DAVIDsTEA Steeper Cozy Crochet – Free Pattern

I LOVE my DAVIDsTea Steeper. I use the Steeper every day, multiple times a day, for about 85% of all the tea I drink. I’ve taken my Steeper with me when I go on vacations! My father bought one so I have one there for when I visit him. This tea steeping device is serious business.

Don’t know what it is?

Here’s my Steeper! Mine’s all tea stained and I was too lazy to baking soda it pretty. Sorry peeps.

You put the loose tea leaves inside the Steeper. Pour hot water. Steep your tea for as directed by the tea. Stick Steeper ontop of mug and the tea pours out from underneath! Whooo!!! No spills or burnt hands!

Of course, you can buy the Steeper from DAVIDsTEA ♥ along with some tea. Their teas are great btw. My all time favorites are Cherry Blossom, Chocolate Orange, Goji Pop, Chocolate Rocket and The Skinny. My rabbit approves (of their boxes)!

♥ I created a crochet cozy pattern for my Steeper! The pattern is actually fairly easy to make and it fits nice and snug over the Steeper. I used an acrylic yarn here (what I had on hand) but I think wool would work better to retain heat. There is no seaming in this pattern, and the cozy is held in place by a button. The Steeper Cozy provides a fun canvas to add funky buttons, colourwork and bling! ♥

My Steeper Cozy pattern is for the 18oz Steeper only! I’d do a 36oz cozy version, but I don’t own that size to make a pattern for it. If anyone wants to donate me a 36oz Steeper, that be pretty cool ♥♥♥

To get this pattern, click download now which will direct you to Ravelry for a copy of the PDF pattern. Or visit the Ravelry Project page and download it from there.

I made myself 2 different cozies. This DT aqua blue one:

And this white one, inspired by DAVIDsTEA’s “Cherry Blossom” white tea, one of my favorite teas of theirs!

I linked a few embellishment ideas on the pattern, however feel free to go crazy and let your favorite teas inspire you!

This pattern is Free! If you make this, please post to the Ravelry project page or link it to me in the comments below! I wanna see the fun embellishments!

Also, I’m Awkward Soul over on Steepster.com, feel free to pop by and say hello!


Ultra Nubby Scrubby Crochet Tawashi Dishcloths

CROCHETING BIG TEXTURED POOFY STUFF IS FUN!

Get a load of this ultra nubby beast of a crochet project:

I’ve been nursing a sprained/fractured finger over the last few weeks. Right before I messed up my finger I had started on this project then I was forced to take a break. I then discovered I could still crochet (slow paced) however I cannot do tight gauge stuff like amigurumi until my finger is fully healed.

While I was making these, my husband kept stealing them to fidget with. He really likes the white one because it is really stiff and has fun little arms to pull.

This white tawashi is called “Jellyfish” tawashi. Everyone who saw me making it couldn’t figure out what I was doing and concluded it was a jellyfish. This variation in particular is really sturdy and scrubby.

♥ With this pattern there are 5 forms, all easy to modify to be bigger and higher nubs. ♥

Here is all the other forms that I put in the pattern:

Fluffy Jelly Tawashi Dish Cloth – this one is very soft compared to the regular Jelly Tawashi. The nubs are constructed differently to be more open with also has more height and poof going on.

Sun Burst Tawashi – this dishcloth is more on the flatter side, fun and loopy with great scrub capacity. This one crochets up fast!

Medallion Tawashi – this one has coarse, tight nubs for ultra scrubbing power! Very compact!

Spiral Tawashi – a simple spiral dishcloth. Light scrubbing and looks great with variegated yarn.

♥  I got this fun crochet pattern up at My Etsy Shop or can be purchased via Ravelry (no account needed) by clicking this nifty button. ♥ 

Unfortunately, these dishcloths do not make good rabbit hats. Kinda looks like a chef hat or nubby beret? Benson was not impressed. He threw it off and made a cage jail break escape!

Phew! Lots of dishcloths! I actually majorly dented my cotton yarn stash making these and will have to buy more yarn (yessss!).  I got another crochet project idea I’m going to start working on today since I have this one completed. Though, I probably need to go back and make more of this pattern, ya know… christmas gifts. ARG!


Summer Farmer’s Market Bags!

Summer is here and farmers markets are in! Benson is 2 lbs right now and can eat a huge handful of cilantro in one sitting! Then he gives me a mean look “That’s it? Not even a dessert?” Okay fine, have a strawberry.

“NOMMMMMM!”

That little bugger can eat so much produce! With that said, I need to buy up the cheap produce that is popping up and make some more crochet bags to put it in! You ever notice that you crochet or knit certain items depending on the season? I tend to make bags in the summer. They are a fast project of 1-4 hours, useful and impressive gifts.

First, I had to locate some cheap cotton yarn so I don’t have to bust into my expensive Egyptian cotton stash. I found some at a closeout at a japanese store – $0.50 a ball!

Too bad they only had green. A very nice green though with a weird set-up to get at the ends.

The yarn also came with an intense lacey sweater pattern rolled inside the ball. I’ll pass for now.

The pattern I used is one I put up for free a summer or two ago: http://www.awkwardsouldesigns.com/2010/07/07/sky-shopping-bag/

For this particular bag, I made 2 handles instead of one (10 rows each) and made the bag body 31 ch wide by 16 rows high.

The bag’s first job: Watermelon for watermelon juice! My amigurumi Boomkin is thirsty and is low on mana!

Success!

Of course, string crochet bags are great – they can hold heavy objects and look cool. They also roll up into a small bundle which is sometimes more convenient than the store bought bags.

I also saved $0.10 since Long Beach charges for bags. Errr.. well with the difference of yarn, I spent $0.40 but in a couple visits I save!

Now to make 4 more *dies*

 

Now, another picture of a typical day of my married life:

“More strawberries!”

(I thought the rabbits were supposed to look disapproving and not the husbands…)


I can knit smoothly with this crochet hook…

One of my pet peeves is mistaking knitting for crocheting or crocheting for knitting.

crochet hooks?
I found this at my local Yoko Yaya (Japanese dollar store similar to Daiso), located in Downtown Vancouver. I tried lace crochet, but felt like I’d go blind doing it.. but the packaging sold me on its wrongness.. but hopefully not to encourage this.

Close up:
crochet hooks?  2

I’m not sure how smoothly I’d knit with a crochet hook.

To add to some more randomness… cookies I made for a “BAKE OFF!!” I had with a co-worker
skull cookies
I made with this recipe halved, with some cocoa powder.

More crochet stuff to come, I`ve been designing patterns right now (unsuccessfully) and been working quite a bit (16 hours OT shifts! ARGG!)


Dolphin, version 2

Amigurumi Dolphin

I revised my Dolphin pattern to include a white tummy. Unfortunately, this was a horrible painful process that I wouldn’t recommend a newb crocheter to attempt.

The white tummy is crocheted at the same time as the entire body. My pattern philosophy is sewing additional parts sucks! However my hatred of sewing comes at a price of insane yarn colour changes. So if you can handle lots of yarn ends, go for it! At least in amigurumi you hide the yarn ends inside the form, so there is no ends to weave in. You can knot them as ugly as you want and no one will ever see (unless you rip it open.. but who would do that?)

Making this guy did make me realize spiral rounds actually spiral around (duh) not making the form even when a block of colour is added. I didn’t account for this much in this modification, but it’s only noticeable if you look under the tail >__< uggg.

Amigurumi Dolphin
Amigurumi Dolphin

The final product is pretty cute though <3

Amigurumi Dolphin

Pattern Available at My Etsy Shop or via Ravelry (no account needed).

On another note, my eye order from CR crafts arrived. 450 eyes and 36 noses (I’m insane). Most of the eyes are clear and I went for larger eyes
– 10mm, 12mm and 15mm. I’m working on another insane yarn colour changing pattern, so I’m happy I can progress further now that I have the eyes!


Now in green!

Easter octopus pair

I plan to make a rainbow of these one day – however I wish I had 8 colours of the same yarn to make it more symbolic!

Tako April 2011

I actually started the green octopus head so long ago that I forgot when. I was organizing my basket that contains active projects and found it – I’m guessing I made it at work one day and it got buried at the bottom of the basket.

(If you are interested in the pattern, it’s up at my etsy storeor buy now download via Raverly)

In other news, I got a couple amigurumi patterns I’m creating right now.
I got one pattern I’m creating that needs to be tested and written out nicely before I put it online. This is the one I posted a few hint pictures awhile back. There’s been a delay in the pattern being written out as this is when my old computer died with all my pictures I took of the pieces construction (cry).

I am also working on another one that I’m unsure if I’ll post the pattern as it’s more of a fan thing – but I’m on a snag with it right now as I need some buttons for it.


Holding back my comment

Diaso yarn

^ found on the Antibacterial yarn package, purchased from Diaso (Richmond, BC, Canada). I’m trying really hard to hold back any smart or insulting comments to go with this picture.

I’ve been missing in action lately as my computer(s) were spazing. Okay, I have one computer my sister and I built about 2-3 years ago… and each part on it broke except for the tower case and power supply (even the case fans broke). From there, I switched to my father’s computer a few months ago which is at least 6 years old and can just barely handle internet browsing.

So I bought a shiny Dell computer (i7 quad processor + 8gb ram) and now I’m FLYING! However, that project = installing everything, moving files around, reorganizing files, and playing on things I couldn’t do before my previous computers didn’t. While I was doing that, I’ve been chipping away at this blanket:

star blanket wip

(pattern from http://yarn-diva.blogspot.com/2006/03/free-star-shaped-afghan-pattern.html)

At the moment, it can almost touch the edges of my double-sized bed. I’m just gonna keep crocheting away until all the yarn is gone <3

Back to new computer tinkering!


Spiral Nubby Dishcloth – Free Pattern

Dishcloths are a great little project. Small, quick projects that fulfills the crocheting urge. I remember when I first moved out, and was on a budget, I would crochet dishcloths and tea towels and only use those instead of store bought stuff.

With that said, doing the basic dishcloth is “meh” to me. I want something cute or funky! My favourite dishcloth is a similar pattern that creates nubs with a combination of Treble crochets and Single crochets. There are a buncha patterns in different names doing the same freaking thing, but an example pattern I am talking about would be Nubby Dishcloth @ crochetme. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures of the ones I’ve created because I’ve given them away as fast as I could make them!

Spiral Nubby Dishcloth 3

My variant – Spiral Nubby Dishcloth – is worked in a round creating a pattern of nubs on one side.

Mats

  • Worsted weight cotton in the colour of your choice. I prefer solids, but I made these in varigated to use up leftover stash. Approximately 27 yards of yarn.
  • 4.5mm or 5mm hook, achieving a tight-ish gauge.
  • stitch marker, such as a safety pin, to mark rounds.

SC= Single Crochet
TR= Treble Crochet
Sl St= Slip Stitch

Crocheting time!

  1. Create a magic loop (Youtube howto video) and SC 8 into the ring.
  2. Chain 1. TURN. Do a TR + SC in each stitch, doing 2 stitches per stitch. Sl St the ring closed. 8 Nubs total. The nubs should be forming on the side away from you. That side is the right side.
  3. Chain 1. DO NOT TURN. *TR+SC in the same stitch. SC 1 in the next stitch* repeat 8 times until the end. Sl St the ring closed.
  4. Chain 1. DO NOT TURN. *TR+SC in the same stitch. SC 1 in the next 2 stitches* repeat 8 times until the end. Sl St the ring closed.
  5. Chain 1. DO NOT TURN. *TR+SC in the same stitch. SC 1 in the next 3 stitches* repeat 8 times until the end. Sl St the ring closed.
  6. Chain 1. DO NOT TURN. *TR+SC in the same stitch. SC 1 in the next 4 stitches* repeat 8 times until the end. Sl St the ring closed.
    OR
    Chain 1. DO NOT TURN. *TR+SC in the same stitch. TR 1 , SC 1, TR 1, SC 1* repeat 8 times until the end.  Sl St the ring closed. To create a border of nubs (as seen in my blue/green example)
  7. Chain 1. TURN. *2 SC in the same stitch, SC 1 in the next 5 stitches*. Sl St the ring closed.
  8. To create a hanging loop, Chain 10 and sl st the same or next stitch. Fasten off, weave in loose ends.

Row 6 option 1 – Windmill/spiral of nubs.
Spiral Nubby Dishcloth 1

Row 6 option 2 – Spiral of nubs with the final row being a circle of nubs.
Spiral Nubby Dishcloth 2

Variations: Add extra nubs on the even numbered rows following the 2nd row 6 option, doing TRs and SC alternating.

Pretty funky, eh? Good pot scrubber too <3

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada License.


Sky Shopping Bag

Sky Shopping Bag 3 IMG_8261

Market Bags. I’m addicted horribly. I mean, I get to buy bright cotton yarn and crochet up something fast and have a different looking bag each time I go buy fruit.  Oh, and the environment is saved slightly, yay! I find this bag is more sturdy, faster to make than my Fishnetty Bag.

IMG_8257 Sky Shopping Bag 1

You can download the PDF pattern for free by clicking download now (raverly link) or see below

SKY SHOPPING BAG
Chain 29 with a 10mm hook.
Row 1.
DC in the 5 chain from the hook, followed by a Ch1 and DC in the same chain
(3 stitches completed in the 5 chain). *Skip 2. Work a V Stitch (DC, Ch1, DC) in the
same stitch* repeat until the end. (9 V Stitches Total.)
DO NOT TURN
Continue adding V Stitches on the foundation chain underneath in the 2 Ch gaps.
Once you get to the end, do 1 V Stitch in the 5 chain starting gap. (18 V Stitches Total.)
Row 2.
Do not turn. Place a marker to indicate the beginning of each round. V Stitch in
each Ch1 gap from the previous row.
Row 3.
Repeat Row 2, finishing until you have 12 Rows completed. The bag will work
its self into a round.
To mimic the colour changes in the example, switch to a second colour on the 8 row and work 4 rows in this colour.

Handles
Lay your bag flat as possible and mark where you will put your handles, 2 V Stitches wide, on the corner edges of the bag.
Row 1.
HDC 4. Ch2 and turn. I find doing 1 HDC in the gap between V Stitches, 2 HDC
in the Ch1 Vstitch gap, and the last 1 HDC in the inbetween V Stitches works well.
Row 2.
Repeat this row 14 times, or until desired length.
Attach handle to the other side of the bag by slip stitching loosely both the handle
and the edge of the bag at the same time. Fasten off and weave ends.

Edging
Switch to a 6mm hook. With the front of the bag facing you, SC or HDC evenly around the top of the bag and handles. I used SC for the green bag, HDC for the blue bag with the main colour. Since the bag stretches, you want this to be somewhat loose, thus around 2 stitches in each V Stitch and 1 or 2 in the handle. Repeat for the other edge.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.


Fishnetty Bag – Free Pattern

Vancouver practically hasn’t stopped raining since last summer. It rained through most of the Olymipcs, and it’s almost halfway into June and it is still raining. Sigh. I miss the warm DRY weather of Los Angeles, strolling through the Farmer’s Market with my boyfriend, filling our bags up with fresh fruit (to become pies) and our stomachs full of crawfish and alligator (it was chewy fishy chicken).

I almost always use reusable shopping bags – I don’t own a car and I find hauling groceries easier with a large sturdy bag instead of those flimsy plastic ones (that get slippery in the rain). My boyfriend tries to use reusable bags, but fails. There is some great crochet bag patterns out there, however I wanted to make my own pattern to suit my needs.

What I came up with:
fishnet bag 4

They look small, but are very sturdy, stretchy and can hold A TON of crap. Hey, they look  fishnetty too!
fishnet bag 5 fishnet bag 1

The red on is the “large” size, holding two 775g cereal boxes, with plenty of room to fit more crap on the top. The “small” size in camo green is holding 7 cans of beans and would hold more but it be a pain in the ass to carry more weight.
For another size comparison, the “small” size is your typical plastic grocery bag size that will hold two 2 liter bottles of pop, whereas the “large” one can hold four bottles!

Other than size, these bags are lightweight, roll up tiny, work up fast, great for a beginner, have no seaming and very easy to adjust the size to your liking!!

Enough chatter – onto the pattern (and free – my first free pattern)

Materials:
~Worsted Weight Cotton yarn – around 140 meters for the large size. I used Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (renegade colour) for small, which is more weighted and more gapey finished appearance. For the large size, I used a cotton polyester blend, Nashua Cilantro. The latter yarn has a bit of stretch to it, but not necessary for the project.
~4.5mm to 5.5mm crochet hook – gauge is not important, go with what the yarn says or experience to make a not too loose not too tight stitch. I went with 5.5mm because I got that amigurumi tight gauge.
~Tapestry needle to weave in ends.
~Whatever you use to mark beginning of rows (safety pins, scrap yarn) as you will be working in rounds and marking where to put handles.

Small (Large) – crochet in rounds formed around the foundation chain.
Ch = chain
Sc= single crochet
Hdc = half double crochet (could get away with and not use this stitch for this pattern)
Sl st = slip stitch

  1. Chain 36 (56). You may adjust the width of the bag by keeping the base chain in increments of 4.
  2. Sc in the 8th stitch. *Ch 5, skip 3 stitches, SC* repeat till the end. DO NOT TURN – continue to work the pattern on the underside of the foundation chain, inbetween the chain spaces.
    (note: for crocheting onto the foundation chain, ensure you are doing your intial set of single crochets through two loops of each foundation chain, not the round bump of the chain. This ensures the bottom is more stable)
  3. Repeat row 2 for 20 (22) rounds, or until it reaches the desired lenght.

Handles:
Lay the bag flat, and mark where your handles will be, ensuring they are evenly spaced. I did 2 (5) chain spaces in the middle of each handle.

  1. Continue the *Ch 5, skip 3 stitches, SC* pattern until you reach the first handle marker. Chain enough to make a long enough handle for your liking. For a bag that will go around your shoulder, as seen in my examples, I chained 60. 35 chains would make typical grocery bag handle. Attach the chain using a SC at the next marker. Resume the pattern until the next marker and repeat for the next handle. Continue the fishnet pattern until the end of the row.
  2. HDC in each chain space 3 times, and 1 HDC in SC (you may have to do one or two more depending on your gauge. It stretches a lot, though you do not want it to ripple). Work HDCs until you get to a handle. Do 1 HDC from around the same space the SC is to make the handle more secure, then continue HDCs up the handle in each chain. When you reach the end of the handle, HDC in the chain space before the SC, then continue around the edge of the bag until you reach the end.

If you want thicker handles, do the edging again at least once more. You may also use Single crochet/whatever instead of Half Doubles – I just like Half Double crochets and like to toss them in when I can.

Feel free to add extras – attach crochet flowers, hearts (this is a cute tiny heart pattern ) or beads. I would of added something cute, but these bags are for my boyfriend and they need to be “manly”.
fishnet bag 3

I should really make one in black….

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Canada License. Pattern created by Char Gascho. Pattern is for personal and non-commercial use.