Simple Stripes Coasters - Free Pattern

Happy Saturday Everyone!

The other day I was working up a batch of my Simple Stripes Dishcloths and it occurred to me that a smaller version of these might make a nice coaster.  They are thick and absorbent, which makes them great for all those cold summer drinks.

This is a very quick and easy project and a great way to use up all those leftover scraps.

Each coaster takes 15 yards of white and 4 yards for the stripe color.

Finished size is 4 1/4" x 4 1/4"

Click here to get the pattern pdf

4 coasters together look like 1 dishcloth  :)

Monkey Onesie Baby Blanket - New Pattern In Shop

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Since little Eli is such a monkey fan, I designed this monkey onesie baby blanket with him in mind. :)

The blanket is made of 4 blocks that are made by working color changes to stitch the onesie design into the block. The monkey face and other appliques are made separately and stitched to the onesies.
The onesie blocks are stitched in single crochet, and the borders use half double crochet and double crochet.

Blanket can be made for a boy or a girl. The boy blanket includes a star applique in addition to the monkey face, and the girl blanket includes a flower applique.

Finished size is 33” wide x 35” tall
.
Blanket is made with Red Heart worsted weight acrylic yarn, and uses the following colors and amounts:
Cafe Latte - 11 oz.
Light Blue or Baby Pink - 6.5 oz.
Soft White - 3.5 oz.

Pattern is $4.25 and is available in my etsy shop  and also thru  Ravelry

A Couple of Goofy Cats and a Close Encounter

Guarding the Pet String

About a year and a half ago, Gus dug around in some of my husband's things stored in our basement, and found a parachute string (I have no idea why my husband has parachute string).  This string became his constant companion and favorite toy, and I posted about it here.  We dubbed it his pet string, because he was obsessed with it, and was either dragging it along with him everywhere he went or he was sitting by it, patiently waiting for someone to make it move so he could chase it.  As time went on, he still carried it around a lot,  but he didn't seem as into it as he used to be.  We thought he was growing up.  :)  But nope, that wasn't it.  Turns out the old string wasn't as much fun because it was getting a bit ragged and had also gotten much shorter because he likes to chew on the ends.  A few weeks ago, my husband gave him a brand new, identical string and he's like a kitten again.  And he's driving us crazy all over again, constantly wanting us to play with that darn string with him.  If we are sitting in a chair, he'll stand up on his back legs and reach up and tap us on the leg and meow.  If that doesn't work, then he'll jump up on our lap and then jump down real quick and run over to his string hoping we'll take the hint.  And heaven forbid if you even glance his way when you walk by.  We play with him a lot, but he just never tires of it. I think we may need to sign him up for a support group.  :)

"Pul-leeze won't you play string with me?"

Even Eli gets roped into playing the string game!

And as if one goofy cat wasn't enough, there's Olivia.  And she has her own obsession.  I have a large size Vera Bradley bag that I use to haul my laptop around.  Every single time she sees that bag, she is compelled to get inside of it.  The other day I had it hanging over the back of a chair, and I noticed when I walked by that the bag was moving.  Sure enough, even hanging from a chair, she had managed to get inside of it. 

"Hello?  Do you mind?  I'm  trying to take a nap here!

"You interrupt my nap......then I chews on your bag!"

We have a little fox family in our neighborhood and the mama fox has been visiting our yard occasionally.  I haven't seen any little ones, but some neighbors say she has a litter.  She's a pretty little thing, and very skittish.  One of the neighborhood cats was taking a nap in our our yard one day when she stopped by.    As I watched out the window, she just walked up to him  and sat down.  He was not a happy camper and was very tense.  She, on the other hand seemed quite relaxed....a little too relaxed.  So just in case she was sizing him up for dinner, I walked outside and she ran away.  :)
She still shows up every now and again, and I hope one of these days she'll have those babies along with her.  :)

A close encounter of the furry kind.

Daisy Coasters - Free Pattern

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Summer will be here soon, and what better for your cold drinks than a set of cheery daisy coasters.  :)

Coasters are made using worsted weight 100% cotton yarn and finished size is about 5" across.
Click on the "download now" link below the top picture to get the pattern pdf.

Eli's Birthday Projects

Eli turned 1 last month, but I've been so busy working on a new pattern that I haven't had time to post about the birthday projects my mom and I made.  Eli loves monkeys, so that was the theme of the party. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the birthday party, so I wasn't able to get any pictures of Eli with his birthday goodies. 

My mom made him this sweet little 1st birthday bib.  She used McCall's Crafts pattern M6368, and embroidered the monkey from a design she found at www.emblibrary.com . 

I made a birthday banner, but it is so long that I wasn't able to get a good photo of it, and you can't really see it in the first photo.  It has a monkey at each end to "hold" the banner, and it says "Happy Birthday Eli".  I took a close up picture of one of the monkeys and of the Eli section of the banner to give an idea of what it looks like.
To make it,  I found a cute image of a monkey online and drew it out and made it from cardstock.  I used markers to color in the face features.  I also added a little balloon for one monkey to hold that says "Eli is 1"(I straightened out a paper clip to use for the ballon's string). 

For the banner's words, I use an alphabet clipart set I found on etsy.  The set is so cute, and included both blue letters with white polka dots and green letters with white polka dots. This was the first time I've used clipart, and it worked well, and was a lot of fun.  And it was only $1.45 for the whole set!  I printed each letter out on white cardstock and matted on brown rectangle shapes, then punched holes in the top of each rectangle to thread the ribbon through.    

And of course, Eli needed  birthday hat!  I found a really cute party hat template on the blog Oh Happy Day. I printed out the template and cut out of cardstock, and decorated.  I printed out the "1" using the same clipart that I used for the banner.  I punched tiny holes on each side and tied elastic cord for the strap. 

And as part of his birthday gift, I made Eli a little monkey using Rebecca Danger's Jerry the Musical Monkey knitting pattern.  This pattern was so much fun to make!  And Eli loves him! The only change I made was to use black felt for the eyes instead of plastic eyes. 

I don't have any birthday pictures to share, but here is Eli enjoying spring break a few weeks ago in Florida.  He loves being outside and he had a hard time last week understanding that he is now back in Indiana and it's not always warm enough to play outside every day.  :)

Eli the Beach Bum!

Mini Chocolate Bunny

Mini Bunny 7 1/2" tall, Big Bunny is 15" tall

After making a few of the Chocolate Easter Bunnies, I thought it would be fun do a little experiment and see if I could make a smaller version.   I had some brown fingering weight sock yarn on hand, and using that and a size B/1 crochet hook, I followed the original chocolate bunny pattern exactly.  The mini bunny came out to be about 7 1/2" tall.  The original is about 15" tall, so this one came out at 1/2 the size.  I didn't measure out how much fingering weight yarn it took, but I have plently left over in my ball to make several more.  So little Eli (I can't call him Baby Eli anymore, because he is 1 now and does not like to be called a baby) may have a whole herd of these in his Easter Basket this year.  :)

Easter Bunny Ring Decoration - Free Pattern

When I did my Christmas ring ornament series last year, I had a few requests to keep the ring ornaments coming for other holidays too.  So I thought I'd try a bunny ring decoration for Easter.  The bunnies are crocheted around a 2" plastic ring.  You can make them girl bunnies, boy bunnies or just plain bunnies.  A bunch of these strung together on ribbon would make a cute little bunting.  :)

Materials:
Red Heart Worsted Weight Acrylic Yarn
  - 10 yards
Size G (4.25mm) Crochet Hook
2" Plastic Ring
Yarn Needle

Round 1

Join yarn with a sl st around 2" plastic ring, ch 1, 14 sc around ring



ch 10
















sc in 4th ch from hook
















sc in each of the remaining 6 ch sts

















continuing to work around ring, work 4 sc
















ch 10
















sc in 4th ch in hook and sc in each of the remaining 6 ch sts
















continuing to work around the ring, 14 sc around ring, join with a sl st to 1st sc on round.















Round 2



ch 1, sc in same st as joining and sc in next 12 sts, sk next sc st
















working up the outside edge of the right ear, sc in first 4 sts, hdc in next 3 sts

















work 4 hdc in the space at the tip of the right ear

















working down the inside edge of the right ear, hdc in next 3 sts, sc in last 4 sts
















sk the first sc st after the right ear, and sc in next 2 sts, sk next sc st

















working up the inside edge of left ear, sc in first 4 sts, hdc in next 3 sts, 4 hdc in space at tip of ear, then working down the outside edge of left ear, hdc in next 3 sts, sc in last 4 sts



sk the sc st following the left ear, and sc in each remaining st around, join with a sl st to beg sc.

End off, weave in ends.  Decorate as desired.  :)