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Early Spring Paintings

Here are a few paintings from the studio. Painting has sparked joy over the past year. Here are a few of the latest paintings.

These vary in size but they closely resemble each other. I am painting more every day and you can see them on Instagram in various videos showing my painting process. The videos are all time lapse and show progress.

Life has been busy and we have had the usual challenges in life that happen. Our time is filled with the simple pleasures of family, food and friendship.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Feel free to pm me if you would like more information about the paintings.

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Introducing the Cotton Stripe Pillow

It’s about time for you to see the newest Chocolate Dog Studio crochet pattern: The Cotton Stripe Pillow. It finally took a respite time and incredible boredom for the next pattern to be born. No one said pattern writing was easy, but this is an incredibly easy pillow cover to crochet. There aren’t any fancy stitches or counting that you have to do after the foundation chain. Binge watch your favorite show and create this beautiful home accent.

Cotton Stripe Pillow
A beautiful home accent created with cotton yarn left from the cotton waves baby blanket.

The Cotton Stripe Pillow Pattern Release

The Cotton Stripe Pillow release happens today! Today is your day as I will refund the first five buyers of The Cotton Stripe Pillow pattern if you send me any Etsy message or leave the message at the end of the purchase receipt. This offer does have a time limit of the next five days, 9/16/2022 – 9/21/2022.

You can find the cotton stripe pillow in my Etsy shop. You can shop Here.

There is another new pattern coming out next week. The White Serape Stripe. I can’t wait it is a fun calmer version of The Serape Stripe which you can see here. It has taken even longer for this pattern to come to the shop.

Painting

Painting has been happening nearly every day. It is such a relaxing thing for me to do with no calls or preconceived ideas. I am just wandering where ever my brush takes me. Painting and crochet don’t seem to be good partners so it’s either one or the other these days.

As you can see a wide variety of art projects from drawing to abstract painting with a little mixed media also. Mixed media seems to be the biggest area of art these days.

Life

If you don’t like reading about life and how things are going feel free to skip this part. We are working on what we call the kids bathroom. Others would call it the hall bath except we really don’t have a hall or at least it’s really short. It is reaching a logical stopping point. Which we did in this case. At least we need to call in someone that knows more to give us advice.

I was remembering back this week about a story from a friend’s social media post about weird things that have happened with animals. We have had a number of weird things but this one is funny to me even now.

We were living in a new house and the living room felt really empty as Hubs was working late and abnormally quiet and all four kids under 9 were in bed. I was alone after a really long day unpacking. Have you ever noticed how noisy a quiet house can be.

I was sitting and enjoying the quiet, listening to the night noises when I hear a thump on the back of the recliner. I could feel it too, I listened and didn’t hear anything else. Did I imagine it?

Just as my heart was returning to normal it happened again.

The thumps were un-nerving.

I wait and just as I decide it was my imagination when it happens twice this time, THUMP, Thump.

I gather my wits and courage, give myself a stern talking to about how the sound was just my imagination and I peek around the edge of the chair, because I am too scared stand up – there it is a little green tree frog.

Whew, I was so relieved….. Just a little frog. We did the catch and release into the back yard.

Why do our minds always run off to the scariest thing We can think of? Surely I am not the only one has weird things happen.

Talk to you later,

Karen Marie

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Lessons in Endurance and Change

The last 16 months have been lessons in endurance and change. No one really likes change, it throws us off balance and gives us a chance to re-examine all our habits.

New

There is a new interest in this business and it is reflected in the name changes you see now or later. After years of playing around with patterns, paint and textiles. I have found the one thing that lights up my work day. How this translates out into daily life we are not quite sure. Walking one step forward at a time and changing some habits requires me to stretch and change.

It has been difficult and at the same time very familiar. Tinkering around with various art forms all my life, add in sewing, color and an Interior design degree and this just works extremely well.

It is called surface pattern design or even textile design, but more about that later.

Crochet

The fact that the latest pattern that I have written had the yarn discontinued before the pattern was released, has kept me from releasing it to you. I went ahead and wrote it anyway. You can crochet this baby blanket out of any yarn you choose. Ta Da!! Naomi’s blanket is now available on Etsy and soon to be available here in the shop.

Here it is in all it’s glory with Noami cuddled up inside the blanket. You can crochet this blanket in any yarn you choose and make it truly personalized. It is beautiful and fun, while being completely washable.

Naomi’s blanket

Beautiful isn’t she and the blanket is too! Originally crocheted in Lionbrand Crayola yarn cakes it will be so easy to crochet in any yarn from your favorite yarn store. Providing they have a decent range of colors. The complete color list is available in the pattern.

6 months have sped by with not much crocheting happening here at the studio. I think I needed a vacation. Finally, the yarn has come back out and a couple of WIPs have been finished and just wait on writing to make it to pattern mode. One is just a show and tell and hopefully it will be finished sooner rather than later.

Life

Life has been busy here. The summer garden has had an over abundance of rain which is great for the cabbages and kale but not so great for the tomatoes. They have an overabundance of leaves and not many flowers yet. It has been too cool. Thankfully this year there are no home improvement projects on the horizon. So, we can just enjoy the grandkids, the summer and the garden. Things are still changing and I am still enduring the changes. Hopefully, a bit more gracefully than I did last year. May your summer be full of fun and family.

Talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. Naomi’s blanket is an intermediate level pattern and I am not offering tech support at all. It can take literally hours of email and writing to help you and my time is becoming more and more precious. As I am a one person business, I have had to discontinue tech support on the patterns.

P.S.S I have some de-stash yarn in the Etsy shop. I have an overabundance in the studio and it’s keeping me overwhelmed. My de-stash is your new project. There is quite a bit of Stylecraft Special DK in the Etsy shop and many of the colors are also used in the patterns. Check back often as I dig deep into my yarn stash.

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Warning: Curve Ahead

Warning: curve ahead. I remember learning to drive on small country roads and every once in a while there would be a right or a left arrow indicating that the road would curve and I needed to be ready. Wouldn’t it be nice if life gave us a warning: curve ahead sign?

This is one of those times and it has been gradual and yet at the same time quite abrupt. I’ve been exploring my options the past several years and taking my time in order to make good decisions. I’m now faced with making my decisions more public. Things are changing here and while I will always love crocheting and it has been good to me Chocolate Dog Studio is changing it’s name to Chocolate Dog Studio by Grid and Bloom. The blog won’t be simply about crochet anymore as I am heading in a new direction. Arthritis has forced my hand. I simply can’t spend hours crocheting like I have in the past and I find myself interested in other things these days.

While changes are exciting it can also be overwhelming, so here I am fighting the overwhelm. It is time for the blog to have an overhaul and some changes need to happen here and in the studio shop. It’s pretty exciting and I will try to remember to come back and update you on where everything stands. Please be patient as these updates take time and can cause disruptions in how things usually work.

I’m leaving you with a few photo hints that might give you an idea of where things are headed.

Now that I’ve chosen them, I’m not sure if they’ll help you or frustrate you. Have fun guessing and if you reach the end of your rope you can always head over to instagram to check out the most recent posts there.

This is my warning: curve ahead!

Talk to you later,

Karen

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The Design Process and a Rewrite

I don’t normally talk about my design process. It just seems to happen like getting out of bed or making a sandwich. The design process just happens. The year has been a difficult year to be creative. Not difficult to be creative in, or difficult to feel creative but difficult to be creative.

A great portion of creativity, for me at least, comes from a place of security. It has been anything but a secure year between covid, riots, politics, job uncertainties, name bullying, lockdowns and quarantines. Rather than dwell on all that the year has covered which is not anything that you probably haven’t experienced yourself and that is all that I am going to say about it. It has been difficult to be creative.

Most of the people living in our house are creatives in one way or another. My husband writes computer code for a living, which believe it or not takes some creativity. Among the kids we have another programmer, a graphic artist, a hairstylist, and an aerospace engineer (who in her own right is a creative, but probably not with her work.) We all have our own design process.

The Design Process

Here is my design process. There are better ways, different paths to take but for me this is how it works.

1. Have an idea

This seems so simple. Have an idea. This is the part that has been a struggle the past couple of years. How simple could it get? The ideas have just not been there.

2. Percolate these ideas.

This is simply turning the idea around in your head while you think of other things. What would be the best way to solve this. How can you make it happen? What materials would you use? Do you need to write or draw somethings out before you start. Just let the idea sit in your mind for a while. It may take several months, days or several years. The Temperature Afghan sat in my mind for about three years before it even reached a yarn phase. One of the baby blankets that is ready for release took 3 weeks from the first idea to writing the pattern.

3. Play with the idea

Occasionally the idea needs refinement and then yarn and a hook, or paper and pencil come out. Drawing the idea out and making sure that it can really happen. Coloring little squares to represent granny squares or doing the math to see if it is possible.

4. Prototype the idea

Here I just make several samples to see which one I like best. I may skip this step altogether or even pack up this idea for years. The chevron blanket above started as a scrap blanket and ended as a prototype. You can see the finished product in the photos at the bottom.

5. Create the project

Simply create it, sit down and crochet. Crochet and write down each step as you finish it. Frog it and try again, and again until it’s right. I write down yarn amount and brands, colors and stitches. Then I write down the obvious steps that were missed the first time until it is clear enough for someone else to crochet. Simply do the work.

6. Write the pattern

This step is to redo the work. Start over, take the photos and do the little steps that were neglected when the pattern was being created. Crochet that little circle over and over again to make sure that the stitch count comes out right. This is a struggle for me sometimes for years. Put the pattern into the finished format and add in any steps that were missed in the creating process. This can take forever or no time at all.

7. Rewrite the pattern

After several years you go back and check the writing and then cringe. It’s time for a rewrite and since the photos weren’t as good as you take now. It’s a whole new crochet project from the ground up. This time you can skip a couple of steps and just jump right into crocheting it. The rewrite of the Chevron stripe is ready, complete with a color listing in case you want to create the blanket shown below.

What’s New

There is a new Serape Stripe in the works and it is looking great though it is in the middle of the long boring part so it may be awhile. Though the enthusiasm seems to be keeping it on the top of the project stack.

There is also a secret project that I am very excited about and can’t wait to show you. It will be beautiful and in the more calm shades for you that love softer colors.

December Here at Home

If you want to skip this, you can, but it’s a little funny. Life is pretty strange here. It’s our life, weird but it’s real and it seems to be us. The two college kids are home for the holidays and Christmas gifts keep showing up in cardboard boxes. We read all labels carefully to make sure we don’t open anyone else’s gifts. Mine keep being a little odd as I try to judge from the store’s online pages and keep being seriously disappointed.

1/2 of the Christmas tree ornaments are missing. I organized all the ornaments last year and can’t remember where they are now. We moved the ornament boxes at least three times in the past year.

The baby’s gift was a bunny that we all agreed looked like it belonged in a horror movie. It plays music and moves when you wind it up. The bunny gets a little zombie-ish and scary when it starts winding down. I didn’t realize that it had a music box and I don’t think that it said that in the description. I returned it this week and found a cute unicorn instead.

Take care and Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

Karen Marie

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The Temperature Afghan and Counting my Blessings

It is the season for counting my blessings and the Temperature Afghan. It helped me finish an albatross of a project that has been sitting around cluttering my mind and the workbasket. One of my blessings recently has been a broken toe. Broken or sprained, it is hard to tell with small bones. Either one, it has been a huge blessing. Isn’t that odd. It forced a change in our Thanksgiving routine, to sit down and ask for help, and brought about teamwork and fun. My other blessings were and are more conventional; my husband, the kids, the grandkids, new grandbaby, family, home, jobs, faith and health. The broken toe seems to stand out as a good thing that has happened this Fall.

Forced Family Time

Forcing us to ask for help with cooking, cleaning and dishes after Thanksgiving. Even the grandkids got in on the helping. It was wonderful. Many times it feels like the two of us against a huge amount of dishes and cooking. It’s not that they won’t help, it’s that we didn’t ask for the help. Spending time together doing dishes and then just talking is great.

Forced Sitting

Forcing me to sit down and finally finish two crochet blankets that have been hanging around forever. Yay for breaking a toe. Boring me enough to sit and to crochet the borders on these two afghans; the Temperature afghan and the scrap chevron. Finally, they are finished and I am celebrating.

Writing the Pattern for the Temperature Afghan

Forcing me to sit down and finally write the pattern for you. Which patterns do you think are being released in the next couple of weeks? Is it the Sunshine Hat pattern? Well, no it isn’t. It is still on the list. Reaching that goal that was set last Spring to finish three new patterns before the end of the year. Here is the first: The Temperature blanket pattern. 3 years in the works and ready for the year 2020. You too can crochet a temperature blanket.

It was only lacking the edging which made it a quick finish. I just needed to sit down and do it. Now this blanket isn’t a whole year of crocheting only nine months but it is exactly the length I want it to be. This blanket finishes ends in August. However, the pattern tells you how to crochet yours all the way to December 31. Is it awful that I didn’t finish it? No, it became a huge roadblock and was just slowing all my other crocheting down. Besides that new Grandbaby was born in August 2020 and what with Covid and quarantining, I’ve been lucky to finish anything.

Here is the pattern on Etsy. Here’s the pattern in the shop!

More Crochet on the Horizon

I seem to have found my crochet mojo again since I declared it complete. It might just be the much cooler weather that makes it pleasant to be underneath a big crochet blanket. It might be a blending of both. The two other patterns are being released slowly over the next month.

There is also a rewrite of the favorite chevron afghan. A complete color listing and a total yarn weight so you can see if you have enough yarn to create it as a scrap afghan.

Check back soon to see what else will be coming over the next few weeks.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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The Newest Pattern: Cotton Waves Crochet

Today we look at the newest blanket Cotton Waves Crochet Baby Blanket. I love the cotton yarn which is especially nice to crochet with in the summer heat. I will show you my newest painted pieces and there is a quick blurb about what Mercerization is and why it’s important for cotton yarn.

Yarn Cakes and Projects

I’ve been making yarn cakes with the yarn winder. As my daughter says its mesmerizing to watch especially the yarn cake style yarns. The cake changes from one color to another as you turn the handle. It’s the end of several 4 or 5 projects and time to gather all the partial skeins and put them away. The yarn box erupted all over the living room and a hostile takeover of yarn and crochet books was happening. There is a very important party next week. I hardly ever have parties but this is for family and in honor of our newest grandbaby. She is soon to maker her arrival in the coming weeks and we might get to see her if this virus settles down.

In the process of winding all the yarn into cakes I’ve come across several crochet blankets in process and my goal for the rest of the year is to finish what I start. It will be nice to finish these afghans and put them in the shop. Hopefully they are finished sooner rather than later. How many blankets are in line. It reads like a who’s who of blanket designs; a ripple, a hexagon, 2 stitch samplers, a scrap granny square blanket, 2 cotton baby blankets, a linen stitch afghan, and a corner to corner. That is more blankets started than I thought there were. If you add the other little projects it is quite a list of at least 14 projects. I need to get this list finished.

Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links meaning that at no cost to you if you click through and purchase I will earn a commission.

Cotton Waves Crochet Baby Blanket

Here is one of the first patterns I’ve written in a long time. This new baby blanket pattern is now available. It uses Lion Brand 24/7 cotton exclusively. It is a wonderful mercerized cotton yarn

What is mercerized you ask?

Mercerized cotton threads have a beautiful luster. A. Mercerizing is a process of treating cotton thread (and fabric) in a caustic solution under tension, which causes the fibers to swell. This process allows dye to better penetrate the fibers, thereby increasing the luster while also strengthening the thread” according to www.superiorthreads.com

The colors in this new baby afghan are incredible and they should stay that way due to the mercerization.

Gorgeous colors and vibrant stripes finish out this beautiful striped baby blanket. The cotton will wash softer and softer just like your favorite jeans while the colors retain their vibrancy.

The baby blanket is 36″ long x 30 1/2″ wide.

You can find the pattern here on Etsy and here in the shop.

Painting

The week has been long and not much painting has happened except for plain solid colors. These metal bar stools with nice wood seats were on the sidewalk at River CIty Trading Post recently. Aren’t they perfect. Grey and red are one of my favorite color combinations.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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A Planning Week; Time to Decide What’s Next

It’s been a planning week here at the Studio. A week filled with stats, numbers, budgets, blogging, planning and lists. There are long lists of yarn, supplies, work to be done and even a list to put us back into some routines. Routines like who has which day for laundry, what we’re having for dinner when, how we’re going to keep the house clean. It’s summer and the summer routine has been upset by home repairs and some much needed painting. Who am I kidding, our routine has been off track since January and it’s been really overwhelming me.

Crocheting What’s Next

A Planning Week includes a look back at these 2 beautiful  striped custom scarves I've finished.

The scarves above look beautiful, even though there are ends to weave in. They were a custom job and are already in their new home. I’ve been crocheting on some new jobs and attempting to write a couple of new patterns during all the chaos. As you can see the scarves were some older patterns that I have crocheted longer and I will be adapting the patterns to allow you to create them either short or close to 6′ long. The patterns above are the Denver Scarf and The Sunshine Scarf. I still enjoy working on them and it was really a lovely way to spend several afternoons. The colors just flow. The beauty and calming repetitive work was really needed at the time. You can find the The Sunshine scarf and the Denver Scarf patterns here in the scarf section of the shop.

Deciding how long it will take to finish the blue striped crochet blanket is a part of a planning week.

Deciding What’s Next in New Patterns

A planning week also includes planning these new patterns for the shop. The pretty blue afghan above is a new afghan that I’ve started. It will be finished by September if all goes according to plans. I just realized that there are 4 crochet blankets started right now and I need to finish the one furthest along first. So this beauty will have to rest while I work on the others. It’s turning out quite nice as well and the colors are interesting.

There is also a couple of baby afghans that I need to write the patterns for. It all just takes time. Somehow the home repairs have just absorbed all my time. I have been worrying and it keeps me from thinking logically enough to shoot the process photos while I work. The baby blankets are now finished and I need to go back and write the patterns. It should be a quick job once I get started.

Planning Some New Painting

Planning which new projects to start and which need to sell is also filling my time. I have been painting canvases more than usual and not much of it is terribly exciting. When you start a new hobby your first few projects just aren’t that great! It feels like I am painting the same canvases over and over again.

When the photos are all put together in this gallery though, there has been more work done than I thought there was. The Blessing piano bench has just sold, as has the bench in the middle top photo. The little round table and the painted swirl table are still available while the quilt box is also sold. It is pretty exciting when I look at it this way!

Talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. You can always find my patterns at www.chocolatedogstudio/Etsy.com as well as here on the website. The painted furniture is starting to show up in the Etsy shop. Let me know if you see a piece you want to purchase. They are for sale.

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The 2019 Catalog

The 2019 Catalog is full of painted furniture and art and they are all on sale and deeply discounted. The painting is moving in different directions for 2020. Furniture painting is taking a new turn. I’m ready to begin painting the new collection. While I have loved painting all the bright colors it is time for a new twist on the furniture. Look for more muted shades in coming pieces. The bright colorful furniture from last season is in the catalog at drastically reduced prices for hand painted pieces. It’s time for you to pick your piece and bring them home. You can find them here. http://bit.ly/2vxM6iF

Yarn

The yarn I ordered the middle of January finally came in. I am so excited. It is planned for so many things, but mostly baby blankets.

The 2019 Catalog

I must be crazy but there is a new Grandbaby on the way and I’m rewriting a few patterns using more commonly available yarn brands. Three yarn orders in less than a month my stash is overflowing. I already have the pattern for the baby blankets designed so it is just the crocheting that is waiting. Crocheting better start filling my evenings again or I will need to do some serious stash busting! I’m also working on transposing my patterns to yarn more readily available in the U.S.

Furniture

Several furniture pieces have sold this week and I am beyond pleased. The 2019 Catalog is on sale and furniture is moving quickly. So pick the piece you love and let me know via facebook.

The two denim chairs are finding a new home and I know that they will be greatly appreciated. The giant pub table and 4 pub chairs are also sold. I’m so pleased.

This small dresser is next on the list of furniture to be painted and it is going to look so good. Can’t you see it in the entry with a very large mirror above it. Think about all the storage inside for winter gloves and hats. It will be a perfect piece in a perfect size! This dresser is the perfect start to the 2020 furniture range.

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Yarn and the Foot Stool

It’s been a strange week with lots of yarn and the foot stool. It has been hard adjusting to being back to the daily routine. Ours changed drastically when we went from having 5-7 people here for a good portion of December and then about 3 days of 14 people and at least 4 days of 10. It has been a month since everyone went back to their regular schedules and it’s nice to be back to work. I love having family in, even with the stress of added people.

Yarn

This yarn…. oh this yarn is deliciously soft. I have used one like it before but this surpasses what was used last time. Velvety soft, it is so easy to crochet. The more I work with it the more I like it. It is called Chunky Velvet by Loops and Threads Yarn.

Yarn and the Foot Stool

You can probably tell that I bought some yarn recently! It has been months since any new yarn made its way to the studio. This stuff is wonderful. It is a new pattern just for you. It’s in the works and not finished yet but it is coming soon.

In fact, several new patterns are coming soon. Several crochet pillow patterns and then some other smaller projects. I am working on a new afghan pattern but afghans just take time and time is in short supply.

The Footstool

Yes, the paints were out in the studio! This footstool is being painted and I am checking into waterproof coatings for porch furniture. I’ve been checking with my experts and finding out what the perfect finish should be before I start.

Yarn and the Foot Stool

Taking a month off in the studio is a great idea but really hard to implement. So much peace and quiet comes from being in the studio up to my elbows in painting. I prefer it so much to any of the other projects that I have been working on.

Yes, yarn and the footstool have been keeping me busy, but I have to admit that it seems as if life is too crazy to spend time in here working. Also the last several days the weather has been beautiful and it is keeping me out of the studio. We did sort all the Christmas decorations and get them away. Normal is good.

Talk to you later,

Karen