Hooded Bear Baby Blanket

One of my besties is expecting a baby.  She and her husband call the baby in her belly Baby Osito.  Because she crochet (pregnancy carpel tunnel), I've been working hard to anticipate what she might like.  One thing I knew I needed to make was a baby bear blanket.  I'll be honest. I was intimidated.  There are a lot of patterns out there.  Many are very adorable.  In the end, I created my own.

It is designed as a blanket with a hood.  The pattern that is created uses alternating FPDC and DC to create ridges.

The top (V) is the alternating ridges. Below is the inside of the blanket.

Bear Hood

Yarn: Red Heart Soft in Chocolate (4 Skeins)
Hook: H

Blanket:

To begin, Chain 103.
Row 1: DC in the 4th chain from the hook and in every chain across. Chain 1 turn.
Row 2: SC in the same stitch and in each stitch across (99 sc). Chain 3 turn.
Row 3: The turning chain counts as your first DC.  FPDC around the second SC stitch. DC in the third.  Alternate FPDC in one stitch and a regular DC across.  If you do this correctly, you should end in a DC in the top of the turning chain.Chain 3, turn.
Row 4: The turning chain counts as your first DC.  Back Post Triple Crochet (BPTC) around the next stitch, then DC in the third. Alternate BPTC and DC across, ending with a DC in the top of the turning chain.  Chain 3, turn.
Row 5: Repeat Row 3.
Row 6: Repeat Row 4.
Continue alternating rows until you have 52 rows, ending with a repeat of Row 4. At the end of Row 52, chain 1 and turn.
Row 53: SC across. Chain 3, turn.
Row 54. DC across. Fasten off.

I went back and completed the border by crocheting a row of SC followed by a row of DC on each side, making sure to crochet 2 DC in each corner stitch and attaching to the top of the DC from the adjoining row to complete the border around.

Hood:
I used a pattern from Lion Brand for one of their hooded blankets. I used a set of ears from another pattern as well.

I love how it came out!

Wiggle Crochet - Heart Pillow

I've recently discovered wiggle crochet.  It is this fantastic method where you crochet a grid and then crochet multiple stitches in each grid bar.  The effect is that you get this great wavy pattern.  The patterns are endless.

I got it in my head that I was going to design a heart pillow.  I created a 17x17 grid and used a spreadsheet document to plan out my pillow.  I'm so pleased with the results! I finished it the other day and it was destined to be my coworker's wedding gift.

The finished pillow

I just love the colors.  I used a lovely red in Red Heart Soft yarn and charcoal grey in Vanna's Choice.

Aren't the wiggles/waves gorgeous?

Side view with the back attached.

The back is wonderful too.  I used a granny square pattern I discovered on Ravelry that alternates FPDC and DC to create this great cabled look.

I'm so proud of my pillow!

Birthday blanket installed

The Birthday Blanket of Awesomeness has taken its place with my crazy purple high thread count sheets.

I think it looks just right.

My Flower Pillow Pattern

Here it is!  My pillow pattern.

If you make a pillow using my pattern, I hope you will share the link in the comments!  Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Pillows

I love the cushion I made using Lucy's pattern from Attic24.

It's colorful happiness makes me so happy.

But the petals bother me.  They fold forward and don't really sit right.  I don't know why.  I suspect it may be due to an extra stitch between each of the petals.

A friend of mine asked me to make a pillow for her and I started one with Lucy's pattern. She wanted brilliant happy colors for her pillow and chose pink, turquoise, light green, purple, yellow, and aqua.  You can see that the pattern starts great in the center, but as it spreads out toward the ends, the petals flatten out and start doing strange things.

I ended up turning the circle into a square to create a square pillow.  For the back, I used Cherry Heart's back of cushion tutorial to create a fabulous back. The back is literally crocheted to the front panel about 3/4 of the way and then the second part is crocheted from the other end.  My friend asked for a lot of pink in the pillow, so I made the majority of the back the lovely bright pink color.

By the way, did you notice my birthday present to myself?  Isn't my new purple polka dot hook beautiful??

The color is a little off, but this is what the back looks like.  I just need to add the buttons and it is finished!

When I finished this pillow, I wondered if my original flower pillow pattern wouldn't work better.  So, I used my remaining yarn and created this pillow.

My version has a different way of increasing the circle and has one fewer stitch between petals.  Here's a view from above.

See how even the petals are?  They stay nice and loopy and don't flatten out as you get to the outside.  Now I just need to write up a pattern so that I never forget how I made this happy flower!