Saturday, January 5, 2013

Easy Car Seat Blanket Pattern - Free Pattern


Last year, BreeAnna from String with Style shared her awesome pattern for a fantastic car seat blanket. It is a great pattern and the resulting blanket is lovely.

String with Style's Bobble Car Seat Blanket

Do you see those two slits right there? Those are holes for the bottom buckle of the car seat to fit through.  The beauty of this blanket is that it stays on the infant car seat without dropping our falling off without interfering with the safety straps.  Just that little part of the blanket is held under the buckle and this keeps it on!  Brilliant.

This has become my go to pattern for baby shower gifts.  Not only does it look like I worked really hard on it, but it is awesomely functional.

The other day, I started working on a new blanket for a coworker and was not feeling the bobble love.  BreeAnna's pattern uses the bobble stitch to make those great bumps in the blanket.  They are adorable, but frustrating at times.  You have to keep careful count of your stitches to make sure that the pattern works.  I was feeling blah and wanted to just make a blanket I didn't have to think about after the first row of chains.  In addition to that, I only had DK weight yarn which is much too thin for the Bobble Blanket pattern to work correctly.

Using BreeAnna's pattern as inspiration, I came up with a pattern for my own car seat blanket.  The part for the buckle holes is all BreeAnna's work applied to my pattern.  Thanks, BreeAnna!

Easy Car Seat Blanket Pattern by Tw-In Stitches


Simple Baby Car Seat Blanket

Materials:
K Hook (6.5 mm)
2 strands of Sport Weight (size 3) yarn held together (I used Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Yarn)
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

Gauge: 11 stitches = 4 inches, 9 rows = 4 inches

Note: throughout, the chain 2 does not count as an HDC

Blanket:
Chain 44.
Row 1: HDC in the third chain from the hook and in each chain across. (42 HDCs)
Row 2-15: Chain 2 and turn.  HDC in the same stitch and in each stitch across. (42 HDCs)
Row 16: Chain 1 and turn. SC in the same stitch and in the next 17 stitches.  Chain 6 and skip the next 6 stitches. SC in the next stitch and in the remaining 17 stitches. (18 SC, 6 chains, 18 SC)
Row 17: Chain 1 and turn.  SC in the same stitch and in each stitch across.  Make sure to SC in each of the 6 chains from the previous row. (42 SCs)
Row 18-19: Chain 2 and turn. HDC in each stitch across. (42 HDCs).
Row 20: Repeat row 16.
Row 21: Repeat Row 17.
Row 22-37: Chain 2 and turn. 1 HDC in each stitch across.

Border:
You can do whatever you would like for your border.  For mine, I wanted a feminine look, so I made a ruffle border.

Row 38: Chain 1. SC in each stitch around.  Place 2 SCs in each corner.
Row 39: Chain 2. 2 DCs in the same stitch, 3 DCs in the next stitch.  Continue around the blanket.  Crochet 3 DCs in each corner stitch. (You can stop here, but I went a little bigger)
Row 40: Chain 2. 1 DC in each stitch around.

I also added a flower to mine because it did not feel finished.

Easy Car Seat Blanket Pattern by Tw-In Stitches

I hope you enjoy making this blanket as much as I did.  Enjoy!

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Spiral Flower Pillow Pattern - I'm a Crochet Ninja

A friend of mine called me a Crochet Ninja.  She has determined that there is nothing I can't figure out by looking at a picture and testing what I think works.  There's this pillow pattern on the Herrschners website.  It is called the Vintage Rose Pillow pattern.  It is beautiful.  This is the link, but it may or may not work.  Herrschners has done something with its website that messes with urls. Anyway, I am fascinated by this pillow pattern.  Rather than be individual rows of petals like my other pillow pattern, the design is a spiral and the petals spiral out from the center.  It is actually quite beautiful.  However, I'm not really interested in paying $19.99 for the kit,  even if it does come with the yarn.

So, I started testing. First, I crocheted a circle in spiral form.

Row 1: Magic Circle with Chain 2 and 12 DCs. Do NOT join.
Row 2: Starting in the top of the first DC from Row 1, in back loops only 2 DC in each stitch around. (24 DCs)
Row 3: In the back loops only, 2 DC, 1 DC, repeat around. (36 DCs)
Row 4: In the back loops only, 2 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, repeat around (48 DCs)
Row 5: In the back loops only, 2 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, repeat around (60 DCs)
Row 6: In the back loops only, 2 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC repeat around (72 DCs)
To finish my test, I did 2 DC in the next stitch, 1 HDC in the next stitch, 1 sc in the next stitch, a slip stitch in the next.  Fasten off and weave in ends.

Then, starting with the loops at the center of the circle, I made 2 HDC in one stitch, 3 DC in the next and repeated around the spiral for 2 rounds. Then I switched to 2 DC in one stitch, 3 DC in the next for the remainder of the spiral. The key to this pattern is that the petals are not too wavy, so 3 DC in every stitch is too many and makes the petals too wavy.  2DC then 3 DC seems to be the perfect combination.

I'll post pictures when I get some more yarn. I ran out of the color I was using.  :(

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Rebecca Cowl

Cowls are really popular right now.  I've made at least 10 in the last few weeks.  Cowl patterns are best when they are simple and use chunky yarns.  There is something about the texture of a chunky yarn that is beautiful and warm at the same time.  Perfect!

One of my favorite patterns is a blanket pattern.  I've used it for hats and scarves as well as blankets.  The other day, I decided to try and see if it would work for a cowl.  Look what I came up with! The Rebecca Cowl.


The Rebecca Cowl with 4 rows.

Front Post stitches facing out.

Front Post stitches facing in.
 It is flexible in that you can elect to make it longer or shorter and wider or thinner depending on your preferences.  You can also use bulky yarn or worsted. It really is up to you!

The Rebecca Cowl Pattern is now available for free using the link below. It has pictures to help you create the pattern.  You will love it!
Click here to get your copy of the Rebecca Cowl Pattern.
Or here.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Hats with Baby's First Yarn by Lion Brand

The other day, I was buying yarn for some cowls I am making and I ran across a new yarn.

Lion Brand Baby's First Yarn
Lion Brand Baby's First yarn comes in 8 colors, all baby colors, but it is a really wonderful yarn.  A size 5 bulky weight yarn, it feels like someone took t-shirts and made yarn out of them.  So lovely.

I have a coworker who is having a baby girl in March and another coworker who is having a baby boy that same month.  I bought some pink (fairy tale) and some blue (splish splash) and started looking for patterns.  Alas, no one has thought to design patterns specifically using this yarn.  So, I winged it.

The first hat I made is probably more of a 6-9 month size than a newborn size.

K Hook (join each row)
Row 1: Magic Circle and make 8 HDC.
Row 2: Chain 1, then 2 HDC in each stitch around (16 HDC)
Row 3: Chain 1, then 2 HDC, 1 HDC repeat around (24 HDC)
Row 4: Chain 1, then 2 HDC, 1 HDC, 1 HDC, repeat around (32 HDC)
Row 5: Chain 1, then 2 HDC, 1 HDC, 1 HDC, 1 HDC repeat around (40 HDC)
Row 6-11: Chain 1, then 1 HDC in each stitch around (40 HDC)
Row 12: Chain 1, skip 1 stitch, in the next stitch 5 HDC, skip 1 stitch, slip stitch in the next, repeat around (10 scallops around)

I was amazed to find that I still had yarn left, so I made a second hat.  This one I wanted to make sure would  fit a newborn.

K Hook (join each row)
Row 1: Magic Circle and make 8 SC. (8 SC)
Row 2: Chain 2,  then 2 DC in each stitch around (16 DC)

Row 3: Chain 2,  then 2 DC, 1 DC repeat around (24 DC)
Row 4: Chain 2,  then 2 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, repeat around (32 DC)
Row 5-7: Chain 2,  then 1 DC in each stitch around (32 DC)
Row 8-10: Chain 1, then 1 SC in each stitch around (32 SC)

I still had yarn left, so I decided to make some embellishments. The heart is the one I used for my Heart Necklace pattern.  The flower is a new pattern I created today.

Flower:
Row 1: Magic Circle and make 6 SC, join. (6 SC)
Row 2: Chain 1, 2 HDC, chain 1, slip stitch all in the same stitch. In the next stitch, 2 HDC, chain 1, slip stitch. Repeat around. (makes 6 petals)

What I love most about this yarn, other than how soft it is, is how beautifully it shows the stitches used.  Often yarn hides the texture of the stitches, but this yarn highlights them.  I'll definitely use it again!