Friday, December 27, 2013

2014 is Bringing Changes!!!

Hello to all of our fans!  This year has been full of ups and downs, as well as a few moments of calmness and plenty of chaos for the Housewives.  We have been slacking at keeping up both the blog and our Facebook page.

Fortunately, because we have the best fans around, we are feeling rejuvenated and are ready for 2014.  Here are a few of the things you can look forward to in the upcoming year:

* a NEW website
          That's right, www.HookingHousewives.com is officially OUR domain and we will soon be releasing our website.  Stay tuned for upcoming details!!

* Facebook
          We'll be spending some time reorganizing and updating our albums to make navigating them easier for our fans.

* Check us out on Pinterest
          We have a TON of folder on our new Pinterest page - find us under Hooking Housewives.  Follow our boards for links to patterns, crochet tips & tutorials, as well as a full photo catalog of the patterns in our crochet library (still being updated but coming along nicely).

* Learn-to-Crochet with the Housewives
          For months we've had friends and family asking us to teach them how to crochet.  We know there are probably many of you out there who would like to learn as well.  We will be putting together some videos that you can view on your own from the comfort of home.

* LOTS more patterns
          In 2013,  we spent a ton of time working on the Memory Blanket Project for the Newtown community.  Now that it is in it's final stages (blankets will soon be shipped and delivered), we are able to start putting some of our ideas onto "paper" and making patterns available for you.  This will include both patterns for purchase as well as freebies periodically.

There are ideas flowing freely through our heads of many other things we'd like to accomplish in 2014 so stay tuned.  I'm hoping to keep the blog more active than before and would love your input - subscribe to receive email updates and special offers that will be available only to our blog followers from time to time.

If you have ideas of what you'd like to see from the Housewives, we'd love to hear them.  Comment here, message us on Facebook, or email us with your input!!!

Until next time...
Jamie

Monday, April 1, 2013

New Release - Ribbed Slouchy



Our Ribbed Slouchy pattern is now available!  The price of this pattern is $2.99, but for today only you can get it for only $1.99 - no coupon code needed and this is not an April Fool's Day joke.  :)  Pick up your copy in our Ravelry store.

If you don't crochet but want to purchase a completed hat, we have a one-day only introductory price of $10.00 including shipping.  Invoices must be paid via Paypal before the end of the day for the discount to apply.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Memory Blanket Project for Newtown - Update

Blanket 3 is complete!!!


Here are some close-ups so you can see each square in detail:









For those interested in knowing, the squares in this blanket were donated by the following people (in alphabetical order - some people have multiple squares on this particular blanket):
Amber Bright
Amy Frazier
Anita Mills
Ann McCoy
Anne Merrian
Annette Porfirio
Ashley Boudreau
Ashley Tucker
Audrey Odom
Betty Lewis
Betty Plemmons
Brandy Junge
Brett's Baby Barn
Carolyn Bonjovi
Cathy Gerding
Charity Kelley
Cheryl Speights
Crystal Corcoran
Debbie Stewart
Deborah Carey
Diane Calloway
Donna Jolley
Dusti Prioux
Emily Abreu
Free Chapel Knit & Crochet Group
Glynda Devore
Jacqui Wexler
Jamie Johnson
Jennifer Pottinger
Jessica Gomm
Jessica Hipps
Jodi Wiley
Jordana Pilmanis
Josephine Gigi
Joyce Buchanan
Judith Darby
Julie Macker
Judy Kissel
Kathy Phillips
Keary Uhlig
Lacey Velasquez
Laura Dukes
LaVeta Evans
Linda Chapman
Lois Devaney
Marcia Larson
Mary Belzer
MaryAnne Cook
Maureen Fast
Melissa Shankleton
Peggy Mackey
Raina Bruner
Rose Harris
Shannon Phillips
Shelly Finegan
Shelly Tucker
Silvana Penn
St. Mary's Crochet Group
Susan Paquette
Tatiana Lopez
Teresa Konopki
Terri Jouty
Timothy Birney
Yvonne Metzcus

Spiral Beanie Pattern - Now Available!

The Spiral Beanie Pattern is now available for purchase in our Ravelry Store.  It is $1.99 - or become a fan of our Facebook page and you can use the coupon code found there to get it for only $0.99 today!!!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

WIPs

For those of you who do any kind of craft, you likely know what the term "WIPs" refers to.  For those who don't, it stands for Works in Progress.  I have been horrible over the last 6 months at starting a project then getting sidetracked and forgetting all about it.

I finally got a shelving unit moved into our bedroom/my office-workspace today.  I worked to get my full skeins of yarn moved out of my plastic drawers and onto the shelves.  That meant I had a few empty drawers to fill up with other things.  The first drawer went straight to becoming storage for all of my WIPs.



As of today, I'm going to strive to resolve this problem.  I spent part of today finishing up two projects, and almost completed a third.  One is a Christmas gift so I was psyched to have one totally done.  :)  I've decided that I want to take at least a few hours out of one day each week to catch up on all of my WIPs... maybe I can get this drawer empty so I can fill it with some RTS items for our fans!!!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Memory Blanket Project for Newtown - Update

We have officially completed Blanket #2 by Hooking Housewives!!  This one was a slow-going progress.  With orders coming in regularly, Girl Scout Cookie Sales, and Kathy dealing with her daughter being hospitalized, it's been crazy trying to get anything finished the last few weeks.  We are back on track now and pushing through.


Here are some close-ups so you can see each square in detail:








For those interested in knowing, the squares in this blanket were donated by the following people (in alphabetical order - some people have multiple squares on this particular blanket):
Amanda Ledlow
Amber Bright
Amy Frazier
Anita Mills
Anne Merrian
Annette Porfirio
Ashley Boudreau
Ashley Tucker
Audrey Odom
Betty Lewis
Betty Plemmons
Brandy Junge
Brett's Baby Barn
Carolyn Bonjovi
Cathy Gerding
Cheryl Speights
Crystal Corcoran
Debbie Stewart
Debbie Tumillo
Deborah Carey
Debra Cook
Diane Calloway
Donna Jolley
Dusti Prioux
Free Chapel Knit & Crochet Group
Glynda Devore
Jacqui Wexler
Jessica Hipps
Jodi Wiley
Jordana Pilmanis
Josephine Gigi
Joyce Buchanan
Judith Darby
Judy Kissel
Kathy Phillips
Keary Uhlig
Lacy Velasquez
Laura Dukes
LaVeta Evans
Linda Chapman
Lois Devaney
Lorrinda Baia
Marcia Larson
Mary Belzer
MaryAnn Cook
Maureen Fast
Melissa Shankleton
Minerva Ruiz
Patricia Carter-Thompson
Peggy Mackey
Rose Harris
St. Mary's Crochet Group
Shannon Phillips
Shelly Finnegan
Shelly Tucker
Silvana Penn
Susan Paquette
Tatiana Lopez
Teresa Konopki
Terri Jouty
Timothy Birney
Vera Walker
Yvonne Metzcus

Carrot Top Set - Now Available

It's finally here!  After a much anticipated wait, the Carrot Top Set pattern is now available for purchase in our Ravelry store for $2.99.  And for those who so graciously view the news here on our blog, you can enter coupon code carrot and get $1.00 off the purchase price - but hurry because this code is good today only!




Friday, March 8, 2013

Weekly Update

Completed
I've been working hard to finish up all outstanding orders.  The Carrot Top Set was previewed on our Facebook page earlier this week, but for those who may have missed it, here ya go:


Two of our three testers have already returned photos of their work.  Aren't they absolutely adorable!?!



Thank you Tara and Amy - ya'll are awesome!  In addition to completing the set, I managed to write the pattern as I went.  The pattern will be available to purchase next week.

The one other major thing I finished this week was the dog sweaters.  I'm not a personal fan of this pattern, but it is loved by my husband's aunt.  The design of the body isn't bad - it's a mix of double crochets and post stitches, forming a really subtle but nice texture.



In Progress
I have a Slouchy Cowl Hat that I've been making for myself for a couple of weeks now.  The hat is finished, except for adding the pom-poms to the drawstring.  The biggest reason this project is still considered "In Progress" is because I decided to use the same pattern to create a set of fingerless gloves for myself.  I've got one glove done and the other is started.  I'll have a pic of the full set for you next week, but in the meantime, here's how the gloves are going to look:

The design is the same as the hat and I have to say that I LOVE IT!!!  It's by The Needle Nerd if anyone is interested.

Newtown, CT Memory Blanket Project
I'm happy to say that Blanket 2 is almost completed!  All of the horizontal joins are complete and about half of the vertical ones are done.  I would have finished it last night, but I've been dealing with a massive headache on top of this stupid stomach bug for the last 3 days.  :(  I'll do a separate update next week when it's finished!






Friday, March 1, 2013

Weekly Update


Wow!  I can't believe it's been a whole week already.  It's been so crazy in my home.  For those who don't know, in addition to being co-owner of Hooking Housewives, I'm also the Brownie Leader for one of our local Girl Scouts Troops.  That means we are working hard to wrap up cookie sales.  We have a lot of cookies left to still sell, which means that my Saturdays from last weekend through the next three are being spent working cookie booths in a last-ditch effort to sell what we have left.

In addition to that, on Sunday I went to a Pampered Chef event that a friend of mine held for her past hostesses.  We got to see some of the fun new items coming out for Spring/Summer - and I sealed the deal, after 8 months of debate, to become a Pampered Chef Consultant myself.  My son will be starting school Fall 2014 and I don't know that I want to go back to work full-time.  I love working, but the area where we live doesn't offer much for my field other than news and radio, which I really don't want to do.  I wouldn't mind working for a photo studio, but I want to be able to avoid putting my kids in after-school care or having to get a baby-sitter on the weekends.  Tony and I talked and agreed that I could give Pampered Chef a try.  I love the products and know a ton of people who feel the same.

And as if things aren't crazy enough, tomorrow is my daughter's birthday.  We have been having some major behavioral problems with her, so she won't be having a party this year.  However, we have a couple of surprises for her after the Cookie Booth tomorrow that she doesn't know about.  Like their mama, both of my kids LOVE Build-a-Bears.  And because their personal and each is unique, plus they are great quality, we don't mind splurging to let the kids get a new one every now and then.  It's become almost a tradition to do it for their birthdays.  Over the last month I have been fighting to keep Daisha from seeing any emails or catalogs from BAB.  The reason for that is because they released a Special Edition Thin Mint Bear for Girl Scouts.  She did the 100th Anniversary Bear after her birthday last year.  I wanted to add this one to her collection, but I did not want her to know it even existed.  My daughter is smart enough to know that if there's a GS Bear, Mama is going to get it for her.  I can't wait to see her face!  And her brother got her Brave on blu-ray.  We recently signed up for the Disney Movie Club so we chose this one to give her for her birthday.  She has been wanting to see it anyway.


Completed
I'd love to say that I have completed everything on my to-do list this week.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  I have managed to finish the blue dog sweater that I showed last week (except for the buttons, that is).      I'll post a photo when I have both sweaters completed.  And I managed to finish writing up the pattern for our Elephant Applique.  It is our first FREE pattern.


You can find information on how to download the pattern here.


In Progress
As I stated, I've only finished one of the dog sweaters, which means the other is in full swing.  I'm almost halfway done with the body and hope to finish it by Monday.  I have made quite a bit of progress on the Carrot Hat & Cocoon Set.  The hat was already finished last week except for the green frawns for the top - that hasn't been done yet.  The cocoon was proving to be a challenge - I had only worked one cocoon previously and it was from a pattern.  I did some research, looking for approximate measurements that would be appropriate for a baby ages 0-3 months.  After gathering my bearings, I'm more than halfway done with the cocoon, writing the pattern as I go.  


Those of you who know me may be shocked to hear this, but I've actually been working on something for myself.  Awhile back I picked up a skein of Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! in Songbird Stripe.  For months I've looked at this yarn in the store, knowing that I wanted to make something with it but not sure what.  I finally quit stalling and just bought it, still not knowing what I was going to do with it.  Then a couple of weeks ago, The Needle Nerd released her pattern for the Slouchy Cowl.  THAT'S IT!!!  I bought the pattern immediately and got to work.  It's been a slow process as I've tried not to put a lot of time into it while I had orders to work on, but it's coming along.  The purpose of the Slouchy Cowl is that it can act as either a slouchy hat or a cowl, both of which I love.  I am not a big hat person, so if you see me wearing them, it's normally something slouchy.


Newtown, CT Memory Blanket Project
I have been making some progress on the second of our blankets this week, though it's not the kind of progress that is going to be noticeable in photographs.  I have managed to sort almost all of the remaining squares, but more importantly, I finally finished edging the remaining squares for the current blanket.  I've added a couple more rows, but still have several to go.  I'm hoping to have the second blanket completed in time for next week's Weekly Update.

News
Last week I mentioned that we would be launching a Customer Referral Program.  Well, it's here!  Here's how it's going to work:
* Starting with orders placed on March 1st, for each item you purchase over $10.00, you will receive one of our business cards with a Referral Code on the back.  The code may only be used once and will expire one year from date of issue.
* You will want to give this card to a friend, family member, co-worker, or anyone else who is interested in purchasing an item from us.  (The code is only valid for new customers!)  When they place an order with us, they will need to give the Referral Code.  The code must be given at the time the order is placed to be valid.
* The friend placing the order will be given 5% off of their total purchase price (not including shipping).  In addition, you will automatically receive 10% off of your next order.  Your discount will be valid for one year from the date your friend orders - we'll contact you to let you know you have a discount waiting.

Okay, so that may sound confusing, but I promise that we'll work to make sure things run smoothly.  :)

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Elephant Applique - Free Pattern!!!


We have had a lot of requests for the pattern for our Elephant Applique.  And, because we hadn't released any free patterns yet, we decided this would be the first one.

There was a lot of back and forth regarding the layout of this pattern.  It has been written with photos for almost every step of the process.  We know that some people print their patterns, while others don't.  For those who do print, you may not want to use a ton of ink printing photos that you may or may not need.  After much deliberation, we are releasing two versions of this pattern.  The first is the standard version has the photos posted alongside the step it goes with.  The second version, listed as Printer Friendly, has all of the photos together at the end.  This means that you can choose to print those pages or not.

The pattern can be found in our Ravelry store.  When you click the link to download, you will see both versions available.  Have fun - if you make this pattern, we'd love to see your photos!!

Pattern tested by Angella Thiel
  
Pattern tested by Heather Kirchmeyer

Pattern tested by Stephanie Haugen


Pattern tested by Kimberly Anderson


Monday, February 25, 2013

Rockin' Out the Projects

Last month we told you about the Rockin' Out the Projects Christmas Challenge that we are joining in on.  It's being hosted by Heidi Yates, the brilliant designer behind Snappy Tots.  So far, I have several projects in the works - some, I will honestly say, have been started since before this project, but are being done to give as Christmas gifts for 2013.  A few may be early gifts - especially one specific item that I'm determined to finish within the next couple of weeks.


I may share a few finished photos here and there of the items for Christmas gifts... that doesn't mean that my family members (and friends, of course) will know what is for who.  ;)  

If you think you may be interested in joining the project, it's a great group of people who are cheering each other on so we can stay motivated to get all of our handmade Christmas gifts completed.  You can join the FB group here.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Weekly Update



Since this is our first Weekly Update, this one is going to have a bunch of fun photos of projects we haven't yet posted on our Facebook page.  Before we get started, let me explain the purpose of the Weekly Update.  One thing we will use this blog each week to give you a sneak peek items we're working on (some may be for orders and some may just be new creations - and some may be both).  We'll also post photos of newly finished items here first... photos will no longer be posted on Facebook until Mondays.  Something else we want to use this update for is to give you information regarding upcoming events, changes, or to get your input or suggestions.  And, because many of you have been following our work on the Newtown Memory Blanket Project, we'll give updates to that here as well - at least until we're finished!  Now, on to the fun...

Completed
These aren't just items we've created over the last week, but they are all items that we haven't yet posted on our Facebook page.  Those who follow our blog will get the first look into these new creations:

Alabama Logo Beanie - This was a custom creation for a friend who wanted it to give her husband.  I used to do plastic canvas crafts when I was younger, but this was my first attempt since elementary school.  I have to admit that creating this logo was a little more time consuming than I expected, but it was definitely worth it in the end!



Fireman Hat - This isn't a new creation, though the original version was only available in baby sizes.  We now have a version that is available in all sizes, from baby to adult, and we will fully customize the front to say whatever you would like (as long as we can make it fit).


Strawberry Beanies - As some of you know, Kathy's middle daughter is pregnant with twins.  At the beginning of the month we hosted her baby shower.  A couple of days beforehand, the youngest daughter picked out the most adorable outfits for her nieces from Gymboree.

 

I whipped these up by the next afternoon - and it was a custom design.  Despite all of the patterns we have for berry hats, I didn't feel that the top "stem" was right for any of them.  I did make notes as I went and hope to write this pattern soon.


 Sugar 'n Spice Hats - This was a pattern I bought specifically with the Twinkies (that's what we all the twins that Mallory is having) in mind.  It was created by April Hudson of Sew Much Love and can be purchased in her shops on Etsy, Craftsy, or Ravelry if you're interested.




Because I had made the hats identical, I wanted Mallory and her husband to be able to distinguish between whose hat is whose.  Since I have been playing around with polymer clay to start creating some of our own buttons, Kathy and I came up with the idea of using the girls' first initials to make large buttons.  The L is for Lily's hat and the E is for Ella's.



In Progress
It's been a busy few days here at Hooking Housewives. We are currently working on 2 dog sweaters, a newborn carrot hat/cocoon set (no pictures yet), a birthday cake hat (based on the Snappy Tots pattern for the Snappilicious Birthday Cake Hat).

 


I also have several Christmas gifts in progress - any sneak peeks of those will be a part of our blog on the 24th of each month, though you won't see the full finished products until after the Christmas holidays.  :(  Yes, I know that's many months away still.  LOL


Newtown, CT Memory Blanket Project

While Kathy is working hard to get boxes of squares edged for me to assemble, I'm still working on sorting the last of the squares we have received.  In the meantime, I have started and am almost halfway complete with assembly on our second blanket.

 


As you can see, there are still quite a few squares in this box that need to be added - some of which still need to be edged due to being added to the box after Kathy had already edged.


Information for Our Fans

A friend of ours gave me a satin robe that is so pretty.  She let me know ahead of time that it had a couple of places that need stitched up, which wasn't a problem.  Unfortunately, because of it being satin, one of the spots is too far gone for stitching.  Rather than trashing it, I am feeling compelled to do something fun with it. I've considered making a few bonnets and using it as the trim, but I want to ask for your suggestions before I make any decisions.  Here's what the material looks like:

One last thing that we want to tell you this week... we finally got our business cards in!  

We kept them simple for our first set, but are very excited about them!  These cards will start being shipped with every order.  At some point we will be starting a customer referral program that will earn you credit toward our items with every customer you refer to us who purchases something.  There will be more information coming in regards to the referral program soon!