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Free Tutorial: Floral French Press Cozy

1/28/2018

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My sweet sister asked me to make her a cozy for her french press. Of course, I immediately agreed! A quick search did not yield many patterns, and I'm sure that's because the french presses come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I knew I was on my own, so I decided to have some fun.

My sister didn't ask for anything fancy, but, well, you all KNOW how I LOVE embellishing things. I drew up a ton of ideas but ultimately decided to brighten up her coffee with flowers - lots and lots of flowers. Plus, I knew my little nieces would like them too.

In the tutorial below, I'll walk you through determining how to size your piece, and then we'll make the base. The base is great as is and you can immediately begin using it. Then we'll talk about embellishing. Specifically we'll make a five-petal flower and add it to our base.

This is a quick project. The base only takes about 1-2 hours. The embellishing will vary depending on how many you add.

​Enjoy!

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Making the Base Cozy

Materials
  • Size H hook
  • Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in Kelly Green, or other similar yarn. I used  35 grams.
  • 3-6 buttons depending on the height of your piece. I used 3/4 inch buttons.
  • Embroidery Needle
  • Sewing Needle and Thread
  • Measuring Tape
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Take Measurements
  1. Take a good look at your french press and make some decisions. Do you want the cozy to fit inside the handle or wrap around the outside? How close to the top and bottom do you want it to be? 
  2. Once you have a plan, take your measurements. Measure around the carafe at the widest point. Subtract one inch.  Measure your height. In my case my measurements were 13 inches around and 5 inches tall. I subtracted one inch for the width, so my target is a piece that is 12" x 5". TIP: If you want to add a border, subtract an inch from your height measurement too.
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Crochet the Base
  1. Chain as many as needed to get the proper width. In my case I chained 41. HDC in second chain from hook and across (40 stitches). 
  2. Chain 1, Turn. HDC across (40 stitches).
  3. Repeat Row 2 until the desired height is reached. In my case I added 13 more rows.
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​Crochet Side One
  1. DO NOT TURN. We will now start working down one short end of your piece. Chain 1 and SC across the side. The goal is to get an even tension. In my case I ended up with 20 stitches.
  2. Chain 1, Turn. SC across.
  3. Chain 1, Turn. SC across. Finish off and weave in the ends.
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Add the Buttons
Use your sewing needle and thread to add the buttons. Try and space them evenly.  NOTE: These buttons have been in my stash for a while, but I think I picked them up at Michaels.
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Crochet Button Hole Side
  1. With the back side of the body piece facing you, join your yard to the unworked short side. Chain 1 and SC across. TIP: The count should match your other side.
  2. Chain 1, Turn. SC across.
  3. Chain 1. Turn. We will now start working on the loops. Determine how many loops you need (3 buttons = 3 loops) and figure out how to space them evenly. In my case I had 20 stitches and 3 loops. I decided that each loop should occupy 4 spaces (SC, Skip Stitch, Skip Stitch, SC). I also decided I wanted two SC on each end. You'll also want to adjust the size of your buttonhole chain based on the size of your buttons. To do this chain a scrap piece of yarn to see how many chains you need. Based on that my row ended up being:
    1. SC in first 2 stitches.
    2. Chain 5 stitches, Skip 2 stitches. SC in next stitch. SC in next 4 stitches.
    3. Chain 5 stitches. Skip 2 stitches. SC in next stitch. SC in next 4 stitches.
    4. Chain 4 stitches. Skip 2 stitches. SC in next two stitches.
    5. DO NOT FINISH OFF - YET!
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Test Fit
At this point place a stitch marker in your working chain and do a quick test fit on your carafe. You want it to be snug but not over stretched. If you need to adjust your chains, or add/remove rows to get the right fit, now is the time to adjust.

​Once you are happy with the fit. Finish off. Your base cozy is done!


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Embellishing

Materials
  • Yarn. Yarn. Yarn. This is a great time to use up those scraps.
  • Embroidery Needle
  • A sense of adventure!

NOTE: Have some fun with this. As I started digging through my buttons I thought it would be fun to add a TON of those to the piece. Of course, you'd want to ensure the buttons you use don't have shanks. I also thought out using circles or squares. It would be cool to pull out that book of crochet appliques and try those out as well. Maybe a rainbow with a cloud and sunshine? Of course, a cute little sheep is always adorable. This is the perfect time to be creative and make something that is unique to you!
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Flower Center (Work in Rounds)
  1. With Color A. SC 5 in a magic circle or sloppy slip stitch. (5 stitches).
  2. 2 SC in each stitch around. (10 stitches)
  3. (2 SC, 1 SC) around. (15 stitches).
  4. Cut yarn leaving a long tail for attaching to the body. 
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Flower Petals
  1. Join Color B in any SC of the last row. Chain 2. This counts as your HDC. In same stitch DC, TC.
  2. TC, DC, HDC in next stitch.
  3. Slip Stitch in next stitch.
  4. SC in next stitch. Chain 1. In same stitch DC, TC.
  5. TC, DC, HDC in next stitch.
  6. Slip Stitch in next stitch.
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 around until you have five petals. Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing to the body.
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Make as many flowers as you need to get the desired look. You can see in these photos that even a few flowers look nice. I can see embroidering leaves and stems for the group of three. 

Of course, I MUST ADD MORE FLOWERS! 
To add the flowers I used the tail from the inner circle to attach it to the body. I then used the tails from the petals to sew some of them down. I did the petals randomly as I wanted some of the petals to stand up. A good way to see how much you like being flat or standing up is to wrap it around your carafe and make any adjustments you need. You can sew all your ends in as you go, or do them at the end.
That's it! You are done! Now go make you a nice cup of coffee and enjoy your hard work.

Happy Hooking!

​Care'
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2018 Annual Texas Bead Retreat

1/22/2018

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Another year is in the books! Once again, I had an amazing time. Normally I take a million classes while I'm there and come home with a ton of UFOs, but this year I decided to focus a bit more and try and knock out some of my already existing UFOs. As usual, I took three projects with me, but managed to add four more. BUT, I finished two! YAY me! That may be a record.

Here's what I did this year. First up is the Il Braccialetto della Marchesa bracelet designed by Helena Tang-Lim of Manek-Manek Beads. I've made this one before and gifted to my mom. She was wearing it this past holiday season and I decided I needed one too. Isn't it awesome? I've done a few of Helena's patterns (and own several more) and her designs are simply  stunning.
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Next up is the Le soleil beadwoven bracelet designed by Edwige Denyszyn. This was part of a class I took with her Friday evening. I always loving trying out stuff that Edwige dreams up. She has a unique approach and eye, so working through her designs is always fun. And, I usually learn something new from her. Plus, she's just a blast to hang out with.
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I decided to try something new this year - PMC (Precious Metal Clay). I've always wanted to give it a try but the amount of equipment and supplies you need is a bit much if you aren't sure you are committed. This class, taught by Barbara Bessire of Almost Matching Designs, gave us an opportunity to do all the fun stuff while she did the heavy lifting. Under her guidance, we made our pieces in class, then she took them home to fire and tumble overnight. The next morning we were all like little kids opening up our packages to see how our stuff turned out. She also brought a ton of her own designs with her for inspiration, which was great. I really liked her style. Her stuff is more organic and it made the whole thing very approachable. I made a cross, a pendant, and five tiny little stars. I'm already working out what I want to do with them.
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If you think this looked like fun - it was. And, if you are a beader looking for a fun, affordable, and relaxing retreat, check out TexasBeadRetreat.com. We meet every year in January in Temple, Texas. And, if you happen to be in the Dallas area, you can always com hang out with me the first Saturday of the moth with DBS - Dallas Bead Society. You can check out their website at DallasBeadSociety.org. Both groups are also on Facebook, so you can check out what everyone has made.

Today my plan is to rest, rest, and rest some more. 

Happy Beading!

Care'
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Look! I Made an Afghan!

1/9/2018

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I may be the ONLY crocheter in the world that doesn't make afghans all the time. Okay, okay, maybe not the ONLY one, but I know that number is pretty small. I think the main reason is I get bored, I also tend to like more modern designs and colorways so a lot of the patterns out there just don't appeal to me that much.

That was until I stumbled across  Cypress Textiles. OMG I love how she combines color! The details are simple yet striking when you add it her color choices. I picked up two of her patterns, but decided to start with "Cozy Flowers" as I had the yarn on hand to make it. This pattern is free at her site, so check it out if you'd like to make one for yourself. This would be terrific with scraps.

One of the nice things about this pattern is that it starts with circles, which I love making. And, they are only a few rounds so they work up quickly. This was perfect for all those December outings and road trips. Here are all my stacks and the final pile. I ended up using seven colors as I was using my yarn stash versus what she calls for in her pattern.
Once I had these babies worked up I then worked on color placement. I liked the effect of the color pooling moving from dark to light.

​I took a picture so I could use it as a reference as as I worked. NOTE: Of course I made stacks of the rows, but I know my cats well enough to know not to count on said stacks surviving for long.
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Next up was the joining. The pattern calls for the "continuous join as you go" method, which was new for me, In fact, this may be why I don't make a lot of afghans. I find joining all the pieces tends to get tedious, but with this method it seemed to flow and move more quickly.

Here are some close ups of the various sections. Yummy!
I love how this piece turned out and am thinking about doing it in grey scale and making it larger for my bed. We'll see if I have the attention span to tackle that.

Overall the design on this is fantastic. The pattern is not for beginners and there are some steps you have to infer and figure out on your own. If you decide to tackle this, see my notes on my Ravelry page as I provide some of the detail that I thought was missing. Still, this is well worth the time and effort.

P.S. Cypress Textiles is in Texas, ya'll, so be sure to stop by and say "Howdy!"

Happy Hooking!

Care'
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Cute Coin Purses

1/1/2018

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Now that the gifts have been revealed I can share some of the items that I made for gifts this season. First up are some cute coin purses designed by Laura Sutcliffe at LauraLovesCrochet.
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Aren't they adorable?  They were very fun to make with the most tedious part being joining to the purse form. But after the first one I got the hang of it and the other two went faster.

I have several more of her patterns to make, and she has even more on her site. The goldfish pattern is free if you want to give it a go. 

Happy Hookin!

​Care'
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