Nicki Tote

Another pattern has traveled through my neurons, down my arms, out my fingers, off of my hook, and onto the interwebs! The Nicki Tote is named after a very good friend of mine.

This tote would be an excellent pattern for a beginner because it is 90% single crochet. The applique is a little tougher, requiring knowledge of around the post crochet, bobbles, and crochet in the round. There were surprisingly few tree applique options on Ravelry, so I thought I would add a new one to the mix!

I opted to include sewn-on handles rather than integrated handles because I wanted my tote to have a classic appeal. I think it looks pretty good!

The pattern is available on both Ravelry and Craftsy. Let me know what you think!

Starling Purse

I'm a fan of futuregirl's blog as well as her patterns. I hooked up a sweet little purse thanks to her Starling Handbag pattern. Making purses is a great way to use up any lower quality or scratchy yarn that you may have on hand because purses take a lot of wear and tear anyway. I decided to add a flower to the purse to give it a little twist. The flower turned out a bit full, but still pretty. The crocodile stitch is really popular nowadays, so I made my flower by layering a single row of scales over itself.

The availability of excellent free patterns is amazing. I am really thankful to all of those people who make the effort to create a detailed pattern only to give it away, especially since I now know just how much work goes into pattern making. Make another 'hooker' smile sometime and drop them a line thanking them for their free pattern. They will really appreciate it. I appreciate you, futuregirl!

It's Getting Hot In Here

Better make a trivet. I hadn't thought of crocheting a trivet until a good friend of mine requested one as a birthday gift. So I made two! Oddly enough, they turned out to be more difficult than I anticipated. I used a nice cotton yarn from my LYS. The best fabrics for use with hot items are cotton and wool. Remember, these trivets and similar crochet pieces are meant for use with hot lids or warm pots from the stove, not for cooling things from the oven or for high temperature cooking on the stove in a wok. They will catch on fire or at the very least be blackened if you use them improperly.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's check out my trivets. The first one looks like a mandala in my opinion. The free pattern can be found here. The directions indicate that you should use a CD to fill it, which I didn't do. I was worried about the plastic warping and it seems to be just fine without one. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Although I made it as a trivet, I think that this pattern would work really well as a coaster. It's certainly much better than many of the other 'coaster' patterns I've seen that would probably leak everywhere. I may also explore expanding the size and using the pattern as a small, round purse.

The second trivet I made is of a more traditional style.The directions for it are here. This pattern also requests that you use plastic, in this case plastic drink rings, and I did not. Instead I made six rings by chaining circles and then doing rows of single crochet around those circles before proceeding with the pattern. The result was really sturdy. I also like the understated and classy appearance that the single color lends it as opposed to using multiple colors. The natural beauty of the crochet stitches really comes through.

Both projects were really fun to work up and I would definitely recommend them. The recipient enjoyed them. Success! Too bad I can't crochet a trivet big enough to fit the entire month of July on it. Maybe then it would cool off...