Category: Crochet
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How to Avoid Weaving in Ends in Crochet

If there was one thing that I fully understood in physics class, it was the maxim that entropy rules. Things tend to move from order to disorder, and crochet is no exception. Even though I am very thorough about weaving in the ends on my crochet projects, I still notice that the occasional tail works…
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Blackwatch Plaid Crochet Blanket

According to the Scots Language Centre, the word plaid originally comes from the Gaelic word plaide, meaning blanket. Nowadays, when we hear the word plaid, we think of distinctive checked patterns seen on flannel shirts. Some of these plaid patterns originate from Scottish tartans. The Scottish Registry of Tartans is an official registry of restricted…
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How to Blend Double Crochet Color Changes in a Graphghan

“The Devil is in the Details” Making something from a pattern has its challenges, but it’s generally a safe bet. For me, designing something from scratch typically has an “Oh bleep” moment when I realize that I have failed to consider some major detail. After I finished my first graphghan pattern, The Daisy Pillow, I…
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The Crochet Daisy Pillow

“Measure once and cut twice” was the ironic warning that the professor gave to my daughter’s sculpture class and that saying makes me smile when I think about my long history of crocheting errors. Luckily, with crochet, nothing is permanently ruined, except maybe my ego, and it’s fairly easy to rip out incorrect stitches and…
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The French Ticking Stripe Crochet Throw

I love watching Joanna Gaines and Erin Napier transform homes on HGTV, and I so wish that I had their talent. I am way more hit or miss in my decorating abilities, and I’ve had some major misses. I once picked out what I thought was a nice gray paint color for the exterior of…
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Free Rainbow Bobble Crochet Blanket Pattern

“Now I know we had no moneyBut I was rich as I could beIn my coat of many colorsMy momma made for me.”Dolly Parton A lot has been written about grit and how important it is for success. The psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth has given a TED Talk about how when working as math teacher…
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How to Crochet a Rope Basket

I’ll never forget my reaction after the winner was announced on the first season of the Great British Bake Off. I went bananas. Flaming bananas. Bananas Foster bananas. After watching the contestants labor over 30 different baking challenges for 10 episodes under intense time pressure and with exacting judges, what did the winner get? A…
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Free Rugby Striped Toddler Blanket Crochet Pattern

When my son was little, he was a Linus. He went everywhere with his favorite “Yucky Blankie.” Yucky started out as a nice white cotton blanket, but with love, ended up as a dingy, knotted ball of string. Once, I washed him (yes, him) and accidentally forgot to remove something red from the washer beforehand.…
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The Arrow Stitch Crochet Blanket

The Footprints in the Sand poem always makes me cry. Someone left a copy in my hospital room after I gave birth to my first child, and with all of the happiness and hormones flowing, I sobbed at the poem’s reminder of those who have carried us through tough times and whom we often take…
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Making Crochet Pleats to Shape a Beach Tote

When I first learned about The Marshmallow Test, I wondered if I would have passed. If you aren’t familiar with it, the test involves giving a child the choice between eating a marshmallow now or having the self-control to wait for a short period of time thereby earning two marshmallows. My initial understanding was that…
