Warm Up America at Michaels craft store

I was out at Michaels craft store today to pick up some yarn because they're having a 50 percent off sale yes ladies 50 percent of yarn at Michaels so go get some. When I saw some ladies playing with the sasha yarn that makes this really cute spiral scarf I stopped to talk to them for a while about how I crochet that style yarn.
It was mentioned that their crochet and knitting classes are doing Warm Up America where they're making seven by seven inch squares in any fashion you want you can do granny you can do single crochet back and forth,  or even go fancy and you were really intricate 7 inch square and they're going to stitch them all together to make blankets and this Saturday to send off to Warm up America so if you want to join them you can either bring in a couple of 7 inch squares to drop off or bring in squares and some yarn and work with them I highly encourage you to help them out. This is the Michaels on Manchester in St Louis. I will be planning to drop off a couple of Granny Squaress and maybe some more intricate square Saturday if I have time I might sit and crochet with them as well helping them get all the square sewn together to make blankets.

As soon as I get to a computer or laptop I will update with pictures of their pamplet and an exact address. 

UPDATE 

11945 Manchester Rd
Des Peres, MO 63131-4502

Cat Toy for Charity

I hate having to take my older cat Dayton to the vet.  She is not feeling well and I knew a trip was nessary, and the vet has a lot of kittens in the office that still need re-homing/fostering.  I figured to try and ease my stress over the visit I would make some toys to donate to the kitties. 

Our younger cat Connie loves the toys so I am sure the kittens will get a kick out of them.

These three toys are simple to make if you  know how to crochet in the round, DC, work around a chain, work around a post.

Ball w/Tail
MR-6 [6]
Inc all [12]
Inc, sc [18]
SC all -3 rounds-   [18]
Dec, sc [12]
dec all [6]
Stuff with some catnip, and either poly fill or if you want a heavy toy poly pellets or rice
Pinching the 6 remaining stitches together slip stitch the first and last st's together and across.
Chain up from the last slst by 20 (more or less for longer shorter tail) +2chain, then put 3 DC stitches into each chain stitch all the way back up and slip into the start of the last round where you slst it closed and finish off  weaving the tail in.

Spirals
Chain 20 (more for a longer spiral) +2 for turning chain, and put 3 DC into each stitch of the chain back across.   Just like the tail in the Ball w/tail pattern.

Flower Teaser

Chain 4, DC into the first chain st (this is the stitch you will be working into for this round), chain 1 dc back into the same space as before, Repeat the Ch DC till you have 7 (counting your starting chain) post then chain and slst into the  starting chian in the 3 st. 

This should leave you with 'wheel' with 7 spokes.  This is the base frame work for the flower you will be working around the chain spaces for the peddles next.

Start by chaing up 1, then working in the chain space (working around the chain and not into the chain stitch) SC DC DC SC  repeat in each chain space. Slip Stitch into the first peddle.

If you want you can do the second round in a new color [if so FO with starting color and  in new color make a slip stitch around a post from back to front and chain 5] if not continue on--

Chain  3  slip stitch from the back of the flower around the post and make a slip  stitch. chain up 5,  DC around the next post from back to front chain 2 and repeat around ending in a chain 2 slst into the  3rd chain from the starting chain 5  This is a base frame for the 2nd round.

Peddle round - Ch 1 SC DC3 SC into first chain space and around.

You can keep working rounds for a more poofy flower, just increase the chains by 1 each frame round, and add Dc or even Triple croches into the peddle rounds.

I left a long chain tail on mine with a small loop so the flower could be hung in the cage from one of those elastic teaser toy hooks, or even used with one of the cat rods.



All of these patterns can be made with scrap yarn.   As always if something isn't clear let me know, I would love to see how yours turn out!