Butterflies

Still working with my awesome vintage yarn. In fact I loved it so much I wrote to Red Heart about the vibrant colors and they sent me back a very nice form letter.
So I have another old old pattern that I am using- I want to get the most from this yarn!
Butterflies don't use hardly any yarn at all, and they rock! I am going to make a mobile with the vintage yarn butterflies as a birthday present for someone special.

You can do them all one color but it looks cool with two.
I didn't write this pattern, it is adapted from a thread pattern I found in the Jan/Feb 1991 issue of Crochet Patterns by Herrschners that Grandma Katy gave me last weekend. The orig pattern called for number ten thread and the butterflies were smaller, but these are still only about 4 inches or so. play with your hook size and yarn weight and see what size you can get!

With Color A, Ch 6, join with sl st to form ring.
Rnd 1: Ch 3, 17 dc in ring, join with sl st to top of beg ch3= 18dc, counting beg Ch-3 as one dc.
Rnd 2: Ch3, 5dc in same st as join, *ch3, sk next 2 dc, 6 dc in next dc, rep from * around, end ch 3, sk last 2 dc, join with sl st tp top of beg ch3, fasten off.
Join color B with sl st to any ch3 sp.
Rnd 3: Ch 3, 9 dc in same Ch3 sp, *sc bet 3rd and 4th dc of next dc6 group, dc 10 in next ch-3 sp, repeat from * around, end bet 3rd and 4th st of last 6dc group sl st in top of beg ch-3 fasten off.

Fold circle in half so you have a butterfly shape. The pattern called for floral wire, but I did not want to use wire. I made a chain out of black yarn long enough to go around as the body and used a square knot as the head, then trimmed the end yarn to resemble antennae. When i have a few of these done i will show you the hanging result- these first ones will be a mobile. HOWEVER- I think they would be cute as appliqué on hats, scarves or bags, as magnets, barrettes, etc.

Made this to donate for Family Fun Day at NCSD. adult sized, 100% Acrylic yarn the hat is in NCSD school colors, blue and white and features a hand signing "I love you" as an appliqué.
What I liked about this project- using the blue heathered yarn- I love the way it looks in a hat. i loved making the "ILY" hand, and sewing it into the symbol- it is always fun to make a new challenge. I made the body of the hat white so that the hand could be blue and show up really well.


this week I hope to go to the store and get the right brown color to make a Princess Leia hat with the cinnamon buns on the sides. I will be making a youth size and an adult size- like the Yoda ears I want the ears to be firm enough to keep their shape, I think have an idea to play with that will enable me to crochet a "scaffold" inside the bun instead of just stuff it- this will make it hold it's shape without being heavy. i hope.

Still working on the butterflies, and granny squares- i am so excited about the new yarns!

Vintage Pattern for Vintage Yarn

I was scanning photos for my mother-in-law and fell in LOVE with the afghan on the couch in the background of several photos. Just LOOK at those colors! Looks like stained glass yes? I wanted to try and recreate it but I thought, what were the chances that Grandma still had the afghan? Well turns out the chances are pretty good!
I took some vari yarn (Red Heart 4 ply) up and a size H hook, and was able to successfully copy one of the six sided blocks- and I plan to make more! I have not yet added the black, figure i will wait until I have more then one finished, and add the black all at once. what a COOL way to use up some yarns! i have tried to write the pattern down, I am new at writing patterns so forgive me if I am not exact.
Ch6, join.
ROW 1 DC 18 in a circle, join.
ROW 2 here you make the 6 sides. Single DC two, then DC twice in one, chain 2. Repeat five more times. You will have 6 groups of 4
ROW 3 Two DC in one, then DC two single posts, then DC two posts in one, Chain 2 and repeat five more times. you will have six groups of 6
ROW 4 Two DC in one, the DC four single posts, then DC two posts in one, CH 2
and repeat 5 more times. you will have six groups of 8.
ROW 5 Two DC in one, the DC six single posts, then DC two posts in one, CH 2
and repeat 5 more times. you will have six groups of 10.
ROW 6 Two DC in one, the DC 8 single posts, then DC two posts in one, CH 2
and repeat 5 more times. you will have six groups of 12.
ROW 7 Two DC in one, the DC 10 single posts, then DC two posts in one, CH 2
and repeat 5 more times. you will have six groups of 14.
ROW 8 (USE edge color)Two DC in one, the DC 12 single posts, then DC two posts in one, CH 2 and repeat 5 more times. you will have six groups of 16.

Save the scraps of yarn for fringe. Join the sides, then add simple DC edge in edge color, and add the scraps as fringe and you have a classic!

When I finish the afghan, I will post the photos. I suspect it will take a while, since I want to recycle various yarns into it.

Thank you to Katy Griffis for use of her photos and blanket, and to her Mother-in-Law for making the orig Stained Glass afghan all those many years ago! I can tell you it was made with Red Heart Wintuk 4 ply yarn because I found the EXACT SAME yarn on it that Jodie gave me from her Maw-Maw Gilda! What a small world!

ok I inherited some vintage yarn. Jodie's Maw-Maw Gilda sent it up to NC and I have it in my hot lil paws... the colors are amazing and as vibrant as they were in the 1970's... I cannot WAIT to get these over my hook! The multi with rust, orange and yellow just BEGS to be put into Granny Squares, esp since the yarn it from Maw-Maw. David's mom has a vintage blanket with six-sided Grannies, and i was looking at it yesterday and wouldn't you know that SAME exact yarn was on her blanket! i am going to borrow the afghan and make a few of the six sided squares, but i am also going to make some traditional granny squares- the center colors require little yarn- and make a sweater or something- I have a sweater pattern from that general era and it is all 'retro' now. i will keep y'all posted on how that is going- I am just SOOOO excited about these colors and yarn! The yarn aisle at AC Moore seems so tame now!

on another note, I think I have figured out how to make the Princess Leia-like hat to match the Yoda- like hats, I just need to find a good dark brown. What I have here at the house is too light or not the right tone. The Buns were a challenge to figure out how to engineer, but then, so were Yoda's ears.

OK then! Get your hooks out!

I have been thinking that the reason i was having keeping up on my blog is that it lacked a central theme so i didn't know what to write about. Well what do I spend most of my time on besides family? Freelance design work, which involves clients, and my crochet art, which is alllll about me so to speak. So i have decided to use this blog to write about where I am going with my art and how it relates to my crochet skills.
Let's see how this goes!


My Son LOVES Zombies. So I have designed a Zombie hat. After the first one, I realized that I was probably going to end up making a few and felt that each one should be unique. They feature greeny skin, eyes, "wounds" with brains, warts, etc. So far one has an innucleated eye and one does not- and the kids seem to prefer the eye out- I was concerned that the rolling eye would be a distraction but apparently not. So far I have made two, but there are more coming, and if anyone wants to order one with certain features, I can do that. The best part for me is that each one is different from the others- I can change eye color, wound placement and all sorts of details to keep it interesting for myself, and more exciting for other people too.

Selling hats and hand warmers

Free Range Fingers is my Etsy Store. I have been making hand warmers for a while, and expanded to scarves, then neck warmers and a few odd stuffed animals, and dish clothes. Then I made some hats for the kids. Eilish wanted ears on her hat and before you could say "Holy hats batman!" Lots of people started to ask for hats. I LOVE making them, each one so different. I think the idea of making something that someone else will enjoy is fun. I also started to experiment with crocheting with recycled grocery store type bags. The best thing i have made with those, I think, has been the can cozies- they really work quite well and I feel good about recycling.
I am looking forward to seeing where this path leads....

Still here... really!!

I let this go again but I came back. Things got really really WILD here. Whenever you have more then one child over the age of five, you are a professional juggler. Adding another child is not impossible but it requires a re-balancing of everything- otherwise you will be dropping those apples left and right! Caite is with us Monday through Friday now and I think we are officially settled into that new schedule. Volleyball is over at NCSD so we have Soccer two nights a week instead of sports four nights a week, and Caite is in school and has an after school club twice a week as well. Big deep breaths! I have been working about 25% capacity for a local magazine- not at 100% of the time I have allotted for work time, but way way better then 0%. We are making ends meet, almost all the time, cutting corners, and compromising enables us to be able to get what we need, even when it can't be what we want. I am always trying to learn how live a stressless life, and I think I have accepted that no life is stressless. It isn't the stress level, or lack, it is what I choose to do with it. So, I am back on my even keel, and can again look outside the walls of our home to meet up with folks for coffee, or attend meetings and network without feeling like I am losing way too much of myself in the process. I even feel like I have my juggling balanced enough to try and plan a date night for David and me sometime really soon! I am looking forward to that- we need some time to be just us ^__^