Category: Uncategorized

It is difficult to believe that I first started my Helenmay Crochet YouTube Channel on 3Nov2014!!! Since that time I have made over 500 YouTube video tutorials showing people how to crochet with my fun crochet designs!! I have also completed over 40 paid PDF written patterns available on Ravelry and Etsy!!

Since I have started my Helenmay Crochet blog, I have been following Jerry Brotherton’s blog.  Honestly, I don’t even remember how I started following him. I think that we both have the same web platform and his name “The Backyard Poet” peaked my interest. He has interesting blog posts that usually are not crochet related, but yesterday he had written this paragraph on his blog post: “This one is for my wife who is a crochet-aholic.  I Love Yarn Day is celebrated on the Second Saturday in October and embraces the opportunity to share your craft with someone new. Teach someone to knit, crochet, weave or enjoy any yarn craft. Explore the variety of yarns, their vibrant colors, their soft textures, and warm tones. Expose your stash to the daylight and break out the scissors. Needles optional!”

I laughed when I read that, because I didn’t realize that his wife was a fellow crochet-aholic!!! I also realized that today was “I Love Yarn Day!” So, I decided to celebrate by picking one random person that purchased my paid PDF written patterns on Ravelry in the recent past, and gifting them a crochet PDF written pattern from a Ravelry crochet designer of their choice.  It is a daunting task to pick only one of the beautiful crochet designs available on Ravelry. So, I suggested my most recent addition to my blog post list for “Top Crochet Designers.”

My random winner that I chose was “JK” also known as “Bronzedragon1” on Ravelry, and she chose the crochet amigurumi crocodile by Carolina Guzman 

I think that “JK” made a wonderful choice! Congratulations “JK, aka Bronzedragon1!”

A HUGE thank you to all Helenmay Crochet YouTube Channel viewers and subscribers as well as Helenmay Crochet Special Donor Members and all of my blog followers!! You make everything possible! Happy “I Love Yarn Day” everyone!!!  Happy Crocheting!!!

Here are some interesting facts about “I Love Yarn Day:”

1. It is celebrated on the second Saturday of October. This year it falls on 12Oct19.
2. The Craft Yarn Council founded I Love Yarn day in 2011 spreading the love of yarn crafts for generations to come. The Craft Yarn Council is a nonprofit comprised of leading yarn companies, manufacturers, publishers, and consultants in the yarn industry.  “A survey conducted by the council affirms the numerous health benefits of yarn crafts like knitting and crocheting,” Jenny Bessonette, Executive Director of the Craft Yarn Council said. “We invite all of our followers to participate by posting and talking about how yarn has affected their lives.”

There are affiliate links below, if you are unsure of what affiliate links are please go to “Disclosures/Disclaimers” and “Privacy Policy” at the top of my HOME page. Affiliate links basically allow me to receive a very small referral fee, but only if you make purchases. Just because you go to the link doesn’t mean that I will receive a referral fee.  Thank you so much for considering my affiliate links; I really appreciate it!

I first made my Crochet Amigurumi Gorilla a long time ago for one of my family members, but I never got it to video tutorial until now. Helenmay Crochet Special Donor Member Nicole Dickel made a crochet request for a large monkey. When she made the crochet request, I immediately thought of my crochet gorilla design. I already had plans to make the video tutorial, but Nicole’s request made me move it up earlier. I was so happy to dust off my old pattern design and bring it to video tutorial! Thank you Nicole! They are a lot of fun to make and are extremely adorable!

If you would like to follow my crochet request waiting list, here is the direct blog link:

Helenmay Crochet What Are You Making Next?!?!?!?

Keep scrolling down for the FREE YouTube video tutorial links. If you would like to purchase the paid PDF written pattern, here is the direct link:

Ravelry link: Crochet PDF Gorilla and Banana Written Pattern

You may like this true story about “Ivan” the Gorilla! Click on the picture below, or here, to go directly to the affiliate link:

Learn all about how you can help gorillas through the World Wildlife Fund! Here is their direct non-affiliate link: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

The WWF has adorable plush gorilla toys that you can adopt. The proceeds help support the WWF. They make wonderful Christmas presents for yourself and/or others!! Click the picture above, or here, to go directly to the non-affiliate link.  You can also read all about Gorillas and how the WWF is helping to protect them!!

There will be 4 parts for the crochet amigurumi Gorilla and Banana video tutorial. Parts 1 to 3 will be to complete the crochet gorilla and part 4 will be for the crochet banana!

Crochet Amigurumi Gorilla and Banana Part 1 of 4 Video Tutorial:

Crochet Amigurumi Gorilla and Banana Part 2 of 4 Video Tutorial:

Crochet Amigurumi Gorilla and Banana Part 3 of 4 video tutorial:

Crochet Amigurumi Gorilla and Banana Part 4 of 4 Video Tutorial:

This will be my first CAL (Crochet-Along) with another crochet designer. I am not an affiliate. I just love the finished crochet design!! If you would like to find out more about the Rozeta CAL, here is the direct link: Information for Rozeta Scheepjes CAL 2019

On this blog post, I will be posting pictures of my crochet adventures with the Rozeta CAL!!

It was very exciting to receive my Rozeta CAL kit from Wool Warehouse International!! Please use the link on the crochet designer Lilla Bjorn’s website link. You will see the price in Euro’s, but I was able to pay in dollars through my Paypal site without any difficulties. The shipping was a decent price and I was able to receive the package in less than a week!!!!! You are able to track the package, and I was able to receive emails/texts telling me the status of my package!!!

 

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For those of you that are putting together your own yarn kits for the Rozeta CAL, you may like these yarn charts to help:

 

I finished the first week of the Rozeta CAL Our Tribe Twilight:

Make sure that your tension during the tapestry crochet portion is just enough to hide the alternate color and still stay flat!

I had only slight waving, which I controlled by laying heavy books on it overnight.

When I got to the diamond design rounds, I realized how important keeping the stitch count was!!! To help me keep track of the stitch count, I started using my st markers at every hundredth stitch.

I just finished the week 6:

 

I finished my Rozeta around Christmas of the year 2019! Here are the pictures:

I also finished the bonus Rozeta pattern:

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I haven’t decided if I want to use my crochet Rozeta bonus pattern as a pin cushion or hanging tree ornament! I absolutely loved the crochet flower design!

I highly recommend this crochet pattern! I had a blast!

There are affiliate links below, if you are unsure of what affiliate links are please go to “Disclosures/Disclaimers” and “Privacy Policy” at the top of my HOME page. Affiliate links basically allow me to receive a very small referral fee, but only if you make purchases. Just because you go to the link doesn’t mean that I will receive a referral fee.  Thank you so much for considering my affiliate links; I really appreciate it!

I found this adorable crochet dog paw coaster on YouTube by non-affiliate, AmiaMikancl Crochet

The video tutorial is in Japanese, but there are English subtitles. There were a couple of errors in the video tutorial, but nothing major. I was able to complete the crochet paw coaster without any difficulties.

Scroll down to find your FREE Crochet Paw Coaster and/or Applique PDF written pattern!

I hope that you will consider being a Helenmay Crochet Special Donor Members.  Members get extra benefits, please check out my blog post for more details.

I like to give credit to the crochet designer whose crochet idea I love. So, I asked AmiaMikancl if I could share the FREE Crochet PDF written pattern for her Crochet Dog Paw YouTube video tutorial with my Helenmay Crochet Special Donor Members. I wrote the written pattern for her video tutorial. She replied to me.
AmiaMikancl Crochet on YouTube said: “You can provide it！
but you should introduce my youtube channel.
Thank you.”

Her teaching style is similar to mine. She also has a video tutorial that is similar to mine.

She has some other video tutorials that I would like to check out later, like her crochet diamond bag!!

You may like these dog key rings to hang your crochet dog paw applique on!! They would be perfect for your keys or to hang on your crochet project bag!!

Click on the picture above, or here, to go directly to the affiliate link. Prime eligible. Different designs to choose from!

This one is adorable too! Click the picture above, or here, to go directly to the affiliate link. Prime eligible!!

Enjoy!!

I recently made “Mink” the crochet lab dog in Apr 2020:

He is special because I put the crochet dog paw applique on his paws!

If you would like to place the crochet dog paws on your own crochet lab dog, or any other crochet dog, here is the free downloadable PDF written pattern:

Crochet Dog Paw Coaster PDF Written Pattern

Crochet Dog Paw Coaster Addendum

If you would like to make the crochet lab dog, here is the direct link to the blog post:

Crochet Large Amigurumi Labrador Retriever Dog Blog Post

 

There are affiliate links below, if you are unsure of what affiliate links are please go to “Disclosures/Disclaimers” and “Privacy Policy” at the top of my HOME page. Affiliate links basically allow me to receive a very small referral fee, but only if you make purchases. Just because you go to the link doesn’t mean that I will receive a referral fee.  Thank you so much for considering my affiliate links; I really appreciate it!

I have made many Tunisian Crochet Afghans. As of Dec 2019, I will no longer be making Trademarked afghans. In the year 2020, I will make my 4th completed Tunisian Crochet Afghan! It will be my first afghan where I will sell the finished graphs. So far, I have completed a Guardians of the Galaxy Tunisian Crochet Afghan, a Minecraft Tunisian Crochet Afghan, and a Wizard of Oz Tunisian Crochet Afghan!!  I no longer have the video tutorials or free graph downloads for these finished trademarked afghans. However, I will show you how to begin with Tunisian Crochet so that you can start making your own Tunisian crochet graphs or be able to follow a graph of your choosing.

Here are some important things that I want to tell you before you start making my afghans:

1. I don’t bury loose yarn ends. I like to attach an inexpensive fleece blanket to the back of my finished Tunisian Crochet Afghans to hide the loose yarn ends. The loose yarn ends never come loose because I tie knots. As you can see from the finished pictures of my afghans, you can NOT see the knots.

2.  I work in blocks because I find it a lot easier to manage than trying to work the whole design in one piece. If you prefer to work the whole design in one piece, you should still be able to do that using my graphs. I don’t show how to crochet the design in one piece. I only show how to work in blocks because I MUCH prefer to work in blocks. 🙂

When I was sharing pictures of my Wizard of Oz Tunisian Crochet Afghan on Facebook, Nicole said: “Do you have something easier to start out with? Like not so many color changes. I have never done this before.”

 

That is why I decided to create this post. I wanted to give my Tunisian Crochet Project recommendations for the absolute beginner Tunisian Crocheter.

First, you are going to need a Tunisian Crochet hook. I usually use about a size 5.75mm Tunisian Crochet Hook for all of my Tunisian Crochet Afghans. A good value set that I would recommend is this Tunisian Hook set with several different sizes! It is an Amazon’s Choice and Prime eligible!

Click on the picture above, or here, to go directly to the affiliate link.

The other thing that I use on my Tunisian Crochet hooks, so that I don’t place too much pressure with my thumb, is a pencil grip.

Click on the picture above, or here, to go directly to the affiliate link. Prime eligible.

In one of my crochet Facebook groups, someone said that you can use the soft bendable rollers (Normally used for hair curlers) from dollar tree. You just cut the size that you need out of the foam roller (About the size of the foam pencil grips above) and remove the inner wire.

Now, you are ready for your Tunisian Crochet Adventure!!

You can start with my Tunisian Crochet Simple Quick and Easy Beginner Soap Saver:

After you feel comfortable with the most basic Tunisian Crochet stitch, which is my favorite Tunisian stitch for afghans, you can attempt my Tunisian Crochet Beginner Cardinal Hotpad/potholder. The Cardinal hotpad has a lot of color changes to practice with. It has step-by-step YouTube video tutorials to guide you as you Tunisian Crochet.

With the same Tunisian Crochet Cardinal pattern, you can also create a pillow!!!

Here is the direct blog link: Tunisian Crochet Cardinal Hotpad/Potholder, Tawashi, and or Pillow.

Another simple Tunisian Crochet project that you may enjoy is my Christmas Angel.

She is a Tunisian Crochet Christmas Angel Picture Holder.

That should help you get ready to make one of my larger Tunisian Crochet Afghans! You can also learn how to create your own graphs!! Too much crochet fun! Please subscribe to my blog! It is free, and you will receive notifications about my blog posts. I am hoping to start my Tunisian Crochet Super Hero Afghan later this year or next year 2020!

Happy Crocheting everyone!!