what’s on the bookshelf? crochet edition

I haven’t gone through my crafty books lately so I decided to look through and share with you at the same time!  Here’s my modest collection of knitting & crochet books:

Hannah's Crafty Books

Today I’m just doing the crochet books.  I’ll get to the knitting ones another time!  First up:

Creepy Cute Crochet

Creepy Cute Crochet is super awesome.  My ex got it for me but I still love it.  I’ve made many of the items, including the vampire princess, the Dia de los Muertos couple, the corporate zombie, and more (and I ad-libbed a Bobba Fett for Chris a long time ago).  They’re fun, quick, and adorable!

Creepy Cute Crochet Nosferatu

 

Creepy Cute Crochet Ninja

 

These pamphlet like little booklets were from my grandma:

pamphlets

 

The next one was from the mother of my ex:

The Great Afghan Book

 

The Great Afghan Book is pretty old fashioned, but I loved the cover image — that’s the only blanket I’ve made out of this in the years that I’ve had it.  Here is a sample of some of the other blanket patterns inside:

The Great Afghan Book blankets

 

Next is Super Stitches Crochet, which I’m scared to use to make my own patterns and write up for you all because I don’t want to break some sort of copyright rule (can anyone enlighten me on this?  It seems very vague to me…):

Super Stitches Crochet

 

And here are a couple of examples of what you can find inside:

Super Stitches Crochet example

 

Super Stitches Crochet edgings

 

The next one, The Cool Girl’s Guide to Crochet, is the book I taught myself with years ago.  In fact, the hat pictured was my first crochet project (only mine was all wonky)!

The Cool Girl's Guide to Crochet

 

The Cool Girl's Guide to Crochet hat

 

The Cool Girl's Guide to Crochet mitts

The next one has a long name so I just call it 201 Crochet Blocks in my head.  It has an alphabet, flowers, blocks, other shapes, and full projects as well, and I’ve used it quite a few times over the years:

201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas

 

201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas example

201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas example

 

201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas example

 

Next is Amigurumi! which I’m ashamed to say I haven’t used once.  Chris got it for me years ago but I just don’t really have anyone to make little amigurumi toys for!  My friend that’s having a baby might like some but I’m sure she’ll get so many toys from well wishers that she’ll be wanting to get rid of some, not acquire more, hehe.

Amigurumi!

 

Amigurumi! deer

They have animals, people, food, and more cute things!

Amigurumi! Strawberry

The last one I want to share today is called Crocheted Socks! and I’ve only made one pair from it — I didn’t like them because they were harsh on my feet.  I thought maybe knitted socks wouldn’t be so uncomfortable…

Crocheted Socks!

These first socks pictured represent the pattern I tried and disliked, but perhaps if I’d used softer yarn… I dunno…

Crocheted Socks! example

 

Crocheted Socks! example

 

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll do a post on my knitting books, and maybe another post on the books that have both knitting and crocheted items inside.  See you soon, thanks for stopping by!  Hope you enjoyed this list!

 

 

 

citrus stripe blanket: begin!

Sometimes it’s hard to stick with just a couple of projects.  The Citrus Stripe Blanket by Susan Carlson was impossible to resist!

citrus stripe blanket

Photo used with the permisssion of Susan Carlson

I’m using leftover yarn from the clamshell baby blanket (KnitPicks Brava Sport) and have already completed a few stripes:

citrus stripe blanket

It’s a great free pattern that’s not too hard, works up quickly, and doesn’t require a ton of yarn.  I’m loving it!

citrus stripe blanket

It’s hard to get the colors just right in a photo…

Also, our ceiling and roof are almost completely repaired!  It seems there’s just a bit of cleanup left to do and we’ll have our back room back, thank goodness!

Well, that’s all for today, thanks for stopping by!

coming up rose hat: ta-da!

After a bit of trial and error, my Coming Up Roses Hat is complete!

coming up roses hat

I love working with the KnitPicks’ Comfy Worsted cotton yarn, but the pattern was a little off (or perhaps it was just me…).  I had to up the hook size and I finished about an inch before the pattern recommended to tie off (and it fits my head fine this way). The cross stitch was also done by holding 2 strands of the yarn instead of just 1 for a fuller effect:

coming up roses hat closeup

 

…I’m not very good at cross stitch…

Well there’s lots of yarn left and I plan on making a few things with it, but that can wait until another day.  Thanks so much for stopping by, see you soon!

hat pincushion appearance in Simply Crochet!

The magazine Simply Crochet has recently released a special edition, the Amigurumi Collection!

Simply Crochet Amigurumi Collection

There are so many cute patterns that it’s more like a book than a magazine, and I definitely want to make a few of the items inside!

I’m honored that my hat pincushion pattern that Simply Crochet published back in Spring of 2014 made it into this new publication:

amigurumi hat pincushion

 

Thanks, Simply Crochet!

**Edit: click here to be taken to the Revelry pattern page.**

coming up roses hat: begin!

My yarn arrived a few days ago!  I’m excited about the Comfy Worsted and the Chroma Worsted:

image

image

I’ve started the Coming Up Roses Hat with the Comfy Worsted.  The blue yarn ran out so the border is grey, but I like it.

image

After 10 odd years of crocheting, this is the first time I’ve used the backwards single crochet stitch (I think it’s also called the crab stitch?), and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  I like the  border it made and I think I’d like to use this stitch as a sturdy blanket border sometime.

Well, that’s all the yarny stuff.  I’m happy to say that we finally got in touch with the landlord and they’re putting a new metal roof on the house and redoing the entire ceiling in the back room that had all the leaks.  That’s all scheduled to start today so I hope they actually come… the unpleasant smell of the drywall/attic is permeating the house… blech.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!