If you’ve always wanted to learn to crochet baby booties, then now is the time! I have a new YouTube video that goes along with my FREE Baby Booties pattern where I teach how to make these baby booties from start to finish! They are great projects to make quickly for a baby shower. Or make some for a local charity, or for your own baby!
The other new YouTube video I’ve made is for crocheting a beginner-friendly scarf. This scarf is made with rows of dc throughout. I’ll teach you where to begin and end your rows of dc and share a tip to help you keep the edges even. I’ve got a FREE crochet pattern that goes along with this video, as well. This project is great for practicing your double crochet stitches.
I hope you enjoy both of these videos and learn something new to further your crochet skills and knowledge!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and enjoying lots of sun, relaxation and a vacation or two! A few weeks ago, my husband, middle son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and I went up to Idaho to visit my dad and step-mom. We stayed at Zion National Park on the way up and at Yellowstone National Park on the way back. It was lots of fun, we saw some beautiful animals and we made some great memories! One of the memories was more scary than fun, though! The 2 propane tanks came off our travel trailer while driving to Yellowstone! One of the tanks disappeared completely and the other was hanging on, scraping on the road and sparking! We feel very blessed that God had His angels keeping us safe. This could have had disastrous results, since propane can explode!
Now that I’m back from vacation, I’m busy getting ready for the CGOA Conference, where I’ll be teaching 5 (or 6) crochet classes next week! Since one of the teachers can’t make it to the conference, several of the teachers with sold out classes were asked if they could teach another class to fill in for her classes, which were cancelled. I said I’d be happy to teach my sold out Invisible Repairs class a 2nd time, so I’m scheduled to teach it both Friday morning and Friday afternoon at the conference! If you weren’t able to get into the Friday morning class, you are in luck! Now you can sign up at the conference for the Friday afternoon class (a repeat of the morning class) and pay the pre-registration price there! If you’re planning to take my new Friday afternoon class, please check out the homework for the class and get it done before the afternoon class. You can find the homework here. I hope to see you at the conference!!!
I thought I’d take a little break from printing class handouts today and share some fun baby toys to crochet with you! I crocheted 3 baby toys in the past few months for my granddaughter, Rubekah (Ruru for short)! They were all lots of fun to make.
Into the Jungle
First is the “Into the Jungle” stacking animal rings designed by Cindy Cseh. The pattern was available in the April, June and August 2013 issues of Crochet World magazine. I knew when I saw the pattern that I wanted to make it for a grandchild some day! So earlier this year, I set out to make it. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s a lot of fun to see my granddaughter play with it! You can see more photos of this fun project on my Ravelry project page here.
Amish Puzzle Ball and my granddaughter
The 2nd is the Amish Puzzle Ball by Dedri Uys. This pattern is so much fun to make and put together! This is a FREE pattern that you can find here. I LOVE this pattern and I’ll probably make several more, just for fun!
Crochet Dinosaur Puzzle Ball
The 3rd project that I crocheted for my granddaughter is also by Dedri Uys. It is the Crochet Dinosaur Puzzle that is in Dedri’s book, Amamani Puzzle Balls, by Annie’s. This project was somewhere between the complexity of the Amish Puzzle Ball and the Into the Jungle stacking animals! The pattern was great and easy to follow! You can see all of the patterns in this book here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these 3 crochet baby toy projects and are inspired to crochet some toys for your favorite baby very soon!
For the past 2-3 months, I’ve been working very hard to fine-tune the pattern for my newest crochet pattern, “Mom’s Favorite Baby Blanket”! I enlisted the help of 4 pattern testers on Ravelry and their input was “invaluable”!!! They made great suggestions for improving the pattern and making it easier to understand, since the construction for this blanket is not your “typical” crochet construction!
If you’ve read anything about this pattern, you’ll know that I designed this pattern last year after my mom passed away. She had a favorite baby blanket pattern that she liked to make for new babies in the family. It was from a kit and was worked in 7 strips with 19 motifs in each strip. That made for a lot of seaming and tons of ends to weave in (7 x 19 x 2 = 266 + 2 ends for the edging = 268 ends)! Who wants to weave in that many ends, let alone sew strips together with 19 separate ends (so the colors would match)? Not me!
Last year, the month before my mom passed away, she started one of her favorite baby blankets for my granddaughter. The month after my mom passed away, I finished it for my mom and gave it to my son and daughter-in-law in May, right before my granddaughter was born in June! They know how special this baby blanket is to me and they cherish it (at least I hope they do!). I certainly didn’t enjoy all the time spent sewing the strips together and weaving in the ends! And I know a lot of other crocheters don’t like either of these things, either! So I set out to design a baby blanket that looked like my mom’s favorite baby blanket, but without all the seaming and weaving in ends. And I think I hit the nail on the head! Here are close up photos of my mom’s baby blanket and mine:
Mom’s Original Baby Blanket
My Redesigned Baby Blanket
My redesigned baby blanket still contains 7 motifs in each section and 19 sections of motifs. However, there are NO strips to crochet and NO seaming to be done in this new baby blanket design! There are only 38 ends + 2 ends for the edging (= 40 ends total) to weave in on the whole baby blanket! This is a HUGE improvement from 268 ends, don’t you think? That’s an 85% savings on ends, which translates to lots of time saved and leaves more time for crocheting! Yea!!!
I used DK/light worsted weight yarn for my baby blanket, which came out to be 34” wide x 48” high. Yours can be made wider and/or higher, if desired, by following the instructions for resizing the blanket. The blanket is made with basic crochet stitches: chains, double crochets, single crochets and slip stitches.
The pattern includes 2 symbol crochet charts: one for right-handed and one for left-handed crocheters. The instructions include the appropriate differences for right-handed and left-handed crocheters, as well.
With the help and suggestions from my pattern testers, I decided to take lots of step-by-step photos for this pattern, to help YOU be successful! I think we all know how time-consuming photos can be, but I really think they were needed in this pattern, since the construction is different than most other crochet patterns!
In the pattern, there are 43 step-by-step photos for the main part of the blanket, 46 step-by-step photos for the edging and 10 more photos showing how many chain spaces you should have in various places in the pattern (so you’ll know if you’ve made a mistake and you can fix it before it gets worse)! That’s a total of 99 photos to help teach various aspects of the pattern in a visual manner and to be able to know if you’re working it correctly or not! Here’s a sample of one of the photos in the pattern:
Sample of a Step-by-Step photo in the pattern
With all of the additional photos, the pattern is now 30 pages long! I know what you’re thinking! That’s too many pages to print out without using a ton of ink/toner! But have no fear! Included in every purchase is a shorter 14-page pattern with a few photos, the full written pattern and the symbol crochet charts, but without the additional step-by-step photos for printing. Both pdfs (the 30-page version and the 14-page version) are available for download with purchase of the pattern.
I’m releasing this pattern on a special day to me. Today, April 20, would have been the 29th birthday of my daughter in heaven. Her name was Rebecca. She was born with a closed pulmonary valve in her heart and lived a little less than 6 months. My granddaughter, who my mom starting crocheting her favorite baby blanket for last year before she joined my daughter in heaven, is named Rubekah, in honor of my daughter in heaven. Here’s a photo of my granddaughter and the blanket my mom started, in case you haven’t seen the dozens of photos of her that I’ve shared on social media already:
Rubekah on the Baby Blanket that my Mom started and I finished
Because of the extensive step-by-step tutorial photos in this pattern, I’m charging a little bit more than my usual patterns. I think you’ll find this small increase is well worth it in terms of you being successful in crocheting this baby blanket for your favorite little one! This pattern would also work equally as well for a full-size afghan! Just follow the instructions for changing the size of the blanket and use whatever weight yarn and an appropriate size crochet hook you desire!
The pattern with the 2 pdfs, including 2 symbol crochet charts, complete written instructions and over 90 step-by-step photos, is available for purchase for just $6.95 here.
If you’re ever stuck on something in the pattern for any reason, please send me a message on my website, on Ravelry (I’m “crochetarchitect” on Ravelry) or through Facebook and ask for help. I’m happy to help anyone with questions about my patterns!
If you purchase this pattern and make the baby blanket, I’d love to know what you think about the additional photos! And I’d love to see photos of your finished baby blankets from this pattern, as well!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at my “Mom’s Favorite Baby Blanket” pattern.
I’ve been quiet (on my website/blog) these past few months, but with good reason. At the end of September, my husband, youngest son and I flew to China to visit our middle son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, Rubekah (Ruru for short). We were there for about 2 1/2 weeks and had a wonderful time! We didn’t do any big sightseeing this time. We spent most of the time with our family. We thoroughly enjoyed playing with Ruru! Since she was 3 1/2 – 4 months old during our visit (she’s now 5 months old), she’s a lot more “interactive” than she was as a newborn! We took lots of new photos of her and spent lots of time getting to know her. She’s got a great personality! Here are a few of my favorite photos from (or around the same time as) that visit :
After returning from China, it always takes me a while to get back to Arizona time, since China is 15 hours ahead of us! Since we’ve been back for 5 weeks now, I have no more “valid” excuses for not getting things done, like blogging!
One of the things we did while we were visiting in China was take place in a photo shoot at a photographer’s office. Unfortunately, not all of our family was there in China, but most of us where (my husband and I, 2 of our 3 sons, our daughter-in-law and our granddaughter). Ruru looked great in the photos and we really enjoyed joining in the photo shoot with our kids/granddaughter! Here are a few photos from the photo shoot:
I really enjoy being a grandma, but it’s hard to be so far away from Ruru! However, they’re going to be moving back to Arizona in just 2 months, and I can hardly wait! It’ll be great to see our kids and Ruru again. I expect that she’ll have changed more and will be doing a lot more at 7 months old! I’m so happy that I’ll be able to spend a lot more time with her!!!
One of the nice things about being a grandma is being able to knit and crochet for Ruru! She’s wearing one of the sweaters that I knit for her (and a headband that I crocheted for her) in the 2nd photo at the top of this blog post (the colorful one). She’s also wearing another sweater that I knit for her in the professional photographer’s photos above. I’ve knit and crocheted a LOT of things for her this year (and enjoyed every minute of making them, too!).
I wanted to buy some Chinese yarn while we were there, but I didn’t get a chance to go to a big yarn store. However, one day my husband and I took a walk nearby the university where our kids live and there was a little yarn shop along one of the streets. So I purchased 2 skeins of yarn, which I believe are 92% wool and 8% nylon. I’d say they’re about the weight of sock yarn. Since the labels are all in Chinese, I don’t know everything I should about them! But that’s OK. I enjoyed buying them and going into at least one yarn shop during our trip! The 2 skeins, which have 100 grams of yarn in each skein, cost me about $5 US dollars total! I can have a lot of fun with the amount of yarn in these skeins and $5 is a bargain for 200 grams of yarn! Here are the 2 skeins of yarn for you to see:
I used some of the pastels yarn (on the right) to make the headband in the 2nd photo at the top of this post, along with some leftover yarn from the sweater. I also made a headband with only the Chinese yarn. Here’s a photo of those 2 headbands:
This yarn has a lot of stretch, making it perfect for baby headbands! I made the stretchy headband pieces in Tunisian crochet (with the Tunisian knit stitch). They look like they’re knit, but they’re actually crocheted! There are lots of yards in each of these skeins, so I’ll be making more projects with them in the future.
I hope you’re enjoying the fall weather (if it’s fall where you live). I love the fall weather because I enjoy being able to wear my crochet and knit scarves and cowls again!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, for those of you who live in the US. I’m thankful for many things, especially for family, faith and fiber (the yarn type)! And I thank God for the gift of creativity almost every day!
I just love to crochet for babies, don’t you? I’m currently still crocheting (and knitting) for my granddaughter, who is already 3 months old! How can she already be 3 months old? How does that happen? It seems like yesterday that she was born!!! I’m almost done with a lacy dress for Rubekah that I’ll be taking with me on my next trip to China. And I finished a knit dress for her on Sunday by sewing on the buttons to finish it off. I’ll share photos of Ruru (that’s one of her nicknames) wearing these dresses as I get them from my son and daughter-in-law. Being a grandma is the best!
Babies are so much fun to crochet for, especially since many of the projects for them are quick projects with almost instant gratification! But even crocheting baby blankets is gratifying and lots of fun, even if they take longer! I haven’t found a crochet baby project that I don’t enjoy!
I’d like to share about a new book by Leisure Arts called “Nature’s Gifts for Baby”. This book has 7 sets of designs for babies, designed by Sara Leighton. Each set includes a baby blanket and a hat. So if you’re in the mood for a quick project, why not crochet the hat? If you have more time and would like to crochet for longer, the blanket is perfect! And if you like coordinating sets, make both the blanket and the hat! Each design reflects “gifts of Nature, such as a starry sky or lush flowers and trees”.
Here are photos of the front cover, and Sara Leighton, the designer:
Nature’s Gifts for Baby front cover
Sara Leighton
I haven’t met Sara in person, yet, but she’s as sweet as can be online! I absolutely LOVE the hat she’s wearing in this photo, too (here’s a link to her pattern for the hat on Ravelry)! I think Sara is going to have a long, successful crochet career ahead of her!
Here are photos of all the projects in this adorable book:
Coniferous Set
Starry Set
Fox Set
Seedling Set
Sunrise Set
Water Lilies Set
Raindrops Set
As you can see, each set is unique! Each blanket is made with different stitches, mostly in “quick to crochet” rows. Each of the hat patterns come in 2 sizes: 0-6 months and 6-12 months. The exact yarns (and colors) used in each set are listed at the back of the book. One of the newer features of Leisure Arts books is additional videos for stitches and techniques, like how to work a treble crochet, how to change colors, and lots more. Their books also include many diagrams for different stitches and/or techniques. All of this extra information helps crocheters of all skill levels to be successful in their crochet projects!
Each of the sets in this book, except the Fox Set, is made with medium, worsted weight yarn. The Fox Set is made with super bulky weight yarn. If you’re not familiar with yarn weights, check out this page on the Craft Yarn Council’s website here. The Craft Yarn Council has many pages of helpful information about crocheting, knitting, yarn, crochet hook sizes, knitting needle sizes, and more on their website. So if you’ve never gone to their website, you don’t know what you’re missing!
You can see and purchase “Nature’s Gifts for Baby” on the Leisure Arts website here or on Amazon here. This 32-page book retails for $9.99.
If you’re looking for some new crochet patterns to make for a favorite baby in your life, I hope you’ll consider this book with lots of creative designs!
It’s been a while since I last blogged and for good reason (in my mind!). I’ve been doing more knitting and crocheting for my first grandchild! I feel bad that I only kept this New Year’s Resolution (to blog every week) for 4 months, but I’m having the time of my life with these cute baby projects! Here’s a few photos of a crochet sweater and hat that I made this past week for my granddaughter, who’s due to arrive in our lives in less than a month:
Crochet Baby Sweater and Hat Set
Crochet Baby Sweater close up
I just LOVE this set! It’s made from a FREE Red Heart pattern called Twin Sweater Set. You can find this free pattern here. One of the ladies (Rae) at my weekly knit/crochet group was making this exact sweater last month and I immediately fell in love with it! She shared the location of the free pattern and the yarn name/color with me that day. The sweater and hat in the pattern are made with 2 skeins of Red Heart Baby TLC. However, Rae and I made our sets from 1 skein of Lion Brand Baby Soft yarn in the color, Parfait Print. After seeing Rae’s adorable baby sweater and hat, I immediately got to work finding the yarn and purchasing it so I could make my own set for my granddaughter. I think it turned out great and I look forward to seeing my granddaughter wearing this sweater and hat this fall/winter!
In the past few months, I’ve designed a few other things for my granddaughter, which I hope to be ready to self-publish later this year, when my life slows down a little. I think most of you know that my mom passed away earlier this year. Well, I’m the executor and trustee for her estate, so I have plenty to do to get all that squared away. And I’ve never done this before, so I have lots to learn!
I can’t show you the other 2 designs that I’ve made for my granddaughter, but I can tell you that one of them is a knit blanket and the other is a crochet bib. I’m not quite sure if the bib is large enough around the neck, so I’ll try it on my granddaughter when I see her next month.
I’m getting very excited about the BIG DAY coming soon! I really look forward to being a grandma and spoiling my grandchild!!! I promise to share photos of her in about a month from now, if not sooner. I just hope I don’t bore you with TOO MANY photos of her (I’m sure you know how proud grandparents can be)!!! For now, here’s a photo of her from a recent ultrasound:
As you can tell from the title of this blog post, I’m going to be a grandma! Yahoo!!! My husband and I are expecting our first grandchild, who is supposed to be a girl, at the beginning of June, which is quickly approaching! We are thrilled that we’re going to be grandparents! So in preparation for my first grandchild (granddaughter), I’ve been crocheting and knitting lots of things for her (that’s why I’ve taken some time away from designing lately)! Here are some of the things I’ve made:
4 Pairs of Baby Booties and Sandals
I really enjoy crocheting baby booties and thread baby booties always look so adorable to me! So for the past few weeks, I’ve made these 4 pairs of baby booties and sandals. The patterns are all from a Leisure Arts book called “Booties by the Dozen”, by Kay Meadors. Here’s a photo of the front of that book:
Booties by the Dozen crochet book
Last year, after finding out that we’re going to be grandparents, I made a few other pairs of baby booties with yarn. Here’s a photo of those booties:
Baby Booties for my first grandchild
As you can tell, we didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl at that time! According to the latest ultrasound from a few weeks ago, there is a 90-95% chance that it’s a girl!!! Since my only daughter is in heaven and I have 3 grown sons, a granddaughter is exactly what I was hoping to get (of course, it’s my son and daughter-in-law’s baby, but I’ll be one of her 2 grandmothers)!
Here are 2 baby blankets that I’ve crocheted for her, too:
Baby Blanket by Mom and Me
Baby Blanket for my first granddaughter
The top blanket in pastels is the one that I finished for my mom after she passed away in February. It was a “labor of love” to finish it for her. You can read all about this blanket in my previous blog post here.
The bottom blanket is the turquoise blanket that I designed last year before I knew if it was going to be a boy or a girl. I think turquoise can be used for either one and it’s one of my daughter-in-law’s favorite colors! I used almost a full skein of Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn, which has 1,020 yards in it! The contrasting white sections in the edging didn’t take much yarn, though.
Here are a few sweaters that I’ve knit for the baby, too:
Knit Baby Sweater
Baby’s First Sweater
The top sweater is knit with half of a skein of Lion Brand Ice Cream in color #206 Tutti Frutti. I really enjoyed knitting this sweater because of the colors of the yarn! And I have enough yarn left over for another sweater or possibly matching booties!
The bottom sweater is knit with half of a skein of Moda Dea Tweedle Dee that I had leftover from years ago (I don’t think this yarn is made any more, though). It’s a bulky yarn and this sweater knits up in just 2-3 hours (from the top down)! It’s a really quick project and I like the final sweater. My youngest son went to China in February and took this sweater, along with a couple of other baby items that I made, to my middle son and daughter-in-law for me. My daughter-in-law said that this sweater reminds her of ewoks from Star Wars! It doesn’t look like what the ewoks wore in the movie, but the colors do kind of look like ewok colors. If you’re a knitter and you’d like to knit one of these quick baby sweaters, you can find the free pattern on Ravelry here. It’s called “Wee Speedy”.
And here’s a bib that I crocheted for her from a pattern than I designed years ago:
Tunisian Baby Bib
This is a Tunisian baby bib. If you’ve never tried Tunisian crochet before, you should check it out! It’s a lot of fun! I find it rhythmic to do and the resulting texture lends itself very well to cross stitching on top of it!
And last, but not least, here is a diaper cover and coordinating hat that I crocheted last year for her:
Crochet Diaper Cover
Crochet Baby Hat
This diaper cover and baby hat were from the book, “Baby Brights” by Kathleen McCafferty. You can see that book on Amazon here. I have no idea how well this diaper cover will work, but my son and daughter-in-law are planning to use cloth diapers, so I may be making more of these, if they work out well for them.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the things I’ve made (so far) for my granddaughter. Of course, I’ll share photos of her after she arrives (which will be in China because my son and daughter-in-law are living there and attending a Chinese university to learn Chinese/Mandarin). I’m planning to fly over there for the birth of my first grandchild, God willing! So until then, you’ll probably find me knitting and/or crocheting more things for our little “bundle of joy”!!! Yippee!!!!!
