Hello everyone! It’s a new year and that always gets me to refresh my big picture to-do list and give a good think to the changes I want to make for my business during this trip around the sun. I’m finishing a blog post to tell y’all how I plan out my year, and even polished up a free printable for everyone. So look out for that! And if you didn’t see my 2018 year-in-review, check it out. I got more designing in 2018 than I thought, and may just take it easy this year (but probably not lol).

But before I release the 2019 planning post, I’ve been working on a new design over the past couple of weeks, and I couldn’t wait any longer to show you! Some of you may know about my love affair with Scheepjes|Colour Crafter and her party-girl sister, Velvet. If you don’t, then read all about that here.

After a brief stint of stash-diving in December (due to the need to gift handmade this year) I realized I have a bunch of Velvet in my stash and so I shuffled through it, looking for lovely two-color combinations to use for simple, quick makes.

Some really lovely combos came up as I came to learn that you can pretty much choose any random colors of Colour Crafter and Velvet and they look great together.

Need more proof? I made a blanket last year called “Good Vibes” and it used both Colour Crafter and a touch of Velvet, and you can see, even the crazy color palettes just make it work.

But I already knew that, as the idea for the wacky color scheme of the Good Vibes blanket had already been tested in one of my most popular patterns to date: “Hexagon Burst,” made exclusively in Velvet.

I remember thinking “all I want to do in this motif is jam as many petals in it as possible.” And this was the result. It’s fun, right?

Side note: If you love the Hexagon Burst blanket and you want to make one, you can find the kit in my Deramores online yarn kit storefront. (As I’m typing this, it is temporarily out of stock, but will be back soon! Check out the other kits too – such a fun opportunity and I’m grateful for it!)

Where to get this gorgeous yarn, Scheepjes Velvet? Deramores and Wool Warehouse (affiliates) both carry it, and you can also browse Scheepjes retailers near you!

So what would I create with my two-color combos? Well I needed an idea for a quick make since I was in the final weeks of the post-Halloween crochet Holiday Gift frenzy. (You know what I’m talking about lol.)

In chatting with my crochet bestie, Selah of Simply by Selah, she showed me a pillow she was making. Here is that pillow! Selah is super talented, by the way – if you don’t follow her on Instagram, you totally should.

Her pillow is a pattern by TLB Patterns, who has a ton of these rustic pillow patterns with calligraphy lettering on them. How cool is that?! I was in a total crochet slump toward the end of last year, and I decided that making pillows for my family would be just the instant-gratification I’d need to lift me out of it.

I chose some pillows to cover and I basically used trial and (lots of) error to come up with this free-handed design which, with lots of tweaks, will become a freebie soon. The collegiate letters appeal to me very much so I’ll include a full alphabet in that style, but of course this tutorial will include ways to make it your own by using the skills to add any imagery you like to your pillow.

So look out for the Scholar Pillow, coming soon! Of course in my holiday pillow-making frenzy, I didn’t write down one single thing or take many photos, so you’ll get to see me re-create the entire process. It’s probably for the best as I did note a bunch of improvements in my sketch book.

Here’s the one pic I did snap before gifting these two to my niece and nephew! Woohoo! Can’t wait to share this one with y’all. And if you don’t cross stitch, don’t worry – it’s not what you think, and it’s totally, cheatingly easy…

Enjoy your crafty time, y’all!

Rachele C.

PS – Check out my book! The Art of Crochet Blankets. Thank you so much to everyone sending me pics and tagging me on social media of your receiving the book for the holidays 🙂 That warmed my heart!