Today we talk about the Patchwork Heart afghan and yet more privacy information.

The Patchwork Heart Afghan

This afghan started out as an experiment. You remember the photos on Instagram and then also here on the blog. This patchwork heart afghan started while I was in recovery from foot surgery. Time was passing very slowly and this afghan grew out of an idea and hope that this would be finished well within time for Valentine’s day. Ha!

Here you go anyway. It is lovely and fun. The patchwork heart will be lovely in a wide assortment of colors and yarns. Perfect for using up scrap yarns.

Obviously this pattern is an adaptation of the Patchwork Heart Pillow cover. I did the math and 100 little 2 round granny squares was just too much. The photo above shows you how I figured out how many squares I would need.
The Patchwork Heart Afghan crochets up quickly and makes a beautiful afghan. The ends are a bit much if you leave them all to the end of all the work.

Here is one of my favorite squares.

It is bright and beautiful. Send someone a love blanket! Crochet your own in their favorite colors.

Even more privacy information

This is the last time I will be talking about privacy information. There is new information up and you can read it on the Affiliate/Privacy page.

The Summer Days

Today has been busy, fun, exciting and did I say busy. We watched our youngest son go off for his first professional job interview. We’re pretty sure that he will get the job. Graphic designers are greatly needed these days.  He is really good, even if I am Mom and I do think so. It was more final than I thought it would be and I am rather emotional about it but glad at the same time. It is time for him to be doing his thing in life.

The fun part of today has been playing around with the graphics program I use and making the graphics for the new patterns and knowing that finally new patterns are coming out for you. I’m even going to try my hand at videos again. It has been several years since I last created a YouTube video of crocheting. The one on my mind is how to repair crochet. We have had a few oops moments lately and it is time to get the repairs done. It isn’t hard but it does take some analytical thinking and now is the time. There are also new patterns to write and then also the updated pattern that I’m crocheting.

Talk to you later,

Karen

It is so exciting that this time we have a new pattern release: The Heart Patchwork Pillow pattern plus we get to see a few of the chairs that I have been painting  lately. Since everything in the studio has been upside down for the past several months it makes sense to reverse the order of our conversation as well.  Between setting up the Studio and all the computer issues, life has been very disorganized. Today has been the first day that I feel even a little organized. Bear with me while we tromp through all the business part of this blog to get to the frosting on the top the new crochet pattern.

GDPR: New privacy policies and practices are coming up soon.

Two chairs and a stool

The top is my work in progress. It is still being painted and has no home to go to, yet! The chair is so solid but was water damaged beyond restoration. 

You can see the water damage. It looks like there were plant pots on the chair that just over flowed for years. The photo on the left shows the beginnings of wood filler and some basic sanding. The one below shows the photo from the beginning. The chair is so solid and is the most comfortable wooden chair that I have ever sat in. It just feels right. 

A few more photos of the Leaf chair.

This chair had a broken seat and broken down cushion. Replacing the seat and cushion was a priority. Sanding and priming the chair first, I started in with the base coat of color and then added the detailing until it finally looked right to me. The dots all over  the chair are dimensional and add a little texture to the surface of the chair. Free hand painting with no stencils, it is a work of art.  Feel free to contact me if you are interested in owning one of these beautiful chairs. . They are not inexpensive as they are original works of art.

Here is the stool that I painted for my Mom. She wanted one for the hallway in her retirement community apartment. They all put pretty things out to give each apartment a little character. It comes in useful for setting your purse on to find your keys or  while you get the door open.  It is also a not perfect stool but one that needed a little love to give it a a longer life.

In this photo I have started adding the first coat of color and gradually increase the layers of paint and details until it reaches the finally clear coat to protect and add shine to finished stool.

The Heart Patchwork Pillow

This pattern is now available in the Chocolate Dog Studio shop and also Etsy and Craftsy. It is so easy to change the look

of this fun pillow cover from fun for a child’s bedroom to a op-art style for your living room. It is a quick crochet project that will help you decorate for the seasons.  Look for the Patchwork Heart afghan coming soon!

Bluprint Unlimited Trial

(This is an affiliate link which if you click will pay me $5 for each trial sign up.)

Bluprint is offering a free trial of their Bluprint Unlimited which allows you to check out their online classes for free for 7 days. It sounds like a great chance to improve some skills either in crochet, quilting or painting. Summer is a great time to try something new with a slower schedule. Well, mine isn’t slower but maybe your kids need a quick free summer camp in art classes or cake decorating. This might be a fun, inexpensive way to try and learn some new skills and spend some quality time together.

It has been months since I have really posted anything here on Chocolate Dog Studio. The truth is that my computer has been hardly working. It’s a really long, boring frustrating story-like all computer problems. It is enough to say that I ended up getting a new laptop which promptly died the night we bought it new from the store. Dale took it back and here I am FINALLY back on the computer with internet access. Yay! for progress. I think that my computer headaches are finally over.

There  is a new privacy policy coming out soon and new patterns as well. There are many things that still need to travel over from the old computer to the new so please be patient while I get this up and running again.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Flash Sale

Just a quick FYI that there is a Flash sale in the Etsy shop with this coupon code: Welcomeback  and is good for 15% off anything in the shop!

Have a great day! I’m off to organize the studio and get things sorted. It is slowing me down to have things spread out between three rooms-two rooms I can handle but three rooms is one room to many!

Anniversary

Hubs and I spend last weekend in OKC (Oklahoma City for the non-Okies) and it snowed and sleeted.

Very weird and odd. It was very, very cold for April in Oklahoma. I know that our Northern family scoffs at our idea of cold weather but cold is relative to what is normal in your region.

Our wedding anniversary is in May and it always seems to be overtaken by family reunions, graduations and ending of school events. We celebrated early this year as it is a big anniversary for us- 30 years. A hugely crazy amount of time has been spent with my best friend. Our life is nothing like I thought it would be but I wouldn’t change a thing,

except for all the stupid things we have done.

I would change those.

Wouldn’t you?

We had a great time and things were very relaxing. We saw the Centennial statues of the Oklahoma Land Run. My family came to Oklahoma shortly after the land run.

Enough procrastinating, I need to get back to work.

Talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. Don’t forget to stop by the Etsy shop and shop the Flash Sale!

The Studio is moving from all over the house to one room and it  is taking longer than expected. It sure adds an element of chaos to my life. Our oldest daughter moved to her own place several weeks ago and the studio has been  in the process of slowly gathering into one place. There are still some extra furniture bits in the room and it has slowed the transition down. I’m also walking more every day, trying to build up some strength and endurance. It is really slow going.

Easter was beautiful but cold. The traditional egg hunt was in the house instead of outside. Here are a few photos of some of the creative things that I have been doing since the hands were out of commision for crochet.

Colors

This watercolor was fun and I was just playing around with the paints. The colors remind me of the triangle afghan below in almost the exact same colors.

The triangle crochet blanket is coming along. It is in that “I hate to work on it” phase as it feels as though it will take forever. The flowers were cut out of a water color page and make a lovely bouquet.

Last but not least I have been sewing the binding down on Mom’s quilt for her as her eyes can’t do the fine work anymore. I have to admit that this quilt has been sitting around waiting until my new glasses came in as I couldn’t see the eyes in the needle to thread them any more.

The Studio is Moving

The Studio is moving, the studio is moving and I’m so excited. Finally it has a closet and a lovely big window. I can’t wait to show you the whole room when it gets more organized. I had to go ahead and move one of my work tables in as I am painting a couple of chairs. They are looking good and should be at the consignment shop later next week if we get a break in the weather.

This crochet blanket is next on the horizon and I can’t wait to get it finished as well. April may be the month for finishing up projects.

Changes

Changes keep coming into my life.  Some of the changes make me uncomfortable and some of the changes are for the better. The studio is changing as I try to organized ALL the YARN and projects. Plus bring in some other creative endeavors into the same room. The past few months have felt a little stagnant until I remembered that I do best when I am working in a variety of mediums. This gives my hands a break and allows me to be creative in other mediums. I will be posting more of these here for you to see. There are so many projects partially finished that the next few months will be filled with pattern writing and getting these patterns written and in the shops.

Talk to you later,

Karen

There has been a breakthrough and a New Pattern are happening here today. The clogged thought processes have cleared even though the rain hasn’t. After spending the better part of yesterday trying to write this post it is flowing more smoothly today. Sometimes, you just need to throw it out and start over fresh.

Yesterday

It has been a struggle the past few days (weeks). The creativity and energy levels have been extremely low. This happens after a creative burst like there was in January. Usually I realize it and then move on to other projects, paperwork, writing, organizing or cooking or something! This time it has been hard. Just plain hard, after almost two weeks in frustration.  The frustration hasn’t gone away and I am still frustrated with the slow progress in healing. The weather hasn’t cleared; it is still overcast and now raining.  Some cleaning did happen in the studio (which was really needed). It is no longer the dumping ground for everything that doesn’t have a home. The yarn is again reinstalled into Yarntopia.

Breakthrough

That was yesterday; today a breakthrough happened and a new pattern along with some ideas are again churning through my mind. The results are exciting. Even though I have so many other works in progress, it is so tempting to start on the new ideas. We will see which wins out.

New Pattern

There are a couple of new patterns on the horizon but this is the newest.  Charlotte’s Baby Blanket

This baby blanket is named after the most recent addition to my extended family. She is the sweetest baby. Beautiful and perfect as all newborns are. When I started this baby blanket I was not sure whether to crochet a boy baby blanket or a girl baby blanket. This was the result. I love the bright colors and I know that Charlotte will grow into it. The bright colors are cheerful after the sea of pink that seems to come with baby girls. Easy enough for a beginner but challenging enough for an intermediate crocheter with the addition of the border. Portable for crocheting with the small squares to crochet before you assemble the whole baby blanket.  Crocheted out of soft acrylic yarns; it is washable and non- allergenic- perfect for a baby’s tender skin. Even though it is named Charlotte’s Baby Blanket you can easily adapt it to a Charlie’s blanket instead.

In the Future

A Breakthrough and a New pattern are great, but I have also been working on new projects for the future. They are so exciting that here are some quick photos of one of them.

Aren’t they fun. I love the granny triangles and then look at all those ends below that need to be woven in. It took almost all day. There is also a border that I just can’t like. I am not sure why but I feel the need to rip it out and start over.

What do you think? Rip it out and start over. It just doesn’t seem to flow. The yellow scallops are the last edge of the border and I just don’t like it.

talk to you later,

Karen

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Sunshine and Shadows Crochet Blanket and Bloglovin

Today is the first day for the  release of the Sunshine and Shadows Crochet Blanket Pattern. Perfect for any rainbow lover the Sunshine and Shadows Crochet Blanket Pattern is a simple intermediate pattern. Chocolate Dog Studio is now included in the Bloglovin blog roll.

Being Creative

Sometimes being creative is elusive- like chasing lightning bugs on a summers night. You chase it around, stalking it and just when you think you have the idea or a good handle on the topic POOF. It’s gone and you are stuck in the dark without a flashlight and you stumble around until you get back on the path. The past several months have been like this as stumbling around on crutches has been about all I can do. There have been some flashes of insight and 2 definite crochet ideas that I can’t wait to share. The crutches and pain meds have kept these two projects under wraps longer than they should have been. I have not been at my best and writing patterns has been beyond concentration.

It has been a struggle. Things are looking up-even though the weather is overcast and gloomy. I am here in the studio for the first time in 2 1/2 months. So all is right and work is happening, finally. The yarn has all migrated back here as well and will soon be filling the shelves of Yarntopia and the yarn annex/doll houses again.   The alarm keeps going off to remind me to stand up and put weight on my feet to keep them limber.

I am so glad that life is going to be getting back to normal.   The colors I have been working with keep showing up in the little yarn balls that I rolled up on Saturday. Aren’t they pretty and this is just a few of them. As usual, here at Chocolate Dog Studio there are even more colors used than were pictured here.

The Sunshine and Shadows Crochet Blanket

The first new pattern for 2018 is the Sunshine and Shadows crochet blanket pattern. It reminds me a bit of the Rainbow Granny Stripe crochet blanket from several years ago. There aren’t many colors that aren’t included in the Sunshine and Shadows crochet blanket pattern.

It started like this. Beautiful ombre stripes of yellow and pinks and red.

Soon it had purples added to make it  a little wider. It just grew like magic from the yarn. I couldn’t put it down long without adding another row to it.

The longest it sat alone was about 8 hours while I decided which color to add next; the blues or the violets or overnight when I was sleeping.

The border needed to be simple and neutral as there were so many colors already in this crochet blanket. It would be so easy to change the border to blue or purple and emphasize a favorite color range. The beautiful rainbow stripes reminded of the good times and harder times in life and the rainbow that comes out after a storm. This is why it is named Sunshine and Shadows. It crochets up fast and makes a great gift for family or close friends. Imagine what a lovely blanket this would make for someone with a serious illness. How cheerful it would be! It is twice as warm as usual due to being crocheted with two strands of yarn. This pattern is available now here in the shop and then also on Etsy.

Coming up soon

There are several other patterns in the works and they are close to being finished.

The weather is beautiful  here this week. Lovely weather that makes you want to work in your garden and set out plants. It is still too early here for anything other than bulbs. While I am wishing for gardening. I am also ready for a little more snow it makes me want to spend time crocheting. What is going on at your house? Snow? rain or just cold weather?

talk to you later,

Karen

If you prefer my crochet posts, then you should stop reading right about now- this blog post is about the Old Year and New Year 2018. The Old Year and New Year-2018 a stark contrast, one has the pages all scribbled on and the 2018 is sitting fresh and clean waiting for the pen to make the first mark. I thought I was going to reminisce and set some goals but I have decided to write what I am thankful for on this last day of the year. Maybe it will set the theme of thankfulness for 2018. There are so many blessings that just pass us by without any acknowledgement or even just a passing nod. The Old Year and New Year 2018; how many days rushing around being busy or overloaded last year and how many will be similar in the new year.

I try every year to plan out the year to be calm and orderly. I used to think that I was just unorganized and that if I paid better attention I would travel a straighter path and the plans I make for the coming year would happen. The years have added a smidge of grace to this as I now know that there is NO WAY to plan for the future and have 100% of what you plan actually happen.

When I started writing this I thought a list of everything accomplished would be the thing for this post. There really isn’t the a person  alive really that interested in what has happened this year, besides family. So, no brag board. No giant list of everything good and bad that has happened.

Just a smattering of photos of what was the best.

 These little people that call me Grandma! What an incredible blessing that they are in our lives.

 The ability to have good medical care where and when you need it. The family that has baby sat me for 6 + weeks while I have healed. It gave me the opportunity to sit and think about the future. Lay some plans and spend time thinking. I rather like taking all of December off from the business and crocheting. My hands thank me and the creativity is starting to generate more ideas.

4 distinct seasons and dogs that think I am the world’s best human, the ability to see every color in the rainbow.

The opportunity to take time off and spend family time, to be there when I am needed and free to crochet whenever I want.

The New Year 2018

Studio Goals

Here is the to do list for the coming year. This is all subject to change.

• 2 full sized afghan patterns
• At least 3 blog posts a month, averaged out over the year.
• 12 patterns – 1 a month or something like this
• Seasonal decor
• Hats,
• More Baby patterns
• Some patterns for kids, toys and things… or something like this.
• A book or two… we will see.
• Increase the free patterns
• Start up the You Tube videos again.

Personal Goals

• Be more intentional about faith and exercise.
• Declutter 3 specific rooms/storage in the house- you know- the rooms filled with junk. I am sure you have one too! If you don’t, send me some tips about living clutter free.
• Cook at home more and in advance
• Garden a little bit.
• Take a trip without kids
• Vacation with the kids

That is a great list and I know that it will be a good thing to get even ½ of it done!

What is on your list this New Year? Leave a comment and let me know.

Talk to you later,

Karen