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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Let them eat cake!

A few of my friends are getting married in the next year and that gave me some inspiration for my latest project. As a Chinese person, I normally give cash instead of a formal wedding present. We put the cash, usually red $50 bills, in a lucky red envelope and hand this to the bride and groom. My father likes to say, why would someone give another useless toaster when they can have cash or gold.

Lucky red envelope

Sometimes, I would put the lucky red envelope into a regular envelope with a card.

BORING!!!

So I thought to myself, why not create a new way to blend fun into some double happiness! Yes I say!!! After a few designs, drawings, and strange looking samples, I finally came up with something that I think everyone would love.

Doodles of ideas for the cake

I introduce to you the Double Happiness Wedding Cake. It's a 3-tiered, square cake with a special lucky red envelope at the base. The great thing about this cake is that you can personalize it to the wedding. I like to take the colours and designs from the wedding invitation and add it to the cake. I tried to add flowers but my yarn was too big. I may try with some DMC embroidery floss or even hot-glue gun some ribbon ones on.

Double Happiness Wedding Cake with purple flowers

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

When I started this blog, the one big question that I was having trouble addressing was whether or not I wanted to sell my patterns. As a crafter, I love free patterns. I love going on websites and finding a fabulous new project. I feel even more joy when that project comes with a free pattern.

I can understand why people sell their patterns. It takes a lot of time and effort to design one. There’s a lot of working and reworking that goes into making the perfect project. Even with something as simple as the Little Crocheted Purse, it took me a few tries to get the size and shape just right. And even then, I had to make a half a dozen of them to make sure the pattern was flaw-fee.

At the same time, I can understand why people post their patterns for free. For yarn companies, like Lion Brand or Patons, the likelihood of someone buying their brand of yarn for a pattern designed for their brand of yarn is pretty high. Most knitters & crocheters don’t want (or don’t have the skills yet) to do a yarn substitution so they use the yarn stated in the pattern. Therefore, it makes sense for them to post their patterns for free so that it can increase their yarn sales because that’s where they make their big bucks.

Although I have stacks of books & booklets that I have paid for in my library, I have never paid for a pattern online. My main goal for this blog is to share my creations, thoughts, and ideas. And sharing shouldn’t come at a price. As such, the decision to post my patterns for free was an easy one to make. At least until I can get Justin Bieber to tweet about Yarn Over Mo and send over thousands of followers. Then I may just start charging for my pattern. LOL!

So please feel free to use my patterns for personal use. If you plan on selling finished projects from my patterns, please credit me (Yarn Over Mo – Mo King Low) with the design and link back to my blog page. Please do not alter or distribute my patterns without prior permission from me.

Thank you and happy crafting!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Little Floral Purse - Free Pattern

I've made a few of these purses to give away to the daughters of friends. As a mom with two boys, I jump at the chance to make things for girls. But of course, my preschooler loves carrying around the floral bags just as much as his father likes to carry my purse at the mall.

This is a perfect-sized purse for girls of all ages. It can fit an iPod Touch or Nintendo DS with room left to spare for lip-gloss or a Batman action figure. Crocheted in one piece with no seaming. Using machine washable cotton yarn for the purse with floral decoration and braided tassels makes this project as easy to take care of, as it is to make. And with the varied colour palette of the yarn, it’s easy to create a whole new look.

Little Floral Purse with hot pink handles - Front

Little Floral Purse with hot pink handles -Back

Enjoy the new pattern! You can download the PDF pattern here.

Friday, September 21, 2012

SImple Crocheted Cowl - Free Pattern

A warm winter cowl to keep your neck protected from the wind, rain, sleet, and snow. Great for children on the go who don’t want to add bulk under their coats or have a scarf get in the way of playing. Using two strands of medium yarn, this cowl works up quickly and can be finished in an afternoon. For a more textured look, use two different coloured yarns. I’ve decorated these cowls with a large flower but you can use any applique design or leave it plain.

For the PDF version, click to download.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Even Batman could still crime fight in my cowls

Hello and welcome to Yarn Over Mo. I've had a very busy summer and now that things have calmed down, I can start with the blog. Yarn Over Mo is about crafting with yarn whether it's knitting or crocheting or, as my 2 year old likes to do, wrap the yarn around the hook and pretend it's a cat. Meow! This is my time to share my projects with you and to share interesting projects that others have done from the Internets (yes, there are many of them).

I recently moved from Calgary to Ottawa with my husband, baby and pre-schooler. Anyone that has had to move with kids can attest that it's not an easy task. But we survived (barely) and have settled in our house in our lovely nation's capital. And that's just the tip of the iceberg for changes. My baby turned one last week and both boys have been settling into their new daycare. Of course this means my maternity leave is over but since my (former) company closed down our office in Calgary, my bittersweet "return to work" day ended up being a week of dealing with HR and my separation from the company. I like to compare it to having your boyfriend break up with you. I didn't get fired per se, my team was "dissolved" and I know longer had a place in the company. It's been a tough week for me trying to see the glass as half full. Finding work is a demoralizing task that I've always hated.

The good news in all this is that I've found time to organize some of my yarn and begin to design and create projects. It's getting colder in the mornings so it's time for the winter accessories. I was shopping last week and a woman told me that the schools no longer allow children to wear scarves to school. I made a funny scrunched up face thinking, kids have been wearing scarves for centuries and now the schools decide they are dangerous. So my head started to think (just like Winnie the Pooh) and I've designed a very simple crocheted cowl. Easy to slip over the head of a moving child but snug enough to stay on and not get caught in the playground equipment.

Adult medium sized cowl with floral accent