New Crochet Pattern at KnittingGuru

Brand New This Week -  the 'Round the Loop Crochet Scarf Pattern. It's super-fast and easy to crochet. The stitches used are chain, slip stitch and half double crochet. You'll be surprised at the intricate texture you'll achieve using these simple stitches. Even a new crocheter could make one of these in an evening.

The scarves shown are made with Paton's Roving - a soft wool unplied yarn, and Web's Berkshire Bulky - a wool and alpaca singles yarn. Because of the pattern's openness, the yarn texture really stands out so that the scarf looks very different in these two yarns. Suggestions for ways to vary the scarf are given in the instructions. An effective substitute for the bulky yarns, for example, is to use knitting worsted doubled.

These scarves don't take much yarn at all. With one skein of each color, you'll have enough yarn left over to make a matching hat.

You can get your pattern here at Craftsy or Etsy.

I hope you'll enjoy making this quick scarf! Please comment or ask me questions below.

Floral Forms Inspire Fiber Art Jewelry

Flowers are an inspiring source for many kinds of crocheted and knitted jewelry. If you pick a simple floral shape, you can interpret it in thread crochet using perle cotton or embroidery floss. Stitched with tiny hooks, these threads will be dense and will keep their shape. You can wash the rings by hand so they will last indefinitely. 

I'm very fond of Zinnias. They come in many colors and shapes and always look quite bold. I began with a pretty zinnia in gold, orange, and hot pink. First I crocheted the flower. It took shape beginning with a circle and proceeding outward in tendrils of variegated color. Then I crocheted the band in a cotton and metallic dark gold perle cotton. I securely attached the flower to the band. This dramatic ring weighs almost nothing but packs a big visual punch. I hope you like it as much as I do!

This ring is available now at my Etsy shop. Each of my fiber art jewelry pieces is one-of-a-kind so when this ring sells, I could only approximate a similar one.

There's a nifty little app available at Sherwyn-Williams that lets you separate out the colors from a picture you have. Here's what I came up with for the Zinnia: 

 That was a little harsh for me so I ended up choosing these colors in floss for the ring:

 They're similar shades but with a more predominant red/peach tone for the flower's center. 

I hope you enjoy the spring and summer flowers and look to them for inspiration as I do. Please leave your thoughts, comments, etc. below and join in the conversation!

The Search for a Great Sunhat Ends Here!

I don't know about you, but my search for a really great sunhat has been futile. Either they look good but don't keep enough sun off, or they're great looking but I don't want to lug around a big straw hat all day. (What do you do with those big hats when you go indoors?) Most hats I try on keep the sun off but look awful on me.

However, with a ball of cotton worsted yarn and my trusty crochet hook, I've come up with a great solution. My new hat has a definite Retro 1940s look. I really love the elegant fashions of that period and they look just right now, too. Therefore, I'll show you the hat first in a photo montage I just made of Ingrid Bergman wearing it and gazed at adoringly by Humphrey Bogart! (Photoshop is so much fun!)

Of course I can't promise you that you'll look like Ingrid when you wear this hat, but I can promise that if you have just the basic crochet skills, you'll be able to make it quickly, easily and inexpensively. In fact, the hat will cost less than two dollars to make in readily available Sugar and Cream, or Peaches and Creme yarn. The pattern includes suggestions for ways to alter it's design too, so you could easily make a half dozen of these and they'd all look different.

I love the coolness of this hat in pristine white. My design criteria were: coolness, hair-proof style, sun protection, and portability. I used openwork lace for the crown of the hat. All those little holes give it an air conditioned feel. They also minimize the tightness on the head that makes you end up with hat hair! I hate to go indoors, perhaps to a restaurant, and take off my hat only to find that my hair is ruined, don't you?

My second criteria of sun protection is built into this hat through a very tightly crocheted brim. The tightness of the stitches also keeps the brim from flopping. If you happen to be wearing this in a very windy place, the optional head band can be adjusted to a tight fit that will keep your hat from blowing off.

Finally, I like a hat that I can roll or fold up so it fits in a handbag or pocket and this hat certainly will do that. Because of the firmness of the stitching, the hat isn't altered by this and it looks just as good as new when you put it back on. I'll bet Ingrid really would have liked to have this!

You can find the pattern at Etsy and at Craftsy

If you decide to make this hat, I'd love to see pictures of your finished projects!

*** I'm giving away one copy of this pattern to someone (at random) who post a comment about the hat here. A reward will go to someone who takes just a minute to comment! ***