Tangled in Knots

For my annual crocheted Christmas gift, this year I made polar bear ear warmers.  I utilized the pattern created by Hopeful Honey.

In continuing with my rule of only using scrap yarn, I changed the color scheme from brown to all white.

I also modified the pattern to add eyes.  To make the eyes, I created two chain stitches.  Then I made 6 single crochets into the first chain stitch.  I then closed the circle by making a slip stitch into the first single crochet.

One of my friend's nephew adores Elmo, so I decided to make him a hat to wear this winter.

For the children's hat pattern, I utilized my favorite hat pattern by RepeatCrafterMe.  I created the toddler size hat in some leftover red RedHeart yarn.

For the eyes and nose, I utilized another crocheter's pattern.

For the mouth, I created two rows of single crochet in black and decreased on both ends.

I recently found this cute pattern for boat shoes for babies.  I'm hoping they fit the newborn that I made them for!

The pattern (found here) works up quickly and easily and is cute in almost any color.  I created this pattern using tan for the soles and a dark brown for the shoes, but I plan to make several other pairs.

I've been waiting for someone I know to have a baby girl so I could try making this pattern for little baby sandals, and finally my friend's sister is expecting a baby girl.  I'm excited to see how they fit the baby and see them on her feet.

Instead of making the little sandals in two colors as the pattern suggested, I decided to make the sandals in a soft baby pink.  I originally planned to use some cute flower buttons that I had, but I opted for the little crocheted flowers instead because it would be softer on the baby's feet and easier to stitch on.

To personalize these sandals you could easily add cute buttons or crochet stars or other flowers.  This was a relatively simple pattern to follow and it only took me about an hour to make them.

In keeping with Christmas tradition, I created another animal themed gift for my family's gift exchange.  This time I created a pig scarf, hoping that my pig-loving aunt would end up with this gift.  Because everyone knew she wanted the scarf, a game of keep away started making this Christmas's gift exchange even more memorable that last year.  And luckily everyone was nice enough to let her have it in the end.

I got my inspiration from this pattern available on Etsy, but I designed the scarf on my own and I'm not sure that I could recreate one that looks just like it.  I also followed the advice from this blog post in making a curly tail.  The scarf is made completely out of half double crochet and a soft pink yarn.  The most complicated part was making the nose look realistic.  I used small black buttons for the eyes and gave the pig two 3-D ears and four legs.

Some of my friends and I decided to make a gag gift for one of our co-workers after he asked for a crocheted blanket for Christmas.  None of us have the time to make a blanket as we all have several other projects going on for family members.  So we decided to make a bath set of loofas and wash clothes out of scrap yarn instead of an adult size blanket.

I created a loofa as part of the set.  It was super easy and it only took about an hour to complete (pattern here).  Even though this piece was easy to create this is probably the most fun I've ever had crocheting, watching as it curled in on itself.


If you actually want to create these for bathing rather than gag gifts, I would suggest getting a soft cotton yarn as my loofa made from a mint Red Heart yarn is rather heavy and a little scratchy when it's dry.

This series of scarves are all of the variegated scarves that I have made for my mother throughout the years.  Some of these yarns she picked out herself and others I picked for her.  None of these patterns are unique or difficult.  The two on the right are made in all single crochet and the two on the left are made in all double crochet.

The first scarf is made out of a Red Heart variegated yarn of tans, light blues, greens, and browns.  This was the first scarf I made for my mom and it is at least 8 years old now.  This was also at the point when I put tassels on every scarf that I made.

The second scarf is made out of a I Love This Yarn! variegated yarn of dark purples, burgundies, and teal.  I chose this yarn because I loved the combined colors and again I added the tassels.

The third scarf is made out of a really old Red Heart yarn that my mom found in some old yarn a family friend had.  This yarn is called Fiesta Jewel and is made up of blues, tans, clays, reds, and purples.

The last scarf is made with Lion Brand yarn which was soft, but it was difficult to tell if I had made it to the end of a row.  It was also difficult to take the yarn out as the yarn has an invisible thread holding it together that would often get tangled in with a previous stitch.  It did make a beautiful fall scarf with greens, browns, oranges, and burgundies.