Top 8 Posts of 2013

I know this should be a round-up of my top 10 posts, but I say tradition-shmdition!  Top is such a subjective word, so for today I'm going to define top as 'Most Viewed' this year.  So this is my Top 8 Most-Viewed posts of 2013:

#8

Lip Balm Keychain

#7

Door Bumper

#6

The Bacon Baby Blanket

#5

Dynamite Beret

#4

Dynamite Market Bag

#3

Better Than A Sock Bun

#2

The London Crochet Bag

And, with nearly 200,000 views, the Number One Most Viewed Post of 2013 was: 

Jaime's Butterfly

Thank you all for sharing such a fun year with me!  You can find more fun free crochet patterns HERE on my Free Crochet Pattern Page!

I wish you happiness and luck and amazing adventures in the upcoming year!  Love, love, love to you both now and in 2014, Sweet Dynamos!

xoxo

Happy Holiday

My Christmas was so much fun. We had a marshmallow fight with THESE marshmallow shooters (they were so easy to put together! I made a dozen in an hour!), and even though Jake chipped a bone in his ankle playing with his nephews a couple of days ago, he was able to shoot from the porch.  Mims came up with several accuracy games for us to play with them, and it wasn't until much later that she admitted it was her strategy to get us to waste all of our ammunition so she would "win". LOL! Diabolical! 

I hope your holiday was just as much fun!
xoxo

I recently just passed the 3k mark for Facebook followers!  Yay!  I am overjoyed and very grateful for all of the love and support!  I have the best Dynamos in the world, and I love each and every one of you!
Unfortunately, recent changes to Facebook have made it so that my posts only reach a little less than 10% of you lovely followers, so if you want to know about new posts and patterns you have to actually seek out my Facebook page (and honestly, who's going to do that?).  According to THIS article on AdAge, Facebook would like me to pay to "boost" the reach those posts (which is totally their right, and I'm not complaining).  It just doesn't make financial sense to me to pay for advertising when I'm using Facebook as a way to let you know I've posted a new free pattern.
I am still going to use Facebook, I love it and I think it's an amazing way to connect with all of you.  But if you'd like to get notified when I put up a new post, please consider signing up to follow me by email!  It's not spam, I'm not going to market to you, all it does is send my posts directly to your email box.  You'll never miss a post, and it won't cost me a cent!  Win-win, right?!
The box to sign up to follow by email is on the right sidebar!
xo!  Jaime

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright!

I didn't send out Christmas cards this year (or last year, come to think of it! LOL!!).  Lucky for me, all of the people who I would send cards to read my blog!  So, on this most merry of days, I am sending you all of my love and the very best holiday wishes.

xoxo

Katy's Booties

My niece is 8 months old.  Her parents are very successful and she doesn't need anything. ANYTHING! All of her wants and needs have been taken care of.  This leaves me in a bit of a pickle. What do you get for a baby that already has everything?!  

The correct answer is: cowgirl boots.  Actually, these are cowboy boots, but Katy's only 8 months old and she won't know the difference for at least another year and a half.  (Mims was about 2 years old when we tried to buy her a Batman t-shirt and she burst into tears.  "Girls wear pretty dresses, Mama," she informed me. She has since come around, because awesome t-shirts can be worn by anyone, but she wears her Adventure Time shirts with the flounciest of skirts)
I made the boots using THIS pattern from The Crochet Crowd.  I LOVE the little heel!!!!

These were supposed to be Mary Janes, but I thought they were so adorable without the strap, they looked like little flats.  So I have left it off.  The "cuff" part was really long on this pattern (unnecessarily long, in my opinion, unless you were making them for an abnormally long-legged baby) so I modified it.  If you've got a baby with normal sized legs you might want to try it my way too!
I used THIS pattern (also from The Crochet Crowd).

My modifications:
Follow the direction exactly as written through R10
R11: ch 2, in back loops only dc in each st around, sl st to first dc to close round (20/22 st)
R12-13: ch 2, fpdc around, sl st to first dc to close round (20/22 st)
Fasten off. Weave in ends.

Finish with Trim as written, and add a strap if you prefer.

I am sure that Katy and her mama are going to be very happy.  After all, a girl can never have too many pairs of shoes, right?  ;D

xoxo

**Just a quick FYI***
Crochet Dynamite recently passed the 3k mark for Facebook followers!  Yay!  I am overjoyed and very grateful for all of the love and support!  I have the best Dynamos in the world, and I love each and every one of you!
Unfortunately, recent changes to Facebook have made it so that my posts only reach a little less than 10% of you lovely followers, so if you want to know about new posts and patterns you have to actually seek out my Facebook page (and honestly, who's going to do that?).  According to THIS article on AdAge, Facebook would like me to pay to "boost" the reach those posts (which is totally their right, and I'm not complaining).  It just doesn't make financial sense to me to pay for advertising when I'm using Facebook as a way to let you know I've posted a new free pattern.
I am still going to use Facebook, I love it and I think it's an amazing way to connect with all of you.  But if you'd like to get notified when I put up a new post, please consider signing up to follow me by email!  It's not spam, I'm not going to market to you, all it does is send my posts directly to your email box.  You'll never miss a post, and it won't cost me a cent!  Win-win, right?!
The box to sign up to follow by email is on the right sidebar!
xo!  Jaime

Party Animals

Pinterest is MY happiest place on earth.  I know that a ton of people have been doing their own versions of those cute animal necklaces that Anthropologie sells for $38 apiece.  You know, the ones that are made out of the little play animals that you can buy at Michaels?  Mims and I needed a project the other day, so we got ourselves some animals and some funky beads/pom poms/ribbons and trims.  And some E6000 glue!  And we got to work!

 When we started, I thought I was going to give these away as Mims-Made Christmas presents, but she fell in love with all of them.  We decided that they would be very festive on our tree.

Jake's nickname is Bear, so we made him a King Bear to for his car (it's less fancy, but more regal than the others).  I made a hippo in a tutu for myself, and the camel is going to our favorite "What day is it?! IT'S MOVIE DAY!!!!!" buddy.

We turned the zebra into a necklace for Mims.  I love that she made it herself, and that we didn't spend $38 bucks on it.  In fact, I think our grand total cost for this whole project was less than $25.  Being crafty is awesome.

xoxo

Paperclip Ice Skates Ornament!

I love paperclip ice skates.  I do.  I love that they look old fashioned and vintage and they remind me of some that my grandma hung on her tree when I was a kid.

I really liked THIS pattern by Suzetta Williams (it's free, and her site is cute!), and it inspired my own version of paperclip ice skates.  Mine look a little more like the ones I remember from my grandma's tree, and they are so ridiculously quick to make I think I'm going to use them as present toppers this year too! 

I got my jumbo paperclips at my local Dollar Tree, 80 for $1.  Score!

PAPERCLIP ICE SKATES ORNAMENT (or present topper)

approx 1" tall

Supplies:

MC - skate color - small amount of worsted weight yarn (I used Red Heart Super Saver acrylic yarn, and Patons 100% wool yarn and both looked awesome.  Acrylic will last for a lifetime or two, if passing these down for several generations is important to you...)

CC - cuff color - very small amount of worsted weight yarn 

2 jumbo paperclips

R1: Using MC, attach yarn to jumbo paperclip and make 7 sc along the top edge of the clip (7 st)

R2: ch 1, skip first st, 6 hdc (6 st)

R3: ch 1, 4 sc, skip last 2 st (4 st)

R4: ch 1, 4 sc, change color to CC

R5: ch1, 4 sc (4 st)

R6: ch1, 4 sc, chain 8 

Fasten off, leaving a 4" tail for tying later. Weave in all of the other loose ends.

Make another skate, this time substituting:

R6: ch 1, 4 sc, chain 5 (so your skates hang at different lengths and you can see both of them when they hang on the tree)

Tie your two skates together as close to the chain stitches as possible.  Leave a 2" gap and make another knot.  Trim excess yarn ends from the top.

(optional) If you want to add a bow to the skates you can use a very small amount of CC (cuff color? LOL!) and thread it through the first stitch of R5.  Tie your bow and adjust it so it faces out when your skates hang. ;D

I also made an ice skate bookmark, by chaining 40 at the end of R6 and tying a matching pom pom to it.  It is so cute!!  I think I'm going to make some to go in all of the books I give this year... probably not for the guys... LOL!!

(Just as a heads up, if you like sci-fi and fiction this short story collection is really good.  Also, my dad - Illustrator James J. Eads - did an illustration for one of the stories.  Woot!)

xoxo

Katy's Teething Rings

My niece is almost 8 months old!  I can hardly believe it, this year has gone by so quickly.  Katy-bug is teething right now, and even though none of them have broken through yet the first one is close.

I decided to make her a set of teething rings for Christmas.  I made them out of cotton so they'd feel good on her gums, and her mom could wash them over and over.  I also gave them a nice long cord so that her mom could tie the rings to Katy's stroller, car seat or even wear them as a teething necklace while she's holding Katy. 

KATY'S TEETHING RINGS

Supplies:

Small amount of 100% cotton worsted weight yarn (I used 4 colors, but I don't think I used even an ounce of yarn for the whole project.  I think it would look so nice in just a solid color too!)

Size H hook

Yarn needle

Scissors

Links:

ch 16

R1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in each ch across (15 st)

R2: ch 1, sc in each st across (15 st)

Fasten off.  Leave a 12" tail.  Fold the link in half lengthwise (like a hot dog) and whipstitch the sides together.  Curl the link into a circle and whipstitch the ends together to finish the circle.  Weave in the ends.

Make 7 more, forming them into a chain by linking them together before whipstitching the ends closed.

Tie:

Using all 4 colors (or 4 strands of a single color) chain 65. Fasten off.  Trim the tails to 1/2" to make tassels.  Tie the tie through the top loop of the links (you don't have to tie it in a bow, but it looks cute if you do!)

xoxo

Crazy Simple Kid Sized Wrist Warmers

Mims is in a matching-with-Mom phase right now. We wear matching outfits at least once a week, and we have matching purple hoodies for the times that matching whole outfits is impractical.  So it didn't surprise me that when Mims saw my new wrist warmers she wanted a matching pair.   And since I am such an indulgent mom, of course I made her a pair.  Of course, the fact that I could make the pair in less than an hour didn't hurt either!  LOL!!

CRAZY SIMPLE KID SIZED WRIST WARMERS
to fit most kids (age 5-10)

Supplies:

2 oz worsted weight yarn (I used 100% cotton yarn, but you might prefer wool in colder climates)

Size G crochet hook

Yarn needle

(make 2)

ch 22, sl st to first ch to close loop (be careful not to twist stitches)

R1: ch 1, hdc in each ch around, sl st to first hdc to close round (22 st)

R2-4: ch 1, hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (22 st)

R5: ch 1, hdc in each st around, do not close round, ch 1, turn (22 st)

R6-7: hdc in each st across, ch 1, turn (22 st)

R8: (ws) hdc in each st across, sl st to first hdc to close round, ch 1, turn (22 st)

R9: (rs) hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (22 st)
R10-16: ch 1, hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (22 st)

Fasten off.  Weave in ends.

Crazy simple, right?!  And if you want to do the striped version you just change color every two rows (4 stripes of your main color, 4 stripes of your accent color).

These are so perfect for winter fun!  They're so fast and so simple to make that you can make a pair to match every outfit (even the ones that don't match with mom!).

xoxo

Crazy Simple One Hour Wrist Warmers

I know, I know.  There are a ton of fingerless glove patterns out there.  But these are so quick to make and so crazy simple these will be your hands down favorites!  What makes them so amazing is that you can make a pair using only one skein of yarn and one hour.  So that means that when you're watching back-to-back episodes of Scandal on Netflix you could be cranking out cute stocking stuffers for all of your friends.  One episode, one pair of wrist warmers.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! It's a win-win as far as I'm concerned.

CRAZY SIMPLE ONE HOUR WRIST WARMERS

to fit most adults

Supplies:

2 oz worsted weight yarn (I used 100% cotton yarn, but you might prefer wool in colder climates)

Size G crochet hook

Yarn needle

(make 2)

ch 24, sl st to first ch to close loop (be careful not to twist stitches)

R1: ch 1, hdc in each ch around, sl st to first hdc to close round (24 st)

R2-5: ch 1, hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (24 st)

R6: ch 1, hdc in each st around, do not close round, ch 1, turn (24 st)

R7-9: hdc in each st across, ch 1, turn (24 st)

R10: hdc in each st across, sl st to first hdc to close round (24 st)

R11-18: ch 1, hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc to close round (24 st)

Fasten off.  Weave in ends.

Crazy simple, right?!  And if you want to do the striped version you just change color every two rows (5 stripes of your main color, 4 stripes of your accent color).  So easy! Super gifty!  

I'll be posting the kid size version tomorrow!

xoxo

Edit 12/15/13: The crazy simple kid sized version is HERE! Make a pair for your favorite little buddy!

Column Pour Soap Class

It's time again for another post about my soap making progress!  This month the soap class at Great Cakes Soapworks was a column pour.  I was so excited.  I had a new fragrance oil that I wanted to try, and even though the reviews said it might discolor, I figured I could just work around the discoloration by keeping some of the soap batter unscented.  I began my pour and suddenly the batter got super thick and clumpy, which is pretty much the worst thing ever for a column pour.  I got it into the mold, but it wasn't pretty.

It looked pretty good the first day... 

(and yes, I thought doing a 6 column pour was a good idea.  It wasn't.)

But once I cut it, it began to discolor and the not-as-obvious mistakes became glaringly obvious.  Clumpy pour means clumps of color in my soap!

So I tried again.  I tried a different fragrance oil.  I was sure I had done something wrong with the last batch, so I mixed it to a very light trace and began my pour.  Again, I got about halfway into it and the whole batch got very thick.  It caused the top of the soap to wrinkle!  Ack!  I finished, and while it looked better than my first try, it still wasn't what I was looking for.

I didn't even bother taking pictures of the soap in the mold on this one.  I knew that it wasn't going to be good.  You can see that pouring at a thinner trace made the soap pour smoother, but the lines are still too thick and overall it's not the delicate stripes I had hoped for.

I waited a few days before I tried again. Thankfully, in those few days, it occurred to me that it wasn't my technique.  It wasn't the FO's I was using either.  It was my RECIPE.  I was using too many hard oils.  I tried a super basic bastille (just olive and coconut oil) and I only mixed the soap batter to emulsion, since I was going to try to column pour with 12 colors.

And it worked like magic, just exactly the way it was supposed to.  It poured smoothly!  I had time to use all my colors.  The soap didn't wrinkle!  I had time to swirl through the top. Yippee!!!!

This time the soap swirled beautifully!  And it smells ah-MAH-zing!! 

I used Rise and Shine FO from Bramble Berry. It smells fun and fruity, a little like sweet tarts and is a perfect match for my tye-dye look soap.  My daughter is going crazy for it.

Finally!  Beautiful delicate lines!  Exactly what I had hoped to learn!

I'm glad I had a good reason to experiment with this technique because if I was just making soap to give to my friends and family I don't think I would have made enough batches to figure out what I was doing wrong. I think I would have given it up as a technique that was too hard and turned out too ugly. Now I am so excited to use this technique again and again!

xoxo

Chick Ornaments!

Every year I try to make a new set of ornaments for our Christmas tree.  This year, in honor of our newest pets, I made some chickens!

Our chicks are only about 6 weeks old, so they don't have their combs yet.  Eventually they'll grow in, but for now their little heads are smooth with feathers... Thus, chick ornaments!

CHICK ORNAMENTS
approx 3 inches from beak to tail feathers
Supplies:
Chicken Body/Wings: Small amount of worsted weight yarn (I used white cotton for some, and beige acrylic for the others, it's your choice)
Beak/Legs: Small amount of worsted weight yarn (I used a dark yellow cotton)
Scissors
Yarn needle
6" of hemp cord (you could also use embroidery floss, a piece of yarn or an ornament hanger)

Chicken Body:
R1: 8 hdc in a magic loop, pull loop tight and sl st to first hdc to form a circle (8 st)
R2: ch 1, 2 hdc in each st around, sl st to first hdc, ch 5, sl st into same st, ch 8, sl st into same st, ch 5, sl st into same st (you just made the tail feathers!  It sort of looks like a pineapple now, huh?)

R3: fold chicken body in half (you're going to crochet the sides together now) and put 2 sc in each set of stitches across (16 st + tail feathers)
R4: (making the neck and head) ch 1, work 3 hdc stitches evenly into the top edge of the chicken body - don't go past the center or it will look odd... (3 st)
R5: ch 1, hdc across (3 st)
R6: ch 1, hdc 3 st together
Fasten off.  Weave in ends.

Wings:
(make 2)
ch 3
R1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next ch sp (2 st)
R2: ch 4, sc in first st, ch 3, sc in second st
Fasten off.  Leave a tail so you can sew the wing onto the chicken body.  Place the wing slightly towards the front of the body (not dead center) and stitch it into place.  Repeat on the other side!
Weave in any ends.

Chicken Beak:
**I have included a series of photographs to help you through this odd process.  The beak is one chain stitch, which sounds like it should be so simple, and it is, but only if you actually SEE the way I did it, hence, the photos**
Choose your beak placement

Choose your beak placement

Pull a loop through to attach the yarn, and ch 1

Pull the TAIL end of the yarn through the chain. Tug gently at both yarn ends to tighten beak.

Weave the beak-tip end down through the loops where you attached the yarn on one side

Cut the other end of the yarn and weave it up through the loops where you attached the yarn on the other side.
Trim all ends!  It makes a perfect beak!

Chicken Legs:
Using chicken leg color, ch 8, sc to center bottom edge of chicken (one of the stitches in the middle), ch 9
Fasten off.  Use ends to help tie the bottom of the chain in a knot.  Tighten the knot as close to the bottom of the first ch as possible.  Snip off any tail ends.

Making the hanger:
Using your yarn needle, run the hemp cord through a stitch in the top of the chicken's back.  Tie the ends together in an overhand knot to make the hanger (you could also use an ornament hanger, if that's more your style).

Now go hang it on your tree!

Make some more!

Use them as gift toppers!

Give them different colored beaks and legs!  And have fun!

xoxo

Chickens!

We have chickens!  About 6 weeks ago we were having some difficulty with our washing machine and the repair guy that came out turned out to be a neighbor.  We got to talking and he suggested that we get some chickens because his are doing really well in this area.  I know, random right?

That same day I got an email saying that the farm at our fairgrounds was offering a class on Raising Chickens in an Urban Environment.  It was free.  I took it as a sign that we were supposed to go.

It didn't sound that hard.  It actually sounded like a lot of fun.  I took a lot of notes, and then read everything I could about chickens online.  Then I bought 3 books on chickens...

...Mims HAD been wanting a pet...

So now we've got 4 chickens in a rubbermaid tub in our kitchen.  They're almost big enough to live outside, but I'm going to give them a few more weeks because it's cold and I don't want to put them out too early.  Mims is happy!  I'm happy!  Jake is maybe less happy, since he's the one that cleans the tub...  I keep telling him it will all be worth it when we have amazing fresh eggs.

Our ladies:

From left to right: Marceline, Little Red, Buffy and Suzy

Marceline is named after Mim's favorite cartoon character, Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time (Our Marceline is a Black Australorp).  Little Red is a Rhode Island Red.  Buffy is a Buff Orpington (and named after MY favorite Vampire Slayer).  And Suzy is actually named Tiramisu-zy but we've shortened it down (she's an Americauna which is the "easter egg" laying breed.  Her eggs will be green or blue or pink!).

xoxo!

Oh!  And than you to everyone who downloaded my books last week.  I ended up giving away over 13,000 books to people in 11 different countries!!  How amazing is that?!  Thanks for spreading the word and the love, Dynamos!!

Scented Star Ornaments

I think the only downside of having an artificial tree is that it doesn't smell like Christmas. My best friend Deb (she prefers that to Mom-in-Law, LOL!) always gets a live tree so in the past I've just been able to go over to her house and get all my pine-y love in.  This year she moved up to Northern California and we miss her so much, especially now because I have no yummy live tree smells to help me celebrate the season.

So when I was in Target the other day I got so excited because I saw the most awesome thing ever.  Pine scented ornaments to hang on your artificial tree!  Brilliant!  And then I saw the price, which was cheaper than a live tree, but not by much.  Not so brilliant.  Disappointed, I put them back.  But happily, by the time I got home I had thought of a way to make my own pine scented ornaments!

Why yes, my little scented star is hanging out next to a chicken!

I grabbed a hook and some yarn and it didn't take long to whip up 3 little star ornaments for my tree.  I used some spruce scented fragrance oil that I had just used in a batch of holiday soap for the scent.  It's pretty awesome!  I didn't realize how much I missed the piney smell until I came home from shopping and the whole house smelled like, well, Christmas-time!

I can't believe how easy and ridiculously cheap these were to make.  I can't imagine ever having another holiday season without them again!

SCENTED STAR ORNAMENTS
approx 2" across

Supplies:
Small amount of worsted weight yarn (I used cheap acrylic yarn because I was concerned about the fragrance oil staining wool or cotton)
Size H hook
4-8 small cotton balls
Fragrance oil of your choice (I used Bramble Berry's Santa's Spruce FO, but I think peppermint or cinnamon essential oils would also be very nice)
6" Hemp cord (or yarn, embroidery floss, or an ornament hook)

Use my Mini Wishing Star pattern to make a star.  I single crocheted around the two pieces to join them this time, but you can follow the original directions and whipstitch them together if you prefer.  Don't close the star completely.  Leave one point open. Don't weave in any ends or cut your yarn if you're sc-ing the star together...

Begin to stuff your star with 2-3 cotton balls (it won't fill the star, but it will fill in the points and make them nicely puffy)

Put 3 drops of fragrance oil onto a cotton ball and stick it into the center of your star ornament.  Fill in around it with unscented cotton balls. *Don't add too much fragrance/essential oil to your cotton ball.  I know, it's very tempting to want to saturate that thing with holiday cheer, but don't do it!  You'll give yourself a headache.  You can always add more if it doesn't smell enough for your likings, so err on the conservative side...

Finish single crocheting around your star (or whipstitching, if you prefer).  Fasten off and weave in all ends.

Attach hemp cord to one of the star points and tie it with an overhand knot (or any other basic knot you know, this isn't fancy, it's function!)

Hang that sucker on your tree and enjoy the holiday cheer!!  I added 3, which was just the right amount of good-smelling-ness for our home.  They've been hanging on our tree for about a week and it's still delightful to come home to the Christmas-ey smell!

xoxo

Oh, and today (12/7) is the last day of Saint Spoiling's Week!  Last chance to grab your free books! xo!