Mermaid Tail of your Dreams

Mermaid Tail Blanket

A long time friend of mine contacted me after seeing a picture on the internet of a mermaid blanket. She loved them but they are expensive on Etsy and this friend is also 6 foot and some. Getting anything in her size is a challenge to say the least. She is such an amazing person and quickly gave me creative freedom and just asked not to make it overly girly (no pink). I still had a few balls left over from making Aryiana's halloween costume a few years back and some coordinating colors and went over to Ravelry to find a free pattern to work with.

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mermaid-tail-afghan

Blanket is worked from the top to the bottom with a shell stitch. Nice easy pattern to follow along and once you have it down its easy to work while watching tv and what not. I started alternating colors, the first few color change rows are too small and you have a hard time spotting them. After that I started doing three rows in each solid color so they would stand out.

Changes to Pattern

Blanket: This blanket is made to order so I needed it to measure 70" without the tail. The decrease is only 10 rows so I worked my blanket until it was 3-4" shy of 70" and followed the decrease pattern. I also added a shell picot edge to the top of the blanket and stitched it down.

Tail: After working up the tail pattern and attaching it to my blanket I took a step back and realized the tail was way too small for this huge blanket, I needed to make it bigger. I just worked a few rows of SC around the bottom and 3SC in the corners of blanket and added the same shell picot in blue to the tail.

Sure hope she loves it! This beast took about 10 balls of red heart yarn in Wildflower, Blue, Green and Light Blue and almost two months to complete. Shell stitches take a lot of yarn but they have the scale effect that I wanted. Such a great idea and pattern. Have fun with the color changes and decorative edges to make each blanket unique. I can't wait to start on a kid sized one for my little girl, she will love it!

Thanks for taking a look and enjoy!

For Those Baby Girl Toes!

Basic Baby Booties!

Baby shoes are something I never thought I could crochet. I have tried a few different patterns only to end up pulling them out or throwing them away in frustration. So when I found a pattern that had the word BASIC in it I had to pull out the yarn and give it another try. This is a great easy free pattern found on Ravelry, nice and easy to read. Both shoes are made the exact same way, there is no left or right until you put the embellishments on.

ravelry.com/patterns/library/basic-baby-booties

Here is my first pair made with mostly scrap yarn, in my favorite colors. All the yarn is Caron Simply Soft, in white, aqua and red. I also sewed on a small pearl. This pair doesn't have the leaf and flower feel at all.

Second pair of baby shoes made to match a baby blanket. Caron Simply Soft in white and purple, the green is heavier scrap yarn. This pair has the leaf and flower feel and I love that the Simply Soft Yarn has a pearly shine to it that matches the pearl in the flower center.



These baby shoes can be changed up so many was with just embellishments and colors. I cant wait to make some with petal flowers or buttons! So much fun. Thanks for taking a look. Check out the other posting around the blog and Enjoy!

Baby Blankets For All

For All The Babies!

Oh my gosh, I love babies, and everyone I know had a baby this year. Even before genders are known I'm searching over baby blankets I can make, saving them, and considering the yarn I would use. I started on a pattern I had my eyes on for a while after finding out a friend from Florida was expecting a girl in May.

This is a free pattern found on Ravelry. It is worked in a round from the center out and is so stunning that I had to make more.

ravelry.com/patterns/library/fluffy-meringue-stitch-blanket

Fluffy Meringue Stitch Blanket- Made using Caron Simply Soft yarn in the color Cream. This took 5 skeins of yarn and a little over a month to make.

Not only did I get to gift this beautiful blanket but my amazing photographer friend also requested a blanket from me. She sent me a photo and I got to go to a real yarn store for the first time!!!! I picked up some bright pink fiber and headed home to figure out what to do. After much trial and error I chose to knit my fiber with PVC pipe, rather difficult, and very new, but after a few rows I got it down. It was a totally new experience and it was so fun to make.

Fiber Knit Baby Blanket Photo Prop- 1lb 5oz pink fiber and took about two weeks to make.

After making the first fluffy meringue blanket and posted pictures I got a request from my grandmother to make another one for my cousin and his wife who was expecting their first baby girl. In our family we have a tradition to receive a blessing blanket for your first baby. Not the last blessing blanket made.

Fluffy Meringue Stitch Blanket- Made using 5 skeins of Caron Simply Soft in White and took a month to make. 

Honeycomb Baby Bonnet- Extra Caron Simply Soft in White. Works up super fast in less then an hour. 

ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeycomb-baby-bonnet

So I couldn't help myself and had to make another one of these blankets and matching bonnet in whatever color I wanted. I picked a yarn I had a few balls of and work on it on a road trip. 

Fluffy Meringue Stitch Blanket- Caron Simply Soft yarn in Light Green, 5 skeins used and it only took two weeks with a lot of time in the car. 

This blanket and bonnet are available over in the Etsy store, Head on over there for easy purchase and quick shipping. 

www.etsy.com/listing/crochet-fluffy-meringue-baby-blanket-and-bonnet

After so many girly baby blankets I was thrilled to hear of a friend in Utah and his wife were expecting a baby boy. I looked through my yarn and pulled out my six skeins of vintage Caron Dazzle air yarn in a shimmering grey and some Red Heart yarn in black. I also made this cute baby a batman cape, hat and mask. 

Cluster Stitch Crochet Baby Blanket- Worked in Grey and black. Took a little over a month to make. Easy pattern and so many ways to make it look different.

ravelry.com/patterns/library/cluster-stitch-crochet-baby-blanket

Just sent off my most recent blanket to its new amazing little baby girl. A good friend from middle school and his wife just welcome their first baby. After seeing my other blankets she requested a blanket and we spent a good while picking out a pattern she liked and I got started. 

Mayflower Baby Blanket- Worked in Caron Simply Soft yarn in white. Blanket took 6 skeins of yarn and a little over a month to make. 

ravelry.com/patterns/library/mayflower-baby-blanket

Baby blankets are so fun to make, I have another few in mind I would love to make and few more people expecting babies. Hope all the families enjoyed their blankets and new bundles of joy! 

Senor and Senorita Prickles

Crochet Cacti Plants

This idea started after my husband killed his office mint plant. He was stating that his office was a little on the depressing side so I figured I could crochet him a plant he couldn't forget to water and kill. So I hopped online and found a nice easy pattern I could semi follow. The first time around I embroidered a mouth of him and then my amazing child told me that he needed a mustache! BRILLIANT! (she gets it from me) So I picked out that terrible looking smile and TA-DA Senor Prickles was born. He went into the office and even got his own label name tag, how funny. Down below is my first cactus plant, made using the pattern and minor adjustments.

Pattern found via Pintrest.
http://www.stitch-em.com/cactus

Things I did differently

Pot of Dirt: Your pot may be a different size then the pattern. For bigger pots continue the increasing pattern after row seven. If your pot is slightly smaller at the base then you will have to decrease rows to fit your pot. Play with it and see what works for your pot. When getting a pot, try and find a non-breakable one and if your uncomfortable messing with patterns look for one with flat sides. After finished your cacti, stuff your dirt pile with polyfill and weight down your pot. I usually place something heavy (seriously like rocks) in the bottom of my pot so its not easily toppled over

Mustache: Pattern found via Ravlery. Change hook size, yarn weight for different sizes to fit your plant.
http://wichecraft.blogspot/mustache-necklace-disguise

UPDATE! 
Senorita Prickles

After a few months (like 6)  I crochet another loving house plant for myself, Senorita Prickles. This plant involved adding an arm and big bright lips. I created her to be my pin cushion! It was way more convenient then having then in a box! She was made without the use of the pattern, mostly just knowledge of crochet and from doing the first cactus.

Lips: After looking through free lip patterns and discovering all of them where way too big I made up my own pattern.
Ch 7, Sc in 2nd ch from hook, Hdc & Dc in next ch, Hdc Sc Hdc next ch, Dc & Hdc in next chain, Sc in last chain and ch 2
Turn lip over and work back across
Sc, 2 Hdc in next ch, 3 Dc next ch, 2 Hdc next ch, sc last stich and sl st in first sc


Arm: This one is quite easy to do. All I did was follow the first pattern but very short.
Ch 12, Hdc in 2nd ch from hook and all the way across, ch 2 and turn. All the remaining rows you crochet into the back loop only. Switch up the number of chains to make your arm longer or shorter and the number or rows is how round your arm will be.

Flower centers: I simply chose to do my flowers with beads. I have a ton of bead so it was easy to find some great ones to make my plants shine.

UPDATE! 3/18/2017
Senore Prickles the 2nd 

With the re-opening ish of my Etsy shop I knew I wanted to get a Senore Prickles cactus up for sale. I picked a pot that would make shipping easy, I simply didn't want something breakable. I found this awesome red metal planter with handles and knew it would be perfect. I have a few other perfect pots stashed away. I was planning on making another flower topped version when my husband mentioned how great it would be if he had a sombrero hat instead/as well. It was the kind of challenge I loved!

My first hat didn't go as well as I had planned. I hadn't looked at enough pictures and made the hat in a half circle shape instead of a cone shape. I pulled it out and made it again. Cactus plants need that, a lot of re-working.

Although I would love to have a hat pattern available I did just make this one up as I went. I also figured that since all of your cacti are different a single hat pattern wouldn't really work. Next cactus I will try and and write down what I did for this hat and how to make slight adjustments to fit your one of a kind cactus.

Overview

This is a great project and there are so many ways to make it. So many different directions to make a simple cacti. Have fun with your yarn and be creative. Head on over to the facebook page and check out the other neat things that have been created.
www.facebook.com/LyssaLousCustomCraft

Looking to purchase a creation? The Etsy shop is currently open and full of fun new items. Not only that but Senore Prickles with sombrero hat is currently available! Click on over there and see whats there.
www.etsy.com/shop/LyssaLousCustomCraft

Don't see anything that fits what you had in mind? Send me a message via facebook or Etsy and lets create what you want. Custom crafts.

Alyssa