I am part of a MOPS group and for our April Mom's Night Out I have agreed to help teach the group how to crochet! How much more fun does it get for me than to hang out with a bunch of women, eating good food, and crocheting?!?! I had searched for a good starting project, but just didn't find much I was thrilled with. I finally decided to write up my own dishcloth pattern. I wanted to make sure that it gave a beginner ample time to practice the sc, because I feel once you master this, the other stitches come easy. I also wanted to make sure it also was a pattern that worked in rows and in rounds. Below is what I came up with. Enjoy!
Hook: H
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream
Abbreviations:
sc = single crochet
dc = double crochet
slst = slip stitch
Chain 26
Row 1: 1 sc in second chain from hook and in each chain across. Chain 1. Turn (25 sc)
Row 2: 1 sc in each stitch across. Chain 1. Turn (25 sc)
Rows 3-28: Repeat Row 2
Row 29: 1 sc in each stitch across. Chain 3 (counts as dc). DO NOT TURN. You will now work in rounds to complete edging.
Edge:
2 dc in same stitch as chain 3 to make the first corner. Work dcs evenly across edge of piece until you reach next corner. 3 dc in corner. Now work along beginning chain, work dcs across until next corner. 3 dc in corner. Work dcs evenly across edge of piece until you reach the beginning chain 3. Join with a slst to top of chain 3. Finish off.
Flower:
Chain 4, (dc, chain 3, slst) into first chain. (chain 3, dc, chain 3, slst) into first chain 4 times. Finish off. Sew to dishcloth.
Do you all remember when I ran my first ever 5K last September?!?! We raised almost 1000 hats and OVER $1000 for Helen DeVos Children's Hospital here in Grand Rapids! It was awesome!
I have to admit that I have not put on my running shoes much since then. I have wanted to, but haven't been very motivated. Recently, I learned of the Color Me Rad Race that is happening here in Grand Rapids the end of May. The kicker for me was that Helen DeVos Children's Hospital was the charity benefiting from this race. Obviously, this meant it was time to lace up my running shoes!
This time I am not making a hat goal. We have a couple hat collections going on right now, so instead we are just sticking to the monetary goal. I actually have quite the large team forming of people who are committing to "Run for Rosie," and I cannot wait! You can help out too! You can either run with us or donate to our race!
If you would like to donate to Helen DeVos through our running check out this site here.
If you would like to run with us check out this site and join the "Running for Rosie" team with the team captain "Thompson."
So, PLEASE consider helping us out!!! Whether you run or donate $5, it all helps!
I receive stories from so many of you about your own personal reason for giving to Rosie's Cozies. Each one touches me in a different way, and more often than not your stories bring me to tears.
I have read stories of triumph. Ones where you have given birth to a preemie and after many weeks or months in the NICU you were able to bring your baby home. Others of you have had heartbreaking stories where your babies were never able to come home and you were left with a huge hole in your heart where your baby was supposed to be.
I have heard from a woman in Africa who donated hats in order to give back to the rest of the world because so much of the world gives to Africa. I have heard from a grandmother who watched as her grandchild fought for life because he was born far too early. And I have heard from of you who just want to use your gift to give back.
A couple of months ago I heard from Deborah. She began to crochet after an awful loss and has been giving to Rosie's Cozies. In January she dropped off hats she had made, but I wasn't home and wasn't able to meet her, so she left them on my porch. Today she dropped off another bag of gorgeous hats and I had the amazing privilege of meeting her in person.
You see, Deborah lost her sweet Sydney Michele this past October. She was born full-term, but she was still-born. I can't even imagine.
Deborah told me this amazing story about how she began to crochet to help with her loss. She had found my Shell Stitch Beanie pattern and was able to make that. Then, in searching for help with hat sizing she found this post from Oodles4Noodles and found a comment of mine explaining Rosie's Cozies. Deborah went to check it out and realized it was the same site that she had found the Shell Stitch Beanie. She decided she wanted to help out and then realized that of all places in the entire world we were in the same city, AND, the Rosie's Cozies were donated hats to the children's hospital connected with the same hospital where she delivered Sydney.
What are the odds, huh? Today we were talking on Facebook and she wrote this:
"I am so glad that I was given this sign from my daughter and that I can do something for others."
My heart aches for her. The mother in me cannot fathom. I just can't mentally even put myself in her shoes because it is too hard, yet here she is....making hats, giving to others, and bringing light out of her darkness.
This is so many of you who give to Rosie's Cozies and share your stories with me. I wish I could meet each and every one of you and sit down with a cup of coffee or talk over a glass of wine. I want to hear WHY you give to Rosie's Cozies, and to give each and every one of your stories their moment to be heard. Their moment to be felt.
One thing I have learned through Deborah is that Rosie's Cozies is just as much for herself as it is for the babies wearing her hats. Making hats has become therapy for her, and it is a way to give honor to her Sydney and to give her life a legacy. Rosie's Cozies is named after Rose DeVries, but it could just as well be named Sydney's Cozies, or any other name of who YOU make hats for. It is a ministry to honor every one of those sweet babies and the families who know the pain of infant loss, prematurity, and the uncertainty of whether or not they will be bringing their child home.
This project is far more than giving to babies and families in the NICU. I have found that it is something that has given people a purpose, a way to honor their children, and a way to use their gifts. I am beyond thankful to all of you who give to Rosie's Cozies. I am beyond thankful that Deborah has found an amazing gift she possessed that she is using to bless so many families. And let me tell you, this woman can crochet! She JUST started in October and she showed me pictures of her work and I was floored.
I have included the video below with permission from Deborah. It is the memorial video made for her Sydney. Please watch and honor their daughter and their family. It's a hard video to watch, but sometimes I think there something special when we can relate to the pain of someone we don't know and hurt for them too. Please say a prayer for this family, as Deborah was very open about the daily struggle it has been since October. To follow along with Deborah's family and their story you can check out their blog here.
Thank you Sydney, for your sweet life taken too soon, and for inspiring your mother to share her AMAZING talent.
A bit ago I put out a plea that we try to raise 500 animal hats for Rosie's Cozies. Well, we are not very close to the goal....at all. We currently have about 100 hats, of which only about are animal. I will say that even the ones that aren't animal hats are stinking adorable, so I cannot complain because they are awesome!
I am asking people to step up and even commit to one or two hats if they can! I would love to walk into Helen DeVos Children's Hospital with the goal we had originally and with our mission accomplished. PLEASE consider making even just one hat. Trust me, it will make a difference and put us closer to our goal. Each hat is a blessing to a family, so either way you are touching people's lives and bringing a bright spot to a family that might be scared. You don't HAVE to send 50 hats! I have had many people send me 2 or 3 hats and they are just as exciting to get as the boxes with 20-30 hats in them!
So please join me in reaching out goal! Share the word, tweet about it, Facebook about it, and throw it up on Pinterest. Let's get there together! :-)
I recently posted on Facebook about an idea to have a giveaway where I would give away three of my crochet patterns. Then, those who win the patterns would commit to make the pattern for someone who won the actual product in the pattern. I have many followers who crochet, and many who don't. I figured this was a great way to get everyone involved and to really show the love all around--crocheters or not.
Please, choose to either win patterns OR completed project. I would love for those who can't crochet to be blessed by this community of crafters by receiving something they might not be able to do for themselves. Have fun and good luck! Now, get to it!
I have been debating making myself a sweater for awhile. It is hard, because many patterns out there aren't real hip and look a little too matronly for me. Today, I was reading other crochet blogs and I saw this pattern. I felt like it was THE sweater to do. It was cute, looked simple, and the big ol' bow made it unique.
I just posted asking people for advice on what color to make. It seemed every color suggested would have been awesome! Navy or gray would make it a great neutral, but I wondered if a bright green or yellow would give this piece more of a statement. I have decided on the latter. My first gut was to do a kelly green, and I think that is what I am going to go for. Maybe when I get to the yarn shop I'll think otherwise, but for now that is my plan.
I wondered if anyone want to do this with me and we could compare how the project is going? Right now I have about 4 orders to complete, and then I am taking some time off of orders to focus solely on pattern writing and making stuff for fun. Not that orders aren't fun, but it's is always nice to not have a deadline hanging on my calendar.
You can purchase the pattern here. So, who is with me? What color are you going to do?
Wanted to give an update on our Zoo Babies collection. Right now, we hardly have any hats at all. I am hoping I start to get a bunch of packages soon, but if you haven't decided if you wanted to help out or not, please consider making even just a hat or two! There are adorable patterns out there and they work up so quick!
If you are newer to my blog, you can read about our preemie hat project here. It is called Rosie's Cozies and it is in honor of a sweet baby girl.
On another note, I have really by trying to do a bit more pattern writing. I have just released a Curious Monkey hat, and hope to have a couple more to release here soon. I have one out to testers and need to try to figure out how to make the changes necessary to make it an easier pattern.
I still have a sale going on for my Curious Monkey hat on over at Etsy. Just use the coupon code MONKEYMADNESS to get it 20% off!
Sorry I have been a bit slow on my blogging lately. I hope to get back into the blogging swing again and update this more often! Hopefully my next post will be showing off pictures of all of the adorable little animal hats we collect!
Our next hat collection is starting, and the goal is to raise 500 animal hats! I CANNOT wait to start finding these in my mailbox! I am even more excited to be able to bring them up to the NICU at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital!
I had been hoping to post patterns and links to patterns written by myself and others, and I am so thankful for those who have designed patterns for this next collection! You are such a blessing to this project and to all of those families who will receive our hats. You can find our list of patterns below. PLEASE keep checking back, because I am hoping to add more as designers get back to me.
I think it would be awesome if we shared with everyone what has been made. You can either post it to the Rosie's Cozies Facebook Page, OR use #rosiescozies for Instagram or Twitter.
I would like to have all hats to be sent in by March 23rd (or so). This will give me time to deliver them by Easter and bless all those babes with some cute little hats :-) Hats being sent to me can be mailed to the address below, or I TOTALLY understand if you want to send them to your own local NICU:
Rosie's Cozies
6026 Kalamazoo Ave SE #119
Kentwood, MI 49508
Thank you again to all of our designers, as well as those of you who plan on making hats. I know that they will be a huge blessing to the families who receive them. I think I am most excited about this collection than any other that we have done so far!
One quick reminder! The hat patterns below are written for preemie size. Do not be afraid to go up a hook or down a hook to make hats in all different sizes. The NICU needs hats for babies as small as 1lb and as large as 10+lbs. Babies grow quickly, and as they get bigger they will need larger hats.
Okay, get those hooks ready, because I know you are going to want to make at least one of each of the adorable hats below!
Deanna from Dandy Mountain Boutique created the following hats. She does not have a blog, but be sure to show her some love at her Facebook page. Below you can find the links to the pdfs:
After hearing that all of the Rosie's Cozies we dropped off recently have already been snatched up, I realize that although this is an on-going collection, it's always nice to have a big push for hats and a timeline. It keeps things exciting and I LOVE dropping off so many at a time.
I have found that a ton of the loved favorites are the animals hats. I felt that this might be a good theme to go off of for our next drop-off. How fun would it be to fill the NICUs with babies wearing teeny tiny owl, dog, lion, bear, cat, etc hats?!?!
This round of hats I would LOVE to offer a plea out to designers to help me out. I have an owl and monkey hat pattern, but I would love to share this with other designers. I took part in Sunset Crochet's 12 Days of Giveway this past Christmas as a designer and I loved it! It was awesome to see so many people making hats and their adorable pictures.
So, here is my thought. I would love for designers to offer up some free patterns for animal preemie/newborn hats. I could post a link to your blog from here, or I could directly post the pattern onto my site (and obviously give you credit and links to your FB or shop site). I would love for you to include in your pattern the hook size, yarn used, and overall dimensions of your final product.
I would love if we could collect 500 hats. I know these kind of hats can take a lot longer, so I didn't want to make our goal too lofty.
If you are interested in designing a pattern please email me at thedaintydaisycrochet@gmail.com. I would like the final pattern to be completed by January 18, so I can post them that following weekend. I haven't decided the final date on hat collection. I am still working that out to give enough time for the patterns to be made and for people to be able to spend some time on these as they will take longer. In the meantime, those of you who want to get started can start mailing me hats now!
So, there are two ways you can help:
Design an animal hat pattern that is free for us to use to make some Rosie's Cozies
Crochet/Knit some animal hats and mail them to me or donate them to your local NICU
I have been debating about the direction of this blog for awhile. I admit that it needs a face lift, and I am hoping to do that soon. I love having a space to post all of the things about crochet that I want. I love to share my new projects, patterns I have found, or even throw around some ideas.
I have gone back and forth with offering ad space and making this blog more than what it is on that front. Part of that scares me, because I really like the laid-back feel I have going on here. I don't want to force my blogging because I have sponsors, but it would be a nice little added bonus as well, and may make me not neglect this place sometimes.
So, I need some of your help. What would you like to see here? I would LOVE to get some more free patterns up, and I would really love to finish some of my patterns for my shop here soon. I have had some in the works for months! Would you like more links to patterns I have found? More advice on how to crochet? My thoughts on yarn? More about my personal life? Would you be interested in purchasing ad space? More projects to give back? Linky parties to share projects? You tell me :-)
I am not a writer. I am a crocheter who LOVES to share with others, and I am thankful that so many of you want to follow along and see what I have to say! Please lend your thoughts and help me form some sort of focus and direction! We all know I need it! :-)
