Did you notice something missing from that picture?  Yep, Miss Lydia has been fired from her supermodel job.  It’s just too hard to get good pictures of someone who wants to crawl away, so I got myself a little hat stand for taking pictures =)

I am in the process of making a boy hat for summer.  My son wants me to make a dragon hat, but I’m not thinking that’s happening any time soon!

I also posted this the other day and forgot to post about it:

Something fun to match the owl hat!  What do you think?  Should I make more bibs to match the other hats?

(Both items can be found here)

…Holly!  Congratulations, I’ve sent you an email =)  Thank you to everyone that entered!  If you didn’t win, stick around because I plan on doing more giveaways.  Also, thanks to all of you who voted, I’ve passed the first round of approval with Heartsy, so that means you may have the opportunity to get at least 50% off!

You’ve gotta admit, that’s one cute little girl!  Oh, and the hat is pretty cute too  Bee hats are now available at my shop.

To help celebrate the reopening of my Etsy shop, I’ve decided to do a giveaway!  I’m giving away one custom hat, in the winner’s choice of style, color and size!   Here’s how to enter:

*Please leave a comment for each entry.  If the action is worth 3 entries, leave 3 separate comments.

• Visit my Etsy store and tell me which hat you would choose. (1 entry)
• Follow Beansprout Creations publicly on Google Friend Connect (1 entry, located in right sidebar)
• Follow Beansprout Creations on Twitter (1 entry)
• Tweet about this giveaway (once per day for 1 entry each), making sure to link back to this post and tagging @beansproutcreat.  Or you can use this: #Win a custom baby hat from @BeansproutCreat! Ends 4/18 http://bit.ly/gjsDXM #giveaway. Please leave the URL to your tweet in your comment.
• Subscribe to Beansprout Creations via RSS or email (2 entries)
• “Like” Beansprout Creations on Facebook (2 entries)
• Place one of my buttons on your blog’s sidebar (button code is in right sidebar, leave the URL in your comment, 3 entries)
• Blog about this giveaway, linking back to this specific post (leave the URL in your comment, 5 entries)

Contest ends April 18, winner will be contacted by email.  Open to US only.

If you’ve ever looked at a crochet pattern, you’ve probably seen the jumble of seemingly random letters that somehow instruct you on what to do.  There are some terms and stitches that are commonly abbreviated to help streamline a pattern, keeping it easy to read.  Here is a list of the most commonly used abbreviations (tutorials will be coming soon!):

Stitches:

• bpdc – back post double crochet
• dc – double crochet
• dtr – double treble/triple crochet
• fpdc – front post double crochet
• fpsc – front post single crochet
• hdc – half double crochet
• inc – increase
• rsc – reverse single crochet
• sc – single crochet
• sc2tog – single crochet 2 together
• sc3tog – single crochet 3 together
• sl st – slip stitch
• tc – treble/triple crochet

Looking over this list can be a bit overwhelming!  However, (as you can probably see from most of the titles) these stitches are all just variants of 3 basic stitches: single, double or treble/triple crochet.

Here are a list of terms that are commonly used in patterns, along with an example of how they might be used or an explaination.

Terms:

• approx – approximately (“sc until length reaches approx 3 inches“)
• beg – begining (“beg of previous row“)
• bet – between (“sc bet markers”)
• CC – contrasting color (“switch to cc“)
• cont – continue/continuing (“cont to end of row“)
• est – established (“cont in est pattern“)
• foll – follow (“foll est pattern“)
• pat – pattern (“foll est pat”)
• pm – place marker (“sc, pm, sc“)
• rem – remaining (sc rem stitches)
• rep – repeat (rep row 1)
• rnd – round (rnd 1: sc around)
• RS – right side (this refers to the side that will be facing out or visible)
• tbl – through back loop (“sc in tbl only“)
• tfl – through front loop (“sc in tfl only“)
• tog – together (sc 2 tog)
• WS – wrong side ( refers to the side that will be hidden)

This is part 3 of the series “Crochet 101″.  You can catch up with these:

The Tools: A tutorial on crochet hooks and yarn

How to Make a Slipknot (a video tutorial)

How to Make a Chain (a video tutorial)

Two video tutorials in one day…aren’t you lucky  Let me tell you though, I felt like such a nerd talking to myself!  But I suffered through it and now you have a tutorial on how to make a chain:

This is part 3 of the series “Crochet 101″.  You can catch up with these:

The Tools: A tutorial on crochet hooks and yarn

How to Make a Slipknot (a video tutorial)