A Trio of Beanies!

So decided to take a break from the blankets and kick out some boy beanies this weekend! I had gotten the Stitch and Bitch Crochet: Happy Hooker book a while ago, but have yet to make anything from it - so dove in and found this adorable beanie hat pattern. When I went to look it up on Ravelry - I saw that the designer, Laura Killoran (http://croshaydesign.com) had an update to it! So i quickly downloaded the update, and went to work to make a beanie for hubby. The pattern was easy, flawless, and the result was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was SO easy - that I made another one for my 4 year old and yet another for my new baby boy who's due next month!! Kicked all out in a matter of hours!

Used Bernat Satin Solid Yarn - Black and Forest Mist Heather for the Stripes - I did up the hooks for the bigger 2 hats, but that's due to my own tight stitching which i've come to accept and decided not to try to change :)

The result - a trio of adorable matching beanies! I've already sent the pattern out to all my crocheting friends - and will most definitely use this pattern again in the future! Hats off to Laura Killoran and Thanks for the awesome pattern!

You can follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/croshay

Or follow ME :) https://twitter.com/#!/mancychavez

Ripples for EVERYONE!

Yay!!! Don't you just LOVE a finished project! I know I do. This blanket was very fun to make. Pulled the free pattern from Ravelry and using 100% Cotton "Peace and Love" Yarn from Bernat made this a very soft and fun piece. It's stitched up very quickly. I chose the colors for a baby boy blanket for my best friend who is due ANY DAY NOW!

Few items to note - I wouldn't do this particular pattern with this yarn again. If you can see from this top image, there is a bit of a "buckle" in the blanket. I followed the pattern exactly, which was very good, and seemed correct, but without the "give" of the acrilyc yarns, I think the cotton coupled with the pattern caused this "buckle" I pulled and tugged and stretched, and could not get it to lay flat at all.

I loved the pattern and I loved the yarn, and I love the final result - I just don't know that I would marry the two up again. Just my humble opinion.

All that being said - I did ship this blanket to my BFF who lives in PA and she called me immediately! She LOVED it :)

Thanks for looking!

Ripple in the Round - In progress!

So I am loving doing projects in the round. Hats, Blankets, etc. Anything that starts in the center and moves out. I think the reason is that you see a TON of progress right off the bat (not so much when the project gets bigger and it takes you FOR-EV-A to get "around", but also I have an issue with chaining, and then the first row into that chain. Mine are always too loose, or i lose count, or something like that. Doing projects in the round means less room for error.

Found this adorable pattern on Ravelry.com for a Ripple Blanket in the Round. Scoped the projects on ravely, to find a color combo I liked best, and found that the big bright contracting colors seemed to make the best impact with this pattern. So off to Joann's I went with my coupon in tow :)

Hit up the clearance section first, and came upon these awesome colors (Blue and Orange) for 1/2 price for their 100% Cotton Bernat Peace and Love skeins. Only had to buy one skein of white at full price, and I was ready to roll!

LOVE LOVE LOVE how this is coming out! This is for the unborn baby boy of one of my BFF's. Hoping to squeeze it in before Christmas (she's due in January) and get this shipped off to her. Since this pic was taken, I finished the blue round, already did another orange and white, and now doing the next Blue. I'm thinking one more round of white and orange should do it, and it'll be a great size to wrap that baby nice and snug! :)

Also - major shout-out for this 100% cotton yarn! This is only my second project using non-acrylic and I'm LOVING it! :)

Will post final pics when project is done! Enjoy!

Squiggly Stripes

Flashback to a year ago - I picked up my "Crochet for Babies" book which i had previously made 4 projects from - and saw a blanket that just jumped off the page at me. It was for this beautiful pink and purple blanket that was stunning in the photo. My original intent was to make it for a friend of mine who was expecting a baby girl the following month, and silly me thought that I could complete this blanket in time with the holidays approaching. I quickly changed the recepient to myself, well actually my 2 month old daughter, and went out to find the exact yarn used in the pattern. Much to my dismay, it was discontinued from Bernat! No!!! So i hit eBay and was able to get 3 skeins there, and got another 2 through someone's stash list on www.ravelry.com - and she was more than happy to sell to me!

So then I begin - I did the first row... and the second row, and the third. Make the first Curly-Q's, and I was on my way... but alas, the blanket was not growing! A few days later i was only about 8 rows in, and barely an inch! This was NOT going to be a fast project - 3 weight yarn along with a G hook, and a LOT of SC and DC's!

I then did something I have never done in my whole crocheting career... I put it aside to work on something else. I VOWED never to do this! I was always going to complete what I started - but this was going to take FOREVER! So I made a Purple Toddler Beanie and Matching Scarf , made another Toddler Hat for my daughter using some of the yarn FROM the "put aside" project, made a quick Baby Blanket for my co-worker, a Baby Block Blanket for my cousin's baby, another "Crochet for Babies" blanket for my friend's baby, my "Urban Jungle" Social Media Fame hat :), ANOTHER baby blanket in the round for my college friend's baby, and finally the big Log Cabin Afghan project.

Then, 11 months later... I pick up this tossed aside blanket and NOW VOW to do nothing else until it's completed...

... and it's completed. And one of the most beautiful blankets I have ever made.

The end result is about 60"x60" not counting the squiggles. :) it's so dense you can't see through it, and it is really warm and REALLY SOFT!

The squiggles ended up being SO EASY and what a great addition to the blanket!

And finally my little peanut and her new blanket. This will go on her toddler bed as her main blanket when we transition her from her crib in a few months.

Now the true question - how many of these squiggles will she put up her nose over the course of it's life :)

More about this and link to the patters on my Ravelry Page.