An Iowa Hawkeye Afghan for my Hubby

Good morning.  I have been super sick for several days now so I haven't been crafting a lot.  I hope you all are staying well!

Today I am sharing a project that I finished last November.  I had to have surgery and while I was recovering, my hubby asked me if I would crochet him a special afghan.  Absolutely!!!  I love it when he asks me to make him a special project!!!

He's from Iowa, and loves his Hawkeyes.  I found this amazing website that sells the patterns for a variety of themed afghans like this.  It turned out great, and the instructions were super easy to follow.

I doubled the size of the afghan per his request.  I was standing on our hearth to get this picture!  It is a great blanket and totally big enough for a snuggle up movie night!

The website that I bought it from is City USA, and they have a huge selection of patterns for all sorts of sports themes, holidays, animals...you name it.  Go check them out here!

Stay well, and stay crafty!

💖💖💖
Michelle

Weatherghans and Temperature Blankets

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the most awesome project idea I have seen in a while!  

I was just looking at Pinterest and saw a pin and, long story short, found out about "Weatherghans" and "Temperature Blankets".  

I saw that people are also making scarves with this idea.  The concept is simple.  First you assign colors to a range of temperatures.  You can use the chart on the site I link to below, or even pick your own colors.  Buy the yarn.  You find out the high temperature of the day, for every day of the year, and knit or crochet a row in that color for that temperature.  You can do this on a daily basis, starting in the year you are in.  Make a row every day, and by the end of the year you have an afghan!

This site, The Crochet Crowd, is awesome.  There is a download for the temperature chart, a pattern for a thermometer that you can make and appliqué to your piece, and even a chart that will tell you what hook (for crochet) to use and how many stitches to use for the size blanket you want to make.  And there's a link.  The link is to a site that is incredible.  You put in the zip code for the area you live in and the year that you want to do (in the past), and it will give you the chart for the afghan.  You can see that chart in the picture below.  

 The above picture is of the first couple of months of the year I chose.  I want to include the whole year, so I chose the Moss stitch in single crochet for my afghan.  I want it to be big, but not too big.

Here it is going into June of the year I chose.  So, I'm about half way done with this one.  When I get done I will crochet a border on it and make two more for different areas.  It's a super fun project, and simple to do.  I watch TV in the evening and crochet and it is coming along nicely!

Check out that web site and try one for yourself!  It's a great idea!!

Crochet away!

Michelle💖

Nautical Themed Crochet Projects

Hi everybody!  I'm sorry I didn't post anything for last week...I'm not sure what happened, but I just didn't do it.  Please forgive me!

Today I want to show you the crochet projects that I have been doing.  I am sooooooo excited about these, and I think that the Grandkids will be too.

To start, I have an ocean themed bathroom.  I decided that I needed some themed washcloths for the kids when they come over to spend some time with the grand folks! I used cotton crochet yarn for all of these so that they will wear well and wash perfectly.

 I found all of these projects FOR FREE ON PINTEREST!!!  I love Pinterest...I just LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  Here are a list of links so if you are interested you can make some of the for yourselves!  Some of these patterns are technically for dishcloths and the Sea Horse is actually a coaster...but they all worked up lovely for bath time cloths.

Sand dollar

Turtle

Fancy Goldfish

Sea Horse

Ship's Wheel

Fish

Scallop Sea Shell

Star Fish


My other project is this AWESOME Island Play Set!  I found this pattern also on Pinterest, and I added a couple more sea creatures to  the set.  It has a ribbon around the edge that draws the whole thing up into a bundle for storage.  It's a pack and play kind of toy!

The pattern for the basic play set is here.   I found it through Pinterest on "Cut Out and Keep".  It's awesome!

 I added the pink fish in the background of this picture.  You can find the fish pattern here.

 I also added this squid pattern, or as she calls it, the Kraken!

 The last thing I added was this jelly fish.  Such a cute pattern, and you can find it here.

It turned out so cute that I am working on another set, this time a farm set.  I'll let you know when I get it done!

Have a great day, and stay crafty, my friends!

The finale of the potholder project

I have finished, at least for now, my own set of "vintage" potholders for my kitchen.  I had so much fun making these!  What I did do was update them a bit so I can actually use them.  If you make them as the patterns state, the only thing you can use those for is looking at, or as a kind of hot pad for your counter…they WON'T protect you from cast iron skillets that have been in the oven!  I added a layer of thermal batting for potholders between the layers so that I won't get burned when I use them.  These aren't just for pretty!

The patterns (from top to bottom, left to right) can be found at these links.

Vintage Crocheted Dress

Raised Rose Potholder

Round Rose Potholder

Petticoat Fever Potholder

Queen Anne's Lace Vintage Potholder

Country Rose Decorative Potholder

Stay crafty, my friends!

Mermaid Lapghan!

 I have wanted to make one of these ever since I had seen one online.  I love these lapghans and I thought that it would be a perfect story time cuddle blanket for when the grand babies are visiting.

 Here you can see my dog, Ace, testing out the blanket.  It's huge for a doxie!

 I got this picture of me using it.  It makes up as big as you want, so you can make it wide or skinny, whatever you like.  I made it a bit wide, so that I could have a little one on my lap for story time.

The pattern can be found here:  Crocodile Stitch Mermaid Lap Blanket by Felene Grammar

It was fun and challenging to do this stitch, as I had never done it before.  It sure worked up nicely and the instructions are awesome.

Stay crafty, my friends!

Baby Afghans

 I was asked by two friends of mine to make some afghans for some cute little babies.  They chose the colors, the yarn and the patterns.  I made them both using Bernat Blanket yarn.  I have to admit I was skeptical at first.  I have never made a baby blanket with anything bigger than worsted weight yarn!

It's a wonderful yarn to work with and it is super bulky so it works up projects quick.  You can find the pattern I adapted for the chevron blanket here.  For the granny square blanket I adapted the pattern that you can find here.

Next week, I have another crochet project to share.  I am most certainly on a roll with creating crochet projects!

Stay crafty, my friends!!

Catching Dreams

I saw this pin in Pinterest, and just had to recreate it for my "grandkids" room.  I had made this doily years and years ago, and it has just been sitting in my closet doing nothing,  I got an embroidery hoop and framed it, then raided my stash of ribbons and tied them onto the bottom.  I love how it turned out and it looks so good in our "grandkids" room!  Hopefully when they spend the night they will all have the sweetest dreams ever!

Stay crafty, my friends.

Vintage Potholders

 Hi, everyone!  You saw in my last post about my crafty decorating that I had used some vintage potholders in my kitchen as decoration.  Well, since I love to crochet I decided to make some of my own, that I could maybe use. Also, maybe, just maybe, my grandkids will display the ones I had in their kitchens some day.  After I bought all of this thread that will go awesome in my kitchen,  I went searching on Pinterest and found several free patterns.  Have I told you how much I love Pinterest?

 I found this pattern from Little Miss Stitcher.  It is an awesome pattern, but I worried that the open holes in it wouldn't allow me to be able to use it at all.  So, I did some alterations to it for myself.

 I decided to make the dress solid crochet, and I made it in two layers, like a "slip" for the dress.  I did the first row on the front loop, and the "slip" first row on the back loop.  Then I just crocheted both the same way, creating two layers of the "dress", which resulted in four layers of fabric made.  That should insulate it a little better.

Here is the finished dress, I mean potholder.  I used my nifty little cord maker gadget and created a tie for the dress, and here it is.  I love it!  I have a bunch of other vintage patterns that I am going to create with all of that thread I bought.  Even if I don't use them, it will be fun to make them.

Stay crafty, my friends!!!

Crafty Decorating

I have been fascinated with some beautiful vintage items that I have, and have been wondering what to do with them.  I found ideas on Pinterest…Don't you just love that site???  I thought I would show you what I did with these wonderful treasures from our past.

 Jackie had given me some wonderful vintage handkerchiefs that belonged to her grandmother.  On Pinterest I saw that some folks are decorating with them, and I loved this idea.  So I put them over the curtain rod in my craft room.

 I think it looks very cool over my Cricut and Silhouette station.

 My husband had this stash of beautiful vintage potholders that his Grandmother made.  They are beautiful, but also very fragile.  There is no way on Earth that I would ever try to use them, but I saw on Pinterest that there are many ways to display them.  

 I found this awesome basket at the local store, on CLEARANCE!!  I bought two little ones like the one you see here, and two larger ones.  You never know when you are going to need a basket, right?  But, then it hit me, this is the perfect way to display his collection of her potholders!  It sits in my kitchen windowsill …I love them!

 My poor hope chest has been sitting on our upstairs hallway, just being all naked.  So, on Pinterest (Did I tell you I love that site???) I saw that folks are using a variety of crocheted doilies to make runners.  YES!!!  I have some doilies (the two on the ends) that Jackie gave me (they belonged to her Grandmother), and some that I had in my stash, and a few that I whipped up to fill it out.  Taa Daa!!!  I have a runner for my hope chest!

 Above the runner is the mini wall quilt that my mom made for us when we got married.  I put a small vintage looking suitcase that I have had for years, a book (Grimm's Fairy Tales) and a brass candle holder.  I think it needs a few more "things" to make it cooler looking, but it's a start.

I think it is GORGEOUS!!!  I tied the doilies together, so that if I ever want to separate them, it wouldn't be hard to do.  And, yes, those are battery operated candles.  I probably will never light them (unless we are having company or something) and I do NOT want to chance wax all over my vintage goodies!

There it is.  My vintage decorating in my "modern" house.  I hope you like this post, and I hope you try some of these ideas.  I really want to go to some antique shops now…I am getting more ideas.

Stay crafty, my friends!

Crochet Away!

 My mom gave me a Cabbage Patch Twin to keep at my house for the grand babies to play with when they visit.  I felt like little Addison Delaney needed some things to keep her comfy and cozy.  I found these free pattens and I went to work.

 They were all so easy to make, and fun to do.

This diaper is to darn cute!  Hop on over to my Pinterest site, and you can get the links for the patterns for yourself, to keep your little baby doll warm and cozy!

Stay crafty, my friends!