Last year, while attending the Huntsman World Senior Games, I felt inspired to make a little doggie coat for my friends dog, Sunny.  They live in Arizona so they are used to the extreme heat temperatures. St. George, UT, where the Senior games are played, doesn’t have quite the extreme temps that AZ has […]

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I love Sunflowers!  There’s no better time of year to think about Sunflowers than Fall….. And this Stunning Jumbo Sunflower Applique is to die for! Well….. technically the designer didn’t call it a Sunflower….. she just named it Crochet Flower Pattern.  Doesn’t it make a FABULOUS Sunflower though?  I LOVE it and have used it […]

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What an exciting moment it was to see Chloe Kim snowboard her way to the Halfpike Gold in the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics! It was a thrill to watch her third and final run! Knowing she had already taken the gold, she still gave it her all and topped her best score, proving she truly […]

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Valentine’s theme hats are so fun! Today I’m sharing with you, Four Valentine Hats You Will Love! There are SO many fun Valentine Hat patterns available! I’ll show you more at the end of the post, but to start with…. I’d like to share with you 4 patterns that I have personally made and donated […]

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The time of year has arrived to start wearing those wonderful warm cozy crochet hats again!  This Beautiful Autumn Wonderland Crochet Hat is a free pattern over at Croyden Crochet. I love the texture this hat has and it’s quite simple to create with a HDC in one stitch and a SS in the next.  […]

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The time of year has arrived to start wearing those wonderful warm cozy crochet hats again!  This Beautiful Autumn Wonderland Crochet Hat is a free pattern over at Croyden Crochet. I love the texture this hat has and it’s quite simple to create with a HDC in one stitch and a SS in the next.  […]

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I’m a big fan of hats that whip up quickly and look terrific to boot!  In this article I would like to share with you 3 hat patterns that are easy and quick to do….. and adorable too! Little Miss Pom Pom Hat I absolutely adore this FREE Red Heart pattern!  When it was first […]

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What a great way to bring in the end of Summer with another Fabulous End of Summer Crochet Sun Hat by Crochet For You! 5 YEARS MEANS CURED! Last week I had my final visit with my Oncologist!  Though I will miss seeing him….. because he’s a great guy….. I was SO grateful for him […]

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I love this Versatile Summer Crochet Hat so much!  So many ways to dress it up….. or down! I made this hat for the first time in August of 2014 to donate to my Cancer Center.  Unfortunately the photo we took of me wearing it is a little blurry, but I think you can still […]

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Have you tried Planned Pooling Crochet?  I ADORE it!!  I probably spend far too much time doing it!  Whenever I’m at the craft store now…. I’m always checking out variegated yarns and wondering which ones will pool nicely!  I have far too many sitting on my shelf that I want to play with….. but I will […]

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Have you ever had the chance to be under a black light wearing neon colors or even white? It’s a pretty funky experience!  Can you imagine how fun today’s featured hat would be under a blacklight? Today’s free pattern is quick and easy to work up.  Red Heart Hats A Glow pattern calls for a bright yarn […]

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I’m not sure there’s anything more fun than a large group of women getting together.  There’s just something about a sisterhood making connections.  Making it more fun is having a great speaker address those women and then conclude with a light luncheon together.  Good times!

Last week I had the opportunity to serve on a committee involved in putting such an event together.  I was asked to serve on the decorating committee.  When you hold such an event in a large hall, you want to come up with something big!  So large bright tissue flowers became our theme to work around and bring on a bright Spring theme. After all….. I’m ready!  Are you?

There were four of us working on flowers.  (Five if you count Ruth’s husband…..)  Lots of hours were put into creating 60+ large flowers and another 60+ small flowers for the table tops!  They do take a little time since you have to be very gentle with the tissue paper.  Even with that, there’s always a few tears…. but we managed to hide them ok.  I did notice that the stronger, heavier tissue paper had less of a chance to tear.  I would suggest choosing something like that if you have the choice.  There are dozens of tutorials for making tissue flowers on Pinterest

Ruth’s vision of bringing in Spring on the stage front included, making a cute little ‘cloud guy’ figure to add to our vignette.  She got her inspiration from the Trolls movie.

Other items were rubber boots with real tulips, a small rocking chair with a rain coat draped on it,

an open umbrella and lots of paper flowers to dawn the tiny picket fence along with a couple of geese and a rustic looking watering can.  Oh….. and don’t forget the bright glittery letters pinned to the curtain saying “WECOME SPRING!”  It was quite adorable and cheery to look at.

Our table center pieces consisted of two of the smaller tissue flowers put inside a mason jar filled with bright colored Easter grass and wrapped in glittery tulle.

Under the mason jar was a square piece of bright (and glittery) scrap book paper.

Next to the jars, we used Owl clips to prop up a picture of a saying from the same prominent woman that was also pictured there.  The center of the owl clips are bent forward and the ends crossed a tiny bit to use as a space to put in the picture or saying.

The quotes were taken from Kathryn’s great artwork over at Mybestlds.com.

The photos of the women were from a large poster of all of the past and present General Relief Society Presidents available through store.lds.org.  Since they each had a quote under their picture, we included the quote when we cut up the poster.  They turned out about the size of a large bookmark.  This gave us lots of words of wisdom all over the hall…both on the tables and the walls.

We loved how the tables turned out!  The only thing we wish we’d have thought of for the tables was to add bright colored solid napkins.  It would have been fun to use several different colors of napkins, with every table being a different shade of napkin.

We felt the walls needed a little cheering up as well. We made up 6 large posters (16×20) of some great quotes that Chrissy over at TeepeeGirl.com brilliantly created. We mounted them on bright colored poster board and stapled them to the walls surrounded by 5 of the large tissue flowers.

We had plenty of flowers left over and added them in clusters to other areas of the hall.  I’m not sure my pictures convey how large this hall really is!

Since the decorating was done the night before, the decorating committee was asked to help serve the food. The food committee came the night before to help us get everything up, so it’s only fair we help them!

And what was on the menu you say?  Well…… let me tell you!!!  We started off by offering a delicious Chicken Salad Sandwich served on a croissant.  We also had a gluten free option avaialbe by serving the chicken salad on a piece of Butter lettuce.  Since the Chicken Salad recipe didn’t contain any gluten, it only made sense to make it available.  Those gluten sensitive people appreciated that option!

Next was another gluten free item…. the Sweet Kale Salad from Costco.  I freaking LOVE this stuff!  While it is gluten free, you don’t have to be concerned about gluten to fall in love with this one!  If you’ve never had it… you should try it!!  It comes in a package with all the items needed to quickly toss the salad together and serve.  There’s a little package with pumpkin seeds and craisins to add some crunch, and then two packs of a yummy Poppy Seed dressing. Having two packs of dressing makes it easy to only toss together half of the salad at a time if thats all you need.  You’ll find that even kids like it!  It’s a great way to get some really healthy vegetables in them!

The next item on the menu was a yummy little pasta salad made with none other than the famous packaged, Suddenly Salad.  I know, I know….. really?  Why not make a fresh pasta salad?  That’s truly an option for sure, but when you are serving over 200 people with several menu items, this was an easy option to put together.  Add a few chopped tomatoes and cucumbers and voila!  You have a wonderful tasting, attractive looking salad!

And to end the main course, nothing better than some bowls of fresh fruit!  Strawberries, pineapple and grapes.

Then…. there was dessert!!  We purchased plain cheesecakes from Costco, which by the way, are delicious all on their own!!

But, oh….. let me tell you about the toppings we used!  Mmmm…. mmmm.  We offered several choices.  The favorite, by far, was the fresh raspberries with a little drizzle of raspberry sauce.

Next we had chopped up Snickers bars with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Then chopped up Butterfinger bars with a drizzle of chocolate or caramel sauce.

And lastly, yummy chopped Praline Pecans with a drizzle of caramel sauce.  Delish!

Oh, of course we left a few plain pieces for those who didn’t want toppings.

All, in all…. it was a Great Gathering!!  Lots of compliments and plenty of people ready to Bring On Spring!! Luckily the weather cooperated.  It was a lovely day!

I hope this post may have given you some inspirations for your next great gathering, whether it be a womens conference, a wedding or reunion….. whatever the occasion!  Hopefully you now have A Pattern To Follow!

I love bright colors.  They are so cheery and fun.  There’s this yarn that I kept seeing that I knew I needed to pick up and play with.  Cause bright colors are fun.  It’s Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Blacklight.  The neon blend is super fun and one that I knew kids would like.  I also wanted to try Planned Pooling with it, but when I did a chain through of the color sequences, it was about 4-5 ft long!  That’s a little big to make a planned pooling hat….. so I opted to try something else.

First, I decided to finally make my own pattern!  Since I’ve been crocheting mostly hats for cancer patients for the last 5 years, I figured I knew enough stitches and tried enough patterns to try and to it on my own….. so I did!

I felt rather brave giving it a go, but seriously….. how many times does it take to stitch in the round before you pretty much have the sequence down?  Making 200+ hats in the last few years kind of makes me understand how it all works.  Of course, the number of stitches and stitch style change with each hat I’ve made, but the basic pattern repeat is there for most of the hats I’ve made.

I love how it turned out and really love how the Blacklight yarn makes it fun and bright!

Materials needed:

1 skein Red Heart Super Saver Yarn in Blacklight or any worsted weight yarn of your choice.  (I only used about one third of the skein)
Crochet Hook Size US I/ 5.5mm
Tapestry needle for weaving in ends

Abbreviations:
Magic Ring – See tutorial here
Ch = chain
sl st = slip stitch
HDC = half double crochet
BPDC = Back post Double Crochet
FPDC = Front post Double Crochet
beg = beginning
sts = stitches

Sized for Toddler

Start with a magic ring, ch 2

Row 1: 10 HDC into ring, join with a sl st to first HDC (10 st)

Row 2; ch 1, 2 HDC into same st as join, 2 HDC into each st around, join with a sl st to first HDC (20 st)

Row 3: ch 1, 1 HDC into same st as join, 2 HDC into next st. *1 HDC in next st, 2 HDC in next st* repeat** around, join with a sl st to first HDC. (30 st)

Row 4: ch 1, 1 HDC into same st as join, 1 HDC into next st, 2 HDC into next st, *1 HDC into next 2 st, 2 HDC into next st* repeat** around, join with a sl st to first HDC (40 st)

Row 5: ch 1, 1 HDC into same st as join, 1 HDC into next 2 st, 2 HDC into next st, * 1 HDC into next 3 st, 2 HDC into next st* repeat ** around, join with a sl st to first HDC (50 st)

Row 6: ch 1, 1 HDC into same st as join, 1 HDC into next 9 st, 2 HDC into next st, *1 HDC into next 9 st, 2 HDC into next st* repeat** around, join with a sl st to first HDC (56 st)

Row 7-9: ch 1, 1 HDC in same st as join, 1 HDC into each st around, join with a sl st to first HDC (56 st)

Row 10: ch 2, FPDC around first st, BPDC around next st, *FPDC around next st, BPDC around next st* repeat** around, join with sl st to first FPDC (56 st)

Row 11-12: ch 2, FPDC around first FPDC, BPDC around first BPDC, *FPDC next st, BPDC next st* repeat** around, join with sl st to first FPDC (56 st)

Row 13: ch 1, HDC in same st as join, HDC in each st around, join with sl st to first HDC (56 st)

Row 14-19: ch 1, SC in same st as join, *SC in each st around*, join with sl st to first SC (56 SC)

Row 20: ch 1, sl st in each st around (56 st)

Tie off and weave in ends

I hope you enjoy this pattern and will share your thoughts and pictures in the comments!

Please feel free to use the pattern for personal use or for items made to sale, but please give credit back to my site for the pattern.

The first time I saw a color pooled scarf on Pinterest, I went a little crazy!  “That is so cool,” I thought!  “I want to do that!  How hard is it?”  I started looking around on some of the sites that were posting Pins with color pooling.  I watched a few tutorials and and felt like it was something I could tackle, so I went out and bought a couple of skeins of variegated yarn that seemed to meet the specifications that the videos were telling me.  It didn’t come together as easily as I had hoped!  It wasn’t until I watched the Marly Bird tutorial on planned pooling that I was able to get some success.  I would also recommend watching more of her planned pooling videos.   Especially the 10 Secrets to Planned Pooling tutorial.

I was working on a few scarfs, which I will refer to in another post, when I saw the new Red Heart Planned Pooling Argyle Hat (Pattern LW5587) come up on Pinterest…. then I went even a little more crazy!  Since most of what I crochet is hats to donate to cancer patients, this pattern had me excited!!  I went out and found some yarn and decided to use the recommended yarn in the patter.  I picked up Red Heart With Love in both Delightful and Lemon Drop.

I started with the Delightful yarn for the first hat.  This yarn has a color sequence with a long piece of coral yarn.  I was worried it wouldn’t pool correctly since most of the video tutorials I’d seen on pooling said no one color should be longer than 12″  But, It pooled beautifully using the Marly Bird technique! In fact, after I went back to review her videos, I realized she had used that yarn in one of her demos!

I love the large diamonds that the coral color created. I also loved the sharp contrast of the colors used.  When I made the second hat using the Lemon Drop, I found that it was a little hard to see the color change between the light gray yarn and the dark gray yarn. I would recommend using a variegated yarn with very sharp color changes and bright colors for the first few times you try a planned pooled pattern.  It’s much easier to count your stitches and see the changes.

The pattern calls for chaining three repeats in the color sequence.  For my first attempt, I thought I try the traditional method of starting the moss stitch in the chains rather than doing it around the base string of chains as the pattern suggests.  When I did it with the moss stitch in every other chain, three repeats seemed WAY too large for a hat so I decided to try only two repeats.  With just the base chain row done, and the first row of moss stitch, two repeats seemed to fit around my head with a little stretching, so I figured it was fine. But after working the pooling for about 4 inches, I realized it was not long enough to go around my head!  Doing the stitches for several rows pulled the work tighter and the initial length ended up too short.  It wouldn’t even go around my grand daughters head, so I knew I needed to FROG the whole thing and start over!!!

This time, I followed the pattern and did the three repeats with the moss stitch done around the base chain.  I guess Marly knew what she was doing when she designed the pattern. <blush>  I did have a lot of trouble with that base chain twisting and turning on me with the first row of the moss stitch, particularly on the second hat I made. In fact, I redid the first row a couple of times to try and be more careful about not letting the chain twist as much.  However, once you’ve crocheted a few rows of the pattern, you can squish or stretch the stitches more evenly on the base chain as Marly explains in her Finishing area on the pattern, which helps to straighten that chain out. However, I would suggest paying close attention to how Marly is holding her base chain in Tip #4 of the 10 Secrets video. I will definitely be more careful the next time around with this technique.

Here are a few other observations I found on making this hat.

I ultimately ended up using a 5mm hook to make getting the correct number of stitches easier. Of course, that will depend on the yarn you are using and even the dye lot.  I played with a 6mm as the pattern calls for at first, but both shades of yarn I used worked better using a 5mm hook.

I prefer making sure each color has at least 3 moss stitches in each color.  More is even better.  It makes a much cooler looking pattern.  Using the 5mm hook made it easy to keep consistent with the stitches.  I did have to adjust my tension on certain colors to make that happen, but it was easy to do and got to be fairly repetitive, so that I knew what colors to tighten and which ones to loosen.  It will all depend on your yarn as to which hook(s) work out the best.

The hardest part to making color pooling work out right are the turns.  Marly does a great job of showing you how sometimes you may need to really tighten those stitches, or other times actually use up more yarn by doing a HDC or other creative stitches to use up yarn.  See Tip #7 in her 10 Secrets video.  I found that if I carefully made sure that the stitches were in the correct place for the first few stitches on each row,  I really didn’t need to worry that the rest of the row would work out, as long as I was using the correct number of stitches in each color.  I did, however, always glance down during the row just to make sure, but it was always correct as long as that turn was right. Besides…. it’s fun to admire what is happening before you eyes!

Because I donate most of my hats to cancer patients, I made this pattern a little bit longer than the 7″ height suggested in the pattern.  I made my hats from 8″- 9″ long before I started shaping the crown.

Having been a cancer patient, I always liked my hats tall enough to completely cover my neckline and ears. I think most cancer patients feel the same, so therefore, I make sure my hats are longer.  I think you could even turn this pattern into a slouch hat if you went even longer.  However, it would require a second skien of yarn in the same dye lot to do that.  I didn’t have a lot of yarn left taking it to 9″.

The awesome thing about this pooling technique for a hat is that the design should match in the back making the seam almost disappear!!!  However, I found that when stitching down the back, it’s important to make sure the color of yarn you are stitching with matches the color of stitches you’re are whip stitching through.  That required me on occasion to make a knot at the end of a color, pull the yarn through till the right color was there for the next section and then make a knot there too so the yarn wouldn’t slip.

Once I finished stitching the back together, I could go back a snip the yarn after the knot I had made and weave it in so there were no long threads hanging inside the hat.

When finishing the edges, I went back to a 5.5mm hook to do the crab stitch around the bottom of the hat.  I’m sure a 6mm hook would work too.  I liked the crab stitch looking bigger.  It’s a great edge for the hat. I used Red Heart With Love in Pewter to do the trim on both hats.

I like using a Pom Pom maker like this one to make the Pom Pom to finish the hat off.  As long as you are fairly consistent with the amount of yarn you wrap around both sides, they turn out pretty even and don’t need a lot of trimming.

What a fun hat!!  I really like this pattern and will probably make more!  Get out that yarn and hook and tried some Planned Pooling Projects!

I hope you now have another Pattern To Follow!

A diagnosis of cancer is never a fun thing.  Facing the idea of putting poison in your body doesn’t appeal to anyone.  I came close to opting to trying natural methods to fight my Stage 4 Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, but ultimately, after much pondering, prayer and research, I decided to go the traditional route of chemo treatments.

Within 2 weeks of beginning treatments, my hair started to fall out.  The cancer center I went to had an area where they had free hats that patients could take. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t impressed with anything there. I decided, after years of not crocheting, it was time to pull out the crochet hook and see if I could make a hat for myself.

I didn’t have a lot of experience in crocheting at the time.  In fact, I had to go buy a new crochet hook to make the project!!   I had made a few simple things over the years, but I don’t recall ever having a pattern to follow for any of those items.  Just simple instructions from a friend.  And I’d never crocheted in the round before!!

I looked online for a hat I liked and decided to try and make it.  However, having never really read a crochet pattern before, I wasn’t smart enough to pay enough attention to the pattern material instructions to make sure I bought the right kind of yarn!  Consequently, the hat turned out way too large for my head and I had to start over with new yarn.  I had used a bulky weight yarn for a worsted weight project!   But I had learned to try and follow a pattern in the process.  You can read more about how picking a new yarn for this hat pattern lead me to a commitment to make hats for other cancer patients under my About Me page.

I’ve learned a lot about crocheting and Pinterest over the years.  First of all…. now I know there are hundreds of free patterns available online!  Finding them through Pinterest or Ravelry is a breeze!!  At the time I made my first hat, I didn’t realize I could get patterns for free, so I gladly purchased this cute Sarahndipities Cloche pattern by Sarah Anderson Designs available here at Ravelry.com or here at Craftsy.com  Isn’t it adorable?

The hat works up easily and has become a favorite of mine to make. I have tried over the years to always use new patterns when I make hats to donate.  It’s a great learning experience for me and I think it’s fun for patients to have so many cute hats to choose from!  This cloche pattern though, has come back into the donation stash several times over the years because I love the pattern and I think it’s a great hat for chemo patients.  I love how low it comes down over the head and ears.  Something, as a cancer patient, I found to be important to me.

One of the things I love about this pattern is the removable flower that attaches to a button.  It’s such a fun combination! When the flower is off, the button still adds a cute accent.  You can also make additional flowers in ma

ny colors and switch them out easily with the button.

Thanks to Sarah for this awesome pattern!  I hope you enjoy it and now have A Pattern To Follow!

Wanda