Category: Patterns & How-To’s

I recently got this sketchbook to use while filming some new Creativebug classes next week. I liked the pink cover and that the cover was stiff. I also liked the gold spiral, but I did not like the text that was on the cover. I decided to crochet a patch or appliqué to cover up the text. It was hard to decide what to make! At first I was going to crochet a strawberry, then I decided to do a multi-scoop ice cream cone, then I thought I might do a crochet Burn Book… and somehow I ended up with a happy little frog. It’s a super easy pattern. It’s basically a circle with some eyes and legs. I loved how it turned out, and I know you’ll find a lot of fun uses for this pattern, too.

I’m excited to start sharing patterns from my crochet bakery installation Sucre Fleuf! This is the Bunny Baguette. You can pretty much make the baguette as long or as short as you like, and I also include the instructions for finishing the baguette without ears. You can find the pattern in my Etsy shop and Ravelry shop. You can also find it in an amazing spring-themed amigurumi pattern bundle where you’ll get 32 amigurumi patterns for just $14.99 from designers all over the world. This is a very limited offering, and it expires at 9:59am EST, February 16th (just 2 days!). Check out the bundle here!

The first time I posted the avocado scarf on my blog was 2009! And I never wrote the pattern until now. You can find it in my Etsy shop and also my Ravelry shop. If you ever made the pear scarf from my first book, you’ll find that these patterns are very similar. This is one of the main reasons I waited to so long to prep this pattern. I felt that it mostly already existed. However, I keep receiving requests to release the avocado, so here it is!

This isn’t exactly a NEW crochet pattern, since I made finished strawberry scarves for my Etsy shop many many years ago, but this is the first time I’ve posted the pattern for sale. You can find it in my Etsy shop and Ravelry shop. I used heart-shaped pony beads as strawberry seeds, but you are free to skip the beaded crochet stitches and use whatever you like for seeds. I also love this scarf in pink. I can’t wait to see yours!

In August, I was the featured artist at Jenny Lemons, which is an amazing art supply store, gift shop, and DIY teaching space in San Francisco. I hosted a craft party via Zoom where we made beaded mushroom pins to go with the neon mushroom theme that I created in the shop window. All of the mushroom and froggy friends were for sale, and they all sold out! Before you ask, you can definitely purchase patterns for them in my Etsy shop: frog crochet pattern and mushrooms and frogs crochet pattern bundle. Taking photos of a window display is tough because of the reflections on the glass, but here are a few snaps from installation day.

I’m extra excited to release this crochet pattern for a heart-shaped cake, because I know you all will get super creative with it! It’s fairly small at 6 inches wide and 3 inches tall, so there’s not a lot of room for lots of text, but even with that small space, I can’t stop thinking about funny or sweet words to add. You can also skip lettering all together and just cover the top of your cake with lots of luscious frosting. The pattern in clouds a bunch of different kinds of piped frosting and frosting blobs to customize your cake. I include links to all my favorite materials, including these magical cherries everyone always asks me about. Start practicing that piping! [Heart-shaped crochet cake pattern in my Etsy shop.]

Here’s an oldie but a goodie. Are wearable pretzels cool anymore? I remember when I first started making these for my craft shows, they were really really popular! The pattern is so easy that I never posted it anywhere. It did appear in Simply Crochet Magazine Issue 30 which was many many years ago! A few people have asked about it recently, so I dug up some photos and notes and put a pattern together for you. Please enjoy, and I expect to see lots of cute outfits with your new crocheted pretzel brooches! Printer-friendly version is available in my Etsy shop for just $2.00.

Let’s knock out 2020 with THE BEST CROCHET PROJECT OF THE YEAR!!! It’s 100% Soft‘s Dumpster Fire!!! Truck asked if I wanted to translate his iconic and super popular Dumpster Fire into a crocheted plush, and I said OF COURSE. I stayed as true as I could to his original vinyl toy. I didn’t want y’all just crocheting a box with some weak flames inside. This means that the construction is a little bit more involved than with some of my other projects, but I truly feel the results are worth it. I mean, just look at this dude! I have a YouTube tutorial for you also. It’s my longest yet at 2 hours and 15 minutes long. Get ready to hunker down with me. If you don’t need the video, you can find the free pattern below, and also a more gorgeous, printer-friendly PDF in my Etsy shop. I can’t wait to see all of your lil dumps!

You can have a lot of fun decorating a Halloween tree! I went with a colorful monster theme for mine, PLUS most of my ornaments are EDIBLE. Treetopia graciously gave me a pre-lit Tuxedo Black faux Christmas tree. This one is 7.5 feet tall which made me realize my living room ceiling is not that high :P. But the black color is a very nice blank canvas for all of your spooky Halloween scenes. I baked colorful monster sugar cookies and I also put together some gigantic marshmallow bloody eyeballs. I gotta tell you that the house smelled really good!

McDonald’s (!!!) approached me to help promote global #McDelivery Day, which is this Thursday, July 19! Order McDonald’s via UberEats on Thursday whenever lunch starts (10:30am or 11:30am depending on where you live), and you’ll get the chance to order FREE McDonald’s swag while supplies last at participating locations! I’m particularly into the bandana, socks, and t-shirts, and I’m running an enamel pin giveaway on my Instagram! To celebrate, I decided to make myself a french fry purse, because I still believe that McDonald’s fries are THE BEST FRIES. You can either make this a handbag or a cross body. I had people vote on Instagram, and the cross body won. Basically you can make the strap what ever length you want ;). If you end up getting goodies on McDelivery Day, let me know what you picked! (P.S. This jean jacket is rad! Thank you, Ronald!)

Happy National Bomb Pop Day! I know the day is almost over, but, to be honest, I had no idea it was National Bomb Pop Day until I was already at work and saw someone post about it on my Instagram feed! I made these Bomb Pop Pen Cozies last year, and now you can make some, too! I don’t have step-out photography, so hopefully some of you will be able to follow along just with text. When I get the chance to shoot step-out photography, I’ll probably remove the pattern from my blog and then put it in my Etsy shop. Please enjoy it until then!

When Creativebug asked me to come in and shoot an Easter-themed project on their Facebook livestream, I wanted to bring something just a little bit unconventional. I have a tiny love/hate relationship with the cactus/succulent trend in the craft world, so I decided to embrace it and make some cactus-themed egg cozies. I love how they turned out, and the pattern is so easy! It’s a colorful cactus egg-stravaganza (and really the perfect hiding spot for your Easter egg hunt)! I totally can’t wait to see all your individual takes on this project. I know you’ll have a lot of fun with it! You can also easily use this pattern to make a lil cactus that doesn’t have to have an egg inside. I made a PDF for you, and here’s the link! Pattern and photos are below, too! If you want to watch me do this live and be totally dorky at Creativebug HQ… here is the link! (I think?!)

This little hot dog octopus (or tako wiener) crochet pattern is now available in my Etsy shop! They are really cute and little and stand about 2.25 inches tall. I do plan to release collections of Bento Buddies patterns for people who want to buy them more in bulk, but I’m still undecided as to whether I will release one big “booklet” of EVERYTHING, or split them up into maybe 2 or 3 groups, like “meat/proteins,” “fruits/veggies” or “rice ball extravaganza.” I’m not sure yet : X. Cuz, like, if you put hamburgers in the “meat/proteins,” then do you put the french fries in the “fruits/veggies”? I think people would be mad about splitting them up like that! If you have any feedback or wants/wishes, I am so open to hearing them!

EDIT: The Heart Donut pattern is now available in my Etsy shop. Thank you!! <3 But also…now there’s a video tutorial! YAY! And p.s., it seems like this pattern, out of all my patterns, is getting some comments from people who are having trouble getting the right result. It would seem that a common issue is that people are not reading (3 sc) as “3 sc in the next stitch.” In my abbreviations, I note that anything inside of the parentheses is to be worked in the next stitch, just as (2 sc) is how I denote a regular increase. So please do read through the abbreviations and special stitches before beginning this or any of my projects. Thank you!  I wasn’t planning on putting this on my blog for a FreeFor24Hrs promo, but in light of some bummer personal news today as well as a general state of WTF political affairs,  I thought it would be nice to spread some free love. Be kind to each other out there. <3 Here’s the link. It will only be available for the next 24 hrs, and then off the pattern goes to my Etsy shop :).

So…do you guys remember how last year I sketched a project for my Auntie Mary? This is highly representative of how I unfortunately prioritize my crafting work: my friends/family come dead last, and all my business stuff comes first. So poor Auntie Mary has waited over a year for this cozy she requested for her bathroom box of disposable hand towels! I’m the worst!!! I hope she still uses them? But I think it came out super cute! I was still in kind of a rush to finish. I was sewing on the grass just minutes before she arrived at my parents’ house on Christmas Day.  I probably would have put another window on the sides of the house and worked on those green shutters, but those are pretty easy additions for future projects. I also skipped the chimney due to time, but I don’t think the finished project really needed it. I am really NOT the world’s greatest or most experienced embroiderer, but I gave it a shot with these wee flowers. It was pretty fun! I am sure you could get wildly more creative here  if you’ve done more embroidery before. All I basically know is straight stitch, satin stitch, and the french knot! I’m not sure how many people buy these disposable hand towels, but if you do, now you can make a cute lil cover for it! This reminds me a lot of fairy houses and gnome stories. I kind of want a little adorable village with different shapes and sizes of Kleenex cottages… would be a fun group project…! Here is the box in a slightly different setting. I went a little crazy snapping photos really quickly before putting this in a gift bag! Unfortunately, I don’t have step-by-step photography for this one, so please rely on the photos to figure out what goes where. I think it should be pretty straightforward! Can’t wait to see your unique versions!

I don’t know what it is I like so much about anthropomorphic plants from movies (baby Groot, anyone?), but after I saw Fantastic Beasts, I definitely wanted my own Bowtruckle, which is described on Pottermore as a “small, twig-like creature that guards wand-wood trees.” In my first attempt to crochet him, I tried to stay very true to Pickett in the movie images, and I wanted his long, thin limbs to be posable with wiring. However, he kept looking kind of weird and creepy to me while I was crocheting him, so I decided to shorten his body and limbs and make him cute, stumpy, and little! (Here’s an animated gif of my rough sketches.) I hope you enjoy making your lil plant babies! He’s also a good size for a brooch, so you can easily keep him on your coat for all your adventures!

Ask (for cake) and you shall receive! A lot of people have asked me if I could release the Strawberry Cake Scarf pattern that I put together for classes taught at Michaels in 2014. Here is my original blog post about it. The Craft Yarn Council owns the rights to the pattern now, but since the class is no longer available at Michaels, I asked if I could share the pattern here, and they said yes! Yay! This Strawberry Cake Scarf is super sweet, fun to wear, easily customizable to your favorite cake colors and flavors, and perfect for crocheters of all skill levels – even beginners! So let’s eat our cake and wear it, too! I made my first cake scarf back in 2007, and it looked like this: I didn’t change much except for the strawberry. (Should I cut my hair again!?) Unfortunately, both of the yarns I used in 2007 do not exist anymore, but I’m sure you could find similar if you wanted to. The cool thing about this pattern is how flexible it is. Pretty much any worsted weight yarn will work, and you’re basically just crocheting a bunch of rectangles :).  If you’re not inclined to crochet your own, I’m also selling a finished version of the scarf in my Etsy shop.

The #YarnHeroes has its own site now, YarnHeroes.com! Check it out! I think it’s pretty cool if will be year-round movement! Here’s a link to my original post about the Yarn Heroes and our mission to help you crochet for charity. You can also find my pattern for Candy Cane Wristwarmers. Below you’ll find a pattern for some cute and easy puffy crocheted bows that you can turn into hair accessories, corsages, belts, Christmas tree decorations, wreath decorations, shoe clips, purse-pins, pretty much anything and everything! I originally designed these bows to make shoe clips for a Bee and Puppycat outfit, but they are really great for holidaytimes, too. You can create a cute embellishment for a wide range of your charitable crocheting, and you can also make the bows themselves for charities such as BowDazzling. So far, Bow Dazzling has delivered over 29,000 bows and headbands to children’s hospitals. Pretty amazing! AND NOW: Giveaway info! Lion Brand will send TWO winners each 2 balls of yarn of your choice (PLUS a pack of Lion Brand BonBons) to make your own pair of Candy Cane Wristwarmers and a bow or two. I made my wristwarmers with Kitchen Cotton in Bubblegum and Hot Pepper, but each winner can choose whatever Lion Brand yarn and colors you like. I think Vanna’s Choice would also be perfect! My green bow is made with Bonbons, and the white one is Vanna’s Glamour. To enter to win, simply comment my blog with one of your own Yarn Hero moments, whether it was someone who was a Yarn Hero to you, or a charitable cause you crafted for, or what future Yarn Hero plans you might be cooking up! You have one week until Wednesday, December 7th at midnight PST. Please note that this giveaway is open only to USA/Canada, and you must be 18 or over to enter. I will choose the winners randomly with Random.org. Please only one entry per person. Also at the Yarn Heroes website, you’ll find information about a $250 yarn giveaway happening this month. AAAAND don’t forget, while shopping at LionBrand.com, you can use code YARNHEROES16 for $5 off any order that’s over $20 or more for your charitable crafting, only until December 15. AAAAAND, don’t forget to check out the blogs of the other 14 Yarn Heroes for their free patterns, plus some of them are hosting giveaways of their own! [Moogly] [Mama In A Stitch] [All About Ami] [One Dog Woof] [Sewrella] [Delia Creates] [Underground Crafter] [Sh*t That I Knit] [Kristy Glass] [Two of Wands] [Make & Do Crew] [A Crocheted Simplicity] [Little Red Window]  [B-Hooked Crochet] Tag photos of your charitable crocheting/knitting with #YarnHeroes so we can see all your awesome work! Now, onto some cute bows! Cute Puffy Bow Crochet Pattern!

I have a cute little pattern available now in Issue 51 of Simply Crochet magazine! It’s a  cupcake pencil topper, and it’s perfect for a stocking-stuffer or a “just thinking of you.” I don’t usually crochet tiny things, so this is probably the smallest cupcake I’ve ever worked on. I hope to see some of your cupcake pencil toppers out there!! It’s a great stash-buster and so adorably sweet!

This holiday season, Lion Brand Yarn and an awesome team of crochet/knit/yarn bloggers are combining their super powers to form the Yarn Heroes and encourage all of you to craft for your favorite charitable causes! My Yarn Hero name is Captain Candy! I use my crochet powers to bring sweetness, color, and light to the world. As you may know, I have my Tissue Box Bakery site with free patterns and a small shop to help benefit one of my local charities called Food Runners. For this Yarn Heroes campaign, LB is helping me introduce you guys to two more amazing organizations: Mittens for Detroit and Bow Dazzling. LB challenged the Yarn Heroes to create fun super-hero outfits and characters using fairly basic patterns to share with all of you, so that you can create your very own super-hero characters and also use the patterns to help out your favorite charities. People have asked me for the Candy Cane Wrist Warmer pattern for years, and I felt like this was the perfect opportunity to give it to you. There are so many deliciously cute color combos you could use and so much warmth and color you could spread to your friends, family, and hopefully a cause such as Mittens for Detroit. Don’t forget to tag #YarnHeroes on your social media if you make my project or any charitable project for the season. AAALLLLSOOOOOOOO, Lion Brand is offering $5 off every purchase at or above $20 of yarn for your charitable projects using the code YARNHEROES2016 in their online store from November 15 – December 15. Show me photos of your Candy Cane Wrist Warmers, and I’ll make a blog post with a cool collage! Coming soon: I’ll post some cute patterns for crocheted bows AAAAANNNNDDDDD………….. LB and I are teaming up to bring you a cool giveaway. Stay tuned! EDIT: Here’s the link to the crocheted bows pattern and giveaway! Pattern for wrist warmers below!

Burger Scarf crochet pattern is now FreeFor24Hrs until I put it in my Etsy shop for sale! Again, I like to offer some patterns free for 24 hours to say thank you to those of you who support me on my blog and on social media :). Click here to get the PDF! Edit: Burger Scarf crochet pattern is now listed in my Etsy shop :). P.S. I am always open to feedback about my patterns. For instance, I have been keeping the resolution on the photos fairly low in order to keep the files small, but do you prefer higher quality photos and a larger file? Let me know!

Halloween crocheters: I have a new Creativebug class for you! Crochet a black cat with me as part of Creativebug’s Critter of the Month series! You’ll learn how to work in the round using basic stitches, whipstitch everything together, and most importantly, embroider the cute lil face! This black cat is perfect for Halloween décor – or switch up the yarn colors and make it look just like your favorite kitty!  Now you can have your familiar with you wherever you go…. Can’t wait to see all your new crocheted friends!

My crocheted tomato class is now live on Creativebug.com! You can switch up the colors for heirloom tomatoes AND also use orange for baby pumpkins!! I am going to do the latter for a liveshoot next week and post some photos later :).

My watermelon wedge crochet class is now live on Creativebug! Have you been joining the crochet-along? Don’t forget to tag me on social media so I can see your projects! 🙂