Crocheting in Red, White, and Blue

The Fourth of July makes me playful.  With family time and outdoor celebrations, I look forward to picnics, hikes, games, and fun.  Before I began my holiday preparations in earnest, I decided to experiment with the patriotic colors of red, white, and blue,  Some of my projects are the tried and true hats, headbands, and scrubbies featured in previous posts. I even created an All-American Lovey for the occasion.

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For a smaller project, I translated the triangle scarf pattern into a seasonal granny stitch bandana mini-scarf that can be worn on the head or around the neck.  See Patriotic Hair Bandanas at breannstitchery.com.

My signature flowers decorate a girl's purse.  I crocheted a rectangle 8 1/2" x 14" in a dark blue heavy worsted with an H hook to give it substance.  Then I folded the piece together and SC around down from the top of one side, across the bottom, and up the last side.  The flap was made with a cluster stitch to form a triangle with a loop for a button closure.The strap was two strands of chained together.  Possibilities are endless and fun.  The pieces can be adapted to any season or holiday and color scheme. I did not work from a pattern and made up the purse as I went along.  Now that I like the results, I am going to work out the specific directions.

With the summer heat, we want to keep hydrated.  Slip this button closed wave stitch water bottle carrier on to your purse strap.  You can get a free down load from Ravelry for Uncle Same Bottle Cozy.  This little project helped me to learn the wave stitch.  I had attempted this technique many times before, but was unsuccessful.  The wave or ripple is supposed to be an easy pattern, but I always came up with the wrong number of stitches.  This time things clicked, and I am quite proud of my water bottle carrier.  Now I plan to try other ripple or wave patterns that I can prepare for my fall and winter collections.

Keeping with the holiday spirit, I added cases for my cell phone and sun glasses.  The cell phone case was crocheted in the round from a 30 stitch single crochet.  After several inches I switched to a front post double crochet in a contrasting color for the trim.  A loop was added for a button closure.  The pattern came from ALLFREECROCHET.  Search for The Perfect Phone Case. The sun glass case was made form 4 small granny squares.

If you want to keep track of your keys,  try this red, white , and blue stars and stripes lariat. I learned to make the mini stars in doing this project.  See:  www.repeatcrafterme.com/2014/06/crochet-stars-and-stripes-lanyard.html.

I plan to hand out my Scrubbies as a favor to guests who come to our family celebration.  These Scrubbies are a favorite for cleaning dishes and nonstick pots and pans.  See my previous post on Scrubby Art for directions.

 My final piece in the red, white, and blue collection was a patriotic bib.  My granddaughter is enjoying solid food now, and comes up with quite a bit of saliva as she teethes.  Keeping her clean and cute was my goal.  .  The bib was made with a worsted weight cotton thread.  My grandson adores his little cousin.

There are so many other projects to try, but time has expired, and my guests are due to arrive this afternoon. A garland necklace, patriotic flip flops, bows, bracelets, and coasters will have to wait for another season.  How do you celebrate with red, white, and blue in crochet.  Please leave your thoughts and photos on the comments page or in my FB postings.