Chocolatedogstudio Archives - Page 8 of 26

Posted on September 22, 2014 by admin

Striped Crochet Blanket

I feel like I have hardly had a chance to breathe the past month or so. Do your days get that busy? First we took vacation and then packed two of the kids for college and dropped them off. It seems as though we just keep running in and dashing back out to take care of this chore and that chore. Â I came down with a migraine that has stuck around all week and tends to make me just sit and do nothing. It isn’t a bad migraine but it does make me creep around in dark rooms.

I have been working on this blanket here in my spare time. I love the colors in it and I showed you the yarn first several weeks back.

Here it is in the beginning. It is going to be a beautiful Autumn striped blanket.

There are such beautiful stripes. I put three blankets on hold as I am waiting on more yarn. So, now I have five or six WIPS sitting around waiting on the final touches and one waiting to be frogged. I think it needs to be frogged, but I am not sure.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on September 16, 2014 by admin

New Crochet Throw

This new crochet throw has hadÂ a rough start. I frogged it several times right at the start. I tried two different greens before I settled on this one. This is new throw is a beautiful deep mossy green. It will be a beautiful throw when I get finished with the border. It will be a perfect size for a lap blanket.

I have struggled to find time to crochet this week. The only time I have found to work on this new crochet throw was at night and it was difficult to match colors then. Â It has been several years since I have made a throw sized blanket. Here are the last two I made.Â http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chocolatedogyarns/granny-square-53

Â http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chocolatedogyarns/granny-square-53-4

I have been out and about this week. I got to spend some good time with my Mom. We had a great visit. We spent time laughing and remembering my Dad. He was a good man and a great father.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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for special sales and new items.

Posted on September 12, 2014 by admin

New crochet blanket

Crocheting blankets have filled my mind lately. Â I found these beautiful yarns at the store and just had to put them into a new crochet blanket. Aren’t they beautiful?

I can ‘t decide what blanket pattern to use for them. It will be stripey, I think.

I love this one by Black Sheep Wools.Â It is simply a gorgeous granny stripe blanket!

It would also look beautiful as a granny square blanket made up of solid squares like this one.

I love this blanket from Littletinbird. It makes me so happy!

I love this pattern by Laurence Meriat. It is found on Ravelry. There are incredible options for crochet blankets and I can spend hours exploring each one.

talk to you later,.

Karen

Posted on September 8, 2014 by admin

True Confessions

True confessions: It appears that I have started so many new things that I am totally overwhelmed. The new school year has called for a complete change in routine. I seem to be the spending a Â large amount of timeÂ waiting. I tend to take small projects with me until they get too big to travel well. I started several projects last week. When we were cleaning up the house this past weekend, I noticed that I have these 4 bags, just from last week!

So these are my works in progress or WIPS. You could also call them PIGS (projects in grocery bags!) Here are some up close photos of the actual projects started.

I am not sure what I think about three of these. The granny square, star stitch and the baby bonnet. So, I am letting them rest while I think it over and see what I think. I really don’t like the Granny square so I will probably unravel all the limeyÂ green Â and start over. I’m not sure I like the grey blanket. I started the star stitch to learn a new stitch and I’m afraid that it isn’t comfortable toÂ crochet as I have to keep counting.

This doesn’t even include the scrap blanket that is too big to travel.

The weather is supposed to cool off at the end of the week. Hopefully, I will find time to work on/under this blanket on the weekend. What are you working on? Do you start more than one project at a time?

Karen

Update:

I never finished the baby bonnets. They were too fussy for me and I don’t have a baby to model them for me. Â They are still in the bag and it is over 2 years since I wrote this. Wow, usually I am really good at finishing what I start. I did finish the baby blanket with lavender and green. It is beautiful and sold super quick.

The scrap blanket is finished and sold! Here is the reveal post for it.

Posted on September 2, 2014 by admin

Ta dah! Granny Square Blanket

I am finished with this Granny Square blanket. I am so excited. It has been a fun, quick blanket. This blanket started like this, just a mix up of various granny squares of all different sizes. It is also a scrap blanket as it used up various little balls of yarn that I had in my yarn bowl. I had many different squares left over from different crochet blankets and I added to them to get a more uniform size for the granny square blanket. The crocheting went fairly quickly as these squares are larger than I normally crochet.

I love the bright yellow that is added to each square.

I used white to join each square and to give the squares a little definition.

Now here is the final unveiling!

Look at all the beautiful red, white and yellow. The squares are so cheerful. This granny square blanket was such fun to crochet.

I started the border and then ripped it all out and restarted the border. I love the new border

The border is a lightly ruffled picot edging! I am so excited to get to show it to you. You can find this blanket on etsy here.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on August 31, 2014 by admin

Great Fall Sale!

There is a great sale going on right now at Chocolate Dog Studio and Chocolate’s Baby shop, 25% off the SaleÂ items!

All of my cup cozies are on sale for Autumn!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/200375673/sale-coffee-cup-sleeve-coffee-cup-cozy

https://www.etsy.com/listing/185880098/sale-fabric-coffee-cozy-cup-sleeve-aqua

There are also bibs on sale in ChocolatesBabyShop!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on August 25, 2014 by admin

Waiting on Ideas to Hatch

Everyday is a new day! Â It has been a long week so far and it is only Sunday! Last week we took 2 kids to college and dropped them off. We then drove the quiet 5 hour drive home. It was quiet and it IS quiet now. We also took the leaf out of the table and it now sits four quite comfortably or five if you really like each other! Â We raise kids to be independent and then we are sad when they finally are! So this week, I am concentrating on the one chick left in the nest. I am thinking of things like Christmas gifts, the Etsy shop, things I am thankful for and what I want to do with this blog!

Like these eggs, I am waiting on the right time for my ideas to hatch. There are so many things that I would love to do but I just don’t have the time. I am getting to take a painting class this year with my daughter. I will show you my work as I go. It has been ages since I have really painted and I am completely self taught.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on August 25, 2014 by admin

The New To Do List!

Here is my to do list. I’m back from vacation and we are in our Autumn back to school schedule. So, to be organized here is my to do list for the week. This is the shop to do list, not my personal to do list. I have also been running through my pinterest business pins and working on my blog.

Works in ProgressÂ

This blanket.

and this one

and this one.

I have about ten coffee press cozies cut out
I have 25 felt Christmas Stockings to cut and sew for a cousin.
A wide variety of baby hats, blankets and a couple of new items.

So life is busy and I need to get to work!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on August 18, 2014 by admin

Life is Busy

It is one of THOSE weeks, when everything converges and happens at the same time! So it is incredibly overwhelming but I think I can squeeze some crochet in between all the other activities. I love busy but this is a bit much!

Here are some lovely peaceful photos from our days at the beach.Â

It rained just a bit every single day! It was wonderful to sit around and play a board game with everyone involved. There were the 7 of us and my Mom. Our oldest son and his wife joined us and it was wonderful to have everyone under one roof eating meals together.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on August 12, 2014 by admin

Early Morning

Vacation was incredible. I didn’t crochet any at all over the last week. In fact, it wasn’t until yesterday that I even picked up a hook. I did work on this a couple of times over the week.

I woke early the first morning at the beach and got in a little stitching time while everyone else was still asleep. It was incredible to watch and just to experience. I managed to finish one end of the table runner, not both. So while I didn’t finish it as much as I had planned, I did get a bit more done.

Talk to you later,

Karen