Sheepish Pajama Stuffie Pillow

Today happens to be my ninth Ravelry-versary (I joined the site on Dec. 1, 2010). And today I completed my 253rd project post there - a Sheepish Pajama Stuffie Pillow that I'm inordinately proud of. (I know - I'm weird. My husband already told me.)

For some years now I’ve had a project concept rolling around in my head where I wanted to make a stuffie pillow cover to keep my pajamas in during the day (instead of just folding them and leaving them on top of the bed - tacky, amirite??).

I found this Aran Fleck colorway by Red Heart and thought it would be perfect for crafting my sheep pillow’s “fleece” because the flecks in the yarn, to me, represent the random bits of grass and leaves and twigs that would naturally get tangled in a sheep’s fleece as it forages across the countryside. So figuring out which yarn to use for my project was not an issue.

What proved to be more difficult, however, was HOW to knit or crochet the actual pillow cover. I started and ripped back and started and ripped back I don’t know how many times (remember, I said this project has taken years for me to get it off the ground). My original idea was to crochet a pillow cover using the bobble stitch, because solid rows of bobble stitch totally look like fluffy sheep’s fleece. But every time I got going on a bobble stitch piece, I ended up with something that was either way too large (working flat) or way too wavy (working in the round), and I just wasn’t happy with any of them, and there didn’t seem to be any patterns out there where someone else had figured out the process in a way that would fit what I wanted my pajama pillow cover to be.

I came across a pattern by Purl Soho for a knitted Bobble Sheep Pillow that is SO adorable, and on first glance it appears to be just about the right size to be a pajama stuffie pillow cover. But the pattern is written for a heavier yarn than the Red Heart I have, and I just didn’t have the energy to try to convert the pattern to be the correct size at the gauge I’d be working in. Sigh! Maybe another time.

There are also many cute sheep hat crochet patterns out there (like this one, or this one, or this one), but again, none was easily translated into a pillow form that satisfied what I was looking for.

I had recently done some crochet projects (like this lovely autumn Little Rustic Pumpkin, pattern here) using the HDC in the third loop stitch, which, when worked flat, produces a fabric that strongly resembles knitted ribbing. I thought about it for a while and finally concluded that although it wouldn’t produce the cute, bobble-y, fluffy sheep-fleece look I had originally wanted, a sheep pillow done in ribbing would still look sufficiently sheep-y (texture-y) to get the job done. So I decided to give the crocheted ribbing fabric a chance.

I used a 7-inch by 12-inch microbead bolster pillow as a size guide for the body of the pajama stuffie pillow cover. (The finished cover fits over that bolster pillow perfectly. LOL)

In the Aran Fleck yarn, first I crocheted a flat circle using all FPDC stitches until it was about 7 inches in diameter. This would be one end of the pajama stuffie pillow cover. Working in the back loops only, I worked one row of HDC around the circle without joining at the end of the row and continued working back and forth in rows in the HDC-third-loop stitch until the body of the pillow cover was about 12 inches long. At this point I cut the yarn and crocheted another flat circle using all FPDC stitches (trying to work the second circle from the outside edge toward the center using decreases just didn’t want to look right … it might be possible to do it that way, but it was easier for me to break the yarn and work the second circle from the center outward). Without cutting the yarn I HDC’d around the circle catching the front loops only of the last row of the body stitches to join the second circle to the body.

This gave me a tube-shaped pillow cover that opens down its full length. To add a placket for buttoning, I joined the yarn along one edge of the opening and SC’d evenly across. Turned work and HDC’d across. Turned work and HDC’d across, chaining 1 and skipping a stitch where I wanted to place a button. Turned work and worked a final row of HDC across, including in the chain spaces. Finish off, weave in ends, and sew on buttons to line up with the buttonholes, and that’s all there is to making the body of the Sheepish Pajama Stuffie Pillow.

Originally I intended to use a zipper to close the pillow cover, but in the end I went with buttons (again, trying to keep it as simple as possible … remind me sometime to tell you the story of how I actually did throw a white zipper for this project into my shopping cart at the store, but when we got to the checkout the conveyor belt actually ATE my zipper - the belt just swallowed it where it turns and feeds down inside the cabinet - so I decided then and there that perhaps I wasn’t meant to use a zipper for this). I bought the buttons at Amazon.

For the face, using the black yarn, I emulated Kim Guzman’s (Crochet Kim) design for her Farmhouse Love My Sheep Pillow, free pattern found at this link. For her design Kim sews the face piece directly onto the front of her pillow as a sort of 3-D applique, lightly stuffing the face before stitching the opening closed. But for me, using a 5.5mm hook, the head turned out to be a bit taller than the end of my pillow cover, so I crocheted a second head piece and whip-stitched the two together, lightly stuffing the head before stitching the opening closed.

I wanted my sheep to be “sleeping,” so I embroidered sleeping eyes onto the face with a scrap of white yarn before sewing the two head pieces together, and I also stitched the ears to the front head piece (using the yarn tails left after working the ears) before sewing the head pieces together to make it easier to attach the ears where I wanted them.

I stuffed the pajama stuffie pillow cover with the microbead bolster pillow to plump it up for the photo shoot, but now my Sheepish Pajama Stuffie Pillow cover is ready to take its place on my bed to keep my pajamas stashed away and neatly out of sight. 😄

Veterans Day Parade Camo Beanie or Messy Bun Hat free pattern

I love this Red Heart Super Saver Woodsy colorway because it reminds me of the old forest/jungle Army BDUs my husband (a Vietnam War veteran) used to wear. These colors work up to make a nice hat to wear to keep your head warm (and is long enough to cover your ears) while watching your community’s Veterans Day parade or participating in other similar celebrations in chilly November to honor and remember the many military personnel who have died in wars.

I suggest pinning a red remembrance poppy to your hat. I've read that there is no right or wrong way to wear the poppy. Some people pin them to their left lapel to position the poppy close to their heart; others wear it on the right lapel to position the poppy close to what would be the 11th hour mark if your body were viewed as the face of a clock. (If your poppy has a leaf, the leaf should also be positioned at 11 o'clock.) A Google search will provide links to multiple articles you can read about the history and etiquette of the remembrance poppy. Here's a poppy article by the American Legion.

M and L sizes of the hat use just about one full skein of RHSS in Woodsy. For size XL part of a second skein likely will be required. Other worsted or aran weight varigated yarns with short color changes (about 4-6 inches long) should give a similar result.

It's very easy to make this simple, slouchy, relaxed-fit hat as a beanie or in a messy-bun/ponytail style. Size M measures about 10 inches across the bottom when held flat, which should stretch to fit an average teen or adult’s head (20-22 inches). Size L measures about 11 inches across the bottom, which should comfortably fit heads 22-24 inches. Size XL measures about 12 inches across the bottom, to fit heads 24-26 inches.

You can copy what I did by following the easy steps below, or you can use my instructions as a jumping-off point to make a custom hat to suit your own taste. The hats are made using the hdc in the third loop stitch, which gives a sideways knit look on the obverse side and a sideways garter stitch look on the reverse side.

Supplies: 1-2 skeins Red Heart Super Saver (4) yarn in Woodsy, 5.0 mm (H) crochet hook, one large ponytail elastic (optional for messy-bun/ponytail version)

Beanie hat instructions

Setup for a beanie in all sizes: In a magic ring, hdc 10. When you reach the end of the round do not join with a slip stitch; continue working the rest of the hat in continuous rounds. Use a stitch marker in the first stitch of the round and move marker up on each successive round. (10 hdc)

Round 2: Work 2 hdc3lp (hdc in the third loop) in each hdc from the previous round. (20 hdc3lp)

Round 3: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in the next hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in the next st. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (30 hdc3lp)

Round 4: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 2 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 2 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (40 hdc3lp)

Round 5: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 3 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 3 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (50 hdc3lp)

Round 6: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 4 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 4 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (60 hdc3lp)

Round 7: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 5 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 5 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (70 hdc3lp)

Round 8: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 6 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 6 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (80 hdc3lp)

Stop increasing at 80 sts for size M. Sizes L and XL will increase again on round 9.

Round 9: For size M, work 1 hdc3lp in each st around. (80 hdc3lp).

For size L, work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 19 hdc from the previous round.  * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 19 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (84 hdc3lp)

For size XL, work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 9 hdc from the previous round.  * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 9 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (88 hdc3lp)

Rounds 10-29 (31, 33): Work 1 hdc3lp in each st around. (80, 84, 88 hdc3lp)

Finishing: To taper down to a smooth edge, work 1 sc in the third loop of the next hdc from the previous round, then slip stitch into the third loop of each of the next two hdcs from the previous round. Finish off, weave in ends.

Messy-bun/ponytail hat instructions

These instructions pick up at what would be round 4 for the beanie style hat.

Setup: Place a slipknot on your hook and slip stitch around a large ponytail elastic to attach. Chain 1 and work 40 hdc tightly around the ponytail elastic. (Alternatively you could start with 40 FHDC.) When you reach the end of the round do not join with a slip stitch; continue working the rest of the hat in continuous rounds. Use a stitch marker in the first stitch of the round and move marker up on each successive round. (40 hdc)

Round 2: Work 1 hdc3lp (hdc in the third loop) in each hdc from the previous round. (40 hdc3lp)

Round 3: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 3 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 3 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (50 hdc3lp)

Round 4: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 4 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 4 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (60 hdc3lp)

Round 5: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 5 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 5 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (70 hdc3lp)

Round 6: Work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 6 hdc from the previous round. * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 6 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (80 hdc3lp)

Stop increasing at 80 sts for size M. Sizes L and XL will increase again on round 7.

Round 7: For size M, work 1 hdc3lp in each st around. (80 hdc3lp).

For size L, work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 19 hdc from the previous round.  * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 19 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (84 hdc3lp)

For size XL, work 2 hdc3lp in the first hdc from the previous round; work 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 9 hdc from the previous round.  * Work 2 hdc3lp in the next st, 1 hdc3lp in each of the next 9 sts. ** Repeat from * to ** to end of round. (88 hdc3lp)

Rounds 8-26 (28, 30): Work 1 hdc3lp in each st around. (80, 84, 88 hdc3lp)

Finishing: To taper down to a smooth edge, work 1 sc in the third loop of the next hdc from the previous round, then slip stitch into the third loop of each of the next two hdcs from the previous round. Finish off, weave in ends.

I hope you enjoy making and wearing (or gifting) this hat!

How to knit

How to knit in 4 easy steps!

Garfield's yarn cellar

Brilliant! I'm partial to a bit of fruit-forward ... blue or purple ... myself. 😉

Garfield 8/25/2019

The Fairy Slippers Blanket free pattern

This free Fairy Slippers Banket pattern is a variation on the Which Way Filet blanket by Fiber Spider that works up quickly and easily from the center outward.

This Lion Brand Mandala yarn is soft and light, and the colorway is reminiscent of soft rainbow colors that would make a precious, cuddly keepsake blanket for a “rainbow baby.”

I had been hearing the term “rainbow baby” getting used a lot around knitting and crocheting circles, but I didn’t know what it meant, so I finally decided to look it up. According to Google, “A rainbow baby is a name coined for a healthy baby born after losing a baby due to miscarriage, infant loss, stillbirth, or neonatal death. The name ‘rainbow baby’ comes from the idea of a rainbow appearing in the sky after a storm, or after a dark and turbulent time.”

Which means that I am a rainbow baby myself, according to the modern parlance, because my mother delivered me after previously enduring seven miscarriages. I had no idea that I was born under this lovely, colorful label. Ha! 🌈

This filet blanket pattern is also ideal for a rainbow baby because the infinite paths winding and spiraling outward from the center symbolize the infinite potential contained within each new life.

This also means that maybe instead of giving away this baby blanket when it’s done I should just keep it for my rainbow-baby self. 😁 I could get another skein of this Honeydukes colorway, whip up another blanket just like this one, and then sew them together to make a nice and light but colorful, funky, and boxy rainbow poncho!

If I finish this as a baby blanket, I’ll edge it with 1 round SC followed by 1 round RSC. But if I keep this to be a poncho, I’ll end with 1 round SC before sewing the panels together.

Basic Pint Jar Cozy free pattern

I sometimes like to have cold overnight oatmeal in a pint jar for breakfast, but my hand gets so cold holding the jar while I’m eating. I needed a quick, basic jar cozy to insulate my hand from the cold, so I whipped up this design before breakfast this morning. The lavender yarn is even color-coordinated with the blueberries in my oatmeal. 😍

This quick, basic cozy will fit most pint-size canning jars but can also be easily adjusted to fit other jar sizes. Just try the cozy on your jar as you crochet and adjust the stitch and row count for a custom fit.

Row 1: In magic ring, ch 2 (ch 2 doesn’t count as a stitch throughout), DC 10. Sl to top of 1st DC to join. (10 DC)

Row 2: Ch 2, 2 DC in each DC around. Sl to top of 1st DC to join. (20 DC)

Row 3: Ch 2, 2 DC in 1st st, 1 DC in next st. Work 2 DC in next st followed by 1 DC in the st after that around. Sl to top of 1st DC to join. (30 DC)

Row 4: Ch 2, DC in each st around. Sl to top of 1st DC to join. (30 DC)

Repeat row 4 four more times. You can customize the height of your cozy to fit the jar the way you want it to. Just try the cozy on your jar as you complete each round until you like the way it looks. For my jar, a total of 8 rounds of DC looked best, followed by two finishing rounds, as follows:

Finishing row 1: Ch 1. HDC in each st around. Sl to top of 1st HDC to join. (30 HDC)

Finishing row 2: Ch 1. SC in third loop of each HDC from previous round. Sl to top of 1st SC to join. (30 SC)

Break yarn, weave in ends, and enjoy your cold breakfast in a jar without freezing your hands! 🥄

Here’s my recipe for easy (keto-ish) overnight blueberry oatmeal:

3/4 cup Greek yogurt (I use whole 5% fat)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup steel-cut oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill Irish style)
1 tablespoon agave liquid sweetener (or whatever liquid sweetener you prefer, to taste)
Frozen whole blueberries, approximately 3/4 cup

Place all ingredients except blueberries in a pint jar and stir until well combined. Add frozen blueberries to fill remaining space in jar and stir carefully until blueberries are incorporated. (The berries will thaw in the jar overnight.) Cap jar and place in refrigerator overnight (for at least 8 hours). The next morning, remove jar from refrigerator, slip on your newly made crochet jar cozy (this step is VERY important!! LOL), and enjoy a healthy breakfast.

Quick baby girl gift idea: Angel Popover Dress free pattern

Gosh, I know I should post here more often, I really do, and I apologize for being so random and infrequent about posting. At least I do a better job at keeping my Ravelry project notebook up to date. Sigh!

We got a surprise phone call on Saturday afternoon from great-granddaughter Lilliana’s dad saying he has a couple of vacation days coming up soon and he wanted to bring his family down for a quick visit. Activating excited great-grandma mode in 3 … 2 … 1!!!

I needed a quick pattern to make Lilliana (now 16 months old) a sweet little dress to celebrate getting to meet her in person for the first time, and the Angel Popover Dress (free pattern) filled that need quite nicely. This size 2T version worked up in just a few hours of work over two evenings.

I threaded a 3/8-inch pink satin ribbon between the stitches of the first row and tied a bow in the center front, added a pink tank top and miniskirt from the store as a liner beneath the lacy white crochet dress, and voila!

Honeydripper Boomerang Scarf free pattern

I’m living with a lot of stress right now, so I needed a project that could not only use up some of my yarn stash but also was relatively simple to execute without needing a lot of concentration.

I enjoyed seeing all the various shawls people created during Marly Bird’s 2019 Tournament of Stitches, so I decided to adopt the boomerang shape used for that project, but instead of incorporating the mosaic sections I decided to keep it simple by working the entire piece in a two-color garter stitch stripe.

The two yarns I used here are both vintage skeins that date back to my mother’s stash. She very likely purchased these before I was even born. Even though the colors aren’t my favorite, I think they work well together and hopefully will result in a nice-looking scarf that my daughter will enjoy wearing.

My plan was just to keep knitting until I was about to run out of yarn, then cast off. I figured the two full skeins of yarn ought to produce a nice-sized scarf when it was all finished.

Just to mix things up a bit and make the long stretches of garter stitch more interesting toward the end (as well as to add visual interest on one side of the triangle in keeping with the scarf’s Honeydripper theme), when my yarn was about 75% gone I started working occasional honeycomb lace rows. This did add an additional level of detail to the process, but it was easy enough for me to read my knitting and see when it was time to work the lace rows, so I didn’t think this would be too much for my overtaxed brain to cope with.

Continuing with the increases/decreases on every RS row and alternating stripes of color as established, every sixth row (always a WS return row) I would work in honeycomb lace. Placing the lace rows this way ensured that the lace rows would be produced in alternating yarn colors, helping to keep the overall usage of each color as even as possible.

I think I can hear what you’re wondering: Why didn’t I work the whole scarf with the lovely honeycomb lace, or if not the whole scarf, why didn’t I at least start working the lace sooner - like around the halfway point? My only reply to this is: I just did it this way. End of story. If you want to copy my idea you can work as much lace (or as little) as you like. 😊

After finishing the scarf (wingspan is about 78 inches) I ended up with a bit more of the darker Inca Gold yarn left than the lighter gold. I decided to see if it was enough to crochet a coordinating Chic Aran Headband to go with the scarf. 😁

Well, I didn’t have quite enough Inca Gold to do the entire headband, and I didn’t have enough of the pale gold to do an entire stripe, so I subbed in some aran white for the center rows 6, 3, 4, and 5. That left me enough Inca Gold to finish the headband, and I embroidered a simple chain stitch as an accent down the center of the white stripe with the pale gold to add a touch of that color to the headband as well. Yay!

CPAP Hose II free recipe/pattern

Experimenting with another crochet CPAP hose cover design for 72-inch hose. My brother-in-law is new to using a CPAP and needs something to help make the experience more comfortable for him. This Red Heart Velvety yarn is super, super soft, but also machine washable/dryable, so it should work well.

Using 6mm hook, FSC 16 sts (about 6 inches long), then continue working in continuous rounds. I made the first round after foundation row in SC then switched to HDC to help the rest of the project grow faster. At my gauge two rows of HDC equaled about 1 inch in height. Working this way one skein yielded about 47 inches of tube, a little over half as long as I wanted, so I had to break into a second skein to reach the desired finished length.

I placed a marker to indicate when my tube had reached a length that was about half as long as the finished tube should be (for me this was after 2 rows SC plus 80 rows HDC). It’s important to measure the actual length of your work to determine where you’re at rather than to rely on row counts for length, just to make sure you end up with a finished tube that’s the right size. Once you’ve marked the halfway point, you can fold the tube at the marker as you work the second half to more easily figure the length of the second half. (At least for me this is easier than constantly using a tape measure to figure out where I’m at.)

Continue working until the tube you’re crocheting measures about 76 inches long. In my experience these hose covers work better if they’re a little longer than the hose itself. Switch to 5mm hook and finish with 4 rounds of FPDC/BPDC for a ribbing effect, then fasten off and weave in ends.

For better performance sew a couple of rows of silicone-striped grip elastic to the inside of the hose cover at the ribbed end (cut elastic to 3.5-inch lengths). This will be the end closest to the user. The grip elastic will cinch the cover against the hose, and the silicone grip will prevent the cover from slipping down the hose and away from the user. The whole point of using a hose cover is to keep the cold plastic away from the CPAP user. Well, that and a hose cover cuts down on air noise and prevents condensation buildup.

Placing the grip elastic at only one end also makes it easier to feed a fresh hose into the cover from the end without the elastic when it’s time to change the hose.

Granny Squared Into Highlighter Hell Throw free pattern

I found a couple more skeins of the unidentified colorway aka “Highlighter Hell” (what I call it) by Red Heart, so I decided to use it along with some plain white to make an infinite granny square throw for my daughter who loooves these (horrifically) bright colors. 😉

After trying to work this continuous granny square in full rounds of a single color, I discovered that there was not a good way to carry the next color up for the subsequent round without leaving a long loop on the reverse side where I changed colors (see below). I was afraid that the only way to “fix” this would be to add a lightweight flannel backing to cover the reverse side and hide the loops.

I pondered this problem for a while and concluded that the best way to avoid it would be to use a two-color spiral method, so I went searching for a pattern and found The Continuous 2 Color Granny Crochet Tutorial by Fiber Spider on YouTube. Ta-da!! This method is an absolutely brilliant way to work a two-color continuous granny stitch blanket without having to tie off after every single round (and have eleventy-bazillion ends to weave in when you’re done, plus all those ends would equal a lot of wasted inches of yarn), and it eliminates the big-loop-from-carrying-up-the-yarn problem I was having. Like I said: Brilliant!!

Here's a comparison of the obverse view of working the blanket in full rounds of each color (left) vs. the half-rounds used in the Fiber Spider method (right). As you can see, the different methods are undetectable to the eye, but Fiber Spider's method results in a blanket that is fully reversible and looks tidy on both sides:

I just kept working rounds on the throw until I ran out of the Highlighter Hell color. Then I used some highlighter orange yarn from my stash to work a border of one round SC followed by one round RSC or crab stitch. Finished size is about 44 inches square.

Works when they were still in progress ...

Pink Grapefruit Lemonade blanket contemplation

I have a bunch of skeins of vintage acrylic yarn (circa 1960s), and I’m trying to finally use them to make an afghan. And although I’ve tried several different stitch patterns, so far nothing is really jumping up and grabbing me to say, “This is the one!” I’ve tried drunken granny, C2C granny, and circle granny thus far. I’m afraid I may end up defaulting to my favorite afghan pattern -- virus -- which wouldn’t be terrible because the virus afghan is lovely, but I thought I wanted to make something different this time. Ugh!

As you can see in the photos, I tried starting out in all the stitch patterns mentioned above. The furthest I got with any of them was in the “drunken granny” stitch, which I had seen some people talking about online but I hadn’t previously heard of this stitch. The photos they shared looked interesting, so I went looking to see whether the pattern was available on Ravelry but was disappointed not to find it here. However, there are several good video tutorials for this stitch on YouTube. I used this one.

I usually prefer to have written instructions to refer to, however, and I also can never leave well enough alone, so I jotted down the starting instructions from the video and also embellished them to work if using FSC instead of a starting chain.

Drunken Granny easy crochet baby blanket pattern

Setup row: Chain in multiple of 5 to desired width of the finished blanket (or FSC in multiple of 5 plus 1).

For foundation chain setup, row 1: Ch 4. DC in 5th ch from hook 1st FSC. DC 3 more times (total of 4) in same st; ch 2; DC in same st. Skip 4 sts; 4 DC in next st; ch 2; DC in same st repeat until 3 sts remain at end of row. Skip 2 sts and DC in last st. Ch 3; turn.

For FSC setup, row 1: Ch 3. DC in 3rd FSC from hook. DC 3 more times (total of 4) in same st; ch 2; DC in same st. Skip 4 FSC;

Row 2: Working into ch 2 spaces from previous row, 4 DC in next ch 2 space; ch 2; DC in same space. Skip to next ch 2 space. 4 DC in ch 2 space; ch 2; DC in same space repeat to end of row. DC in top of ch 3 from previous row. Ch 3; turn.

Repeat row 2 until blanket reaches the desired length.

Work a SC border around all 4 edges to finish.

For different looks this blanket can be worked in a solid color, in stripes alternating colors every 3 rows (or more), in an ombre gradient yarn, etc.

To me part of the appeal of the drunken granny stitch is that it reminds me of falling ginkgo leaves even more than an alternate version of a granny cluster. But I still wasn’t inspired enough by it to keep going with it in a full-sized blanket.

So … virus it is, I guess. LOL. Virus is turning into my go-to blanket pattern. Le sigh!! 😏

And thus the Pink Grapefruit Lemonade afghan came to be.

Playing yarn chicken

When you play "yarn chicken," you win some, and you lose some. Oh well! 

OOOH, I found another skein in the stash bag where the first baby pink skein came from! I'm saved!! Bwah-ha-ha ...

Better to be lucky than good sometimes. 🙃

Hanging Litter Basket for RV

This hanging litter bag is intended to be used with a disposable liner. A plastic bag or small paper bag from the grocery store is suggested as a liner.

Using a 5mm hook, in HDC start with a base of 10 sts. Work in continuous rounds increasing 10 sts each round to 100 sts, about 7 inches in diameter. Work in straight continuous rounds for 12 rounds. Decrease 10 sts on next round to 90 sts. Work in straight continuous rounds for 8 rounds. Decrease 10 sts on next round to 80 sts. Work in straight continuous rounds for 4 rounds. Finish top edge with knitted applied i-cord including a 2-inch loop at the end of round.

Litter bag will be about 11 inches tall when finished.

Update: My husband discovered that the plastic tub that our dishwasher pods come in is a perfect fit to be a rigid liner for the hanging litter bag, making it easier to neatly tuck away the top of the plastic litter bag between the crocheted cover and the pods tub. Genius!