Flamie Award Nomination!

I am so happy to announce that one of my crochet patterns is up for a Flamie Award!

What’s a Flamie you ask?

“Our Judges’ Panel scours the crochet universe searching for the best examples of crochet design in each category to present to the public.”   http://www.thecrochetawards.com/

My round crochet rug pattern has been nominated for best rug design of 2015!

Crochet Round Rug Pattern by Red Berry Crochet

Click here to see the latest award info:

https://www.facebook.com/TheCrochetAwards

Voting will commence September 13th through the 19th.

Wish me luck!

Week of 4/22/15: Earth Day - Welcome to the World!

Eco Friendly Hand Held Duster Crochet Pattern

In 1970 Earth Day was founded to bring about awareness of environmental issues. Since then, the movement has steadily grown and is now celebrated globally.

To learn more about Earth Day, check out the websites at:
History.com
Earth Day Network - www.earthday.org

How do you celebrate Earth Day?

Starting today I am having a sale in my Ravelry Pattern Shop. All of my original crochet designs are included in the sale which runs now through Sunday, April 26th to 11:59 pm EST.

Sale prices will be reflected once items have been placed in the shopping cart.

Red Berry Crochet Designs

40% off!

Happy Earth Day!

Eco Friendly Reusable Mop Head Crochet Pattern

Week of 4/1/2015: Be a Fool!

Happy April Fools' Day!

It's a great week to have some fun with Your Weekly Crochet Challenge. The challenge is to crochet a jester hat or slippers for yourself or a little one.

Here's a photo of my hat, it's the Crochet Tripod Hat from Yarnspirations:

It's toddler sized, and I'll be giving it to my niece. I added bells on the points just to drive her parents crazy!

I enjoy a good prank, and this is one of my favorites (courtesy of prankked.com):

What is your favorite April Fools' prank?

Join us on Ravelry for the discussion

Your Weekly Crochet Challenge - 175 members and growing!

Week of 3/25/15: Let's Have a Ball!

This week is all about yarn and different yarn weights. Our weekly challenge is to crochet a project using different yarn weights within the same project.

I made a skinny scarf for my project:

It can also be worn as a cowl:

It was pretty simple to make. I used 8 strands of different yarns held together as one, and I finger crocheted a simple chain out of them. The chain twisted in several spots, but I didn't care, I actually like how twisty it looks.

It was fun to make, and I have a lovely skinny scarf for next fall and winter. (I am so done thinking about winter! Let's get spring springing!) This idea would be a great project for a last minute gift, and is also a great de-stash project.

What project will you crochet with different yarn weights?

Join us and Let's Have a Ball!

Your Weekly Crochet Challenge  

Ravelry Group - 170 members and growing!

Week of 3/18/15: Egg-cellent!

Spring arrives this week on Friday, March 20th, so our challenge this week is to crochet and decorate an egg. While most of us associate decorated eggs with Easter, the early symbolism of the egg relates to fertility, life, and the renewal of life.

Click here to read a great article about the history of eggs from foodtimeline.org. Scroll down to the symbolism section.

I crocheted my egg using yarn that I had dyed with Kool-aid, but there are many ways to decorate your egg. You could add beads, “paint your yarn”, add tiny flowers, make it into an amigurumi chick, whatever you wish.

Below is my egg pattern to get you started. Have fun with it and be creative!


Egg – cellent egg crochet pattern

Materials:
Small amounts of medium weight yarn, size H (5 mm) crochet hook, polyester fiberfill for stuffing, stitch marker.

Special stitch: single crochet decrease (sc dec)
I like to use an invisible sc dec when I am crocheting amigurumi, or anything where you won’t see the wrong side. It is worked over two stitches to form a decrease.
Insert hook in front loop of the first st. Keeping this loop on your hook, insert the hook in the next st through the front loop. You will have 3 loops on your hook. Draw your yarn through 2 of the loops on your hook. Yarn over, and draw through the 2 remaining loops on your hook to complete the stitch.

Notes: this egg is worked from the top down in a continuous spiral. The pattern does not include striping instructions, and I chose to make my sample sample using the continuous spiral because I didn’t want a seam. If you want to crochet stripes and keep them even, you can end each round with a slip stitch in the beginning stitch. To begin the next round, ch 1 and sc in the same stitch.

Instructions:
Rnd 1 (RS): ch 2, work 6 sc into 2nd ch from hook. (6 sc)

Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc. (12 sc)

Rnd 3: *sc in next sc, 2 sc in next sc. Rep from * around. (18 sc)

Rnd 4: sc in each sc.

Rnd 5: *sc in next 2 sc, 2 sc in next sc. Rep from * around. (24 sc)

Rnd 6: sc in each sc.

Rnd 7: *sc in next 3 sc, 2 sc in next. (30 sc)

Rnd 8 thru 11: sc in each sc.

Rnd 12: *sc in next 3 sc, sc dec. Rep from * around. (24 sc)

Rnd 13: *sc in next 2 sc, sc dec. Rep from * around. Stuff with fiberfill. (18 sc)

Rnd 14: *sc in next sc, sc dec. Rep from * around. (12 sc)

Rnd 15: *sc dec. Rep from * around. (6 sc)

Fasten off leaving a length for sewing, and sew remaining rnd closed.

Abbreviations:
Ch(s) – chain(s)
Rnd(s) – round(s)
RS – right side
Sc – single crochet
Sc dec – single crochet decrease
St - stitch

How will you decorate your egg? Celebrate spring and enjoy!

Join us and have some fun
as we share a new crochet challenge each week

Your Weekly Crochet Challenge  

Ravelry Group - 170 members and growing!

Week of 3/11/2015 - Happy Birthday!

This week it's all about birthdays for our weekly challenge:

It’s probably been ten years at least since I received this gift from my friend Christine. It is not a crochet item, but it helps me to crochet every day. She gave me the gift of an Ott-Lite. I didn’t realize how useful and helpful it was until I started using it. I have it next to my chair in my craft room, and I literally do use it every day. I see truer colors in my yarns and of course it helps to see clearly and I'm not straining my eyes to read. It is a floor stand model, and I like it so much that I bought a few table top versions to place elsewhere in the house.

What was your favorite crochet related gift you received and/or gave to someone else?

Fun and Cupcakes! Enjoy!

Join us and have some fun 

as we share a new crochet challenge each week

Your Weekly Crochet Challenge  Ravelry Group - 170 members and growing!

Week of 3/4/2015 - Whoo hoo! It's a Celebration!

It's a brand new Ravelry group: Your Weekly Crochet Challenge

Kicking off just in time to celebrate National Crochet Month. So jump on in and join us for new challenges, new friends, and all things crochet!

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/your-weekly-crochet-challenge

Whoo hoo! It's a Celebration!

Week 52: Hurray! What a Fun and Challenging Year it's Been. What Was Your Favorite?

Wow! It is so hard to believe that a year has gone by already. This is the final week of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge, and the last challenge is to discuss your favorite challenge and why. (But, they are all my favorites!)

The most challenging and time consuming, for me, was Week 38: Create an analogous color scarf. I had the squares completed around the date of the challenge, but it took me much, much, longer to actually complete the scarf and take pictures. I am so happy that I completed it, and I have a colorful and bright companion for the last few weeks of winter.

On the flip side (pun intended!), we had a challenge to make a beach or summer fun project for Week 17. I designed a pair of flip flop socks (which I am so looking forward to wearing again!), and I included a tutorial on how to make them on my blog. This challenge progressed very smoothly and seemed to come together in no time at all.

This year long project has been a challenge in many respects. When I created it, I told myself that I would not beat myself up if I did not complete every challenge. This attitude made it much more enjoyable, and I did have a lot of fun with it.

In the beginning, my intentions were to keep my blog updated and to keep a blog roll of participants. I really wanted to discover new things about crochet and to inspire myself to design some new patterns. Over time, my focus moved towards my Ravelry group. This group has been the most rewarding part of the project. I learned some new things, met some terrific friends, read their heartfelt, funny, wonderful (and sometimes sad) stories, laughed a lot, and found myself loving crochet even more.

Thanks so much for a great year!
Julie

Beginning March 4th, 2015:

Inspire… Motivate… Create… Share… 

YOUR Weekly Crochet Challenge

Join us!

Week 51: Make Some Crochet Bling Jewelry In Honor of the Oscars

Did you watch the Oscars on Sunday, the 22nd? If not, here is a list of the nominees and winners:
http://oscar.go.com/nominees

In honor of this red carpet event, this week's Challenge was to create some crocheted jewelry. Previously I had found a vintage pattern for a cocktail ring:

I purchased some Stretch Magic 1mm elastic cord, used re-purposed beads (6mm), and a small hook. To say the least, it was a frustrating experiment! This type of cord is all plastic and extremely slippery to crochet with. Another problem is that the 1mm cord is too large. So, I searched for another pattern and found this Boutique Ring archived pattern on Groovy Crochet. I found a variety pack of cord at Jo-Ann's to experiment with and the .5mm sparkle elastic cord worked great! It is more of a fabric type cord that has a silver thread wound through it. It also helped to use a larger hook, size D/3.
Here's my ring:

I'm glad I didn't give up and took the time to finish this project. It's been a great reminder that having the proper tools and detailed instructions make crocheting so much more enjoyable!

Thanks for joining me this week for my Week 51 Crochet Challenge.

New Challenges and a new format coming soon! 

Join us on Ravelry:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/52-week-crochet-challenge

Week 46: Make a Row Counter Bracelet to Keep Track of Your Projects

This week the 52 Week Crochet Challenge is to make a row counter bracelet. For inspiration and a great how-to, check out this great tutorial by Sutherland Studios, click here.

I decided to go in a different direction with my bracelet. I used silver tone oval shaped memory wire, and two sizes of beads. The smaller beads (6 mm) are for counting rows 1 through 9, and the larger beads (8 mm) are for counting rows in groups of ten. This bracelet will count up to 99 rows.

To keep the beads centered on each strand, I glued very small silver beads on each side of each bead row, making sure to leave enough room between the beads for attaching a lobster claw clasp. I think the silver beads are actually crimp beads, although I did not crimp them, but used BeadFix glue by Beadalon to secure them. This glue worked very well and dried quickly.

I am using a fine silver chain with small lobster claw clasps on each end to keep track of both sets of row counts. In the front view photo above, you can see where I have them attached, and that I have 51 rows completed. I mark the rows right to left, and one clasp is to the left of one small bead (which equals 1 row) and the other is attached after 5 large beads (which equals 50 rows). The nice thing about using these clasps is that they are very secure and you won't lose your place, even when you take the bracelet off.

Here's another photo to give you a better idea of how I constructed it. On each wire end I used round nose pliers to make small loops so the wire won't scratch my wrists.

Material list:
Silver tone oval shaped memory wire
9 small beads (6 mm)
9 large beads (8 mm)
4 silver crimp beads
2 lobster claw clasps
Silver tone chain, approx. 2 inches long (make sure it's long enough to mark both bead rows, end to end)
2 small jump rings (for attaching the chain to the lobster clasps)
Jewelry/bead glue

Tools:
Wire cutter
Round nose pliers

I hope the challenge this week has inspired you to create your own row counter bracelet. Your bracelet just might become one of your favorite and most often used tools.

Enjoy, and thanks for joining me for week 46 of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge

Join the conversation on Ravelry:
http://www.ravelry.com/groups/52-week-crochet-challenge

Be sure to check back in the coming weeks for an announcement 

about new Challenges for 2015!