The preview for the next issue of Crochet Today magazine is up and WOW! There’s a whole bunch of stuff that makes my fingers itch! Super, super cute and totally wearable stuff. There’s some really elegant and heirloom quality bridal stuff, along with  brightly colored sweaters (hooray for Stitch Nation yarn!), a zoo of cute animals and gifts perfect for a baby shower. I really feel like crochet has come a long way in the past few years, and I think/hope more people are tuning into it now. Although I work at a very crochet friendly yarn shop, I do occasionally have to hear people wonder why anyone would crochet such and such, and I try my best to educate them about how, yes, there are great crochet patterns available now, and yes, you can crochet that. (Not to totally hijack my own post, but let me share my plan of attack for those of you who might also work in or just frequent yarn shops. I place pretty crocheted items all around. I smile and act nice when people say they don’t/can’t/won’t crochet, and then when they compliment the crocheted things, I mention that they are crocheted. And that maybe they do want to learn after all, so they could make the pretty crocheted things–and because knit and crochet compliment each other so well. So far,  my evil plan seems to be working! Muwahahahhaha!)

Anyway, I have two contributions to this issue, which I think I crocheted at lightning speed. First is this adorable (if I do say so myself) Sunshine Baby Dress (ravelry link). Paul and I were calling it the “Yellow Rose of Texas” baby dress, because we had recently moved back to TX when I designed the dress, but I guess Texas pride might not translate nationally? Anyway, I was really happy with the way this worked up and I think it would be really lovely in  cotton yarn, too.

My second design is the Blooming Sun Hat (ravelry link). I love the surprise lace flower at the crown–can you tell that lace+ hat= Linda made? I love making hats! It’s also quite cute from the front, and blocks the sun while still allowing the  light to shine through, perfect for those romantic picnic-in-the-field dates we all go on in real life. Right?

I love to design hats because I’ve made so many of them, which means I have no fear about playing around with different elements to create new ones. In fact, I have about twenty hat designs in my head just waiting to get out, if only I can finish the already slated projects first. Anyway, this one is a fun and quick project to crochet, and one that I hope to  make again at some point.

The issue is chock full of goodness (I mean  holy cow, check out this Wedding Rings Blanket, Bridal Headband, Stripey Spring Cardi and Happy Day Mobile!!). I swear, some issues are so good that I want to buy two copies! Crochet Today May/June 2010 will be on newsstands April 6th.

Photo Credit: Rose Callahan