Headbands and Flowers are in!

I apologize I have been off for a while everyone.  I've just been too busy with a new job lately to keep up.  Here we have a stylish adjustable headband.  You can see my future sister in law showing it off here.  I came across a funky headband tutorial on youtube done by OneVirtousWoman.  The headband part was so easy and it didn't take long at all.  I had no idea what a cluster stitch was until I saw her video.  The headband looked neat but I thought I would try and make some kind of neat flower on the headband to bring it out a little.  I really wanted to make something that looked like a hibiscus but nothing looked good from the tutorials.  So then I found a video on how to make the flowers used in this picture.  I made two flowers much like what bobwilson123 did.  I think I made an extra petal on each though.  She put hers on a headband so I thought it would be the right size.  I then attached the two flowers by stitching a button to the headband.

And here are the videos to help you make the same headband I did:

How to Crochet Headband by OneVirtuousWoman on youtube.com

How to Crochet the Flower for the Headband by bobwilson123 on youtube.com

Let the snow melt but continue to crochet snowflakes!

It's a gorgeous day outside for those of us in the midwest.  The sun is shining and the snow is melting away.  Most of us have spring on our mind and are anxious to go out and get our snapdragons and geraniums.  I felt it would be good to share with you all this snowflake I made.  It was my first crochet tatting project I've ever done.  Honestly, I thought I'd never do tatting.  I saw one old lady tatting at the pool when I was a kid and thought she was crazy for working with such tiny thread.  Now I guess I'm crazy too!  I came across the video on how to make this lovely snowflake by tjw1963, aka the crochet geek on YouTube.  I usually look at her videos on how to do the more challenging things.  Now I know what you're thinking, why would you want to crochet a snowflake at this time of year.  This snowflake took me at least 2 hours to learn how to make.  I'm sure it would take less time the more I make of these.  I would like to make a whole bunch of these snowflakes to use as ornaments on my Christmas tree.  In order to give myself plenty of time to work on these as well as other projects in between, I'd be happier to do them now than to do nothing but snowflakes during crunch time.  Crochet shouldn't have to feel like a chore when it's your hobby.  This project may have taken a while but it surely isn't hard to learn.  I urge you to at least give this one a try!

Crochet Snowflake Tutorial on YouTube by tjw1963

As far as getting your snowflake to be stiff, you can do a couple of things.  Most people just starch them and iron over while laid out in a towel.  Others will mix equal parts of crafting glue and water.  Then they will dunk their projects in the solution, get rid of the excess and lay out to dry flat on some old towels.

Simple Shawls

Winter Shawl

I have a very low tolerance for cold temperatures.  When I visit other people's places, I almost always am freezing.  I don't have the heart to tell them though since it's something out of the norm.  My mother taught me how to crochet originally and she taught me how to do the single crochet stitch.  She only showed me how to make that ribbing effect which I thought was normal.  I now know you don't have to have ribbing if you don't want to.  My knowledge of crochet was very basic and beginner like for over 10 years.  I have been a "beginner" up until a few months ago when I started following YouTube tutorials.  The shawl up above is very special to me.  It may look ugly to some, but I love it.  I got some expensive wool yarn someone made by hand at a specialty yarn shop with my mother.  I had never worked with some expensive yarn before but I thought I would give it a shot.  I just fell in love with this wool yarn as it was kind of squishy.  This shawl is so warm and I love it! In the picture below I show you a shawl I've done for a dance.  My husband had a special homecoming dance every year at his college.  I wanted to make a shawl that would look very elegant and still sort of keep me warm for when we went out to dinner.  I also made a hat using a knifty knitter loom.  I really liked the yarn I used for the fancy shawl.  The yarn reminded me of snow.  I had gotten that yarn at Hobby Lobby for a ridiculous price.  It's very funky yarn to deal with so if you haven't crocheted much before, I'd suggest using a more plain yarn until you get the hang of it.  I'm hoping to make another shawl soon but with a nice fancy pattern.

Dancing Shawl

To be honest, I don't really have much of a pattern for making these shawls.  I just chained up until the size I wanted and then single crocheted down the row, chained one, turned and single crocheted in the back loop for each row.  When I did the fringe, I just cut a lot of small pieces and tied them on to the edges of the shawl.