National Craft Month and more

CrochetandKnitting Newsletter
Friday, March 27, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I've been busy making dishcloths over the past month. I
ordered a big supply of cotton yarn online and I have it
almost used up now. I've had so many family members
asking for my dishcloths so I figured I would make some
to give away immediately, then stock up on some for when
they ask again. They all tell me that they much prefer my
crocheted dishcloths over the factory made kind. Of
course I do too.

Here is an easy and pretty way to make crocheted dishcloths.
There are no fancy stitches, it's done in all single crochet.
It's the way you work with colors that makes it so pretty.
It gives the dishcloth a plaid look. I was just thinking, this
would be easy to adapt for knit as well.

I got this from a potholder pattern. I searched for an
equivalent dishcloth design but couldn't find any so I
figured the same pattern could be used for a dishcloth,
with the only difference being that you wouldn't have
to make two and sew together as potholders are double.

Choose a color in dark and light shades, plus use white.
For example, I made most of mine in dark green, light
green and white. I also made one in dark blue, light blue
and white.

Decide on how wide you want your dishcloth and make
your starting chain in multiples of 12. Therefore you would
want to start with a chain of 36 or 48. (24 would probably
be too small)

I will use 48 in this example. With the dark color chain
48 + 1 as the turning chain. Sc in the second chain from
the hook, sc in the next 2 chains, in the next chain insert
your hook into the chain, yarn over and pull up a loop,
then drop the dark color and pick up the light color and
finish off the sc with that. This keeps the edges straight.
Do that with all color changes.

Hold your dark color along the top of the chain so you
can crochet over it and carry it along across the work,
with the light color sc in next 4 chs, holding the light color
along the top of the ch so you can crochet over it, with
the dark color sc in next 4 chains.

Continue doing this to the last four chains. Now drop
the light color, you don't need to crochet over it and
bring it to the end. With the dark color sc in the last
4 chs, ch 1 and turn.

For rows 2 and 3, with dark color 1 sc in next 4, with
light color 1 sc in next 4, repeat to end of row.

On row 4 you repeat the above, except you do carry
the light color over the last 4 dark sts. You drop the dark
color as you will not be using it in the next 4 rows. At the
end of the next 4 rows you will want to carry the dark color
up along the side of the work so you don't have to cut it
off and sew in the ends each time.

You will begin with the light color on the next row.
Row 5 - with light color 1 sc in next 4, with white 1 sc in
next 4. Repeat to end of row. Rows 6 to 8 are done the
same as the first 4 rows except now you are using your
light color and white.

Repeat these 8 rows for the pattern. You will want to end
with 4 rows of the dark color and light color. You can then
do a border around the dishcloth with the dark color, if
you want.

I think this is a very pretty pattern. I don't have a photo
to show you as I gave those dishcloths away as gifts. I
always seem to give the prettiest ones away and keep
those that are not as pretty for myself. :)

National Craft Month:
March is National Craft Month. So you still have a few
days to take advantage of special offers at Joanne
and Create For Less


If you like to knit or crochet for Easter, here are some
cute patterns you might want to try.

Crochet:

Easter Basket

Shell Stitch Easter Basket

Bunny Door Knob Cover

Inside-Out Easter Egg Into a Bunny

Easter Bunny Fridgie

Easter Egg

Victorian Egg Covers

Bunny Flowers

Easter Chick Fridgie


Knit:

Easter Egg Baskets

One Egg Easter Basket

Easter Bunny

Cadbury Bunny Pattern

Easter Basket Dishcloth

Easter Egg With Stripes Dishcloth

Easter Peeps

Bunny Egg Cover

Easter Egg Decorations


Craft Articles:
The following articles have been added to my Craft Articles section:
Free Crochet Patterns For Beginners - By Linda Spangenburg
Crafting During a Recession - By Violette Clark
Making a Quilt? Plan Ahead For Patterns and Colors - By Lamar Dean
5 Best Reasons to Knit a Scarf - By Alice Seidel
You can read those at http://crochetandknitting.com/articles


That is all for today. Happy crafting!

Sincerely,

Sue Norrad
CrochetandKnitting.com - Free Patterns, Craft Supplies
and much more.
Craft Discussions and Pattern Search Forum

New pattern, Barbie clothes, BizyMoms Contest.

CrochetandKnitting Newsletter
Thursday, January 15, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I have a new slipper pattern, "Crocheted "Knit Look"
Slippers. They have the knit look even though they are
crocheted. It's hard to tell in the photos, but as you complete
a few rows you can easily see how it resembles knit. You
can find that pattern here
http://crochetandknitting.com/croknsl.htm

Over Christmas I kept myself busy working on Barbie
clothes for my grand niece, Keeley. She even loaned me
one of her Barbies so I could do fittings. :) She was
thrilled about the new Barbie clothes I made for her.

I didn't design any of my own patterns because I found
some really nice ones online that I wanted to make. Here
are the links to the patterns I used.

http://barbiebasics.tripod.com/
This one is great, they have a PDF file to download with
many Barbie clothing patterns! I made most of the Barbie
clothing that is in the crochet patterns PDF file.

I found this cute knit Barbie dress and made that also.
Barbie's Lacy Pink Party Dress
If you don't want to do the lacy part on the bottom,
she also has a version called Barbie's Basic Tube Dress
I made the lacy one as I couldn't resist, it's so pretty.
This is made with yarn instead of the thread and I
even had some of the fine sparkly white yarn here!

I had never crocheted Barbie clothes before so I had
trouble at first in finding the right hook. The steel hook
sizes were confusing to me. All my steel hooks are in
"mm's" and all the patterns online called for sizes such
as No. 5, 6, 7, etc.

So I did some searching online and learned that the sizes
of steel hooks vary with each manufacturer and some have
even changed their sizes over the years! No wonder this
can be confusing.

I found this site that has a conversion chart.
http://www.geocities.com/nornsneedlework/crochet/hookchart.htm
I posted on my Crochet and Knitting Forum at
http://crochetandknitting.com/cgi-bin/iB_cgi/ikonboard.cgi
about my endeavor to make Barbie clothes and Shaddy
and Barb helped me out. Barb gave me this link to
another conversion chart.
http://wheatcarr.com/crochet/steel-crochet-hook-cross-reference.php
In the end, I found out that a size 2.00 mm hook and size 10
thread works well for me. According to the conversion
charts, I should of been using a 1.75 mm hook, but the
manufacturer of the hooks I had was not listed so their sizes
must of been different and it would also depend on my tension
and gauge. So I just had to try some different hooks and then
do a fitting on Barbie until I got it right for me.


BizyMoms is having a contest called "Bizymoms Choice
Awards"

It's about websites that you really like. You can even
nominate your own website. Here is the information
they sent me about their awards.

Bizymoms Choice Awards
http://www.bizymoms.com/choiceawards/

Do you have a favorite website? A site that makes your day?
One that is informative, useful and definitely one that should
be appreciated?

Well here's your chance to show some love for a site that
is your choice, your kind of place to visit on the big
world-wide-web!

Nominate your favorite site for the 2008 Bizymoms' Choice
Awards.

Voting will continue through March 31, 2009. The top
winners will be announced on April 6th. You can nominate
as many sites as you'd like, then send everyone you know
to vote on their favorites!

All our nominated sites will all be featured right here:
www.bizymoms.com/choiceawards/
so that everyone can vote on their favorites.

If you have your own website or several of them, nominate
them all! And ask your friends & family to vote!

For more details and to submit your favorite site to become
Bizymoms Choice Award winner visit:
http://www.bizymoms.com/choiceawards/


That is all for today. Happy crafting!

Sincerely,

Sue Norrad
CrochetandKnitting.com - Free Patterns, Craft Supplies
and much more.
Craft Discussions and Pattern Search Forum

Lots of craft patterns

CrochetandKnitting Newsletter
Monday, December 8, 2008

Hello Everyone,

Here is another site about crafts that you will most likely
enjoy. "All Free Crafts" at http://www.allfreecrafts.com
If you are still looking for ideas for homemade Christmas
gifts and decorations, you should check this site out.

Jane Lake is the editor of that site and she let me know about
the crochet section at
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/crochet/index.shtml
and the knitting section at
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/knitting/index.shtml
There are also many other patterns for sewing, candles,
kids crafts, home decoration and more.

"All Free Crafts" has also added my Crocheted Moccasins
to their site at:
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/crochet/moccasins.shtml
And my Knitted Moccasins at:
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/knitting/moccasin-slippers.shtml
I love the layout they did for my patterns. It looks great!

The following new articles have been added in my Crafts
Article Directory:
"For Those Who Wish to Learn Knitting"
"What Makes the Perfect Crocheted Pattern?"
"What Every Beginner Wants - Beginners Crochet Patterns"
"Sell Handmade Crafts on Etsy",
"How to Make Stylish Christmas Candles From Scratch Fast and Easy!"
You can read those at
http://crochetandknitting.com/articles

That is all for today. Enjoy the season and happy crafting!

Sincerely,

Sue Norrad
CrochetandKnitting.com - Free Patterns, Craft Supplies
and much more.
Craft Discussions and Pattern Search Forum