Illinois Crafter

  It's almost the beginning of a new year! So, what does that mean? It means (in the crafting world) its time to start a new temperature blanket (or attempt to make).  What's a temperature blanket you ask? Well its where you have a color chart scale for the weather of the day. I have made up a new color chart graph for the year 2022, then I will use the color for what the temperature is around noon each day.  I am using Caron Simply Soft Yarn:  Grey: -3° and below Off White: -2 to 1° White: 2-5° Blackberry: 6-9° Orchid: 10-12° Grape: 13-15° Iris: 16-19° Plum Perfect: 20-22° Soft Blue: 23-25° Robin's Egg: 26-29° Blue Mint: 30-32° Royal: 33-35° Dark Country Blue: 36-38° Chartreuse: 39-42° Pistachio: 43-45° Green: 46-48° Kelly: 49-52° Dark Sage: 53-55° Baby Sunshine: 56-58° Autumn Maze: 59-61° Gold: 62-65° Neon Orange: 66-68° Persimmon: 69-72° Orange: 73-75° Pumpkin: 76-79° Strawberry: 80-83° Watermelon: 84-87° Neon Pink: 88-91° Fucshia: 92-95° Red: 96-98° Autumn Red: 9...

“The Office” Week One Panel: “Best Boss” Mug Here is Michael Scott’s “World’s Best Boss” Mug I am just loving this piece! My next piece is “The Dundies”  Until Next Time! 

"THE OFFICE" So I just started a "The Office" themed blanket! I am very excited for this project. I have been looking for a reason to make this item for a long time and its finally here. This is not my pattern (the photo above is not mine either) but I will be sharing my finished work with you. The actual pattern was made by Jessica from Psychedelic Doilies. You can get the pattern from either Ravelry or Etsy, I am not sure which one you would perfer so I will leave you a direct link to both sites.  "The Office" Ravelry  or "The Office" Etsy   For the Blanket I will be using a I or 5.5mm sized hook and Red Heart Super Saver yarn for the majority of the blanket. I will be working the blanket using Corner to Corner like the pattern is suggested. The first part that I am started is the "World's Best Boss" Mug. I started working on this a couple of days ago (5/8/19) and I just started to decrease two of the ot...

Melting Down Old Crayons If you have kids then you probably have an endless supply of broken or small bits of crayons at the bottom of the coloring box. Instead of just tossing them in the trash you can do this easy project in the kitchen with the kids.  All you need is:  silicone molds, these awesome Halloween  Pumpkin ,  Ghost , &  Spiders  came from Micheal's  those old dirty crayons that your kids don't want to use anymore Steps: Peel off crayon labels Preheat oven to 300 degrees place your crayon bits into your molds, you may need to brake/cut your pieces into smaller ones depending on the shape of your molds.  Then place your molds into a cookie tray then place that in oven for about 15-20 minutes or until everything looks melted After I took the tray out of the oven I let it cool for 10 minutes, I then placed the molds in the freezer for about an hour so the can harden up.  Depending on the s...

Hexagon Motif Progress  Here is a small sample of my work with the hexagon motif pattern I worked up last week.   You can find it here- hexagon pattern I will be adding my half hexagon motif and my join as you go method in the next couple of days!!! What I have done so far is make a half hexagon and 3 whole hexagons, but only attach 2 and set one a side to add later. In total I have made 9 regular and 3 halves join at random areas, also started on a second color! Hope you enjoy,  Until Next Time!

Hexagon Motif Pattern: I know there are so many different patterns and tutorials floating around already for a basic hexagon pattern but this is mine. Like any other crochet pattern out there, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to do to it! Here is my personal preference on it: Round 1: Start by making a magic circle, (you don't have to start your motif like this, but this is my personal preference when starting a "in the round" project) chain 1 to secure magic circle ends, single crochet, chain  4(counts as a double crochet and a chain 2 gap), *double crochet twice, chain 2* repeat from * to * 4 more times, double once more.  (You will have 6 clusters of two double crochets and chain gaps)  To end the round, single crochet into top of first double crochet (Second chain of first 4 chains) You can end rounds anyway you want, again this is just my personal preference! Round 2: Chain 2 [always counts as Doubl...

Winter is nearly over and it's been a long one. I have been keeping myself busy working in doors on my specialty items!!! I have become well know among my family and friends for my crochet name doilies. I have several styles, I would like to show you a few of them.  This WALLESER Doily was the first one that I have ever gifted. I was extremely nervous to give this to my cousin and her wife for a wedding gift. Some people find these doilies are boring, but I find that, as the years go by they become a cherished household item.  I am going to try to break down the price for everyone;   Side Lilly - (Edge #1) : $19   Plus $2 for each letter (Font #1) Click on the link below to head over to my Etsy Shop to order! Edge #1 - Font #1   This edge is my second most popular:     Small Dots - (Edge $2) : $12   Again- Plus $2 for each letter (Font #1)   Click on the link below to head over to my Etsy...

Happy 2017!  I have been on a VERY big coffee cozy/sleeve kick, I love them! I mean, why not everyone loves coffee. Here is one of my "Valentine" styles. My plan is to make at least 1 coffee cozy design for every major holiday!  I make with red or pink hearts. Band colors are grey, black or white! To get one for yourself visit my etsy shop here!  Halcraftem-Etsy Hope you enjoy, Until Next Time!

I know that I am a little late for the puff stitch band wagon and I know that their are patterns and tutorials out there but this is how I did mine. I used 2 colors of  Caron-Simple Soft(white and blue[Go Colts]), but you can easily use only 1, and a H hook. With White,  Row 1: Chain 10, Sc 9 across. Turn Row 2: Sc in front loops only.  Repeat row 2 for a total of 70 rows.  Cut yarn and sewn ends together.  With Blue, Row 1: Sc in between each side row around band sl st in beginning sc (70 sc)  Row 2: Pull up ch 1, Puff stitch in 1st sc, ch 1, skip stitch one sc, *puff stitch in next, ch 1; repeat from * across, sl st into top of first puff stitch.  Row 3: Sl st into ch 1 sp, pull up ch 1, puff stitch in same ch 1 sp, ch 1, *puff stitch into ch 1 sp, ch 1, repeat from * across, sl st into top of first puff stitch Repeat row 3 for 10 more rows (12 rows)  Cut yarn with 12" of end For closure fold...

This is a basic granny square with some flare, or should I say some ruffles. Is it fairly easy the only difference from a regular granny is the last two rounds...  The best part about this motif is you can make it as big or small as you want... I choose to do only 4 rounds of granny square.  Like I said above its you basic granny, but in case you don't know how to make one here is how I make my grannies... Make a double magic ring;  (but you can use your favorite joining method) Round  1: ch 3, 2 dc in ring, (ch 2, 3 dc in ring) 3 times. ch 1, sc in top of beg ch-3. Round 2: Ch2,2dc around sc.*Ch1,(3dc,ch2,3dc)in next ch-2sp.Repeat from* twice. Ch1, 3dc in next ch-1sp.ch1,sc into top of beg ch-2. Round 3: Ch2, 2dc around sc.*Ch1,3dcinnextch-1sp.Ch1,(3dc,ch2,3dc)in next ch-2sp.Repeat from * twice. (Ch1, 3dc in next ch-1 sp) twice. Ch 1, sc in top of beg ch-2. Round 4: Ch 2, 2 dc around sc. *(Ch 1, 3 dc in next ch-1 sp) twice. Ch 1, (3 d...

Here in my is the month of January of my temperature blanket 2016... I decided to work this blanket in Corner to Corner (c2c), I am working it this way just to be a little different then how most people are working there projects. If was a tough decision to make on what pattern to use. With c2c I can stop the width/length when I feel like the size is right. I was loving the color scheme of all the Robin's Egg and Berry Blue, until we have a heat wave around the 24-25 and put the odd greens in there. Up next is February, lets seen where that leads us... For my temperature color palette, you can look a few post back:  COLOR PALETTE HERE I decided to separate the months with a single row of black yarn.   For c2c pattern : CLICK HERE Until Next Time!

I  know a couple of weeks ago I posted me temple for my temperature blanket color guide, but me indecisiveness got the best of me so I changes it again. as I looked back at what I had I realized I wanted more colors. This is my final decision... I have already started my blanket and have 2 weeks done so I can not change again. Yao here goes   99+ Burgundy  93-98 Soft Red 85-92 Watermelon  80-84 Pumpkin  74-79 Orange  67-73 Sunshine  60-66 Super Duper Yellow/Lemonade  53-59 Dark Sage 46-52 Green 40-45 Sage 32-39 Robin's Egg 26-31 Berry Blue 20-25 Grape 14-19 Iris 8-13 Prefect Plum 2-7 Deep Country Blue (-4)-1 Heather Grey Below -5 Off White Special Date:  Snow Fall: White Rainy Days: Soft Ball Holidays: Silver Sparkle 1st of Month: Dark Grey Special Date colors will be used in the 3rd round of the Hexagon Granny Motfis I am using for the Temperature Blanket Pattern I am using.  ...

As if I don't already have enough projects going I had another idea... Everyone that grew up in the 90's loves Mario! Just need to laminate it to help protect it. Going to make a corner to corner afghan with this graph. plan to start later tonight with it.  Until Next Time!

After much deliberation and a lot of searching for ideas on google, Pinterest, and many different Facebook groups, I finally made a pattern decision!!! I can't even begin to tell you know exciting this makes me. I had no idea how many different ways you can go about making temperature blankets. Between choosing colors template and picking out the pattern, and it doesn't just stop at blankets possibilities are endless.  Any way let's get back to my pattern that I am doing: Granny Hexagon Motif Okay, so this is not the best photo I know that. Darker yarn is always difficult for me to capture, and turn out to look decent. I probably should have made a different motif for this, but since I am already in the middle of this post I am just going to go with it. This is a much better photo then the first, but I just wanted to show that I will doing 3 round when the motif is finished. The first round will be the low of the day, second round will be the high of t...

This is my first completed project of 2016! I am going to try to keep count of every item I make this year. My cousin requested a Slouchy Hat, I am not a huge fan of how this one turned out. So I tweek aroundn with this hat to make the slouch, longer aso it looks "slouchier" I will repost a picture oncenit is finished. I hope someone likes it, because I am still unsure. Until next time!

2016 is here!!! So many goals, so many ideas, so many projects I want to complete. Hope I can show you some of them here. Here is my idea for a temperature blanket. Okay, complete on honesty it is not really my idea. I am just jumping into the band wagon. I first saw the idea on Facebook, the first place I saw the idea came from  Repeat Crafter Me Facebook . If you don't already follow Sarah you should check out her work. Here is her actual website  RepeatCrafterMe . I wasn't a huge template that was used in post  Bernat Colors . So, I decided to change it up, many times! Stage One: This is a few of the many colors that I have of Caron Simply Soft, plus more. I decided I wanted more colors to make it as colorful as possible. At this point I was going to do 10 colors red(hot) to purple(cold.) Stage Two:   This is what is came up with, but I didn't like it. So, back to the drawing board I went.  Stage Three:   Here are a few m...

Next month is my baby's birthday. Can't believe he will be turning 1 in a matter of weeks! I never had a party when my oldest turned 1 and I wish that I had so I am making up for it now. So I am going all out! The theme is Mickey Mouse. Instead of having a traditional "Happy Birthday" banner I am going to make one using the following charts.   I however don't care for the gap between the black and red, so I will be filling in the blank row with another red. You can find many more Mickey inspired letters at this link  "Mickey Letters"   I will be posting more photos of the big party as I complete them. Until Next Time!

So I finally finished the Hiaku Shawl! I think that it is so cute, I am having a very hard time packaging it up to send it to California. It was a very simple 3 row repeat. So pretty! It's a little late for her birthday but, I hope Mandy likes it! I know I do. Again to get this pattern -  haiku-crochet-shawl  also check out -  Rebecca Velasquez's  other patterns on Ravelry! Love that site.  Ravelry Until Next Time!