Patriotic Jar Cozy

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Patriotic Jar Cozy

by: Doni Speigle

Spring Fling Potholder - New Pattern In Shop

I was so happy when Spring finally arrived and I wanted to design a bright and cheerful flower potholder to welcome it in.  I'm now trying to ignore the fact that our weather has turned cold again and we had to turn our furnace back on.  But this flower does cheer me up with it's bright colors.  :)

The striped center of the flower is done by stitching the stripes into the potholder's front piece by following a color chart.  The flower is made separately, then positioned over the striped section on the potholder front and stitched into place.

And since this potholder involves changing color on each stitch to make the stripes and also the border, I've included a little photo tutorial in the pattern on how to change color on every stitch.

Finished size is about 8 1/4" x 8 1/4" (not including the ring at the top)

Pattern can be purchased in my Etsy Shop

Daisy Jar Cozy - Free Pattern

 CLICK HERE FOR PATTERN

The Star Stitch

Have you all seen the crochet stitch called the star stitch?  I first saw it pop up on Pinterest and thought it was so pretty, and I pinned it to check out later.  Then I saw that Drops Design has a free potholder pattern using this stitch and thought this would be the perfect time to try it out.  Although their pattern says it's a potholder pattern, I thought it would work better as a dishcloth.  And I had just the yarn for it.  A few years ago I bought a bunch of Creme de la Creme yarn on sale online.  I hadn't used this yarn before and when I got it, I was so disappointed, and didn't like it at all.  It is very thin and rough, and wasn't anything I wanted to use for any of my potholder designs.  I stuck the box of yarn in a closet and hoped I would eventually find a project for it. When I saw the Drops pattern, I knew this was the project I had been waiting for and would work great with this yarn.  Since the stitch is fairly dense, I thought a thinner yarn would work well with it.  I dug that box of yarn out of the closet and started stitching.  I have finished 3 so far, with a 4th on the hook and I am very happy with how they have turned out.  I really love this stitch and it is so much fun to do, and once you get going it goes quickly too.  I will probably end up making up the whole box of yarn (20+ balls) into these dishcloths.


I also got my Easter Bunnies finished and delivered to their recipients.  I used this pattern and added my own twist to them.  :)

And on a totally unrelated note, I have to share some of my critter pics.  Last fall we had a dead tree that needed cutting.  So my husband cut off the top of it, and turned it into a bird feeder.  This made it high enough that the deer couldn't clean out the feeders each night.  He also built a squirrel feeder for the squirrels.  The first picture is from a few months ago.  The squirrels found the feeder, but they apparently didn't realize it had food in it and they used it as a chair to sit on while eating out of the bird feeders.  It took them a while, but as you can see in the 2nd pic, they finally figured out there was some good food in that chair of theirs.  Then last week I glanced out the window and thought to myself "Wow, that is a big squirrel!".  Upon closer inspection, I realized it was one of the neighborhood cats.  She may have been bird hunting, but if so, she needs to work better at camouflaging herself, cause not one bird would come near the feeder the whole time she sat there.  :)

AllFreeCrochet.com - Free Ebook

Free Ebook

AllFreeCrochet.com just released a free ebook of crochet patterns and I was fortunate enough to have my Four Square Potholder and Summer Stripes Coaster patterns included in this ebook!

The ebook is called "Crochet in Color" and it includes crochet patterns for home decor, the kitchen and also some crochet accessories.

If you're interested, you can get your copy here

I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!

What I've Been Up To Lately

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I have been busy.  I have had lots of projects going, some are finished, some are still in the works.

A while back I made a carseat pillow for Eli.  I saw one on Pinterest, and it's just a long tube that they can hold or lay alongside them to rest their head on.  He didn't really understand what it was, but he did like the footballs on the fleece fabric.  :)

I had my first try at making doll clothes.   My friend's grand-daughter has an American Girl doll and she wanted to make some clothes for it.  She purchased a crochet pattern she found online and got started.  But she soon ran into problems.  It was a very vague and confusing pattern and she got thru the vest and just gave up on the rest of it.  So I had her bring me all her stuff and said I would finish it up for her.  I made the skirt and hat, but I put my own twist on the skirt.  It was to be worked in a solid color, but I had some white yarn with a touch of silver sprinkles in it, and used it to make the top part of the skirt, and then used her purple yarn for the bottom border.  Then when I made the hat I added a round of the white yarn to sort of bring it all together.  I found that I kind of like making doll clothes and have been looking around in Ravelry for my next project.

Recently I made a walker tote for a friend of mine.  Someone visiting her had seen it and wanted one for their father, so I whipped one up for him this past weekend.  I hope he likes it!

I am also still plugging away on my Umaro blanket.  I am past the half way mark and hope to finish it up soon!  Olivia decided to "help me" take the picture  :)
(excuse the bad picture, the lighting was terrible!)

And I have a basket of bunny parts that will soon turn into 3 Easter bunnies.  I am using this pattern and am enjoying making these little guys.

We also celebrated my nephew Eli's birthday this past weekend.  I can't believe he's 2 already!  He is obsessed with all vehicles, but he especially likes firetrucks, police cars and ambulances.  So as a birthday surprise, he got to sit in a police car.  He was a bit speechless, which is very unusual, because he is quite the chatterbox.  

He had a great time at his birthday party and hogged all the monster truck party favors for himself.  :)

And what a difference 2 years makes.  This is a photo from the day he was born.

Bunny Jar Cozy

 CLICK HERE FOR PATTERN

Valentine's Day is over, and Easter is just around the corner, so my little jar needed something new to wear.  I actually started out making something completely different, but I just wasn't "feeling it", and then this little guy popped into my mind and I thought I'd give him a try.   He looks like he wants jellybeans to fill it up, but I think I'm still going to go with peppermints.  If only there were peppermint jellybeans!  :)

Jar is about 5 1/2" tall and 15" around

"Eat - Play - Sleep - Repeat" Baby Blanket

My new design is finally finished!   A while back I had seen a cute baby quilt with the words
"eat, play, sleep, repeat" on it, and also some adorable fabric with those words and I wanted to find a way to translate this into a crochet baby blanket.  The blanket is worked in one piece in single crochet with bobbles used to create the raised lettering.  Each word's section has a chart to follow which indicates where to work the sc and bobble stitches.  Bobble stitches are very easy to do, and the pattern includs a photo tutorial on how to make this stitch.

I made this using Red Heart acrylic yarn so that is is easily washable.  The colors used:
White - 7 oz.
Orchid - 5 oz.
Delft Blue - 5 oz.
Spring Green - 5 oz.
Pumpkin - 5 oz.

Pattern is available in my Etsy Shop 



   

Projects in Process

I have a whole lot of things going on, but not much finished yet.  I think I might have too many irons in the fire  right now.  But it is fun to work on a variety of things, keeps it interesting.  :)

I did get another ball of yarn worked on my Umaro Blanket.  I've worked 4 balls so far, and have 8 more to go.  I am really loving this blanket and can't wait to get it finished!

I have a new design that I'm working on and it's taking up almost all of my time.  Once I get it finished, I can spend more time on the Umaro.  At least that is what I'm telling myself to keep me motivated on finishing this design.  I tweak my designs half to death, which usually involves remaking them over and over until it's just right.  I tend to be a little bit anal of a perfectionist, so this one is taking a long time to complete!  I think it will be worth it though.  Here's a sneak peek:

New design in progress

I do have one completed project to show.  I have a good friend that is undergoing physical therapy at a nursing home.  She hopes to be released soon, but has been told she will need to use her walker all the time as she is still unsteady on her feet.  They suggested that she get a tote that hangs on the walker so she will be able to carry things around if she needs to.  I told her I would make her one, and was able to get it made this past weekend and got it delivered to her yesterday.  This just shows the front side, but it is the same on the back.  It a long piece that folds in half and hangs over the front bar of a walker, and there is velcro between the two sides that hold it in place.  You can't really see in the picture, but I've stitched down the center of the pocket, making it into two pockets.  There are two pockets on the backside as well, so she will have plenty of room for her things.  I made it using this video tutorial I found on youtube.  The video was very helpful, and it was an easy project.  And it's a fast project too, if you are an experienced seamstress, which I am not.  :)

I hope everyone is staying warm where you are!  It's very cold here, but no snow, so I'm a happy camper. :)

Heart Jar Cozy - Free Pattern

CLICK HERE FOR PATTERN

I enjoyed making the snowman jar cozy so much that I decided that my jar needed something to wear for Valentine's Day too.  :)

I found my jar/vase in the floral dept at Joann's.  It is about 5 1/2" tall and 15" around.

2013 Gratitude Journals

Gratitude....that is my word for 2013.  I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but I decided this year I am going to "on purpose" look for something to be grateful for each and every day.  I actually started doing this a few months ago when I spontaneously decided to jot something down in my prayer journal one night thanking God for something good that had happened that day.   I didn't plan on it, but I ended up doing the same thing the next day.  By the third day I found myself going through my day watching for things that I could thank God for at the end of the day.   When I realized what a difference it made in my day, I decided I need to make this a permanent part of each day!

I got the idea for making journals last month when I saw something on pinterest where someone was making 2013 gratitude journals and selling them on etsy.  I thought that was a great idea and wanted to make one for myself, but didn't get a chance to think anymore about it until a few days after Christmas.  Then I decided that I HAD to make one not only for myself, but also for my mom and sister.  I went in search of a datebook of some sort to turn into a journal, but couldn't find just the right thing.  I did find some plain journals I liked, so I bought 3 of them and set about turning them into Gratitude Journals. 

I had to start this project by doing math so I could evenly distribute the pages into the 12 months. 
I attached little tabs dividers to separate the months and then had to hand write in each day's date.  That took a while to do for all 3 journals!  Then I found 12 bible verses on gratitude and printed them out and matted them onto scrapbook paper. I used the verses and things from my papercrafting stash to decorate the first page of each month.  This was a very time consuming project, but  I loved every minute of it.   I finished them up and got them delivered to my mom and sister just in the nick of time for the new year.  We are all looking foward to keeping these journals and how fun it will be at the end of the year to look back at all the blessings we received from God this year.  :)

One of the first things I am grateful for this year is wonderful parents who gave me the yarn for Christmas to make the Umaro Blanket by Jarod Flood.  This blanket has been on my wish list for quite a while and I am having so much fun working on it.  Thanks Mom and Dad!  :)

And I have a feeling this little goofball (my nephew Eli) will be on many pages of my Gratitude Journal this year.  He is such a blessing from God and he makes me laugh constantly!  This day he was "helping" me in the kitchen (notice the beater on the floor behind him in the 2nd pic) and he wandered out of the kitchen and then stuck his head around the corner wearing the hubby's reading glasses.  He loves wearing these glasses so much that we ended up popping the lenses out and just letting him have them.  :)

 

Happy New Year's to you all!