Crocheting with Ruffle Yarn

Knitting with ruffled yarn is pretty easy and straightforward. Crocheting with the novelty ruffle yarn is another thing entirely, but once you figure out the trick to it, you can easily whip up a trendy ruffled scarf in just a couple of hours with one skein of yarn.

Ribbed Crochet Earwarmer

Simple single crochet stitches create crochet ribbing.

Baby, it's cold outside, but you can keep your ears toasty warm with this easy-make crochet ear warmer. I made it up in Red Heart color change yarn, but you can use any worsted weight yarn. The pattern is as simple as it gets: work a chain that's your desired width from top to bottom, work a row of single crochet and turn. From that point on, single crochet in back loop only for each row until it's long enough to wrap aroun your head. End the crochet, leaving a long tail to sew the two ends together. Voila!

Crochet Cross Bookmark

Every pattern I've seen for crocheted cross bookmarks requires doing the staff in one piece, then joining the yarn to add the arms separately. I wanted a pattern that could be worked in one piece for a Demand Media article. This one took about 30 minutes to work up, and it's all worked in one piece starting with a foundation chain that's the full length of the bookmark.

And, since eHow articles have to follow AP style, they can be a pain to follow for experienced crocheters. The simpler pattern follows after the jump.

Crocheted Miniature Teddy Bear

This mini teddy bear was a 1-hour project worked up as proof of concept for a Demand Media article. I worked it up in the closest fingering yard at hand - a rainbow ombre that I picked up in a huge lot of cheap yarn at a yard sale, using a Size G crochet hook. He's stuffed with tangled yarn from the same skein so that you don't get the peek-a-boo effect you get when you stuff a crocheted form with white fiberfill.

To work him up, you crochet the two tubes for the legs first, then join them with single crochet stitches at the crotch. Continue working in single crochet around the outside of both legs to start the body tube. The body and head are worked in one piece, with openings left for the arms and single crochet decreases shaping the shoulders and neck. At the neck, work two single crochet in each stitch around to widen the tube again for the head. For the snout, work 3 sc in each of 3 stitches at the center front once, work even for a row, then work them off by working two sc together 3 times. To do the arms, attach the yarn at the armhole and work a row of single crochet around the opening, then work even until the arm is the desired length. End off, stuff and sew the arm ends together.

That's the basic work order for the mini teddy bear. Pattern follows the jump.

15-minute Crochet Bow

15-minute Crochet Bow (ignore the flabby arm behind the curtain)

I whipped this little baby up in 15 minutes as a sample for a crochet how-to for Demand Medi which has since removed it and put up a pattern for a much plainer, more boring bow. Now the pattern lives here, where no one can screw with it.

The 18-year-old's reaction? "Awww, that's cute! Can you make me one in black for my ponytail?" Did I mention the 18-year-old is a boy?

Yes, it's a black sparkly version. It took me 20 minutes, including finding the yarn. Pattern after the jump.