My battle with a beret

There is nothing that can compare with the feeling of completing a project coupled with the positive feedback from the one who received said project.

I started this beautiful beret for my sister, Hannah, and was super excited because she had begged and hinted for a while that she wanted it for her birthday. Meanwhile, I had already started one….tee hee! However, this was not one of those projects where you follow the pattern exactly and come out with the same thing as the picture shows. No, no, no, this was much different. I made this hat the first time, and the thing turned out as big as a pizza! It was giant…then I thought, “Well…she really wants this hat, just take it apart until you reach a reasonable size and modify as you go along.”

The second try seemed to be going smoother, it was all looking more like a beret than a giant doily, but then suddenly I was finished and it still wasn’t right. I put it on my head and it fit like a skull cap. Darn it.

Third try. Starting to become impatient, agitated, yet determined to get it right. This time I was so very careful to watch my increases in each round, and to modify only when I thought it was going to maybe be too big. At that point I started the part of the pattern that decreased, and finished the hat.

Final score: Beret- 2 Lizzy- 1!

One victory was all I needed- I had conquered the horrible pattern and had come out with a beautiful hat anyways! AND, I got it all done in time for Hannah’s birthday Here she is, wearing the hat with my mom, and my mom’s dog (she takes that thing with her everywhere…the dog, not the hat.)

And here she is with my cousin, Eilish. They’re both so beautiful

I think it turned out pretty good. It’s got this lacy look to it, and fits pretty floppy like the style is these days.

And the best part, the part like I mentioned before, is that she loved it. That was the reward :)

My last little little blurb is just to say that the cat toy I made for a friend was a huge hit! They next time I saw her, she showed me pictures of her kitten, Benny, playing with it. He had it wrapped around his body and had the ball in his paws. Guess he liked it:)

As promised...

I almost forgot!


I've finished crocheting my Amigurumi Panda!

He's not completely done, cause I still have to sew one arm, eye balls and the black patches around his eyes on...But he's mostly done. I've got him stuffed and he's SUPER cute!

What do you think?

House of cards

I'm not the kind of person that likes to run out to the store and pick up a card from an isle full of over-priced, pre-written sentiments. That is why, for several years now, I have been making my own cards for any and all occasions. It's become a wonderful way for me to "de-stress," and spend some time thinking of the person I'm making the card for and why I love them.

I think it means so much more when it's handmade and it's just fun! I got a wonderful compliment from my mother-in-law the other day when she told me her husband's mother (my husband's grandma) loves the cards she gets from me and wondered where I was finding such wonderful and unique cards. My mother-in-law told her that I make all of them from scratch, and Grandma drew back in awe :)

Now that I've built myself up to sound like something incredible...haha.



This first one is for my sister-in-law. She's going to be the lead character, Millie, in her high school's musical production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie." She always gets mad when someone says "good luck" to her before a show, because she's a theater nerd and no-one is supposed to wish you luck, or it somehow curses you. Anyways, that's why you wish theater people to "break-a-leg" before a show- like you're trying to fool the luck/fate.


My brother-in-law is a
HUGE
Seattle Seahawks fan,
so I knew he'd appreciate this design!



It's simple, masculine, and yet
still crafty!


This next card was a request of my husband- he asked that I make a thank-you card for a wonderful family from our church that had us over for lunch on Sunday after the service. It was such a blessing as they were such gracious hosts and showed us such hospitality and love. I loved the yellow paper with crazy circular designs that somewhat resembled flowers (Part of a set I received as a gift from my sister-in-law for Christmas- my FAVORITE present)
I used that as my inspiration and incorporated a lot of handstitching in the design.

Here's a closer pic of
the flowers :)










And here is the detail for the back of the card. I always try to incorporate part of the design in a little decal/logo of some sort for the back of the card. Then I initial it, and put a heart <3









This next one is pretty obvious what it is for...but I got the idea from some really cool cards on Esty. (Designers don't worry! I'm simply making them for family and friends) I just loved the idea of the mommy and baby birdie.


The top left photo includes the decal with my signature mark for my cards.




And here's the other one I made (Gotta make 2 now that I'm married!) I think this one's my favorite.
...just wish my cursive was prettier. oh well.







Well folks, I think that's all I got for you. I hope you are encouraged and inspired to make some very special cards for your family and friends. Please let me know if you do! I'd love to see pictures. And as always, you are more than welcome to steal any of the ideas I've posted- as long as I can steal some from you!

More projects

Greetings!

I would love to show you the finished project of my second bunny blanket :) This one turned out exactly like I wanted it to. His eyes are adorable, and the smile is perfect! All I have left to do is wash it to make sure the fibers loosen up a bit- it's stiff and kind of scratchy right now. The best thing is that the other one (the brown one from my last post) was given to a friend's baby, Hannah, and she loves it!

So here's the finished product:

I changed the pattern up a bit for this version. This time I followed the directions to use two strands of yarn throughout the pattern which immediately made him bigger- but I modified the ears to go down off the side of his head instead of straight up, changed the shape of the mouth, and made the blanket part itself longer by extending the increases of the pattern for a few more rows before adding his hands. I love the way it turned out!

This is an excellent idea for a baby shower gift (mine is going to be given to my niece at my sister's baby shower) because the gift functions both as a toy and as a small blanket for the baby to cuddle with! Plus it's just cute...:)

I also was inspired to make a gift for another friend after visiting her house after church for lunch. She's got two adorable cats that love to play. Her kitten Benny loves to jump around and attack things! So I told her I would make her cats a toy, and although I was sort of joking, I decided to do it when I found the pattern for this fun thing on the Lion Brand Yarn free crochet pattern section.


Isn't it fun? I changed up the yarn at the ball for the really fuzzy stuff, and I love it!

I've also been inspired by a pattern given to me by my friend Nicole, a fellow crocheter. It's an adorable baby blanket pattern from Lion Brand Yarn, called Sweet pea, if you want to look it up. It's pink and green granny squares, and I can't wait to get the yarn and get started! It will be perfect for Molly's nursery because her colors are pink and green

Last night I started an adorable amiguri panda pattern, once again from the Lion Brand site. It's been a wonderful learning experience to try this pattern because I've never tried felting before, and this panda is supposed to be felted. I found out felting only works with yarns that are not supposed to be washed. So of course, I used the wrong kind of yarn and ended up with a non-felted project after attempting to felt for some time. Oh well, live and learn. I will post a picture of him when I finally get him stuffed and sewn together.

Hope I have inspired some of you to go and make something homemade and special for your loved ones!

My first Post!

Welcome all to my blog!

I thought I would share with you some of the things I have been working on. First this is a bunny blanket I originally wanted to make for my niece who should by arriving in July! However, after finishing it, I was not satisfied, and have started another one with white yarn, and modified it to have a bigger blanket portion. I'll post that when it's done as well.


I'm very excited to have started a blog- it is my hope to use this as a way to get connected with other crafters and crocheters, to get ideas, share stories and inspire each other!

I'd like to share some other things I have done in the past few months, and as I get them done and get the pictures I will post them. Besides that I have a picture of a blanket I have started on for Molly Joy (my niece's name)- this will be sown together with other rectangles in a checkered pattern so the stars will be every other one. It should look pretty neat whenever I finish it... :)
I am most inspired to have so many wonderful people in my life- and it is for them that I crochet. Mostly things like baby shower gifts- booties, hats, toys, etc; christmas gifts- scarves, hats, other fun things like this snow flake:









Lastly, I wanted to show you a fun little rose I have made from Rachel Choi's crochet blog- crochetspot.com
Here's a link to the pattern if you would like to try it yourself!




http://www.crochetspot.com/crochet-flower-pattern-rose/

Thanks all for reading, and please comment if you have any ideas for other projects I could do!