Category: Patterns & How-To’s

Happy Friday! My eggplant crochet class is now live on Creativebug! You can also use this pattern to make a big juicy pear! Just use the stem and leaf from the apple class!

My crochet apple class is live today on Creativebug! Do they look good enough to eat? I might have tried to eat one on camera…. 😛 Remember, you can use code LION to get a free month of Creativebug classes!

The fruits and veggies just don’t stop! My radish class is now live on Creativebug!

My potato video went live today on Creativebug.com! Go check it out! If you’re new to Creativebug, you can sign up using code LION for a free month! 🙂

Exciting news! I have a new class launching today on Creativebug.com. It’s called the “Eat Your Fruits and Veggies Crochet-Along,” a 9-project crochet class chockfull of Vitamin Yarn, and a new fruit or veggie project is rolling out every Friday and Monday until October 7th. ALSO, Creativebug teamed up with Lion Brand Yarn for my class. If you sign up for Creativebug.com using the promo code LION, you get 1 month free to check out all the hundreds of amazing Creativebug classes PLUS you’ll be sent info on how to get 15% off at LionBrand.com for all your yarny needs, all until September 26th. Pretty cool, right? I can’t wait to see all your beautiful projects! Please tag me if you post any photos on social media. I’d love to share the fruits of your labor!!!! (Sorry, had to…)  

I’m often kinda torn between posting all my patterns for free or putting them up on Etsy. And then if I distinguish between which patterns I put where….. I think some lines start to get blurry. While I love sharing inspiration and projects, I feel like my time and ideas are valuable, too, and while I have wonderful blog sponsors, it’s not like I make that much money from my blog nor do I post content often enough to make that logical. Pattern-selling in general is probably not going to ever be a living wage for me, but I do think that there is worth to our designs. I’m also not at the point yet where I want random advertising popping all over my blog. So, yes, this is a long rant. Sorry about that! I tend to over-share, but I’m still just trying to figure everything out, to get you guys the patterns you like, and to also make sure it is worth my time and energy and that I can pay for my wifi etc etc! 😛 For now, for scarf patterns in particular, I like the “FreeFor24Hrs” format. It’s like a “thank you” to the people who follow my blog and social media. This is a fairly easy pattern, and sometimes I like putting the easy patterns up for free, but since it’s also a scarf, I do like the idea of keeping all my signature scarves on Etsy. Again, I’m still playing with all of this. tl;dr   Edit: FreeFor24Hrs is now over! Thanks so much, everyone! Find the pattern now in my Etsy shop. It was originally commissioned by Homespun Magazine last Fall, so if you were not able to get the magazine, now you can get the pattern!

On the 4th of July, I showed up to the family bbq with this giant crocheted hot dog. In all honesty, the hot dog was an extremely belated birthday present for my nephew who turned three. I was in L.A. for Vogue Knitting Live during his bday party, and then I kept making the wiener part of the hot dog too big, and now I have 2 extra wieners lying around  the house. Anyway, I was FINALLY able to deliver my present! Giant hot dog: here’s why. I made a big ol’ strawberry pillow for my mom a while ago, and for some reason, my nephew kept saying “thank you” to me for making it for him, so I thought I’d make him a giant food pillow, too. Also, this kid loves a barbecue, BUT, he actually only wants to eat the bun, not the dog. WE LOVE BREAD. I didn’t have time to take a quality photos of the hot dog before I wrapped it up, so these phone pics will have to do for now (you know what a hot dog looks like anyway) until I happen to make another one again.  Maybe for YouTube? Also, I didn’t have time to take down all the yardage info. I used Red Heart Super Saver for this project, so that should give you some idea. And just, like, a lot of stuffing…    I spend a lot more time than I should trying to determine what the perfect hot dog color is, so I hope you enjoy Red Heart Super Saver in Coral. I enjoyed it a lot. Hotdoglicious. (Please note that this pattern has not been tech-edited or proofread by anyone, so if you find any typos or errors, just let me know!)

I have a fun summer-time pattern for you guys! I saw a cute photo of somebody’s actual frozen treat, which was a chocolate-covered frozen banana, decorated to look like a bear. The snout was a little cookie, and I can’t remember the other decorations. I tried Googling it, but couldn’t find the same image again, but I did run into THIS tutorial to make “polar bears.” You know I love me some color, so I imagined that instead of just using white chocolate to coat your frozen banana, you could use colorful chocolate/candy melts and have all different colors of bears! Also, I shot photos in my new popsicle dress and felt like a lil popsicle bear would be the perfect accessory. Unfortunately, most of the photos I took with the popsicle turned out focused improperly…….doh. Here is my initial sketch. And here are the finished blue and pink versions! I wanted to make a brown one, too, but I’m also still working really hard on prepping for Renegade. I hope you guys enjoy these cute goodies! My favorite part is crocheting the mini-marshmallows! I think they’re really funny and cute. I apologize in advance if there are any errors in this pattern. Nobody else has edited or looked at it, and I just dashed it off really quick! Let me know if there any issues! 🙂

I originally wrote this pattern to appear in Craftseller Magazine out of the UK, but apparently the magazine doesn’t exist anymore, and neither does the link to my free pattern! Thanks to a reminder from one of my readers, I’m posting it here now. The pattern is super easy, great for beginners, and you’ll have a plate full of delicious sandwich cookies in no time!

OKAY, I know it’s only like the day before Mother’s Day, but I posted a YouTube video for a Mother’s Day project anyway. You know how it goes with me … I’m a terrible planner when it comes to videos and holidays, and you can always use a bunch of older projects for this year’s present, and then you can use this one for future presents! 😛 I need to shoot better photos of the scarf and of me wearing it! But anyway, as I explain in the video, I have a store-bought scarf that I wear all the time and that is getting kind of old-looking, so I wanted to make myself a new one. I figured, you might want to make one, too. There are a lot of patterns and tutorials out there for chain link scarves already, so this isn’t a new-new idea, and I don’t even know if there is some cool tip or trick I’m missing out on. It’s just something I made for myself in real life. If anything, it’s just inspiration to start digging around in your stash and putting together yarns you might not have normally put together! In my scarf, I have some Madeline Tosh, Lion Brand, Knit Collage, and handspun from Etsy. The other fun thing (for me) about the video is that I lit my hands with my new OttLite (that you can win, too!). You’ll notice that the light changes throughout the tutorial portion of the video, because I kept changing the light settings around. I like whatever setting I had it on for the very last tutorial shot! I think that was the cool temp at full blast. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful weekend, whatever it is that you’re doing! <3

I’ve made these marshmallow charm headbands in my Etsy shop for a while, and now you can make your own magically crochetlicious accessories! You can use these little charms to make a headband, or separate hair clips, or fridge magnets, or big plush rings, pins/brooches, all kinds of projects! This pattern is free for 48 hours before I put it in my Etsy shop! (Until noon on Saturday, March 5th.) I think this is a fun way to say thank you to people who follow my blog and social media.  This pattern is now available in my Etsy shop! I also have a video tutorial on YouTube. A few words about the yarn. I always used Red Heart Super Saver for this particular pattern, because it came in all the colors I needed. I prefer to use the same yarn brand and line for all these charms so that the gauge is all the same, and I don’t have to think about it. The charms are all meant to be approximately the same size, or at least the same height, so that they look cute together. As it turns out, the peach color that I used is now discontinued. Yarn getting discontinued is ALWAYS A HUGE BUMMER to me, and I know it makes people crazy when they find discontinued yarn in a pattern, and they will ask me for a substitute. I wanted to wait to post the pattern until I could find another worsted weight yarn line with all the colors that I wanted. I think some people have mentioned I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby, but I have never bought from Hobby Lobby. There are some other worsted weight peach colors like Caron One Pound in Peach and Lion Brand Pound of Love in Creamsicle that you could substitute in, and I’ll make that note in the pattern. If you want smaller charms and don’t mind spending a bit more per yard, Plymouth Encore Worsted has all the right colors. Oh, also I just started checking out what seems to be Jo-Ann Fabric’s yarn line Big Twist, and their Big Twist Baby Yarn has a range of pastels that could work for this pattern, too. I hope you guys have a lot of fun thinking of new ways to use your charms! That lil clover is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

I’m so excited to let you guys know that my first Critter of the Month crochet class is now live on Creativebug.com!! Holy heck!! This was an intense 4 days of filming, and you will see the other 3 projects we filmed throughout 2016. When they asked me to think of a fun critter for February, I chose a sloth, because it’s Valentine’s month, and he has long arms to hug you :). You can check out some short previews for free, and you can also sign up for a free trial. Here’s a link to my instructor profile where they made a lil trailer with me and my dogs! If you decide to subscribe, it’s a really great deal at only $4.95 per month for access too all the classes on the entire site. And they just keep adding more! (I’m in the process of working on a new batch of Creativebug classes…!). If you use my link, I also get a small percentage of the sale (just letting you know that it’s an affiliate link upfront). To be honest, I’m super proud of myself (pats self on back). I have a lot of anxiety associated with other people taking my photo or shooting video of me, and it was definitely an exercise in letting go and just being me and being okay with being me. I’m not going to get into it too much here, but let’s just say, I was sweating a lot, and I think you can hear the yarn squeaking in my hands…..(doh!). I haven’t watched my class yet… so you guys tell me how it is :). I can’t wait to start seeing our cute sloth army!

If you are a subscriber of Yarn Crush, then you might have already received your January yarn box, filled with 5 yummy candy-colored mini-skeins, a knit pattern by Spilly Jane, and a crochet pattern from me! They’re Pretty Parfait Fingerless Mitts! I think the pattern is a fun one for intermediate beginners, because you can practice working some basic texture stitches like the puff stitch, working in back loops only, front post stitches, and alternating tall stitches with short stitches. I don’t normally work with sportweight yarn in my patterns, so if that’s your thang, you’re gonna be stoked. (Yarn Crush’s photo of the whole box put together… so cute and bright!)  We got to help pick the colorway for these mini skeins of merino yarn, and I really love how yummy and candylicious this allowed the mitts to look. (Yarn photo from Yarn Crush.) I was going to call these something like Birthday Cake Fingerless Mitts, but my buddy Candace saw them and said they looked like parfaits, and that seemed to make more sense to me. Here’s a fun random fact: while I was shooting these photos in my bedroom, the smoke alarm went off because Manda burned some of her hair off with a hair-dryer and a round brush with a metal core. Be careful with those round brushes, folks. Don’t daydream and blow-dry. I had a lot of weird “hands around face” photos, so here is the least weird one! Glove Modeling is probably not in my job search for 2016. If you love what you see, you should check out Yarn Crush! Most of these January boxes have already gone out, but she may have a few extra boxes left. Don’t be shy about emailing Yarn Crush if you’re interested! New yarnies and patterns every month, for knitters and crocheters. New subscribers will get a free notions pouch filled with goodies (like mini skeins, patterns, and tools) all worth about $20 just for signing up for a 3-12 month prepaid plan. This gets shipped out shortly after signing up. Anyone who would rather go month-to-month instead of prepaid can use the coupon code HELLO to get 15% off their first month. Thanks so much to Yarn Crush for inviting me to design for the January box! I might be designing for another Yarn Crush box in the summertime, so stay tuned! If you’re like, “I already have some really cute sock weight yarn, and I would really just like the pattern itself,” well we got you covered, too. The pattern is for sale on Ravelry.com! It’s my first time putting a pattern for sale on Ravelry, and honestly, there have been a few kinks. Specifically, my PayPal was not talking to my Ravelry, so when I received a payment, Ravelry didn’t know to send the pattern info to people. THE WORST, RIGHT!? I’ve been talking to Ravelry, though, and trying to figure out the issue. It looks good on my end now (before, I was noting zero sales on […]

I’m excited to have a new free pattern for you! It’s a part of Cut Out & Keep‘s Trick Or Treat Trail, and you can find the pattern here. I based my bright color palette on the wrapper graphic, but obviously you can also use pastel colors to represent the actual candies. When I posted a teaser on Instagram a few weeks ago, I was inundated with comments about how this candy is called something different in different countries. In America, these are called Smarties, in other countries they can be called Rockets or Fizzers. Here’s one website that talks about it, and also a Wikipedia entry. Anyway! Have super fun making your candy scarves! It is a pretty easy project for a beginner and a great way to bust that rainbow stash!

I’ve been dying to tell you guys about this pattern for the longest time, and now it is finally out! In the September special food issue of Homespun Magazine, you can find a crochet pattern for a Hot Dog Scarf by me! They specifically asked for this project, and I whipped it up just for them. The bonus is that the pattern is great for beginners! If you are in Australia, you’ll be able to find the magazine at major retailers, but if you’re not, you can always download it digitally to your phone or device! Just hit up this link for info! (LINK. GET IT!?? HOT DOGS.) While scanning in the pages, I flipped through the issue, and there are so many fun projects inside. Homespun is really an awesome craft magazine!

Pick up Issue 54 of Mollie Makes! It’s an Etsy Takeover edition, and Etsy UK picked some of their favorite Etsy artists/crafters/makers to contribute fun summer project ideas! They asked if I would send them the pattern for the hot dog sleep mask I made for my mom a few months back, and I said of course! I grabbed myself an e-copy via Apple Newsstand. I’m forever grateful for Mollie Makes’ support and always feel super proud to to have my work appear in their magazine.  Click on the link for all the info if you want to download the issue!

April is National Stress Awareness month, and the Craft Yarn Council asked me to help them write a crochet pattern for a stress ball, so that people can not only stitch away their stress, but then also squeeze away their stress! I threw some ideas at them, and they chose my idea for a lemon stress ball, in the spirit of “when life gives you lemons….” If you crochet a lot, this will be a quick & dirty pattern for you! If you are a beginner, it should still be very doable and good practice for working in the round. All month long, the Craft Yarn Council will be posting giveaways, project ideas, and helpful info about how knitting and crocheting can help reduce stress. Vogue Knitting also helped create a knit version of the lemon, so that knitters won’t feel left out! (That’s my current table cloth. I thought it would evoke PICNIC, but it really evokes WELCOME TO GIUSEPPI’S PIZZERIA MAY I OFFER YOU THE CHIANTI.) Here is the YouTube tutorial for the crochet version! Here is the crochet pattern and here is the knit pattern on the CYC website. They made cute little PDF’s for you! I’ll have the pattern written out down below as well. Hope you guys make lots of fun stuff this month to #StitchAwayStress :). *** “When Life Gives You Lemons” Lemon Stress Ball Crochet Pattern by Twinkie Chan Materials Green worsted weight yarn, like Red Heart Super Saver in Spring Green – approx. 1 yard Yellow worsted weight yarn, like Red Heart Super Saver in Bright Yellow – approx. 26 yards H8/5.0mm crochet hook scissors tapestry needle Polyfil stuffing Finished Size Approx. 4.5 inches long and 2.5 inches wide Gauge 15 sc x 18 rows = 4 in. x 4 in. Abbreviations ch(s) : chain(s) dec: decrease FLO: front loop only hdc: half double crochet rnd(s): round(s) sc: single crochet sc2tog: single crochet two together sl st: slip stitch st(s): stitch(es) YO: yarn over (   ): work everything inside the parentheses into the next stitch [   ]: repeat everything in the brackets the number of times indicated Notes – When decreasing in this pattern, I would suggest the invisible decrease. With the Right Side of your work on the outside of the Lemon, insert hook into FLO of next st, then insert hook into FLO of following st, [YO and pull through 2 loops] 2 times. – This pattern calls for Polyfil to stuff the lemon, but you can use some other stress-relieving options such as: 1) Cut the leg off a pair of pantyhose. Insert the toe into your nearly completed Lemon at around Rnd 18 and use a funnel to fill the pantyhose with Poly beads until your are happy with the feel of the Lemon. Tie off the pantyhose to close the opening and trim any extra pantyhose. Finishing crocheting the Lemon. 2) Blow up a water balloon to stretch it out. Then insert it into your nearly completed Lemon at around Rnd 18 […]

I’m super sorry I don’t have time this year to create a new pattern for Easter, but don’t forget that I have two patterns from years past that you might enjoy! Mini Chocolate Easter Bunny (with video) … and my cute collab with Normalynn of Crochet Cake Sachets: Panorama Easter Eggs! Oh! I almost forgot about my Jelly Bean Scarf!  

Let’s squeeze out one more heart-shaped pattern before Valentine’s Day! I got a couple requests for a Ricardio the Heart Guy from Adventure time. I had to look him up, and he looks like this: Kinda freaky, right?! Anyway, I figured this was also a good opportunity to make heart-shaped throw pillows, and then you can put a Ricardio face on it, or a happy/cute face, or make a set of conversation hearts with your own messages. Lots of opportunities here!! I will put arms and legs on mine, but you can leave out the limbs. The world is yours! There are a few ways to create a throw-pillow-type project. You can either work in the round, or you can crochet two flat pieces and sew them together. We are going to work this one in the round, kinda like a jumbo version of my heart lollipop necklace. I normally like to use single crochet for items that are stuffed, but I wanted to bang this out really quick, so I used double crochet! Let’s go crazy!!! (p.s. I’m sorry that the photos here are just screen grabs of the YouTube video….. I changed the way I decided to work the pattern, and all the photos I took were no longer valid. I will work up another pillow this weekend and shoot proper progress photos!)

I still need to copy all of my Michaels.com patterns back over to my blog here, so bear with me! Someone recently requested the Chocolate Truffle Scarf, so here it is! I will try to update all the old links, too! Eat your chocolate and wear it, too! I designed this scarf of candy truffles so that you could feel like a walking box of chocolates — cute and scrumptious! Mix and match yarn colors to create your favorite truffle flavors, then decorate with dots, hearts, swirls, or stripes. Guaranteed to satisfy any sweet tooth, this scarf makes an enjoyable and decadent treat!

I randomly decided the other day that I needed to make myself Holly Golightly’s sleeping mask from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and I figured I’d share the pattern so that you guys can make one, too! The cool thing about this pattern is that you can turn the basic sleeping mask into anything you want…. like a bunny mask, a kitty mask, a teddy bear mask… there are tons of possibilities for customization! I made 4 other kinds of masks, which you can see in the intro of my YouTube tutorial! I have no idea how many people actually use sleeping masks on the daily, but while I was crocheting one at my parents’ house, my mom revealed that she uses them! Who knew!? Also, I was making a pink mask, and she asked what it was going to be, and I told her a bunny mask…but actually it was this eye-ball-falling-out-of-the-socket mask. Sometimes, you have to tell a white lie so that you don’t sound crazypants around your folks. This pattern will focus on the Holly Golightly mask, for whenever you have the blues or the mean reds!

I just posted a new video tutorial for an old-ish pattern here on my blog: the heart garland that was featured before in Crochet Today magazine! It’s a cool tutorial for beginners, because we go through several different stitches like tr, htr, dc, hdc, and sc!  

I’m in the December issue of Craftseller Magazine in the UK as Blogger of the Month! Craftseller encourages you to make and sell your handmade crafts, so there’s advice and lots of fun projects inside to make and sell, not only in the magazine, but on the website, too. I have a Q&A and also a free pattern for ya! Actually the free pattern is up on on their website, so I’ll go ahead and link you to it. {{Edit: Unfortunately, Craftseller Magazine no longer exists, so I posted this pattern for free on my blog here.}} It’s for a little custard cream sandwich cookie to with your tea or coffee. I had them at my table at Renegade, and a lot of people had a cute nostalgia for these little guys! Enjoy!!!

I polled you guys on Facebook to see what kind of Thanksgiving-themed crochet tutorial you’d like to see, and I got a lot of votes for a turkey drumstick as well as some form of pumpkin pie. The turkey drumstick would be easy, as the pattern already exists and I wouldn’t have to write anything, but hey, I like a fun(ny) new project and thought maybe you would, too! I decided to turn this little pumpkin pie brooch (or hair clip, for the adventurous) into a hiding place for some sheets of tissue, and the tissue also doubles as the whipped cream dollop for the pie! You know, this will come in super handy at your holiday feast, if someone randomly drops some stuffing on the floor, or if someone has some gravy on their face. YOU COULD BE THE THANKSGIVING HERO. YOU’RE WELCOME. (Pattern also includes the option of stuffing the brooch with Polyfill and not having any tissue come out of it…) There’s also a video tutorial on YouTube for ya.