Yarn Bowls (Fantastic Friday Finds)

Today I'm celebrating: Yarn Bowls!

Photo courtesy of cedarpocket

Photo courtesy of JulieKnowlesPottery

Photo courtesy of littlepigpottery

Photo courtesy of maidofclay

Photo courtesy of newmoonstudio

Photo courtesy of aspeerstudio

I just can't pick: they're all fantastic (and such an upgrade from my current method of coercing the yarn away from the drooly toddler)! Which is YOUR favorite?

Make a Difference (Thursday Thoughts)

 Looking for an easy way to make a difference? A church member, Jennifer, recently began SNUGGLES, a work at your own pace opportunity to do some good in this world.

Here's some information in her own words: 

"Dear Friends,

        I was very blessed to have had the privilege to travel to South Africa on a mission trip last October. While there we discovered a need for blankets for the small children that attend the sometimes poorly furnished day cares. While we cannot change all the poverty in the world, we CAN make a difference in the lives of many and so project SNUGGLES was started. SNUGGLES is a volunteer organization dedicated to providing knit or crocheted 6x6 inch yarn squares that will be sewn together (in Africa) into small blankets for the children in the day care centers of South Africa. If you are interested in joining me or know of anyone (friends, grandmothers, aunts, knitting clubs, yarn shops, etc) that you can pass along the information to or who would be interested in this adventure please let me know. Squares of any quantity, any color, any yarn are accepted. Not a knitter or don't know how to crochet? No problem, donations of yarn or monetary contributions are accepted to help assist in the making of these squares and shipping costs to Africa.

        Please consider supporting this life changing experience with your contribution today. It is such a blessing to know that something so small to us can and will make such a difference in the well being of these small children. 

       For addition information please contact me at: snuggles.sa [at] gmail.com."

 I have a whopping 7 squares to contribute thus far (they're great stash busters, by the way), but with my 7, and your 7, and that friend you always wanted to teach to crochet's 7... well, you see where this is going.

 I intentionally left her mailing address out of the pictures/her open letter to protect Jennifer's privacy. Please contact her via email ( snuggles.sa [at] gmail.com ) for more information!

NOW OPEN!

BIG NEWS! 

MY SHOP IS NOW OPEN!

Check it out HERE.

This pattern and others available at: PurpleChairCrochet

Not Knitting (Tuesday Tips)

Crochet is not knitting. (That's your tip. It's likely you already knew that. I'll try harder next time.)

The tools are different.

The stitches are different.

 The terminology is very different.

A lot of people get confused ("What are you knitting?" they ask). I forgive everyone who thinks crochet is knitting.
Especially...

Elephant pattern available from Crochetbury on Etsy

Knit=look Owl Friend PDF Pattern, coming soon to Purple Chair Crochet

Knit-Look Wristies PDF Pattern coming soon to Purple Chair Crochet

 when knit-look crochet is involved. I'm in love! Hope you are too!

Roar. (Fantastic Friday Finds)

 I love Lion Brand. Great price, great yarn, great choice of colors. Perfect for a fuss free look. So, today's Fantastic Friday Find is Lion Brand's Cotton-Ease! It's so soft and the colors are quite delicious, so I completely changed my initial plan from a silky merino blanket for my niece-to-be and bought 5 skeins of the Cotton-Ease because I'm impulsive like that.

 Went for the giant, never ending Granny Square (classic) and was thrilled with the results!

 The colors above (from ruffle edging inward) are Almond, Seaspray, Blossom, Terracotta, Maize, and back to Almond. (I want my next job to involve naming new yarns.)

 Ahem.

 Baby Girl's not made her debut yet, and won't for a couple more months, so for now the blanket is in my clutches-- I mean, safe keeping.

 Starbursty.

 Mmm, okay, enough of that. More about the glorious Cotton-Ease!

 I was so inspired by that yarn that I wrote a pattern for it! Kind of. You see, there are granny circles all over google's search engine. The trouble is, no matter what I tried, it didn't *work*. Simply refused. So I took a little from this one, a little from that one, and combined some of my own brain-power and...

 ...voila! A rug. This "Ruffled Granny Rug" pattern will also be available in my Etsy shop (if I ever get around to it, lazy me.)

Thank you, Cotton-Ease, for all your yummy crochet goodness! What a fantastic find!

I'm Starting a Blog? (Thursday Thoughts)

 I crazy love crochet. I love creating beautiful things. I love following in the tradition of my Grandmother. I love always having *something* on hand to give for a last-minute gift, I love the way the yarn loops and tugs and pulls through and around itself. I love it so much I started dreaming up patterns- literally. Crochet is my outlet for all of life's stress. But my outlet needed an outlet. So now, I blog.

Here's my purple chair. I like to sit and watch my boys play while I make something fun, for me, for them, and now I can share it with you.

This is the guy who inspired it all. A little owl friend I made for my boys, on a whim just because I love them.

His pattern, fondly referred to as "Owl Be Your Friend!" is *Coming Soon* to my Etsy shop. Happy Hooking!