Jingle Bells Is Here!

Showing off the border and edging of my newest throw, Jingle Bells.

Yippee!

I finished the border on my newest crocheted throw, Jingle Bells, last night.  

I extended a wide band of white around the body and then added an edging in red, lime green and white.  

Hanging pretty!

She's a good size throw, 59 inches by 65 inches.  

I loved using Jan Eaton's ripple stitch, Granny Chevrons, in the body of the throw.

I first posted about Jingle Bells (here) where you can read more information on making her.

Here's Jingle Bells All Laid Out.

She's going to look pretty sitting out at Christmas Time at Teacup Lane!

I added a video of "Jingle Bells" for your enjoyment.  Before clicking on the video go to the bottom of my blog and turn off my music so you can hear the video.   Then click on the video and select full screen to see it in all it's glory. 

Have a seat.

Jingle Bells added to the pile of my crocheted throws.

My pile of crocheted throws is growing!  

What should I do for my next one?  

I'm thinking of using the huge skeins of thicker and not so soft Caron yarn I bought in red and white to make a rug to put out for Christmas.  I thought I could use that yarn for a throw but it's just not appropriate.  

That should keep me busy for awhile. 

TECH UPDATES:

PINTEREST

Source: michellesmathinthemiddle.blogspot.com via Teacup Lane on Pinterest

I recently joined Pinterest and am having fun learning my way around it.  

It's a great website to use to "pin" or highlight photos that catch your fancy and store them in one place ... you can "pin" your own or anyones. 

I've already started "pinning" photos into my "boards" or categories of Crochet I Love, Cottage Decor and Cottage Houses, Christmas (of course), Cupcakes and even a category for my love of pink, labeled Pink Delight.  

Hop on over and visit me there.  

 Just click on the Pinterest icon located on my sidebar. 

PRINT FRIENDLY

Many times I wish I could print out a blog posting that has a recipe or a crochet pattern but the only option was to do a full screen print that includes all the blog side bar stuff.  

Recently I noticed some blogs have added a print feature to their postings.  I thought I would give it a try.   I found two free programs out there that are available and easy to install.  

I tried Joliprint first but wasn't completely happy with it.  Some of the cons, for me, is that it prints the post in a two column format and wouldn't print images that had a caption attached to them.  

I found another free printing program called Print Friendly and loaded it.  I like it better.  It gives you some printing options (changing the font size and/or removing images you don't want to print) and best of all it doesn't print in a two column format.   Plus it will print photos that have captions.  

Here is some information you can reference for adding the Print Friendly feature to your blog (here) and (here). 

If you post recipes and/or pattern instructions your fans will thank you for adding this neat feature.

To print out a blog post of mine just go to the bottom of the posting and click on the Print Friendly icon. 

Please join me for:

Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

                                Courtney at French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday
                                          Wendy at The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

Cielo at The House in the Roses for Show Off Your Cottage Monday

Jingle Bells!

I know I'm crazy but I keep thinking about Christmas!

There is so much going on during the Christmas season with all the detailed planning, gift buying and wrapping, writing our annual Christmas letter and preparing our Christmas cards, baking & frosting our sugar cookies and, of course, decorating everywhere that I decided to start working on my Christmas crochet projects now.

As you all know, I just finished crocheting "Candy Cane", my red and white ripple crocheted throw, (read about it here) and I could barely wait to start my next one.  

I've named this ripple throw "Jingle Bells" and it's in Christmas color bands of white, red and lime green.  

Pretty simple color pattern... but I really like it.

Yarn used is Caron's Simply Soft 100% acrylic in yarn colors of red, white and limelight with an H hook size.

I knew right away which ripple stitch I wanted to use for this one.  

I picked the "Granny Chevrons" ripple stitch... another great ripple stitch from Jan Eaton's book "200 Ripple Stitch Patterns".   

It's so easy to crochet and I'm loving the look of this stitch.  

This stitch pattern is multiples of 23 plus 2.  My foundation chain is 230 chains plus 2.

It took me awhile to understand what these "multiples" meant.  If you sew it's like a piece of fabric that has a motif design on it (called a "repeat") and you want to make sure your motif ("repeat") looks right when you are done cutting and sewing your project.  In crocheting you want to make sure that your stitch pattern will "repeat" correctly and end nicely.     

I learned from my previous ripple throw that you need to make your foundation chain longer than it's chain length because the ripple effect with its hills and valleys will take up some of your chain length.   

This one came out just right.   

Here you can see the "repeats" between the hills and valleys.

I still have a long way to go to finish "Jingle Bells" but you can get a sense of its pattern and colors from this section.

Stacking the "repeats"!

Oh, how I love these Christmasy colors!

How do you like my Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus Creamer and Sugar Set?

I bought this set from Avon in 1983!

Avon sells beauty products, jewelry and cute little things like this.  You can visit their website (here).  And, no, they didn't pay me to say this.  

Please join me for:

Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

                                Courtney at French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday

Wendy at The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday
 Donna at Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

Cielo at The House in the Roses for Show Off Your Cottage Monday

By the way I hit a milestone yesterday....300 followers!

That was exciting and what a thrill for my little blog!

Hugs to all my followers!