Ten Points for Petsmart

Yes, I know it's been forever since my past post. I figured this would happen eventually. ;) Life is...well, life, and it doesn't always include time for blog posts. But let me assure you, I am still crocheting! BUT #2, I do have some updates/random thoughts for you.

Update #1: My Sunburst Earrings pattern was found by Rachel of Crochet Pattern Central, and has now gotten over 2,000 pageviews! I may just have to send new free pattern links to her in the future. :) You can find my pattern on her site by going to Jewelry > Earrings in the directory.

Update #2: I was recently sent a message via Ravelry from one of the creators of Knitting Pattern-A-Day/Crochet Pattern-A-Day, asking if I would submit my Simple Butterfly Motif pattern (or something similar) for consideration in their 2013 calendar! I've gotta say, just the idea of having one of my patterns officially published kinda gives me goosebumps. :) It would be a great opportunity for more traffic here on the blog, and the fact that they approached me is rather encouraging. I got the message just before I left for vacation, but I will definitely be sending something in once I get home! For more info on the calendar and/or submitting entries, visit their site at www.knittingpatternaday.com. Updates to follow.

Update #3: I got a little worn out with pattern-writing for the moment, and am currently working on my very first full-sized afghan. :) One panel out of 5 is done. I am following Caron's Aran Afghan pattern with Simply Soft (which is turning into one of my all-time faves), and learning some new stitches along the way, which is always fun.

Random musings: I recently saw some crochet dog toys on Petsmart.com by Martha Stewart (see them here). Just goes to show you how popular crochet is, and most non-crafters don't even know it. Since learning how to crochet, I've started seeing it everywhere! Hats, bags, toys, clothing...the list goes on. And every time I see it I get the urge to buy whatever it is just so I can figure out how to make it myself. The sad thing is that much of what I see requires a bit of sewing knowledge, which I lack totally and completely (something I must remedy sometime in the future...when I have time, which will likely be never, lol).

Also, I've sort of given up on the whole sell-my-patterns-online thing, at least for now. Due to my goody-goody-rule-follower nature, I cannot bring myself to make a profit without the required permits my state requires, permits which I currently do not possess. I am also lazy, and so lack the willpower it takes to figure out exactly which permit(s) I need and how much they cost. So for now, any patterns I post will be free (good for you), but will probably not be terribly complicated or fantastic either (bad for you). At the moment, I'm trying to brainstorm a couple new motif patterns, as the last one I did proved to be relatively popular. :) Any thoughts on the matter in the form of comments are very much appreciated.

Here Comes the Sun

At last, the heat cometh! It's the middle of summer, and it actually RAINED yesterday where I am, can you believe it? In any case, the good weather inspired me to finally get this earring pattern down in writing. I've been meaning to do it, but haven't had the oomph for it. But now it's done, so I hope you enjoy them! Again, I'm definitely still new at writing patterns (this making a grand total of 3, haha), so if there's any questions/problems about it, please let me know and I'll fix it. Oh! This will be up as a download on Ravelry (username kaityh1) too, as always. Here you go guys. :)

Sunburst Earrings

by Kaity Harding

These simple to make yet adorable sunburst-shaped earrings are sure to attract attention. ;) Make some and find out for yourself!

Abbreviations:

Ch = chain

Slst = slip stitch

Sc = single crochet

Materials:

Royale Classic Crochet Thread – size 10

Size 8 (1.5mm) steel crochet hook

Small tapestry needle (I use size 22)

2 fishhook earrings (Found in packs at almost any craft store.)

Jewelry pliers

Pattern:

Rnd 1) ch 2 (or create magic loop of choice), 6 sc in first ch, join with slst.

Rnd 2) ch 1, sc in same st; [ch 3, sc in next st] around. When forming 6^th loop, do not end by sc in next st. Instead, slst into first sc in round (leaves one sc from first round unworked). ch 1, turn.

Rnd 3) 4 sc in each loop around. slst to join, slst in next stitch (the 2^nd sc in first loop).

Rnd 4) ch 1, sc in same st; [ch 5, sc into 2^nd st of next loop] repeat around. End last loop with slst into first sc of round. ch 1, turn.

Rnd 5) [4 sc, ch 2, slst in 2^nd ch from hook, 4 sc] in each loop around. slst to join and finish off.

Weave in ends. Use jewelry pliers to attach work to earrings. Enjoy! :)

(c) Kaity Harding

This pattern may not be reproduced or sold. Feel free to sell what you’ve made, but PLEASE give credit where credit is due – give my name or a link when selling products made from this pattern!

So apparently...

So apparently motifs are popular! I've been amazed with all the attention my little pattern has been getting since it was posted a few days ago. In just three days it's been downloaded from Ravelry nearly 150 times! (I know it's not a staggering number, but for someone just starting out writing patterns, it's very exciting. Not to mentioned that I'm easily excited to begin with. ^_^) I want to send a big thank you to a fellow blogger who I only know as Before the Sun Goes Down, who featured the pattern on her blog "Would You Like Yarn With That?" yesterday. You can visit her blog here or by clicking on the blue button over to the right of the page under "Featured On". -------->

Also, I was very excited to see Ravelry user JillianJiggs post a picture of her finished product from the pattern! You can see it on the "Projects" tab of the pattern page. It's such a simple little thing, but it's always nice to see people take interest in your work and make it their own. (And I don't mind the least bit that the picture is blurry Jillian!)

I also want to talk a little bit about the idea of selling patterns through sites like Ravelry and Etsy, but that's probably a whole 'nother post's worth of thoughts, so I'll hold off for now. But once that thought process boils over, I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again!

Simple Butterfly Motif

Hello again! So I know I said I'd come up with some earring patterns for you all, but I've been playing around the last few days, and it just wasn't coming. What DID come, however, was this cute little butterfly. ;) I know there's gobs of butterfly applique patterns out there already, but I thought it was pretty cute, and I need practice writing patterns anyway, so I figured why not. This little guy CAN be made into earrings as well, which I plan on doing in the near future. I'm also going to be putting this up as a free PDF download on Ravelry if you want to skip the whole copy/paste nonsense. As always, comments/critiques/questions are appreciated.

In other news, another pattern is in the works...and you may recognize it from an earlier post. ;) 

Simple Butterfly Motif
by Kaity Harding

This quick three round motif is a great addition to any piece of crochet apparel, such as purses, hats, or scarves. You can even make them into earrings!

Hook & Yarn: Any size yarn with the proper corresponding hook would do, depending on the size you wish to make. (The motif pictured is 6.5cm across at the widest point, done with sport weight/#3 yarn and a G6/4.00mm hook.)

Abbreviations:

Ch = chain

St = stitch

Slst = slip stitch

Sc = single crochet

Hdc = half double crochet

Dc = double crochet

Tc = triple/treble crochet

Pattern:

Rnd 1) ch 2, 8 sc in first ch, join with slst.

Rnd 2) ch 1 (do not turn), sc in same stitch; ch 5, skip one st, sc in next st; ch 4, sc in next st; slst, then sc in next 2 stitches; ch 4, sc in next st; ch 5, skip one st, sc in next st .

Rnd 3) ch 2, turn; [2 dc, 1 tc, 3 dc, 3 hdc, 1 sc] in ch5 space; 7sc in ch4 space, repeat in next ch4 space; [1 sc, 3 hdc, 3 dc, 1 tc, 3 dc] in ch5 space; slst between wings to secure, finish off.

Weave in ends for a standalone piece or leave tail to sew onto another piece. Enjoy!

© Kaity Harding

This pattern may not be reproduced or sold. Feel free to sell what you’ve made, but PLEASE give credit where credit is due – give my name or a link when selling products made from this pattern! 

Playing with Thread

I'm back! I've gotta admit, I'm beginning to like this blogging thing. I find myself thinking during the week about what I'm gonna post next and then get a little annoyed when I don't have the time post it, which has definitely been the case this week! Life is crazy, but it's fun. :) Anyhow, I wanted to share my latest project with you all. I believe I mentioned in a previous post about starting on some earrings. Throughout my pattern scrounging on Ravelry and other places, I realized that there aren't really a whole lot of earring patterns out there that aren't totally granny-ish. Some of you might be thinking, "This is crochet...it is by definition granny-ish Kaity!" I would have to say I disagree. Part of what I love about crochet is the challenge of making it modern and taking it out of the "my 80 year-old grammy made this for me" box. And if you look around, there are several designers out there that have made an effort to do just that. Short story, it would be cool if crocheted items (and handmade items in general) were able to be both functional AND stylish, and those are the kind of projects I try to do (unless I'm geeking out on amigurumi, which happens quite often).

Back to the point: earrings. I really love flowers, and I have recently come to love this particular flower pattern by Carlinda Lewis, which you can find on her blog here: http://hookhound.blogspot.com/p/rosa-crochet-flower.html. And I thought it would be really fun if I could make one of those flowers super small and put it on an earring. This was the result:

It took a little bit of trial and error, but I finally got a look I liked with a little modification of the original pattern. All I did was use size 10 crochet thread with a 1.5mm hook and skip Round 4 of the pattern (so you have 18 stitches in the round instead of 24 when starting your petal bases). This takes the outer row of petals off the flower altogether, making it smaller. In any case, I like them. :) Now that I have a little bit of experience with crochet thread, I'm working on some more (non-grannyish) earring patterns to put up for sale in my Ravelry shop. I'll let ya know when things start happening! Adios.

Lacy Wristers Pattern

Ta da!! :) After a spurt of creative energy, my very first pattern has been written! It's nothing spectacular, but everybody's gotta start somewhere. ;) I'm going to be posting the pattern here on the blog, but for the convenience of any Ravelry users out there, you can also get a free PDF download here. Enjoy guys, and I welcome any questions or comments!

Lacy Wristers

By Kaity Harding

I’ve found lots of free patterns for wristers/cuffs/fingerless gloves online since I’ve been crocheting, but many of them are either bulky looking (and not very attractive), or completely insubstantial and not warm at all (made completely of openwork). I wanted something in between that had a lighter feel to them but would also cover the wrists completely. And so these cute little wristers fell off my hook. They’re fast and simple, and I hope you enjoy them!

Sizes: One size fits all. However, if you have particularly large/tiny wrists, you can add sets of Rows 4-6 until you reach your desired length.

Yarn: I used Lion Brand® Babysoft® in Cream, but any sport weight (#3) yarn should do.

Other Materials: G6/4.00mm hook

3 medium-sized buttons (mine were about 15mm in diameter)

small tapestry needle

Gauge: About 5 sc/dc per inch.

Abbreviations:

ch = chain

chsp = chain space

slst = slip stitch

sc = single crochet

hdc = half double crochet

fo = finish off

Pattern:

Wrister

Ch 23

Row 1 – hdc in 3^rd ch from hook, continue hdc across row, ch 1, turn (21)

Row 2 – hdc across row, ch 1, turn

Row 3 – sc in next 3 stitches, [ch 2, skip 2 stitches, sc in next 5 stitches] repeat 2x, ch 2, skip 2 stitches, sc in next 2 stitches, ch 2, turn. (These spaces create the buttonholes.)

Row 4 – hdc across row, ch 2, turn (put 2 hdc in each chsp)

Row 5 – hdc across row, ch 1, turn

Row 6 – sc across row, ch 2, turn

Rows 7-30 – repeat Rows 4-6 a total of 8 times (disregarding the directions in parentheses for Row 4)

Rows 31-32 – repeat Rows 4 & 5 (disregarding the directions in parentheses for Row 4), do not FO.

Lacy Edge

1 – Turn work, [ch 3, skip first 2 stitches and sc in next stitch] repeat across row (total of 7 “loops”).

2 – ch 3, skip some space, then sc in even intervals down the side of the work (about 15-17 “loops”). These should look the same as the loops you’ve already done in step 1.

3 – Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you’ve created an edge around the entire work. On the last loop, slst into the row instead of sc, then FO and weave in ends.

Sew on buttons on opposite side of work from the buttonholes (it doesn’t particularly matter whether you sew them on the “wrong” or “right” side of the work, it’s impossible to tell which is which), making sure the space between buttons matches the buttonholes, like so:

Weave in ends and enjoy! :)

Baby Gifts Galore!

So, I finally have an update to give and the time to write it out! It's wonderful. So I finished that ladybug I mentioned, and I think she's turned out rather cute. ^_^ I'm particularly proud of her because she's completely original and made up out of my own head, which is a new thing for me, cuz I'm used to working from patterns. One day I might write out the pattern nice and put it up for sale, who knows. She's a gift for one of my coworkers, whose daughter is about 9 months old and getting cuter every day.

While we're on the subject of baby gifts, I've also finished my first blanket ever, a baby blanket for ANOTHER coworker of mine who is still expecting (it's a boy!). If anyone's interested, I used a pattern from LionBrand.com called Baby Blocks Throw, with Lion Brand Babysoft yarn.

ALSO, I got the itch to use up some of my cotton yarn, so I whipped up a little hat for my goddaughter, who is turning 1 soon. For this I used a combination of two different patterns, but I very much like the result. I can't wait to see it on her. :D

In other news, the boyfriend left to go out of town on a mission trip today, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little on the mopey side. However, I'm sure the little ache he left behind is nothing compared to the amazing things God's gonna do with him and the rest of my friends by the end of the week. If anything particularly exciting happens I'll let ya'll know.

But for now, I think it's time to sit down to a movie with a tall glass of iced coffee and start on an earring idea I've been brewing for a couple weeks. ;)

p.s. Haha, coffee...brewing...didn't even realize the pun until I had already published this. I'm a former English major, what're ya gonna do?

Just for Starters...

Hello friends. :) Welcome to KrochetLove, my latest attempt at keeping a blog alive. It shouldn't be too hard to guess what it's about, given the title. I am new to the world of crocheting compared to most (going on about 6 months), but I haven't been able to put my hook down for any extended period of time since I started. There is no particular purpose to this blog except that the main topic is crochet, but I imagine you'll see my own thoughts on learning new techniques, comments on others' work, reviews on patterns I've used, and perhaps a few patterns of my own. Right now I'm in the middle of about umpteen projects, so I doubt there will be any lack of material for inspiration. So, if you happen to come across my little blogging experiment, please feel free to comment! I welcome advice and constructive criticism from those more experienced than myself, questions from those that are less so, and any comments will be met with the utmost elation. :D

Seems like a respectable first post to me, if I do say so myself. With any luck, you will see me again soon, but for now, I've got a ladybug plush that needs embellishing. ;) A beintot!