Crochet Pillow Cover

A couple of weeks back I posted about this ADORABLE crochet pillow cover that I wanted to do. I have a ton of leftover yarn from Christmas projects and I am in a "lets recover every pillow we own in our entire home" kind of mood lately. The husband gives me a side eye whenever I utter the words, pillow or re-cover. Hey. At the end of the day I'm saving us money by not going out and shopping! Right?! Right. So anyways I saw this adorable pillow and I knew instantly that I could re-create it. So here she is!

I am so excited to add this baby to our collection of teal pillows on our bed. Head on over to check out the other pillows I re-covered already! Also I am linking up for Saw It, Pinned It, Did It with Beautiful Mess and Keep Calm and Carry On.

Knotted Headbands and Scarf DIY Tutorial

So, this year in an effort to save some cash, but still give great and thoughtful gifts, and also try out my old re-learned skill of crochet. I learned as a child, but fell out of the craft and in the earlier part of 2012 I picked the craft back up and was making small items; i.e. washcloths, little appliques for baby clothes....things of that sort. However I wanted to try my hand a a slightly larger project, enter the scarf and headbands. It has been unseasonably freezing in SoCal this winter and thought that it would be the perfect cold weather gift! I made 5 scarves and 2 headbands. (The above photo is a headband and cowl scarf that my mom made for me. She used the same headband pattern as me but changed it up a bit....I'll explain below.)

Single Crochet Scarf

What You'll Need:

Size H or 5mm crochet hook
9 oz worsted weight yarn
Darning needle

Directions:

Chain 17. This can be adjusted narrower or wider depending on the look your going for

R1: Sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across (16 sc)

R2-?: Chain 1.  Turn.  Sc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across (16 sc)
I kept this action going until it reached the length I desired. About 6 feet or so. You can adjust this to accommodate any length!

Take your darning needle and sew in your loose ends.

3 of the 5 colors; Burgundy, purple and med. gray

Light gray scarf with headband

Double Crochet Headband:

This gave me a little bit of trouble because I have such a small pinhead! Nothing fits my head properly! So when I followed the tutorial from All About Ami, the headband just slipped off my head. :-S So I had to super adjust the length. I will adjust her tutorial for all the small headed peeps out there...if you don't have a small head you can follow hers along as written!

What you'll need:

Size H or 5mm crochet hook
9 oz worsted weight yarn
Darning needle

Headband:

Chain55-60, I just chained along and checked the length against my head along the way to see how tight it was. For the gift ones I chained 65.

R1: Dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across.

R2-6: Chain 2.  Turn.  Dc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Finished piece is about 3.4”/8.6 cm wide after six rows.  Fold the crocheted piece in half and sew the edges together with your darning needle.  To create the ruching look, pinch the middle rows of the headband  (approximately Rows 2-5) and sew them together (about 3”/7.6 cm across).  Be sure to pinch the middle rows where the ends of the headband were sewn together to conceal the seam.

Knot:
Chain 10
R1: Dc in 2nd ch from hook and in each chain across.
R2-8: Chain 2.  Turn.  Dc in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. 
Finished piece is about 4.6”/11.7 cm long after eight rows.  Wrap this crocheted strip around the pinched portion of the headband.  Sew the ends together with your darning needle and sew in any loose ends in the knot.

Note: my mom did a twist on the ones she made for me.  She did a half double crochet and did 9 rows instead of 6. She adjusted the knot length as well. I think I wanna try one with a puff stitch! So many options!

Here's some....ahem...bad photo's of them on my head. Please don't mind the poor quality! You can either wear the knot in the center or off to the side. I think I prefer off to the side, but to each their own! Oh and in the background you can see my new throw pillows chilling on my bed!

Turkey, Crafting and Outlets

On Tday we awoke bright and early.....mostly because neither of us turned off our work alarms....GR! I got up and made us breakfast and we lounged on the couch for a bit. I got antsy and decided to head to the garage to start working on my chalk board. About a month ago I was walking our pup and I noticed a vacant garage with a beat up and broken mirror sitting alone in it. I went to our leasing office to make sure it was abandoned before I claimed it. The frame itself had a lot of potential once spruced up, and repainted from the dirty gold color that it was. I pulled out our table and put a coat of teal paint on the front. It still needs another coat, then to make the chalkboard back and re-assemble but I think its looking better already!

Ugly Gold before!

1 Coat of teal paint!

Afterwards we got dressed up and headed to my grandmother's house for all the yummy fall foods, family and good times! We of course ate ourselves into mini coma's, enjoyed good conversation and of course photos with my fam bam!

My and my dad

Of course my mom

Sister from another mister!

LOVE!

Pies, Pumpkins and Leaves!

Of course when we got home we were tempted to hit the sales that started on Thanksgiving, but we didn't give into the temptation and watched some television before heading to bed early. Friday I awoke with every intention of going shopping. I took a shower and our faucet wouldn't turn off! I had to deal with that, but then managed to hit the stores a bit in the afternoon. Got some deals and checked some people off my list. I found some yarn on sale and started some crochet projects as well! In the evening we went to Mr. L's house for a Black Friday get together. Beer and games (of course since D and I are NOT gamers, we of course lost!) and enjoyed more conversation. We love going over and having fun with our second families!

Pretty yarn!

Saturday I got up and ready to head to the Camarillo outlets with my M.I.L. to shop until we drop. And that's exactly what we did. We hit up a local craft fair and then made our way out to the coast. After a MapQuest error we finally hit the mall. Packed to the gills, but manageable. We power walked that entire mall in 4 hours and that was a feat. My bootay hurt pretty bad when we finally got to sit in the car again. Linda managed to get some checks completed off her list, as did I. We had a good time people watching and window shopping for ourselves as well.

Sunday D and I just rested. After that weekend we needed some alone time. It was a whirlwind weekend and I can say that I am ALMOST done with my shopping! I just need to finish up D's gift (HELP!) and some little things to finish up others! Whew! Next weekend task: Put up Xmas Decor.

Flowers Flowers Flowers

I have recently taken up a new skill. Crochet. I learned as a child, but never really honed it and it passed from my repertoire. Recently I have found far too many cute things to make with yarn, so I took it back up again. My mom showed me the basics again and after rifling through my apartment looking for my hooks (failing and needing to replace them) I made several wash cloths and just practiced my basic stitches. While thinking of things to make for upcoming birthday parties, I found a tutorial for flowers, hearts and butterflies on Pinterest. I grabbed some spare yarn and a hook. While my mom and I were talking and watching the tube I made more than a handful. Stay tuned to see the finished items.