Easy DIY Wrap Bracelet

This is a DIY wrap bracelet. Yes, it is crochet. Don't panic! There are only two stitches in this and there is a video you can watch to show you the step by step process. If you don't know how to crochet you can go there and follow along! If you know how to crochet the following post is the pattern!

Here they are both wrapped and unwrapped.

It wraps around my 7.5'' wrist four times loose or five snug.

Supplies
Scissors

5mm beads with large holes (any color)

Worsted Weight Yarn (any color)

Tapestry Needle (18)

Button (inch)

Step One: Thread 36 beads (or more if you want it longer. It is about an inch for each bead. So, if you add one extra bead it will be an inch longer.)

Step Two: Chain 6
Step Three: Join with a slip stitch to form a ring like below. Chain one.

 Step Four: Work 12 single crochet into the ring. Join with a slip stitch to the first single crochet.

Step Five: Chain 6. Slide a bead down the yarn until it is snug against your work then secure it with a chain stitch.
Step Six: Chain 3.
Step Seven: Slide a bead down the yarn until it is snug against your work then secure it with a chain stitch.
Step Eight-Thirty Three: Repeat Steps Six and Seven until you are out of beads.

Step Thirty-Four: Cut your yarn (leave a LONG tail when you cut because you are going to sew your button on with this tail) and pull it through your loop creating a knot.

Step Thirty-Five: Thread your needle and sew your button onto the end making sure to wrap some extra yarn around the base of your button to make it more secure. 

Step Thirty-Six: Sew in both tails!

VIOLA! Wear and enjoy your new wrap bracelet.

DIY Pink Yarn Bow w/video walk-through

I filmed, edited, and posted a video about the products I have used up. I didn't like it. When I made it, I made it because I thought people expected that kind of video. It was wrong of me and set me off balance. I knew I wasn't taking my YouTube channel in the direction I felt comfortable. I'm not a beauty expert or "beauty guru" by any means. So, I sat down and made of list of things I am an expert in. Two things were at the top. Lipstick and Crochet. The only beauty videos that will ever be on my channel will be about lipstick, that's okay. My YouTube channel is for me and my family and if others like to watch it, that is great too!

Sorry about that long intro! I just want to be clear that anything I post on my channel is there because I want it to be. I do this for fun! These are things I love. There has to be someone out there who loves lipstick AND crochet right? Or at least someone who loves lipstick and wants to LEARN a craft. That works for everyone.

Here is the video walk-through of the DIY PINK YARN BOW (this is crochet... I'll teach you!)

Don't worry! This tutorial walks you through not only how to make it but how to buy your supplies.

SUPPLIES
Scissors
A Tapestry Yarn Needle (not sharp)
A crochet hook that fits your yarn
Yarn (Size 4 Worsted Weight)

1. Buying your yarn! Go to a Walmart or craft store and find the yarn section. Then look at the label. They all have something like this on them. On the far left you can see the little yarn picture with a number FOUR in the middle? That is where you look for the number. They ALL have something like this. This is the size you'll need. There will be a wide variety 1-6. You'll notice right away #1 is TINY thin yarn and #6 is HUGE THICK yarn. We want a #4. Honestly though if you want a smaller yarn it will still WORK. It will just be a MUCH smaller bow.

2. To chose your crochet hook you'll need to look at this same label. The second square over says the knitting needle you'll need for that yarn. The third over has a picture of a crochet hook (a stick with a hook at the end) and it says the SIZE you'll need. For this yarn label it says I need a size I or 9. Here is my I-9 in the picture below. See it says US I9 then the mm that makes it an I-9. Easy as pie. You can buy a SINGLE crochet hook for $1 something or a pack of them.. it doesn't matter. They are super inexpensive like these! Make sure the pack you're buying has the size your yarn needs.

Before I go on let me explain the crochet hook sizes. Just like yarn is a 1 for small and a 6 for large.. crochet hooks get smaller the closer to a size A you get and larger the closer to a size Z you get. You need a specific size hook for each size of yarn because the hook at the END needs to be big enough to HOOK your yarn. If you have a size F crochet hook (small) and try to use it on a size 6 (large) yarn... the yarn will SLIP off. Not saying it can't be DONE! As far as I'm concerned even if you your yarn SAYS it needs a size I... you can use a size H and J just as well. The difference is literally millimeters. That being said if you DO chose to use something smaller the piece you are making will also be smaller. See the example below.

Now I don't remember if I used a different crochet hook on the one above. The hook I used for the one below was an I-9. I also held my yarn SUPER loose while making the below one because I made it on camera LOOKING through my camera so I could see what I was doing. That is why in the video I'm a little STABBY with the crochet hook. Ha ha. The results are the same though. This is the kind of difference you'd have using the wrong crochet hook. It isn't the end of the world.

3. Here is the VIDEO! Follow along!

If you already know how to crochet here is the pattern for this bow

CROCHET PATTERN
1. Begin with a magic circle with a LONG tail (1ft)
2. Chain 2, work 6 triple crochet into the circle, ch 3. sl st into your circle.
3. Repeat step 2.
Pull your beginning tail to tighten your circle and close the hole. Wrap that tail around the middle of your bow to hide this hole. Sew in ends.

If you do make this bow make sure and sent me a picture below in the comments, on instagram, or in the youtube comments! I'd love to see your creations!

Thank you so much for following along!

Year Long Scarf - Update! 6 Months

I've had a daily crochet project going since January 1st that  you may or may not remember.

Here is a link to that post!

Basically, every day from January 1st 2014 to December 31st 2014 I'll be crocheting a line of crochet onto a piece.

I do this in order to create a "scarf" that represents this year. Each day is represented by the color of the sky!

White for overcast (let's face it people.. I used a lot of this and we're only 6 months in. I live in the Pacific Northwest!)

Light blue for partly cloudy

Blue for BLUEBLUEBLUE skies!

Black for thunderstorms/big DARK clouds

Today I'm officially 6 months into this "scarf"

I keep referring to it as a "scarf" because I won't be actually wearing this when I'm done. I'm going to hang it up!

This is a picture of it hung up.

Here is another picture with the months represented (click to see enlarged). I did not do an exact count but this is an approximation. You'll notice in Feb there are different stitched (puff/chain)

Puff stitches (which there are two rows in Feb) represent SNOW! The loose chain that is in the middle represents sleet.

How great is the large chunk of white in April? April showers..... :D

I love this project so far. I don't keep a lot of things because of sentimentality but this will be one I think.

Basically while outside each day I make note of the sky and write it down in my planner. At the end of the week (Sundays) I do all the rows and once a month I take it out and sew in all the tails. I do NOT want to get to December and have to sew in 365 tails. No thank you!

What do you think of my 2014 weather scarf? I was thinking of doing one with emotions. Red for anger, blue for sad.. etc. That would be slightly therapeutic don't you think? Help us acknowledge our feelings on a daily basis.

Thank you SO much for following along!

Crochet Alice in Wonderland Doll and Mad Hatter Hat

As previously posted there are an abundance of baby showers. The one we are going to on Sunday (June 29th) is Alice in Wonderland themed and her nursery will be the same. That is exciting!

I know that it is going to be difficult for them to find a lot of "baby" items that are along with this theme though.. so I contributed. Here is a link to my previous post which included a picture of the registry present we got them in addition to these.

Two items:
1. Mad Hatter Hat (decor)

2. Alice doll (I'm amazing lol)

I'm going to preface this (kind of?) with the fact that I didn't write this pattern. I'm not doing a blog post on how to make either of these items because they have been done before.

Click here for the mad hatter pattern
Click here for the Alice doll pattern

That being said I'm kind of going to tutorial the hair for the Alice doll because it wasn't covered extensively in the pattern. I found this part particularly challenging.

The main differences between my finished doll and the pattern provided are as follows:
1. I used larger eyes. I decided to use size 25mm safety eyes (the size used for the pattern wasn't provided)
2. Her smile is larger (I think I had to make it bigger because of the large eyes
3. I crocheted a chain and sewed it on for her headband instead of using 3 pieces together.
4. I went traditional Alice and didn't give her stockings. Alice only has red/white stockings in Through the looking glass.

The main differences between my finished mad hatter hat and the pattern provided are as follows:
1. I made it green!
2. I didn't at the pins because it is for a BABY'S room.
3. I used blue/green ribbon instead of ..fushia?

Disregard the quality of the mad hatter photo by the way.... I didn't take it. :/ I actually snatched the photo used off of her Facebook page.

Hair Tutorial!

1. Cut strands 14 inches long. I honestly have NO idea how many I used but it was something like 160?

2. Fold the piece in half and create your hairline first. Use one strand in ALL holes all the way around her face. Just in an upside down U shape around her face. There is no need to make a hair line in back as the hair we put in later will cover this. For the hairline I recommend counting stitches out from the eyes. Don't try it willy nilly because pulling them out later to make it symmetrical, sucks. COUNT!

 3. Push your hook through the hole and grab onto the loop you made and pull it through the hole.

4. Then grab the strands and pull them through themselves (the loop on my hook I just made)

I started from the base of the hairline I made on one side and went around the back, every other hole, until I reached the other side of the hairline. Then I added one every other hole for five rows.

For the top of the head (just as the original pattern suggests) I used one strand in every hole to fill it in. This covers the holes skipped. In some places I noticed some thinning and added a second strand to holes just to get more coverage. This is the reason I can't remember the exact number of strands I cut. I also did a lot of backtracking.

She absolutely LOVED them though. :D I'm planning on making two more of these but giving them regular outfits and matching their hair to the child. I'll place those updated photos below.

Thank you so much for following along!

Ella the Crochet Pink Elephant

Our friends, we'll call them Tee and Vinnie, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a couple of months ago. Tee found a crochet pattern for a pink elephant on Etsy and wondered if I would make it for them.

You can find and purchase that pattern here. I'll put pictures of my finished Ella The Elephant throughout this post.

To say that this was a challenge for me would be an understatement. It might have something to do with the fact that I am a perfectionist. It could have something to do with the fact that I don’t make a habit of crocheting toys. There is a huge difference between crocheting jewelry, scarves, purses and a stuffed toy. They are just made differently. I'm not sure what to expect or how things will turn out making round bodies and trunks. Nevertheless! I finished her.

As you can see I chose to make a grey flower instead of a pink one because I knew Tee chose pink and grey colors.

I spent most of the time worried that the baby would pull something off and choke. Thus, items are sewed on so heavily that they are rather stiff in the joints.

At the same time I've been in school full-time and working at daycare Monday through Friday. Regardless of that and after a few communications with the authoress of the pattern it was sent out today. I purchased it on February 1st and it sent out March 1st. That is pretty good. What do you think?

I think the hardest part was sewing the legs on in the end. As a crocheter, sewing.. is my WORST "skill."

I think this was a challenge I needed. I should loosen up and not expect everything to be perfect or see fault where there isn't any. I can't wait to see pictures of the little angel with her new pink pachyderm.

Thank you so much for following along! 

A Year Long Scarf

It is officially 2014! Happy Happy New Year!

(I'll never remember this.. If I wrote checks I would be one of those people who writes 2013 on her checks for most of the year)

For the new year I'm finally able to start a project I've been planning since last summer! I'm REALLY excited.

A Year Long Scarf! Taaaa! daaaaaa!

I drew inspiration from THIS picture on Pinterest.

The original pin states "365 day scarf - Knit a row every day depicting the color of the sky that day. In 365 days you'll have a scarf that's 5ft long."

Now as you may or may not be aware we live in Washington. It rains a lot in western Washington... so the scarf may end up just being one sort of sad shade of white. Well, if that happens then I'll end up with a LOVELY white scarf with several blue stripes in the middle. STILL sounds amazing to me.

Example. I took this picture in July 2012.

Yeah. While it is WARM in July it isn't usually very clear on a regular basis. August will be BLUE skies almost all month. So this is going to be an interesting scarf.

Since I can only crochet (knitting is hard!) I will be crocheting this scarf!

I'll be using these 3 shades of blue as well as white and black for those overcast and stormy days. This is all worsted weight yarn and this is yarn I just scrounged from my stash.

The white is for overcast days. Light blue will be for partly cloudy. Medium blue will be for clear skies. Navy blue will be for slightly stormy. Black will be FULL ON BLACK storms.

Here is today's row! I'll have sporadic updates for you on this project throughout the year. :D I suspect that it will be mentally therapeutic to crochet a row in black on those stormy days. What do you think?

What if someone were to do this but with colors representing their moods? Green for jealousy. Red for ANGRY days. Blue for sad. What a lovely scarf that would be. Full of meaning and so many memories.

Thank you so much for following along!

8 Advent Calendars and Christmas

I'm so nosy. WHAT did you get for Christmas? I have no idea why I would like to know. I like to say its because it is how I collect ideas for others presents. Ha.

I loved giving out both bought and made gifts this year.We gave a gift card, a Christmas nativity scene and some crochet gloves for example.

(These are not available in my store at the moment. After the holidays perhaps.)
If you are a Crocheter though you can find the pattern by YarnBlossomBoutique HERE

Here is a little collage of what I got my husband. Not a huge Christmas this year because of car troubles, college costs, and starting a new job cost me $144... but that is for a different post.

1. A drawing print for Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd from Ghostbusters (his favorite movie) HERE
2. A t-shirt that says "With great beard comes great responsibility (he has a beard and always will) HERE
3. Metalworks 3D laser cut models. They send you the sheets and they make tiny metal models. They have a variety of different shapes. I chose to get Gerry "The Black Pearl" he loves it and is almost finished making it. They are for children but make great little stocking stuffers. HERE

What I wish we had done this year? Get an advent calendar with opening doors. I made this one.

Which was nice. I like the way it turned out. You can purchase them from OhHelloMagpie HERE. I took inspiration from their picture to make mine.

At the same time though.. I like opening the little doors. I CRAVE it. There are a lot of DIY advent calendars but.. that doesn't help me does it? I'd be the one to make it. I was lured inspired to get an advent calendar by the vlogger (during her vlogmas videos) Zoella. She had FIVE to open every day. JEALOUSSSSS.

There are a lot of different kinds of advent calendars. Here is a list of 8 I wouldn't mind getting for us to open next year.

1. A DIY one that you've had bought purhaps? Still appeals to your DIY self. They have a nice selection on Etsy.  (The picture I used is from Shim&Sons blog. It is a tutorial in case you wanted to make one of these FOR me someone.)
2. Ciaté 'Mini Mani' Set advent calendar ($58) 25 NAILPOLISHES! (which is a $168 value!)
3. The coveted Benefit Countdown to Love advent calendar ($68) Which is an assortment of different beauty products.
4. David's Tea ($30) makes this adorable advent calendar full of a variety of teas. Each day is one cup of tea.

1. Freedom Advent Calendar ($56) JEWELRY ♥ Can you imagine? Rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets... the possibilities.
2. Whimsical Woodland Advent Cabin!($79.95) While this one is on the super spendy side. There is a plus. This is more of a "make a tradition" advent calendar. Something you keep. Inside each door is a little woodland creature. This would go great with a Christmas town set up. I adore it. Especially the little cabin front. I like that the back is where the bulk of the doors are. The front door is the extra special 25th surprise!
3. La Maison du Chocolat Advent Calendar ($50) gourmet chocolate.. if you are going to do chocolate. Do it right. Just take a look at their website. Ganaches, pralines...heaven.
4. Playmobil Princess Advent Calendar ($24.99) This is one of the things Zoella had. Click on her name to watch her Vlogmas for December 2013 and open all the doors and put it together! SUPERCUTE. Not even sure why I want this.

Well there you have it folks. Advent calendars. A delight. I want to get TWELVE and just open ONE each month and pretend there is something special going on on the 25th of each month.

I'll be back for a post about NEW YEARS resolutions!

Thank you so much for following along!