Colorful Felted yarn-wrapped wreath with felted flowers and buttons, by Susan Carlson of Felted Button | Colorful Crochet Patterns

::Designings of 2012::

What a year!! While on a little road trip with the family over New Years I spent some time pondering the happenings of the past year for me and my little family. Some very challenging things occurred. Some very significant lessons learned. Some exciting accomplishments. Life, well, moved on with force, as it always does. At times I was caught in the current. At times I was swimming my guts out upstream. This was NOT a "floating" along kind of year, though.

I have shared a small number of those happenings on this blog. Many I have kept to myself, as it probably should be.

But considering this is a blog primarily about my adventures in crochet--let's focus on those happenings.

The Granny Cuff bracelet is a free pattern you can find here.

My Mandala and Stool Cover is one of my favorite
creations this year. Super interesting color work, texture and creative stitch placement that I just made up as I went. You can find the pattern here.

Plus, I made some new good friends who helped me test it. (Thank you testers--you know who you are!)

When the idea for this one came to me, I was so excited! I cannot tell you how much time and planning it took to get the colors just right. Laying out colors, sketching a grid and changing the colors a bazillion times. Counting how many of each colored square and calculating yardage of each one. Designing the actual motif and deciding how to join them. Very satisfying indeed. The Pointillism Posie pattern can be found here.

This one, shown as a work-in-progress here, was hard to part with--I sent it off to Greece. Best part was when it made the top picture of the Etsy Finds page. My shop went absolutely crazy for about a week and I scrambled to keep up. You can see that post here.

This is a similar project. Upcyled and colorful--the bowl reminds me of something my grandma would have had on the Thanksgiving table--full of walnuts. You can find it here.

My sort-of crazy, very Sue, upcycled vintage milk glass lamp--with granny shade. Wishing I had written up the pattern for the squares on the shade--this year for sure. Can you say free pattern?

Yet another hooky lampshade. Both of these will end up in my bedroom, if I EVER get to the painting!! That is one of my goals for this year. And I would like to do a little share as I go in the process. Interested?

A rather recent creation. You can read about the ta-dah here on the blog or get the pattern here. I love its versatility, colors and size.

I ta-dahed the Sea Ice Mittens here. And you can buy the pattern here. If you love deals like I do, you can get both the mitten and cowl patterns at a discount here!

One of my favorite original creations this year is this ruffly blanket. It would make an awesome photo prop for a little baby girl. You can find out more about it here.

Another free pattern was this sweet felted Berries & Blooms Christmas garland. Even though it is supposed to be for Christmas, I love mine so much it's staying up all year. And you could make it in any color scheme to match your taste or decor. If you want the printable pattern go here.

This is one of my creations without a name or written pattern yet. Well, it is in my chicken scratch in my design notebook. Another crochet goal on the list for the coming year.

Sweet and colorful little yarn-wrapped felted flower wreath made for a customer this year. I didn't do much custom work--turned down most of it due to focus on pattern development. But this one was just too fun to pass up.

This is so very Sue--with felt and buttons and lots of whimsy. Funniest part of this cross-body iPad bag is that I don't even own an iPad or tablet. But a girl's gotta be prepared, right?

Lightweight and colorful and unique...the Ombre String Cowl is perfect. You can find the pattern here.

Not finished with this colorful creation yet. This is the perfect reminder of my distracted brain. Yet another crochet goal for 2013. The pattern is written down...somewhere!

Another FREE pattern--called the Burton Cowl. You can read about how it came to be and get the pattern here.

I call this one the Infinity Blossom Cowl. Cool thing--the pattern is easily adjustable to make a baby blankie, coverlet, table runner, shorter cowl, whatever! It's available here.

This picture just makes my heart happy!! Oh, the colorful stripes!! I wrote about it here.

I love granny stripes! Especially in modern colors like this one. See more pictures and details here.

This pattern got a major over-haul this year with many options and sizes added to the pattern instructions. They are always my best sellers at the fairs and boutiques. And they work up speedy quick.

This striped granny square reminds me of the Ah-hah I had in the middle of the night--so bad that I got up to write the pattern. I have not even had time to make more than a few squares, but would love to make a blanket with it.

I have since felted this apron for my academic coach job. I like it much better now as it is less stretchy and smaller.

A simple and hip pattern that I blogged about here. I love them so much I am wearing them as I type. (It's a ridiculous 7 degrees F here right now!)

And my all-time favorite pattern creation this year is THIS--The Waikiki Wildflower Blanket! I must admit this one is amazing. I love everything about it. The colors! The texture! The front (above) and the back (below)! The method of joining! The versatility! Yes. Pretty pleased with this one.

Wow! Having looked through all of my pictures for this post, I realized how much I really hooked this year!! Especially considering...not all of my hooky creations got photographed for sharing with you

AND for the first five months of the year I was unable to stitch at all because of my broken hand.

I'm feeling quite accomplished in the hooky department!

I would love to hear about your major accomplishment for the year--even the one that may not seem significant to anyone but you.

{On the Board} -- Hooray! Let the new year begin. With stories galore. Love stories. Friend stories. Beginnings. Middles. Ends. Any kind of story you imagine... --Story People (My dear friend, Cathy, gave me a Story People calendar for 2013 that contained this quote. But she also got me an amazing pair of patent Dansko shoes that look like knitting!!!

Colorful, yarny shoes!! Tee! Hee! You should have seen the little dance I did around the room when I opened them! Well, maybe not. It was embarrassing. But how awesome it is to have a friend who totally gets me!

Hugs.

Linking up with Petals to Picots.