Crochet Projects

  Recently I had the urge to crochet bags and purses. I used #H (5mm) hook and two different colors from Red Heart Super Saver Yarns. I started with a magic loop.  The entire crochet was done with back loops only approach. At the end, I added the inner layer and crochet a button to match the bag. The final product is 8 inch x 4.5 inches.

I like to make things as gifts.  A few years ago, we had a family reunion.  Since I have many  female relatives, I thought why not give them handmade purses.  I did not want to give them the same design, so I came out with different patterns.  Turned out they loved them.

  Sometimes, managing the left over yarns can be a headache. It is the time to clear my leftover yarns again.  I thought these two colors are a good match for the reversible toy.  Unfortunately the blue yarn is much shorter than the pink yarn.  I then had to make two different designs for the tentacles so I did not have to “buy” more yarns. This octopus was made from the top down method with the continuation of making the tentacles.  No need to cut the yarn at any giving point. The body was made with the spiral method. I adopted the idea of how to make thick flower petals for pink tentacles. I used Tunisian knit stitches for the blue tentacles. Because the size I made, there was no need to insert the stuffing between two colors. Finally I sew the two color pieces together using mattress stitches.

Crocheting a ruffled doily is always on my bucket list. At this holiday time, I made two ruffled doilies with very different yarns. The Nosegay Doily Flower Centerpiece The Nosegay Doily was made with crochet thread 100% Mercerized Cotton, size 10, and #7 (1.5mm) crochet hook. I tried to follow the original instruction from http://web.archive.org/web/20050612013908/http://www.angelfire.com/folk/celtwich/Nosegay.html . Every step seemed ok until the edge portion. For the life of me, I could not figure out the correct connecting instruction.  So I decided to make my own. I noticed that each fan pattern consists of 16 double stitches with 1 chain stitch in between 2  double stitches.  So if I made them as one unit before the joining, it would make my life much simpler and easier. I decided to make 1 single stitch at the ch-1 space.  I also added 1 single stitch with picot at the double stitch from the previous row except the LAST double stitch crocheting only with 1 single  stitch f