Marine Corps Kids

As some of you may know, I am involved with a great organization called Operation Marine Corps Kids.

Warning: Shameless Plug

My friend Deb and I organized this effort as a way to say "thank you" to our military families. Deb's son is a proud Marine who served three tours in Iraq, and Deb is very active with the Marine Corps Family Foundation.

Through the generosity of many crafters around the country, Operation Marine Corps Kids sends care packages to babies who are born while their father is deployed. These gifts of hats, blankets, sweaters and booties are a small and simple gesture of thanks to the families for their service and their sacrifice.

For every family that we reach out to, there are dozens more. We would love to send gifts to all of them, so I'm asking for your help.

If you are a crafter please consider donating towards our cause. Every item donated is sent to the newborn child of a serviceman. We also, sometimes, are able to send gifts for older siblings and the new moms.

If you are not a crafter, but would like to help, please consider buying and donating an item from our online store. These logo products are a great way to show your support, and 100% of the proceeds from sales go towards our costs to ship gifts to the families. You can also make monetary donations through our link at the Marine Corps Family Foundation site.

Most importantly, you all can help by spreading the word about what we do. Tell others about what we do so that more military families know about us and more crafters can get involved.

Note: This post has been post-dated to keep it at the top of this blog.

Fun Weekend

We had a lovely weekend visiting with family and friends! My niece Jessica celebrated her 30th birthday last week, and her mom threw her a surprise party. We were delighted to celebrate with her and spend some time with her extended family. Of course that means we got some fun time with my Great-niece Livie who is just precious in every way ( I may be biased, but photos don't lie!)

I made good use of the drive up to visit them by crocheting a Short and Sweet Child's Cardigan for Livie. I think it may be a while before she grows into it, but I just loved this pattern. It was fast and easy to make (I finished it in about 4 hours) and it's a really cute design. I'm sure I'll be making this pattern again. I used Bernat Cotton Tots yarn which worked well, but made the finished sweater a bit larger than I planned.

On Sunday, we met my mother-in-law and went out for a nice lunch. We didn't get to see my mom for Mother's Day, but we'll get to see her next weekend when we're in NY to celebrate my nephew's 8th birthday with him.

Lot's of great celebrations this month! Birthdays (my niece, my nephew, my sister and her husband), Mother's Day, Graduations. There's so much to be happy about!

Here Comes The Sun

Spring is in the air! The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and it's time to put away the cold weather gear and get ready for summer.

Babies need sun hats, so I designed this simple cap to protect the little ones from the strong summer rays.

P, the cutest sheep in the world, is modeling my new Here Comes the Sun Baby Cap. This is a very fast and easy cap to make.


The pattern is below:

Here Comes the Sun – Baby Cap

By Wormie

You can make this cap with the yarn of your choice and a G Hook.

As a sun cap, I think that this hat lends itself to cotton yarns, but you can use other sport or baby weight yarns for cooler weather caps.

This yellow cap was made with Peaches and Cream Cotton.

To Begin,
Chain 4, join to form a loop.

Row 1) chain 3, 11 DC in loop, slip stitch to join (12 DC)

Row 2) Chain 4, sc in next stitch, *Chain 3, sc in next stitch*, repeat ** all the way around. Slip stitch in first loop to join. ( 12 loops )

Row 3) Chain 3, 2 dc in first loop (counts as 3 DC), 3 DC in each loop around. Slip stitch to join (36 DC)

Row 4) Chain 4, skip the next stitch, sc in next stitch, *chain 3, skip the next stitch, sc in the next stitch*, repeat ** all the way around. Slip stitch to join (18 loops)

Row 5) Chain 3, 2 dc in first loop (counts as 3 DC), 3 DC in each loop around. Slip stitch to join (54 DC)

Row 6) Chain 3, turn work, DC in each stitch around. Slip Stitch to join (54 DC)

Rows 7-10) Repeat Row 6

Row 11) Chain 4, turn work, *sc in next stitch, chain 3* all the way around – this makes a tiny looped ruffle along the bottom of the cap. (54 loops). End off and weave in tail.

This is an original copyrighted pattern.
Feel free to use it for personal and charity use, but do not sell the completed caps or the pattern. You may link to this pattern on this sight, but please do not post it elsewhere without permission.

If you like this pattern, please consider donating a completed cap to Operation Marine Corps Kids.

Another edged set

I've done a lot of bibs, hats and blankets lately, so it feels like forever since I've done an Edgerydoo project, and I was itching to do one.

I decided to make a simple edged blanket to match my new Crazy Cute and Easy Hat. My plan was to do 2 or 3 rounds of crazy stitch, but after finishing just one round, I liked the delicate edging against the pink fleece and finished it off.

This fleece was difficult to work with. I used a 3.5mm hook. For some reason, though I poked the holes all the way through the fabric, it was difficult to work the hook through the holes. I had to force some of them, and as a result the holes aren't lined up as perfectly as I might like.

Despite the imperfections, I think that this is a really sweet little set for a baby girl. I'll be donating this set to Marine Corps Kids.

Crazy Cute and Easy Baby Cap - new original pattern

After finishing my Crazy Stitch Blanket, I wanted to make a matching baby cap so that I could send it as a set to Marine Corps Kids.

I played around a bit, and came up with this deceptively simple design for a crazy stitch cap.

This cap was very fast and easy to make. I like the texture and the pretty scalloped edge.

I'm happy to share the pattern, but ask that if you use it, you'll please send a finished cap to Operation Marine Corps Kids to help support the families of our Troops. You can find this pattern and donation instructions on the Marine Corps Kids Blog site.

Crazy

I'm not complaining, but the last few weeks have been crazy at work! Very long days, tons of travel and last minute changes. It's all good, but it's been exhausting and it has really cut into my crochet time!

Given the craziness, it seemed only right to make a crazy stitch blanket. This baby blanket was made with Powder Yellow TLC Baby yarn and trimmed with the color Naptime. It's a straight crazy stitch pattern, and edged with a simple shell. Seems like it took forever to finish, but I think it came out nice.

I will be donating this towards Marine Corps Kids donation drive for Month of the Military Child.

Luck be a Lady

Whoever wrote that line wasn't thinking about lady bugs. They're cute little spotted insects, but let's face it- they're beetles - and they're taking over my office!!!!

I was actually shocked yesterday when I googled and found that the ladybug is NOT the state insect of Indiana. I've never seen so many ladybugs ever! My office is literally covered in them! They're everywhere!!!!!

I don't like bugs. They skeeve me, and if these were ANY bug other than ladybugs, I probably would have gone crazy by now! Lady bugs are cute, so I tolerate them, but enough is enough - they're everywhere!! It feels like a plague!

Ladybugs - please go outside and play. This worm has had enough!

Beyond the Hook

I haven't posted too many new crochet projects recently because there haven't been many. I am working on a crazy stitch baby blanket that is taking a bit longer than I would like, but which should look really nice when I'm done. Unfortunately work and business travel have cut into my crochet time during the past few weeks. I'm not complaining - for the first time in too many years I'm really enjoying my work and the people I work with. It's really been great.

Outside of work, hubby and I are busy with house planning! We're building a new home that should be finished sometime late this summer, and it's been a lot of fun choosing wood and tile and all those little touches that make a house a home! The house is going to be really beautiful, and the builder has been fabulous to work with!

We're also really enjoying our new town! Now that the weather is warming up, we can get out and about more! This weekend was GREAT! Yesterday we were out running errands when I suggested we take a drive down to the reservoir - just a few mile south of where our new home will be. Well, we turned off onto some country roads and ended up taking a very scenic tour of Southern Indiana. It was lovely! We drove through rolling hills passing beautiful forests and lovely farm land. Lots of cows and horses on the way! We ended up near Columbus, so we stopped there to enjoy a quick peak at some of the beautiful architecture in town. I was amazed by the art and architecture in this small city! There was some incredible buildings by renown architects and lots of public art including spectacular pieces by Henry Moore and Chihuly! The downtown trees were also "dressed" in tree sweaters that seemed to have been crocheted or knitted by the locals! I just loved seeing some of the creative things that they did, and how the city is supporting all forms of art and crafts! On the way home we stopped by the outlet mall where we did find a few bargains!

Today was another great day! After visiting our foundation ( can't call it a house yet - just a crawl space and garage slab) we indulged ourselves with a treat from Brusters Ice Cream - YUM! We never lived near a Brusters before, and that's probably a good thing, because the ice cream was delicious (I was behaved and had the fat-free no-sugar-added ice cream, but it was rich and delicious and tasted awfully fattening!). Then, on the way home, at the last moment I asked hubby to turn off the main road so we could visit Griffy Lake - a reservoir and city park here in town. It was lovely! The lake was filled with honking geese. Lots of people out boating and fishing. It was really delightful. I had sandals on and wasn't prepared for any real liking, but we enjoyed a nice long walk through the more flat hiking trails along the lake. It was relaxing and beautiful! We stopped by the boat dock and inquired about rentals - they rent our row boats, canoes and kayaks at very reasonable rates, and I'm guessing that as the weather continues to improve we'll be spending more time enjoying the lake and the trails!

So now it's 8pm and the sun is thinking about setting. I'm happy after having enjoyed a really lovely weekend, and think I'll grab my crochet and see if I can get some progress done on the blanket. I must say, life beyond the hook has been wonderful!

Calling all Crafters!!!

The Month of April has been designated as the Month of the Military Child.

When a parent is serving their country, their children are serving, too. Over 1 million children currently have at least one parent serving in the military on active duty. These families endure long separations and often are required to move multiple times during their parent's service. This is a time to pay tribute to these kids and recognize the commitment, sacrifice and support they show as they face the special challenges of being a military child.

Operation Marine Corps Kids is hoping to send a record number of donations during the month of April. If you would like to support the families of our service men and women, please click the link above to find out how to donate to this great cause.

Thank you!

Oh Baby, Baby it's a wild world

but you'll get by just fine with a warm cuddly blankie!

This is another set that I've made for Marine Corps Kids. I think this fleece is just adorable! I used my scalloped edging pattern to finish the blanket and crocheted a quick cap to match.

Many thanks to my friends Marlene and Byron, creators of Edgerydoo. If I may say so myself, this blanket is really cute - but it has nothing to do with my skills. I just got lucky to find some really adorable fleece! With the Edgerydoo, its so fast and easy to make finished blankets quickly and easily. This set took just a few hours, and it will be a perfect blanket for a newborn, or carriage cover for an older baby.