Saturday, January 26, 2013

A butterfly variation

I'm finishing up a purple patchwork blanket for a very nice customer over at my Etsy shop. She asked if I could add a butterfly to it, so I used a pattern by Teresa over at CrochetGeek, but I altered it slightly. Here is my finished flutterby.




My variation: I used three colors and added a third round of the lilac color using a sc and 2 ch picot in the middle of each wing on the last round.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Pig pattern

I'm still working on my pattern writing skills. I must admit, they're pretty lacking, but that's partly because (I have two kids under the age of 6, and) I haven't figured out the best way to keep track of my scribbles, aka chicken scratch, when I'm coming up with new ideas.

I'm usually jotting down notes on a folded piece of paper from my son's schoolwork. I hate throwing away or recycling paper that's only been used on one side, so I always fold them to use for grocery lists...or my crochet patterns! Maybe I need a proper notebook, but my scrappy papers will have to do until I can get my act together.

Then there's the task of trying to decipher what I wrote and put it into a form that makes sense to others! Anyway, with all of that said...

My instructions are for the pieces and parts of the pig - a standard dc beanie can be found on many sites. Personally, I most often start with a ch 4 ring and work 10 dc into it, then 2dc into each dc and continue the following rounds increasing in different increments for different sizes (and depending upon what weight yarn I'm using). Oodles4Noodles has a great sizing chart here. It's a nice guide to crown sizing to obtain a certain hat size.

Little Miss Piggy



I used worsted weight yarn and a size I hook. (You can see the pig in pieces here.)


Snout

ch 5, slip to join
round 1: ch1, 3 sc, 3dc, 3 sc, 3 dc, slip into top of 1st sc
round 2: ch2, dc into same st, 2 dc, 2 dc into next 3 sts, 3 dc, 2 dc into next 3 sts, slip to top of first dc
round 3: ch2, (working in back loops only) hdc into each back loop of round 2, slip into top of first hdc (leave 12"-14" tail to sew onto hat) Note: There is no need to stuff snout, round 3 is meant to add a slight depth.

Eyes (2x)

ch4, slip to join
round 1: 10 sc into ring, slip into top of first sc (leave long tail to sew onto hat)

Outer ears (2x)

ch 11
row 1: 1 sc into 2nd ch from hook and each remaining ch
row 2 & 3: ch 1, 1 sc in each sc
row 4: ch 1, sc2tog, 1 sc in next 6 sc, sc2tog

row 5: ch1, sc across
row 6: ch 1, sc2tog, 1 sc in next 4 sc, sc2tog
row 7: ch1, sc across
row 8: ch 1, sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sc, sc2tog
row 9: ch 1, (sc2tog) twice
row 10: ch 1, sc2tog and fasten off (leave 8"-10" tail to sew onto hat)

Inner ears (2x) Note: I used a size H hook for these.

ch 7
row 1: 1 sc into 2nd ch from hook and each remaining ch
row 2 & 3: ch 1, 1 sc in each sc; turn
row 4: ch 1, sc2tog, 1 sc in next 2 sc, sc2tog
row 5: ch1, sc across
row 6: ch 1, (sc2tog) twice
row 7: ch 1, sc2tog and fasten off (leave 8"-10" tail to sew onto outer ear)

Bow

ch 15
row 1: 1 sc into 2nd ch from hook and each remaining ch
row 2-5: ch 1, 1 hdc in each st
row 6: (do not turn) *ch 1, sc across to corner*, repeat from * 2 more times, ch 1, slip into top of first st (leave 8"-10" tail to sew onto hat)

Bow "knot"

ch 10
row 1: 1 hdc into 2nd ch from hook and each remaining ch
row 2: ch 1, 1 hdc into each ch, fasten off (leave 8"-10" tail to sew onto bow)

Finishing

-Add snout holes (optional) using a contrasting yarn and sew snout with tail to lower center of hat.
-Sew eyes above snout.
-Sew inner ears to outer ears; then sew ears onto hat.
-Wrap bow "knot" around bow (scrunching bow a bit) and sew together at back.
-Sew bow to hat.

Note: If you would like to sell items you have made with my patterns, please do give credit to Tillie Tulip. Thank you.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

A very pink valentine's day

Amy and Alesia over at AndersonArtworks on Etsy featured my heart hat in their treasury today:



What a fun and pretty group of items.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

It's been a hoot.

I finished the parts to my last two hats. My customer requested purple and turquoise-y-blue, so here is the (almost) finished owl.




The elephant is also coming together. Once again, I still need to sew up all of these parts, but I'm pleased with how my ears turned out as well as the little trunk. My customer, Michelle, and I don't care for a droopy trunk hanging from a hat, so I lightly stuffed, then sewed a connection to turn it upward. I think it will look much better when I can attach it to the hat. (Note: I've read an elephant with an upward turned trunk is good luck anyway :)






I think they've all turned out (so far) much like the schematic I drew up. I hope Michelle likes them too!

Hope you have a lovely evening.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Kitty cat hat

I've been working away on a custom order - large throw version of my daisy blanket - as well as these little critter hats.

My little orange tabby cat is in pieces just like Miss Pig, but I'll eventually get these all sewn up. I'm saving that for last. I also only added one whisker to see how the charcoal color looked. I thought black contrasted too much, and I think I'll stick with this softer look.





I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. We are having unseasonably warm weather, but I'm not complaining!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

This little piggy...

I started working on the pig first.




Here she is deconstructed:




I still need to finish her snout and work a sc or hdc band for the bow.




And of course weave in all of those ends... I leave long tails, so that I can sew every together with them. My customer also requested earflaps, so I ditched the scalloped edge in my rendering. I'll add some ties to the flaps after I finish sewing her all together.

(I used Caron One Pound Pink and Black and a mill end light pink I had for the inner ear - name unknown - I used Red Heart Shocking Pink for the bow and edging).

Happy Sunday!