Here is my last hat I crocheted for 2024 for Warmth for Warriors. It is a basketweave hat pattern by Breann Mauldin. This easy crochet pattern features a basketweave brim that works up into a good looking hat. The only changes I did do was add one additional round before starting the basketweave brim portion of the hat. I wanted a little larger hat and this is a good way to do that. I also do count the chain-2 as a stitch throughout as I think it looks better for the basketweave to keep the stitches even in appearance. Using an H (5 mm) crochet hook, my hat is an XL adult size measuring 22.5 ..read more

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas! May your hearts and homes be filled with love and peace this holiday season. And may you have many blessings in the New Year ..read more

I tried out a new mini Christmas stocking pattern. The Alpine Christmas stocking pattern features 4 different sizes you can crochet. The jumbo stocking is about 22 inches long and the sizes go down to the mini stocking which is about 6 inches long. The mini size is perfect for the Warmth for Warriors stockings that I crochet each year. Here is the first little stocking I crocheted using the mini stocking directions. This stocking is a bit wonky as the red yarn was very thin and the white yarn was much thicker but it still turned out to be a cute stocking. Plus I learned and got better with the ..read more

I had the opportunity to participate this year in Operation Christmas Child. Shoeboxes are filled with toys, school supplies, and personal care items for children for Christmas. The boxes are sent all around the world to many different places to bless the children and share the gospel. Our women’s bible study got together and filled 53 boxes this year. Many of us made handmade gifts as well as store-bought goodies to fill the boxes. I crocheted two teddy bear dolls. Here is my girly bear with a skirt that I crocheted. The skirt crochet pattern for this doll is found here. Next photo is of my ..read more

When a crocheter dies they many times leave behind a unfinished project. Often family who find the project(s) don’t know how to go about finishing the item. Sometimes you see these things at thrift stores or estate sales. I am always sad when see them and wonder about the crafter who left behind some work of theirs in progress. I recently was given a big tote with lots of yarn from a friend’s relative that had passed away. Inside the tote, I found this partially finished crochet project. All the yarn was in a bag with even the crochet hook still attached to the project. It looked like a scarf ..read more

Halloween time seems like a good time to share my mutant potatoes. These strange and scary potatoes were grown in my garden this year. I was so surprised when I dug them up and discovered how they had grown into these strange-looking shapes. I found out that these potatoes were stressed and that is what caused them to grow so strangely. There is a good article here about the reasons and how to avoid this from happening. Apparently lack of rain, hot weather and not enough watering are the main reasons that you can end up with potatoes looking like these do. When this happens your harvest will ..read more

Here are a few potholder towel combo ideas. First is a Fall themed potholder from the Dollar Store that I added a towel to the bottom of the potholder. The towel is folded in half and I used a needle and thread to run a baste stitch through the center for gathering. I then gathered the center of the towel to match the bottom of the potholder. Below is a photo of the front with it pinned in several areas. You can either machine stitch the towel to the potholder or hand stitch it in place. For this project, I hand stitched the towel to the bottom edge of the potholder. I was able to hide my st ..read more

Here are a two more baby lovies that I have crocheted for the local hospital. These lovies are crocheted using a ponytail hair tie for the centerhole and then a store-bought stuffed animal used for the center. The first lovey is crocheted using lavender and white yarn with a stuffed dinosaur. This lovey features a round ripple design. Here is the link for the round ripple baby lovey pattern details. My finished size is 21 inches wide. Next is a granny stitch styled lovey with a white dollar store bear added for the animal. The pattern details on how to crochet this lovey are as follows found ..read more

For Christmas in July this year, I cut up some old denim to make mini Christmas stockings for Warmth for Warriors. I cut the denim using a paper template and then just sew around the edges while leaving the top hem unsewn. Once the sewing is done, I turn the stockings to the right sides and fold over the top raw edges to the inside of the stocking. A crocheted top is then added to the stockings. I used some scraps in red, white and blue yarn to add a patriotic twist to a few of the stockings. I have all the details along with several photos for the denim stocking tutorial. While these stockin ..read more

Here is a Dollar Store bar towel with a crocheted topper added. I used a milk jug ring for the hanging loop. This is a quick towel topper as it uses a small triangle shape and about an ounce of cotton yarn to complete. There is no cutting or sewing necessary for this towel topper. I used this free triangle ring towel topper pattern to crochet the project with a few modifications. Because this towel is smaller, at row 3, I did single crochet (SC) decreases (Dec) all across in BLO, then SC in every stitch next row. Repeat these two rows, twice. At row 8, Ch 1, turn. Dec over 1st two stitches (s ..read more