Crochet Football Hat

The latest addition to collection of artistic crafts. This is a New England Patriots football hat, made specifically for a frequent customer at my work. We met at a local coffee shot and drafted the plans for this hat. Annoyingly, I had to order the patch twice as I sent the first one to the wrong address. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with the finished product. 

Glancing over other websites and blogs I realized that I should post the pattern to the crochet projects I create. I am always looking for inspirations from free patterns, why not share mine too? 

Bear with me. This is my first pattern, and I know it isn't perfect.  In fact it's unconventional, but hopefully it makes sense.


This hat is not made in the round. 
Make a ring. Chain 2 at the beginning of every round

Round (Rnd) 1: crochet 12 dc in ring
Rnd 2: Make 24 FPDC around each dc
Rnd 3: Alternate with FPDC and sc 
Rnd 4: Repeat rnd 3
Rnd 5: Make 2 sc in between each FPDC
Rnd 6: Repeat rnd 5
Rnd 7...Keep going as such until you deem the hat wide enough to fit on the person's head. Stop increasing stitches and crochet down.

Red edging: I used the backwards sc in the front loop, and a sc on the next round (the back loop) to allow myself to keep increasing length of the hat. There are two rows of sc between each backwards sc. 

Credit for sizing the hat goes to: Annie's Picture Perfect Blog

Deserts and Little Bunnies

So, I haven't posted anything lately, and there's very little pictures of food either. That's because I dislike my food pictures. They seem to look better in person, than they do through the camera. To update you on my food ventures I have made a few new goodies. First, I made some Creme Brule with a friend of mine. They were easy to make! I didn't have the torch to harden the sugar on top, so I used the broiler in the oven instead and let it cool down afterwards. 

About a month ago, my relatives invited me to a local restaurant, the Alehouse, where we supported my cousin's brewing ventures. During this event, I incidentally won a giant jug of wart with two packages of yeast. After receiving great advice on preparing the wort, my beer brewing destiny began. Yesterday, Joel and I sanitized all of our equipment and successfully bottled the beer. I plan on making more in the future, however from scratch next time. 

Tonight my honey and I are going to make Budino. My friend, a desert manager at a local restaurant, introducted us to this wonderful desert, and recommended a recipe for us to make it ourselves. We even went out and bought some good whiskey for it yesterday. I hear the better the whiskey, the better the budino. It will be amazing! 

This afternoon I have a friend's baby shower to attend. Figuring that she would have plenty of blankets already, I decided to crochet a little bunny instead. It took me about a week to complete, and I just finished applying the eyes, nose and mouth this morning. I tweaked the pattern a bit, and used a thicker yarn instead of the recommended yarn to get a larger doll. I figured an amigurumi doll was inappropriate for a newborn infant, and I wanted something larger. I also made the ears differently since the bulky yarn did not turn out the way I wanted it to with the original pattern. I would have attached buttons instead of the crocheted circle eyes, but I didn't think buttons were safe for a baby either. And even though you can't see it, there's a small blue tail on his rear too. 

Credit goes to Lion Brand Yarns: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/60480A.html

It's Crochet Time!

After a long hiatus from posting my art on this blog, I've decided to update it. I can't seem to decide upon which medium to display my art creations, and I'm thinking that I should stick with this one. It's easier for me to express my work verbally and post photos on here... or so I'm thinking.

I just finished crocheting around my old ear buds. I saw a photo similar to this online, and thought I'd give it a try. At first I tried the macrame method, with knots, but the yarn became tangled and the kitties took too much interest. I tried again with a size E/4 crochet hook and made a series of single crochets (sc) around the cords. I even made a few slip stitches (sl) at the confluence of the ear bud cords for when I choose to just use one ear bud and hang the other without it getting in my way. Now I can happily listen to Frank Sinatra while stocking the cooler with soda and beer at work.

As of late, I've been working on making a Pokemon Charmander for a friend. I think his body proportions look great, thanks to the free pattern I found online. He has individual fingers, toe nails, and the belly stripe reaches down to the bottom end of his tail. I'm still unsure about whether the eyes look right; I might redo them. I attempted to attach the eyes together with glue, but it's not sticking. I'll have to get the right color thread and sew them on properly. I also need to sew on little eyebrows and nostril lines on his face with black yard, and "attach" fire to the end of his tail. Other than that I'm pretty much done!

The pattern credit goes to: Wolf Dreamer Charmander Pattern