Cloud 9 Cinch Bag Pattern

My newest pattern, the Cloud 9 Cinch Bag, is a versatile item. It can be used as a project bag, as a toy catchall, as a pool bag, as a place to keep special items while traveling, and more. How will you use your bag?

The pattern is available on both Ravelry and Craftsy.

Crochet Waterlily

I finally sent out my package for the world record yarnbomb attempt. Aside from my Morning Glory Garland I also included this waterlily from a pattern by Esther Chandler. I hope that it likes its UK home.

Star Rug

When I found myself with some discontinued yarn I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. It's chunky and a bit stiff. After mulling through Ravelry I began this project, a pattern by Sami Jo Fitzgerald, but still couldn't decide what it was. A baby blanket? A throw? A cat mat? It was only when I put it on the floor to take a picture of it that I knew what it was...a rug! A cute star rug.

I used Lion Brand Chunky USA and an 8mm hook. This rug is now up for sale in my Etsy shop. I really recommend this project if you're looking for something without counting. It's also pretty portable and would be great for scraps as well.

Crochet Morning Glory Garland

Remember when I told you I had more info on fun collaborative crochet projects? Well, a group of yarnies in the UK is working on the coolest project ever... a world-record breaking yarn bomb!

 The Craft Club is working hard to gather over 4,000 crochet items for a massive yarn bomb in Essex County. They are accepting submissions from all over the place, so you can get in on it too! The contact email for details on where to send your crochet items is thecraftclubyarnbombers@gmail.com.

The massive art piece will first see the light of day at Metal's Green Village Festival, a craft fair, on July 12th. Make sure to get your stuff to them before then if you want it to be seen by the thousands of folks who attend. Keep in mind that it may take 10 to 14 days for your package to reach them depending on where you are in the world, setting a closer deadline of the last week of June. Then on August 25th the yarn bomb will make a special appearance at a local children's hospice to delight families and care workers.

I am so charmed by this project! The theme of the project is a magical garden. Take a look at the event poster to the left for ideas about what to make. I am going to be working up a few fun patterns from my Ravelry queue and hope to send my package out by the end of the week. However, that just isn't enough for me. I mean, a magical garden??? How freaking awesome is that?! The gears got to turning today and soon enough I had written a brand new pattern in honor of the event. It's my Morning Glory Garland! I'm sharing it with you here on the blog this time in case you want to work it up for the cause or just for fun. The pattern follows after these pictures.

I used about 1/5 to 1/4 of a skein each of Vanna's Choice Solids in green, white, and purple. Keep in mind you will need more yarn if your project is longer than mine, which is relatively short. I used a 5mm crochet hook to make this project. However, you can use whatever yarn you may have on hand and a hook that is .5 to 1 mm smaller than the yarn recommends. Gauge is not important for this project.

Tip: Do not weave in any of the green ends as you go. We'll talk about them in the finishing section of the pattern.

Vine
With green, work any number of foundation single crochet stitches until your vine is the desired length. As an alternative to fsc, simply work up a chain to the desired length, turn, then work 1 sc into the back loop of each ch across starting in the second ch from the hook. If you'd feel more comfortable with an actual number, make your vine a multiple of 8 sts.

Ch 1, turn. Sl st into each st down the vine until you get to a good spot for a leaf. How far down you go is completely up to you (I worked down about 8 sts).

Ch 16. Starting in the fifth ch from the hook, work 1 sc into each back loop until you reach the original vine again. You have just made one leaf stem. Starting in the next un-worked st, continue working sl sts down the vine until you reach a good spot for a flower.

To make a flower stem, ch 8. Starting in the fifth ch from the hook, work 1 sc into each back loop until you reach the original vine, just as you did with the leaf stem.

Continue in this manner until you reach the end of your vine. I ended up with three leaf stems and two flower stems. You can add as many leaves and flowers as you want and put them as close together or as far apart as you like. If you're working on a multiple of 8 and want your leaves and flowers to be regularly spaced, simply work a stem after every eighth sl st. Your stems might curl a bit like mine did. Fasten off.

Leaves
You will work 1 leaf into the circle at the end of each long leaf stem. You formed these circles when you skipped 4 sts while working into the back loops of the chain, and you can see the circle in the flower stem picture above.

Working from right to left with the right (correct) side facing, attach green to the circle with a sl st. Ch 4. Work 5 tr into the circle, then 2 dc. Ch 2. Work 2 more dc into the circle, then 5 more tr. Ch 4 and sl st into the circle. Fasten off. Tug on the leaf a bit to shape it. Repeat these instructions for every long leaf stem.

Flower Caps
You will now be working into the circles at the ends of the flower stems, just as you worked into the leaf stem circles before.

Attach green to the circle with a sl st. Ch 1. Work [1 sc, ch 4] four times. Work 1 more sc. Sl st into the first sc to join. Fasten off leaving an 8 inch tail for sewing. Repeat these steps for every flower stem. Set vine aside.

Morning Glory Flower
The flower is worked with right side facing the whole way, no turning. The first part of the flower is worked in spiral rounds. 

With white, start with magic circle. Alternatively, ch 2 and work Round 1 into the second ch from the hook.
Round 1: Work 5 sc into the ring. (5)
Round 2: Work 1 sc into each st. (5)
Round 3: *Work 1 sc into next st, then 2 sc into the following st*, rep from * one more time. Work 1 more sc. (7)
Round 4: Work 1 sc into each st. (7)
Round 5: *Work 2 sc into next st, then 1 sc into the following st*, rep from * two times. Work 1 more sc. (10)
Round 6: Work 2 sc into each st. (20)
Work 1 sl st to join the round. We will no longer be working in a spiral. We will, however, still continue working with right side facing. Each ch 3 counts as a st.
Round 7: *Ch 3, work 1 dc in next st, ch 3, sl st into next st, work 1 sc in following*, rep from * four times. (25, plus an extra sl st)
Work 1 sl st in next st. Fasten off white.
Attach purple with a sl st in any sc.
Round 8: Ch 3. Work 2 dc in same st as ch 3. Skip ch 3, sl st into the top of the following dc. To complete the round, work 3 dc into each sc and 1 sl st into each dc. Sl st in first dc (not the ch 3, even though it counts as a st) to join. (20)
Round 9: Ch 3. Work 2 dc into the same st as the ch 3. Work 3 dc into each remaining st around. Sl st into first dc (not the ch 3) to join. (57)
Fasten off and weave in all ends of the flower. Make as many flowers as you have flower stems/caps.

Finishing
Flip each flower inside out so that the right (side) is on the inside of the flower and the wrong side is on the outside of the flower. Push your pointer finger into the center of each flower and scrunch the petal with your other hand to encourage a slight ripple. Place the white butt of a flower in the center of the first flower cap. Sew the cap onto the flower with the leftover green tail.

Finally, time to get to those green ends! A real morning glory plant has thin wisps of vines all over it. To recreate that look I used a yarn needle to artfully wind my green ends around and through the stitches of my vine after making sure the attached end was secure. I didn't use a particular method, I just messed around! If you'd prefer a cleaner look, you can weave in all of your ends as usual.

I'd love to see your Morning Glory Garlands! I'll be listing this pattern on Ravelry if you'd like to add a project page. Also, if you're going to send some stuff to The Craft Club for their yarn bomb, tell us about it in the comments!

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

Lonely Snowflake

Do you ever get hit with a desire to say or do something kind of strange? Most of the time I ignore these desires, but sometimes they wiggle out of the folds of my brain and manage to escape into the real world and I end up telling a stranger on the escalator with me at the grocery store that I like the cart conveyer belt because it's like putting your groceries on a roller coaster. Or I start singing along to the song on the loudspeaker at a clothing store. Well, I've done it again, this time in crochet. I made a snowflake. Just one. I didn't really feel like making a garland, or a table runner, or a blanket. I simply desired to make one small crochet snowflake. So I did.

I chose this free pattern from Red Heart. It was fun and easy to follow. My desire has been satisfied. So, now what do I do with my lonely crochet snowflake? I suppose I could make it an ornament as the pattern suggests. Do you have any ideas?

Come Fly with Me

Man, I sure do have a propensity to use song titles and lyrics in my blog posts. I hope you're a music lover! Anyway, back to crochet...I have a good friend who awesomely flies planes in his free time. He owns his own small plane that he takes out on nice days. I felt like making him a small crochet gift for being such a great guy and a plane was the obvious choice. This lead to me finding the best amigurumi pattern ever. Seriously. At no point was I confused or uncertain. The directions were super clear, especially for a free pattern! Angela Van Camp really did an excellent job with this one. I didn't even mind sewing the extra pieces on, and I usually hate that.

I had some felt lying around so I decided to experiment and add details that way rather than crochet the colors in. Gotta love the propeller! My results were pretty good, but in the future I think I will crochet the colors directly into the piece as written in the pattern.

I could totally see this pattern being paired with a themed baby blanket as a shower gift, or perhaps embroidered with initials for someone who is going on an extended trip abroad. In any case, I really enjoyed completing this pattern. Now get up there, where the air is rarefied!

Writing My First Pattern

It can sometimes be difficult to find the right pattern. Even with the abundance of both online and print resources, it is essential to become confident enough in your crochet that you can alter patterns as necessary. I have often changed patterns to suit my needs. Hats can be made bigger or smaller, details can be added or removed, yarns can be substituted, etc. I have also developed a habit of whipping up my own simple scrap yarn projects, like buttoned pouches and flowers. Because I had done these things, I was under the impression that writing my first pattern would be easy.

I was wrong.

I decided to start my design career by writing instructions for a matching baby hat and blanket with strawberry applique. Pattern writing is a completely different experience than simply improvising. If you don't intend to repeat an action it is easy not to justify it. "Oh, I'll just add a few stitches here to fill it out a little", you may think. The finished product is what really matters. Contrast that to pattern writing. Every stitch needs to be accounted for. Your directions need to be clear and uniform. Not many assumptions about the skill level of your audience should be made, meaning that you must explain everything you're doing, no matter how easy it may seem to you. Pattern writing is like the scientific method of crochet. The formula needs to be repeatable by others with the same result if you want your idea to be taken seriously.

I really learned a lot during the process of writing my first pattern, which took about a week. I intend to carry that knowledge forward so that I may write purchase-quality patterns. This pattern is available as a free Ravelry download. If you would like to critique my pattern I would love some feedback! You can always comment here or contact me at illuminatecrochet@gmail.com. I'm happy with the way that it turned out (especially the strawberry) and have been so thrilled by the positive response it's getting on Ravelry. Expect more patterns from me soon!