I had a few balls of Lion Brand Mandala in the Spirit colorway, and I am SO thrilled to share my favorite design to date with you today. The Garden of Blooms Shawl pattern incorporates a few techniques that might be new to you, but they are fun and easy to master! I knew I wanted to make them into a cozy oversized shawl. I also knew that I wanted to do something completely different, stitch wise, than I had ever done before
The Trading Grannies Square works up really quickly and was quite fun to design. Each round is half the traditional granny stitch and half solid double crochets. And then from time to time, you'll "trade" which set of stitches comes first!
I am so excited to share my latest pattern with you- the Florentine Triangle Shawl. I made my design sample with Lion Brand Mandala Ombre yarn, and I just love how it turned out! The stitch combinations used to achieve the flowers in this design might be a little bit tricky to figure out at first, so I created a tutorial video to show you the first few rows so you can get the hang of it. Once you do, the pattern works up pretty quickly and the end result is just so stunning!
Each October, my dear friend Christine from Sweet Potato 3 hosts the Crochet Cancer Challenge, and all of the participating designers are so gracious to allow me to claim the October 5th slot in honor of my father's birthday. I designed the Snowflake Hat for this year's Cancer Challenge using my favorite yarn to work with- Lion Brand Ferris Wheel. What I didn't know when I started this design was how much I was going to LOVE creating it- I loved it so much that for the first time ever, I designed 3 versions- Standard beanie, Messy Bun, and Slouchy!
The folks at KnitPal reached out to me last fall and asked if I would be interested in testing out their new yarn. You know I can't turn down an offer for yarn, so of course I was delighted to accept! I chose 2 colors of their Retro-Glam yarn. This yarn is incredibly soft and shiny. I immediately fell in love with it...
Did you know that my daughter is also a crochet designer? She doesn't publish patterns often, but I am always thrilled when she does- and in case you hadn't guessed already, today's pattern was designed by my amazingly talented daughter! The Kitty Catiolis are a fun, quick way to use up scrap yarn. You only need a few yards to make one Catioli and can whip one up in just a few minutes! They look like toy raviolis when complete, hence the name "Kitty Catiolis".
For my Pet Appreciation Month design, I originally planned to create a cute placemat in the shape of a dog bone.... that was a fail and a half! More than likely, I could have conquered this design if I had more time, but in true Malena fashion I failed to read the calendar properly and my deadline to submit the design to the Pet Appreciation Blog Hop was rapidly approaching by the time I sat down to start my design. Combine a tight deadline with a curious puppy who was pretty sure that I was making something neat for her and would NOT stop trying to remove the crochet hook from my hand with her sharp sharp teeth, and I resorted to designing something more simple that can easily be completed in just one day!
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