I heart Vickie Howell

This is going to turn into a gushing fan post to Vickie Howell.  Vickie is an amazing designer sponsored by Caron Yarns, who's patterns are modern, timely, and flawless!  I have only been crocheting about 18 months now - definitely still define myself as a beginner when i think of all those who have been crocheting for 30+ years :) I'm a newbie, still get confused in how to change colors, always forget how to do a Treble-crochet and have to hit YouTube to relearn, and I usually avoid anything that's not rated "easy" because i feel that i have not yet graduated past that point.  I do, at this time, have over 40 crochet projects "under my belt", still coming to grips that my gauge is super tight and I ALWAYS have to go up at least 1, if not 2 hook sizes to match. I also get 90% of my patterns free online.

Here's where Vickie comes in!

My mom told me to start subscribing to the yarn manufactures websites to get free patterns. So I did, and I signed up for Caron's and that's where I "met" Vickie. Right away LOVED her style! She was giving patterns for stuff I would see in the mall! So i dove in, and make my first Vickie pattern - the Urban Jungle Slouch Hat. :) Ended up making it 4 times! :)  Why, not just because it is AWESOME, but because the pattern is perfect. I was able to follow it the first try - understand what was expected of me, and the result was beautiful! (which cannot be said of all my projects :) I tweeted about one of these hats, and Vicki herself re-tweeted me! (my 15 minutes of social media fame).

So now, I'm diving into my next Vickie project!  I got Caron's free pattern newsletter, and there was the "Baby M Blanket". I am expecting a baby boy in a few weeks - and was looking for an awesome pattern for make for a blanket for ME (I give away almost everything I make). I gotta tell you though - i was very nervous. I mean - it's rated "intermediate". So it must be complex, tricky, difficult, albeit beautiful! So i jumped in, head first, scared and nervous. I sat in a quiet room (i usually crochet with my 3 kids running around me) so that I could "figure out" the pattern. I went at it, and low and behold, Vickie laid everything out very clearly, even had a diagram of what the pattern stitch is supposed to look like, and after about 20 minutes of going through the first few rows, I had it! Vickie comes through for me again! After working on and off during the afternoon, I already have 10 rows of the blanket done, and know the pattern cold where i can now go back to the chaos of my home, and crochet away!

More to come when it's done!

<3 you Vickie!  You can follow her on Twitter too - @VickieHowell

My Urban Jungle Social Media 15 Minutes of Fame

Hi!  So I am a big social media junkie. I'm on almost everything, have a profile on almost everything, and check all those things daily. Its fun and exciting for me, but at the end of the day, I just read other peoples stuff and don't create a whole lot on my own.

However... :)

I came across this amazing free pattern from Caron designed by Vickie Howell called Urban Jungle Crocheted Slouched Beanie. It was such a GREAT pattern that I made it 3 times with 3 different colors (White, Ivory and Chocolate) of Caron Simply Soft and a Susan Bates Hook (the hook made a huge difference as to not get caught in the separating yarn). I adore this pattern and recommend it to ANYONE, even beginners.

Me in my Ivory Beanie

I was so in love with this hat I immediately added it to my Ravelry Gallery and then shared it via Facebook and Twitter with their sharing option. In the tweet out, I posted a link to my Ravelry Gallery, and did a shoutout to @caron and @vickiehowell. They both proceeded to RT my tweet out to all their "followers" and BOOM - 15 minutes of social media celebrity! Hundreds of hits to my Ravelry page to check out the hat I MADE.

I <3 Social Media. :)