Holiday Frolic with Jelly Yarn: Free Pattern!

Silly me, after using Jelly Yarn to make some personalized bungee bookmark gifts for my son to take to school (see pattern below), I rather foolishly left it sitting out on the day that he had two friends sleep over.

That's right, 3 grade school boys in a room with 1 ball of Jelly Yarn and a tempting pair of scissors. 

Everything and everyone got wrapped and tied. You could try counting all of the cut ends in the photo but you'd miss some :-)

I'd say there's less than a half of a skein left. Note to self: if providing Jelly Yarn as a party favor, allow 1 skein for every 3-4 kids.

Ready for the....Happy Holidays 2008 Free Pattern? This pattern is very simple and easy and requires only the most basic crochet skills. Full copyright held by Vashti Braha; for personal use only, please share the link to this pattern, not the pattern itself. Thank you.

Book Bling Bungee

Supplies Needed:

• 5mm/H/US8 aluminum crochet hook
• Jelly Yarn, fine weight: small amount
• Some bling (I found these giant acrylic 'crystals' in a holiday display at Michaels)
• 2"x2" (approx.) scrap of Foamies (foam rubber sheet-also at Michaels); I cut mine into a tree ornament shape and punched a hole in the top.
• Hand lotion, small amount (for hook)

1. Don't use hand lotion yet. String bling onto Jelly Yarn ("JY"). Make a very tight slip knot with a loop to fit over your hook. Chain 3.
2. Don't use hand lotion yet. Pull up one bling bead close to hook, chain: this is a beaded chain stitch. Repeat for the rest of your strung bling. You can use hand lotion now.
3. Insert hook into hole that you punched into your foam piece, pull JY strand through, chain 1.
4. Chain about 54--it depends on how tightly you chain and the size of your book. Finished bungee will stretch.
5. Stop using hand lotion (so that your fastening off will stay tight.) Slip stitch into each of first 3 chain stitches to form a ring, slip stitch into the next 2 beaded chains, chain 1, fasten off as tightly as possible. Hide ends behind bling. Write something on foam piece with magic marker if desired.

Peacocks Visit Their Ancestral Home

This is fresh stuff today. Soon after this entry I'll be posting a free crochet toy pattern, so stay tuned. I have a lot of designs that I need to start publishing, some for free and some as instant pdf downloads via Paypal, yay!

Can you find all seven?

I appreciate the diehard faithful readers of this blog; some of you may recall when I blogged here about a peacock nest that hatched in our backyard. The peacocks have been roaming the neighborhood since, and they do visit occasionally. This morning I looked out my back window and this is what I saw. 

The original mottled white babies are all grown up now! Unless they're males; in that case, their tail feathers have not come in yet; but it looks to me like the white ones are females. The 3rd white one that was born here could have been a male and therefore might have been stolen.

Dichroic Pendant Cords

2007 saw new color combinations in other peacocks too; a few have some striking black mixed with the trademark peacock-blue and iridescent greens. Really stunning. 

Inspires me to design jewelry, actually....

Meet Togepi, the Crocheted Christmas Pokemon

!!This is a BIG HIT with Toy Tester Bob and friends!!

I finished it in time for Christmas and frankly, at first I wasn't sure I would. The pattern was in all Japanese. The diagrams are fantastic though and after a few false starts, the rest fell into place quickly. For example, the diagram that I thought was for the head was actually for the bottom. I should have realized that the diagrams are color-coded, so since the head is yellow, so is the diagram. The feet and crown points are not perfect spheres and that threw me off at first, but there is no better way to explain it than the diagrams that were given.
The yarn is Bernat Cottontots because that's what I have in pale yellow and white. (Classic amigurumi is made with worsted-wt acrylic but I think I like Cottontots yarn better for this.)
Was unable to get felt pieces in the right shades of red and blue, and I have a thing for fabric paint anyway, so I went my own way and used it for the details. In the third photo it is freshly applied and very wet. It dried well as you can see in the first pic.
I actually prefer the fabric paint for the surface decorations--it has a durable and shiny-rich surface, but I wish I had embroidered the face so that I could've ripped it out until it was exactly perfect.