Make Mine Crochet

Hi there!  This year and OK.. I guess last year too I have really gotten back into crocheting.  When we lived in Illinois I used to crochet all the time.  When we moved to Indiana back in 2001 I got into scrapbooking and it was allll consuming and I have the room in my house to prove it.  Ha!  I kind of forget about my crocheting.  How does that happen?  I mean I learned when I was a little girl.  My Mom took a class to learn to crochet and I seem to have come out of the womb wanting to learn and do any craft I see someone else doing!  I'm all oooooo what is that? Can I play too?  Which is why the room I mentioned has supplies for scrapbooking, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch, painting, drawing, Bible journaling... You get the idea right?  Well lately as I mentioned yes... Crocheting it is.  And reading.  Always reading too.  Pretty much always am in the middle of one book or another and always have it with me.... Mostly.  Currently reading The Scrapbooking Mystery series  and I have 13 books from the library sitting next to me just waiting their turn.  Currently I am on book 2!

Anyway back to crocheting.... I've been sharing my projects on Facebook and a few of my friends have asked to share the pics with their friends so I told them I'd get them posted on my blog so the friends of friends would have access to them.  So the pic above is my latest completed project and my first attempt at the "graphgan" technique.  Graphgan is done using the corner to corner stitch (which I love) and then following a graph and using yarn bobbins to create the image in your crocheting.  There is not a specific pattern for this pillow.  I just found the IU symbol thru Google and then used Sttich Fiddle to put it into a graph.  Graphgans are NOT easy.  I had 5-6 bobbins going at a time and if you aren't careful flipping your work you get tangles... If you aren't careful following the graph you get the scramble image that makes no sense... And yes I almost gave up twice! Ha. There are graphgan tutorials here.  You can also Google graphgan or check Pinterest and you will find tons of resources.  There is a tutorial here on how to do the corner to corner stitch.  I love this stitch.  Your project starts with a single square rather than a beginning base chain and then grows square by square diagonally.

I made this pillow as an end of year gift for my Kids Hope friend.  She is in 4th grade and says she loves IU and wants to go to college there.  She saw a Unicorn I made and asked if I knew how to crochet IU and this is what I came up with.  She loved it and said she was taking it to college with her.  Too cute!

This project was a hat for my project at our church called Handmade 4Him which is a year long promotion to make handmade items to include when we pack our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes in November.  I used a variegated yarn from Hobby Lobby in their "I Love This Yarn" brand....and I do love that yarn.  It's awesome!  The pattern was linked to me on Facebook when my Niece saw it and hoped I'd make her a hat... Which I of course did.  The pattern can be found here. It's a quick and easy project.  You'll like it.  

So there are two.... I have lots more to share but blogger is giving me stress at the moment... And no one needs that.  I will be back later with more!  Leave a comment if you have questions and I will try to answer next time.  

Blessings!  

P S. A lot of the patterns I've used are from Pinterest. Feel free to follow my knit and crochet board here:  http://pin.it/Mt8BCVD