another swap!

I love doing swaps and I did another swap on the FreshStitches ravelry board recently.

I made my partner a pink Hootie the Owl because her favorite color is pink. I made her using Knit Picks Swish yarn and a size 4mm hook. She turned out really small and cute! I also wrapped everything in pink and sent along some pink yarn. I forgot to get a picture of everything together, I never seem to remember to do that, I'm always too eager to get it sent off I think.


The person who sent to me made me my own Salty the Crocodile! My son already believes that he is meant for him and I will probably give in eventually, I usually do. Salty has been in my queue for quite some time, he's a handsome croc! I also got some orange yarn, flowers, a key chain and some stitch markers that I should have taken a better picture of but I'm sure they'll show up in a picture someday, the owl is really cute!


I have such a fun time in the FreshStitches ravelry group, there's really a bunch of great girls (and guy(s?)) that hang out in there. There's some fun things coming up in the group this month, there's another Mystery CAL starting up on June 24th! I can't wait to do that, the last mystery was a lot of fun.

A fun trade!

I recently did a fun trade with Tara after she posted a photo of one of her dream catchers on her instagram feed and I fell in love. I think it was actually more of a peek but I knew instantly I loved it!

We decided to swap a toy for it. I sent her a big, cuddly penguin (like the one I made my son for Christmas) for this beautiful dream catcher! It's even more amazing in person!


She makes her dream catchers using pretty doilies, they are just so dreamy to look at. Tara had a sale through instagram on Monday and I managed to snag up two more smaller ones, I can't wait to see those as well. She offers custom dream catchers from her etsy shop as well as felt floral pieces, which are just as beautiful!

monday randoms

Today's post is a bunch of randomness. Just a few things I wanted to share with you!


Remember the overlay mandala I turned into a pillow for a CAL? Voting is now open and you can vote for your favorite mandala! I'm not getting my hopes up for winning because there's a few that definitely have a lot of fans. I had fun participating anyway! Go vote for your favorite!


I made this Roose Monster on Thursday and mailed him out Friday, so I didn't get a better picture than this. The cute monster is off to a son of a friend, the family experienced a heartbreaking loss of their youngest boy last week. My son thought that their other son should have a monster to hug when he's sad.


I participated in a swap held in the FreshStitches ravelry group recently and I made this gnome to gift. It's really cute and I'll be making my own soon. The bottom picture is what I received this week, I love the alien, it's a pattern that has been in my queue for quite some time.



Lastly, google reader is shutting down in July, so that means you need to switch to a new reader if you don't already use something else! I started using Feedly over the weekend, I wish I had found this one sooner! I love how it looks, it makes reading blogs through a reader enjoyable. I even managed to catch up on a lot of blogs I kept skipping for months.

Have a great Monday!

potholder swap 2013

I made potholders! I haven't done made any since May last year and I never even blogged what they looked like! I turned my Granny Hoot tea cozy into two potholders, if you wanted to know. I should take a picture of them, they're the only potholders I have hanging in the house anymore. Although, I'm thinking of changing that again.

I kept seeing pretty potholders popping up in my ravelry feed for the potholder swap held on ravelry. I participated in the swap in 2011 (still love those!) but skipped it last year. I decided after seeing all the pretty potholders to join in again this year! They're only asking for three this time, which made finishing super fast and easy!


I used the Spiral Coaster/Potholder pattern, the same pattern I used to make these coasters. I am in love with them! It was really hard to pack them up and send them off, I wanted to keep them for myself.

I used Bernat Handicrafter cottons and a size G hook. They ended up being almost 8 inches, right in the size requirements!


For the backs, I reversed the colours. I love the way it looks, I attempted to get a picture of how cool the effect is. Not the best picture, the potholders are nice and thick.


There's still time to join in the swap, you have until April 1st to get the potholders in! Now I need to make one of these for myself!

swap with Jacey

Last week I got some swap goodies from Jacey! She knit me these super awesome ballband cloths, they're so big and amazing, I love them! She also sent along the remaining yarn, which I'm super excited to use since I have never tried Knit Picks yarn before. And she even gave me some washi tape on an adorable tiny spool! How cool is that? The purple is so pretty, it's my first washi tape ever and I already get why people love it so much, I feel the need to buy some now!

Thanks again Jacey!

swirl coasters

I made these coasters not long ago for Jacey, she finally got them, so I'm able to share them now! I used this spiral coaster/potholder pattern from Made in K-Town. At some point I'm going to made myself a potholder from this pattern as well since the coasters were so enjoyable to make. The slip stitches around makes these look so good, I'm really happy with how they turned out!


To keep them together, I bought a ring that's used for holding embroidery floss cards and attached the coasters.

holiday swap potholders

Last month, I joined a holiday swap at Freshly Picked. I decided to make potholders to send to my partners. I made them all the same, so it was some assembly line crochet! I made six hexagon potholders.

I used Bernat Handicrafter cotton in country red and off white. I decided to go with the less bright colors to make them, I think they look a bit more vintage with the toned down red.

I will be sharing what these are in a couple days! I am camera-less right now, thanks to my forgetfulness. I shared another color of them on my facebook page this weekend, go on over there if you want to see more!

swap potholders

I did another small swap on ravelry. This one was a Thanksgiving Swap in the Vanna's Choice group, we were supposed to send 3 hotpads to our partner.


I made one of my favorite kinds of potholders using the granny mandala pattern. This one is my favorite out of the set, it was really hard to give up!


I made a hexagon potholder also, this is always a fun one to make. I think I need to start using a bigger hook though, this one turned out a little small. I've had emails a few times about how to put this kind of potholder together, so I took some pictures while I was making this one, I'll be posting it next week sometime!


My partner said she had a blue kitchen, so I made her a blue potholder, hopefully it works with her kitchen! I used the scalloped potholder pattern for this one but changed the edging, I made picots at the top of each fpdc. I really like how it worked out.


I also sent along a dishcloth to match the blue potholder, I sent the blue one that was supposed to go out for the Annual Dishcloth Swap. I managed to forget to actually mail the package, so I missed out on that fun.

ps: the 500 follower giveaway is coming up this weekend!

annual dishcloth swap

I mentioned the Annual Dishcloth Swap not too long ago when I was testing out different dishcloth patterns. I ended up not using any of the patterns I tested out, instead I went with something I accidently fell upon. I discovered this pattern while making this pillow, it was a fudge up but I liked the texture so much that I decided a dishcloth would be great to make!

I absolutely love how these cloths turned out! The texture actually makes me feel giddy, I think it's so great. I took pictures of them on a tablecloth I found at my parent's house, my grandma made it years ago.

robin's egg/hot blue

pale yellow/white

tangerine/peach

hot green/pale yellow

lavender/purple

kitchen set swap

I can finally share what I was up to using these colors! I had a lot of fun crocheting this kitchen set, I used Bernat Handicrafter cottons in indigo, softly taupe, robin's egg and pale yellow. I wasn't entirely sure how well it would all work but I really like how it turned out in the end. I sent a potholder, dishcloth, scrubbie, dishtowel and a set of coasters.


I used the Stir Me Up potholder pattern. To edge it, I used a crab stitch, it's a pretty neat stitch, it was my first time using it.


For the towel I used this pattern, I added a few extra rows to make it a bit longer.


This Stitchy Scrubbie pattern is in Crochet Today magazine, I wanted to make it when I first spotted it, so I was glad for a good excuse to make it. I think it's super cute!


I decided to make a set of coasters using each color from the color scheme. I think it was a nice addition to the set!

I didn't take a solo picture of the dishcloth, I used a ripple stitch pattern from my Crochet Adorned book, nice and simple. I had a fun time putting together this set!

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Today's Creative Blog

2011 potholder swap received!

Yesterday I got some really great mail, my package from the 2011 Potholder Swap came in!


I got great potholders, I'm so glad I decided to join the swap this year.

plum blossom dishcloth

This is the dishcloth I made last month for the dishcloth swap I joined. It's a free pattern I found in Michaels during a shopping trip quite some time ago. You can find the pattern online here. **UPDATE** (since so many are interested in this right now!) the pattern is now linked here for free!

It was a pain in the butt to make, I thought about giving up on it half way through but pushed on. The end result makes the irritation worth it but I probably won't be making another one anytime soon.

the 2011 potholders

First, I want to thank you all for all the sweet comments I've been receiving about the potholders for the 2011 swap! I had a request to show the backs of the potholders, so here they are;



The backs are just a simple circle, the stripe of color is what I joined the front to the back with. I've been making the backs a lot more simple lately, I used to mix up the color more but I like to look at the fronts more. I still like the way the backs turned out with these though. Simple is good.



Now they're all tagged and packed up to be sent out. I really liked putting the tags on these, I found them really cute. So cute, I barely wanted to pack them up!

Have a great weekend everyone! I will hopefully be resting and getting rid of sickness again.