Category: favourite things

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish
Lip balm made with sim­ple ingre­di­ents, from Our Lives with Bel­la.
I love fun­nel neck and marled yarn. Pat­tern by Purl Soho.
Of course I meant to write this post before Valen­tine’s Day to include this cute and prac­ti­cal craft! But love can be cel­e­brat­ed any day and I’m sure these olive stress balls will be great­ly appre­ci­at­ed any­time as a gift :D From Hand­made Char­lotte.
Also from Hand­made Char­lotte, a yarn ball, an ice cream cone, a pup­pet — what can be more adorable?
It is not too ear­ly to dream of spring and boxy cot­ton sweaters. I par­tic­u­lar­ly like how the cen­tre seam is made an ele­ment of design rather than hid­den. From Hooked on Tilly.
Also a boxy sweater, but a cozy one. I real­ly like the cowl neck. By Lion Brand Yarn (fol­low link in post for pattern).

Hope every­one have a won­der­ful week!

new year’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

A few projects to get the new year craft­ing start­ed! :D

A quick and cozy make. I love fun­nel neck. By Two of Wands.
Intri­cate stitch pat­tern inspired by the Great Lakes. From Cro­chet 365.
Impressed by how much it looks knit­ted! I’m not super into cro­chet projects that try to look knit (because there’s noth­ing wrong with cro­chet that looks cro­chet!), but I do love the look of knit­ted fab­ric while my hands pre­fer to cro­chet. From My Hob­by is Crochet.
I’ve always want­ed to make a good jack­et and this one looks stur­dy! A paid pat­tern by Eli­na Vaana­nen on Rav­el­ry.

Hap­py 2019! May your year be filled with love, joy and crafts! :D

this week’s awesome sweaters

Posted on by trish

Cozy win­ter projects :)

Real­ly like the garter pan­el on the side of the sleeves and looks like a begin­ner’s make I can han­dle :) By Tin Can Knits.

Weeee! An alpaca hol­i­day sweater! *heart-eyes x1000* By Joy of Motion.

I think this would be a per­fect project to learn round yoke colour-work sweaters. By Sewrel­la.

I love every­thing about this sweater — the raglan detail, the sim­ple design, and the fun­nel neck. By Eleven Hand­made in issue 108 of Inside Cro­chet (fol­low link on Rav­el­ry).

Love espe­cial­ly the pops of teal around the edges! And the tri­an­gles of course. By Amy Gun­der­son in the lat­est issue of Knit­ty!

Hap­py win­ter stitch­ing! :D

yarn elfing

Posted on by trish

If you have been jour­ney­ing with me on this blog, you might recall that I like to call hol­i­day gift-mak­ing “elf­ing”. It is that time of the year again for us busy elves! Although I’m not a very pro­duc­tive elf this year… Not much yarn-craft­ing hap­pen­ing, just paper-writ­ing… sup­pose those count as gifts for my professors…

It is also the time of year when we think about mak­ing for those beyond our own cir­cles of fam­i­lies and friends who can real­ly use our gifts of crafti­ness with yarn. The nice folks at Yarn Cana­da are part­ner­ing with Bernat Yarn to give away yarn for indi­vid­u­als and groups who craft for a good cause! Do you and your friends make scarves and hats for peo­ple to find? Or win­ter gears for shel­ters? Or soft pros­thet­ics for breast can­cer sur­vivors? Or prac­tice oth­er kinds of yarn-kind­ness? Check out this page on Yarn Canada’s web­site for more details on how to enter this give-away for a good cause! 

In the mean­while, here are some awe­some ideas I found for the yarn-craft­ing elves…

These very cute cup cozies are loom knit­ted on a 24-peg loom. It’s a paid pat­tern on Rav­el­ry but the how-to video is free on Tuteate’s Youtube chan­nel (which have excel­lent and real­ly well-made loom knit projects!). By Mireia Marcet on Rav­el­ry.

 

Absolute­ly stun­ning granny square by Kirsten Hol­loway Designs.

 

A free pat­tern on We Are Knit­ters and it’s an amigu­ru­mi alpaca! :D

 

An ins­ta-grat­i­fi­ca­tion wool-craft, all you need is some tufts of wool, some pipe clean­ers, some poms, and some love. Bril­liant. From Hand­made Char­lotte.

 

Hap­py craft­ing, everyone!

 

 

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

Fall is the sea­son for curl­ing up with a good mug of tea wrapped in a wool blan­ket with wool socks on and craft­ing :D 

Love­ly ear­ring orga­niz­ers, so handy and they look easy to make. From Ole­an­der & Palm.

 

This reminds me of those can­dy dots! Sweet hat pat­tern by All About Ami.

 

I love Luna Love­g­ood. Tuto­r­i­al to craft her fab specs at My Pop­pet.

 

If I have a cat I would make this cat bed. If I were a cat I would love this cat bed. And it’s actu­al­ly just a garter stitch rec­tan­gle, much like knit­ting a scarf! Best first project. From A Beau­ti­ful Mess. 

 

Fall bak­ing! :D Bril­liant play food set pat­tern from Mama Bice Makes.

 

I espe­cial­ly love the ver­sion with the boucle yarn! Plush pen­guin pat­tern from One Dog Woof.

 

Check out this epic fish­er­man sweater! And it’s a free pat­tern! From Hope­ful Hon­ey.

 

Mag­ic origa­mi purse. Can make it with love­ly bits of sock yarn, and appar­ent­ly things don’t fall out of it! Will have to give it a try. From Frankie Brown on Rav­el­ry.

 

Hap­py Octo­ber! :D

 

 

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

Llama/alpaca love con­tin­ues with this adorable blan­ket, I need to make this! From Make and Do Crew.

 

Also this hook-keep­ing lla­ma! A paid pat­tern by Irene Strange on Rav­el­ry.

 

I spot­ted this sweater at a local yarn shop, Yarns Untan­gled, and was instant­ly in love, then learned that one of the staff wrote the pat­tern! This will be my next project, with the pink hand-dyed wool that I’ve been sav­ing for a good project for the last cou­ple of years. Paid pat­tern by Nicole Tavares on Rav­el­ry.

 

Sim­ply a great bag, I espe­cial­ly love it with the pom poms! From Life is Cozy.

 

These are bril­liant. Flo­ral hoop ear­rings from How Did You Make This.

Hap­py last week of August! Sweater weath­er is just around the cor­ner! :D

 

 

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

Beau­ti­ful cor­ner to cor­ner cloud blan­ket and chart from Kikalite.

 

If I con­jure up enough patience, I will make these. Bead­ed ear­rings how-to from How Did You Make This?

 

We nev­er grow tired of lla­mas <3 Video tuto­r­i­al from Picot Pals.

 

Also from Picot Pals, Ice­land pop­pies! They’d make great brooches would­n’t they?

 

These made from, can you guess it? — hot glue sticks! Tuto­r­i­al from AdTech, the com­pa­ny that makes the glue sticks.

 

This one’s a planter! <3 paid pat­tern by Hel­lo Hap­py on Rav­el­ry.

 

Hap­py Thurs­day, and have a love­ly week­end, everyone!

 

 

this week’s awesome finds… and YARN HOP!

Posted on by trish

Adorable lla­mas to hold your yarn/embroidery scraps and it’s a free print­able! :D From Picot Pals.

 

These would make cheer­ful buntings and adorable blan­ket squares. Lla­ma granny squares from Mari­a’s Blue Cray­on.

 

Look at these par­ty lla­mas made of par­ty plates! From Hand­made Char­lotte.

 

For the more adven­tur­ous, this no-dra­ma-lla­ma is very cud­dly. Free pat­tern from Red Heart <3

Why so many lla­mas, you ask?

Well, this year I’m going to be team cap­tain again for The Great Toron­to Yarn Hop on Sat­ur­day July 14, and I’m with Team Alpaca! (for­mer­ly TTC Knit-Along — but we want to expand the name to include all forms of yarn-craft­ing and we actu­al­ly have no offi­cial affil­i­a­tion with the Toron­to Tran­sit Com­mis­sion, hence the name change)

Alpacas are kind of cousins of lla­mas (I think), hence all the lla­ma crafts :)

What’s so great about The Great Toron­to Yarn Hop? It is an event where yarn-crafters get into teams and vis­it var­i­ous local yarn shops in Toron­to, shop for high qual­i­ty yarn and enjoy spe­cial dis­counts, knit/cro­chet/­yarn-craft in pub­lic on buses/streetcars/trains, meet oth­er yarn enthu­si­asts and share projects/tips/jokes, sup­port inde­pen­dent LYS’s, AND raise funds for Sis­ter­ing, a local, 24/7 drop-in and sup­port cen­tre for women that offers ser­vices like coun­selling, hous­ing help, meal pro­gram, pri­ma­ry health­care, and a safe place to be. At the end of the day we all gath­er at a pub for food and drinks and raf­fle draws! I’ve only been involved for the past cou­ple of years but this event is in its 12th year! What can be more great? 

If you’re in Toron­to or close to it, we would love for you to join us! Tick­ets can be bought here for just $20. Each team fol­lows a dif­fer­ent route that vis­its dif­fer­ent stores, and you can check out all the dif­fer­ent avail­able teams/routes and how the whole thing works here. And be quick because quite a few teams have sold out already! 

Need ideas for what projects to shop for or what to make dur­ing the Yarn Hop?

This cardi­gan is made with two hexa­gons sewn togeth­er! Very clever. Make it with a breeze cotton/linen for sum­mer or wool for cozy fall/winter lay­er­ing! Imag­ine using yarn with long tran­si­tion colour changes! From Make & Do Crew.

 

What about a portable project per­fect for knit­ting on the pub­lic tran­sit, like these fluffy clouds? From Bernat Yarn.

 

Mak­ing granny squares is anoth­er excel­lent portable idea. This com­fy sum­mer sweater pat­tern is free this week only on Love Cro­chet!

 

Hap­py mak­ing, every­one! :D

 

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

Long time no write! Have been work­ing on some long projects for a while, which I will be shar­ing soon! But for now, awe­some projects I came across this week!

This is bril­liant! I should make one of these so I’m not for­ev­er fish­ing for the right hook in my box full of hooks (and nee­dles, sigh, so dis­or­ga­nized…). From Cro­chet Spot.

 

Stay calm and smell the laven­der, with­out harm­ful chem­i­cals. How-to for an easy-to-make laven­der room spray on Pure­ly Katie.

 

With just 3 ingre­di­ents, per­fect for gift-mak­ing! Tuto­r­i­al for lip balm lock­ets from A Beau­ti­ful Mess.

 

Per­fect use for var­ie­gat­ed cot­ton, a med­i­ta­tive stitch worked from cor­ner to cor­ner so it’s not bor­ing. Pat­tern for a moss stitch dish cloth from The Cook­ie Snob.

 

I’ll pack a cowl! XD This awe­some cowl is a free Rav­el­ry down­load, by Deb Jac­ul­lo.

 

What a bril­liant idea, build­ing a ter­rar­i­um with Legos! From Make and Takes.

 

This chub­by cock­a­too! Free pat­tern from Furls Cro­chet.

 

Have a fan­tas­tic crafty week, everyone! :)

 

this week’s awesome finds

Posted on by trish

Deep win­ter, indoor mode with busy hands and many projects :)

 

A cocoon shrug with a gor­geous stitch, paid pat­tern by Eleven Hand­made on Rav­el­ry. (there’s also a sweater version!)

 

Make one for every door. From Make and Takes.

 

I’m par­tial to sweaters with side­ways con­struc­tion. This one’s from Lion Brand Yarn (fol­low link from Rav­el­ry). 

 

An asym­met­ri­cal cro­chet scarf that looks very med­i­ta­tive to make. From Lit­tle Things Blogged.

 

Dream of sum­mer weath­er with this sum­mery back­pack. From Paint Box Yarns.

 

This pat­tern is called “Diary”, which makes me think of pat­terns that involve mind­ful­ly mak­ing one sec­tion a day, and I always liked patch­work designs. From Wollinger on Rav­el­ry.

 

Anoth­er side­ways sweater, this one is a cardi­gan and has pock­ets! From Amy Christof­fers on Knit­ty.

 

So fluffy! I’m intrigued by how to make cro­chet look so fur­ry… And Feb­ru­ary 16 is the first day of the year of the dog! :D Make your own fluffy pups to cel­e­brate! From All About Ami.

 

And last but not least, this incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful pat­tern from My Cro­cheto­ry.

 

Stay warm and keep craft­ing! :D