Catching up!

Wow! It's been a very busy April and May! June's here and it's also looking like a very busy month. Yikes! How will I ever get all of my craft projects finished, photographed and up on this blog?

Simple. I'm going to do it one project at a time!

Here are March's hats for the local soup kitchen.

I lost the yarn wrapper, but I can tell you that I used Homespun yarn for them (again.) I promise I used another yarn for April and May's hats. They'll be up on the blog shortly.

I'm also working on several other projects, including new wreaths for my front doors, crocheted bookmarks and bracelets from water bottles. I'm also working on demo items for the school's Christmas bazaar.

I'd better get back to cleaning off my kitchen table so I can get a little sewing done. Happy Crafting!

Saint Patrick's Day Candy Bar Wrappers

How do you celebrate Saint Patrick's Day? It's one of my favorite holidays, outside of Christmas and Easter, so I love to decorate and give little gifts to my family and friends.

This year, I'm handing out candy bars. And they're wrapped in Saint Patrick's Day candy wrappers I designed. They really do look much better in person than in my photo. Get the free wrappers here on my scrapbooking and candy wrapper blog.

To add a touch of gold, I used a foil overwrap over the existing candy bar wrapper before I added my custom wrapper. While there are many places to get these, I get mine from Rich Fallon at http://foilman.com/.

You don't have to have a foil overwrap. Just print the candy bar wrappers and tape over the existing wrapper. If you use my designs, I'd love to see pictures of your finished products!


Erin Go Bragh!
Susan
aka That Crafty Redhead

January and February Hats For Charity

It's March 1 and time for me to post pictures of the hats I crocheted for the local soup kitchen in February. And as I forgot to post pictures of January's hats earlier, I'm adding them here as well.

All 4 hats are crocheted using Homespun yarn by Lion Brand Yarn Company for all 4 hats. It's a nice bulky yarn in gorgeous colors. I used the Windsor shade for January and Lagoon for February.

January Hats

February Hats

January's hats are both medium adult size. I made a large adult hat and a small adult hat for February. Most of the hats I've made in the past for the soup kitchen are medium adult sized hats, which fit most adults, and that's what my pattern makes. I add or subtract an increase row to change the size. Thankfully, these hats work up fairly quickly, so my goal of making two hats per month for the soup kitchen is good for me.

I also finished a prayer shawl in late January. I'll post pictures as soon as I'm through polishing the pattern instructions. I'm knitting away on the next prayer shawl, and this time I'm documenting the pattern as I go. So far, I have designed the shawl patterns as I knit. I can follow a pattern, but I prefer to design on the fly!

Happy crafting!
Susan

Grandmother's Crocheted Hat

An old family crocheted hat pattern handed down from my grandmother.

I use this pattern to crochet hats for my family and to donate to my prayer shawl ministry's hats for the local soup kitchen campaign. My prayer shawl ministry group donated over 160 hats, knitted and crocheted, to the soup kitchen in December.

Yarn: Bulky yarn (1 skein) or use two strands of worsted weight yarn (2 skeins)

Crochet Hook: Size J or size needed for gauge

Gauge: 6 rows x 10 sts (double crochet) = 4" x 4"

Rd 1: Ch 4. Join.

Rd 2: Ch 3. 5 dc in loop. Join. (16 sts)

Rd 3: Ch 3. DC in join stitch

. 2 dc each remaining dc. Join. (32 sts)

Rd 4: Ch 3. * 2 dc in next dc. 1 dc in next dc. Rep from * to end.

Join. (48 sts)

Rds 5 - 14: Ch 3. 1 dc in each st to end. Join.

(Optional rolled brim)

Rds 15 - 17: Ch 3. 1 dc in each st to end. Join. Weave in yarn ends.

Add pompom or decorative edging such as shell or picots, if desired.

I used Lion Brand's Homespun in Windsor for the sample hat, which I'll give to the prayer shawl ministry. I can usually get two hats from one skein of the homespun using this pattern.

If you're using worsted weight yarn, use two strands together to form a bulkier yarn.