Favorite Baby Project Ever Made

   My cousin had a baby five years ago and I crocheted a baby blanket as one of her gifts.  I wanted a blanket that was solid so it would last.  I found a basket weave crochet pattern that I liked.

    I used Lion Brand Cotton Ease yarn (recommended by the pattern writer) which was a 50% cotton and 50% acrylic blend.  I really like that yarn, it was great to work with.  Cotton Ease is now discontinued.  The Lion Brand website says Cotton Ease has been replaced by a cotton yarn called Cotton 24/7, but Cotton 24/7 is 100% cotton, not a blend.

    The link to the basketweave pattern is here:  Crochet basket weave baby afghan pattern.  The pattern was easy to follow and once I got used to doing the forward and back post stitches it worked up very quickly.  The post stitches do tend to eat up a lot of yarn so make sure you buy enough for the size afghan you want to make.

   Here's a picture of the afghan I made.

2015 - My Crafting Year In Review

 I'm counting down to the New Year. Tomorrow is my birthday, then we have New Year's Eve, then we celebrate New Year's Day.  This week is always just as special to me as the week of Christmas.

   Short Review of 2015

       It's been quite a crafting year for me.  I made a lot of projects this year.  I painted, knitted, crocheted and sewed.  I made yard art, built a quilt ladder, fashioned jewelry and I have more pincushions than I will ever need.  I learned a lot this year about what I'm good at, what I like to do, and what I should not try a second time.  I made some lovely projects and others just didn't turn out like I expected.

     I did a lot of organizing this year to make sure I could find my crafting items more easily.  I replaced some of my old tools with new ones.  I added three sewing machines to my collection and re-homed two machines I wasn't using.  

  I made a lot of projects this year with my sewing machine that I love, but my favorite project would have to be the hanging dishtowels with the button closure.  They are so freaking cute and so easy to make it's hard not to love, love, love them.  This post from November has the link to the tutorial I used and some information on how I made my first, but definitely not my last, hanging dishtowels.

   My biggest fail had to be the bathmat I tried to make in January.  The three posts about that fail started here on January 12th, with another on January 13th, and my complete resignation on January 15th.  I ended up buying a bathmat.  I don't know if I will ever try this one again.

   My favorite quilt would have to be the disappearing hourglass in black and white.  I started it on June 3rd and finished it on July 29th.  It's a nice size quilt and I love the pattern the blocks make.  This is a link to pictures of the finish.

   There were so many projects and I had fun with all of them.  I'm working on my updated crafting to do list for next year and I'm looking forward to lots of  projects in 2016.