watermelon & sweet peas

Ahhhh. Summer.

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And that means the eating of watermelon and seeing sweet peas sprouting throughout the garden.
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And of course, delving into the summer colors of crochet cotton. And finding a pattern for summertime potholders.

Rachel from Cornflower Blue Studio wrote this post about her ultra-lovely crochet potholders --yum, by the way! -- that were inspired by this book:

Hmmmm. She kick-started me into re-paging through that same book that I own and....

finding an easy pattern for a summery potholder.
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Just perfect for those watemelon & sweet pea summer days in the kitchen.

yippee. socks & a finish!

If you know me, you know that I would go to the moon & back just to knit myself a pair of socks. I have seen so many beautiful socks on other blogs and just {sob} because I seem to be completely incapable of knitting. Period.
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Oh, believe me. I have checked out every how-to-knit book, wrestled with those dratted needles and yarn, watched every how-to-knit youtube video & prayed for some sort of knitting savvy.
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Nope.
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Until I paged through my copy of CROCHET today (Sept/Oct 08) and lookee, lookee, there is a pattern for socks. Not knitted mind you, but lovely crochet -- which I know how to do!






And to my complete and utter amazement, I see an actual, wearable sock forming from my hook.
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The yarn is REDHEART yarn ~ Heart and Sole ~ watercolor stripe with a size B hook.

Even my girls, who sometimes look at my creations as if they are a bit wonky, have put in an order for their very own crochet socks.

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Yippee! Socks!

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And. A finish.

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The lap'ghan for my great-aunt is finished! And I just can't wait to see it on her lap.

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hairpin rosette -- and a case of 'just pinch me'

My dear blogirl-friend from Dandelion Quilts and I were just 'talking' about what you do when someone 'famous' comments on your blog. (She had just had a 'famous' blogger comment on hers and she was giddy!)
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So we decided of course, for starters ------> you just pinch yourself with excitement!
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This is my very own case of 'just pinch me'. I was recently contacted by FaveCrafts to do a guest feature/tutorial on their craft website.
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(pinch)
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So I wracked my brain as to what to do?.........
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I got out my hairpin lace frame and decided to make a very simple rosette.
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And with help from my lovely assistant --a.k.a. younger daughter who so patiently held the frame and stood still while I took pics --
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I constructed a hairpin rosette.
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The complete feature/tutorial is here.
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.....and yes, I am still pinching myself.

granny squared

I have a great-aunt who is so lady-like in her dressing (she would never been seen in pants -- dresses only!) and unfortunetly has become wheel-chair bound. Being self-conscious about some changes in her legs, she feels the need to cover them. But she still wants to present herself as very classic in her attire.....what to do?

A lap-sized, dainty, crochet afghan sounds like just the answer!

And I have the perfect pattern from this book from Annie's Attic:

"I "hook - Hospitality Garden Pattern - Caron Simply Soft & Bernat yarn

So the granny squares begin. There are buttery-yellow flowered blocks.

And plain whisper-white blocks, crocheted into a pattern that just says ---> a great-aunt lap quilt!

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And just look at what I 'inherited' this weekend. While I was working on the above granny squares, my mother-in-law looked over and said,

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"Oh, I have some granny-squares that my mother was working on a long time ago."

"And I think there is an afghan somewhere around here that she was putting together, too."

"........would you like it?"

Whaaaaaaaaat?? I had to remember my manners and not race her to the basement stairs.

After rummaging through an old chest of drawers in their basement, she found it!
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Don't you just love the vivid colors of these blocks?

I just wanted to drape it around my shoulders and wear it everywhere.

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(Yes, that *gasp* you just heard -- is from my husband & children...)

So instead, I will drape it on the chair.

shaded embroidery, fabric scraps & vintage eyelet lace

If you love embroidery -- and I do! -- you must pick up this book:

Clare Hanham explains shaded embroidery so well with her wonderful pics and directions.

So after paging through this, a huge dose of creative inspiration surges through my body (this is when my family tries to quietly escape out the front door....)

And I start scrounging through my fabric scraps, embroidery thread and found pieces of vintage eyelet lace...

.And begin.

In her book she starts you out with very basic 3 shades of pink embroidery floss and simple long/short stitches to make this flower.

The piece becomes so vivid with just the subtle changes of colored thread.

I was pleasantly surprised --okay, shocked really -- with these results.

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Quite easy. Quite do-able. And when becoming so frustrated with having to count out stitches in a cross-stitch pattern, well -- this may be the answer!

And now I must figure out how to finish off this tiny piece.

crocheted peony brooch tutorial

I have had requests for the pattern for the crochet peony brooch I made here.

I used a size G hook and Caron Simply Soft yarn. Of course, you could use any size hook or yarn/thread for this flower.

Begin with a slip knot.

Chain 6.

Join in a ring with a slip stitch.

Round 1: Chain 1 (counts as first sc.) Work 14sc into ring for a total of 15 sc.
Join with slip stitch.





Round 1: Chain 3 (counts as first dc), 2 dc into base of 3 chain, 3 dc into each sc.






End with a slip stich in top of 3 chain.






Round 2: Chain 3 (counts as first dc), 2 dc into base of chain 3, 3 dc into each dc, ending with a slip stitch into top of chain 3.

(edit: 12/07/09 -- Thank you to a very insightful email -- I see that the original tutorial had a mistake on round 2. The mistake has been corrected and I hope no one else was confused with my directions for this step. And a *huuuuuuuge* thank you to Marion for pointing this out to me!!)

Round 3: Ch 3 (counts as first dc), 2 dc into base of 3rd chain, 3 dc into each dc, end with slip stitch in top of 3ch.






Round 4: Work same as round 3.

Fasten off and weave in end.




To make fabric leaves:
Trace circle onto fabric choice for leaves. I used a jar lid.





Find center of circle by ironing a crease down the middle.





(Does this all seem familiar? Yup. It's just like the petals from the fabric flower tutorial I did here.)
Using a rotary cutter, cut down the center for 2 pieces.

Fold piece in half, right sides together. Sew a seam down straight edge.

Turn right side out.

Hand sew a running stitch on open edge.

Gather tightly. Secure with knot.

Hand sew to backside of crocheted flower.

I have a collection of vintage earrings. Loooooove to collect these, by the way!

By gently pulling apart the back from the front, I can easily use the perforated earring top to sew to the center of my flower.

You could also use a button, beads for the center -- or even leave it plain.

Trace a circle onto felt and sew to cover the backside of flower.

Attach a pinback.

A gorgeous, crocheted flower brooch.

I would love to see yours if you make one!