Happy Independence day! To celebrate this colorful holiday, I made a crochet bralette bikini top in red, white, and blue! I found this Lily's Sugar N'Cream yarn in nautical ombre and thought it was perfect. This bralette is great for lounging by the pool or wearing under your favorite tank top while enjoying the sun. As my Fourth of July gift to you, I am sharing my pattern for a basic crochet bralette pattern!

Chokers have been hot this year and I thought one way to reinvent this classic trend was to make a crochet choker. I used to have dozens of these things when I was little and I was ecstatic when I realized they were coming back in style.

I think they are the perfect addition to any outfit. They add definition and attention to a great, youthful area- your neck. My crochet choker is honestly my favorite statement piece.

Chokers are hot and if you want to have one that not everyone does, try making a crochet choker with this pattern! Black is the most popular color, and easiest to style, but you can make yours whatever color you like. Not to mention, adding a small charm is a cute way to accent it.

Whatever way you decide to make yours, this crochet patter will get you started! And if you're having trouble pairing your choker with an outfit, here is a quick style guide/inspiration.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and what better way to show someone that you care than with mini crochet hearts?! These crochet hearts are barely 2 inches big. I love to stick them in small places where people can find them unexpected places. Shoes, pillow cases, drawers. You name it, I stick these crochet hearts everywhere! The pattern is really simple and easy to make. Plus, it only takes 5 minutes to make. So, as you prepare for Valentine's Day, consider making these mini crochet hearts and possibly stringing them together to make a banner for decorations

If you haven't learned how to do the magic circle yet, you need to. The magic circle is an easy way to start off a project in the round without having to worry about the original circle being too big. It is a way for you to make sure there are no more ugly, bulbous, loopy holes in the beginning of your work. It's heaven sent and so easy to do. The great part is you can use it with any size yarn and hook! I start off most of my circular this way, unless it's a more complex pattern that calls for a certain size beginning hole. Many of the patterns I have to share coming up this month involve using the magic circle, sometimes called the magic loop, so I thought now would be the perfect time to teach you how to do it. Without further ado, here is the magic circle tutorial:

With all this cold weather, I find myself reaching for my cozy crochet infinity scarf more and more. The thick yarn used in making this scarf keeps me warm on my walks to class while the comfy design makes it easy to style. I haven't gone a day this week without layering my crochet infinity scarf on top of all my layers. I love making scarves. There are so many possibilities to creating a scarf with just one pattern. Color choices are everything. I personally like neutral colors so I can wear it with everything, but a bold pop of color or pattern is always fun to create and wear.

​As a warm winter hug, and welcome back to school gift, from me to you, I am sharing my go-to pattern for crochet infinity scarves. They are quick and easy to make and customize. I actually made a ton of these for Christmas gifts and have plenty left over for a new listing on Etsy, so for those who aren't interested in crocheting, keep an eye out there. This pattern is worked in the round and takes about two hours to make.

My trips to the yarn store have become more frequent now that school is out and I am making Christmas gifts and I have become intrigued by the Christmas yarn . I was inspired by the beautiful swirls of Christmas colors so I bought a couple of skeins.

​At first, I didn't know what to do with them. I usually don't like to give Christmas themed items for Christmas presents because I like to give gifts people can use year round, not just seasonally. So, after several hours of staring at this ball of yarn, I came up with this cute Christmas Garland pattern. While I may not be giving them as gifts, they will make cute little decorations to spruce up all of my holiday decorating.

It's that time again! The Summer is full of long, hot car rides while impatiently awaiting a well deserved vacation. I recently took a day trip to the aquarium and had two hours to kill, coming and going. I recently found this rough pattern for a crochet bath pouf and decided to put my hot blanket to the side for the summer. Instead, I packed up several lightweight skeins of Sugar'N'Cream yarn in summery colors (which I had gotten on sale at Michael's for almost fifty cent a skein by the way) and headed for the aquarium. After fumbling around for a little while, I finally got the gist of this crochet bath pouf.

In my most recent crochet adventure, I have undertaken the project of making a bikini with a beaded fringe. The problem?  It involves crocheting with beads. Beads are an excellent way to add texture and dimension to any project, but they are aggravating to work with. When starting out, I was faced with the daunting task of trying to understand how to work a bead into a crochet stitch. After many attempts that involved raveling and unraveling yarn as well as stringing beads up in every possible way, I finally found a method that is efficient.

Before starting any crochet project, all yarns and supplementary items need to be coordinated. I found it hard to decide on a bead to match the yarn I picked out for my bikini. Here are some questions that I ask myself when starting a new project: Do the colors of the yarn and beads compliment each other? Is the yarn thing enough to fit through the bead? Is the bead big enough to fit over the yarn? Will the size of these beads take away from the overall project? 

For my bikini, I chose a nice coral color yarn that mixed well with the earthy tones of the wooden beads. It was a worsted weight 4 yarn, but it was still thin enough to be threaded through the beads easily. I chose the second smallest type of bead in the pack so it would take up room but not make the end of my bikini seem so bulky.

The easiest and most efficient way to crochet with beads is to string them on the yarn all at once before you begin crocheting. To do this you need to know how many beads you need as well as what order they need to go in. If you are using all of the same color bead, the order does not matter. I recommend to string up a few extra beads than what you counted just in case you find yourself needing more towards the end of your project. You can always take beads off, but you can never add more without cutting your yarn.

When you are done stringing on all of the beads, you can begin crocheting as normal. Just forget the beads are even there. Let them hang on your working yarn until you are ready for your first beaded stitch. For my bikini, my first beaded stitch was at the end of a long chain. After chaining, or doing any other crochet stitch, as far as you need, pull the first bead up until it can not go any further. 

After pulling the bead up, insert your hook in the next stitch and yarn over tightly around the bead. This will keep the bead from slipping around. When the stitch is finished and the bead is secure, you can move on crocheting like normal. Repeat pulling the bead up and crocheting over it as needed.

There are numerous ways to work beads into a crochet piece. Let your imagination do all the work and do not be afraid to unravel what you start in order to try it a different way! Explore the endless possibilities. You never know what you will come up with.

After many nights fretting over what kinds of stitches I could do to create the cocoon sweater I am working on, I finally narrowed it down to two stitches: the ripple and the shell. I like the two because it offers a decorative way of getting from A to Z without just single or double crocheting all the way across. When trying to figure out the logistics of each stitch, I realized there is a lot to consider when starting from scratch with each stitch. Here is what I determined from the shells:

-The beginning chain should be a multiple of 6 plus 1 (and 2 more for your turning chain)
-3 double crochets make a half-shell, 5 double crochets make a complete shell, and 1 single crochet will go in between each
-Where you Shelled the row before, you will single crochet in the next row, and vice versa (so on and so forth)
-There are a number of different ways to create a shell apart for the basic five double crochet. Some look lacy and some look puffy. There's a million different ways.

Shells are really quite simple once you get a handle on the pattern and counting. The finished product will look quite full and elegant.

Soon, I will work on figuring out the ripple stitch- the variety in ripples is just as extensive as the shells.