Crochet Pattern: Redshift Infinity Scarf and Hat Set

Even though spring is just around the corner, it's still pretty chilly out. If you're still feeling the need to cozy up, why not work up my new pattern? With both a scarf and hat included, it's a great deal! You can find it on Ravelry and Craftsy.

Tall, cold, and cozy-loving ladies will love this extra long infinity scarf and hat set. This squishy infinity scarf can be wrapped around twice for a longer look and three times for a shorter look. You will need four colors. The unique dance between texture and color make this scarf red hot! A sweet hat completes the look. A light worsted yarn is the best choice for this project. This pattern is gift-ready and smooth to craft.

This pattern is a part of the Cerebral Crochet Series. For your entertainment, a few fun facts about redshift are included at the end of the pattern.

Berry Good Berry Bag Crochet Pattern

Fall is here! I love fall. Maybe that makes me "basic," but I don't care! I love pumpkin spice lattes, and pretty leaves, and candles, and crisp air, and all kinds of shenanigans. You know what else is a fall staple, especially in the Pacific Northwest? Berries. Berries grow all over the darn place out here; they happen to be invasive. Invasive or not, it's so fun to pick berries on the side of the road and eat them raw, turn them into pies, or even put them in a cocktail. You can pick your own berry with my new pattern, the Berry Good Berry Bag. It is available on Ravelry and Craftsy.

This sweet bag pattern is highly customizable. The sample is a raspberry, but you can easily create a blackberry, salmon berry, or blue raspberry with a simple color change. You could even make it into a bunch of grapes by using purple! You can also make it bigger or smaller by changing the weight of the yarn, changing the hook size, or adding more repeats.

Unlike many lined bags, this bag is worked in one piece. How convenient!

This pattern is for intermediate crocheters. The techniques used include crocheting in the round, working in front/back loop only, cluster stitches, detailed repeats, and some minor shaping.

Special Olympics Alaska Needs Your Help!

Calling all crocheters! Special Olympics Alaska is looking to give each of their participants a red and black scarf during their 2015 Winter Games which takes place on March 6. That's coming up fast! Ten days ago they were still in need of 200 scarves, so I thought I would pass along the message to you lovely readers. Scarves are a quick project and a great way to try out a new stitch. Surely fiber folks can come together and whip up some cozy scarves to help Special Olympics Alaska meet their goal. Here's the info from their Facebook page.

Just imagine how appreciative the athlete who receives your scarf will be and the smile it will bring to their face. There's still time to crochet for this great cause.

Little Crochet Crab

Here's a sweet little crab that I made following this pattern by Eden Dintsikos. Nautical stuff is always on my mind in spring and summer.

Woo, red sure shows up hot on my camera! I used Caron Simply Soft for this amigurumi, though I wouldn't really recommend using SS for toys. The shine is quite nice but it's a bit difficult to work with when you are trying to crochet tightly. This little crab is destined to live on my husband's desk at work along with his octopus and lobster.

Heart Garland

When I found myself with some extra red yarn I struggled with what to do with it. I had been looking for a nice heart pattern for a while and thought that my bright red yarn would best be used in a heart themed project. The yarn was called Red Heart after all, ba dum ch. I was overjoyed to find this delightful pattern for a heart garland and set to work right away. Smaller hearts were also included by stopping short of the last round of each heart because I liked the contrast between the two sizes.

Holidays and crochet go so well together. What fun things have you crocheted for holidays in your home? What are your favorite Valentine's Day projects?

Love Letter Sachet

Picture if you will an awkward teen girl in the early 2000's. She was short, brunette, had glasses, and loved to get straight A's. A hopeless romantic, she loved Valentine's Day with a passion. On Valentine's Day she could be found sporting a springy heart headband, a heart-themed outfit, and a huge smile while passing out cards and candy to all of her friends (and on a few lucky occasions, a boyfriend). Maybe she was weird sometimes, maybe she was a bit quiet, and maybe she hadn't quite come into her own yet... but Valentine's Day was her day, the very best day of all. A day of love and happiness and frills!

I'm sure you can guess by now that the little awkward girl was me. Guess what? Valentine's Day is still my very favorite holiday and I'm super excited that it's coming up. This will be Alex and I's ninth Valentine's Day together. I'm a lucky girl! To celebrate, I plan to make caramels, dipped shortbread cookies, and frosted sugar cookies to share with others. Yay!

There's something else I've prepared for the season of love... a brand new pattern! Here's my Love Letter Sachet pattern. Man, do they smell good!

I walked over to Pike's Place to get the lavender that I used to fill the sachets. The sweet little store was located in a warm corner overlooking the water. I would definitely recommend it and I will be returning there for any future lavender needs.

The new pattern is available on Ravelry and Craftsy. xoxo

Streamwave Throw plus Giveaway Winners Announced

Just as the best writers read often, I believe it is important for crochet pattern designers to follow others' patterns on a regular basis. Not only does taking short breaks from pattern writing allow you to collect and organize your thoughts for your next pattern, it also shows you styles and ideas that are different from your own. While following someones crochet fox hat pattern you might be struck with an awesome idea for a coyote throw pillow. If you follow a poorly written pattern you can make mental notes about what not to do, and if you follow an awesome pattern you can reflect on what makes it so awesome and incorporate that awesomeness into your own designs. Since crochet designers are often trying to make a beloved hobby into a career, it's important not to burn out or lose the joy by focusing on designing to the exclusion of everything else. Plus, let's be honest, following others' patterns every now and then is fun! Finally, working up patterns that others have written helps you stay connected to the crochet community and its trends.

I recently followed Kim Guzman's Streamwave Throw pattern and I'm really proud to show you my finished product.

The blanket was a pleasure to make. It has a great rhythm to it and is a nice size. It must be noted that I rarely follow the recommended number of rows on patterns like this. I like to stop or continue on as I see fit. This throw didn't take me too long to make. I worked on it over a three month span of time, during which I worked on and completed several other objects. If I had dedicated myself to it I think I could have finished it in about two weeks.

I think this throw pattern looks like stained glass. The original calls for variegated yarn, which would probably look very nice if you found the right color. Since I'm not a huge fan of variegated yarn I opted for two solid colors to make it interesting. I used Caron Simply Soft for its glossy finish and reasonable price.

It will be a pleasure to add this project page to my Ravelry account. It's great looking back on all of the hard work I've done, especially when so many of my finished objects are sold or given as gifts. I'm sure you can relate :) As ever, my hook keeps moving. If there's a pattern you really love and you want me to check it out, you're always welcome to drop me a line via illuminatecrochet@gmail.com.

Now, for the giveaway announcement! Using a random number generator, I have selected our winners! Congratulations to Crocheter Carrie R. and Admirer Melissa S.! After I get their details I will arrange their packages and show you what they're receiving. A huge thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. If you didn't win, stay tuned for more fun giveaways and contests.

Dandy Dan's Rad Rock Blanket

Today is the day! I am so freaking excited! I can finally tell you all about my biggest pattern yet. Here it is, Dandy Dan's Rad Rock Blanket!

The pattern is named after my younger brother, Dan. Dan is an avid guitar player. One of his nicknames growing up was Dandy Dan, and I think it has a nice ring to it. The resulting blanket is twin-sized. It is all single crochet, all 55,590 stitches of it. While that does make it a bit tedious to craft, no stitch rivals single crochet when it comes to crisp tapestry designs. Best of all? I provide complete line-by-line written instructions for the blanket along with the chart. This means that you don't really have to think much if you don't want to. All you have to do is follow my drop, carry, and stitch count instructions. I provide instructions for color changing as well, a method that leaves the blanket smooth on the back, no strings hanging out. A little bit of texture is provided by the appliques for the strings, output, bridge, and tuning pegs. I am confident that someone who has been crocheting successfully for at least six months or more would be able to complete the pattern.

The blanket took quite a long time to make and write up, about two and a half months. While that may be a relatively short amount of time when it comes to crocheting blankets, I usually finish my patterns in one to two weeks so I felt like the blanket was taking me quite a long time indeed. Here are a few pictures of the blanket while it was in progress.

I just gave the sample blanket to my brother for Christmas. The pattern is available on both Ravelry and Craftsy. Before we part ways for today, here are a few more detailed pictures of the blanket including one with a smartphone for scale. I couldn't be more proud!

I think the guitar would look pretty cool if variegated yarn were used in place of the red. What color would you make your guitar?

Perfect Purse

Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope you are all enjoying yourselves, no matter what you do or don't believe or celebrate!

If you've got some holiday parties lined up and still need a purse to go with your outfit, I've got a great free pattern for you. The Perfect Purse by Lion Brand is a really versatile pattern. It's quite simple to make it bigger or smaller to suit your tastes and you can make it with almost any yarn you have available. I made it with some leftover Simply Soft. Is it sacrilegious to work up a Lion Brand pattern with a Caron yarn?

The original pattern suggests attaching a button in the middle of the top flap, but I decided to attach magnetic snaps to either side. I then covered the raw outsides of the snaps with small double crochet circles.

Check out the linked project pages on Ravelry for tons of creative slants on this pattern. Perhaps it's just what you need to spice up your outfit. It only took me about 2 hours in total, so it's possible to work it up in one sitting if necessary.

Before I go, can I just say how excited I am that folks are opening my crocheted gifts this morning? Be on the lookout for some long awaited FO posts in the coming days.

Happy Chrisma-hannu-kwanza-solstice!

Friday Focus: Katie

Each Friday here on Illumination I will be featuring a fabulous crocheter whose work I enjoy. For my very first Friday Focus I wanted to shine a light on a close friend of mine, miss Katie! Katie and I have been friends for almost eight years. We were roommates in college and she even officiated my wedding! Most importantly, Katie is the one who taught me to crochet during my senior year of college. I owe her many thanks for many hours of entertainment and satisfaction. Here is what she had to share with you.

Who taught you to crochet? How long have you been doing it? 
My mom taught me how to crochet when I was in 8th grade. So it's been about 13 years since I've learned, there were a couple of years when I stopped doing it for a while. Then I really started again in college, and that's when I really got into it and started experimenting with different patterns and stitches other than a chevron blanket. Although, I still made a couple of those in that time :)

Why do you crochet?
Generally, I crochet for fun. I'll see something I like online and make it. I have a huge queue on Ravelry, there are just so many things I want to try. I also make little animals as gifts for people. I recently made a couple of cats for some coworkers, and an elephant for my fiance's co-worker who recently had a baby.

Favorites
I love Ravelry. It has helped me keep track of what I've made, and what I want to make. 

What are you working on right now? What is your next project?
I have a bunch of stash yarn that I need to use up, so I am trying to do a blanket. The problem is I keep finding new stitches and patterns that I want to try so I keep starting different blankets. I think I have 3 going right now.

A few finished objects...
These are some snowmen that I made for a group of co-workers. I really like how they turned out especially how all of their faces are different. It's a really simple pattern. I recommend the pattern for anyone needing to make a bunch of little gifts, they work up pretty quickly.  

 

This is a cat throw I made for fun. This was the first blanket/throw that wasn't my usual chevron pattern. It's a bunch of granny squares all stitched together. It was a fun project, and I guess I'm technically not finished yet. I still have to weave in the ends, but I hate doing that! 

This is Tintin, I made this for my fiance a couple of years ago because he loves Tintin! This was my first project that I didn't use a pattern for, so it was quite frustrating.

 

Isn't Tintin adorable? I saw him in person and was really impressed. Watching Katie crochet and seeing all of the cool stuff that she made inspired me to begin crocheting myself. Thank you, friend! I am privileged to have you as Illumination's first Friday Focus! If you would like to see more of Katie's work, you can visit her Ravelry page. 

If you or someone you know would like to be featured on a Friday Focus, let me know in the comments. Happy stitching!