Crochet Drupal Drop - Free Pattern

A little background on this pattern. In my day job, I work with an open-source web platform called Drupal. Drupal has an adorable logo, called the Drupal drop.

So I crocheted a Drupal drop as a surprise for our awesome developer at work. She loved it, by the way. And it was so quick and fun to make, that I'll probably make a few more.

And in the spirit of Open Source, here's the instructions to make your own:

Materials:

• worsted weight yarn - bright blue
• worsted weight yarn - white
• 4.5mm G crochet hook
• yarn Needle for sewing pieces together
• Stuffing

Abbreviations:

• ch = chain
• sc = single crochet
• sc dec = decrease (one sc across two stitches)
• sl st = slip stitch
• st = stitch
• hdc = half double crochet
• x 2 = repeat two times (etc for multiple numbers)

Body:

Using blue yarn. Worked in a spiral. Do not join, do not turn.
Start a circle via magic ring or whatever is your preference.
Rnd 1: In the magic ring, 6 sc
Rnd 2: 2 Sc in each sc around: 12 sc
Rnd 3: [sc, 2 sc in next sc] x 6: 18 sc
Rnd 4: [sc in next 2 sts, 2 sc in next sc] x 6: 24 sc
Rnd 5: [sc in next 3 sc, 2 sc in next sc] x 6: 30 sc
Rnd 6: [sc in next 4 sc, 2 sc in next sc] x 6: 36 sc
Rnd 7: [sc in next 5 sc, 2 sc in next sc] x 6: 42 sc
Rnd 8 - 15: sc in each sc around: 42 sc
Rnd 16: [sc in the next 5 sc, sc dec] x 6: 36 sc
Rnd 17: [sc in the next 4 sc, sc dec] x 6: 30 sc 
Rnd 18: [sc in the next 3 sc, sc dec] x 6: 24 sc 
Rnd 19: [sc in the next 2 sc, sc dec] x 6: 18 sc  Fill as full as you can with stuffing
Rnd 20: [sc, sc dec] x 6: 12 sc 
Rnd 21: [sc, sc dec] x 4: 8 sc Fill any further you can with stuffing

Rnd 22: [sc, sc dec] x 2: 5 sc

Rnd 23: [sc dec, sc, sc dec]: 3 sc

Join 3 top stitches, finish off and hide the extra yarn.

Eyes:

Note: the eyes are a little complicated, so apologies there. I tried to explain what I did the best I could.

using white yarn, ch 8

R1: hdc 3 times in the 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch, sl st in next 3 chs, sc in next ch, hdc 3 times in last ch, and continue around to the other side of the chain (do not turn). You're circling around the chain.

R2: hdc in 1st st, sc in next st, sl st in next 2 stitches, sc, hdc, then sl st in next st.

R3: ch1, DO NOT TURN, sc, sc inc in next 2 st, sl st in next 5 st, sc, sc inc in next 2 st, sl stitch.

Finish off,  leaving tail long enough to sew the eyes onto the face.

Assembly:

Using a yarn needle, sew eyes onto face (see picture), then sew nose and mouth using white yarn.

Pen Holder Bookmark - Free Crochet Pattern

I have been pretty obsessed with pinterest lately as a source of ideas for crafty fun times. After seeing a photo of a knitted pen tube bookmark on pinterest, I decided I had to have one. But I don't knit, so I just winged it and came up with a pretty simple pattern for a crochet version for my notebook.

Download the printer-friendly PDF version.

Materials:

sock-weight yarn
Hook Size: D -3.25mm
button
Yarn Sewing Needle

Stitches:

ch = chain stitch
hdc = half double crochet
hdc dec = half double crochet decrease (one hdc across two stitches)
FLO = front loop only
sc = single crochet
sl st = slip stitch
st = stitch

Pattern:

ch 5
R1: sc in 2nd chain from hook, sc in each additional chain (4 sc)
R2: ch 1, 4 sc (4 sc)
R3-6: Repeat R2
Rnd 7: ch 1, 4 hdc FLO, turn and in the SAME stitches, 3 hdc FLO, 1 hdc inc FLO in last sc. join first hdc with last hdc using a sl st. (9 hdc)
Rnd 8 : ch 1, turn, 9 hdc around, sl st to join. (9 hdc)
Rnd 9-21: Repeat rnd 8
Rnd 22: 2 sl st, 2 sc, 2 hdc, 2 sc, sl st
Rnd 23: ch 1, turn, skip sl st, 1 sl st, 1 sc, 2 hdc, 1 sc, 1 sl st
Rnd 24: ch 1, turn, skip sl st, 1 sl st, 1 sc, hdc, 1 sl st
Rnd 25: ch 1, turn, skip sl st, 2 sc
Rnd 26: ch 1, turn, 1 hdc dec
ch 40 to create bookmark strip. FO and leave a long tail.

Finishing Touches:

Sew the button to the middle of the area made by the first 6 rows. If you will be using this bookmark with one specific notebook, put the body of the bookmark on the spine, wrap the tail into the book, wind the end around the button and pull tight. Use that “measurement” to tie a loop that can hook onto the button.
If this bookmark will be “multiuse” between books, you can just pull the tail tight and wind it back through the book to keep it secure.

Notes:

The person who wrote the original design sells the knitting pattern on ravelry and on her own site, as well. This crochet pattern is released as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. You may not sell this pattern. You may sell bookmarks made using this pattern.

Crochet / Felted Purse Patterns

I've been working on these for a while, and finally finished the patterns for my two favorite purses. Both are crocheted with a 4.5mm hook with 100% wool yarn, and felted in a washing machine. Both are designed to hold a notebook in the back pocket, a cell phone, and a chapstick for easy access. Either one would be a great project. And both are available to purchase for $4.95 on Etsy and on Ravelry.

Joanie Purse
Buy on Ravelry

Mobile / Content Purse
Buy on Ravelry

Etsy Store and free baby jellyfish crochet pattern

I've finally gotten around to finishing the pattern for the baby mobile, creating an Etsy shop, AND posting the pattern for sale on the Etsy shop. Hooray! Now to see if anyone actually wants to buy it. :-)

Update: Now you can also buy it through Ravelry for $4.95.

I've decided to post the instructions for the baby jellyfish from the pattern here for free, to give you all a tiny taste of what you could be making. So here it is!

Baby Jellyfish Pattern

Materials:

• fingering weight yarn in whichever colors you want your creatures to be (sample uses Claudia Hand Painted Yarns)
• 3.0mm D crochet hook
• Needle for sewing pieces together
• Stuffing

Abbreviations:

Abbreviations:
• ch = chain
• sc = single crochet
• fo = finish off
• inc = increase (two sc in one stitch)
• dec = decrease (one sc across two stitches)
• sl st = slip stitch
• st = stitch
• x2 = repeat two times (etc for multiple numbers)

Body:
Worked in a spiral. Do not join, do not turn.
Start a circle via magic ring or whatever is your preference.
1. sc 6 around (6)
2. inc 6 (12)
3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18)
4. [sc x 5, inc] x 3 (21)
5-7. sc 21 around for 3 rows (21)
8. [sc, dec] x 7 (14)
FO, cut string and weave in end.

Tentacles:
Make 2 dark and 3 light tentacles. Attach each one to the inside top of the body. Loose chains should help the tentacles to curl.
1. Loosely ch 28
FO, cut yarn short, but not so short that the knot will come undone. Alternately, you may try to weave the end back up the chain and hide it in the leg. Use the other tail to attach inside the body.

Note: some yarn doesn’t curl as well when loosely chained for the tentacles. If your tentacles don’t curl, try these alternate tentacles:

1. ch 30
2. inc in each ch
FO, cut yarn short, but not so short that the knot will come undone. Alternately, you may try to weave the end back up the chain and hide it in the leg. Use the other tail to attach inside the body.

Get the rest of the sea creature mobile pattern from my Etsy store at
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22891478

Penguin wins!

My crochet penguin pattern won 2nd prize in the Instructables Homemade Holidays contest! Hooray! I'm pretty psyched to get a subscription to Craft magazine. I'm already addicted to their blog.

Crochet Goldfish Pattern

I made a goldfish this week, and I actually kept track of what I did and wrote a pattern for it. Since I'm kind of experimenting with writing patterns, I'm giving it away for free:

Crochet goldfish pattern in Acrobat PDF format (right-click: Save Target As... in Internet Explorer)
I would love feedback from anyone who makes this. I'm thinking the yarn i used is a little too dark orange, I may go looking for another color yarn before i make another one.
All the photos are courtesy of my wonderful husband. Yay Chris!

Update: When I wrote the pattern I didn't have a lot of time, so I didn't spend much time trying to format it to specific rows or testing it for typos. So a lot of people are mentioning having trouble with it, which probably means it has typos, and would probably also be easier if I reformatted it. Since I don't have any time to do any of that, I'm just removing the pattern until some later date when I can reformat it and get a couple of testers. I did all of that (good formatting, a few testers to verify it all works) with the Sea Creature Mobile, so if you're looking for some goldfish, there's a pattern for a different style of goldfish there.

Update 5/18/2010: Okay, enough people have been asking me to post it, so it's back up. Most of the people who have asked for it also promised to send me feedback, but no one has, so if you are the rare person who actually goes through the pattern and wants to send me notes/suggestions/feedback to make it better, I will forever be in your debt. At any rate, you've been warned that the formatting is weird, plus I just did some strange things to get it to look the way it is supposed to and sometimes that's hard to explain, but I do think that if you can look past that you can get it to turn out okay. Good luck!

Crochet Penguin Pattern

Okay, I posted a pattern for my baby penguin on Instructables. This took way too much work.