Beer Koozies

Did you know that there are at least a dozen different spellings for the sleeve that you put around your ice-cold beer? :)
Listen HERE 

Materials

- I/9 (5.5mm) hook
- Yarn: medium worsted weight – 4, Caron Simply Soft (2 colors)
- Yarn needle

Start with color #1Circle 1: Magic loop 10 dc, join to first dc with slip stitch
Circle 2: 2 hdc in each hdc around, join to first hdc with slip stitch (20 hdc)
Circle 3: *1 hdc in first hdc, 2 dc in second hdc, repeat from * around, join to first hdc with slip stitch (30 hdc)
Circle 4 - 8: 1 hdc in each hdc around, join to first hdc with slip stitch (30 hdc)
Switch to color #2Circle 9 – 12: 1 hdc in each hdc around, join to first hdc with slip stitch (30 hdc)
Switch to color #1Circle 13 – 16: 1 hdc in each hdc around, join to first hdc with slip stitch (30 hdc)

Tie off and weave in ends
Add your favorite team logo or any other design!

Knitting Therapy

I love perusing the archives of the Psychology Today website for interesting articles and yesterday I came across one called Should You Knit? by Temma Ehrenfeld. Some days I cannot wait to curl up on the couch and knit or crochet. Scott always cringes when I'm working on designing a pattern and after getting so far I decide to rip it all out and start again. Crocheting is probably the only thing that I can say I enjoy the process more than reaching the goal.

The rhythmic repetitive movements seem to put us in the present moment, distracting us from mulling over the past or fear of the future.

With crocheting being my number 1 hobby, worrying is number 2. I normally don't think about much while crocheting and that can be a wonderful reprieve.

Research by Dr. Barry Jacobs of Princeton University has found that repetitive movements in animals enhance the release of serotonin, associated with calm good spirits.

Thankfully crocheting is a "constructive addiction" that has great health benefits - and you get to make something pretty :)

Read the entire article HERE.

Cabled Beanie Pattern

The last few days I have been working on a new hat design. I recently started knitting a pillow cover with cables on it. I'm not amazing at knitting and although I love how cables look, I thought that they would be incredibly difficult and advanced for a beginning knitter. I was so surprised to learn just how easy and fun they are! This inspired me to make this crocheted cabled hat.

This pattern is by far one of my favorites!

The hat is designed for an adult and you must know how to front and back post double crochet comfortably. It uses a J/10 6mm sized hook and I recommend using Caron Simply Soft or Lion Brand Heartland yarn. Both of these yarns are super soft and make great hats! :)

Hooray! The cabled beanie pattern made it into the top 20 on Ravelry after being released on November 12th, 2013  :)