New Blanket Pattern

Two of my most favorite things are yarn and fabric!  I absolutely fell in love with this fabric when I spied it in Joann Fabrics. Soft, minky love and very Cath Kidston to me.  She is a popular gal in the United Kingdom and is all things feminine and flowery. 

My #1 selling pattern is the 

Crocheted Reversible Blanket.

It's a super simple crocheted blanket with fabric on one side.  I've received many emails over the years to design one that can be put together with a sewing machine.  The original pattern is far too bulky to handle that so you must hand sew the fabric on.  Actually, I don't mind hand sewing but I totally get those that cringe at the idea.

Your wish is granted!  A simple crochet stitch, flowers, leaves and pom pom trim all crocheted and put together with minky fabric.  Easy peasy to run through your machine.

 I attached the pom pom trim and flowers to the yarn side to add interest, but you could add it to the fabric side if you like it that way.

 

Lovely flowers and leaves add a whimsy, 3D effect to the fabric side.  Really easy patterns and I've given you a video link for the pom pom trim.  Lots of up close photos too.

As with all my patterns, I'm always available to help you along the way.

 

 Add them to the fabric side or the yarny side.  Either way I love it!

 

Worsted weight yarn, 1620 yards (1482m) will get you this 49" L x 33" W (124cm x 84cm) size.  

*****Selling the finished product is permitted*****

 

Of course, there are some great prints for boys too!  You can make one for yourself too in any size you like and it's doubly warm.

You can find the pattern in my 

Etsy shop

Craftsy

Ravelry

Best,

Sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

I love my scissor sharpener from Fiskars.  I found mine at Hancock Fabrics for about $8.00.  If you don't have one, you can still sharpen them with foil.  Just fold up a piece a few times and cut.

A Nice Substitute

I did a post a few weeks back about mill ends yarns.  It's made by plying together random mill ends of yarns and they make these wacky color combinations.  They are not always easy to come by on line or in your local yarn shop.  We have a new Hobby Lobby store that just opened in my neighborhood!  Weeeee!

I set off to see if I could find anything resembling mill end yarn during their grand opening.  What I found was Yarn Bee Dazzling, by Hobby Lobby, for $5.99.  Two ply yarn with a metallic thread added for subtle sparkle, which you can't see in the photos at all, I'm sorry to say.  

I picked a lovely skein called Pastels fully expecting a rather babyish color way.  I was most pleasantly surprised to find that that was not the case.

 The yarn is super soft, 3.5 oz 256 yards and the label reads (4) medium worsted weight.  It's more like a DK (3) weight to me.

Beautiful shades of soft blue, white, grey and turquoise.  

Here you can see a bit of the iridescent thread.

I knit this one to measure 12" from cast on edge to bind off edge, but could have easily gone to 16" before casting off.

The other skein is called Tropics.

I  did a rolled hem edging on the cast on as well as the bind off.  With the tail I did a simple whip stitch around the rolled edge and gave it a little tug to cinch it up.   The picture doesn't do it justice.  It's actually really pretty.

Here's the purple(ish) metallic thread in the Tropics skein.

I'm sorry my photos are not the best.  It's snowing heavily in Nebraska without the sun.

Shades of emerald green, red, dark purple and turquoise are perfect for Mardi Gras!  Hobby Lobby had a few other colors that I'm going back for now that I have tried it!

 

I used Stacy Trocks free pattern on her Fresh Stitches site.  You can find that here.  Scroll down and you will find the pattern.  You can also purchase some mill end yarn from her while you're there.

If you try out this yarn and Stacy's pattern, I'd love to see them!

Best,

Sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

Think out of the box....I found these Christmas ornament hangers in the 75% off bin.  That's about $.62 for 100.  I'm going to use them as removable stitch markers.

A Few of My Favorite Things....

A quick post on some of my Christmas presents I received last month.  A Polaroid camera, a Spoonflower book showing you how to make your own fabric from photos and Adele.....love her!

This iphone case from Mous is brilliant!  It unrolls and retracts your ear buds.  That white circle in the middle is a winder.  You pull out the ear buds, which unwinds the winder, then plug in the jack to your phone.  When you're done, just put your thumb on the winder and wind them back up.

A coffee mug with magnets, so cute!

Cadbury chocolate favs, a hedgehog journal, classic quotes from The Godfather, Cath Kidson zippered case, classic ceramic Greek coffee cup, Michael's gift card and a mason jar pins storage with pin cushion on top.  

By the way, do you know what the most famous quote is from The Godfather is?  It's not what you think!

"Leave the gun, take the cannolis"

I didn't get this cutie for Christmas, but I did get this photo with my crocheted blanket gift!  

Thanks for stopping by,

Sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

Having trouble seeing your black yarn stitches?  Put a white napkin or pillowcase on your lap.

Knitting Crush Find

Look at these fun carpet tiles from Flor.com!  I must get some for my knitting studio.  I have a friend that has purchased from this company and she can't say enough about how happy she is with hers.  

Carpet squares that you connect together yourself to make a rug.  You can see that two of the styles are on sale.

I'm partial to this design and it comes in different colors.  One thing I like about this idea is that you can lay them out any which way before connecting them together.  I would like to see how it would look with the tiles all going in one direction.

This one that looks likes sweaters feels cozy and warm to me and comes in different colors.

Now they're not cheap.  The colorful one (top photo) in a 5' x 7' size, which is 12 tiles, would be about $150 plus shipping.  However, I have seen not so interesting area rugs for the same price in stores.  I think It would be worth the money to have something this special.

Which one would you choose?

Here's the link to Flor.

Have a great week!

Sheila

Purls of Wisdom:

Make a knot in an elastic band to keep track of rows on your tablet.  Stretch it slightly, knot it and you're done.  Just slide it up and down as needed.  I couldn't resist adding a charm! If you don't have any elastic, a fat rubber band would do the trick.