Photos as Promised

I've made a good start on the flower garden crochet that I mentioned in the last blog and have almost finished a step lapghan. 

Here are a couple of pictures to show you what they look like.

Happy crafting.

Kathi

Yo-Yo Crochet

For those of you with a fair-sized stash of left-over yarn, here is a fun and pretty stashbuster.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/yo-yo-lapghan  In this case, you make the complete circle, put an edge around it and join as you go. 

Also, although I don't have permission to copy the picture into this blog, here is an afghan made of a sc center and one round of flower petals.  Join as you go.  The picture can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/41748413@N05/4348739893/
If you scroll down a bit, someone asks, "Where can we find the pattern?" and the owner of the picture tells the pattern.  It is fast, easy and quite pretty.  I'll post a picture when I get a little farther into the one I'm working on.

Happy crafting.

Kathi Linz

Cold Floors

The weather is about to turn and all the degrees will go south for the winter along with the birds.  I'm thinking of crocheting a rug, maybe with cloth strips so I can put my bare feet on something insulating first thing in the morning.

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/rugs.php

Here's the link for crocheting rugs from Crochet Pattern Central.

http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/rugs.php

And here's the one for knitters.

Ravelry.com has 272 free rug patterns between knitting and crocheting.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/search#query=rugs&view=captioned_thumbs&sort=best

If you haven't signed in to Ravelry yet, you might need to sign up and make a password for yourself.  This website is well worth exploring.




Lion Brand Yarn has 21 patterns.  This grassy one comes in both knit and crochet.



Lion Brand Yarn bathmat



And Lion Brand Yarn spiral rug made with scrap yarn.

Say yes to warm feet!

Happy crafting,

Kathi Linz

crochet books

Kathi has reviewed some books that may interest you at http://myjclibraryrgb.blogspot.com. There is also one on selling your crafts!

Charities That Love Handicrafts

While wandering around some crochet patterns online, I discovered a great website by the Crochet Guild of America with a list of charities that want crocheted items.
http://www.crochet.org/cgi-bin/charitybyname.pl

There is also The Knitting Guild Association and the Craft Yarn Council (http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/networking.html). 

The Craft Yarn Council led me to this website with patterns for charity and places to send your work. http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/warmup.html

Perhaps you would like to warm your heart at the same time as you warm someone else.  You can make someone's life a little better. 

Happy crafting,

Kathi

Huggable Crochet: Cute and Cuddly Animals from Around the World by Christine Lucas

Huggable Crochet: Cute and Cuddly Animals from Around the World by Christine Lucas has 24 patterns for crocheted animals.  The animals are all of a good size, excellent for dragging around and hugging to sleep.  You'll find land and sea creatures.  I like several of them, but the Hippopotamus is my favorite.  I think the face is very interesting.

Come and find it in New Books for the time being.  Christmas is on the way.  Hint, hint.

Kathi

Crochet Compendium

The library has a new crochet book called Crochet Compendium: The Ultimate Collection of Crochet Techniques by Connie Ellison.  This book has a few pages describing each of 17 types of crochet from basic to fancy to "alternate" such as broomstick lace, tunisian, and double-ended crochet.  There's a bit on felting and crocheting socks.

For crocheting with a regular hook, you'll find out how to do slip-stich crochet which looks like weaving, intarsia and mosaic crochet, filet crochet, beading, doilies, waffle-weave, and wiggly crochet. 

There are lots of colorful pictures to go along with the descriptions so you can see how it's all done.

Be sure to look for it when you stop in.

Happy crafting,
Kathi