Second Hand Headache

I'm sitting outside Starbucks at the Northpark Mall in Dallas, TX and I have a second hand headache!  You know the kind that you get from smelling all that glorious caffiene but not drinking it?  I get them often because I am trying to cut down to just one cup of coffee a day.  So for now my cranberry grape juice will do. (sip)
I was looking on the web the other day at someone elses crochet site (and was loving it by the way)  when I saw an ad in their page for cafepress.com.  It had been a long time since I had visited their site so I clicked and went there.  Last time I went to that site I was looking at comical pregnancy T-Shirts like these.


But when I clicked on the link I typed in Crochet and some really cute stuff came up!  All of which I want!
These are a few of my favorite things!

I'm thinking of getting this to jot down all my spur of the moment patterns.  I cant tell you how many times I've needed a pattern I have created and had to look for old reciepts and torn envelopes to find it! LOL.

Go check out cafepress.com for yourself and buy your someone special a crochet gift today!
HappyHookin'!

News about my blog

If this is your first time visiting my site, thank you for stopping in.  I really wish to change the name of my blog (but for some reason can not) because I am starting to sell my products more now and want to associate them with a name, TheHookinHousewfe.

Here is my twitter: ADD ME!  I will keep you updated about any changes that occur and will post a final blog to let you know when to switch to  TheHookinHousewife blog.  Thank you so much for your comments and I will continue to answer questions and emails. Thanks!

Hello all.

So it has been FOREVER since I last posted.  Between my job and my home life and not having internet I just haven't had the time or resources to blog as often as I'd like.  I have however been crocheting up a storm!  And yes I am still on the baby hat kick.  I have ventured out into other avenues however like baby vests and plastic bag saver/holders and such but I find that the baby hats and small stuffed animals tend to sell the best so I think I will keep with what I do best.  I have sold a stuffed duck and two baby hats so far.  I have given many things away as gifts.  Right now I am crocheting up a storm because my mother in law is going to be opening a show with her friends for a month, I think next Nov. and I may be able to sell some of my things there.  Either way, if I can or can't I will be ordering business cards and creating a website soon in which to sell my stuff.  Let me know your thoughts and experiences with selling online and what you think is the best.  I am experimenting with wix.com for the web page and etsy.com for the shop.  I would however, welcome input on how to go about selling my stuff at no cost, or very minimal cost.  Thanks for all the comments I am getting I love them and will try to answer as many as I can, as best I can.  Keep em' coming, and remember "Crochet today and keep the stress away"

Hat Kick

So lately I've been on a baby hat kick... here are some pictures of the hats I've done so far.... I really like the one design.  Can you tell?  I made sure to write the instructions down so if I ever want to post or sell that pattern that I created then I can.

The first baby hat I made with red boucle yarn.

I really like this hat its so soft and was so easy to work up!

Here is the detail.

I love the colors of this hat. Because of the kind of yarn its a little smaller than the blue one though.

I like this hat but it again is small like the one above.

I decided to use some of the pound of boucle that I have to make a preemie hat in the same pattern.

I experimented with different colors here and I really like how it turned out.

Here is a better picture of the shape and pattern of the hat.  I figure it would be cute for a boy.

Hopefully soon I can get around to making more so maybe I can sell them!

Tell me what you think!

Long time posting....

Well it has been a long time since I posted last and a lot of things have gone on.  I can not list all of them SOOO here are the highlights:

1. We wrecked our car.  That was fun... NOT!

2. I have been crocheting things like cowls, kittens, ducks, and a baby blanket for myself someday which are things I have never attempted... and some of which I will be selling on my friends etsy site. HERE!

3) My little neice is becoming soo smart! She has learned how to smile for the camera (video below) and just started crawling.  Really fast too!  Here is a video of her going for what she likes most shiny things like phones, and kitties.





And this is my todays post.  My friend Gayle has inspired me to do a post on macro.  Here's her blog!
She is a photographer and has sooo many really great shots.  My absolute favorite is the pink and yellow macro shot of a flower on her site.  If you like these photos and other photos of macro photography visit her site and she gives alot of cool information about the technique.  Mind you I am not a professional, but I just love taking pictures...and you wanna know something neat?  All of these photos were taken with my Samsung Memoir camera phone on the macro setting.  Pretty good camera phone huh?

Thanks for checking out my site, I hope you enjoyed the rather long post.  Normally they are not this long.  Until next time, Happy Crafting!

Cat Ear Headband

This is a cat ear headband that I made for my sister.  I look so cute in it though.  Here are some other views of the ears before I put them on the headband.

The first image is the front of the ear that I made by using a pink yarn by lion brand and the second picture is of the back of the ear that I made using Caron Simply Soft in black.

It was fairly easy to achieve the shape of the ear and the lining to connect the front and back was just a single crochet chain along the edges of the two ears. Then I connected them to a headband made of double crochet by stitching it with a tapestry needle.

I hope you all will experiment making one for yourself it was quite fun and very quick.

Happy Crafting!

My Re-Furb Bracelet

Well I finished my first refurbished piece of jewelry.  I unfortunately got excited and ripped all the beads off of my un-worn jewelry before even thinking about getting before pictures.  So I guess from now on you will only get to see the afters.  Here is my first attempt at a revamp.

Here is a full shot of the bracelet.

Here is a close up of the tie.

Here you can see the ribbon woven in and out through the beads, and can also see how pretty the design is on the beads.





All I used was old beads, some hair ribbon, and a tapestry needle and some thick elastic thread.  Anyone can do this project and I encourage you to.  It is a way to spice up your old jewelry and make it feel like new.  And everyone likes new jewelry!  The beauty of this is, when your just not feeling it anymore you can re-furb it again and again.  YAY for craftiness!  Hope you all are inspired!
Happy Crafting

Recycling Necklaces.

I think I am going to recycle a couple of necklaces.  I am a sucker for cheap costume jewelry but I turn around and throw them away when they start to turn my neck green.  However I was thinking... I can save the beads and make ribbon necklaces out of them.  I have some ribbon and some beads from a pretty wire  necklace i bought this past winter and I think I am going to make a necklace similar to this:

I have some beautiful organza that would be perfect!

Also if I can find some big beads I may make this.



I hope you all will experiment with freecycling your old tarnished jewelry it could end up being gorgeous!  Let me know if you try it I would love to see your creations!  I will post as soon as I am finished with mine!
Happy Crafting Everyone!

What should I do?

I have been thinking a lot lately about what crochet item I should make next.  But I don't know what to do!  Maybe it is hard to choose because I don't have enough yarn to really begin another project...  I have a couple of projects that I have already started but have not finished yet and I kinda am not ready to tackle them either.  The yarn I have now is just scrap yarn and I can't even make a scrap yarn project because the yarns are so different from one another...  What should I do.  I don't really want to buy yarn but if I don't have yarn how can I crochet?  Maybe I should try another craft for a while until I get some yarn.  Maybe I will do that.

Long Red Curly Scarf.

This is a scarf that I just finished.  Please give me some feedback on whether or not it is nice enough to produce a pattern for.  I want to start selling patterns of mine that are completely original.  If you like it, below there are buttons on each of my posts.  Likable if you just think its ok, Loveable if you love it but wouldn't buy it and crochetable if you love it enough to buy the pattern and crochet it yourself.  Let me know if you would like to see any other photos of this scarf as well or would like to know what yarn I used.  I hope you love it as much as I do.

Visit me at http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sharlenaaronhalt tp view more of my finished projects, and works in progress.

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Brushed Crochet Bunny Slippers

First off I wanted to put a photo of the TV/computer screen that I hooked up that I posted about yesterday.  Here is a photo.  Notice how big it is compared to the keyboard and you will have some idea of how large the letters are when typing and/or reading messages!

Ok now I wanted to put a photo of some slippers on here that I made a while back for my Mother in law.  I made them out of Pattons Divine yarn in Chantilly Rose and Lion Brand Jiffy Solid yarn in Light Pink held together as one strand.  I used whatever hook was most comfortable.  I was inspired to make this slipper by a book that I have called Stitch N' Bitch Crochet, The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller.  She has a pattern for these type of slippers but I did not use her pattern I made my own type of slide on rather than a fitted slipper and used some buttons for eyes.  I used a pet slicker brush to apply the brushed crochet technique to the yarn.  There are some very good tutorials on Youtube that can show you exactly how to achieve this result.  The end result was super comfortable and uber cute!  Here are some pictures.  I hope these will inspire you to make some of your own.  You should they are worth it!

Happy Crafting!

New TV/Computer Screen!

So I'm super excited.  I just hooked my 37" LCD TV to my computer and am using it as a computer screen!  It's crazy huge and I have to sit like a mile away from it so I don't go blind!  I am going to get a wireless keayboard and mouse for it so its not all in my face I will put a picture on tomorrow because my camera isn't charged.  Everything I do now is an adventure.  It's great checking my Ravelry account!  Pretty soon I will figure out how to put a link on my blog to Ravelry so you can check all of the projects I have finished.  And I may or may not be selling things on Etsy pretty soon so keep reading to find out whats going on.  Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Crafting!

This is my Denim Blue Winter Hat and below is the matching scarf.  I crocheted this hat starting with the magic circle at the top.  I then used single crochet throughout the hat increasing as I saw fit.  This size was to fit a teen so I used my own head as a guide on whether or not it would fit or not.  I used a yarn of my choice for accent on the pom-pom and on the trim at the bottom.  The yarn I used for the body was Lion Brand Homespun Thick and Quick in Washington Denim.  It was such an easy and quick work... I think once I made time to sit down and do it, it only took 2 hours for the scarf and the hat.

As you can see I used double crochet for the rim of the hat and wove the accent color in and out of the holes.

Here is a close up of the pom pom as well.

Here is a picture of the matching scarf

I used the rib stitch on the whole thing and added the accent color to the end to make the tassles.

Hope you enjoyed this post... Happy Crafting!