More Tunisian Crochet Phone Cases

Birthday season is finally over in our household. It gets kicked off right after Christmas with my son’s birthday, followed by my husbands birthday. Then immediately after (now February) by my birthday, and lastly, my daughter’s birthday a week later. This year, we had a party for my daughter and celebrated with friends and family. This is where I gave away the tunisian roses case to my sis-in-law.

My other friend had requested a phone case as well, so I modified a different tunisian crochet case I already had. I was going to make her a new one, but she liked that one, so I fixed it for her by adding more rows so it would fit her phone.

My sister saw that I was handing out phone cases and wanted one too. She liked the stitch on the tunisian one, so I worked on hers during the gathering. I finished just before she left.

Tunisian crochet simple stitch phone case

My other sister didn’t want to be left out so she picked out some yarn and I promised to make her a case.

Finished after the party using Tunisian knit stitch.

I started it before the party was over and my other sister (yep, the one who got one already) liked the new stitch and wanted another one. She told me to pick some nice colors and make her another one. We settled on purple and whatever looked good with purple.

Made after, after the party using Tunisian knit stitch.

It was a busy night (and next couple of days) but I always feel good when I make something useful for my family.

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When Crochet Goes Wrong – Tunisian Crochet Roses

I recently came across a YouTube video on how to make tunisian crochet roses. I thought they were super cute so I gave it a try. Once I was done trying, I had to decide what to make with it. A phone case sounded like a good idea at the time.

I practiced the stitch at work and turned that one into a phone case first. Meh, I didn’t like it. The kids liked it so I threw it in the prize box.

I place the seam in the middle of the back instead of the side. I think it worked better.

I vowed to make the one at home look better. Meh, it came out worse but it covers the phone just fine. The sides bunched up in a way that made it turn inward when I sewed the sides together. I was doomed from the get-go. Then, I totally missed the mark on the bottom of the case. It looks more like a stocking.

I seamed this one on the side and that didn’t work out so well.

I guess that’s what happens sometimes when  you’re eyeballing things instead of having a clear cut plan. It’s a cute pattern though. Not sure if I’ll use it again, or even for what I would use it again, but it sure is cute. My sis-in-law liked it so I added a little more to the top (not shown) so it would fit her phone. She’s happy with it so I guess it’s a win.

Crochet Squares Backpack Completed

My crochet backpack was ready for a night of fun.

My new little garden is making a nice backdrop for my pictures. 

My old garden still works too.

Disneyland!

On it’s first trip out, hubby and I decided to go for a spontaneous trip to Disneyland on a Sunday night.

Tunisian Crochet Cell Phone Case

I’m trying to come up with items for our ultimate-prize-box at work. I already have a few items in there but I need more. I recently asked the kids for ideas on things they’d like to see in there and the answers I got ranged from the doable to the impossible. I heard ’emoji’ this or that a lot. Surprisingly, they say they want items that represent our program. The name of our after-school program is World Academy and our logo features the world. We brainstormed about bracelets, jewelry, hats, bags, and cases with our logo.

So in that spirit, I decided to make a cell-phone case using our colors and a depiction of the world in cross-stitch.

Loosely based on our logo. Very Loosely!

Tunisian crochet lends itself well to cross-stitch so I went with that. The kids were fascinated when they saw me cross-stitching on the case and almost all of them were excited it was going into the box. But the more I look at it, the more I want to keep it to represent! I guess I’ll just have to make another one for me. 🙂

I’m thinking I should make some type of yarn/hook/accessory carry bags/cases for those students who have gotten really good at crocheting. I think they would love to have something to carry their stuff around and having it in our colors would be an added bonus. I’m starting to get excited here.When I presented the idea to one of my 4th grade girls, she sat down right in front of me and said we needed to talk about design ideas. We didn’t have much time so we’ll have to do it later. She also asked if I could get it done by the time she reached the ultimate prize box. She’s reaching that milestone pretty fast. I don’t know if I can! The pressure! Sure I can. I got this. 🙂 I think I’ll have to have a brainstorm session soon with my ‘master’ crocheters on designing something that would work. It always makes them feel good when I take their input and they often surprise me with their ideas. Can’t wait to get started!

Freebie Friday – Crochet/Yarn Hacks

How to lose two hours browsing the internet without even knowing it. You start your search with a very straight forward agenda that should only take a few minutes but somehow end up completely off base from where you started. Next thing you know, you’ve lost two hours (or more :-)) looking at things you had no business looking at. I started out innocently enough planning a quick search for items for a birthday wish list. Before I knew what hit me, I had deviated from that plan almost immediately.

I was looking for items I could put on my wish list for my upcoming birthday. I stumbled across these cute jewelry designs for crocheters that I thought were really awesome.

I can make this!

 

Instead of putting them on my wish list, my first thought was that I could make these. This naturally led to a search of small crochet hooks. I don’t know how much time I wasted on that errand but I found really cool hooks (but not the ones I was looking for).

I fell for this one which sent me on a side search for sterling silver crochet jewelry.

How awesome is this one? I love it.

Freebie Friday – Emoji with Sunglasses

I was talking on the phone with hubby and my hands felt idle. It was the perfect opportunity to grab some yarn and make an emoji. I had the idea rattling in my brain since one of my students requested (turned into a suggestion, no more personal requests 🙂 I make one. It was an easy and quick project to work on while gabbing away. I almost got it done by the time we hung up. We do talk for a long time. Love my hubby.

This one didn’t last long in the prize box. It was snatched up right away. There’s nothing worse than making something I think the kids like only to have the poor item sitting in the box for months and, eek, forever. I always feel a little thrill when they pick one of my pieces and run around with it. It’s all about the little pleasures. 🙂

I plan on making more and experimenting with different faces and edgings. These seem so natural for the prize box.

Student Corner

I can’t describe the pleasure of seeing how many of my students have caught the crochet bug. I have a new 5th grade girl who picked it up very quickly and got very excited about making things as gifts. I didn’t get a chance to photograph her first finished piece before she gave it away but I have it on good authority (her mom) that it came out very nice and the recipient really loved it.

Today’s post will be about the current work the students are doing to highlight how proud of them I am. One of my 4th grade students finished this cute pillow over the summer.

Nice job!

She also made this cute purse (below).

A 5th grade girl finished a rag doll she started last school year and finished it up this year. Way to go!

So Cute!

And here are my students hard at work on new projects!

Looking fantastic girls!

Freebie Friday – Crochet Emergency!

I asked my 16 year old son how his day had been.

He said, “Well, I have some bad news.”

He didn’t seem alarmed or agitated so I didn’t panic. In a split second, scenarios of what it could be ran through my head. Bad grade on an assignment, a minor problem with his car, something that happened to one of his friends…

“Is it BIG bad news?” says I.

Son said, “No.”

“Is it small bad news?” I asked.

Son said, “Well, it isn’t small. I lost my crochet iPhone case.”

Phew! Very minor bad news.

Student Highlight

I can’t express how proud I am of my students who have taken their crochet skills to the next level. So much so, I thought I would showcase and highlight some of their projects. Some of them have started following my blog and I want to show them how much I love their work by displaying it here.

Three of my 3rd grade girls have been really challenging themselves lately. They have been working on self guided projects that I have been very impressed with and that they are very proud of.

This student (below) was working on a headband when she realized that it wasn’t working out. One of the things I’m always stressing is that crochet is flexible and if something doesn’t work out, there is almost always a way to fix it, perhaps by turning it into something else. She was working rows of single crochet, changing colors to create stripes. When she saw that she hadn’t made the rows long enough for a headband, she turned it into a cute Barbie purse.

A+ for creativity and flexibility 🙂

Granny Square Mania Turned Purse

A child’s imagination is truly great and I get to experience it on a daily basis.

At home, I have been furiously and single-mindedly making granny squares (springtime flower granny square) for my future sweater/cardigan. I’ve tried as many color combinations as could with just grey and black and I’m almost half done with the 74 squares I need for the finished piece. I wanted to try the same square at work but with the brighter colors we have.

I used two strands of yarn and started playing with colors. The kids became instantly curious and peppered me with the usual questions. What is it? What are you making? Is it going in the prize box? Can I have it? This is always followed by suggestions. Use this color. Make it this or that. You should really give it to me. That kind of thing. 🙂

The squares work up quickly so I was able to make a few in a short time. Once done, the kids needed to know what my intentions were because they were pretty sure they wanted whatever it was I was making. I told them the squares hadn’t spoken to me yet on what they wanted to become (they didn’t even look at me strangely after I said that! lol). I had three different squares completed and they were voting on which ones they liked best.