Category: Patterns & How-To’s

Wow, today’s post is like a triple whammy!!!! 1) Free crochet pattern 2) Experimenting with a new fabric glue 3) Pimping out 2 cool Etsy shops. Let’s go! So if you couldn’t tell from the blog title, today’s post is all inspired by LAVERNE & SHIRLEY. The younguns may not remember this, but us olduns do! It’s the funniest, goofiest, BFF  TV show! Joy from Lucky Cupcake Hair Clips sent me this amazing Laverne & Shirley hair bow, and I scrambled to think of what outfit I could put together to do it any amount of justice. I don’t have a lot of Laverne-y pieces in my closet (YET), so I sort of improvised … by making my own Laverne-inspired cardigan! To create the “L” for my Laverne cardigan, I used Norma Lynn’s “Love in Cursive” crochet pattern for inspiration. You should grab her pattern to spell out the whole word! Here’s what I busted out for the Laverne “L” : ch 71, sk 1st ch, 2 sc, (2 sc), 10 sc, (2 sc), 2 sc, (2 sc), 2 sc, (2 sc), 18 sc, sc3tog, 2 sc, sc3tog, 2 sc, sc3tog, 2 sc, sc3tog, 10 sc, (2 sc), 3 sc. Then, I experimented with Surebonder Fabric Stix: hot glue for fabric! That’s flexible! And washable! I can’t vouch yet for how it washes. Only time will tell. I was just excited to try this out. It kinda stinks that it’s white and not clear, but for this project, it was fine. It also, kind of literally stinks. It’s a bit smellier than regular hot glue, so you might want to pop open a window if you’re afraid of chemical smells. It’s no way near as bad as E6000, though. Ultimately, I think that hot fabric glue is an easy solution for some quick embellishments, but since it’s GLUE, it is kinda bulky and not as delicate as hand-sewing. Here’s an action-packed video I made while using the Fabric Stix for the first time! I would say that it is certainly a quick n convenient way to glue stuff to other stuff, but I felt like I was being too messy with it, and it was kinda stringy, and……..it’s WHITE. So, there are some definite down sounds to working with it. I’m interested in how it would hold up to gluing bows to jeans and stuff like that. More experimentation later!

I have a new pattern in available in my Etsy shop. It’s for a “Pancake Lovey!” I had no idea what a lovey was, until someone asked me to make one a year or two ago (I didn’t end up doing it). I guess it’s like a doll/security-blanket hybrid, usually characterized by some kind of head stuck to some kind of blanky. This Pancake Lovey has a happy, sleepy butter pat buddy sewn to a security pancake! I don’t really want to make/sell baby items, and I probably won’t write very many baby-related patterns, but I designed this particular morsel because my brother and sister-in-law’s first baby, Ender, was born on May 16! He came out really cute, and not at all wrinkly or alien-looking. Manda and I got to see him after he was just about a day old. Pretty crazy! You might be wondering why I made a PANCAKE for them.  Recall the baby shower and how I mentioned my brother loving pancakes. Also, my sister-in-law decorates a lot using beige/neutrals. So, I figured, even if the baby never ends up using the Pancake Lovey, it could still sort of maybe fit into the neutral color scheme of their home. Incidentally, I didn’t get a chance to bring them the lovey on the day we visited them in the hospital, because I washed it but didn’t have time to dry it because Hairy’s air-dry-only laundry was taking a million cycles! But the baby won’t be able to actually use it for a while anyway, so I guess it’s all good! Here’s a picture of Ender for you baby-lovin’ folk out there!  

Thanks to everyone who participated in my first “Free for 48 hrs” crochet pattern party! I may not always do 48 hrs, but I’ll try to always throw some kind of “party” with a window of time when you can grab a new pattern for free. Now, the crochet pattern for the Cupcake Coffee Cup Cozy is available in my Etsy shop. BONUS!!! At the back of the pattern PDF, I included the cup-shaped paper insert that I sometimes use to package my cozies. It’s really perfect for gift-giving because it explains what the gift is and also includes washing instructions. A new thing I noticed while adding the pattern to the shop: Etsy seems to now be offering the link to customers directly to download the pattern, so let me know how that goes! This is really cool for sellers, because before, we either had to manually email all the patterns, or pay for an app to do it for us. Etsy really stepped it up!

Happy Mother’s Day! Happy Sunday! Happy Run Your Errands Day! EDIT May 14, 2013: Thank you so much for participating in my first “Free-for-48-hrs” crochet pattern party! I’ll do another one really soon! This pattern is now available in my Etsy shop. I’ve decided to try this thing. I was going to post a new pattern in my Etsy shop, but FIRST, I’m gonna post it here for free. For 48 hrs. Commence Crochet!!! (p.s. if you find any booboos or confusing spots, please let me know!) Small print time! This crochet pattern is intended for personal use. Please do not distribute or sell this pattern, or sell finished items made from this pattern without my permission. Thank you!  

Mother’s Day is only a few days away, but you still have time to DIY something special! When I needed some emergency help in proof-reading my Asparagus Pen Cozy pattern, Kim came to the rescue and then also suggested that the pattern could be used to create lavender flowers. I loved this idea, since my mom loves lavender, so I decided to make a crochet lavender bouquet for her… of pen cozies! (Dad, don’t tell Mom!) What You’ll Need: my Asparagus Pen Cozy crochet pattern that I wrote for Michaels.com that you can now find at this link on my blog. In the pattern, I refer to working a Leaf, but they left out the part where I explained how to work a leaf! Regardless, for my lavender flowers, I changed the leaf a tiny bit. To work a lavender leaf: Ch 3, sk 1st ch, 1 sc, 1 sl st. Done! I also worked a shorter green stem and a longer purple top than for the asparagus spear. H hook small amount of worsted weight yarn in Green small amount of worsted weight yarn in Purple regular ball point pens optional: small terra cotta flower pot (the green one I used is biodegradable) dried beans or pebbles to fill the flower pot The particular yarns I used were just from my stash. I picked 2 shades of Purple. KnitPicks Brava Worsted in Grass, Deborah Norville Everyday Worsted in Orchid, Plymouth Encore Worsted in 1606 Purple Bell. I dabbled in mixing 2 purples in one pen. One has 2 leaves in one color alternating with 2 leaves in another color. The other is mostly Orchid with a few leaves in Purple Bell here and there. Do you guys have any fun plans with your moms? We are going out for a family dinner on Saturday night!

Yay! Another new free crochet pattern is up now at Michaels.com: Chiffon Cake with Fruit Topping – A Tissue Box Cozy! Just in time for Mother’s Day! Edit, June 4, 2014: Please find the pattern here on my blog. Michaels.com is currently re-vamping their pattern/project section, and the above Michaels.com link is disabled for now. Here’s the intro I wrote for the pattern: When I crochet gifts for my mom, I like to make cute things that she can use around the house. One of the first projects I ever made for her was a cake-themed tissue box cozy. So, this month, I had my mom in mind when I designed this crocheted chiffon cake with colorful strawberry, blueberry and kiwi topping. I remember eating delicious cakes just like it when I was little. I hope you have fun creating this yummy piece of my childhood memories. Consider making one as a gift to sweeten a special someone’s Mother’s Day! You are gonna have so much fun making the frosting border for this!!! It’s a variation on the “piped frosting shells” stitch I include in my Sugar On Top mini booklet but much BIGGER and PUFFIER! I hope to see pictures of all of your cake projects soon! I have another fun Mother’s Day present idea for you using a pattern of mine that’s already available and also inspired by my own mom and what I would make for her. More on that soon!    

My new free pattern is up now at Michaels.com: Veggie Pen Cozies! You get the patterns for the asparagus, lettuce, and carrot! They work up super quick and are a fun stash-buster for all your veggie-colored yarns. We did some lettuce pens with green and purple that were really fun! Edit, June 4, 2014: Please find the pattern here on my blog. Michaels.com is currently re-vamping their pattern/project section, and the above Michaels.com link is disabled for now.      

Someone left a message on my blog recently that she hoped one day that Normalynn and I would collaborate. Well, today’s the day. Dreams *do* come true!!! 😛 I actually met Norma Lynn many years ago at Renegade Craft Fair here in San Francisco. She visited my booth and explained who she was, and I definitely already knew her work as well. She is really the sweetest person ever, and her website is filled with photos of delectable crocheted cake sachets and lots of free patterns. I approached her after receiving that message on my blog, and our collaborative crochet pattern is the Panorama Egg, just in time for Easter! photo by Norma Lynn of her candy eggs my eggs are noticeably more… gaudy!

  I added a ready-to-ship Jelly Bean Scarf to my Etsy shop! Remember also that the pattern is available for free at Michaels.com. There was a small booboo in the pattern at Michaels. Round 5 is as follows, with the correct change made in red font. Rnd 5: Ch 2 (counts as your 1st hdc) and hdc in same st. Work 9 hdc evenly across. [2 hdc in next st, 1 hdc in next 3 sts] 5 times. 2 hdc in next st, 1 hdc, 1 sc, 6 sl st, 1 sc each in next 3 sts, hdc, [2 hdc in next st, 1 hdc in next 3 sts] 2 times. 1 hdc in last st. (60) Break off leaving 18″ of yarn for sewing.

  Yep, now you can make your own ice cream scoop hair clips. Available as a PDF for purchase on Etsy!

Surprise! My Michaels.com March pattern is up a little early! A super colorful Jelly Bean Scarf! Edit, June 4, 2014: Please find the pattern here on my blog. Michaels.com is currently re-vamping their pattern/project section, and the above Michaels.com link is disabled for now. This month’s theme is Easter! As you’ll see from the project description, I was rolling some ideas around in my head, but I also asked my Twitter followers what they would like to see. Someone suggested a project involving jelly beans, and I really loved it! Once you get the pattern down, this project works up super quickly, and it’s fun to play with different color combos! I have some colors already picked out for more jelly bean scarves. I was hoping to finish them so I could post more pictures along with this pattern, but I didn’t want to make you guys wait!

I keep seeing a necklace I want all over the internet. It’s a cute, acrylic, heart-shaped cherry lollipop. I figured I would try to crochet something similar! It’s not quite the same, but still cute, and FREE! 🙂 I re-used the 3D heart pattern from my Happy Heart and Rib Cage T-shirt post last Halloween. I noticed there was a little booboo in the pattern while I was reading it this afternoon, so I’ll repost it with the booboo fixed! Mine turned out kinda big because I double-stranded two yarns, so you can experiment with your yarn stash and see what you come up with!   p.s. The sweatshirt I’m wearing is from ModCloth. I tried it on today and then never wanted to take it off!

Happy February! I have two new crochet patterns for you at Michaels.com. The diagrams are kind of messed up (either missing or out of place), but I’ll see if anything can be done about that! The first pattern will look familiar: it’s the heart-shaped sugar cookie brooch we do for Valentine’s Day, but it’s the first time I’ve shared the pattern. Go here! The second pattern is brand new (to me, too!) It’s a Chocolate Truffle Scarf and is inspired by me wanting you to feel like a yummy box of chocolates! Pattern here! I hope you guys have fun making you and your sweethearts some Valentine’s goodies! I know I said I would re-open my shop with V-Day stuff on Feb 1, but I found myself caught up in some surprise deadlines! But I will work on finishing up cute stuff this weekend and try to post on Monday. I want to work on a new pattern for a fun new brooch/hair clip, so cross your fingers that the project won’t give me a hard time!!! 😛 Remember, if you guys end up making stuff from my Michaels patterns, let me know! I’d love to see!    

I have a fun tidbit of news for you guys! For all of 2013, I will be writing one (and sometimes two) free crochet pattern for the Yarn and Needle Crafts project section of Michaels.com. The first two are already up! A Birthday Candle scarf for all new beginnings and celebrations, and a super cute Strawberry Cake binder cozy for any of you back-to-school-ers or binder-lovers (I know you’re out there, binder-lovers, cuz Manda is one of you). Here are some photos I took of the projects here at home: I’m actually right now in the middle of working on the next two patterns for February!

Yay! It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: Lion Brand has posted my free pattern for Glitter Gummy Bears, just in time for your holiday crafting! One pack of Lion Brand Bonbons can make up to 8 gummy bears in a variety of colors. There’s a bit of sewing involved with the different little pieces, but if you are familiar with making simple amigurumi, this pattern will be a snap! I tried to keep it the pattern as simple as possible so that more people would be able to have some gummy bear fun! If you make a gummy bear and enjoy the pattern, please do leave positive feedback at the Lion Brand site on my pattern page. If you guys like the pattern, maybe more things will be in store in the future…! (This photo will be available soon as a greeting card in my Etsy shop!)

My buddy Andrea a.k.a. Giggles, Craft Wars Winner, asked if I’d be part of a promotional blog hop and create a fun pattern in support of her latest project: The Paint Chip Pals, a posse of 7 color-inspired plush, all with their own powers and personalities. The Paint Chip Pals currently have a Kickstarter campaign which will be up for only 2 more weeks, so check it out if you’d like to be one of the first to grab your own Paint Chip Pal, while also supporting indie designers, fun plush toys, and I quote from their Kickstarter page, “grown ups that simply refuse to grow up!” You can also enter a contest to win a Paint Chip Pal by leaving a comment on my blog and telling me who your favorite Paint Chip Pal is. Your name will go into a big pool of entries from other blogs on the blog hop, and Andrea will choose a winner on December 12. So if you want more chances to win, comment on the other blogs, too! To help celebrate their campaign, I created a fun and easy pattern for you guys inspired by Plinky, who loves sparkle-hunting and eating cotton candy! We threw in one for her buddy Blooty, too! So here are the instructions to crochet your own Cotton Candy Christmas Tree Ornament!

While designing Halloween-themed items, I sketched out a t-shirt with a plush heart and loopy crocheted “ribs” that would not necessarily be anatomically correct (at all!) but would still evoke both spookiness and cuteness! I wanted to borrow from today’s skeleton trend and make it a little more Twinkie Chan. What I really like about this project is that you can pick your favorite color t-shirt or tank top and wear it year-round. You can even make the heart a removable brooch and give it to somebody at any moment! (Oh hey, Valentine’s Day project!) You can also have lots of fun decorating and customizing your heart, giving it a face, arms, legs, heck, you could even sew clothes for it if you want! The pattern is below! Please note, that I did this really quickly before leaving on a trip to Seattle to see the Plush You opening at Schmancy (today, Friday, 5pm – 9pm!).  I need to shoot better photos, and there are probably some weird mistakes in the pattern itself. Let me know if you attempt it! 🙂

SooooOOOOooooo. Here’s the story. While I’m prepping for Renegade Craft Fair, I realize that the berry basket I usually put my strawberry rings in is in L.A. (from Anime Expo). I either need to buy a new berry basket or come up with something different. The berry basket is cool…cuz…you know…berry rings go in the berry basket … but I notice that they don’t always sit perfectly in there and sort of start to pile up on each other. I like the idea of using a regular ring display with the little slots that the rings go in, but they are usually pretty boring. You can find lots of tutorials via Google search for DIYing your own ring display from scratch, but I don’t have a lot of time to spare. Craft fair is in  3 days and I have a million other things to do. So, I decide to buy a regular black velvet ring display from Michael’s, some Martha Stewart green glitter paint (I think green will set off the strawberries nicely), and invoke all the awesomeness of your fancy velvet Elvis paintings. The color I choose is a nice, bright, yellowy springy green called PERIDOT, which, by the way, is my birth stone, and I always thought it was ugly and the worst birthstone ever. This should have been a clue for what’s to come…     HIDEOSITY!!!!! I don’t know. I mean. It’s not horrible, but it’s just not what I had been envisioning in my head. I thought it would be really beautiful and cute and glamorous, but it’s more like, gross, ugly, tacky, and weird. Like the Hulk disco-barfed on a street gutter. At this point, I realize, I can’t stop now. I NEED TO PUT MORE STUFF ON IT. Embrace that tackiness, make it weirder, make it uglier. Enter: green elastic ruffle trim I just happen to have because I love ugly things. You’re probably like, “UH, by the way, it’s still ugly.” I DON’T CARE. For some reason, the ruffle trim saves the whole project for me. I was going to also add a pearl trim and some bows, but, I decide to stop here, while I’m happy with it, and just let the rings stand out. I’m really pleased with how it turned out now. I’m a happy camper. If I were smart, I would have first painted the velvet with a regular green fabric paint and THEN gone over it with the green glitter paint. However, what you’re looking at only took two coats (just one bottle) of glitter paint, so, this paint is pretty good, and now I can go do the other eleventybillion things on my to-do list. *high-fives Martha Stewart*

Okay, so my friend James had a birthday a few months ago. He wanted everyone to go to Smuggler’s Cove, a piratey rum bar with a bajillion different rums and crazy mixed drinks inspired by different continents. It sounds really cheezy, but the drinks were actually pretty interesting and quite delicious! The night before James’ bday party, Manda and I still didn’t have pirate costumes. I was really struggling with putting an outfit together from things I already owned. We went to the mall and tried to find pieces we’d use again in our regular wardrobe, but I still couldn’t get with the pirate program. Finally, Manda said, “You don’t have to be a pirate. You could be the mermaid.” EUREKA!!! Hence, the crocheted mermaid costume was born (after trying a few really bad pairs of green skinny jeans.) Here’s a really really REALLY poor quality phone-cam photo of me before leaving the house. My quick-n-dirty mermaid outfit came out pretty cute, so I thought I’d share the shell bikini pattern with you. I will warn you: it’s not great. I didn’t create the pattern with the intention of sharing it or selling it. I was really just trying to make myself a quick outfit. But maybe you guys will get a kick out of it, too, and use it as a foundation for a really awesome ensemble. Essentially, I just made two giant seashell “patches,” hot glued some see-through, bubble-like beads to the surface, and I tacked the shells down to an aqua blue dress with a few stitches here and there, so that I could cut the dress free afterwards. I also crocheted a starfish hair piece, hot glued gold beads to the top, and hot glued some small pearl strings to the back. I made the hair piece mere minutes before we had to leave, so I didn’t write a pattern for it. Plus, I can’t find  the pattern for an afghan that I used as a guide, so you may want to search for some other free star fish patterns out there, like this one. Now that I’ve made this sound like the worst free pattern ever …….. onto the free pattern! Remember, I made these for myself. They are BIG cuz it just ended up that way, so this probably wouldn’t fit children. You could use a lighter weight yarn than Red Heart Super Saver to get some smaller shells.

Okay, so I crochet food-themed stuff, but upon rare occasion, I’ll do something a little different because I enjoy the challenge. One of my customers (I dunno if you wanna be anonymous or if you want me to link your blog or tumblr!), asked if an R2D2 coffee cup cozy would be possible. She asked me this months and months ago, and I sketched a few ideas, but never had time to execute them. Until now! I think he came out pretty cool! I used acrylic yarn, a small red button, a silver eyelet, and a safety eye with the post snapped off. He’s washable and totally usable! This is a one-off project, and I won’t be making more. If you want to try to crochet your own R2 cozy, find a basic pattern for a coffee cup cozy, make a semi-circle for his head, and the legs… well, okay, I’ll give ya the pattern I threw together behind the cut ;). I apologize in advance if there are any errors. Nobody has tested the pattern yet!

Elsie kindly asked if I might contribute to her “Tricks and Treats” guest-blogging series on her site, and of course I jumped at the chance to do anything having to do with that little lady! Check out TWO tutorials I created over at her blog! Sorry I posted it so late here. I’ve been out all day! At first I wanted to make Mummy Mitts… but then I thought it might be too complicated for crochet beginners, so then I wrote up a Daisy Headband project, and then I couldn’t decide between the two, so I sent both to Emma, and both got posted so you get double the fun! 🙂 Here are two extra mummyriffic photos: The flower head band looks like this and is SUPER EASY to make! I have actually been wearing it a lot, but I didn’t want to post any photos until the tutorial went up! Instead of doing anything Halloweeny today, my cousin, his bestie, Hairy, and I drove to Napa Valley to go sparkling wine tasting at Domaine Carneros and to eat dinner at Ubuntu, with a spontaneous stop at Chandon. It was a pretty delicious and decadent day. Hairy and I were going to see Saw 3D, and the boys were going to go clubbing, but everyone ended up kinda sleepy and there wasn’t a late enough movie for us to catch. Oh wells!