Working on Christmas projects for this month of August

     I have been working on a few things this month with Christmas in mind.  I like to have my home made Christmas items done by now so I am a little behind schedule this year. 
     I found the cutest potholder and everyone is getting one this year.  It's a strawberry.  I believe it's a vintage pattern.  It's a good pattern to work with because there is no sewing involved to put it together.  It's crocheted in the round and then folded flat.  I hope I have enough yarn so that I get one too.  The free pattern for the Strawberry Potholder by momsloveofcrochet.com can be found here:  http://momsloveofcrochet.com/StrawberryPotholder.html

My daughter has a friend whose baby is due on December 25th.  She requested a striped elf hat.  I found several patterns for free but I decided to try this one.  I think it's adorable.  It will look really great in a photo shoot with the baby.

Long Tailed Baby Elf Hat - Tutorial and Pattern

The last item I have finished this month is the Henna Gloves by Brenda K. B. Anderson.  The pattern can be found in the Jul/Aug 2012 issue of Crochet Today!  So far I only have one pair done.  I have to make another pair before Christmas.  They will be for my nieces.  I had trouble with this pattern.  I don't know if it was the different hooks I tried or if it was the yarn.  The yarn is no. 1 weight and the crochet hook recommended was a B hook, which was smaller than what I have used before for sock yarn.  My problem was that the hook kept catching on the yarn when pulling through the puff stitches.  On my next set of gloves I am going to try a C hook and see how that works.  Hopefully the gauge will not be too far off.







I thought I had posted a picture of the latest bag I designed but I don't see the picture posted in by blog so I will post it now.  I finished it in July.  I am pretty happy with it.  It's felted in a striped pattern that happened to work out with the number of rows for the bag.  I still need to line it so it goes in the "to be done" pile and since lining bags is not my favorite thing to do it will probably stay there for awhile.

Another ongoing project I have been working on are Spiral Scrubbie by Judith Prindle.  I don't have any pictures for the scrubbies but I will try to get one posted before Christmas.  I have to have them all done before then.  It's a cute little scrubbie that's real popular to make right now.  The link will take you to ravelry.com.  You have to be a member to get on to the site but maybe there are other patterns out there for free that can be found if you can't get on the site.  Like I said, the scrubbie is very popular.

The big project I started in July is still undone but I am excited about it.  It is a Ripple afghan that my mother made about 20 years ago and I have envied it all this time and now I am finally making my own.  I love the colors I found for it but I do get bored while crocheting it because a lot of it is single crochet so I crochet it while I am watching TV.  After a couple of sc rows and I am bored and have to either quit or go on to one of my other projects.  No picures of it so far.  I will post one when I am done with it.  I am not sure if it's going to be mine or not.  I have someone in mind for it but still not sure.

I have one other item I have been working on.  It's a bath puff.  I will probably just keep those on hand to give out for presents during the year.  I will try to remember to take pictures of them the same time I take pictures of the scrubbies.  So that's about it.  It's been awhile since I have posted so thought I would do a little catching up today.  Have a great August, what's left of it!