It seems that Christmas comes earlier every year. I know by the calender that it doesn’t but sometimes it feels like it creeps up on me. I am going to try to post some Christmas gift ideas as I am hunting some down for my Christmas gift list. So, I will start with gifts for the chef, cook, or kitchen.
Make your own in your own favorite color combinations. This pattern is perfect at using up small half skeins of yarn. Here are a few I have made over the years!
I had great fun writing this pattern and I hope you have fun crocheting lovely scarves for your family.
The Yarn
People have been asking me what yarn brand I used in these photos. These scarves were all crocheted using Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice. The exceptional bright colors and easy care yarns are perfect for this pattern.
I have included affiliate links in this post and will receive a small percentage of any purchase you might make.
I use this scalloped edging all the time on different crochet projects. It adds a nice finished edging. It also works well with Granny Squares as I think it is a variation. You will need a granny square stitch project either a granny stripe  or granny square blanket.
Supplies
yarn
granny square
hook to match yarn
The Sides
I am starting with 1 granny square. It has five holes on each side counting the corner holes.
Join your yarn to a corner.
*Crochet a double crochet from the joining stitch to the open space between the groups of    double crochet.
Crochet 5 or 6 double crochet into the space. Here I crocheted five because the yellow yarn is worsted weight and the square is a dk weight yarn.
With the last double crochet stretch it over to the next space and join with a chain.
Repeat from * across your square or squares until you reach the corner.
There are two corner options.
Corner Option #1
Join just as you have and then turn the square.
Do the next set of five (or six) double crochet just as you have. The corner will look like this.
and this when you finish two sides.
Corner Option #2
join just as you would and then double crochet into the corner space and chain two.
Do another double crochet followed by a chain.
It will look like this when you round the corner and finish another side.
This adds a nice finish to the edging. It will look great on a blanket or scarf.
The trick to this edging is that you need an odd number of spaces to finish evenly.
Have fun with this edging and share some photos with me on my facebook page of your projects with the pretty scalloped edging.
We are facing the first possibility of snow this year and it puts me in the mood for lacy snowflakes. I made snowflakes as Christmas gifts to my friends when I was a teenager. I will have to see if I can find the pattern. It was one printed in the newspaper but there are many patterns for snowflakes on the internet. Here are a few. I have given credit to the page I found them on and most of them are pinned to my crochet board on pinterest.
There are a few to get you started. I think I will try a few this weekend, unless we get snowed or iced in. I have some errands to run before the storm hits. Have fun! Do you have a favorite snowflake pattern. Please share it in the comments as I would love to make some more for our Christmas tree.
The great thing about having facebook is the links that people post are often interesting. This one really spoke to me, in fact it spoke so much that I have asked for the book for Christmas. It talks about the opposite of being fragile or Antifragile. The book is Antifragile:Things that Gain from Disorder is written Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I am taking my understanding of Taleb’s book from this website; http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/12/03/beyond-sissy-resilience-on-becoming-antifragile/
The article discusses the opposite of fragile. They discuss the fact that the opposite of fragile isn’t robust or resilient. As being Anti-fragile should put you ahead of where you started before the bad time happened. Instead of breaking during stressful personal or business times we should become stronger.
I have come through a time recently when I felt very fragile and I am continuing to feel fragile. So this concept is very attractive to me from a personal standpoint and as a small business owner.
The article touches on how large often equals fragile due to red tape, an inability to swiftly react to market changes, or icebergs in the case of the Titanic. Â It talks about being optimized to make use of every resource. In my case it would be a calendar with no extra time for the daily life occurrences that happen ie a flat tire, a sick child, medical emergencies that all play havoc with our calendar, budget and life. Â People try to reduce this randomness in life by planning it out. An example of this in real life are parents that try to keep their children from experiencing small hurts like Johnny doesn’t want to play with Jimmy. The author states that stress strengthens us and removing stresses from our children’s lives weakens them.
Resilience or the ability to bounce back while a great ability to have is useless if you do not grow from your experience. Growing means that you have moved beyond randomness or become anti fragile.
The great news is that Taleb feels that being small is great for being antifragile! Small business are more able to change direction.
You really should read the rest of it and gather some great insight but here are some insights that I gathered from this article.
1. What doesn’t kill your small business should make it stronger. Will you learn from your mistakes? Change your focus if it is needed!
2. Have a back up plan! Having more than one critical piece of equipment isn’t a bad thing, for my business this would be to have more than one sewing machine that works well.
3. Add some stress to your life! Â You can do this by changing your work schedule, or how you do things. See if there is a new way to do what you have always done. Stress strengthens you as it forces you to change.
4. Play it safe and also take risks. In a small retail business this might be continuing to sell your best selling items while you learn a new skill or sell something else just to see how it goes.
5. Don’t take advice from someone that doesn’t also do what you do.Why would you take advice from someone that doesn’t also run a small business?
6. Reduce the negatives. Remove things that are detracting from your business or life. Do you have bad habits or debt? Get rid of the debt and work on the bad habits.
7. Keep your options open. So,keep some money in the bank for the slow times. If your best selling item stops selling then stop making it and move on.
I am excited to get to read this book as it reinforces what I have always known; What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger! We just have to decide that we are going to grow from what has happened and move forward or in a completely different direction.
I have to admit that I love to watch movies while I crochet. It can be documentaries, sci fi, classics or even cake boss. It just seems to help the time pass. A cup of coffee makes it much better as does a really long movie or series of movies. I am working on a custom blanket right now and it is going well. Â Here are some photos of some past work.
I’m thinking about making another one of these Granny Square blankets in the Spring! I will certainly have enough scraps to do so!
and maybe another one of these! I have had some inspiration hit the last couple months and I am ready to create some new crochet patterns! I just need to get this beautiful custom blanket out of the way. So, off I go to crochet and watch more movies!
Here are a few new scarves that will be available in the ChocolateDogStudio shop.
This is a lovely wool scarf. It is a long scarf and perfectly suited for winter.
A lovely grey granny stripe scarf.
Thanksgiving has been a wonderful time of friends and family! I must rush off and take care a few things before the college kids head back to school today.
I have finally finished the aqua granny square blanket and the photos were just taken today. You have seen it since the very start. I frogged three rows and started over in the plain Granny Square stitch. I like it much better and it isn’t ruffly like it was starting to be.
42″ square of luscious soft granny square blanket. It is wonderfully soft! I love the soft washable variegated yarn. It changes from a moss green to a lovely aqua and hits almost every shade of blue green in between.It is finished with a plain racetrack border. It is available in the shop ready to ship! Â https://www.etsy.com/listing/170542725/crochet-blanket-granny-square-blanket
Chocolate Dog Studio has now been open for five years! It has been a wonderful, exciting, stretching time. I have made many good friends through ChocolateDogStudio and sold many items. The shop has gone from one sale in 2008 to 1369 in 2013. It is time for me to thank the people that have made Chocolate Dog Studio what it is today. So this weekend I am offering Free Shipping on all orders $20 and over, even to the EU! Just use this coupon code 5yrsale  when you  check out. There are no limits to how many times you can use it this weekend.  I am excited with the new direction that the studio is taking and can’t wait for the next years to fly by!
Here are a few of the items I have sold over the years…
A knit and crochet shawl, some gift tags
A set of magnetic clothespins,
A knit child’s purse and a crochet blanket…
Thanks so much for your support! I could not have done this without the support and patience of my family and friends.
Inspiration can be as difficult to find as creativity. I think they are so closely linked that it is impossible to separate the two. What inspires you to do the creating that you do? What lights  your creativity? What do you find inspiring?
Sometimes it is nature or the lack of a jingle in my wallet, sometimes it is a blinding illumination when it seems the angels sing, and sometimes it is just a feeling of contentment that I am on the right track. If I were to pick which flash of inspiration I like best, you and I both know that we prefer the blinding flash and angels in a choir above my head. Occaisionally,the creative work can become to feel like drudge work. So how to keep that flash of inspiration coming? How do you keep your creating fresh and new?
I have to take a break from work and get outside for that inspiration to keep coming. I have to be on the hunt for new ideas and color combinations. Like in my Aunt’s needlework from the 70s. I love the wildly bright colors in it. Keeping my eyes open and off of Pinterest can come closer to guaranteeing  that my work is more original and less  “same song, second verse a little bit louder and little bit worse”.
Sometimes my inspiration comes from something as simple as pulling all the yarn out.
Today is a rest day and I have other things to do…which means that I will be inspired everywhere I turn!
I want to know what keeps you inspired and your creativity flowing?
