Sunday, November 30, 2014

12 Days of Christmas: Day 3 - One Hour Super Bulky Beanie

All of my 12 Days of Christmas Hats were created as Christmas gifts for less fortunate students at my best friend's school in Nashville who do not have adequate winter wear. These patterns are available free of charge, but please consider making a donation here to help brighten a child's Christmas.

The perfect last minute gift - a one hour beanie! This beanie is sized for elementary school children.

One Hour Super Bulky Beanie
 
 

Materials:
  • super bulky yarn (I used Charisma)
  • N hook
  • yarn needle
Directions:

Round 1: In magic circle, 12dc, join to first dc

Round 2: ch 2 (counts as stitch throughout), dc in same stitch, 2dc in every stitch (24), join to beginning ch
 
Round 3: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next stitch, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (36), join
 
Round 4: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next 2 stitches, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (48), join

Round 5-11: ch 2, dc in each stitch (48), join

Round 12: ch 1, sc in each stitch around (48), join, fasten off and weave in ends.

Note: For the brown and green/yellow/teal hat, I changed colors at round 10. For the green, white, and yellow hat, I changed colors on rounds 4, 7, 8, and 11. Rounds 7 and 12 are worked in hdc because I was going to run out of yarn if I used dc.

Add a few embellishments - a flower, some buttons, or an iron-on patch - to personalize the hat.

Check back tomorrow for how I add iron-on patches to crochet work.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

12 Days of Christmas Hats: Day 2 - Camo Hat

All of my 12 Days of Christmas Hats were created as Christmas gifts for less fortunate students at my best friend's school in Nashville who do not have adequate winter wear. These patterns are available free of charge, but please consider making a donation here to help brighten a child's Christmas.

Got little hunter in your life? How about a wanna-be solider? Here is the perfect hat for them! This hat is sized for elementary school students (size L - 18"-22"), but this post can help you resize the pattern.

Camo Hat
 
 

Materials:
  • less than 1 skein of camo colored yarn
  • small amount brightly colored yarn
  • I hook
  • yarn needle
Directions:

Round 1: In magic circle, 12dc, join to first dc

Round 2: ch 2 (counts as stitch throughout), dc in same stitch, 2dc in every stitch (24), join to beginning ch
 
Round 3: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next stitch, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (36), join
 
Round 4: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next 2 stitches, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (48), join

Round 5: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next  3 stitches, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (60), join

Round 6 - 11: ch 2, dc in each stitch (60), join
 
Round 12-14: switch to second color, ch 2, hdc in each stitch (60), join
 
Round 15-16: ch 2, dc in each stitch (60), join,
 
Round 17: ch 1, sc in each stitch (60), join, fasten off and weave in ends.

Friday, November 28, 2014

Simple Sticker Advent Christmas Tree

While Elijah has his advent calendar from last year, I wanted to add a little something this year. I thought it would be fun to give him his very own little Christmas tree to decorate. I thought about getting a mini tree and little ornaments, but I decided that stickers would be easier and more age appropriate. So, I found a picture of a fir tree online, copied it into Word, added a small brown rectangle for the trunk and the words "Christmas 2014" to the bottom. I printed the whole picture and put it in a frame without the glass.

Then Elijah and I picked out some ornament stickers at Hobby Lobby. I cut them up and will put one sticker in each of the boxes in his advent calendar. Now, each day he will get to add an ornament to the tree, and we will have a fun piece of art to keep for Christmases to come.



It was super easy, super cheap (only 80-something cents for the stickers), and he think it's super fun. Win, win, win!

What are you doing for an Advent countdown this year?

Rocketship Nashville: Gifts for Students + 12 Days of Christmas Hats: Day 1 - Geometric Beanie

My best friend, Sarah, is one of the founding staff members at the new Rocketship Nashville School. She's pretty awesome. We've been best friends since we were in middle school, but it's been about 10 years since we have lived in the same state. We haven't been very good about keeping in touch all the time, but we have one of those friendships where once you do pick up the phone, it's like no time has passed. Sarah works extremely hard at being the best teacher she can be, and she truly cares about her students.

The other day on Facebook, she explained that she was going to be collecting money to buy gifts for some of her less fortunate students who won't get much for Christmas. Here is the link to her fundraising site. Your small donation will make a big difference to a little boy or girl in Nashville.

After she posted that, I sent her a message asking if she wanted to include some cold weather accessories in the gift. I had a HUGE bag of crocheted hats and scarves sitting in my hallway that I was trying to figure out what to do with. They were mostly things that I had made while trying out patterns or figuring out stitches. She said she would love them as some of the students do not have appropriate cold weather clothing.

I went through the bag, and I realized that most of the things I had made were pretty girly - bow beanies, lacy infinity scarves, hooded infinity scarves, etc. I had to make up some boy stuff, and quick! Sarah needs to have everything by mid-December. So I set about to making some simple boy-ish beanies.

Because I was using mostly stash yarn to make the hats, I had to be creative with doing color changes and making each hat unique and awesome. This is how 12 Days of Christmas Hats was born. I was writing down all the patterns anyways, so I might as well share them with all of you!

So, here is the first hat: Geometric Beanie. This hat is sized for elementary students (size L - 18"-22"), but you can use this post to help resize the pattern if you need it in another size. For the spike stitch pattern to work out correctly, you will need to have a multiple of 6 stitches after your final increase round.
 
Geometric Beanie
 
 

Materials:
  • 2 colors of worsted weight yarn - you will use less then half a skein of each color
  • I hook
  • J hook
  • yarn needle
Directions:

Round 1: Using I hook and color 1, in magic circle, 12dc, join to first dc

Round 2: ch 2 (counts as stitch throughout), dc in same stitch, 2dc in every stitch (24), join to beginning ch
 
Round 3: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next stitch, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (36), join
Round 4: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next 2 stitches, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (48), join

Round 5: ch 2, dc in same stitch, *dc in next  3 stitches, 2dc in following stitch, repeat from * (60), join

Round 6-9: ch 2, dc in each stitch around (60), join

Round 10-12: switch to J hook, ch 1, sc in each stitch around (60),  join

Round 13: switch to second color, ch 1, sc, sc spike 1 row down, sc spike 2 rows down, sc spike 3 rows down, sc spike 2 rows down, sc spike 1 row down, repeat from * 9 more times (60), join

  • Note: Keep your spike stitches lose
Round 14: ch 1, sc in each stitch around (60), join

Round 15-18: switch to I hook, ch 2, dc in each stitch around (60), join

Round 19: switch to J hook, ch 1, sc in each stitch around (60), join, fasten off and weave in ends.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Tuesday at 2:20pm

I have been looking forward to this moment for a while. The moment when my students walk out and my Thanksgiving break begins. I'm looking forward to tossing my work bag in my trunk and not looking at it or thinking about it until Monday morning.

Ahh...freedom!

I hope your holiday weekend is shaping up well. Check back starting on Black Friday for a new crochet hat series - 12 Days of Christmas Hats! See you then!

~Happy Thanksgiving!~

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Foxy Stole Pattern For Sale


I'm super excited to announce that I have my first pattern for sale!
 
When I was in middle school, my best friend and I were helping her mom with an estate sale. Back then, we didn't know the term hoarder, but if we did, we totally would have deemed the lady whose house were holding the estate sale in a hoarder. She had passed away, so I'm sure she wouldn't have minded. The house was FILLED with newspapers, and glass jars, and hundreds of garbage bags full of random stuff. While pulling things out of garbage bags in a back room, my best friend pulled out something that had fur and claws. We screamed and raced out of the room, not waiting to figure out if it was a dead cat or raccoon or what. Turns out, it was a real fox fur stole similar to the one in the picture below.
Source
Once we got over the shock, we decided that we liked him and we named him Rascal. Looking back, I can think of all kinds of things we should have done to Rascal before we let him live in my best friend's room. Things like fumigating him or even just cleaning him, but we were young and he obviously didn't kill us or give us lice, so in the end it all worked out :)

Of course, nowadays hardly anyone wears real furs, so this pattern is my animal friendly crocheted version of Rascal. Now you can have your very own foxy stole, no fumigation needed. :)


Check out my Etsy shop for the Foxy Stole Pattern!

Monthly Update: October

It's hard to believe that it's already November, and that the holiday season will soon be bearing down upon us. I'm so not ready!

Here's what I was up to last month:

Reading:
The Dancing Master by Julie Klassen
A whole lot of student essays - some were good, some were decent, and some made me want to poke my eyes out with a fork

Currently Reading:
Grace for the Good Girl by Emily Freeman
The Girl's Still Got It by Liz Curtis Higgs
Love Finds You in the City at Christmas (only 1 book left in this series to accomplish my New Year's goal)

Crochet
A whole bag full of crocheted accessories for my friend, Cassandra from Cassandra Hamilton Photography. In exchange, you'll see some fabulous pictures of Elijah and the family come February. I wrote up all the patterns for these Winter Blossom items, and they will be available soon.


I worked up this cute little Foxy Stole. I love him! The pattern will be available soon as well.


I finally finished Elijah's Halloween hat - he was such a cute cow! Too bad the costume only stayed on for 15 minutes, and because of car issues we ended up not being able to follow through with our Halloween plans. We still had a great evening anyways!


I've started on the Blog Hop Crochet Along Afghan as a Christmas gift for my Grandma.

Other Happenings:
Elijah has completed his first set of swimming lessons. He loved being in the water, but I don't think we'll sign him up again until he can be in one of the actual classes (age 5), not just tot/preschool swim. We are going to try to take him to more of the free swim/family swim times at the pool.

I have also accomplished one of my other New Year's goals. I said that I wanted to have Elijah potty trained by the end of this year, and with the exception of still wearing a pull-up at night (although completely unnecessary), that has happened! Hallelujah!

Up this month - a crocheted Green Bay Packers hat, a couple more baby hats, a trip to Leavenworth, Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas decorating.