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

Crochet Octopus

I bought this crochet octopus pattern back in January. I started crocheting it, piece by piece, tentacle by tentacle, sucker by sucker in May or so. I wasn't in a hurry, I just wanted to work on it whenever I had a little bit of time. You know, during lunch breaks, long car rides, church service, whatever. The cool thing about a pattern like this is that you really can just bring a little bit of yarn with you and just work on one piece of it at a time and then put them all together at home later.

And last night I finally finished him! I haven't named him yet. I think he will be Zeke's Christmas gift from me. So maybe I'll let Zeke name him.

I love how realistic he looks, and how easy the pattern is. I recommend it to anyone wanting to get into crochet. I've actually taught a few people how to crochet recently, and plan to do another craft night at my house in a couple of months to do a "refresher" course for anyone who needs it. Crochet is just too enjoyable to keep it all to myself.

The new life of the baby mobile

As you probably know, before Zeke was born, I crocheted him a sea creature baby mobile. It didn't actually make its way to hanging above the crib until we actually got him a crib around 6 months, but he has had it there for a few months now, and he enjoyed swatting at the goldfish. Well, Zeke grew two inches in under two weeks, and suddenly was able to get a good grip on it (unbeknownst to us) and pull the whole mobile down. When I saw it on the floor, I picked it up and set it on top of the dresser, planning to rehang it later. Well, Zeke caught a glimpse of it and started reaching for it... for two days anywhere I moved it, he would see it and cry for it, until we finally just handed it to him to see what he would do with it. What he did was carry the whole thing around with him for days, until he finally managed to detach a goldfish and the octopus. At first I was thinking I should take it away from him before he messes them up. But then I decided, I made it for Zeke to enjoy, and he's enjoying it, so who cares if he drools all over them?

So here he is at 10 months old, and for a week now he's been carrying around the individual creatures, as well as sometimes carrying around the coral with the jellyfish attached. I would have to say this is currently his favorite toy... and since he never seems to care about any of his toys, I've really been enjoying watching him get excited over the sea creatures I made for him. The mobile has taken on new life. I don't think we'll be hanging it back up.

dodecahedron

I finished the dodecahedron. I think it turned out pretty well! It took much longer than I expected though... I think each point took me about an hour, how absurd is that?! I put a bell in each point, too, so it will jingle. I'm going to give it to Zeke tonight. He saw me working on it the other night and was all excited about it, so I hope to get the same excitement when I hand it over... and I really hope he plays with it, considering it took me at least 12 hours to complete! (Am I just a super slow crocheter?)

Booties

A friend of mine from work is having twins soon - a boy and a girl - so I made these booties for them using my two favorite free patterns for baby booties. I think the boy shoes are bigger than the girl shoes but that couldn't really be helped. Maybe we'll be lucky and the boy will have bigger feet so they can still wear them at the same time.

Foamies...

I love this idea for crocheted bath toys / scrubbers. So I got a couple of skeins of organic cotton yarn on sale and made one for Zeke. My yarn was a bit thicker than the one from Carrie used, I think, so I wound up making a smaller version, and used different eyes. But it's nice and soft and I'm looking forward to using him at bath time!

Octopus Crochet Pattern

I just bought my first crochet pattern. Usually I make up my own or find free ones and modify them to my purposes. And in the past 8 months I've had very little time to crochet, thanks to the awesome little man that requires my attention.

But yesterday I was browsing around crochet patterns and happened upon this awesome Octopus pattern. I tried once or twice to crochet my own realistic looking octopus, but wasn't having much luck. I searched in vain for patterns that weren't cutesy... I at least wanted some realistic looking tentacles! Alas, I finally found what I was looking for, and for just $3 on ravelry. I saved it as a favorite so if I ever have time to make it I could look it up and buy it. I told Chris and he said, "You should just buy in now in case you can't find it later." So I did. I have no idea when I will have time to make this 3-foot long bugger, but I am super excited to now have the option to do so!

Too Freaking Cool.

This one goes right up there next to this tree frog in my "Patterns I want to make for myself if I ever get around to it" list. Of course maybe now it will be made for that awesome little guy that takes up my time.

The next thing I plan to actually make, though, is this dodecahedron for Zeke. I will put bells in it. Then I will hope he actually wants to play with it.

Zeke and the mobile

Zeke just got old enough to care about things like his mobile, so we finally put it up in his bassinet. The first time he saw it he was mesmerized for quite a while and actually smiled and talked to it, which was the best compliment a momma could get! Here he is at 11 weeks old, checking out his sea mobile.

cowboy booties

Since our lives are basically All Zeke All The Time right now (and my life is basically Nursing Zeke All The Time), pretty much any updates for a while will be on the baby blog, so I'll probably be pretty lax on the updates here. (And since it's hard to blog while nursing, at least right now, most updates will be made by Chris).

But I did want to post a photo of the baby booties I made for Zeke. I started them on Saturday, April 25th, and finished them while in labor in the middle of the night, right before I woke Chris up to help me with contractions Sunday morning. So they have a pretty special place in my heart now.

Zeke wore them on his first restaurant outing, to Ted's Montana Grill on Saturday night. We went with my parents, for Chris's 30th birthday. He was rather stylin.

(the t-shirt was hand-embroidered by Chris's sister, Emily. It's the first onesie we put on him once his umbilical cord fell off Saturday morning).

baby booties

I have a couple of friends who are having babies soon (actually, I have a lot of friends who have either just had a baby or will have one soon, but two of them are in my small group, and our small group is throwing us a joint shower next weekend).

One is having a girl, and the other a boy, so I thought it would be fun to make them some cute baby booties. So I found a couple of free patterns online (for mary janes and for sneakers) and made these. I made up the leaf embellishments for the mary janes, but otherwise just followed the patterns. They were both pretty quick to whip up since they're so small, so they were a fun project.

Chris wants me to make cowboy boots for Zeke, and I actually have a friend who has this pattern book with the cowboy boots pattern, so I will probably do that at some point, too. Man... never thought I'd be the "crocheting baby booties" kind of gal. How things change.

glass mug cozy

Okay, this is actually a really long explanation for a pretty simple item. So our church offers free coffee and snacks in the mornings, right? Only a while back I decided to start bringing my own mug because I felt really wasteful using a paper cup each week, when I KNEW I was going to get coffee when I got there. Then when I was trying to get more calcium, I started bringing milk in my mug so that I was all prepared with my milk to add coffee to it. The cup holder in our car is really small though, so the only thing that fits in there are those glass POM tea jars, and they have a lid to go with them. The problem is that these POM glasses don't have a handle, so it was hard to hold once I put hot coffee in it. So one day Chris suggested a crochet a cozy for it so I didn't burn my hands, so one morning I finally grabbed some yarn on the way to church and made a cozy for it on the way there (our drive to church is 40 minutes long, so I was finishing it up just about the time we got there). I didn't get the handle on it for the first day, but after testing it out decided what I needed for a handle, and made that later in the week. I've been using it ever since, and I love it because it's super handy for my purposes.

I also kept getting lots of compliments on it, so I thought it might be fun to make a few more and try to sell them on Etsy, but for the purposes of keeping shipping manageable, tell people to buy their own POM tea to put it on. Imagine my dismay when I looked up the POM website, only to find that they've switched to a different sized, plastic bottle!

Alas, I got Chris to take a good photo of it anyways, so I figured I'd share.

I'm thinking of making cozies for Ball Mason jars, though, since I use those a ton to bring coffee to work and stuff... so might still try the etsy thing, but with Ball jars instead. Who knows. It's not like I don't have a thousand other things that take precedence on my to-do list or anything.

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

Sea Creature Mobile

I've been working on this project for months now, started soon after Chris and I found out we were pregnant. I kept changing my mind about things over time and for a while I just wasn't inspired to work on it, but I finally finished over Christmas.

The creatures are made with a small hook and wool sock yarn, the coral base is made with worsted weight wool yarn.

I've written a pattern for it, and The Chris worked hard to take photos for me, so now I'm just looking for a couple of people to test the patterns and make sure it all makes sense, and if it works out, I'll try selling it on Etsy.

UPDATE: I've finally got the pattern completed and up for sale on Etsy!

Zeke's Sea Creature Mobile:

crochet baby toys

So much of my attention has been taken up by the little guy in my belly; so I've mainly been crocheting toys and rattles and such for him. Here are some of the things I've made in the last couple months, and didn't bother writing patterns for.

The thick grabby rings in the back right have jingle bells in them, as does the big block, which I felted (and which wound up larger than I expected, and more round than I expected, after felting). The barbell has something that rattles on both ends. And the rings are just felted rings.

I made this monster when I was sick, with some cool yarn Emily gave me. I might have to keep it away from Zeke when he's in the "put everything in his mouth" stage though, because I'm not sure how easy that fuzzy yarn would be to clean.

That's all for now. Once Chris takes a couple more photos for me, I'll also post photos of the mobile I finally finished.

green resalvaged purse

So I started this purse MONTHS ago, and it just didn't turn out the way I imagined it once it felted... I used a different brand of yarn for the base when I ran out of the expensive yarn for the rest of the purse, and it shrunk a lot more... plus for some reason the whole thing just looked crazy-misshapen when it was done. So I put it away for a while, and then wound up cutting a whole lot off of it, made a new base (and felted it separately) and hand-sewed the pieces back together to make a new purse.

So this is the final product. I like the color, but it still didn't wind up exactly right, so it doesn't sit well. I don't know if I'll use it much, but that's the story of my disaster purse.

In other news, I have a couple of other purses that I not only slaved over, but I even wrote patterns for them. But right now we're using the laundromat at our apartment complex, and it turns out the hot water cycle there isn't hot enough to actually felt them. So they're just sitting in my house waiting for me to figure out a way to get these felted.

Whenever that happens and I have final products (to make sure they actually look good when they're finished) then I want to find a couple of people to test the patterns to make sure they work. I'll let y'all know when I have something to show.

The Gourd Purse

I made this a month or so ago, but just finally got around to having The Chris photograph it for me. Both pieces are crocheted with Lion Wool, using a popcorn stitch for the bumps, then felted. I call this my gourd purse because once it was done I decided it looks very much like a gourd, although I don't think that was the intention.

In case it's hard to tell from the photos, the purse has a small handle and a large one; the large handle fits through the small one to close up the purse for carrying it. That does mean it takes a little more work to get things out of it, because you have to slide the handle out, but it's so cute that I decided I'm okay with it. I'm pretty happy with the metal ring for an accent, too... it's great for clipping my keys onto. And the little orange cozy is actually the perfect size for my ipod mini, but I find it comes in handy to hold my Marta card, my apartment complex gate card, and my chapsticks. You know, all the little things I need to have handy at a moment's notice.

And since this shade of green is currently my favorite color, the gourd has become my favorite purse.

I made these up on the fly and I'm still terrible and writing out patterns as I go, so I'm no help there. Sorry.

more felt coasters!

Friends of ours got married this weekend, and they requested handmade gifts for their wedding, so I decided to make another set of felt coasters for them. This time I went with brown and tan, and I actually steam-ironed them to make them more flat and well formed.

Chris suggested I do different designs on each coaster, instead of doing the same thing for each one like I did for my gray set. He thinks they look like crazy monsters, so while that wasn't my intention when I started, I guess the grommet can't help but look like an eye... but that means I have some pretty deformed monster coasters!

I'm also working on a couple other ideas with felt circles, but those will take a while to finish. I did make a couple other crazy felt things this past week that I'll have to get Chris to photograph... it was a crafty week for the Kendra.

I've got all sorts of ideas for things I want to make, and some of them are things Chris and I can work on together, which is really exciting... I think we make a good team, skill-wise. So hopefully we're able to do some of the things that have been floating around in my head, and then I'll have all kinds of new stuff to post later. But probably things will slow down the rest of this month, because we are moving to a new apartment soon, and I have some freelance stuff that needs to take precedence over crafty fun. Alas!

the coasters (above), and the trivet (below)

Felt bowl and coasters

So this isn't a new idea or anything, but after seeing tons of felt coasters on Etsy, I decided I needed to make my own. And a bowl and trivet to go with them. They make me kind of happy.

I made The Chris take a ton of pictures for me. Poor guy. We don't have any room to actually set up anything real for the photo shoot, so he has to improvise. A lot. But he's talented like that.

Maybe one of these days I'll try to block these so they are a little less frumpy. I'm bad at things like that though... all the crocheting and felting seems like no problem, but the process of blocking seems like too much work to me. I have no idea why.