Crocheting Craziness!

About six months ago I was fortunate to find a group of ladies here that get together and knit and crochet two nights a week.  I usually keep a knitting or crocheting project on hand but this group made me crazy about it!  Especially crocheting!  I think I like crocheting better, even though I learned to knit as a little girl, because if you make a mistake it doesn't mean you have to go searching for a stitch or drop a stitch or lose count.  I am knitting a tank top right now (that I have had to re-start FOUR times!!!).  It has a lace pattern at the bottom of it and I kept forgetting to either yarn over or knit two together or something because the first three times I either had more stitches or less stitches than I needed.  Then I wised up and added stitch markers so that I can verify my count after each set of 50 stitches.  Made life so much easier!

I titled this post Crocheting Craziness and here I am prattling on about knitting. Watching other ladies crochet and seeing the beautiful things they were making gave me the bug.  Not to mention all of the beautiful yarn that is available in all price ranges.  So I started searching Ravelry and Pinterest and found all kinds of beautiful free patterns.  Then I started modifying the patterns as I became more confident.  Here are some of the goodies that I have made and have listed in my Etsy shop.  I will share patterns for a few of them next week if you would like to try your hand at them!

Sweet little pink clutch.  The flower and leaves are made using embroidery thread.

Another version in spring green.  Each clutch is lined in a coordinating fabric.

  

And finally the white clutch.

Next I  moved onto coasters....

I love this one!  This is my own design.  I crocheted it using white cotton yarn and then dyed it orange.  I decided to buy white yarn as I have plans to make a number of different fruits and veggies and didn't want a bunch of half-used hanks of yarn lying about.  I used Rit Dye and then backed the coaster with orange felt to give it a bit more substance.  I was very happy that it turned out the way that it did (and that I wrote the pattern down!)

This coaster is an adaptation of a dishcloth pattern that I had in my files.  I got it from one of the ladies in my knitting group and modified it.  I love the way that the yarn stripes!

Hope you enjoy these and stay tuned for a pattern!

Happy Crafting and Crocheting!

Kathy