Fast & Fun Gift Ideas

Hi, you guys. Welcome to our live event. So it was a very cold, wintery gray day when I drove in, but there's snow on the ground. So I'm feeling those holiday vibes already. Um And I've been very busy prepping and getting things ready.

Um Both for my own uh like family and friends, but also for you guys. So today I'm gonna have a lot of little projects to show you um in this live event, I'm gonna be walking you through four projects that are all in our download for today. But then also after this, um today, I'm gonna be doing another live event that is all about kind of wrapping your gifts up in thoughtful ways using up that yarn that you guys have in your house. So um please join me later um later today for that. So, um but today we're gonna be talking about mainly four different projects, but I wanna just let you know that in the download, the download is a very large bundle of ideas and very last minute um Christmas projects for you guys to work up.

Um I'll just give you like a little quick tour and show you what's in the download. So all of these patterns and instructions on everything that you need, um to know how to make these things. They're all available in the free download. You can download that now, you can always come back and download that, load that later. Um uh But just be aware, it's like 40 some pages or something.

So think about like if you, when you're gonna print, if you're thinking about printing it out, you might just wanna print out the parts that you're gonna be using, you know, up to you. I'm just gonna let you know because it's a very, it's a very large bundle. Ok? So today we're gonna be working up this quick little project. This is um this is a repurposed felted sweaters.

So these are made into cute little pot holders for the holiday season and really, actually the winter season. Um And you can certainly change these up for other seasons as well. This doesn't have to be a tree. You could make it into a heart or you could spell something like a last name or Joy or welcome or, you know, a word that means something to you or your family or your friends or if you're gonna gift it to someone, um you could think about that. Um But these are, you know, a very quick project.

You, you will need to have some wool sweaters. Um And we'll talk more about that when we get, actually get into this project. Um They're made out of wool sweaters that have been kind of upcycled and then with a little bit of crochet, we put them together into this kind of double sided pot holder and they're very functional and they're super cute. Um So that's the first project we're gonna be talking about. The second project is this knotted headband.

So it's uh just a warm ear warmer. It is lightning fast because we're using a super bulky yarn to stitch this up. Um The great thing about this is it's very stretchy and cushy and I don't know about you guys, but I, whenever I use these super bulky yarns, I am very careful about the stitch patterns that I use when I'm crocheting them up because they can get really stiff and you know, they're super bulky. So they're gonna get stiff and hard to wear if you crochet them up tightly enough so that the wind can't blow through or if you crochet them with a little bit of drape and give, then sometimes there's holes between your stitches. But I have chosen this stitch pattern very carefully for this project.

So stay tuned for that. I will be showing you how to make these, these are super, super fast and they're fun to make. Um And then the next project we're gonna be working up are these little peppermint scrubby. So I envisioned these as like a little spa thing. You know, like a little scrubby for either removing, uh, makeup or just applying, you know, products to your face, your hands or wherever.

Um, so this is, you can see, it looks like a little peppermint candy here because it's wrapped up in a little plastic and I will show you how to do that wrapping as well. But when you take them out there's a little stack of, I think I put four in here. Yeah, I got four little peppermints in here. Four little scrubby and this is what they look like. Um, they're, they're really fun to make, they're super fast.

Um, and if you've never done tapestry crochet ever before, this is a great project to start out on because it's so small. It's very simple. The color changing is very predictable. You can see, um, right away if you, you know, switch color incorrectly. So it's, it's just a, it's a really good, um, first time tapestry crochet project to make.

And if, you know, if you've never made tapestry crochet before, this is a great intro for you. If you have done tapestry crochet, this is just kind of a fun, little fun, little quick project and makes a really good gift. So, along with this, I will also be showing you this is sort of like a little bonus thing for today. I'm gonna be showing you guys how to make this peppermint scrub. It's a, it's a sugar scrub.

So let me open it up so you can see what it looks like and it is super fast, super easy to make. Um And we're gonna be working on that a little bit later. We're gonna whip up a batch of that. I'll show you how to do it. Um But that just makes a really nice accompaniment to these for gifting.

I just thought that they would go together really well. So um in the download also, there are three other patterns. So the first pattern I wanna point out here is this is the 11th hour beanie. This is for those of us who have waited to the last minute to make things. I do this all the time.

And sometimes I say I do my best work in the 11th hour. So this is the 11th hour beanie. It is made with a super bulky yarn. It is very, very fast. I have already done a live tutorial on this which you can watch on the creative crochet corner website.

Um are also on the Creative Crochet Corner youtube if you guys are watching on youtube, um You can check that out. I have a full tutorial on how to make it. Um And then this pattern is also in your download. It's included. Also we have these cute little um baby bean boot booties.

Um They're really, really like, obviously they're cute. I mean, how can you make a pair of baby booties and not call them adorable they're just inherently cute. Right. But these are nice because they have an extra long cuff here to keep them on their chubby little legs for a little longer anyway. Um And then they have, they feature the bean stitch, which is fun to work up.

It's just really cute and adorable. Those are fast to make, of course. And then we also have this little hot chocolate and marshmallows. So this is just like a fun little Amega roomy for those of you who are into Amega roomy like me. Um And you know, if you've never made Amega roomie before or if you're very new to crocheting, keep in mind you don't have to make the whole thing.

If you're really pressed for time, you could just make one cute little marshmallow. I just thought this would make a really adorable ornament. Um Just a little marshmallow, put like a little silver cord or a little gold cord off the top. That'll be a make a really cute gift along with like a packet of hot chocolate or something like that. Um It would just be like a really sweet little gift, little heartfelt gift.

So the whole my whole theme here is projects that don't take a lot of time, but they're fun to make. Um And you know, it's something that would be that would make great gifts. So if you're interested in that you're in the right place. All right. Well, I'm so glad that you guys are here?

Oh, and we have some people saying hi. Um, hi, Anisha and P Peazy Pierce says hi from Tucson. I really need these quick gifts for Christmas. So, thank you for doing this. Awesome.

Yes, I think we're all kind of looking for those quick things, um, around the time that it turns into the beginning of December and you realize your list is really long still. All right. Ok. So let's get started. Um We're gonna start out with the potholder.

So this project, um as I said before, this is a great project for repurposing wool sweaters. And I do have like all the instructions are in your download. I'm gonna be going through the projects fairly quickly. They're all pretty quick anyway. But um there, there are more details in your download in case you're looking for more details, but certainly ask me questions if there's something that you were wondering or if anything's not clear.

Um But I'm just pointing this out because there is more thorough information about felting the sweaters. So, if you've never done that before, um, what I do is I go to the thrift store and I just look for sweaters that are either 100% wool or something close to that. I mean, it'll still work well, as long as it's, I would say 95 even not, 90% would probably work um of a wool and it should not say washable or super wash anywhere on it. I don't think it would say super wash. It would probably say washable wool or if you just look at the care instructions, it should not say machine wash because if it does, it's not gonna felt because the, the wool has been treated so that it doesn't felt and you, you want your, your wool sweaters to felt so that way you can cut them and then they don't fall apart.

So usually when I go to the store, I almost always find at least one sweater that has already been felted for me because that's the whole reason somebody donated. It. Probably, this happens to me every time I go there and I'm looking for wool sweaters, there's already a sweater that's like a little shrunken looking and you can just tell when you look at it, the stitches aren't quite as defined anymore. Um, you know, it might look a little bit ripply along the edges and it's kind of already been felted for you. This red one was already like that.

I, I just washed it. Um, it, and it, but it was already, it was already felted when I got it. So I had a little leg up there. Um, sometimes you'll find sweaters that have like a little hole or stain or things like that. And those are the perfect sweaters to buy because you can just felt it.

You're cleaning it a, you know, a few times and then you can cut it, cut away all the parts that don't look good anymore. That's, that's like the perfect use for old sweaters, um, to cut them up and make things out of them. And I do have a couple of links in the pattern because I have, if you are a sewer, I have made a pattern for felted, um, felted sweater mittens that I've made before. I've also used it in hats before. Um, so there's a couple of links in there for you as well if you're interested in that.

But the process is so you're gonna buy these sweaters and you wanna make sure like you don't wanna find like the thickest, bulkiest sweater, like those really thick bulky sweaters that, um, are made with yarn that looks like this, that would not work very well because by the time you felt it, it's gonna get thicker and thicker and very hard to work with. So, what you're looking for, you know, is more of a commercial wool sweater. You know, you're gonna find a very wide variety and most, you know, most thicknesses of yarn should work, just stay away from like the bulky, the bulky walnuts. Um, so you'll need to make sure, of course, like I said before, it has to be able to felt. Um, and you don't have to worry about whether it has, you know, seams or buttons or whatever because you're just gonna felt it first and then you're gonna cut it up and cut the pieces off that you don't need.

So you'll put it in the washing machine and you're gonna wash it on a hotter setting. But this still will work. Even if you don't do it on hot, it just takes longer and more loads if you wash it on hot. Um, you can put soap in. I usually do because I'm usually getting my sweaters from the th thrift store.

So I usually just put a little bit of laundry detergent in there, but it, it'll still felt even if you don't put that in there. Um, so you can put a little laundry detergent in and try to have a lower amount of water than you normally would because what you want is the most agitation with the sweater, um, kind of rubbing against itself. Or if you want to throw some old pairs of jeans in there or old towels. That is another really great way to get your sweater to be, you know, agitated because the way that a wool thing will felt is it has to kind of be, it, it involves friction. So it has the rub against itself and also that warm water, the water is gonna help.

It felt the, the warm temperature will also help it felt. Um, you can also put this in the dryer in between washes because sometimes it takes like two or three washes in order to felt something. Um, sometimes it happens all in one. Sometimes you're lucky and you go to the thrift store and it's already been felted for you. So, um, you just kind of have to adapt to whatever your situation is.

Uh, so the way that, you know, if it's felt it enough is if you cut a little hole and you can't unravel it. So if you felt it and felt it and felt it and felt it, it'll get thicker and thicker and then at some point it's gonna stop felting like it can't just felt until it disappears. Right? So at some point, it's gonna stop felting. Um, but I like for this particular project, I like to felt it until it's just, um, felt it enough that I know it's not going to fray or fall apart and then I stop at that point and usually I can wash these like on a cold, um, cold wash in the washing machine.

Um, after I'm done with them and they do just fine, they don't shrink that much more. Um So it's just something to think about. Everybody's sweaters are gonna be different. So there's gonna be different situations. But, um, if you felt it, le let me just show you some examples of the, the materials I have.

So here's a sleeve from the sweater that I cut this out of. So you can kind of see what that looks like. You can still see the stitches actually, but they felt it enough that you can't really pick it apart anymore. It's, you know, you can cut into it and it's not going to fray little pieces are not gonna come off this sweater. This was a fair aisle sweater and it was in very bad shape.

Otherwise I would have liked to have just sort of mended it. Um, but I ended up felting this and I felt it quite a bit and you can see how thick this got. It's very thick and stiff and because it, it was fair isle and had all these little strands across the back, it really made a very thick matted sweater. This works and it makes a really nice potholder, but it is a little harder on your hands to work with this. And you'll see later when, when I start, um, showing you how to make this.

Um, so that's something to keep in mind. Like if you're gonna felt it and felt it extremely thoroughly, like how this sweater has been felt, it, it, it might get very thick and it's a little harder to pierce through with your crochet hook. So, and then this is kind of like middle of the road sweater. You can't really see the stitches anymore, but it's still fairly thin here. I'll put that next to this one.

Maybe you can see. I know it's dark so it's probably a little hard to see, but this is probably only like half the gray one is probably only half as thick as this purple one here. So this makes a very easy fabric to, to crochet through. So, but, you know, like I said, you're just gonna see what happens when you go to the store. Maybe you already have a sweater that's kind of lived out its life as a sweater and needs to become pot holders.

Uh, you know, this might be something that you already have, um, which is great too. So, you know, everyone's gonna end up with different materials a little bit, but that's the beauty of this project. They're kind of, uh, you know, one of the kind, one of a kind. All right. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna felt your sweater, then you're gonna cut it out into a square shape.

And what I did was I made a pattern piece and the directions for this are all in your download, but I made just an eight inch by eight inch square and then I wanted to round the corners off. So I just took a quarter and laid it on the corner of my square and just trimmed off what was beyond that rounded edge of the quarter. And so I did that on all of the corners here. And the reason you wanna round it off is because later when you do your stitching around the corner, it just looks much nicer to have that rounded edge instead of a court that sort of pokey corner sticking through between your stitches. All right.

So build this square and it'll be rounded off and you're gonna cut out two pieces of your felted sweaters. So, here are my two sweaters and then you can pin them together and I actually like to use stitch markers for this. Let's see. We, here we go. I have a, I have so many things on the table.

You guys today, this is gonna be, it's kind of a, a full table. It's exciting. So I am just using here, let me use one that's not the same color. So you can see a little better. So I just use my stitch markers and poke it through my sweater fabric and, um, you know, close it up.

You can also use safety pins for this. That works great too. I just always have my stitch stitch markers nearby. So this is just an easy thing for me to do. Um, and feel free to add more in between.

I am just gonna use the ones at the corners because that's enough for me. You'll just have to believe me that I'm putting a red one here because I know I'm putting red on red and then you're gonna grab some yarn and I like to use a sport weight yarn for this. Um, but you can use, you know, you can use whatever yarn that is thin enough that you can poke through with your crochet hook or pull it through. Um, but thick enough that it kind of looks like, kind of fills in the edge and looks nice. So I would start with a sport weight or, um, like a, a decay might work if it's a thinner decay.

Um, so this would be like a, a number two or number three and number four might be a little tricky because you're pulling this yarn through your fabric and so that might make things a little bit tighter. So I like to start with a slip knot on my hook. So I'm just gonna place that on my hook and I am using a three millimeter hook here. Um, but you can use whatever hook you have that is going to work with the fabric. So that might take a little bit of trial and error.

What you want is something that has a little bit of a pointed head to it. Um The tip of it should be a little pointed so that you can stick it through your fabric easy. You want it to be as small as your hook can be, but still be able to pull the yarn through without splitting your yarn. So that's the kind of balance you need. And beyond that, it doesn't actually really matter that much what size it is, it's not going to change your stitches too much.

Um And you'll see as I start working on this. So to begin, you'll have a slip knot on your hook and you're just gonna poke your hook through both layers of your fabric. So I poked it through to the back and I'm just gonna yarn over and grab that yarn, pull it through and I'm gonna bring that loop up to the top of my, like to the, to the edge of my pot holder and I'm gonna yarn over and pull through too. So I just did like sort of a long, skinny, single crochet right there. Then we're gonna chain one and you may find that you, you, if you're using a thicker yarn or bigger hook that you don't want chains between your stitches, but start out doing those chains because it, I think it'll make it look a little bit neater and tighter for most situations.

So do that little chain after and now we're going to insert our hook again and it's about maybe a quarter of an inch or so away from the first place where we pushed it through. We're gonna grab that yarn, pull up, yarn over and pull through. And so here we are at a corner. When you get to a corner, you're going to end up stitching a couple of times into the same place. So here's my chain one and now I'm going to put my hook right back into the same place where I did last time, or at least pretty close to it and make another single crochet right there because you need the, the, you know, because you're going around this curve, you're gonna need more stitches around the outside and there's less space on the inside of this curve here.

So that's why we're working into it twice there. And we'll chain one, I'll move over to the next stitch about a quarter of an inch away or so and make a single crochet here. Chain one. I'm going to work into that same spot a second time because we're at the corner and chain one. So, um, and I should have made this a little more clear, but there is a chain between each of those two stitches.

So every time you make a stitch, like one of those long, single crochets, just chain one after it, no matter whether you're putting another stitch right in the same spot or not, it, you know, regardless after you do the stitch, just do a little chain one. All right. And so now we can just continue our way across and this, you know, this is something that I just tend to eyeball. Um I'm just kind of looking about maybe 3/8 of an inch or so away from that edge and about every quarter of an inch apart, you know, just whatever looks good to you. It doesn't need to be a specific measurement.

Um You, you just don't want it to be too close to the edge because you want it to be a nice solid edging that you're making here. And if, if it's tricky for you to just eyeball this and have your stitches consistent, you could certainly put little dots, you could just use a ruler and, you know, kind of do a little dot Every place that you wanna do a stitch that works just fine. As long as you're, um, if your fabric is a lighter color like this, you could just do a little fabric marker dot That would be great or um if you have a darker color, what? II I oftentimes use a silver sharpie to mark darker fabrics um because I find that it is hard to use chalk or Taylor's wax or that sort of thing, especially on something like this, that's got a fuzzy texture. It's just probably going to get lost in the texture.

All right. So you would just continue making these stitches all the way around. You're just holding it together so that you can kind of, you know, finish off that edge and have a nice double layered pot holder. And once you get almost all the way around here, I'll show you my next piece here. I've worked ahead a little here so you can see.

So this one, we've made it almost all the way around. I'll just do a couple more stitches here. This one I felt it a lot more aggressively so the stitches are less visible. Um and it is a little bit harder for me to get my hook through, but it's still not too bad, but sometimes I have to kinda, you know, give it a little bit of a push to poke it through. And if you're having trouble with that, try a different hook that's either got a smaller tip or point to your tip.

And that may mean that you might have to use a thinner yarn. If that's, you know, if that, if the, if a very small hook is what you can get to go through, you might have to use a thinner yarn and then you could do your stitches a little closer together. So we're pretty close to the end and at that point or maybe like a little before you should kind of plan out how many stitches you can make between the last stitch you did here and this stitch. So I'm gonna do one more there right in the middle like that and there's my chain and then you can just cut your yarn and I'm just gonna go ahead and pull this through and then I can make an invisible join. You don't have to.

But this is, I just want to show you this because it makes it look really neat and tidy. So I'm just threading it on my yarn needle and I'm gonna go underneath this first um top of the stitch underneath both loops like that. And then I'm gonna go back into where it came from and I'm going to kind of come out and I'm gonna weave my, I'm gonna pull this until that just looks like a stitch about the same distance as all the other stitches. So now it looks very tidy and then I'm gonna weave this in and out a little bit along my stitching at the top. So in this direction and now and then I'm gonna go down into between the layers of the potholder.

So my needle is sitting in between both wool layers here. And I'm going to kind of, I, I, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to send my needle catching a little bit of that wool because it's because it's thick. So I can kind of run it through just a little bit and you can feel it. Um it feels a little more stable like it's not gonna pull out. So I'm gonna go back in the opposite direction here.

I just took a little tiny stitch into the wall and then I can go ahead and cut that off. OK. So that would be all done. And then we can go ahead and if you want to use the tree, I made a little template for you so you can cut that out. And then I'm gonna use a fabric marker.

Hopefully, this will mark well enough on here. I wonder if you guys can see this. I can see it, but I'm gonna try with the green. Maybe that'll be a little uh I think the blue is a little darker. Hopefully, you guys can see this, but if not, I'm sure you can imagine.

I'm just tracing around the tree here to mark that on my potholder. And you can, you can use any shape. You like, you can use a heart, you can write a name. You can um you know, the sky is the limit, but I would recommend not skipping this step because um the this actually does two things. It decorates your pot holder and it also keeps the two layers firmly stuck together.

So they're not gonna kind of slide on you. Like if you're taking something really hot out of the oven, you want this to feel very stable, right? And you don't want to have to worry about anything slipping. All right, hopefully, oh, I'll try to trace this in. It looks like my fabric markers need a little help here.

I should have brought a newer one here. I'll get the top of the tree traced in. Hopefully, you guys can see that. Um But um I should mention too when you think about the yarn that you're using to go around the edges and to use for making the tree, you're gonna wanna think about um how you're going to take care of this. So like if you, this is something that you wanna throw into the washing machine, you may wanna use a super wash yarn.

So that way it doesn't shrink it it, otherwise it'll probably shrink a little. It's not super likely to just, you know, because it's stitched all the way through. I think that the potholder is gonna give it some stability. So it's probably going to felt to your potholder which might be cool. Um If you wash it, if it's not a super wash, um But it, it also, it could possibly shrink in the edge just a little bit if it is not a super wash wool.

So I'm choosing a super wash wool for mine. Um But you, if you're not planning on throwing these into the washing machine, if you are just gonna, you know, hand wash these potholder, then you don't need to worry about it, but it does need to be a wool or a cotton because you don't want it to catch on fire first of all and you don't want it to melt. Ok? So those are two kind of oven safe fabrics. That's what most potholders are made out of either a wool or, or a cotton.

All right. So we're gonna start at the top of the tree and we're just gonna be doing a little surface crochet here. So I'm just gonna poke my, my crochet hook through both layers and then I'm gonna grab my yarn. I've just had the strand of yarn in the back here. I'm gonna put this behind because I'm using white.

This might be a little easier for you to see OK. So I've got my white yarn back here and I'm just gonna grab a little loop of that and pull it through and then I'm going to just start stitching along that line that I drew. OK. So I'm gonna go about maybe a quarter of an inch away and push my needle or my hook through, grab the yarn, pull through and then pull through the loop that was already on my hook and I'm gonna repeat that. So I'm gonna go in right here, grab that yarn, pull it up and pull it through.

Let's see, there's my next stitch. Grab that yarn, pull it up and pull through the loop on my hook. So you guys can see I'm just kind of doing, it looks like chain stitch embroidery. It's actually kind of the same structure almost. Um And you, if you're finding it very difficult to get your hook through and you'd rather switch to chain stitch embroidery, you can, you know if you know how to do that, go ahead.

Um and switch to that if you like, I like doing it this way because you can do it all from the front and the back also looks good as you work here. I'll show you what the back looks like in just a second. So this is why I prefer to do it with a crochet hook and it seems like it's, you know, depending on your fabrics, it's pretty, pretty quick to go around. Um Or if you have felt it a lot, it can, it can be a little bit trickier to get your hook through, through both these layers. Um Let me show you what the back looks like.

So there is just kind of a little stitching line. It's not quite as obvious on the back. Um The design isn't, but it still does show up like, let's see, that one's not a good example because it's a similar color, but that's the back of this potholder here. So it looks nice on both sides. All right.

So you're just gonna continue making that chain all the way around and then your piece will look something like this. And I think I have one more stitch to do here. So this is the one that I felt it that got very thick. So I have to kind of push hard to get my crochet hook to go through. But I, I mean, it isn't terrible.

It's just not, not as easy as the other one. OK? So here's my last stitch. And then at this point, I wanna connect it up to the very tip of the, that the tip of the tree. So I'm gonna cut my yarn and just bring this on through and thread my needle and I'm gonna bring this underneath that very first stitch that I did like that.

And then I'm gonna complete the stitch by just going right back through here and I'm gonna come out the back of my work and I just want that to look just like a regular stitch like that. So it kind of finishes the top of the tree. If you're having problems with your stitch, slipping down on the other stitch, you can always come back up here. So I'm gonna send my needle in right at the tip. There's a gap there anyway.

So I'm gonna send it in. Let's see. And you know, to make things easier on myself, I am kind of just using my needle to find the holes I already poked through with the crochet hook and then you can just make a little tiny stitch right there to hold the top of your tree in place. If you feel like your stitch is undoing, I think it would have been just fine, but this just adds a little bit of extra security to the very tip of my tree and then I can go ahead and weave in my ends. And so the way that I liked instead of tying a knot and just having a, you know, an ugly knot on the back of my pot holder, I like to push my needle through and I'm kind of weaving it.

I'm, it's in between the layers of the gray and the purple. Now, I can feel my needle is, you know, underneath that first layer, but it's not sticking through to the front. And I can kind of just wiggle my needle back and forth and I'm kind of sending it through these stitches and then I can feel that there is some, you know, um, resistance there. It's not just going to slip out. So I'm gonna go back in this direction a little bit and then I can cut that off.

Ok. And I would do the same thing with this little end here. Just go ahead and weave that in and then it's done. Um If, if you have found that as you're stitching around here, that there's a little bit of like a warping that happens just a, you know, a small amount of warping that happens here. This one has a little bit more because it got a little bit stretched out you and see it's kind of wiggly along the end.

You can just get it all wet and then press it flat with your hands and let it dry that way. And it should be just fine. Or you can use a little steam with your iron and just steam it flat and it should just come out just fine. So you don't need to worry about a little bit of that. All right.

So there's our first project. We're gonna move on to our second project. We've got a bunch of hellos coming in. Um Good morning to Mary and Laurie says hello from North Central Ohio. I'm working through, oh, she's working through the 14 day learned crochet lessons.

Awesome. Yay. Well, welcome. And Tamara or Tam Tamara, I'm not sure how to say her name. I'm sorry.

Um, says hello from New Jersey. Hello, Cindy says hello from Melbourne. Hello from Australia. Hi. Um, and Kay says hi from Minneapolis.

Hey neighbor. Um, Christine says hello from Fishers, Indiana. Thank you so much for taking the time to share these creative ideas. Awesome Merry Christmas to you too. All right.

Ok. So next project we're gonna be working on this headband, this kind of ear warmer here with the super bulky yarn. This is a very speedy project. I am using a 10 millimeter hook. This is called an N and A P, but I have noticed that there are many different letters that go along with a 10 millimeter for some reason and sometimes it just doesn't have any letter.

So I just put 10 millimeters in the pattern information. Um So that's what I started with. Um if you, you know, but you can use whatever whatever hook you need to in order to get gauge or um we're gonna talk just a little bit about how to alter things if it's not working out. So when you start working with those super bulky yarns like this one, that can vary a lot from one super bulky to another. These are both a number six super bulky, but you can see this one is quite a bit thicker than that one and it's gonna crochet up to a slightly thicker gauge, even if I'm using the same hook for each.

Um, so there is a little bit of, um, trial and error that might have to happen here for you because everyone's gonna have a different gauge and everyone's gonna have different thicknesses of yarn just depending on what you buy. So I just wanna let you know it's very, very easy to customize this to whatever thickness of yarn you have. You just have to start with a longer or a shorter foundation chain. Um And we'll get into that in just a minute here. So we are gonna start by making the smallest size and I believe that is 31 stitches.

Let me just double check here. Um Let's see, there are three sizes. Um So a child or adult small is the smallest size and then there's adult, medium and adult large. So we're gonna do the smallest size here. We're gonna chain 31.

Ok. So I'm gonna make 31 chains here. 123456789, 1011, 1213. Oops, 14, 1516, 1718, 1920 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 3031. Uh So like I said before, this is a super bulky.

It's a number six. It's a very chunky yarn. This one I think is maybe like an acrylic wool blend. I'm pretty sure I've used 100% acrylic. I've used 100% wool.

I would pick something that has a little bounce. Um, and it's gonna be warm. So, probably not a cotton or something like that. Um, and it just needs to be able to have that sort of give to it like a wool or acrylic wood. All right.

So now we're gonna start in the second chain from the hook. So here's the first chain from the hook, there's the second chain, we're gonna roll that chain over and then we can see all these little horizontal dashes. So there's the horizontal dash that goes with the second chain. We're gonna work underneath that horizontal dash there. So the first stitch we're gonna do is a knotted double crochet.

So we're gonna yarn over and we're gonna insert our hook underneath that back, bump yarn over and pull up a loop and then we're gonna yarn over. Oops, sorry. And then we're gonna pull that loop through the first loop on the hook and then we're gonna yarn over and pull through two. Let me do that again. So we yarn over, insert yarn over, pull up a loop, pull through the first loop on the hook, yarn over and pull through two.

I'll do that a few more times because this is kind of a strange motion, especially if you're used to doing half, double crochets or double crochets. This is similar to both, but it's a little different So yarn over, insert, yarn over, pull up a loop, continue pulling that loop through the first loop on your hook, then yarn over and pull through two. All right. So we're gonna continue making these knotted double crochets all the way across our chain. And that, that uh first pulling through that first loop on the hook, that makes that nice little knot.

Look there, the thing that I really like about the stitch is that it has a lot of stretch to it and a lot of coverage and it doesn't get very stiff. Like if you were gonna do this headband out of a single crochet and you crochet it tightly enough that you didn't see holes between your stitches. It would not have nearly as much give as the stitch does. So that's why I chose the stitch. It's a very, it's an easy stitch to do once you kind of retrain your fingers, especially if you are used to doing half, double crochets or double crochets.

It's a little um awkward at first to make sure you remember to pull that first loop through the loop on your hook right away with before you do a yarn over. So I got a little, another little project that wants to join in here. It's kind of unavoidable on this table. All right. So you can see already this is nice and stretchy and boingy.

We'll just get um hm, couple more stitches here. So if you are, um, not quite sure of the size you wanna make or if you don't know if your yarn and your hook combo is gonna work. Um And in fact, I just suggest that instead of making a gauge swatch, you just kind of start crocheting this headband because it's such thick yarn that you don't really do that many stitches across. You might as well know for real how long this is really going to be. It.

It's just gonna give you a much more accurate measurement of how big your headband is once you do that first row, so things can change a little bit in the second row for some people, you know, might get a little tighter, might be a little looser, but this is gonna give you a pretty good idea idea about where you're gonna be at. So you can measure that and see if you're on target. You can also wrap it around your head or the head of the recipient if they're nearby just to check and see. Um, if that's gonna be a good size and it should be about an inch or so smaller than your smaller than your head measurement because you want this to have negative ease, meaning that you want it to have to stretch to fit because that's what's gonna keep it nice and snug and warm. All right.

So when you made it to the end of the row, you're gonna chain one, you're gonna turn your work and you're gonna make knotted double crochets all the way across now. And some of you may have done the stitch before and known it as the herring bone, half, double crochet. It is exactly the same thing. It's just a different name for it. Um I call it that because when you work the same stitch in the round, it does not look like Herring bone at all.

So I prefer this name but many people, I, in recent years, it's kind of become more popular and more people are calling it the um Herring bone, half, double crochet. So here we are just working all the way across. Oh You may have noticed too that turning chain that I made, I just made one chain and then I started working across here. Let me just show you that one more time again because I didn't talk about it very much. Um At the end of our row, we chained one and we turned and that's all for the turning chain.

Then we'd start with our first stitch in the very first stitch. This turning chain does not count as a stitch. So that means you work here, your first stitch here. OK. So that's it.

So you're just gonna continue making rows of the knotted double crochet until you've made six rows and your piece will look like this. Um You could of course stop earlier if you feel like it's a good stopping point. I like the six because it kind of breaks up these, these two rows kind of pair together. You can see there's 22 and two and it just has a nice kind of symmetrical look. So here is our, our last working loop.

So you can go ahead and cut your yarn and then just draw that through and now you're ready to do your seaming. So this is the part that is very hard to explain on paper, but it's not hard to do. So, don't be worried. I think I need a bigger needle here. Here we go.

So you're just gonna thread your yarn onto your needle, your yarn needle and you figure out which side you want to be your right side. So I like this side better because it kind of groups in two and I do have right side marked on the pattern on this side. So with the right side facing up on the table, you're going to bring those two ends towards each other and you're going to curve them like this. So you have a letter C in your left hand and a backwards letter C in your right hand. Then you're gonna interlock those two pieces like this and you're just so it's like this one, this one, this one, this one, it's kind of alternating which layer is on top.

So that little part needs to be wrapped over like that. Then you can go ahead and just seam this together. So this particular yarn is very, very, it's pretty loosely spun. Um And it's a one ply. So it has a tendency to break if you don't keep it twisted.

So if you were using this yarn, this particular yarn that I listed in the pattern, just know that you need to keep, make sure that, that, that you um the twist stays in your yarn as you're stitching, you may have to stop and twist it to make sure. So I'm just sending my needle through all four layers. It's very thick, but it's not hard to do. And just every time you do this, count your layers and make sure that it's really going through a stitch from every layer because it's once you squish this all together, it's really hard to tell where your, where your layers are. OK.

And I like to go back and forth um twice. But in the interest of time, I'm not gonna do that. What I mean by back and forth is I stitch, I whip stitch across this way and then I whip stitch across the other way. I'm not gonna do that here. Um Just because we're running a little short on time and I wanna make sure I get through all the projects.

OK. OK? And then you will go ahead and just weave in your tails and actually, before you weave it in, just kind of turn it out out and make sure that you caught everything. See, look at how nice that little knot looks. So go ahead and weave in your tails and I like to weave it in right along that area where I did all that stitching.

I'm not gonna take the time to weave it all in here very well because, um, we're running a little short on time. So I'm just gonna weave it back and forth once. All right now, I can just cut that off and we'll weave in the other one later. So you can go ahead and weave in that second tail and I would highly recommend doing little steam blocking or wet blocking here because it's really gonna make that lay nice and flat and isn't that super cute? And it's so easy and so fast to make those are very fun.

Ok. So the next pro uh project I wanna show you guys is the peppermint scrubby. So this is what they look like. They're just a little circles and you can use them for, you know, they could be like a spa thing or a cleansing thing. Um, you know, for yourself or for doing the dishes, you know, you can, or they could even be coasters.

These would make really cute coasters. Um They can do lots of different things. So you're gonna start this out. Oops, I need a darker background here. I'm gonna grab this so you guys can see what I'm doing because I've got the white here.

So you're gonna start out by making a magic ring. So I do this by just drawing a little loop. And then I flip the loop over onto the strand of yarn that's connected to the ball. I'm gonna put my crochet hook underneath the loop like this. And I'm not gonna tighten it right away.

I'm just going to do a chain one just to yarn over and pull through to anchor my yarn. OK. Then I'm gonna take this loop and I'm just gonna do a little half twist like this. And now I'm ready to work into my loop. So I should mention here, I'm using a, an H which is a five millimeter hook and I'm using a worsted weight dishcloth, cotton.

So this is a number 400% cotton. All right. So I'm going to start by making five single crochets into that adjustable loop or my magic ring, magic loop, whatever you wanna call it. So two, three and in case you haven't done a single crochet before you just insert yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over and pull through two. So that's four.

Here's our fifth one. I'm gonna tighten this just a little. So it's easier to hang on to. Now, we're gonna add our second color. So we're just gonna lay our second color next to that ring so we can crochet around it.

We're just gonna trap it with this next stitch we're still doing round number one, we're just adding that second color so that we will have it on the next round. So I'm gonna do one more single crochet into the middle of the ring and I'm trapping that new color just like that. OK. So now it has, we have something to hold on to and now I'm gonna go ahead and take the um beginning yarn tail and tighten this up and now I'm gonna start working in the round. So we've got six single crochets around.

We're gonna start right here with our first stitch and we're going to be working with that lighter color, the white. So I'm gonna make a single crochet here. But before I make my last yarn over, I'm gonna drop the white yarn and pick up the red yarn and yarn over with that and complete my single crochet. I'm gonna put a stitch marker in here so that I know my first stitch of the round and I'm gonna make another single crochet into the very same stitch. So that's right here and I'm gonna work my single crochet o over the yarn that's not being used.

OK? So I'm gonna lay that yarn doesn't really want to do that right now, but it will, after we make a stitch, I'm gonna lay that yarn down. We're gonna encase that with our stitch. So we're gonna grab that red, pull it up. Now we have two loops on our hook.

We're gonna switch back to the lighter color and do our last yarn over, pull through with the lighter color. So now we have two stitches into that first stitch and we're gonna repeat the same thing all the way around. So we're starting with the white and we're working in stitch. Number two. Remember to work over your non working color.

Grab that loop drop, that color, pick up the new color and pull through because you always have to change color with the last yarn over of that stitch. Because when you're making the last yarn over, you're actually making the top of the next stitch, you're making the top of the, the future stitch. And sometimes you have to kind of adjust your stitches. They get a little stretched out or something happens. Now we're gonna crochet over the red because we're using the white and then we're gonna switch back and do our yarn over with the red, same stitch.

We're all the way around. We're doing a white and then a red in each stitch. OK? So for round number two, this and this is the hardest round in the whole project because you're just kind of getting everything set up and you're switching back and forth so frequently. And we have two more stitches to go white switch and red switch and the next ditch will do white switch then red and then on the very last stitch, we're gonna switch back to the white.

OK? So that was round number two. Here's our stitch marker for the beginning of the rounds. And now we're gonna do two single crochets into the white stitch, which is right here. And we're remember every time you're working with a color, you're gonna crochet over the other color, the whatever is not in use is just gonna kind of sit just behind and you're gonna crochet over it.

So we're doing two single crochets into that first stitch in white. I'm gonna put my stitch marker back and before we complete that second stitch, we're going to switch to the red because that's the next color. So beginning with round three, which is what I'm working on here you are. When you see a color, you know that that's the color you're supposed to be working. So here's red.

So we're gonna make a red stitch into that and we're going to switch back. Our next stitch is white and we're gonna do two single crochets into the white. So we're doing, we're doing an increase in all of the white stitches and we're working all of the red stitches just working them even, meaning we just place one stitch into that stitch. So here is a white stitch. So we're gonna do two white stitches into that white stitch, one and two.

And we're gonna switch to the red and one stitch into the red, switch back to the white. So you can see this is getting very tangled here and I can see which way it's twisting. I need to untwist it in this direction. So now I'm gonna be always setting the yarn down to the front, I'll show you what that means, but that's just one thing unless you're paying a lot of attention to how you set your yarn down. Um, it can get kind of twisted up like that.

Ok. So here we're doing two white stitches. I'm gonna set it down to the front. It's still on the back of my work, but it's on the front of the other strand of yarn if that makes sense. So here's one red, switch to the white, two weights and switch to the red, one, red, switching to the weight and two white stitches and switch to the red.

So here's our very last stitch and we're gonna switch to the white at the end of that stitch. All right. So we've worked rounds up through round three and now we're gonna start on round four. So remember we increased on the white stitches. So this time we're gonna increase on the red stitches.

So we're gonna work the two white stitches even. So we do a single crochet into each of the two white stitches and then on the second one, we're gonna switch to red for the last yarn over. So we're prepped and ready for that next stitch. I'm gonna put this back in here. Yeah, I'm just checking in here.

We have a hello from Argentina Mar to Mar. Hello, bookkeeper 73 says great idea, Canada here. Thanks for hanging out. Uh Did I crochet my sweater? I did.

I crocheted my sweater. Um This is actually my newest sweater that I just made and I just finished up filming a class on how to make it. Um This is a big, the big river pull over and there you can watch, there's gonna be a craft sea class or possibly creative crochet corner. What uh a class on the creative crochet corner website um for making the sweater. It's really kind of a fun project.

Christy says hello from Northern California. Hello, Christy and Sea Wolf pack. Cindy's here. Good morning from a Chili central Pennsylvania. OK.

So, oops, I forgot to do my increase there on the red. So, on this round, we're doing our increases on the red like I said before. So that means we're gonna do two red stitches when we get to that red stitch. So now we're switching back to the white and we're gonna do one white into each of the next two whites. So there's our, our two white stitches and then we switch to the red at the end and now we're gonna do two red stitches here.

One and two. So two into the same stitch. My yarn is almost detangled. Now, that's good. So here is our two whites.

So we're not increasing there. We're just doing one into each white stitch and we switched to red at the end and now we're gonna do, there's only one red stitch, but we're gonna do two red stitches into that one stitch. And here's our weight one into each and here's our red two into the red, switch back to the white. So basically, at the end of that color, just remember, you always have to yarn over and prep for that next color that you're gonna be working. And so at the end of this round, so this is 1234, end of round four, you should have alternating two red, two whites, two reds, two whites, two reds all the way around.

And if it helps, just to know, um, there are six red stripes and six white stripes in the, in these peppermint scrubby. So that should have been set up with the very, at the very beginning. Um because we work, we actually worked those six stitches in there. Remember we worked five and then on the sixth stitch that we made, we trapped that new color. So we already set it up with six from the very start.

OK. Oops, I forgot to add my to make my increase there. I'll do that. There's the first one. There's the second one.

OK. All right. So now we're gonna start on the next round. So this round that we just finished, we were increasing on the reds. Now we're gonna go back to increasing on the whites.

So we're gonna do our increase in the very first stitch of the white and that's the same throughout. So you'll do two white stitches here and then one into the following stitch where you switch colors. OK. So now we're gonna have a total of three whites and then two reds, the reds were just working even. So here we have two red stitches.

We're just gonna work those two even. Ok. So we've got three whites and then three of the red or two of the red. Sorry. And I wanna point out too when you're working in tapestry crochet.

If you've never done this before. Oops, I should have switched to the white at the end of that one. Uh If you've never done this before, take it nice and slow, you do have to kind of fiddle with your stitches a little bit. So for example, when I work my two stitches here, one and two, sometimes your opposite color will get a little bunchy and kind of stick out between your stitches. But if you pull on that, see how that clears up and goes away right there.

So you wanna kind of pull on your, your yarn. Um Certainly before you switch to a new color, definitely pull on the old yarn tail just to make sure that you're really kind of, you're not gonna have any random loop sticking out between your stitches on the back. Um But then also, you don't wanna pull it so tight that it's gonna just constrict your, your work. So you can also kind of pull on on the fabric itself after you tighten up that, that yarn tail you can pull on the fabric just to make sure that it's not being um, held too tightly. All right.

So this is basically the gist of it. You just keep switching back and forth, which color you're doing your increases on. So this one, once we get around to the end, let's let's switch. OK. So now just imagine the greens are the reds.

We're just getting towards the end of that very same round that I was just doing. So this is the, the very last repeat. So we've got two whites and then a third white and then we switch back to the green or, or red and then we're gonna work one stitch into each of the next two stitches and then we're gonna switch to white to prepare for the next round. So on the next round, this is the sixth round and the final round. That's where we're going to make our increases on the reds or the greens, whichever, whichever color is not the white.

So we're gonna do three white stitches. So one into each stitch, 12, three and on that third one, we're gonna switch to the other color, put my stitch marker back in here and then we do our increases right in that very first stitch. We're always gonna do that on this project. We're gonna do our increases in the first stitch. So we're doing two greens or reds and then just one in the next stitch and then we'll switch back to the white.

OK. So now we have through the three whites that we already made on the last round, no increases there. But now we're gonna have three of the greens or the reds because we're doing an increase there. So we're gonna do that all the way around. This is almost finished here.

This is just the very last repeat. I already did the whites in that repeat. And now I'm gonna do the greens. So we'll do two stitches in the first green and one in the second. And you can choose if you wanna just do, you can finish off and do a single crochet here like that or you can do a slip stitch there if you want, if you, um or you can also actually, we can switch to the white at that point because oops, I didn't crochet over the white when I was doing that.

Let me do that again. I forgot to crochet over my weight there. All right. So we're gonna do our two for increase and then just one even. And then we're gonna switch back to our white just like we normally would.

And that way we have our white to pull through and then we can just make an invisible joint over here. And I already showed you how to make those invisible joints when we worked on the potholder. But I'll show you one more time. We're gonna skip this first stitch here and we're gonna go underneath the next stitch like that because we're making another stitch that's sitting on top of the one we skipped just like this. And then we're gonna send that yarn back down where came from and we'll pull on that until it looks like a regular stitch.

And that just kind of makes it all blend in a little nicer. And then we go ahead and weave in our tails. All right. So that's it. Um, for those.

And then if you wanna wrap it up in the little plastic, then you can just take, you know, however many you have three or 44 look good, even probably five would work as well. And then you can put it inside of a plastic bag. I actually linked to the ones that I have here. These are like a, a special compostable bag that I bought. You just need to make sure it's wide enough that you can fit your, your candy in there, your, your peppermints.

Um, and it could be very wide this way and that is fine. You can just kind of fold it to kind of, you know, make it to be about the right size. Actually, this is the front of my peppermint So I wanna fold it on the back side, which isn't quite as pretty and then you'll just kind of pull these ends together like this and then just use a little bit of string to kind of tie them and then you can trim off the ends and that's it. And then it looks like this cute little wrapped up peppermint, peppermint uh candy. All right.

So one last thing before we go, I am gonna show you guys how to make this the um sugar scrub. So this is just uh when I first made this recipe, I used peppermint candies because that's what I had. That's what's in the recipe. I used eight peppermint candies, but I didn't have quite enough today, but I did have candy canes and those were great too. So I'm using three like regular size candy canes.

Um And I'm just gonna put them, break them up a little bit so that they can get chopped up and you can do this. I did this in a blender the first time I did it. Um or you know, just a small food processor. This is actually a stick blender attachment piece that I have here. It doesn't matter what you're using, you're just basically gonna put it in something where you can grind it up.

Um You know, if you don't have any of that stuff, you can smash it with a rolling pin. If you put it in a plastic bag and hit it a bunch of times. Um You just wanna make sure that you're getting rid of the bigger chunks because those might be kind of scratchy. You don't wanna be scratching your face or whatever you're using this on. All right.

So I'm gonna just clip this in. This is gonna get a little loud. All right. So what I'm looking for is I don't wanna have too many large chunks in there. I'm gonna grind it just a little bit more.

Um, you know, those I'm going to be using a colander to strain them out. So it's not really a problem, but I wanna use as much of this as I can. All right. So we still have some larger chunks in there, but that's OK. I'd probably go a little bit longer, but we don't have too much time.

So I'm just gonna, um, sift these through my, I have kind of a colander with fairly small holes in it. So only the big chunks are left here and I always save these and I just throw them in my hot chocolate that I'm also making at the same time because that's how I like to do it. Um But you wanna make sure that these are very small and they're not gonna be sharp. You don't wanna, you know, hurt yourself or scratch yourself rather. I mean, you're not gonna get hurt with a little piece of candy.

But, um, and then you put it in a cup of sugar. This is just a regular granulated sugar from the grocery store. And I give that a little bit of a mix when you can see like the peppermint gives it a little bit of a pink color and those little flecks of red that make it look so cute. And then we're gonna put in a half a cup. OK?

So that was a cup of sugar. Three candy canes and now we're gonna do a half a cup of coconut oil here and it doesn't matter if you use refined or um unrefined, it doesn't really make a difference. I think the unrefined one. Let's see. What do I have?

I think I have unrefined. Yeah. Unrefined I think smells more like coconut, which i it's not a super strong smell. So the peppermint kind of masks it a little bit. Um But if you don't like that smell, you might wanna get the refined kind, but I just use the unrefined.

I actually like the smell of the peppermint together with the coconut oil. I think it smells really good and the trick is to have this coconut oil be like a consistency where you can scoop it easily. Um You can warm it up if you need to, you know, if you're doing this and you have a cold house, it might be a little bit hard. I didn't quite fill that up quite enough. So I'm gonna add just a little bit more in here.

Um This is a little more of an art than a science, by the way, in case you didn't notice from, from my relaxed measuring methods there. Um But it doesn't have to be perfect and you can always adjust things as you like, you can add more coconut oil or you can add more sugar just depending on the consistency that you like this to be. So then you just kind of stir it up and mush it together and this is a really fun project to do with your kids. I just did this with my kids last night and they had a lot of fun. And also there's, you know, uh you probably noticed this is all food here and it's all um you know, edible ingredients.

I'm not saying you should just eat your whole thing of sugar scrub. But you know, like if you accidentally wanted to try it, I'm just gonna say it's really delicious. So you want this to kind of look like crumbly damp sand, like you should be able to pack it into something. It, it shouldn't just be like dusty feeling like you should be able to grab some, some chunks of it and not have the, the the sugar just kind of like falling through your fingers. But you can see here, I can actually kind of sculpt with it a little bit.

I can smush it around and it sort of sticks together but then it kind of falls apart when I stir it. This is the consistency that I like it. Um, but you may wanna play around with this. Maybe you like it a little more crumbly or maybe you like it a little bit more, um, oily. So you could put a little bit more of the coconut oil in if you wanted to.

And also you can substitute with a different oil if you don't have coconut oil or you don't like coconut oil. Um, you can certainly substitute with something else. You can use olive oil or, or another oil that's, you know, OK, to, to use for a body product. All right. And then this should fill three of these four ounce containers, um, or 1.5 of like the jelly jars.

So if you're planning on gifting a larger amount of this, you might wanna double the recipe and then that would make three of the, the eight ounce glasses, but I just kind of scoop it in there and then put the lid on and in my next live event, I'm gonna be talking about how to make a cute little things like this little crocheted twine or string to kind of dress things up a little bit. Um Also some fun gift wrapping ideas. So you guys should join me then that's in about like less than 20 minutes. So come on back and join me for that. You guys.

All right. Thank you guys so much for being here. I really appreciate it. I hope I see you in my next live. Bye everybody.