Christmas crochet patterns

I love Christmas time.  Maybe that is why I have so many crochet patterns that would add that special touch to your home.  I thought I would showcase some of these patterns.  The first pattern is a Victorian Carolers Wall Hanging when you want to add a bit of Victorian flair to your holiday decorating.

pattern in Craftsy store

buy finished Victorian Carolers wall hanging here

 

I love snow. Kansas doesn't always comply so I made this really easy snow on icicle ornament pattern to put around the house, on a tree or wreath. 

 

   pattern available here

3 ready made ornaments at etsy store

 

A new crochet ornament that I finished this year is for anyone who has a new baby in their life.  The back of the ornament has a flat area that could have a label attached with the baby's date of birth and name.  They will last long after Christmas on a nursery wall.

 

My Craftsy store

Ravelry pattern

 

In our house, Christmas is all about the announcement that the angel made to Mary about the birth of her miracle baby.  Angels are all around us but we can't usually see them unless they allow us to.  This ornament can hang on the tree or a wall the remind us of God's protection no matter what time of year.

 





pattern available here

ready made ornament here

 

What would Christmas be without the birth of that special baby 2000 year ago.  This ornament of the sweet baby Jesus can be used on a tree or wreath.  Making this ornament can help teach small ones what Christmas is about without fear of small hands breaking them.  I had one customer tell me that she makes one for friends when they need comfort. 

 

pattern available here

buy it ready made here

 

I love nativity sets so I had to design one that could hang on the wall as all my surfaces were covered with other crèches.  This pattern includes 4 ornaments that would look wonderful on any tree or wreath.

 

virgin Mary pattern

Joseph ornament pattern

 



Each pattern can be bought separately.  A more economical choice is the buy the wall hanging pattern to house them. 

 

Nativity wall hanging pattern

ready made wall hanging

 

I hope you enjoyed this review of all my Christmas patterns available right now.  All these patterns can also be found at my Ravelry store.  My Etsy shop has all these patterns along with many of the ready made items.  What do you like to make at Christmas time?

 





 





 

 

 



Babys first christmas ornament

There is so much to be thankful for this month.  On October 30, our new granddaughter, Ayme Elizabeth, was born.

She is so darling and so opposite her older sister, Naomi, who had no hair and is platinum blonde.  (The story of Rose Red and Snow White is what comes to mind.)  I wanted to design a pattern for her older sister when she was born. 

Columbine headband or barrette pattern

 

This pattern is a more advanced pattern with picture tutorials on how to make the stamens.  I wanted to design something a little simpler for our new grand baby.  Since Christmas is coming up, I thought of a Christmas ornament.  Here is Ayme's new ornament.

 

 

Once I got the pattern figured out, I decided to make one for each of the grandchildren including our grandson, Ethan.

 

This ornament has no glass for young hands to break.  The backside has a perfect spot to transfer name and date of birth onto. I will be transferring the information onto a piece of cotton material and then sewing the material onto the back.

 

The pattern is back from my pattern testers and has been checked for errors.  It is a fast and fun Christmas crochet pattern to make.  You can find the pattern here in my etsy shop. Here is the pattern in my Ravelry and Craftsy shops. 

 

Not only would this ornament be great on a Christmas tree but when the season is over, it would make a wonderful wall ornament for the nursery.

I hope everyone has a fun and wonderful holiday with lots and lots of blessings from the Lord.









Custom orders

It has been a while since I was able to blog.  We had two wonderful vacations this summer.  One to see our darling grandchildren and one to see the Colorado mountains where I get so much inspiration.  When I got back, my computer broke.  After the purchase of a new one it is finally up and running.  Then came the loss of my father in this world. (I know I will see him, again, one day.)
 One thing my father taught me is, when life gets tough, start looking at everything I can find to be thankful for.

I thought I would do a post on one of the wonderful serendipities to selling my knit and crochet on line.  That is custom orders.  They always challenge me.  One concern I often have is in using words to describe what a customer wants can cause confusion.  (i.e., they want a tree.  When I think tree, my mind envisions a Ponderosa pine tree.  Is that what your mind envisions?)  Most of my customers are not artists and so sending a simple drawing to show me what they have in mind is not an option.

A few months ago, I had a customer who was an artist.  She could define colors to the shade and sent simple drawings.  She also loved my rendition of columbines and she was wanting different versions of what I had in my shop with color variations from what was already there.  She loves dark columbines and she wanted barrettes using these colors. Here are the pictures of the barrettes she wanted.

She also wanted a set of traditional colored columbines.

 

 

Custom orders give me an idea of what others are looking for and so I often make more to add to my shop.  Here is what I am currently offering but color variations are an fairly simple request.  current supply of barrettes in my etsy shop

 

Besides this particular item, she also wanted columbines made into bookmarks and I came up with this design.

 

 

current columbine bookmark in my shop

 

Finally she wanted a columbine necklace in various shades.  I added this particular variation to a columbine pattern that is available in my pattern stores because I love how it came out.

current columbine chocker necklaces available in shop

 

If you would like to make your own choker necklace in the colors of your choosing, the pattern for it can be found here.  columbine necklace pattern  The pattern includes picture tutorials that explain any stitches that might seem challenging.

 

It is amazing what ideas can spring from one customers order.  I am very grateful for custom orders.  I love making just what the customer had in mind and it sparks all sorts of ideas in my mind to do for future shoppers.

 

 

 

 











April Showers bring May Flowers

After a very long winter and a very dry spring, we finally got some rain in Kansas.  I thought I would show some of the spring flowers in my yarn.

The red bud trees are putting on their bloom.

The iris are glorious.

Peonies are popping out all over.

daffodils are almost done.

My first bloom on my new rose bush.

I found a fabulous artist in a shop on etsy.com called ClaySoul.  She makes some wonderful stoneware clay toad houses.

ClaySoul Toad House

Encourage toads to eat the harmful insects in the garden

www.claysoul.etsy.com

What a delightful way to add color to a garden when the color of the flowers is gone.  She is a wonderful artist to work with.

What does this all have to do with fiber art?  Flowers are one of my main sources of inspiration..  Their color and beauty is so amazing and I just have to pick up a crochet hook (or knitting needle) and see what I can make that will imitate them.

Right now I am working on a large custom order of Columbine hair accessories and bookmarks in specific colors.  This is a fairly advanced pattern and I love the results.

What is your favorite thing to do with May flowers.

luxurious lacy iris scarf pattern

April is such a busy month at our house.  Not only is it tax season but this year was Easter.  Now add my birthday and my grandson's birthday and it is hard to get anything else done.  My husband delighted me this year with a gift that brings out the girl in me.  He got me an entire fairy village.  Of course I had to set it up with a carosel horse to visit the village.  Here is how it is set up right now. 

Anyway, April has been fun (except for taxes).  My wonderful niece asked me to spin some angora and Merino wool into yarn and design a scarf for her.  Her favorite color is purple so I decided a lacy iris scarf would fit the bill.  This is my new favorite spinning wheel.

It spins so fast the yarn was made in no time at all.  Then came the design process.  I love lacy knits and my niece lives in Phoenix so I thought a little lace in this warm and soft angora/merino yarn would be appreciated.  Here is her scarf finished.

  

 

When it was time for the making a pattern, I looked around for some yarn that would be as soft as the yarn I made, since pattern buyers don't all spin.  I found a new yarn that I love on sale at Craftsy.com for a excellent price.  You can get your own here: cascade-venezia-sport-yarn

 

They even had the perfect color of Orchid Haze.  I love, love, this yarn.  It is so soft and it really shows the stitch definition.  It is 70% Merino Wool and 30% silk to add that shimmer.

 

I will be buying more.  Well the pattern is finished and back from two separate testers.  One of them is using the pattern to make a pillow top.  Here is a picture of the finished scarf.  I still am looking for a model.  The mannequin works to start the process.

 



 

The pattern is for two sizes: 

8 inches (20.32 cm) wide by 67 inches (170.2 cm) long or

    Long Scarf: 8 inches (20.32 cm) wide by 100 inches (254 cm) long. 

I love how it came out.  What do you think? 

All in all, April was a wonderful month.

 







St. Patrick's Days gifts to make or buy from Etsy

February flew by and it is March already.  I am almost ready for my new lace knit scarf design to go to the testers.  I thought I would showcase some of my favorite Etsy sellers gift offerings in this post.

If you want to make you own Lucky Irish Leprechaun bookmark, just hit the buy now button on the top right of this post and you will get the pattern.  If you would rather buy it pre-made,  the link below will take you to my Etsy shop.  Here is what he looks like.

Lucky Irish Leprechuan bookmark

 

There are some wonderful Etsy artist who have some great gift ideas for St, Patricks Day.  I love this baby outfit in QuinnysCrochet shop on Etsy.

 

baby girl emerald green outfit

 

She has some darling headbands and hats with shamrocks on them.  She does some wonderful work.  Well worth the visit.

 

Another Artist's shop that I love is Crochetbymsa on Etsy.  She has some wonderful doilies.



Lucky Shamrocks N Lace doily

She has a couple of doilies that feature shamrocks.  I love how the one above came out.

 

NadiasKnits has this delight green tam that is adjustable for head sizes.  Just the bit of green needed for St. Patricks day.

adjustable emerald green hat

 

knitbypearl on Etsy has this wonderful Emerald green bow headband which should keep all the "pinchers" away.  I love how it looks.

emerald green bow headband

 

PennyRugsPlus in Etsy has this gorgeous kit that comes with everything you need to make this delightful table mat including the floss.

 

shamrocks table mat kit

 

Another shop I love is SnowNoseCrafts on Etsy. This shop features some delightful kitchen towels that are made to hang on a draw pull or stove handle.  This one features shamrocks.

shamrock kitchen towel

What a gorgeous way to brighten your kitchen in time for spring.

 

Etsy is full of some wonderful fiber artists and it is hard to narrow the list of my favorites down to just a few.  With spring just around the corner, St. Patricks Day makes a fantastic transition between winter and spring and it is so full of fun traditions.  What is your favorite tradition around this holiday?

 

 

 

  

 









Valentines day lace knitting and crochet patterns

It is almost the end of January and still very cold in Kansas.  I love it.  We have a wonderful fireplace and I love to sit near it and design a new lace design. I adore lace knitting.   I am currently working on a purple lace knit scarf out of some home spun Moreno wool and angora bunny fur.  I love how it is coming out.  I will show pictures of the new design when I have it all blocked out. 

With Valentines coming up, I thought, why not showcase some lace knit and crochet designs that have roses and hearts as a theme.  I designed a warm wrap few year ago using Moreno and  angora bunny fur.  Any lace weight yarn will work with this pattern and I used size US 11 - 8.0 mm needles.  Hearts and Diamonds wrap is a simple design for anyone who has done lace knitting before.

Along the same theme I designed Pretty in hearts using Kid Seta yarn and size US 8 - 5.0mm needles.  It is a wonderful wrap that will take the chill out of summer evening and dress up an outfit with no sleeves.

 

The next wrap pattern, 2 hearts together, is just as light and airy using the same Kid Seta yarn and needles but uses nupps in the design.  This pattern is for the more experienced lace knitter.  I think either this pattern or Pretty in Hearts would make a wonderful wedding wrap for those strapless wedding dresses in a white lace yarn.

 

 

I also love to crochet and I love roses.  Unfortunately, I do not have a green thumb and have had a hard time getting roses to bloom outside my home.  So I designed a sun catcher using roses as a theme.  If the crystal prisms are added to the pattern as suggested then all winter long I have rainbows on my walls from the drop crystals.  I love the effect and it certainly brightens a winter home.

 

 

Finally, I created a thread crochet doily pattern that includes both hearts and rose buds.  I love how this pattern came out.

 

 

 

What is your favorite activity for this time of year?