crossing braids

i split the hair in half and then made a section running through the center of the half.   i didn't try to match them up at all.  then i braided the center curving section first and the top and bottom sections around it.    

horsing around bracelet

this was a project i came up with for my daughter to give her friend for a birthday gift.   

let me just say how much i dislike buying birthday gifts for kids parties.   i love that the kids get to go and it's not that i mind getting them something.   it's the "what" to get them that i have such disdain for.   what do they like?   what do they collect?   do they have any hobbies?   always answered by i don't know.   eventually, i can usually drag enough info out of my kids to figure something out.   i don't think i am the only parent with such dilemmas though.   my daughter has come home and reported that most of the other kids give gift cards form the electronics store.   that seems like a societal statement in itself.   alas, back to the horse bracelet -

ok, i have been playing with . .i mean utilizing my tiny crochet hooks to their fullest lately.   my daughter said her friend liked horses so i tried out a tiny horse.   i looked for horse patterns but, couldn't find one i liked that i could read etc.   yep, made it up as i went.   these guys are all made of mostly chain stitches.   

i chained 5 or 6 and then doubled back and kept going around until i had an oval.   the body is going to get another layer so don't make it as big as you want it at first.

 then, at one end, i chained up 4-5 (neck) and made a little bump by chaining 2-3 and doubling back (ear) then chained 3-4 for the head.   then i used some half double crochets to make the head and neck.   you have to skip a couple stitches between the head and neck to keep your head from pointing at the sky.   then i continued down the body and at the bottom i chained 8 turned around and came back up for a leg.   i put the next leg in the same stitch.   chain across the belly and add two more legs.   then continue around the body and head in chains.   this always gives me a chance to clean up the edges a bit, change the shape just a bit and makes it a bit more finished.

 after that, it's just some little pieces looped on for a tail and mane and i bit for the bangs.   this brown guy ended up with a bent leg but i just let him do his thing.  

 last was the bracelet itself.   my tomboy princess said that her friend likes blue.   i used a variegated blue and just a basic triple crochet.   i started with the ball actually, not really sure how to explain that one.   i just went around and used chains and half doubles to make it.   before i closed it, i shoved some cotton in it to make it keep it's round shape.   i started it with a shell made from half doubles and then straightened it out when it was a wide as i wanted.   on the end, i added a little chain for the button ball to go through and went over it with some half doubles.  

i hope that made some sense or at least inspires you to do your own thing.

iphone purse

 my son's school drew names for a gift exchange for Christmas    he got a girl that said she wanted an iphone cover.   oi!   i don't even have an iphone, but that is another discussion.   anyway, they are pretty cheap on ebay so we were able to get her one for like 3€.   great, problem solved!   right?, wrong.   my son comes from a family of over achievers so he asked me to crochet a bag for it.     i had no idea how to do that so . . .pinterest!   i found one that looked reasonably easy to replicate here-
http://cuffeshop.blogspot.de/2010_02_01_archive.html

this is my simplified, go faster, version.   it turned out a little looser than i had hoped but still a cute bag for an iphone.

fat curvy cornrows

 i have no idea why the braids decided to curl.   but two of them just squiggled themselves right up.   this is actually after school and sports etc, right before i took it out to go to bed.   cornrows keep in place really well.

crochet bookmarks and bracelets

every year my kids want to give their teachers something for Christmas.   when the 3 kids have 10 teachers between them, i have to be home-made mommy.   i got some new tiny little crochet hooks so i decided to play with them. . . .i mean put them to use.   i searched pinterest for inspiration.   as you may know, i can't read a pattern and i don't know many stitches so i have to have something simple.   i posted some of the links i used but if you search crochet bookmarks you come up with tons of inspiration.  yay pinterest!   yay google!

 http://saltforthespirit.blogspot.de/2009/02/itty-bitty-crochet-heart-tutorial.html

 i made this one up and it has now been pulled from the teacher gifts and is on it's way to my friend after i add some strings to make it a bracelet.   i decided that most of them can be converted into a bracelet so i'll be adding some tassels on both ends to give that option.

http://mossitabellacrochet.blogspot.de/2012/03/bufanda-crochet.html
http://mycrochetstuff.blogspot.ca/2012/07/pineapple-motif-earrings-free-crochet.html

 my skinny angel.   i started out just playing with the circle and ended up here.  

 http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2011/11/rings-for-rpl-battenberg-lace-irish.html

this is the same basic thing but i started with chain 8 and looped it then i crocheted around it.   then chain 4, 3-4 half doubles in the second up chain.   work towards the work you just did.  when you hit the chain coming down from the previous work, take the yarn around the back your needle around the front and continue with 3-4 more half doubles.   you should meet up with the start of your circle.   chain to close it and you might need to take a couple chains around the outside to get to the opposite side of your circle so that your chain of circles is straight.
open it'Äs a book mark, loop one end through the other and you have a bracelet.

this one, i tried to write a pattern of sorts for becasue i love the look of it.   hope it makes sense.

 this one is 2 triples next to each other, 2 chains, 3 triples in a single stitch on top and bottom, then 2 stitches and 2 triples.   then i just did 3 half doubles on the outside triple of each section.  i did a half double, double, 2 triples and back down on the ends as i went around the outside

this set was for my three year olds teachers.   i have no idea how many teachers he has.   one main one but some helpers so i just made five and sent them in this cute little box.  
i used this
http://en.origami-club.com/newspaper/garbagebin/garbagebin/index.html
to make the box out of a regular piece of paper and stuck them all in.   i had my blond curls give it to his main teacher and explained that it was for all his teachers.

also, i added tassels to both ends of all of these so that they could be bookmarks or bracelets.   multitasking multi-functioning gifts are great because they should like one or the other.   hallelujah!  

crochet Christmas

i made and un-made this poor tree a dozen times.   i just couldn't find a pattern i wanted, not that i can follow a pattern mind you.   but i can make it up from a picture, couldn't find one of those i liked either.   so what i came up with was a basic cone then i started at the bottom and made 10 chain stitches and attached close to where i started.   i did roughly a couple rows of 10, then 9, etc until the top has just a couple.   i didn't really keep track of how many rows of each, i just eyeballed it.   i really like the way it turned out.   i think i'll use the same technique to make a santa beard and woolly sheep or animals.   it was lots of fun and simple.

 my crochet Christmas pickle.   again, no pattern.   i just went around and around but i put in some puffy stitches here and there.

 crochet around sea shells!  say that fast.   i liked my little rock snow  man so i tried it with sea shells.   i struggled most with the hat for some reason.   the flat back makes the hat a little harder to get to look right but it turned out eventually.   i just crocheted a scarf and wrapped it around the neck, pulled one end through the center to hold.   it's not like he's going to be playing very hard . . .i think

some more fun shapes i made.   i liked the icicle.   it was a chain and then i came back to form the loop and started making several doubles in every couple stitches, however it was working.   i worked my way around not straight down the chain.so there were stitches in the same chain but from different sides to make it round.   then i just reduced the stitches down and at the end i went around with chain stitches.

in the states, i made Christmas socks for everyone.   each was personalized and very different.   since we moved and didn't bring those socks a friend gave us some for the kids.   they are all the same so i had to find a different way to separate them.   the crochet hooks are out, so i crocheted for each sock.   maybe every year i can put something new on each sock.   they will get pretty decorative after a while.   anyway, i made a horse for the tomboy princess, a dinosaur for the blonde curls and a lizard for the towering teen.

merry Christmas!

braided spiral

i braided the four braids and then braided them together and wrapped the end back up under itself.   it made this crazy spiral in back.

twisted braid

this was just a quickie one sunday morning.   i braided, twisted it once and brought pieces in from the head, then continued braiding and twisted again.  

Christmas stick tree

this year, we are finally in a house again and able to put up a tree.   the problem is that we don't really have room for a big round thing.   i saw a post on pinterest that made a  tree from branches so i thought i'd try it!   http://a-wonderful-christmastime.tumblr.com/post/32287860672

i didn't have big branches so i used what we had around.   i have some long thin straight decor sticks that i salvaged from the garbage.   we also have  a garage covered in weed vines.   worked for me!

i laid some guides down and taped them to the floor in a v to keep my tree going in the right shape.    then we just laid the straight "trunk" sticks in the center.   we brought in our vines and started laying them across the v and cutting to length.  

 i laid some more straight "trunk" sticks across the top since they are thin and wired the vines in bunches to the "trunk"   then i wanted to make sure it was stable so i wired a couple more straight sticks to the outside.   it just keeps the vine bunches from flopping around, keeps them in a tree shape.

the kids had fun helping me put this together.   we leaned it in a corner and decorated it.   my little blonde curls likes to make a fort around it  and play under it so it must pass as a real Christmas tree. 

btw, this is just a bit more of our homemade Christmas.   we made salt and flour dough beads.   stuck them on a bamboo skewer and let them dry.   then just painted and strung them for our garland.   we also rolled paper beads.   just magazine strips and a bit of school glue.   the kids loved making these.   it's pretty heavy so you'll need some sturdy branches.

crochet patch

this is another one i did from the front of the hole instead of from the inside.   i free formed the patch and then just stitched it on.   i used a flexible cutting board to put inside the leg so i could sew it on easier.   that is the orange showing through.

the other leg of the jeans i patched with black. a smaller hole and thin spot.

lately, i've had trouble with thin spots in jeans.   fixing the holes after they wear though is one thing but i wanted to stop them before it became another hole.   and i just wanted to experiment with personalizing my jeans.   i'll be doing this to spruce up several pairs now.   wheee!

ok, enough playing . . .yeah, right.

like before, i crocheted around the edge to work off of.   but, i learned something, stick something in the jeans to hold it open and it's much easier to work with, and it keeps the jeans in the right position so you don't have to worry about them being too baggy or tight.   i used a flexible cutting board.

i did a little bit of a pattern in this pair.   just to shake things up . . .and to speed things up.   it was late, i wanted to finish them so i could wear them the next day for a major test.   i like them, they are my favorite jeans!   and as a bonus, i felt like i had completed something so i felt better for the test too.   double win!

back side of the jeans.   you could do them from the front if you want them to look like this instead to cover the raw edges.