Mosu Japanese Knot Bag

This was my covid isolation project. It is the Mosu Bag by Sweet Softies. They offer a free version of the pattern on their website. I made mine with the Taupe colorway of Big Twist Value yarn and a 5mm crochet hook, and I finished it with a vegan leather Chicago tag by Angie + Britt that says "Bee kind."

Actually, I worked most of the bag all in the first two days, because after that I felt way too sick to have the energy for doing anything at all during the next 10 days or so. Some time after that I started feeling better enough to finish crocheting the straps.

The pattern is very easy and quick to make and would lend itself to lots of creative interpretation. It makes a nice size handbag. 

The Kittehz Commission

Sabrina saw some of my projects I had posted on Facebook and messaged me to ask if I could make six cat scarves in some soft yarn for her to give to her daughters and friends at Christmas, sending me this photo as an example of what she was looking for:

I said absolutely and got to work on a prototype using Red Heart With Love. I asked Sabrina which colors she would like the scarves to be, but she said any colors would be fine. So I made the first one in the Holly Berry red colorway.

Sabrina liked the way the red scarf turned out. The only detail she wanted to change was the black outline around the eyes, which was no problem for me to fix.

I neglected to get a photo of all six finished scarves before delivering them to Sabrina (and after fixing the red cat's eyes), but here's a photo of four of them:

The other two scarves were a black one and a brown one. Sabrina was thrilled with how they turned out and said it meant a lot to her to have these gifts be made by someone who would enjoy doing them, so that they were made with love.

I also made a tiger scarf in the school colors of Sabrina's grandson Kaden, so he wouldn't feel left out of the fun. I think this one turned out looking kind of like a yellow-and-blue Hobbes. 😊

Kittehz commission prototype

Finished my prototype scarf (red one) based on the photo of the gray one on the right. Turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. 🙂

Fandom Headband commission

My friend Pam messaged me to ask if I knew of a pattern for a headband similar to the ones made by crochet artist Sydne Elam of Simply Squid on Etsy. Pam said she had looked but couldn't find one made with stripes that go around the head the long way instead of up and down, and she also wanted a layered flower on the headband like the Simply Squid ones have. (The flower part was not going to be difficult, as I already had bookmarked a favorite layered flower pattern designed by Melissa of Action Hero.)

I searched around but had the same difficulty Pam had in not being able to find a nice headband pattern online that looked similar to what Pam showed me, and Simply Squid only sells the finished headbands in her shop (no headband patterns for sale there).

It didn't take long for me to realize that I would need to write up my own pattern for a striped headband for Pam and then write a blog post about how oddly difficult it was to find a pattern for this particular type of item!

As I set out to design a pattern for Pam, my first question was whether she wanted the headband to button in the back the way the Simply Squid ones do, and she said yes. Then I crocheted a prototype, sans flower, with some green, white, and black yarn scraps out of my stash so she could see what I came up with. (When I made the prototype I didn't know what colors Pam wanted for the headband she had in mind.)

My prototype photos show how the green headband fits on a 21-inch wig form head:

Pam said my prototype looked like it would be perfect (with a flower added, of course!). For the colors she wanted brown, orange and white -- Cleveland Browns colors. She said her sister's family goes to all the Browns' home games, and it is really cold up there during football season.

It took me a couple of days to find time to work up the headband again in Cleveland Browns colors, but eventually this is what I came up with:

I didn't have good lighting for this photo, so the main color looks more black than brown, but it really is brown. I set out an assortment of buttons to see if Pam liked any of them for the button closure, but she ended up deciding to sew on a button herself.  I think Pam also was going to add a decorative football type of button to the center of the flower, similar to what Simply Squid adds to the headbands in her Etsy shop.