.  Just stitch after stitch.  A little bit of ripping out.  A little bit of head-scratching and I had a dressy towel-topper, but still no pattern.

Well, some of you asked if I could possibly do a pattern for this.  

Oh, golly.  Me & numbers?  Me & strategy?  Not such a good thing.

But here you go (and any mistakes [there may be many] let me know!)

*+*+*+*+*+*

What you need:

size G hook

worsted weight yarn

kitchen towel ( I bought mine at Target)

sewing thread

sewing needle

button

Each round ends with a slip stitch to close.

Ch 3 at beginning of each round counts as 1st dc

Begin by chaining 28.  Slipstitch to close ring.

Rnd. 1--- Ch 1, work 1 sc in each sc around -- 28 sc. 

Rnd 2--- Ch 3 (counts as 1st dc) 1 dc in same stitch, 1 dc in next sc 

*2 dc in next sc, 1 dc in next sc* repeat * around.  -- 42 dc

Rnd 3---  Ch 3, 1 dc in the next 2 dc, ch 3 

*1 dc in the next 3 dc, ch 3*

repeat * around -- 14 sets of 3dc.  Fasten off.

Rnd 4--- Join new color in ch 3 space, Ch 3, dc2tog, ch 3, dc3tog 

* dc3tog, ch 3, dc3tog* in each 3 chain space

repeat * around

You will have 14 -- dc3tog, ch 3, dc3tog clusters.  Fasten off.

NOTE! This round includes many pics

Rnd 5---Join new color in any ch 3 space.  Ch 3, 1dc, ch 2, 2dc in ch 3 space

*2dc, ch 2, 2dc in next ch 3 space in the next ch 3 space

1 dc between the 3rd dc and 1st dc of next cluster (see pic)

Now you have to pinch your piece together to form the sleeves of the dress.  You will have 4 groups of  2dc, ch 2, 2dc that you will be pinching in your left hand.  Yarn over and slip your hook under both layers of 'sleeve'...

 ...to complete the next dc in that same space as the first dc.*  

Sound confusing?  It might! -- but if you look at it like it's an actual sleeve that you are trying to form --- it looks easier than what you might think.  I hope the next 3 pics can help you see what I am trying to describe.

Rnd 5 continues -- repeat from * 3 more times.

Rnd 6--- Slip stitch to first ch 2 space.  Ch 3, 1 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in chain 2 space

*2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each ch 2 space, 1 dc in each dc* that forms the underarm of sleeve (see pic)

Repeat from * to end

Rnd 7--- repeat rnd 6

Rnd 8--- Join new color.  Ch 4 (counts as 1st tr), 5 tr in ch 2 space

*6 tr in each ch 2 space

2 tr in each dc in underarm of sleeve*  Repeat from* to end

Add a hanger:

On the top edge, I added the hanger by sc into 5 stitches of the collar.  

And then just a simple back and forth of sc and ch 1 (turning ch) until you reach the desired length of you hanger.

Optional: I added a blue sc border to the bottom edge.  You may or may not do this --- it's your choice.

I hand-sewed a button to attach to hanger to the front part of the dress.

I'm not sure if there is method to attaching this to a towel, but I do know that I don't like it when the towel is cut in half.  So I used the entire towel and just hand-sewed a gathering stitch right along the center of the towel to create a rouching effect.

I then folded the towel in half and gathered the towel until it was the width as the bottom edge of the towel-topper...

...and hand-sewed the crocheted top to the towel.

And there you have your dressy towel-topper!