Gifts for the twins

I've been racking my brains trying to come up with something special for my cousin's new twin girls. I came across a lovely sunburst pattern (seems very "floral-ly" too) over at Purple Chair Crochet. I think I've seen similar patterns out there, but she has some nice photo instruction as well.

I chose Lion Brand Baby's First cotton/acrylic blend in Twinkle Toes, Fairy Tale, Cotton Ball and Bean Stalk. I'm going to add more squares and perhaps do some granny border in predominantly light pink for one and the darker pink for the other to keep them similar, but not the same. Just like the twins (whose names are Sofia and Lauren - I always want to say "Sophia Loren" :)

I'll post some final photos when I get these done, so you can see how they turn out. Hope you're having a lovely President's Day!

(Un)Perfect pink patchwork

Happy belated Valentine's Day. I sound like a broken record, but I've been busy working on a couple of custom requests. One of which I finished up yesterday...

It's a throw sized afghan. I used Hobby Lobby pink and hot rose as well as Red Heart's perfect pink. Usually, I work each square, lay them all out, and use the join as you go method with a border color, but with this one, I made up and attached each square as I went. It's a bit more difficult, because I like to be able to move things around, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I hope my customer is too. I'm in love with random patchwork -- afghans, quilts. I think it's a little like life: it's never perfect, and you make it up as you go along!

Have a wonderful rest of your weekend.

A Valentine's Day gift idea

With Valentine's Day coming up fast, I thought I would share a unique idea I had for a gift to my husband several years ago.

I'm a folk art lover, and I have long admired Catherine Holman's beautiful work, so I contacted her to do a custom painting of the building we were married in. My husband and I were married in December 2005 in a rustic building called the "Chestnut Shelter". We had a massive snow storm roll through on December 2 which made for long travels, but a beautiful setting for our big day - everything was covered in a blanket of white, and there were giant icicles hanging from the awnings of the shelter.

I was thrilled with her rendition and couldn't wait to share it with my husband. Catherine is an amazing artist, and I can't thank her enough for sharing her talents. It is a gift I will treasure forever.

Dreaming of spring

It was in the 60s here earlier in the week, but now we are back down to 17F with bands of lake effect snow. The cold temps and snow are typical for this time of year, but the warm weather had me dreaming of spring. Maybe that was the inspiration for my purchase on Etsy. That and my love affair with the "tempestuous tulip" (if you are a Room with a View fan, like myself, you will appreciate that last bit). Whatever the case, I spied this beautiful watercolor and had to have it.

The painting is by Nancy Dopler of Midwest Gypsy. She has other beautiful art there, so check her out.

Now I just have to find the right frame...

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.

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.

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.