Tis the Season for Giving! Free Pattern

Hello All! I love this time of year. :) The Holiday Season is my favorite- I love all the cooking and decorating and the snow....I love it all! I woke up today seeing a beautiful white blanket of snow on the ground- it's still coming down- LOVE it.

As I said in my last post (over a month ago- geez....time flies....), I have been in a creative bent and finally have the time to sit and type up a very cute pattern to share. It's one of many coming down the pike. However.....before I get there, here's a rundown of the last month....

Each year for Halloween, my church holds a Hallelujah party for the kids- it's a safe place for the kids (and parents) to come and have fun and load up on tons of candy without having to knock on strangers' doors. My sis, hubby and I volunteered for the event. Being the creative sorts that we are, my sis and I made our costumes- it was so fun!

For those of you not up on your Disney and Carroll characters, we were, of course, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.

Teehee! From the crocheted hats (created by yours truly- pattern coming soon), to the handmade skirts, we made it all. We have some matching red tights and black ballet flats to complete the ensemble. We wanted my hubby to dress as Alice to make our duo a trio, but no such luck. He can be such a party pooper sometimes.... Granted, he wasn't the only adult not dressed up for the event....as a matter of fact, other than my sis and I, there were 4 other adults dressed up. Um....yeah. Turns out we were a hit and were recruited to do the puppet show for next year- something about us being creative and dramatic or some such nonsense...

I was out of town the first week of November for work- but I got to work on a travel bag that I'm super excited about- need to line it and then it'll be ready for it's debut. LOVE IT. Then, I had to prepare for my dad's visit for Thanksgiving. His b-day was that week, as well, so we had a blast. As I mentioned before, I used to do drywall finishing with my dad for 6 years when I was a kid. Painting was my area of expertise. Well, my dad offered to help us paint the entry way/foyer of our house. It took 2 days and 3 different colors, but it came out BEAUTIFULLY. It was great working with my dad again- sometimes it really is hard living so far from family.... *le sigh* This time of year makes me nostalgic.....

Ok, enough jibber jabber- on to the crochet!

I was going through a book of crochet stitches and came across one that really caught my eye. I thought it'd make a great scarf- and so it did! I found some Moda Dea Bamboo Wool in Boysenberry on clearance so I bought a ton and was waiting for the perfect inspiration to hit. When I found this stitch, I knew it was time to pull out that delicious yarn. It was great to work with and drapes really well! Here is Pinky LaRue (named by my sis- my mom used to call her that b/c she wore pink all the time).

At first I made it for me- but my sister wanted it. Then, one of my BFF's fell in love with it, so I made her an identical one. I have enough yarn left for another scarf- for ME- but have yet to make it. *sigh* Luckily it's a quick project- very easy pattern repeat. Here's a detail shot:

If you continue the pattern repeat, you can make it into a shawl- here's Blackie LaRue Shawl:

And, here's the pattern!!

Pink LaRue Scarf or Blackie LaRue Shawl

MATERIALS
Pink WW yarn- about 5oz for the scarf; ~ 14oz for the shawl.

Size 5 mm (U.S. H/8) crochet hook
Yarn or tapestry needle for finishing


GAUGE
Not important

NOTE:
Chain multiples of 7 + 1 to make longer if you wish.

Ch 3 counts as 1st dc

ABBREVIATIONS & TERMS
sc = single crochet

dc = double crochet

FPsc = Front Post Single Crochet (Insert hook from front to back to front again around the post of designated st, yo, draw yarn through, yo, draw yarn through 2 loops on hook.)

repeat instructions between asterisks as many times as directed

INSTRUCTIONS

Chain 190.
Row 1: 1 sc in 2nd st from hook. 1 sc across. 189 sc. Chain 6. Turn.

Row 2: Dc in second sc, dc in each of next 2 sc. *ch 4, skip next 4sc, dc in each of next 3 sc; rep from * across to last 3 sc, ch 2, skip next 2 sc, dc in next sc, turn.

Row 3: Ch 3, 3 dc in next ch-2 space. *Skip next dc, FPsc around the post of next dc. Skip next dc. ** 7 dc in next ch-4 loop; rep from * across, ending last rep at **. 3 dc in ch-2 space of turning ch. dc in next ch of turning ch. Turn

Row 4: Ch 3; skip first 2 dc, *dc in next dc, ch 4, skip next 3 sts. Dc in next dc, skip next dc **. Dc in next dc, skip next dc; rep from * across, ending last rep at **. Dc in 3rd ch of turning ch. Turn.

Row 5: Ch 1. FPsc around the post of the first dc. *skip next dc. 7dc in next ch-4 loop. Skip next dc**. FPsc around the post of next dc; rep from * across, ending last rep at **. Dc in 3rd ch of turning ch. Turn.

Row 6: Ch 5 (counts as dc, ch 2), skip first 2 sts. *dc in next dc, (skip next dc, dc in next dc) twice**. ch 4, skip next 3 sts; rep from * across, ending last rep at **. ch 2, skip next dc. dc in last sc. Turn.

Repeat rows 3-6 4-times for scarf; 18-times for shawl (or for width desired).

Last 2 rows: repeat row 3 & 4.

Fasten off and weave in ends.

Copyright 2009 Gege Crochet. All rights reserved. Pattern available for personal use only- please don't sell it- that's just not cool. Please don't post this pattern anywhere- you can provide a link back to here, though.

As always, if you find a mistake with this pattern, please let me know!! Enjoy!!!

I'm Allllive!

Soo, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Actually, I've been quite busy with some designs for scarves, hats, and bags. When I get an idea in my head, it's very difficult to let it go until I'm done with it. That being said, I've been on a huge creative bent recently and have 3 hat designs (including an awesome pixie hat- I've had that in mind for a loooong time), 2 or 3 scarves, and potentially 2 bags- all that I've been working on simultaneously. What? Moi? ADHD? Never! Now that I have a couple of them complete, I'll be posting pics soon.

Also, my sis and I are working on our costumes for next weekend- I soooo hope we'll be able to complete them in time! I did crochet some articles for those costumes, and that wasn't included in my tally above. Seriously, I've been all over the map!

Ok- back to my creative hovel. Pics and even *gasp!* patterns to come soon......

wowza

Sooo...this has been the longest I've gone between postings since I've started this here blog. It's also been the longest I've gone without crocheting- I haven't picked up my hooks in about a month!! I think the last time I crocheted was on the plane during my trip to LA. Yipes. I blame it all on my new job- it's sucking all of my precious crocheting time away. Well, can't blame it all on the job (although it is the prime reason).... another contributing factor is that I've been in training for a movie that I may be filming next year. It's a period piece chronicling the plight of the Cherokee Indians in the mid 1700's. I've been hitting the gym pretty hard and even started taking horseback riding lessons. (Other than trail rides here and there, I've not ridden since I was a kid!) So, my days look like this: Get up, go to work, work all day, go to the grocery store, make dinner, work out, go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

Weekends have been filled with Youth Group stuff at church....and more working out. The really irritating thing is that, even though I'm working out like a mad woman, the scale isn't budging. Argh. Although, the good news is that my body is changing- even my hubby is noticing. :) There's nothing like a slap on the behind followed by an, "Ooh la la!" for motivation, let me tell ya. ;) I think I just need to tweak my eating pattern throughout the day. I think I may not be eating enough, quite honestly. Strange, I know, but if you eat too little while exercising a lot, your body can go into starvation mode and hold on to every calorie, which I think my body is doing right now. It is helpful being a Nutritionist and Personal Trainer for these sort of things; however, it also means that I don't have Jillian Michaels yelling at me to push myself to my limits...I need to keep myself motivated and push myself to work out which isn't always easy. The idea of seeing myself on a 50 foot screen in very little clothing, however, is VERY motivating.

Anyway, just wanted to let y'all know what's been going on in my neck of the woods. I'm crossing my fingers that this movie will go through- I truly am very excited about it! However, if it does, I will most likely have even less time to crochet.....but, we'll cry those tears when/if the time comes....

And now....off to the gym....

Natural Gas Makes Everybody Smile

Ok- life is getting back to normal here. It was my first day back at work- I ended up having strep AND pink eye. Oh yeah- fun times.

Good news, though. I made a couple etsy treasuries- check them out if you can! I'm in with a great group of etsians- Collaborators in Cahoots. You'll be seeing more of their stuff on here- lots of creative minds in this group!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=71665



http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=61942



Also, my commercial for Washington Gas has just been posted- whoo hoo!




YAYAYAYAYAY!!! It's also on their website: http://www.washingtongasliving.com/3772.xml

Betcha didn't know that Natural Gas could be so fun, huh? Then again, doesn't gas always make babies smile? Teehee!

And we're baack!

W.O.W. This last month has been super intense- well, the last 6 weeks, really. I'm finally back from the Mission Trip with the Middle School Youth Group from my church (got back last night). We had an amazing time! However, after a week-long summer camp and now a week-long Mission Trip, I'm about middle schooled out. I slept 13 hours and had a 3.5 hr. nap today. Seriously- I was tired. My throat was sore and I was losing my voice on the trip...I thought it was just from lack of sleep and overuse from the 2 intense weeks with the youth group. However, all that sleep hasn't made an improvement and now my tonsils are swollen and I have a low grade fever. Argh.

My LA trip was brief but good. One of my friends out here grew up with a guy who is now a big shot casting director. She sent him my pics/info and he wanted to meet me. So, my flight was at 7am....I landed at 9:45am Pacific time, watched Transformers to waste some time, and then met with him at 3. It was surreal. This was a REAL casting director- where REAL Hollywood deals go down. I was the only actor in there and overheard their phone calls. "Did you get the email from Steven Segal?" "Have you called Charlie Sheen?" "Get Cheech on the phone." SERIOUSLY!!! It was crazy! I don't know if anything will come of it- I hope so, otherwise it was a waste of time and money, but it really was cool. After meeting with him, my flight home was at 9:45pm. I landed back home at 5:20am the next morning. Coast to coast to coast in 24 hours.

I've been going pretty much non-stop since our anniversary trip in May...Anniversary trip, AZ trip, Summer Camp, LA and back in 24 hours, and Mission Trip. So, now I'm back and things should get back to normal...whatever that may be....And now....I need a vacation.