After a few request and having to play around with some code yesterday, Crochet Spot now has printer friendly pages!!! If you tried to print a blog post in the past, you may have realized that it’s really messy and you end up printing out a bunch of things that you don’t need. Now, it’s neater and hopefully you’ll be saving money on paper and ink.

To print blog posts or pages from Crochet Spot, simply use the print option in your internet browser’s menu bar.

Granted that you do have a printer, your printing experience here at Crochet Spot should be improved! Let me know what you think of the new printer friendly pages!

Hooray!!! CrochetSpot.com now has over 100 FREE crochet patterns! Creating Crochet Spot almost a year ago (January 2009), it is amazing to look back and see how far one little blog has come. All the patterns on this site range in skill level, with most of them geared towards the beginner and easy level.

You can enjoy all of my free crochet patterns by looking in the Free Crochet Patterns section (it may take you a while to go through all the posts). Don’t forgot to check out the free Crochet Tutorials and Help section too!

As requested by many Crochet Spot readers, you can now donate to Crochet Spot if you have enjoyed the free crochet patterns and tutorials on this site. Just use the button below. Your donations of any amount are greatly appreciated and will help to support Crochet Spot in creating more free patterns and tutorials!

THANK YOU for your support and encouragement!!!

Recently, I updated the popular Piano Key Scarf Crochet Pattern. So if you were having trouble with it, please take a look at the newly revised version. Here are the fixes I made:

No more stiffness. Using a much larger hook and a softer type of yarn, your scarf should not turn out to be stiff as cardboard anymore.

Only ONE loose end to weave in. Since the pattern require LOTS of color changes, there used to be a ton of loose ends to weave in when your done the scarf. Now this pattern requires you to carry your loose ends by crocheting over them. Learn more about this technique here: How to Minimize Weaving in Ends in Crochet

Clearer instructions. The first version of this pattern was one of the first patterns I’ve ever written, so of course it was horrible! Now, with more pattern writing experience (over 100 patterns written and counting), it should be crystal clear for you to understand. But if you still need help, I’m always here for questions

Even though I’ve revised the Piano Key Scarf Crochet Pattern, it still requires a lot of color changing, and for that reason I would not recommend it for beginners. I can tell you that you still need a ton of patience with the color changing and carrying the ends (even if you’re an expert).

Let me know if you need help with the new pattern!

I recently made a new page to describe the Premium Pattern Membership in detail, since I’ve gotten questions about it. If you are not familiar with the membership, it is a way for you to download ALL the patterns (including new patterns) in the Crochet Spot Store. The fee for being a member is $10 per month. The membership has become a popular alternative to purchasing patterns one by one (which you can do). It helps you save money if you want at least 2 pattern from the store.

For more detailed information about the Premium Pattern Membership CLICK HERE.

You can sign up for a membership by going to the Crochet Spot Store.

Below is a photo of Rita Kunc and she is holding a 6 feet long plastic sleeping mat, which she made for the homeless. She crocheted it in single crochet using plastic bags from milk.

If you would like to crochet a plastic sleeping mat too, here are the instructions and pattern:

Materials:

• Plarn (plastic yarn) – Here is the tutorial: How to Make Plarn (Plastic Yarn). You will need lots of bags (too big of a number to even guess), so keep collecting them as you crochet your mat.
• Crochet Hook – since plarn can be made in different sizes, use a hook that you are comfortable with

Crochet Pattern: Sleeping Mat
Row 1: make a chain that is as wide as you desire your mat to be
Row 2: sc in second ch from hook and in each ch across
Row 3: ch 1, turn, sc in each sc across

Repeat row 3, until the mat is 6 feet long, then finish off.

Creating one if these mats may take a long time! So be patient. Rita Kunc took about a year to make one!

Recently I told you about the Caron Country Yarn Giveaway, where they are giving a free skein if Caron Country Yarn to any one who mails them 3 Caron Simply Soft yarn labels, their receipt, and a 3 x 5 card with their mailing information.

However, it looks as if they are not requiring you to mail your receipt anymore. This is great if you’re like me and lose your receipt or just never keep it! Also, notice that it is limited one skein per request, and not per person. That’s interesting…I wonder if you can get more than one skein? Either way, get your old yarn labels in the mail for a free skein of yarn!

You can click here for more information regarding the giveaway.

I’ve been meaning to tell you this a couple weeks ago, but YES it is official! There will be three (not one, but three) 30 feet tall crocheted lions at the 2012 Olympics. A while ago I wrote about the possibility of Crochet Art at the 2012 Olympics, and now the committee chose a crochet piece. Shauna Richardson is the crocheter and will be crocheting for 2 years to get those lions done.

If you’re not a fan of the Olympics, maybe you’d at least be a fan of seeing giant crocheted lions?

You can take a look at the other decorations that have been chosen for the 2012 Olympics in London here. They seem very odd yet still fun!

You may have noticed that Crochet Spot was temporarily unavailable today and you may have gotten a page with some funny error message. But no worries, because if you’re reading this on the site right now everything is working again!!!

So thanks for being so patient, I know it was hard for me to do! The people that hosts Crochet Spot on their server had to work out a few kinks. Whatever they were doing is beyond me. I’m just glad that it’s all fixed.

Now that everything is back to normal how about enjoying some…

• Free Crochet Patterns
• Crochet Tutorials
• And of course more of my Ramblings