Red Heart Twilight Yarn Review and Free Round Blanket / Rug Crochet Pattern

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About a month or so ago, I received a fun bag of yarn from Red Heart to try out.  Normally, I stick to 4ww yarns for all the designs I do, so it was fun to work with something different.  Red Heart's Boutique Twilight is quite a bit thicker and comes in a bunch of fun Sparkly colors. My first thought was a cowl but I was sure there would be a bunch of them out before to long, so I played with it for a while and waited for the perfect something to use it for.  Then one day, my 6yr old daughter saw it, loved the "Romantic"  shades of purple, pink, tan and sparkle.

 
She decided it should be turned into an afghan for her, so the start of a new FREE crochet pattern was on the hook!   

It's County Fair Time with my Basket Weave Chevron Afghan Crochet Pattern

Have you ever entered something you've made into the County or State Fair?  When I was little and in 4H, I entered some Lemon Bars that I made and a Cake that I decorated, but that's been my one and only experience.  I don't like being judged!  It makes me really nervous to have someone look over my work really closely and then critique or judge it, so I've never entered any crochet projects let alone my own designs!  


Our County Fair is at the end of this month and I think I've finally found the perfect thing to take and enter.  (Yes, I'm already nervous!) When I first started considering working with the Basket Weave stitch, I wanted something completely unique from what was out there.  It seems like everything is always worked in straight rows and I HAVE to be different!  I've been obsessed with Chevron designs lately and thought "How cool would this combo be?!" When I designed my Basket Weave Chevron Afghan crochet pattern, I was amazed with myself.  I did it!!!  Woo Hoo :)  I originally just made a small prop size blanket because I thought the texture would be amazing for photos.   When that was finished, I knew I HAD to make a throw size blanket for myself and boy am I glad I did...

Serenity Afghan Free Crochet Pattern from the Battle of the Stitches Round 6 Challenge

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2015 is half over and it's been a busy year.  I have been determined to make this year a success not only by releasing many great new crochet patterns, but also by updating older designs and offering more coordinating designs. The 6 Basic Infant Dress Set Patterns have been updated already and the toddler sizes are underway. 
 
Recently, we held another round of the Battle of the Stitches.  Round 6 was based on Serenity as the crochet stitch and theme to focus on.  We wanted you to find your serenity with us and enjoy some crochet time with some amazing designs from wonderful designers. 

Ribbon Candy Flower Free Crochet Pattern

Ribbon Candy Flower

When I designed the Ribbon Candy Infant Dress crochet pattern, I wanted a fun embelishment that would play off the design of the twirling ribbon effect in this stitch.  This was the final result and I think it's pretty fun to work up and it fits!  
It is included in the dress pattern, and now, it will also remain free here on my blog for everyone to enjoy.

Materials: 
Small amount of 4ww yarn (2-3 colors)
**Color A will be the center color, Color B will be the outer color**
Hook size H
Button (size of choice)
Matching thread and needle

Stitches:
Ch - Chain
Sp - Space 
St - Stitch
Sl St - Slip Stitch
SC - Single Crochet
HDC - Half Double Crochet
DC - Double Crochet
TR - Treble Crochet

It's a Celebration Worth Checking out! 8k FaceBook Fans, free Patterns and a $1 pattern sale

I'm so excited to have reached the fun milestone of 8,000 fans on Crafting Friends Designs' FaceBook page.  THANK YOU to everyone who has followed my business and supported me.  I appreciate all of you!  It's been so fun to get to know so many of you and see the projects that you've made using my designs. 

sandy's cape cod originals: 596 Doggie Toy Lovie Blanket Free crochet pattern

sandy's cape cod originals: 596 Doggie Toy Lovie Blanket



How sweet is this!!!?  Sandy's Cape Cod Originals is offering her Doggie Toy Lovie Blanket crochet pattern to all of us for free. 
This is a great way to find new designers and see how you like their writing style.  Grab your copy today, work one up and maybe you'll love it enough that you can make a bunch of them for service projects.  I bet that Homeless Shelters or Women's Shelters could both use some of these to brighten a little child's day.

We Live and we Learn, We Learn and we Grow. Crochet Pattern updates and new additions

Shell Brook Afghan

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4 years ago,  I started writing patterns and designing some of my own crochet things.  2 very different things.  I wrote some patterns for afghans using basic crochet stitches such as my Brick Stitch Afghan and my Shell Brook Afghan.  I didn't really "Design" them because they were just the stitches in straight rows and I just figured out the sizing and wrote the directions down.  They are very pretty afghans and I've made MANY of each of them. 

 Then,  I decided that I wanted to actually design my own crochet baby dress patterns.  I'm not fond of the really frilly, old fashioned style dresses that are out there.  I like simple, clean looks and that's the direction I took when designing my first 6 Basic Infant Dresses:
Baby Tay, Shell Brook, Diamond, Ribbon & Lace, Oh Snap and Snap Dragon.  I wanted everyone (even beginners) to feel accomplished by being able to make their own crocheted clothing. 

Basic Infant Dress pkg by Crafting Friends Designs

I posted some photos of just the dresses on FaceBook and the Ribbon & Lace dress (the peach one on the far left) was shared by AllFreeCrochet because they really liked it and I was blown away by how many people were interested in the patterns.  It was a long few months of actually writing up the instructions for others to be able to follow, having around 20 wonderful ladies test 4 different sizes in all 6 designs.  The patterns worked!!!  The dresses others made using my instructions were really pretty and I was so happy to have such a great response!

Fast forward 3 more years and WOW have I learned a LOT!  I've changed my writing style some and have worked with 4 amazing Professional Photographers in order to show my work at it's best. I owe a HUGE thanks to Nicole Nelson Photography, Ash & Co, Violet Lufkin Photography and Two Color Photography for working with me and their beautiful talent.

Ribbon & Lace Infant Dress & Afghan Set Crochet Pattern

Baby Tay Infant Dress & Afghan Set

Ribbon & Lace Infant Dress Set

As I looked back at these 6 original designs, I knew I needed to update them.  I dreaded it for a while because I remembered working up each size dress myself along with the ladies testing.  I had SO many dresses around my house (they are addicting!). However, once I jumped in to start the updates, I found it refreshing and fun and inspiring.  I decided I wanted to do more than just update the dress. I wanted to improve the value of each design so I added new flowers to some and coordinating afghans for each one.
I use Caron Simply Soft yarn for my dresses though you can use other similar yarns such as I Love This Cotton.  I also use Boye crochet hooks, so keep this in mind when working your swatch for the gauge.  Different hook brands can alter your finished size if gauge is not met first.



Now that they are all complete, I couldn't be more happy and in love with how simple yet beautiful each one is.  I hope that you will enjoy them even more than before!  They are fantastic gifts for Baby Showers and each afghan (except the Flower afghan) has instructions to make in your desired size and is not set specifically for infants.  I'm sure that there are brothers and sisters to those cute little newborn babies who would love to have a matching blanket.  

Diamond Infant Dress & Afghan Set

Oh Snap Infant Dress & Afghan Set

Snap Dragon Infant Dress & Afghan Set

Shell Brook Infant Dress & Afghan Set

What do you think?  Aren't they fun!!?  This collection is great to have on hand to whip up some amazing handmade Baby Shower Gifts or to make as service projects.  

New Crochet Pattern: Spring Garden Photo Prop Sensory Mat

Spring Garden Prop/Sensory Blanket

For Round 5 of the Battle of the Stitches Crochet challenge, I asked Lisa Jell of Kaleidoscope Art & Gifts to choose the theme and stitch.  She chose to use the Moorish Motif with "On the Wings of Spring" as the theme.  This was a beautiful choice, but not an easy task.  Each challenger needed to use the Moorish Motif as the focus of their design.  I knew I wanted to do another photography prop but I really struggled with how to use the motif at first.  I knew I wanted to get a great texture in the mat and wanted to pull in the spring theme.  Then I had an idea - a Themed mat!  I didn't know if it would work or not.  I thought it was a cute idea, but would photographers really use it? 

Monday Madness Diamond Infant Dress Crochet Pattern Update and Sale

In the Beginning

Diamond Infant Dress

A little over 3 years ago, I designed my 6 Basic Infant Dress crochet patterns.  The Diamond, Ribbon & Lace, Baby Tay, Shell Brook, Oh Snap and Snap Dragon dress collection was a huge hit as soon as I showed photos on Facebook.  I had only made them in a newborn baby size and had only written the pattern down for myself.  So many people asked for the patterns that I couldn't ignore it.  I quickly gathered a group of about 20 ladies to test for me and we worked hours and hours making 4 different sizes in 6 different styles.  I wanted to make sure that each size worked up and looked the way that I wanted it, so I actually made each dress in each size.  Holy Moly that was a LOT of work! But it was an awesome feeling when we were through testing and I was able to release each dress pattern. 

Pattern Update

After 3 years of crochet designing, I look back at this infant collection and while I'm proud if it, I have learned a lot and these patterns are not written to how I prefer to have my patterns now.  I have started updating each design and retesting them to hopefully make them better and easier to understand.  So, Are you ready for a pattern  Re-Release and Sale?

Monday Madness! Princess Britt Infant Dress Crochet Pattern Sale

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This is one of my girls' favorite dresses!  They love the ruffle and get compliments EVERY time they wear them.  The Princess Britt dress crochet pattern has a wonderful texture to it along with the beautiful ruffles on the skirt.  It is Great for Photo props! 

I admit, I was worried at first when I found the Red Heart Sashay yarn thinking it would be hard to work with other than making scarves.  It's so pretty, and VERY simple to use!  No need to stress.

  
Monday's can be so gloomy because everyone heads back to work.  I thought it would be fun to have a Monday Madness event and offer a variety of patterns at a HUGE discount 1 day a week.  What do you think?