I found this idea on Etsy. Click on the picture to go to the item for sale on Etsy itself. It’s a custom order item for $56.00. Yeah, I’ll do it myself.
I have a Shetland Sheepdog named Fuzzy Prince. (Seriously. That was his name when we adopted him.) Due to his name, he of course needs to be a frog for Halloween sometime, and this is the perfect piece for me to make for him. I could also make a little crown to add too!
This, ladies and gentlemen, is my Mom! I had made several scarves before Christmas thinking I would give them as Christmas presents. But then I had another idea for presents. So I “scrapped” the scarf idea and put the ones I had already made aside for the time being.
My Mom then recently mentioned that scarves were so “in” this year, and I asked her if she wanted one. So I took the three I had made over to her and let her pick the one she wanted.
I have an MP (mass-produced) scarf that has pockets in it and I just love it. I can put my hat and gloves in the pockets when not in use and they don’t get lost! So I decided to make some of my own. The pockets are very easy to do. They’re just slip stitch joined with the right-sides facing at both ends and then turned right-side out.
I also decided to do cable stitches to make it even more interesting. This is a very simple four-stitch cable where the cables wrap around each other in pairs. If anyone would like the pattern let me know and I’ll be glad to post it.
Sorry for the slight blur of the detail pic. I thought I’d gotten a clear shot.
Thanks to Mom for agreeing to appear on the site. Hope you enjoy!
Awhile back I saw a picture of a Spiderman Afghan while I was surfing the net. I immediately thought that I needed to make one for each of my nephews! The site I found it on had no pattern but that wasn’t a big deal. The ripple baby afghan that I’ve made probably a dozen times (I actually haven’t posted about that yet) would work perfectly just by modifying the colors and adding the rounds of black.
When I went searching for the picture again to include on this post I found a LOT of them. (Go ahead. Google images for “Spiderman Afghan” and see how many you get.) And one of them even linked to (drumroll please) a pattern! Click on the image for the link to the website with this pattern. After looking through the pattern I’m not actually sure if I will use it or not. I already had some ideas for how to modify my ripple baby afghan so I might just do that. But this gives me an option anyway.
I’m feeling Christmas presents for the nephews this year!
Filed under Gifts
My next idea comes from a fellow blogger’s post on making crocheted flowers. (Click on the photo so see the original post.) Now I’ve seen this before, and I’ve done this before too. But this time I was struck with the idea to make some flowers that my Sister-in-Law can use to put on the cards she makes. You can see her Etsy store Here!
I’ve seen cards with crocheted embellishments attached and they’re really cute, but I’m not really into card making myself. But maybe LuAnn can get some use out of them!
I have been having a really good time using the Word Press Tag Surfer lately. I get to see a lot of different posts from other people with the same tags as those in my posts. The problem is, seeing everyone’s wonderful projects gives me all sorts of really good ideas! So today I thought I would actually start keeping track of those ideas for future projects in a new Category. That way I don’t forget them! Now knowing myself, I’m likely to build up lots and lots of ideas and never have time to get to them. But at least I’ll have the option!
My first idea comes from a fellow bloggers post about a gift she received from her mother of some vintage placemats. (Click on the photo to see her original post.) They are just beautiful (and the lovely daffodils really piqued my yearning for spring.)
My idea is to get some vintage material from a thrift store and use it as the center of a doily/table-cloth/table runner or of course another placemat.
I could use material from clothes or a dress, or whatever, and crochet the edging and make some really neat pieces out of them.
Don’t tell her, but I think my Mom might like a table runner like this.
I made this sweater for my Husband’s birthday this month. It turned out great! The pattern comes from the Craft Yarn Council’s website here. Instead of white yarn, I used Fishermen’s Wool from Lion Brand in “Oak Tweed.”
I’ve made this sweater three times now and it is still the most difficult pattern I have ever used. The cable stitches in the Celtic Knot are challenging themselves and are created by using front-post double crochets, skipping stitches and working in front of or behind previous stitches to pick up the skipped stitch. But it is difficult to follow the pattern itself as well as some of the raglan shaping is not very clear. I need to just rewrite this pattern for myself.
In addition, the pattern for the Celtic Knot itself is actually not accurate. The 
knot is supposed to weave “over-under-over” or “under-over-under” for each cable. However the given pattern does not do this. Some of them go “over-over-under” and vice-versa, and even “over-over-over.” They have actually updated this pattern since the first time I found it on the site and it now includes a diagram of how the cables are woven for the knot. It appears, according to this diagram, that the given pattern is intentional – not a mistake. 
Fortunately, I have another pattern book with cable patterns which includes this same Celtic Knot – woven correctly. So I worked from both patterns as I made this sweater. I actually did not even realize that the pattern for the knot was incorrect until this time around. I must have made the previous two “incorrectly.”
But regardless, my Husband has a new sweater – challenging or not. And I have to say that it looks great on him! Happy Birthday Baby!
(Most Definitely) Stitched in Love,
Tatha
Filed under Gifts, Pattern Book Recommendations, Sweaters
This is our Cocker Spaniel Athena. Doesn’t she look adorable in this doggie sweater I made for her? I purchased a crochet desk calendar this year that has patterns on each day. I’d been wanting to make Athena a sweater and I found the perfect pattern in this calendar.
It’s made with alternating rows of treble crochets and single crochets. Alternating front and back post stitches are used across the chest to make a more comfortable, stretchy fit. The “turtle neck” is made with ribbing, crocheting in the back loop of each row – an effect that I am particularly fond of as it gives a piece a very nice finish.
Athena’s had her own store-bought sweater up till now, however it’s been so cold this winter that she’s really worn it out. She ought to stay warm now!
Stitched in Love,
Tatha
This is the Christmas present that I gave to my Mother-in-Law this year. I just love this pattern, it’s so pretty. I’ve done three of these now, one for my Aunt Becky, one for my Sister for her wedding, and now one for Mom. The thing that makes this afghan is totally the edging. The first time I made this I had never done picots before. I initially found those pretty challenging, but now I’ve also made them with thread. I hate making them with thread, but I find making them with yarn to be much easier.
The pattern didn’t call for it, however I used cones of cotton yarn instead of worsted weight yarn. It gives this afghan a really great weight and looks very nice with the picots.
I’ve been trying to think of something really amazing that I could work up to enter in the CGOA contest at the conference in July. Looking at this I think it would be really neat to create similar pattern for a wrap or a shawl. I’ll keep you posted on that front.
Stitched in Love,
Tatha
UPDATE: I had someone ask where they could get this pattern. It’s from a Leisure Arts pattern book: “Best of Terry Kimbrough Afghans.” The pattern name is “Timeless Lace.” I did not find the book on Amazon, but you can get it on the Leisure Art’s website for $12.50. There are 26 afghan patterns in this book and I have made several of them. Click on the picture for the link to the book on the Leisure Arts website.
This is my Niece, Kaeli, and the first of the Christmas presents that I will post for this year. I had this yarn that I had started a knitting project with but never finished. I had wanted to learn how to knit and picked up a book and taught myself the basics. But I just don’t enjoy it as much as crocheting so I’ve all but given it up.
So instead I decided to use the rest of the yarn for this set. The yarn is bulky and fun. The colors make me think of bubble gum and just seemed perfect for a little girl. It is hard to work with though as you can’t really see your own stitches in the last row or round, and I had to crochet it mostly by feel of where the loops were. The Scarf was a little easier than the hat as I just used a single crochet and chain one stitch. That way I could single crochet each row in the spaces from the previous row, making it much easier to feel where to insert the hook.
I had to modify the pattern for the hat slightly so it wouldn’t be too big for a little girl’s head, and I was so worried that it wouldn’t fit. But it seemed to work nicely.
Stitched in Love,
Tatha
Filed under Christmas Presents 2010, Gifts
I was visiting my husband’s family in Iowa for Christmas this weekend. While there, my Mother-in-Law showed me some doilies she had picked up at a thrift store. This multi colored pansy doily was one of them. I had brought some thread with me to work on making some crocheted snowflakes and I thought this was so pretty I decided to try to see if I could replicate it.
This is what I ended up with. It was such a lovely idea and I enjoyed the challenge of seeing if I could reproduce the piece. I left both the original and the copy-cat version with my mother-in-law, but I will see if I can write the pattern down and add it here.
I will also be posting quite a few Christmas presents given this year. I haven’t been able to post them until now because I wanted them to be surprises for the recipients!
Stitched in Love,
Tatha
Stitched In Love Crocheting 
