Carry Me Away Market Bag

Hello everyone, I hope your summer has been yarny!  We just got over a major heat wave here in Southern Ontario.  Our temperatures peaked near 120 degrees fahrenheit on July 21.  What a scorcher!  I have been very grateful to have a working air conditioner :o)
So with all of this steamy, hot and sticky weather I don't really feel like working on a heavy afghan, can you blame me?  Smaller projects are perfect for hot summer days.  I just started a great throw cushion that will look amazing when I'm done. I love watching it come together stitch by stitch. 
On my search for smaller projects, I came across a beautiful market bag on Ravelry.  I just love Ravelry, if you're not a member, what are you waiting for?? Check it out!! Anyhoo, I have quite a large yarn stash so I dug out some Red Heart Super Saver and got started. 

I just love the design on this bag. The picture doesn't do it any justice.  The structural design on the 'arches' are reinforced and made strong so you won't have any sagging while your bag is full of goodies.  And it works up quickly, I finished mine in the evenings on a weekend after the kiddies were in bed.  I love bringing it to work as my lunch bag, or just roll it up and keep it in my purse for unexpected trips to the store.  The pattern offers two sizes, I made the smaller bag.  The pattern can be found here, Ravelry Carry Me Away Market Bag  If you aren't a member of Ravelry use this link, Etsy Carry Me Away Market Bag 
Thanks for looking, and Happy Hooking!

Wrapped in Love Beanie

       Well hello again! And welcome to the new followers, I am so glad you like my blog! I feel terrible that it has been so long since my last post but a lot of things have changed around here since October.  I've been back to work after a long 4 years :o)  I cannot tell you how happy this makes me! Slowly things are turning around and we are getting back on our feet.  I am so happy to take some of the burden off of my wonderful Hubby.  He still works everyday at a job he absolutely despises and for this I am eternally grateful <3
      So anyhoo now that we're all caught up, on to today's post!  I was on the computer one morning surfing on Ravelry and came across the cutest hat.  I just HAD to make it for my girls.  I very rarely buy patterns but with this much cuteness I couldn't resist.   Now since being back to work, I haven't had much time to crochet :o(   So when I sat down to do this hat I was in hooker heaven, it only took me about 2 hours to make!  The instant gratification of completing a project in such a small amount of time was just what I needed.  I made another one the next day for my other daughter.  They both love the new hat and wear it around the house all day.  Here is the hat I made for my oldest daughter;

 

      I told you it was cute!!

         The pattern is available here Wrapped in Love Beanie  It includes many different sizes for the hat, two sizes for the 'ribbon' and two sizes for the bow.  I made the larger bow for this hat and the smaller bow for my youngest daughter.  The sizes for my girls ages were a bit off in the pattern but my kids are pretty small for their size, so I just tweaked it a little to fit them better.  Other than that, the pattern is very well written and I would recommend it to anyone.  Thanks for looking, comments always welcome!
Happy Hooking :o)

Custom Baby Blanket

Wow look at me rolling out all of these afghans!  I have been a busy lady lately, with many thanks to wonderful friends and family requesting my talents for making gifts.   Hopefully when my girls are older we can set up our own little crochet business lol. 
Anyways, an old friend had asked me to make a special baby blanket for her friend who lives in Léone, France.  How cool is that?!  The colours were requested to be dark green and a darker colour yellow.  These colours are special to their group of friends, so of course I did my best to find the perfect colours!  I am so happy to say that this wonderful blanket only took me a few days to complete.  I have noticed that ever since completing the two giant never-ending afghans I worked on forever, I can crochet pretty quickly.  
I sent my friend a list of links to free patterns on the web so she could pick what she liked, and she picked  Baby Granny Three Ways .  What a great pattern!  Super easy to remember, but this was more dense than a regular granny blanket.  It wasn't so open and  'holey', which is great, you don't want those little toes getting tangled up!  The colours don't photograph very well and I apologize.

The dark green rows are the same pattern repeat as the yellow rows.  The middle row of each colour has  crossed stitches in it, they give the blanket a lovely unique look. 

Again, I apologize for the horrible picture.  I really should take a class or something lol! 
It's only a baby afghan so it is not super huge by any means, but it was the perfect size for a lapghan or even for someone in a wheelchair.   I plan on making one for my 3 yr old daughter, but I'll be making it larger.  And she wants it to look like a rainbow :o) 
And now it's off to Léone, France!  It's so cool to know that something I made will be on the other side of the world :o)
Happy Hooking everyone!

Ravishing Round Ripple

Happy Monday everyone!  My hook has been on fire this past week.  I have finished the round ripple throw for my grandmother.  She had bought a kit from Mary Maxim and asked me if I would make it for her.  She has been knitting and crocheting since I can remember, but for the past year or so she has had some problems with her shoulders and it is preventing her from doing any repetitive motions.  I of course was happy to help her out, that's what being a happy hooker is all about after all!
I started this around the same time as my cousin's wavy blanky, I just kept switching between the two when I would get bored of such a big project.  The yarn that came with the kit is a self striping worsted weight called Serene.  It has the same characteristics as a bouclé, but it is much stronger.  I find that bouclé tends to have the consistency of cotton candy, well at least the brand that I'm familiar with.  The first few rounds were maddening, I was having trouble seeing the stitches.  I started to feel rather than look and that's when I really picked up speed.  It is absolutely beautiful, and sooooooo soft.  Like I said with my cousin's afghan, I have fallen in love and don't want to give it back lol.  The pattern is great and I really like the round look, so I know I will be making many more for gifts to cut down my ginormous yarn stash. 
Here she is,

The colours are a bit brighter than this picture shows.  It kind of reminds me of Neopolitan ice cream :o)
It feels so wonderful to finally be done these two afghans.  And of course I found a WIP in my closet to finish.  The chromium star afghan for my youngest daughter.  Good thing she's only 18 months, she doesn't mind how long it takes!  It should be done in a few weeks if I don't get bored of it!
Thanks for looking and until next time,
Happy Hooking!

Farewell Summer of the Beast

Happy September everyone!  I hope the summer was good to everybody.  I live in southern Ontario and it was a hot, humid sticky mess of a summer.  We had some pretty big storms, but I can't complain about that when the rest of the world is really feeling some nasty conditions.  My heart goes out to all in Pakistan and I hope they will get the help they need soon.  And in these last few days there have been earthquakes everywhere.  What is going on in this world?  The man upstairs is upset about something...
On to today's post blogworld.  I have FINALLY finished the wavy ripple afghan for my wonderful cousin!!  I call it the beast, and since I worked on it so much despite the heat it was the summer of the beast for me lol.  This afghan is by far the biggest project to date that I have finished.  I am so happy to be done with it.  But it is so hard to part with it.  I have fallen in love with it's warmth, and it's drape and it's hypnotizing pattern.  I will definitely be making another afghan of this size just for me and hubby to snuggle under!

In this picture, the afghan is folded in half.  When it is fully spread, it almost covers the top of my queen size bed.   Also, the colour isn't very accurate in this photo.  It is not black and white,  it is the most beautiful, rich purple colour.  I love it!  Both were Red Heart giant 16 oz skeins.  I used 2 of each colour and a size H hook.
The pattern is super easy to remember and is so soothing, at least I thought it was.  Crochet is great meditation for me! This wonderful pattern is available for free here Wavy Blanky  and if you are on ravelry it is also available here Ravelry Library Wavy Blanky

I changed colours every 2 rows.  I finished off the afghan with a scalloped edging on the top and bottom edges of the afghan.

The new owner of this beauty hasn't been able to use it yet since we live so far from each other.  She will hopefully be visiting for Thanksgiving (Canadian thanksgiving), so that's only a few weeks away.  Thank goodness for facebook, she's already been able to see the finished product and she really likes it.  But I can't wait to see her face when she can hold it for the first time, like a brand new baby, hahaha, well maybe that's a bit too much!
 Now with this behind me, I can finish the other afghan I've been working on, hopefully it doesn't take too much longer, I've got many holiday gifts to start stitching!!
Until next time, happy hooking!!