Weaving ends

Here is a tip for you!

When weaving in the ends of a hat or garment that stretches horizontally, weave your ends vertically to prevent the tails from unraveling when the fiber stretches with the wear. 

You might also be interested in this technique or this tip.

Giveaway

Today I’m over at Skip to My Lou as part of the Bake Craft Sew & Crochet Along. I am sharing a wonderful crochet pattern perfect for holiday gift giving. In fact, you won’t want to miss all the handmade gift ideas! I have joined over 100 bloggers to share some amazing homemade gift ideas……..AND I get to be part of an amazing giveaway too. Keep reading…

   

You can enter to win a $300 Michaels gift card. Yes, you can buy yarn until your heart is content! Follow along with us and you can enter to win each day!

   

Just wait for the rafflecopter to load and get ready ......

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello Kitty Party

My sweet pea is turning 3 this week, so we had a party to celebrate her birthday yesterday. She asked for a Hello Kitty party, so here are some pictures:

She wanted a white and blue cake, so I just ordered a 6" cake from the store, the whipped cream frosting was divine!

This is the table set up, the party was from 2:00PM to 4:00PM so I had some hors d'oeuvres for the guests:

For the kids I made cake in the can, it was a huge success!

As far as activities go, they built sculptures with gum drops and toothpicks:

Pinned the Hello Kitty bow:

 Hello Kitty came to visit the party, too!

We also had a piñata:

The kids also bobbed for donuts and colored hello kitty coloring pages. It was so fun and everyone seemed to have had a great time!
Happy Birthday sweet pea!

Crochet Highlights

You know I love crochet, so I thought I'd share with you some of my highlights.

I designed a pair of boot cuffs that are used at Michael's crochet classes!

Designed this shawl for Red Heart Yarns:

My finger puppets were published on Happily Hooked Magazine:

 Ordered a custom leather cuff for myself that says "Crochet Addict":

Painted this beautiful yarn bowl using a lace technique at a yarn bowl painting party organized by the local yarn shop:

Cheers!

Dream Catcher

This os the Dream Catcher, my newest crochet pattern! I created the dream catcher for this round of Design Wars Challenge using Heads Up yarn from Red Heart Yarns.

The pattern has instructions for you to make the ottoman and the blanket, but you could easily make a mandala or an actual dream catcher using an embroidery hoop!

The pattern is available in my ravelry store: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dream-catcher-ottoman-and-blanket

Worldwide Artist Blog Hop

I was nominated for the Worldwide Artist Blog Hop by Danyel Pink from Danyel Pink Designs (thank you!) and I am excited to answer the 4 questions and to nominate two talented crafters to do the same thing!

Why do I do what I do?

Because I love to crochet! I am a serious addict, I have a craving for crochet, it relaxes me and makes me happy!

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Well, when an idea strikes, I make sure to do a research to make sure I can't find the same thing I have in mind on the internet. I look through pages and pages and by doing that I end up having unique designs and I love it!

How does my creative process work?

When I am feeling inspired, I pick up my notebook and my pen and I draw the ideas I have, then I go through my yarn stash and select type of yarn and the colors that I think will work best with my design. I always crochet a sample to see how it will come out before I decide to write the pattern.

What am I working now?

I just finished my new pattern for this round of Design Wars and now I am working on a couple of hat patterns for Red Heart Yarns and on a Christmas inspired apron for Skip to my lou blog, so stay tuned, new patterns are coming soon!

Here are my nominations...

I am nominating two very talented designers that I am proud to call friends, one is Liz from Playin' Hooky Designs and the second is Sarah Lora from Ball Hank n' Skein. I hope you enjoyed my post and I am looking forward to reading their answers!