hello!

Well, I really can't believe I let two months go by without posting here! I'm not sure I'm going to get much better about posting too soon, summer holidays are coming up fast (3 weeks!) and I have a lot of family trips I want to do. I don't want to stop blogging at all, it's going to be sporadic for a little while though, hopefully you'll stick with me! I post a lot on instagram still, follow me there if you don't already, my username is @caseyplusthree. Here's some things I've been up to lately.


I'm still loving socks, I started a pair of stitch surfers! I've been moving super slow because of some crcoheting that I have to get done but I still love these and hopefully I will have a pair before the end of the month. I'm using a kit from Must Stash yarn in the Elsa & Anna colors, the yarn is so great to knit with.


I'm doing my second local sale on June 21st, so I've been crocheting toys for that! This time, I'm sticking to having just toys on my table plus a few baby blankets. I'm really nervous about this upcoming sale, it's supposed to be much larger than my first sale. These are just a few of the toys, I have 26 finished right now, I'm not sure exactly how many I need, I'm just not sure what people are going to want to see or buy. Hopefully I sell a few things!

I hope everyone is having a great day and that you're having nice weather. Be back soon!

killer whale

My daughter recently became really interested in killer whales, she spent most of a weekend looking at pictures and finding out facts about them. She said that having a killer whale toy would be really cool, so of course I crocheted one for her!


It's not a big toy, it's 4" tall and 6.5" long. It is a good size for her to just carry in her hands, I would like to eventually make a much bigger one like this killer whale. I didn't follow a pattern for this one but there is a free pattern for one similiar to what I crocheted here.


I think this killer whale turned out pretty adorable! I love to crochet things for my kids that they really want!

lacy hexagon throw FO

Good morning! I have my finished lacy hexagon throw to share that I finished last weekend. It's not a huge blanket but it fits nicely in the corner of my couch. I love seeing it sitting there, I'm so glad that I found and picked up this project again.


Each hexagon is the size of my outstretched hand, the throw ended up 43" in diameter. When figuring out the layout, I started in the center, so the throw ended up in the shape of a big hexagon. I finished each hexagon off with 4dcs in each chain space and I joined them as I went.


To border the throw, I decided to attempt to straighten the sides. It ended up with a bit of a curve but I really like how it looks and you can't really tell after I did the edging. The edging is a v-stitch with a picot in the center in each, they look like little diamonds, it's so pretty!


some blanket info:
color inspiration from this colour crush post found on Emma Lamb's blog
hexagon chart found here
yarn: KnitPicks Cotlin DK in surf, celery, cerise, pomegranate and linen
hook: G(4mm)

happy weekend!

This weekend, I plan on finishing up my lacy hexagon blanket. I've joined all the hexagons into what I think will be the finished size, I'm having a hard time just making a decision! It will be finished this weekend though.


I had planned on doing a craft show at the end of this month, so I was crocheting new toys, some still aren't finished. I ended up having to back out, so there are new toys up in the shop! They feel very spring like to me! You can find my shop here.


Hope you all have a great weekend!

lacy hexagon blanket WIP

I've gotten a start on spring cleaning recently, not something I normally do just for this time of year but dust and clutter have been getting under my skin, so I'm doing it all right now! I was cleaning out my closet that holds my yarn and projects (and tons of other crap) and I found these lacy hexagons that I started last October.


Last September, there was a colour crush post on Emma Lamb's blog with pictures of Bluebellgray rugs. Right away I knew I would make a blanket out of the colors from this palette.

I went to the KnitPicks website and picked out colors to match as best I could. I chose to use Cotlin DK. The colors I picked out are surf, celery, cerise, pomegranate and linen. I think I got the colors to match really close! I'm going to be edging all the hexagons in the linen color.


I chose to make this lacy hexagon blanket after seeing this beautiful blanket! I don't think my blanket will have as deep of a border though, I don't think I bought enough of the linen for that unfortunately. I'm using the chart from this blog post to make my hexagons.

I'm really close to joining all these pretties! I think I may have a pretty lacy blanket by next week.

sock knitting: my first pair!

One of my goals this year was to knit myself a pair of socks. I've thought about knitting socks for quite a long time but never thought I could actually do it, it always looked really difficult to me. I follow sock knitters like Andi and Amanda, they always have such lovely socks coming off the needles, I have serious sock envy when I visit them!


Once I decided that I was definitely knitting socks, I went to the My Sister's Knitter KAL/CAL group to ask questions, everyone there is super helpful and supportive. I really wanted to get some fancy yarn but I talked myself into something less expensive, just in case I decided sock knitting wasn't for me. I ended up going with Knit Picks' Stroll Fingering yarn, I like this yarn a lot and it's not too expensive! I bought it in the Summer Blooms colorway.

I wanted to do toe up socks, so I got myself Knitters Pride Karbonz fixed circular needles in the 32" length and they're US size 1 (2.25mm). These are great smooth needles, I'm glad I got them, they made knitting socks very easy! The writing on the needles has already worn off though, I probably held them too tightly!


I used the tutorial called Two Socks at a Time from Heidi Bears blog. I only did one sock at a time because I don't have a scale to split up my yarn. The tutorial is very clear and picture heavy, I'd send anyone wanting to try sock knitting out over there! For Judy's Magic Cast On, I used this youtube video to help me understand it better.


I thought I'd stick this picture in to show what I found one morning. I woke up to find yarn all over my living room floor and my sock sitting there, it was not a pretty sight. My cat loves to eat my yarn! Luckily he didn't touch the sock, so I didn't have to start over. Just some untangling and I got back to knitting it pretty fast. But, I won't be so careless leaving my socks someplace unzipped again!


Knitting the heel wasn't too bad, I made a few mistakes. For my next sock, I will be using the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern. It looks just like the heel I made but hopefully the pattern can help me not make the same small mistakes again.


I finished one sock on Valentine's Day! I don't really do anything for Valentine's Day but having it finished was a nice treat for myself. I decided on finishing them off as shorter socks, since that is what I normally like to wear. The tutorial I used didn't say anything about finishing off the sock, so I looked around for a good way and decided on doing k2, p2 for 8 rounds. I used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off to end my sock, it really is stretchy!


I had two finished socks on February 25th! They took me about a month from start to finish, not too bad for a first pair. I probably could have done them faster but I got side tracked by shop orders. I can definitely see how people knit so many pairs of socks, I can't wait to get started on my next pair! I already have the yarn and pattern ready to go!

I think that I linked up to everything that I used here, if I didn't or you have any other questions, please ask!

Have you tried sock knitting?

latest happenings

Happy March! At the beginning of every month I wonder how it's gotten here so quickly, days fly by so quickly now that I'm older. I swear they didn't move this fast ten years ago! Anyway, I've got a bunch of random things to share today. Hope you're having a nice weekend!


After I crocheted the first flower doll, my daughter wanted me to make another so she could give it as a birthday present this weekend. I used different shades of green and pink with this one, I think she turned out as cute as the first. I think it's really awesome that my kids want to give my toys as gifts to their friends, it makes me so happy!


Speaking of birthday presents, my mom's birthday was this week and I crocheted her a pair of fingerless Tardis gloves. She's a Doctor Who fan, so I thought she'd like them. The pattern makes a much longer pair than what I made, I left out a few rows.


I had a really great mail day this week! I bought myself a sock bag from Chubby Cloud, the fabric was just too cute to pass up! Both sides are so cute. I also bought a little triangle bag, I'm planning on using it more in the summer for quick trips to the park with the kids, I don't always want to lug a big bag with me.


I also bought some yarn from SpunRightRound after Amanda posted a link in the My Sister's Knitter KAL/CAL group on ravelry. I couldn't resist it, it was screaming at me to buy it! The colorway is called Graffiti, I can't wait to knit up another pair of socks with this yarn!


And speaking of socks, I finished my first pair!! They are not even close to perfect but I love them and don't care! I'll share a big post next week with links to everything I used to make these. After knitting this pair, I really feel like I could be on the verge of sock knitting addiction. A slow moving sock knitting addiction but that's okay! Maybe by the end of the year I can have a few pairs knit.

Once Upon a Time 2014

First, I wanted to say thank you everyone for your kind and supportive comments on my mood blanket post! And for the suggestions on how to go forward with it were helpful, I still need to keep it away from me for awhile but I know I'll go back to it at some point when I won't associate those colors with "moods" anymore.

Today, I'm sharing my year long cross stitch project. It's the newest sampler from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery called Once Upon a Time. I love the patterns that Ashleigh and Amanda come up with, they create such fun and cute patterns! For the past few years, they have been doing year long samplers, I've signed up for the last three years, I haven't managed to get the last two finished but this year will be different! And I will finish those last two at some point! This year's theme is fairy tales, so far we've had Snow White and the Frog Prince.


I almost didn't sign up for this year but my sister talked me into stitching it with her, it's her first cross stitch pattern ever! I'm so glad she talked me into this year, I've been having so much fun stitching these adorable squares. I'm behind on my border but I'm doing mine as I go each month. I can't wait for the March square, I wonder what fairy tale it will be.

You can sign up for the Once Upon a Time sampler here. The price goes up after March 1st, so sign up fast!

no more mood blanket

In the first week of this month, I decided I was done with my mood blanket. It's unfinished and will stay that way for awhile.


I really loved crocheting this square though! It's called the "Not in the Middle" Granny, I love the look of it. I really need to plan out another project using it in the future!

The reason I decided to be done with my mood blanket is that it was just depressing me to make those squares to match my moods. When I started, I thought I would really like seeing my moods every day and I thought it might be nice to see how I might change during the year. There weren't too many "bad days" in there but honestly, some of those "tired" and "meh" days could easily have been bad days, I didn't really want to admit that and put it out there.

I feel better already putting this aside though. I do still love seeing everyone else's mood blankets, so I won't stop eyeing those up!

little flower doll

This is the custom order I was crocheting over the weekend. It's a little flower girl. I searched for patterns and I did find one but I wasn't really happy with its look, so I decided to crochet her on my own. She stands at about 13" tall, that's to the top of her petals, so she's a decent size.


I gave her some girly eyelashes that I just love! And she's sporting adorable pigtail braids. This was a fun doll to crochet, I'm so happy with how she turned out.

this crafty weekend

My first sock is off the needles! I'm so happy with it, small mistakes and all! It felt like it took so long to finish just one sock, it look a little over 2 weeks but I got sidetracked by custom orders, so I don't expect the second to take as long. I hope not anyway, I really want to be wearing these socks soon! I hope to be casting on the second sock today!

Now that I know I can knit socks, I've been eyeing up lots of sock yarns. Not that I wasn't before but now I have an actual reason to buy some of it! I just treated myself to a skein of Spun Right Round yarn, I can't wait to get this amazingness in my hands!


Before I cast on my second sock, I have an order to fill using those colors up there. I'm pretty excited to see this one come together, I started last night and already it's adorable! I'll be sharing what is is next week.

Have a great weekend!

crocheting doubles

I have been crocheting some doubles of previous projects this week!


Turns out the Backson is a really popular character! I finished up my second Backson for a customer recently and as soon as I finished, another order came in, so I'm working on a third. I did write out the pattern while I made the first Backson but I somehow didn't write out the pattern for his head. It wasn't too hard to figure out luckily, I think I got it looking the same. I remembered to write it out this time though, so this third guy shouldn't take too long.


My sister had a birthday this week and she gave me a small list of things she'd want me to make for her. I decided to crochet another big hanging owl for her, she has mentioned more than once that she likes mine, so I decided to finally make one for her. The pattern for this owl is called Macramé Style Hanging Owl. To make it bigger, I used the Navajo plying method.

happy weekend!

Saturday morning I woke up to yarn all over my living room! It made me sick to my stomach but luckily I found the sock still in its bag untouched, my bugger of a cat gnawed off the rest of the yarn to play with.


I spent about two hours untangling the mess and I'm back at my sock again. I've learned my lesson though, I will (hopefully) always remember to make sure my project bags are zipped up right!

I hope you've all been having a good weekend. Mine's been mostly fine other than my sock yarn mishap and now a bug that seems to have struck my oldest down this morning.

I'm finally catching back up on blogs, I cleared out a lot of stuff I don't read from my reader, so I should be able to stay on top of everyone's wonderful posts again! Here's a few I wanted to share, not all are super recent, but that's because I really fell behind!

Look at this patchwork CAT pillow! Lotte modified it from my patchwork dog pillow pattern. I'm so in love with this pillow, I need to find time to make one myself.
I really want to make a blanket using this pattern.
I love this way to organize school records, it's something I really should get on top of! This blog is full of great organizing tips!
Lisa shared a tutorial on how to embroider a "knit" heart, definitely something I will get to sometime!

dead fish cat toy

A few months ago, we got a kitten to add to our family. We named him George, he's an adorable almost five month old orange kitty with a crap ton of energy! He tires us out long before he tires out. I call him our gentle, vicious kitty, he never claws but he will rip you up with his teeth. We love him though.


I decided I should make George a toy, so I made him one with a rattle and catnip inside. I found this cute Skelly Fish toy but since I don't have the book, I just crocheted him from looking at the picture. I think it turned out super cute!


I'm planning on crocheting more for George in the future. I started working on this Nest pattern using a few colors of yarn held together. I will probably be starting over though, I'm not loving how it's looking right now. He needs a bed soon though, he finally trashed the box he's been sleeping in since he came home. He still loves sleeping in it but it's not nice to look at!

I hope you're all having a great Tuesday!

happy friday!

I finally have glasses again, so I can get back to posting! Sitting at the computer was not easy without glasses, so I just didn't do it. I have quite a bit to share, so there should be a few posts up next week, including an update on my mood blanket. I am still working on it and enjoying it!

One of my crafty goals this year was to knit a pair of socks for myself and I'm doing it! After the holidays, I was given a gift card for babysitting my nieces, so I decided I would use it to get everything I needed to knit socks. My needles and yarn arrived a few days ago and I got started as soon as my glasses were ready.




I have been really enjoying knitting this, maybe I'll even have one done before the weekend is over! I'm using this tutorial, it's very picture heavy, exactly what I need. I planned on doing two socks at a time but I don't have a scale to divide my yarn, so I'm just doing one. I'll share more about my socks as I get closer to finishing them.

If you come over to the blog from your reader, you'll see that I changed up the banner! This is the banner I pictured when I had the yarn image made for the site, I'm so very happy with the look now. I also changed the banner in my shop too.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Crochet Swatch Hoop Art: January

I mentioned in my crafty goals post that I was going crochet one swatch a month. I saw this idea last year on a blog but it was knitting swatches in embroidery hoops. I'm going to be doing a crochet swatch each month and put it into a hoop. There are so many pretty crochet stitches and patterns out there that I want to try but I don't want to make a big project out of all of them, there's only so much time in a day (sadly!). At the end of the year, I will end up with a wall full of pretty crochet swatches.





This month, I did the Vintage Fan Ripple. I used Vanna's Glamour yarn, it's much softer than I expected it to be. The pattern was really easy to do and it's so pretty! I'm using a 9" embroidery hoop to finish my swatch art with and backing it with white felt.





Over the year I hope to challenge myself to a lot of different stitches. A couple on my list to try are broomstick lace and the crocodile stitch. Are there any crochet stitches that you have been wanting to try?

mood blanket: week 2

January 6: tired
January 7: tired
January 8: bad day
January 9: bad day
January 10: annoyed
January 11: annoyed
January 12: stressed

Not the best week mood-wise, luckily I picked some nice colors for these moods. While I was cleaning my glasses, they fell apart, so I've been living in a blurry world this past week, I'm not sure when I'll even get around to getting new ones. It's made for a sleepy, unfun week. I think maybe that's where those moods really came from. I'm hoping next week will be happier.

first amigurumi & custom order of 2014

I finished my first amigurumi and first custom order of the year this week! The request was for a pink cat. I searched through patterns and thought I had found a few I might use but I ended up making it up as I went. I'm really happy with how the cat turned out. I really like crocheting as I go without patterns now, it's fun to see an idea come to life!

If you're interested in ordering any custom toys, you can send me a message through my etsy shop, It's Crochet. Most of the orders I get are for custom toys, I definitely don't mind, I've gotten some really fun orders! At some point, I hope to have a portfolio page up too, I get questions all the time about what kind of toys I have made in the past, it would be nice to have a page to send them to.

Hope you're having a great Saturday!

2014 Crafty Goals

I'm not huge on doing New Year's resolutions but I do like to give myself some goals for the year, crafty goals specifically. So, here are my goals for the year, I think this year I will accomplish most if not all of them. I'm very excited about that!

Crochet one square a day for my 2014 crochet mood blanket (on instagram #crochetmoodblanket2014). I'm aiming to share my progress every Monday.

Crochet one swatch a month. I'll be sharing more about this very soon!

Crochet something wearable. I will be crocheting this cardigan soon, I already have the pattern bought and supplies ready.

Crochet each of my children a blanket. I'm planning on giving them each one for Christmas, if I can hold off that long!

Knit a pair of socks. Yarn and needles are on their way already!

Dye a skein of yarn. It will probably be with koolaid but I would love to dye the way Liesl dyed her yarns.

Craft it Forward. A few years ago I did Pay it Forward, I really liked doing it, so I decided to finally do it again this year. I posted it on instagram a few days ago and spots filled up super fast! I'm going to be crocheting gifts for 7 people throughout the year.

Do you have any crafty goals this year?

2014 crochet mood blanket: week 1

Week one of the mood blanket is done! I plan on sharing my squares every Monday. I'm liking how it's looking already but I think it's going to look even better when I get to the second row.



I've decided that the grape color will stand for annoyed as well as stressed/angry, it's a good fit I think. I was definitely pretty annoyed with things for those two days.

January 1: happy/good day
January 2: tired
January 3: annoyed
January 4: annoyed
January 5: meh/boring day

Hope you're all having a great day and are staying warm!