Easy Christmas Gifts – Knitting & Crochet

Posted on April 11, 2011 by CC

Easy Gifts for newer knitters and crocheters

As soon as I started knitting and crocheting it was like I began developing this huuuuge list of all the things I wanted to make for the people in my life. The fact that Christmas was just around the corner left me feeling even more anxious! To my disappointment I spent so much time in search of quick or beginner level patterns that it was difficult to complete all the gifts I wanted to make.
This year I have more time to plan and have some experience under my belt so I am in the process of putting together a list below of knitting and crochet projects I have been able to make in 6 hours or less as a beginner or projects I am considering trying for gifts. I’ll keep updating this list and even adding links but if you know of something just post it below in the comments.

Women

Dishcloths– there are free patterns all over the Internet but if you are a new knitter and have trouble understanding patterns all you really have to do is cast on 40-43 stitches of worsted cotton yarn with US size 6 or 7 needles and knit in garter stitch until you have a square. Garter stitch works great for dish cloth while stockingnette stitch is softer for like washcloths.

If you have knit dishcloths before but find yourself indecisive when it comes to finding a pattern consider joining a group like the Monthly Dishcloth KAL group at Yahoo. They do two Knit a Longs every month. During the Knitalong you are sent about 7-10 rows each day which makes it easy to keep up with and you can whip out 2 dishcloths a month (24 a year!!) to give as gifts. There is a sign up box below:

You can crochet dishcloths too. Here is the article with a crochet dishcloth that was (I am prettty sure) my first crochet FO: Crochet Dishcloth

Scarves – again very easy and there are some pretty scarves I’ve seen in plain old garter stitch. Just decide how wide you want it and knit til its the right length. Here is a wide muffler type scarf I made as my first patterned stitch to follow. It is a bit more involved and used two skeins of Red Heart Yarn. Here is a Ruffle Scarf I crochet with Bulky Yarn. It used less than one skein and would be pretty as a gift.

Girls and Teen Girls

Fingerless gloves – Again there are tons of free patterns out there. I made Stephanie a pair last winter while she and Vee played Monopoly. I just chained the length I wanted the gauntlets and single crocheted til they fit comfortably around her hand and wrist then I stitched them up on the side leaving 1 1/2″ at 1″ from the top open for the thumb. In that opening I slip stitched and single crochet 10, joined and crochet two rounds so her gloves would have a thumb.

Yoga or ‘flip flop’ socks - Now these (Ally’s Vee’s)I’m sure took me more than 6 hours….maybe not though but I will be making more soon and will track my time involved.

Headbands - You won’t believe how quick and easy these can be. An earwarmer generally takes much less than one ball of yarn and girls like them better than hats because wearing them doesn’t mess up your hair. Most headband type earwarmers can also be worn as a neck warmer or what my girls call a ‘neckie’.

Crochet Headband – took about an hour

Knitted Headband – took about an hour

Jen’s Loop Stitch Pillow –If I had crochet the back this would have been just under 6 hours but I cheated and asked my mom to sew up some satin I purchased and then I attached the loop stitch to the front of that.

UPDATE: Bev’s Country Cottage has a ton of easy Christmas Gifts you can make by knitting or crocheting. Here is one that is quick and easy and both my girls are getting. It is a lipbalm holder that can be clipped to their keychain, back pack or purse. The link to her pattern is here: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/keychain.html

and her Christmas Gifts Ideas Page is here: http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/christmas/gifts.html

Men

Hats - I have a really easy pattern that I use for making knitted hats with earflaps. Eventually it will get posted. In the meantime there is a great ‘formula’ here for creating a hat pattern

Babies and Toddlers

Hats, moms love animal hats and I could crochet these all day long.

Spruce Up Cheap Stretch Magic Gloves

Posted on April 11, 2011 by CC

I don’t know about anyone else, but I started working on my Christmas gift list just before the beginning of April.

Years ago my mom worked in a craft store. It was a Piece Goods Shop (are those still around?) One of the managers there was a young woman named Nicole, who really should have been a designer. I swear she could look at anything and make it into something beautiful and usable. She could take lace and sew it to the edge of cheap white socks or cut a t-shirt and add a Chintz skirt to it, or wrap fabric around a garage sale lamp and make it look like a decorator item. The lady was amazing and try as I might my projects never resembled anything of her craftiness.

Browsing Crochet Pattern Central when I was looking for a trim for the Easter Chick Hat that I crochet for Brady I found this idea to spruce up those cheap little magic gloves with crochet thread. It reminds me so much of something Nicole would make and it may be something I can handle since it does not require sewing!!

My girls love those little Stretch Gloves because they fit into a pocket and I love them because you can pick up two pairs for a buck at the Dollar Tree. This pattern to add crochet trim to Magic Stretch Gloves is here: http://shala-beads.livejournal.com/109358.html

Crochet Flower Lesson

Posted on March 29, 2011 by CC

Remember the video I posted of the lady making a half double crochet Easter Bunny hat in this blog post? Well I realized I had accidentally removed her video from the post when I added a knitted pattern either last night or this morning so I went to find it and ended up glued to her video lessons for quite a while.

She has some really cool crochet flowers that she walks you thru making. They are done in groups of 3 and layered. I so want to make one to embellish either a hat or a headband.

Here is her video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpRWWHemkHs

Crochet Earflap Hats for 6lb-7lb babies

Posted on March 29, 2011 by CC

If you have been following my blogs you know I’ve been a crocheting fool trying to get down a hat pattern that will really fit a newborn baby instead of one that the baby will have to grow into.

In my family babies are 6lbs to 7 1/2 lbs and I want to be able to make hats as shower gifts that the babies can wear right away.

Earlier this week I finally (thought) I came up with a hat that would work, and I guess, for people having babies that are 8, 9 or omgosh 10 pounds but the more I think about it that is more of a 0-3 month size. Leave it to me to continue over-thinking and re-doing ::big sigh::

Here are the comparisons

A newborn hat that will sit on a 13 1/2 to 14 inch head

This hat measures just under 13 1/2" so it will fit a 13 1/2"-15 1/2" head or 0-3 months Click the pic for the pattern

This hat measures approx 12 1/3" If you have a small baby this will be a good newborn hat. Click the pic for the pattern

And here is what I used as a guide.

This is the hat the nurses put on Vee when she was born. Gosh, I can’t believe she ever wore this. Her head is bigger than mine now. (Yes I have drove my family insane since taking up knitting and crocheting by measuring their heads, measuring the width across their face, behind their ears, even from their crown to the bottom of their earlobes. It’s to the point I fear, they will start running when they see my yellow measuring tape in hand )

Anyway back to the hat. This is the hat she wore the day she was born.

This is it in comparison to the blue trimmed, 40 stitch hat located here

The double crochet hat is slightly larger on each side

The double crochet hat is slightly larger on each side. Now it may only be a half inch or so but when you are talking about a little noodle that’s only 13 1/2 inches every cm is going to make a difference.

Now this hat, the hat trimmed in pink is pretty much identical in size as shown below

This hat measures right around 12 1/4″ to 12 1/3″. That is 36 stitches in double crochet with my J hook (6.5 mm) which, if you keep up with my blog, will know that is the size hook I prefer as smaller ones make my hands ache.

To arrive at 36 stitches your last row of increases needs to be done a bit differently as you will be adding only 6 stitches to your 30 opposed to 10 to your 30. Here is how I did it.

Round 3 – *2 dc in next stitch, 1 dc in next 5 stitches* repeat around (36 stitches total)

That way you are adding an extra dc at the beginning and then on every 6th stitch.

Now I know most of the directions for increases I have seen have you start out with your regular stitches and increase every 10th, 6th, 8th, whatever but I like to do the increase in the first stitch. To me it just makes more sense and I don’t have to worry about forgetting one. You’re working with double crochet in rounds so it’s pretty basic–get your specified number of increases in per round. If you prefer to do it in a different order than me I am sure your hat will turn out fine as long as you are doing your increases evenly around the hat.

The full pattern for the newborn hat is here. Keep in mind, the ears and the nose don’t have to be used and neither do the earflaps if you just want a beanie hat.

Attaching Earflaps to a Crochet Hat

Posted on March 18, 2011 by CC

Got a Hat That is Too Short or Just Want to Add Earflaps to the Hat?

Attaching Earflaps to a Hat —

Earflaps can be easily attached to crochet hats.

Yesterday it was 65 degrees outside and Ally left Brady’s stroller on the back porch just in case we wanted to spend some time in the yard or garden. Even though it was warm there was still a good, strong breeze coming off the fields so a hat was required. To my amazement the little double crochet hat I hooked up for him a month…bet it was more like two months ago was too short.

Babies grow so quick. When I finally put this on him, it didn't cover his ears any more

That gave me an idea.

Last winter, because I was a new hat knitter and crocheter, I noticed so many men that wore stocking caps had their ears exposed. We aren’t far from Chicago and it is so windy here. Looking at Brady yesterday with his ears poking out from that hat reminded me of the hats I had checked out while in town the past few months.

The light blue Red Heart yarn was still out from the Easter Bunny hat I just finished so I grabbed my 6.5 mm (US size K) crochet hook. Literally minutes later we had ear flaps on his hat.

It took longer to get the baby to hold still for this picture than it did to crochet the ear flaps onto his hat!

I snapped a photo a bit prematurely as the hats look so much cleaner with so row of single crochet, slip stitch or blanket stitch around the edge. (keep reading though, you have to keep going to see how much different it looks with the trim on it )

At this point we needed to make a trip downstairs to get some necessaries out of his diaper bag. He still had the hat on and as I kept looking at the little hat the earflaps looked a bit long to me but of course that gave me another idea. I took a short piece of yarn and tied the ends of the flap. Sure enough the ends came together.

Connecting ear flaps or ear covers under the chin

I connected the ear flaps under the chin

This could be done with ties, I suppose with velcro, but a button….babies and buttons are a combination that terrifies me. So, we left the hat on while I prepared his lunch.

When I turned around he was doing quite a job of removing the hat and I would imagine if the flaps had a button it would have been in his mouth.

When I turned around he was doing quite a job of removing the hat and I would imagine if the flaps had a button it would have been in his mouth. The decision was made we will stick to short braided ties.

What a difference the contrast color made

About five minutes to attach a nice border in a chocolate brown while he munched on a Mum Mum biscuit and then we tried it on again for size. What a difference that simple contrast color along the edge makes! For the border I decided to use a single crochet instead of slip stitch

CONTRASTING BORDER

All I did (all you have to do is) slip stitch on your contrast color yarn and single crochet all around the hat. I usually start just behind the right ear and work my way across the back, other side, front and then back to where I started. Just crochet loose. If you tend to crochet very tightly then consider going up a hook size for the contrasting border.

About that time he was ready for a nap and I grabbed the notes I had made for the earflap construction.

EARFLAPS/EAR COVERS
Here is all I did–

Attach new yarn with a slip stitch and chain 3, double crochet 7, ch3 and turn

Ch 8 (first ch3 in previous row counts as a dc), do not ch, turn

Following rows: dc all, do not ch, and turn

By not chaining at the end of the rows you are decreasing each row by 1 stitch. This is what gives the rounded appearance to the ear covers.

I repeated rows until I had only 3 stitches left and then fastened and wove in ends.

Measure across the back of the hat and allow 3.75″ before attaching the second earflap and repeat the process listed above.

Take a contrasting color and slip stitch it on behind the left ear flap. Single crochet around the hat and flaps. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Wah Laa!

Crochet tiny little butterflies

Posted on March 15, 2011 by CC

These adorable little butterflies (there are hearts and flowers too) can be crocheted up in just a few minutes with small hooks and embroidery floss.

They are the perfect size for barettes, embellishments, bookmarks, you name it.

I am getting ready to work some up for unique drape tie backs for my daughter’s room.

Check them out here: http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-crochet-butterfly.html

Sizes

Posted on March 9, 2011 by CC

Helpful Size Charts I use for Knitting and Crochet

Blanket sizes including afghans:

http://www.crochetoneknittoo.org/commonsizes.php
and
http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/size-chart.html#blanket

Head Size Chart:

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/size-chart.html

Baby Measurements:

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/size-chart.html#baby

Foot Sizes:

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/size-chart.html#foot

Basic Beanie – shows sizes for baby thru adult ribbed beanie hats:

http://www.p2designs.com/images/patterns/HatBasicBeanie.html

Loop Stitch Pillow

Posted on March 2, 2011 by CC

My 12 year old wants to give her bff an olive or lime green loop stitch pillow as a birthday present.
I decide to use the pattern I’ve had bookmarked on the Lion Brand yarn website and we head to the store to see if there is a suitable color in the Wool Ease Thick and Quick that is called for.

She finds “Lemongrass” right away although she prefers the “I love this yarn” in Limelight (worsted weight acrylic but its sooo soft) and we head home to start the pillow.

Thick and Quick- now I have to tell you I was actually pretty excited considering I usually, out of my frugality, don’t spend $9 on a single skein of yarn….especially one thats only around 100 yards!
The results couldn’t have been more disappointing.

On the Lionbrand website the pillow looks soft.Pic below

But in truth it was so big and bulky looking pic below

The Super Bulky yarn would be better suited to a pretty area rug

I went up a hook size. With the P hook it still looked big and bulky. With my huuuuuuuge Q hook the same thing.

Maybe it was the shade of green, maybe it was the fact that I could feel the wool, maybe it was because it was so thick or maybe it was a combination of all those but it seriously reminded me of the fugly carpeting both my neighbor and my grandma had back in 1973.

So I dug thru my WIP’s drawer and found a practice peice that had been loop stitched in a neon worsted weight. I put that next to the thick one. Then I grabbed two balls of worsted weight and my N hook and crocheted up a few rows, double stranded.

Worsted weight and super bulky compared. The bulky yarn is just to thick and bulky looking for a preteen girls room

When she got home from school all three were on the table and I asked her to look them over, pick them up, rub them against her cheek and take her pick.
The double stranded, worsted weight won hands down.

Easy, quick and teen approved crochet pillow

The cover took less than 3 hours to crochet

Pattern
2 strands worsted weight yarn (I used Hobby Lobby “I Love This Yarn” Super Soft acrylic in ‘Limelight”)

Size N crochet hook

Ch 32
Row 1 Sc all, ch1, turn
Row 2 Sc first stitch, loop stitch until next to last stitch, sc last stitch, ch1, turnRepeat rows 1 and 2 until desired length.

***Note: I kept a single crochet at the first and last stitch of each even row so that it would be easier to sew this onto a stuffed pillow case. You could certainly loop stitch all the way across if desired.***

After crocheting the front we sewed up a satin pillow case, stuffed it with polyfill and stitched the crochet to the satin

If you would like to make a loop stitch pillow with knitting instead of crochet there is a great video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssbkMawpE-M

Crochet-changing colors, neater edges and tidying tails

Posted on March 1, 2011 by CC

This is a great video on You Tube that someone pointed me to.
I especially like how to substitutes a trick instead of doing chain 2 at the end of rows as they way she shows does not leave that ugly gap.
In this video she demonstrates
-changing color in crochet
-tidying up your tail in crochet
-an alternate to chaining 2 at the end of your double crochet row.

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