Creative Mom Cafe

My daughter is getting to the age where she actually is wearing hair barrettes willingly. In the next few weeks I plan to make her some hair bows. I used to keep my hair bows on a ribbon that hung from my dresser. By using a pre-cut, pre-painted piece of wood, I can make her a special hair bow holder with little effort on my part.

Here is what I used for the project- glue, scissors, pre-made ladybug, and red ribbon.

Next I cut the ribbon to the desired length. Then I glued it to the back of the ladybug.

And that’s pretty much it. Now I will have to find a way to attach it to the wall. I might use a small coffee cup hook or even something I could just tape to the back.

There are two ways you can hold the crochet hook. Which one you choose is totally a personal choice. Usually I do the pencil hold method. This is where you hold the hook much like you would hold a pencil.

For me it just feels natural. When I’m doing regular crocheting, I always use this method. When I’m doing Tunisian crochet, I prefer the overhand method.

I think the reason is because with Tunisian crochet, you use and afghan hook. It’s a longer crochet hook with a stopper on the end. Tunisian crochet is a cross between crochet and knitting. You leave stitches on the hook, so you need more hook. To me it’s easier to do the overhand method when working with that longer hook.

It’s just a personal choice to which method you use as they both produce the same result.

The chain stitch is easiest stitch in crochet. When people first learn to crochet, the chain stitch is what they learn first. When I learned to crochet, I loved doing chains since they were so easy and everything else seemed like there was so much to remember! (other stitches aren’t necessarily hard. It just takes practice)

Now that we’ve made our first stitch, it’s time to add some chains.

Yarn over (that is place the yarn around the hook) so that when you pull the hook through the loop(on the hook) that the yarn comes with it forming a new loop.

Nearly all projects start with a foundation chain. The chain stitch is represented on a pattern by the letters Ch. So if a pattern says Ch 108 that means to do 108 chain stitches.

Now that you know the chain stitch, we’ll move onto the single crochet in the next lesson.

March is National Crochet Month. Have you ever wanted to learn to crochet? It is easy and very rewarding as you can create some really cute items in a couple of hours. Before you can begin any project, you start with a foundation chain. We’re going to go over how to begin your chain first.

I read about this method on the Internet when my interest in crocheting was renewed. My grandmother had taught me a different method that I can’t seem to remember exactly. But this one works well.

First hold the yarn between your index and middle finger.

Next wrap the yarn around your two fingers to complete a circle.

Next draw the string up through the circle to make a loop.

Then place your hook through the loop and tighten it.

Now you are ready to start on the foundation chain.

March is National Crochet Month. Crochet is my favorite fiber arts craft and I find it so very relaxing to pick up some yarn and a hook. It’s exciting to learn that a whole month is dedicated to this fun craft.

Sadly I haven’t made much headway on my works in progress. They are still pretty much at the same points they have been for months. I think I crammed too much crocheting in my schedule the months before Christmas that my hands just needed a break. This week I actually picked up my hook to repair an afghan. I have a baby shower next month and must finish the star baby blanket and want to also make some baby booties as well.

The baby blanket is mostly double crochet with the points consisting of three double crochet, two chains, and three more double crochet. I’d love to crochet a layette but since I’ve never made clothing, I’m not sure if I can do it in time for the baby shower.

So this week in honor of Crochet Month, I will be demonstrating on how to do some basic crochet stitches, how to read patterns, and maybe I can work up a free amigurumi pattern.

Crochet is so much fun, so if you crochet pull out your hook and yarn to work on something this month. Or if you don’t know how to crochet, stay tuned as I will be giving step by step instructions on how to get started.

My three-year-old loves those foam beads that come in a huge page for less than $5. You can make necklaces out of them but she just enjoys playing with the beads by themselves. This week we made a bottle cap necklace at a local event. Part of the necklace was actually made out of some of those foam beads. It’s a clever idea and an easy one - that is if you can find bottle caps. I haven’t seem a soda bottle in quite a while although I guess if I started looking I might run across one.

Fist you will need a bottle cap, beads, foam beads, and sting. Pain the bottle cap if desired. Then secure it onto the string so it won’t come off accidentally. Then add beads to each side of the necklace. Add as many or as few as you want.

My daughter loves hers. In fact we took it off for bath time last night and she wanted to put it back on after her bath. From yesterday’s crafts I’ve learned something pretty valuable. Kids love practically anything. It doesn’t have to be a shiny new toy but can be something as simple as a bottle cap and some beads on a string. It just reiterates that crafts for kids are so important. It can be fun to do with them and be their new favorite toy at least for a few days.

Did you remember your green today? Neither did I. But here is a little fun craft that will give you that needed green in a pinch so you can avoided being pinched.

What you will need is some green felt preferably with a sticky back, some stickers, and green paint. It’s best to use the paint that squeezes out of the bottle and that is meant for writing.

Cut out the shamrock shape and then use the paint to go around the edges. Let it dry. Then take your stickers and decorate as you wish. Then remove the sticky back and place on shirt. Now you have your green for St. Patrick’s Day.

If your felt doesn’t have a sticky back, then use a safety pin to attach it to your clothing. This makes for a fast craft and a cheap one as felt is inexpensive.

Making a shamrock can be a fun craft for the whole family since it gives the person the required green for the day as well as gives them a chance to personalize it.

My three-year-old loves amigurumi animals. I had done a pig for my niece for Christmas. The first one I did was too big, so I gave it to her to play with. It wasn’t long that she wanted a baby pig to go with the mama pig. So without a pattern for a small pig, I did this one -

I basically start a round of single crochet and increased it to the size I wanted. I then did a few more rounds to make the body and then started to decrease the stitch to close it up.

The nose I just worked a round of stitches into one end. I used safety eyes and placed those in before stuffing and stitching up the pig. The ears are just a few single crochets together and folded to make an ear shape. I just did a few small rounds for each foot as well.
The tail is just a few single crochets together to make a swirl.

She has really enjoyed playing with it and now the mama pig has her baby pig. At least she is content with just one and I don’t have to make six baby pigs. It was easy to do even without a pattern. Sometimes working without a pattern can be frustrating. Starting out with a small project presents a great opportunity to do something of your own design that is very manageable.

It’s fun to create without a pattern and is easier than you may think. You don’t have to be an experienced crocheter, you just need to think about what you want to create and get started.

This week I have decided that I really need a coin purse. I have a a card carrier that works well for the bank card, driver’s license, etc. But I really have no place to put money. Right now I dump my money on my dresser each night and usually forget about it when I head to town. So instead of buying one, I am going to make one. I had started to make a small crocheted one that is pretty basic. Just not sure I want to finish it -

I’m not sure I want one that buttons. I would rather either have a drawstring or buy a coin purse top that snaps close. Instead of making just one, I might make a few just using single crochet to get a tight weave. I do plan to line my coin purse but like the tight look of single crochet for coin purses.

I have so many half finished projects but making a coin purse shouldn’t take that long.

One project I’ve been wanting to do with my toddler is salt art. Our local play group did salt art. We didn’t get to attend but it sounded like an easy and fun project.

So today we dyed some salt and will let it dry. Tomorrow we will make our art. We made three colors and the salt should last for at least a few projects. Here is the blue salt we did -

We will make our design on construction paper. Then we will take some glue mixed with equal parts water to paint over the design using a paint brush. The toddler should really enjoy this since she loves to paint.

This will be a fun craft and very inexpensive since we already had everything on hand. I hope she enjoys creating the art as much as she enjoyed mixing the colors.

One product that I find very handy to have is an Xacto Knife. But with a three-year-old I really don’t feel confident to have one for doing crafts. So I went in search of a safer cutter knife.

What I found was the Cutter Bee. It’s pen-shaped and the blade is retractable. It comes with 5 blades. The blades are easy to install. I like that the blade retracts. Plus I could put the blade back into the box when I’m not using it if I wanted to be really sure that the blade wouldn’t fall into the toddler’s hands.

I like the design of the Cutter Bee. It’s easy to hold and feels natural. You have to click to use the blade. While I will not be leaving this anywhere near the toddler’s reach, I like this safety feature. If I need to transport it for scrapbooking night, then I can do it safely.

Now that I’ve talked about how much I love the design, just how well does it work?

It worked really well. I gently went around the Scrabble tile and the paper was cut very clean. I’m attempting to make a Scrabble pendant and had wanted a good blade to use for the project. I also want to try iris folding and know I will need a good blade for it to look sharp.

The Cutter Bee worked really well and is reasonably priced at under $10. It comes with 5 blades and a place to put used blades - much like a razor. The Cutter Bee is definitely the product I’ve been looking for. Hopefully now I can cut paper a little straighter and neater.

For my nephew’s birthday, I decided to crochet him something. When I first started crocheting again, he seemed really interested in what I was making and was thrilled when I gave him the project I was making. It was a small purse. I don’t think he liked it because it was a purse but because it was something handmade.

So I thought for his birthday that I would make him something and since I thought about this two days before his birthday needed something quick. I turned to Ravelry and found a cute, easy pattern for a beanie hat. The pattern called for any worsted weight yarn so my Red Heart would work fine. I chose three colors - a main color and then two colors to do a stripe.

I joined each row even though the pattern didn’t call for it. I should have added a chain stitch at the beginning of each row since I joined them. I have a nice diagonal line in the beanie where each new row starts.

Also for some reason my stripe isn’t straight so I will probably frog at least some of this beanie if not all of it. The line is really bothering me although I doubt a 9 year old will notice. Still I would like it be as nice as possible. I had to cut down the number of stitches since I’m making it for a kid and the pattern was for an adult. I think it will fit.

Since his birthday has passed, I’m going to make a beanie for his two brothers. We will only have a few more weeks of cool weather but still but a beanie can be fashionable. So hopefully they will get some wear out of them before next winter.