Shop Banners

I was going to do a 'random and beautiful things' post today, but I've been far too busy to think about it this past week, so I thought I'd post some lovely banners friends have been making for my new shop. I couldn't get them to upload to blogger and display properly, so I've uploaded them to my photobucket album HERE. They aren't very large, but if you double-click, or download them, you can view them larger.  Aren't they cute?!

Thank you so much, Antoinette and Madison!

P.S. Per request of my sister, I've posted a slideshow gadget on my blog sidebar for my new shop, so you can now find both shops easily.

Tutorial Tuesday: Crocheted Flowers

As promised last Tuesday, I have compiled several of my favorite crocheted flower tutorials and some resources for lots, lots more. As a confession, I haven't actually tried any of these except a basic flower and the double layer flower shown last time. Here's a picture of the double-layer flower with the evenly spaced petals:

I came across this flower cluster tutorial recently, and though I haven't had time to try it yet, it looks very easy while giving such pretty results. I've just been swamped with orders in my new shop and have been crocheting...

 

coffee brown stripe earflap beanies...

Check out these two websites if you're interested in flower crocheting patterns. Not only do they have flowers, but also a selection of leaves and other botanical matter.

Crochet Flowers - a couple of my favorites here are the rose and the holly leaf...I have lots of ideas for these...

Crochet Pattern Central - Flowers - there are a lot of fun ideas here for yarn flower enthusiasts.

Tutorial Tuesday: Crocheted Infant Shell-Stitch Beanie Pattern

I found this free shell-stitch crochet beanie pattern out of the blue a little while back while searching for creative new ways to make crocheted flowers (which I'll share in my next Tutorial Tuesday). For being a free tutorial, I found the instructions fairly straightforward, and the results were disarmingly cute. :) This is one of my little models, Brynlee H. modeling the completed beanie, complete with a button-on layered flower.

The flower tutorial used is also a very easy pattern, but I ended up making my own variation before my sister corrected me.

Here's what I did:

When I turned the flower over to crochet the loops in the back spokes for the bottom layer of petals, I kept the flower turned over and worked in the back. This made the second layer of petals come out alternated with the first layer - a white petal in the space between two purple petals.

~another view of the adorable hat and adorable baby~

What I should have done was turned the flower back over after I was done making the loops in the spokes and worked it from the front, making the petals come out evenly layered, like this:

Either way, I think they're pretty. Next week, should nothing else come up, I'll be sharing a number of lovely variations I've found on a basic crocheted flower.