Basket Weave Crochet Bottle Green Hat & Scarf Set

bottle green basket weave hat and long scarf set.

I recently decided to try my hand at a new crochet stitch. It’s called the basket weave and it’s usually used on blankets to give the yarn an extra texture and thickness. Rather than crocheting into the top of the stitch as you move along, the stitch requires that you wrap around the body of the previous stitch, which is alternated every other bit. It makes for something that looks like a textured basket. When I made a test for gauge, the granny square turned out lovely, but it started me thinking how fabulous the basket stitch would be if made into a nice thick soft scarf and hat. The challenge was finding a quality yarn – in a gorgeous color to make it.

bottle green basket weave hat and long scarf set.

That perfect yarn turned out to be cygnet’s acrylic bottle green. One glance at the rich deep green (it is aptly named) and it made me think of pine trees, deep lush fields, summer picnics, and hot camping evenings under the stars. By my logic, what more do you want in winter -when you’re cold, wet, and miserable- than to be warm – and to remember summertime.

bottle green basket weave hat and long scarf set.

I completed the set and have listed it in up for sale my Etsy store. I’ve also been asked to make this in other colors – so keep your eyes peeled here for other colors posted soon!

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6 Sided Granny Square Baby Blanket

6 sided Granny Baby Blanket crochet

My latest Crochet work is a baby blanket using scrap yarn. This has been in the works off and on for the last few months as I would finish a project and then have a bunch of yarn left over. It’s not very big, as I realized it won’t lay flat, but it will do to cover a newborn in a carseat or a moses type basket. You can also see where I ran out of some of the colors – eg. the blue and the Yellow – or where the weights of the yarn weren’t quite the same (thus the double strand green / white edge).

6 sided Granny Baby Blanket crochet - close

I’m thinking I’ll try this again – but learn to modify the Granny pattern (to have more single crochet) in between each set of 3 stitches as it gets bigger. I’m hopeful that will make the blanket lay flat as it develops.

6 sided Granny Baby Blanket crochet

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Reddit Christmas Card exchange

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For Christmas 2013, I signed up for the Reddit Christmas Card exchange. Often with the Reddit gift exchanges, folks don’t just exchange cards, they trade out little things in the cards that work as lovely surprises for their recipients. The person who sent me my card sent me a $15 itunes gift certificate and a lovely of Peanuts stickers. I was excited to receive them both.

In return, I sent my cards (I opted for two rematches for those that didn’t get their cards) out with crochet ornaments made from recycled old Christmas cards and some metallic thread crochet around the border. I had done crochet ornaments to go in my cards (see other posts) but these were a new design (see how to in another post) that I created specifically to be holiday ornaments. Different on each side, they went over well and hopefully will decorate their trees for many years to come.

Photos from the happy recipients below:

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Front of ornament

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reverse of ornament

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If you like these, and would like to buy a couple for yourself, I do have a few posted in my etsy store for sale. For a small sample, check out the mini gallery below:

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