A Free Crochet Pattern: Peacock Hood

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I loved crocheting this Peacock Hood!  I was lucky enough to get my hands on a couple of Caron Cakes in Gelato during the initial release.  I knew I wanted to crochet something using the crocodile stitch and, after much frogging and indecision, happened to create this adorable hood.

I must admit, I was originally hoping that this could be a one skein project, but that didn't happen.  It uses about one and a third.  (Which means that I have another Caron Cakes project in the works!)

I used my H hook.

A bit of a disclaimer: This is an untested pattern.  I wrote the pattern using the notes that I made while crocheting.  If you make this pattern I do welcome your comments and corrections, but please be kind.
1. Chain 109.   This is a multiple of 6 + 1, which is generally recommended for a crocodile stitch starting chain.  (It's 18 x 6 and then add one.)

2. Build your feather foundation, also sometimes referred to as the crocodile stitch ladder.  Do this by chaining three (which will act as your first double crochet stitch). Double crochet into the fourth chain from the hook.  *Chain one.  Skip two chains. Two double crochet into next stitch.* Repeat till end where you should work two dc into the final chain.

3. Turn your foundation ladder so that it is hanging down.To make each feather (or crocidele scale), you’re going to work stitches around the posts of the double crochet stitches that serve as the ladder rungs.   *Chain one then five double crochets down the post of the ladder, chain one, and then five double crochets up the post of the other rung pair. Skip the next pair of rungs.*   Continue along the length of the foundation row/ladder working down and then up each set of rungs.  You should end with a feather/crocodile scale in the last pair of rungs for a total of 19 feathers.  Note: You will need to flip your work around a bit as you're working.

4.   At this point your feathers are going to look a bit ruffled.  Don't worry!  This next row works as both the foundation for the subsequent row and locks the previous row neatly into place.  You are now going to work pairs of double crochet, separated by one chain, worked into the gap between one of the pairs of double crochet stitches below.  You will alternate between working your dcs into the space between scales as well as into the gap between dcs.  This means that you should have the same number of double crochet pairs throughout this entire section and that they should line up on top of one another.

5. It's time for another row of feathers!  However, the feathers need to be offset from the row below, so this row will have 18 feathers.  Chain two, skip the first set of double crochets/ladder rungs, and work your feather into the second set.  Continue as before, with five double crochets down the post of the ladder, chain one, and then five double crochets up the post of the other rung pair. Skip the next pair of rungs.


6. Repeat steps three, four, and five until you reach your desired length, to replicate my project you need seven rows of feathers.  It works best to end on a row with 19 feathers.

7. For the final row of the scarf portion of the hoodie the locking in mechanism changes slightly.  Work as step four instructs, however, use single crochet stitches over the first four feathers, switching to double crochet between feathers four and five.  You will mirror this for the other end of the scarf; between the fifth and fourth LAST feathers switch back to single crochet.

8. Now for the hood! Slip stitch (with the v's on the wrong side) to the first double crochet group.  Work 12  feathers into the double crochet row as normal, stopping once you reach the single crochet stitches.

9. Work step four's locking in row, only crocheting in the double crochet stitches.  We are no longer worried at all about the scarf part -- that's finished!

10. Work 11 feathers, this is the offset row so it has one less.

11. Continue working rows of 12 feathers, foundation, 11 feathers until your hood is as high as you'd like.  Mine is 14 row of feathers (not including the scarf portion).

12.  For the final locking in row use single crochet instead of double crochet.

13. At this point you will have what looks like a long skinny rectangle with another rectangle on top of it.  Fold it in half and slip stitch across the top.

14. Weave in ends and enjoy!

I used one of my Lilla Rose Flexi clips as a shawl pin for Catherine's Peacock Hood.  It would be super easy to add some fun buttons or toggles as well.

I'll be sharing this free crochet pattern at these awesome parties! 

Knitting Loom Hat with Red Heart Boutique Twilight Yarn

This post contains affiliate links. I received this yarn from Red Heart.

Catherine is her mother's daughter.  One of her birthday gifts was a knitting loom set.  She was thrilled.  I was thrilled that she was thrilled.  We sorted through my yarn stash and she starting naming projects for the different hanks and skeins she was finding -- which I suppose could be trouble down the line, because I already have projects slated for many of them -- but it was glorious mother and daughter bonding.  We got her set up with the loom and some yarn, and I was excited how intuitive she was about working with the yarn. (She wants to share her project with you all later!)

Of course, I was curious about the looms too.  Since her birthday gift included a whole set of looms Catherine quickly said I should use one too.  While I've been crocheting forever, and knitting since I was pregnant with Dominic, I've never worked with a knitting loom.  It was super easy and fun!  It doesn't replace a set of needles, but it's a great introduction to the world of yarn!  Or just a different way to play with yarn.

Photo Source: Red Heart

For my first ever knitting loom hat I used some Boutique Twilight Yarn in "Romantic" that I received from Red Heart.  This soft and bulky yarn was perfect for loom knitting.  I had a tiny bit of yarn remaining after I finished my hat, so the 59 yards was plenty for my hat, despite my trepidation of running out before I was finished.  As a mom, I have to mention that I love that the yarn is machine washable -- because, let's be honest, EVERYTHING needs to be washed sooner or later when you have kids.

The touch of shimmering metallic thread that runs through this yarn gives it that something special that makes this such a fun yarn!  Check out the Red Heart website for a list of available colors, and while you're there be sure to check out the related knitting and crochet patterns.  

You can also get many of these yarns on Amazon.  Can we say "Yippee!" for Prime shipping benefits?  Have you tried Amazon Prime? Here's a 30-Day Free Trial!

Which of these colors is your favorite?  
I'm particularly fond of "Jaded" today!

What have you made using a knitting loom?  Tell me about it!  Did you like it better than using  knitting needles?  Have you used a loom but never used needles?  

I love sharing my projects around the internet.  You can find me at these parties.

23 Questions (Or What my Daughter Thinks of Me)

I came across this fun little questionnaire through This Felicitous Life and simply couldn't resist.  You can join the link up too!  Catherine, almost five, answered all questions.  Dominic, age one, gave various supportive shrieks.



1. What is something your mom always says to you?

"Brush my teeth."

2. What makes your mom happy?
"When I'm a good girl."

3. What makes your mom sad?
"When I'm a bad girl."

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
"Saying something funny."

5. What was your mom like when she was a child?
"School."

6. How old is your mom?
"21"

Edited to add:
(About three hours later.)
C: "Wait! I got that one question wrong!"
Me: "What are you talking about?"
C: "Those questions for your blog.  You're 31!"
Me: "That's right.  Don't worry about it."
C: "But I don't like being wrong!"


7. How tall is your mom?
"As tall as a grown up."

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
"Blog."

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
"Blog. Nurse.  Have a sleeping baby."

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
"Cause you like to dance.  You like to dance nice."

11. What is your mom really good at?
"Blogging and cleaning the dishes."

12. What is your mom not very good at?
"Making fabric."

13. What does your mom do for a job?
"Blog.  Do laundry.  Driving.  Talking."

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
"Ham and cheese sandwiches.  Dr. Pepper."

15.What makes you proud of your mom?
"When you make yummy zucchini muffins."
(Like these.)

16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?
"Cinderella.  Because on date night you look fancy."

17. What do you and your mom do together?
"School.  Swimming.  Cook.  Dance."

18. How are you and your mom the same?
"We both like to have glasses.  But not the same kind.  Mine aren't anything like yours."

19. How are you and your mom different?
"We wear different clothes."

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
"Because you tell me."

21. What does your mom like the most about your dad?
Catherine: "That he's your boyfriend."
Me: "He's my husband."
Catherine: "Well, where's your boyfriend then?"


22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
"I would say, a store."

23. How old was your Mom when you were born?
"20"

Help me out by shopping at Amazon through my affiliate link.  

It doesn't cost you anything extra, but does give me a few extra pennies.  

Wordless Wednesday: Easter Picture

An InLinkz Link-up

WIWW: What I Wore Wednesday (And the Kids Too!)

This post includes affiliate links. 

It has been awhile since I've done a WIWW.  In fact, I don't think I've done one since Dominic was born!  He's a very handsome baby, and almost four months old already.  Isn't he a dapper little fellow?

Not to be outdone, my sweet girl is getting more beautiful every day.

My four year old photographer, Catherine, managed to get this shot of her brother and me.  (By the way, aren't those bushes amazing?  My living room window looks out at them and I just love it!)  Now, despite my children's attire, this is just a plain old weekday and I am dressed appropriately.  Catherine has been wanting to wear "big dresses" a lot recently and I let her pick Dominic's outfits most of the time.

Shirt: Motherhood Maternity Nursing Collection

Shorts: I've had these forever.  I can't remember where I picked them up.

Headband: Made by me!

Earrings: Similar to these.

I've been having a somewhat difficult time finding inexpensive and cute nursing tops.  I have a few, but I certainly could use some more.  I did just win a giveaway in which one of the prizes was this cute Wild Flower Top Pattern.  I think I might try to modify it a little to make it more nursing friendly. 

I'm sure there are some nursing Mamas out there, what nursing apparel did you love (or hate)?  Those of you who sew, any pattern recommendations for me?

(It doesn't help that I end up changing my shirt half a dozen times a day . . . Being a Mommy is a very messy job.)

I'll be linking up at The Pleated Poppy and I Feel Pretty.

Stella & Dot Sutton Necklace - Green Stone

WIPS

This post contains affiliate links. 

I'm quite a bit south of the Mason-Dixon line, and we currently have snow!  We are expected to get a lot more snow today, so I will be cozily working on my knitting and crocheting while streaming the Olympics. 

I've been wanting to crochet some hats with the half double stitch for a little while. (Take a Craftsy class to learn this stitch!)  I think the stitch would look nice but I've been having a difficult time finding a pattern that I like.  I found this one, but I don't think that the increases are staggered properly.  (Yes, it is a minor detail, but it bothers me!)  My grand plan is to make one (mostly) according to the pattern and then develop my own pattern.  Do you have a favorite half double crochet hat pattern?

Catherine, in all adorableness, asked me to make matching hats for her and Porcupine.  (I'm 34 weeks along today!)  She then clarified that she wants them to be matching monster hats -- so I will have to see what I can fit onto a newborn's hat.  Do you know of any monster hat patterns that would work well for both a newborn and a toddler?

I've been slowly adding rows to Catherine's Poncho/Cape.  (I really need to decide what I am going to call it!)  This project is certainly a work in patience. 

Please ignore the fact that the yarn is still in the bag, and artfully staged on Porcupine's car seat box.

My daughter is even more of a yarn addict than I am.  We made a stop at Michael's on Sunday to check out the Lion Brand yarn sale going on this week and she wanted me to get Vanna's Choice yarn in every color.  I was the one who had to limit us to a handful of skeins.  She is very eager to learn how to crochet or knit.  I don't think she quite has the fine motor skills necessary yet, but I've started letting her play with a hook and yarn.  How old were you when you learned how to knit or crochet?  Or how young have you taught your child(ren)?

I did finish that poor neglected blue hat that I told you about last week.  It was a Work In Progress for about a year for no real reason.  

{Mint Blue Elegant Hat}

 

Rachel: The Philosopher's Wife

I will be sharing this post at the following:

Frontier Dreams with Nicole

Work In Progress with Tami

Yarn Along with Ginny

7 Quick Takes: From Catherine's Point of View

This morning I had zero inspiration for today's Quick Takes.  So I turned to my three year old, Catherine, and asked her what I should blog about today.  Here are the topics that she suggested:

1. Glitter Crayons.  Seriously, why were these not around when I was a kid?  These are awesome.  I don't know where my sister picked them up, but I'm glad that she gave Catherine multiple boxes of them for Christmas. 

2. Dora Coloring Pages. Catherine has two modes of coloring: crazy and meticulous.  (I suspect lots of three year girls are like this.)  I might have helped on some of the diamonds.  Hey, I wanted to color with those cool glitter crayons.

3. Red Flower.  This is one of the flowers from her flower girl bouquet. She loves to carry the flowers around pretending to get married.  (Always wearing a princess dress, of course.)
 

4. The Feast. Catherine received some play food and dishes for Christmas this past weekend.  We've had some pretty amazing make believe meals.

5. Teeny, Tiny Mouse.  This is one of Catherine's go to books.  (Please ignore the fact that I haven't done her hair yet this morning.  We were discussing what to blog about before seven in the morning.  We're not all put together at that time of day.  Especially since I still have morning sickness pretty badly for a couple of hours in the morning.)
 

6. Doctor's Kit.  I don't think I can tell you how many times I've been to the "doctor" this week.  I had my 31 week checkup this week and she didn't understand why I needed to go since she already checked me.

7. A Little Puppy.  This little guy has been Catherine's faithful companion this week.

I'll be linking up with Jen, stop by if you'd like to see more quick takes!  

(Mine will probably be the only ones dictated by a three year old.)

The Orange Hat (A Crochet Project)

I whipped this cute little hat up in the middle of a knitting disaster.  The yarn is a mystery skein from my stash -- but I really love how the color looks!  I had picked a purple to be the accent color, but Catherine was insistent on the light brown.  In the end, the three year old might have been right.

Pattern notes: I used my favorite ear-flap pattern from Repeat Crafter Me.  

I made the "child size" hat, but I did add an extra row of double crochet to the bottom.  I also worked around the entire hat (ear-flaps included) with one row of single crochet.  I think the single crochet round adds a nice finishing touch.  (It's very subtle, but I think that it cleans up all of the edges and looks more professional.)

The flower is a super simple one that I whipped together. This is what I did: Chain five. Join. *Chain three. Three Treble stitches. Chain three. Slip stitch around ring.* Make five petals this way. 

I'm calling this project a success!  I think it's cute and Catherine loves it, so it's a win-win!

I love sharing my creative endeavors!  {Here} and the following are some of my favorite places to party:
More the Merrier Monday, Fine Craft Guild

7 Quick Takes: Halloween Recap

1. Happy Solemnity of All Saints!

2. My girl was an adorable Princess last night.  Due to the never-ending-won't-go-away-morning-sickness I took a somewhat lazy approach to her costume: we already had everything.  I think it worked though.

3. So, we rarely, and I do mean rarely, allow Catherine to have candy so her little haul could probably last her until next Halloween.  (Unless Mommy and Daddy raid the stash . . .)

4. Her favorite item of the night:

5. So last night's Mommy Fail was when I got us lost and accidentally brought the Princess to the same house twice.  Whoops.

6. Conversation I was not ready to have this morning:
        Catherine: Did you eat the Baby?
        Me: No.
        Catherine: Then how did the Baby get into your tummy?

7. There was another big exciting thing that happened for our little family yesterday.  The Philosopher (a.k.a. my hubby) now officially has the title of "Doctor"!

For more Quick Takes visit Jen.  

7 Quick Takes

1. Catherine has realized that some animals eat other animals.  (I don't think she's quite put together what "meat" is, not that she eats it anyways.)  This has lead to some interesting art.  We had a chalk scene that had a dragon eating a rhino eating a cow.  Sadly, the rain has washed away a great portion of this masterpiece, which had help from both Grandmas and one Grandpa.

2. While playing with pipe cleaners yesterday I was showing her how to make "normal" things, like curly springs, flowers, hearts, and letters.  Do you know what she wanted me to make?  A dragon.

3. We read lots and lots and lots of books but the only one that has a dragon in it is Sleeping Beauty (at least that I can remember), somehow it has made quite an impression.

4. At least she thinks that dragons are cool and not too scary.

5. Enough dragons.  I am on a cheese stick kick right now.  (Healthy, right?)  I am really craving The Best Cheese Sticks On The Planet.  Sadly they can only be found at Arthur's, which is roughly 365 miles from where I now live.  Happily, they are about half an hour from my parents . . .  So, do I have any Cincinnati peeps that have enjoyed savoring The Best Cheese Sticks On The Planet?

6. I realized today that I have 36 drafts in my blog folder.  That's a lot of half thought out posts.  A few of them only need a few sentences before they're ready for publication!  I should work on those.

7. Wait, back to dragons!  I think that she may have seen part of Shrek . . .

For more Quick Takes be sure to check out Jen's blog!

7 Quick Takes

My sweet two year old is very talkative.  Here are some of the things that I've heard recently:


1.  " I don't think I like ostriches so much." There's no context for this one.  She just said it out of the blue.

2.  "I'm playing the jump out of the boat game!"  The couch was the boat.

3.  Me: "No, you can't have candy now.  Maybe one piece after lunch."  Catherine, after a brief pause to think: "I don't like that one bit."

4.  While I'm washing dishes: "Watch out for the rats, Mommy!" She saw Ratatouille over Easter.

5.  "Mommy! Mommy! There are dinosaurs in the kitchen!"  If only they did dishes . . .

6.  "Can we sing the Happy Birthday Cake song?"

7.  To wrap things up, my personal favorite (I was washing dishes and she was playing in the living room): "Don't worry Mommy, I won't fall!"  Yep, I stopped washing dishes immediately and we had a long talk about standing on the arms of desk chairs.

What are some of the funny/crazy/bizarre things your kids have said?

Click for more Quick Takes

Wordless Wednesday

A Girl and Her Doodler

Her pig-tails make me smile every time!

Come join in the (almost) wordless fun!  Share your (family-friendly) link below!

Making Earrings out of "Thrifted" Necklaces (A Tutorial)

I recently had a very successful trip to the thrift store.  While I was there I picked up a few necklaces that I didn't really like, but I thought that the beads had potential to be something awesome.

I had some fishhook earring finding on hand from a recent craft store trip, so when I got home from "thrifting" I was able to take apart the necklaces and start working.  (I love being able to work on a project while my inspiration is still fresh!)

I'm sure everyone has their own method for putting together jewelry, but here's what I do:


1. Try to find an activity that will hold Catherine's attention for a least a few minutes.  (She's two-and-a-half and very much at the "Whatcha doing, Mama?" stage.)

2. Get my materials out.  I find it very helpful to make sure that I have everything that I will need before I begin.  Once the beading box is open on the table I really can't leave it unattended.

3. Remind Catherine that she can't play with Mommy's toys right now, but maybe when she's older.

4. Lay out all of the beads and findings that I will need.  This eliminates last second scrambling, and also ensures that you do, indeed, have all of the pieces that you thought you did.

5. Respond to toddler's adamant statement of "I older now." 

6. Put earring #1 together.  This is the easy part of the whole process!  Simply take your head pin and put your beads on.  Use rounded pliers to make a loop at the top of the pin for the actual earring.  Add the earring and then tighten the loop using regular pliers.  Easy peasy.

7. Get snack for toddler.  Again.  

8. Put earring #2 together.  Same as the first.

9. Pick up container of  1,000 seed beads Catherine was using as a Montessori type work.  Hey, it kept her entertained, what can I say?

10. Sit back contentedly  because I just made a cute pair of earrings and Catherine finally got bored and is playing with her toys.

All of the earrings featured on this page featured a "thrifted" element.

If you like these earrings keep on eye on my Facebook page because I'm going to be having some "flash sales" on these!  (UPDATE: This one is over, but there will be more in the future!)

I hope you liked this tutorial on how to make earrings out of thrifted necklaces.  
I'd love to have you follow me!

  
Rachel: The Philosopher's Wife

 I love sharing my projects!  Check me, and many other fabulous bloggers, out  at the following (and don't forget to check my Crafty Links page):
Cowgirl Up