Crocheting Archives - Creative Jubilee

The London crochet bag

By Christina Lee| May 30th, 2021|Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

Trying new patterns is a great way to make sure your crochet skills don’t fall to the wayside. I recently picked up a copy of Crochet Dynamite by Jaime Eads Maraia and it’s filled with inspirational gift ideas that go beyond crocheted scarves, towels and blankets.

This time around, I landed on The London Crochet Bag as a means to get creative with my yarn scraps. When tackling a new project such as a handbag, it’s important to not get caught up in intricacies of the end product, and instead, to take it stitch by stitch, line by line.

For the yarn, I used a combination of a multi-colored blue, royal blue, baby blue and violet purple. And for this handbag, it’s better to use the cheap stuff such as the Red Heart Super Saver yarn as opposed to the soft wooly stuff, since it’s a bit tougher and you’ll be schlepping things around.

Making up the body of the bag is the half double crochet stitch. Once you do a line or two, you’ll master it pretty quickly. While you’ll find yourself doing a couple of rows a day, this isn’t a project that’s easy to throw in your purse, since I had to carry four balls of yarn throughout. It might have been easier to just stick with one color, but that probably wouldn’t have been as fun and exciting to make.

Stitching together the components: the body of the bag and the handle made it come to life.

Now the question is, what will you fill it with?

Spreading Holiday Cheer

By Christina Lee| December 10th, 2020|Crocheting, DIY Home, Handmade, Holiday Fun, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

Are you making your gifts, buying your gifts, or do a little bit of both? I guess it’s a little late in the season to be asking you about your holiday gift-giving game plan, but it’s still fun to ask and hear about it. This year, I did a combination of both: making some gifts and buying others. Throughout the year, I went through a number of phases: making coffee cozies, trying my hand at new hobbies (ie: punch needle embroidery and marker drawing) and continuing to build row upon row of my knitted and crocheted blankets. Along the way, I made new friends after starting a new job the previous year and spent time checking up on old friends throughout this hard-hit year. If you haven’t already checked up on someone, it’s a good time to pick up the phone, write an email, send a card or mail a care package. All the while, I decided to dust off my crochet needles and put some finishing touches on my coffee cozies. I love making custom cozies that pair with a plain porcelain cup — especially for the holidays — since most of us are bundled up and ready for a tall cup of hot cocoa. There’s nothing more heartwarming than happiness in a mug.

For once, I ended up getting most of my holiday cards and Christmas gifts out by early to mid-December. Everything was wrapped, stuffed, packaged, sealed and stamped — all ready for my trip to the post office before the holiday rush. Some careful planning on my end helped make a handful of these gifts extra special. The best part about sending these gifts and spreading holiday cheer are the happy faces and photos of their Christmas cheer.

Scrap Blanket Edging

By Christina Lee| October 20th, 2020|Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

Now that I’ve made all the colored panels for my scrap blanket, it’s time to pick up the crochet hook once again to create a border around each of the panels. Because all of the panels are unique in color and texture, but have the same pattern (single crochet), I leaned towards a neutral color to do the edging. I went back and forth on the color: navy blue, dark gray, black or perhaps a lighter shade of ivory, sand or white.

In the end, I landed on black since many of the panels had similar colors and I really wanted each one to stand out and pop. When you lay them next to each other, it almost looks like a mosaic.

Colorful crochet panels

By Christina Lee| June 8th, 2020|Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

If you thought color swatches were only for bedroom and living room walls, you’re wrong. These colorful crochet panels are going to be for my scrap blanket. With three months of shelter in place orders, we all have some extra time on our hands. And with all the non-essential stores still closed, it was about time for me to make use of all the yarn I had stocked up on over the years.

Though I wouldn’t consider myself a hoarder, I have accumulated skeins of yarn left in the closet, unused and without a project assigned to it. I also have many balls of yarn that were partially used, half used and three quarters of the way used. And when you have a big melting pot of yarn of various colors, textures and lengths, it’s only fitting to get a little creative and make yourself a scrap blanket.

The goal is to create at least one color swatch a day. With all this added time, it shouldn’t be that hard to commit. In fact, I think I’ll finish this blanket in record timing!

No ‘one sockiatus’ over here

By Christina Lee| May 10th, 2020|Crocheting, Handmade, Humbling Hobbies and Habits, Oh My Crafts!, Yarn Addict|

I remember attempting to knit a pair of socks in my earlier years of knitting, but didn’t quite make it that far. We knitters and crocheters often start off with scarves and usually make a fair amount of them, until we aspire to do something more with the ball of yarn and knitting/crochet needles. Oftentimes, circular knitting/crocheting can be intimidating but once you take a class, follow a YouTube video or learn to read a pattern, you are soon exposed to a brand new world — a world of making your own clothes!

I’ve been wanting to revisit sock making, but always found it tricky wrapping my fingers in such thin yarn. Coming across this YouTube video on Crochet Ballet Slippers by Heart Hook Home, I got inspired to make these Sunday Ballet Slippers using worsted weight yarn size 4. Author Ashlea Konecny provides both a step-by-step video and written instructions for those who are visual learners like myself.

The best part is, you can make these slippers in a single afternoon. As long as you can make a magic ring, single crochet and slip stitch, you are good to go. But watch out for the notion of “One Sockiatus,” the idea of knitting or crocheting one sock and thinking you’re done with the project when you’ve still got another pair to make. It can offset your progress leaving your feet bare if you end up coming down with that syndrome.

Lucky for me, I was just too darn excited to finish the project!

Star Stitch Crocheted Hand Towel

By Christina Lee| March 28th, 2020|Crocheting, Handmade, Yarn Addict|

It’s been about three weeks with the Shelter In Place order and all of us are doing the best we can staying indoors and only going out when absolutely necessary — or when my dog gives me that look. And since then, we’ve all taken extra precautionary measures: standing a minimum of six feet away from one another, covering up when you cough or sneeze (you should have been doing that if you haven’t already!), disinfecting common areas, and washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. You can count to twenty, sing your favorite song, hum the birthday tune or do a happy dance, but make sure to wash your hands thoroughly.

In the spirit of hand-washing, I decided to go back and crochet some hand towels, since I found myself stocking up on paper towels. I landed on the Star Stitch crochet pattern because I wanted to do more than a single, double or treble crochet, but didn’t want to get too complicated and count. After all, when you’ve got a glass of wine in hand, some munchies and your favorite Netflix show going, you deserve to make it easy on yourself and enjoy the show.

Now sit back, relax and crochet!

Who’s up for a little ‘Stitch & Bitch’ Sesh?!

By Christina Lee| August 8th, 2019|Crocheting, Handmade, Yarn Addict|

It’s easy to go days without dusting or even weeks, but who’s really counting? The fact is, you’re going to get to it… once you have the time and that perfect cleaning companion. I decided now was that time, so I better crochet myself a handy dandy dish towel that’s going to leave my place spotless — and using this organic white cotton yarn was going to be my proof of cleaning.

I decided with the Moss Stitch crochet pattern to give it body and texture for when I really need to beat down on those tables and counter tops, and scrub. But hopefully, we don’t get to that point. I’ve been there and it doesn’t make cleaning any easier. Plus, at the end of the day, I do hope to hang this crocheted dish towel on the rack proudly and make sure it’s not too bent out of shape.

The final touch I added were there sea green stripes to mimic the look and feel of my bath towels. I love adding those subtle accents to give it that homier feel and go beyond a simple white dish towel.

What kind of accents do you add to your crochet projects? Do tell.

Crocheting down the Ljubljana Canal

By Christina Lee| June 30th, 2019|Craft Day, Crocheting, Yarn Addict|

By now, you must know that I hardly leave the house without throwing a knitting or crocheting project in my handbag — and you better believe that going on vacation is no exception. One thing I do know about traveling is that it’s long and tiring, and the last thing you need is a complicated crochet pattern. I decided to go with the Shell Stitch Pattern. It’s repeatable, easy on the eyes and a pattern that I’ve been wanting to try. Lucky for me, I’ve got a good hour going up and down the Ljubljana Canal, so it’s time to take out my crochet hook and get going.

If you can double crochet, then you can easily do the Shell Stitch.

Going along with the beach theme, I picked out Lily Sugar N’ Cream cotton yarn skeins in Coral, Cream, Beach Glass and Sea Breeze and switched colors every two rows. So far, I really like the color, texture and pattern. I am making a kitchen dish towel, but think this pattern would ultimately look better on a big long, plush blanket. Maybe that will be my next project. Who knows?!

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