NatCroMo 2016, March 20: Darleen Hopkins

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The Crochet Express National Crochet Month Blog Tour

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Welcome to Crochetville’s fourth annual National Crochet Month (NatCroMo) blog tour, taking place each day of March 2016. Join us as we take a virtual tour on our passenger steam train, The Crochet Express, visiting crochet designers, crochet-friendly local yarn stores, and yarn companies, and offer some fun giveaways.

Today’s Posts: Andrea Lyn Van Benschoten | Melinda Miller | Darleen Hopkins | Yarn Asylum | Daily Giveaway

Want to Chat about the Tour?

Part of the fun of taking a passenger steam train trip is talking with your fellow passengers. This year, we’re providing two locations where our passengers can get to know each other. We’d love to hear about your favorite things you’ve discovered on the tour and see photos of your current crochet projects. You’re invited to join us daily for virtual cocktails/appetizers and dinner. (We’ll be sharing links to some fabulous recipes!)

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Darleen Hopkins

Crochetville is very proud to have designer Darleen Hopkins with us today, March 20, as one of the featured designers on our 2016 Designer Blog Tour in honor of National Crochet Month (NatCroMo).

About Darleen:

I have been crocheting since 2005 and professionally designing since 2010. I really enjoy the design process, from idea to sketch to swatch to finished item and written pattern. It is so exciting for me when others crochet my designs. So please, send me photos or post them on Ravelry or my Facebook page! In addition to self-publishing, I have had patterns published in ILikeCrochet.com, Crochet Today, Crochet 1-2-3, Tangled, Crochetvolution, and upcoming Happily Hooked.

1. Tell us about your favorite travel destination:

One of my favorite trips is a road trip I took with my family. We loaded up the car with all we could carry and headed west from Georgia all the way to Yellowstone National Park. The trip took a total of 10 days. We hit 17 states and saw so many wonderful and sometimes weird sites. We still laugh about the encounter my boys had at a stop in a library in South Dakota! My husband planned the entire trip and drove all 4,000 miles. I sat back, enjoyed crocheting, and read. I had plans of getting more crocheting done but the sites were too amazing to pass up. I was working on the squares for my Patchwork Baby Kitty Blanket. It was a great project for the trip, lots of squares that didn’t take up too much room. And I have a wonderful souvenir to serve as a reminder of that fantastic trip.

• St. Louis Arch
• A jackalope (I love them!)
• Badlands National Park
• The straightest road ever created running from South Dakota to North Dakota
• Pump jacks pumping oil in North Dakota
• Windmills as far as the eye could see in Minnesota
• The gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota
• Mt. Rushmore
• Crazy Horse Memorial and the annual June Night Blast
• The Rocky Mountains
• Buffalo
• Old Faithful (erupted on time!)
• Mud pools and geysers and hot springs
• Buffalo
• A grizzly bear
• Devil’s Tower
• A prairie dog town
• A hail storm like none I’ve ever experienced before
• A missile silo
• Buffalo
• Breathtaking Grand Teton National park
• An end-to-end rainbow
• Buffalo
• Chicago rush hour-ugh.
• The Big Sky of Montana
• Bear Tooth Pass from Montana to Wyoming-amazing drive
• Snow skiers and sleders and snow gliders in June

2. Tell us about a “dream” travel location that you’d like to visit one day:

There are so many sites to see, I wouldn’t know where to start. Life is an adventure and I want to see it all. I guess the “dream” is for us (me and my husband) to take off in an RV and see all the beautiful sites of the United States.

3. Tell us about any crochet projects you take with you when traveling: How many projects do you take? How do you decide which ones to take?

I always take crochet with me, even if it’s just a short 30 minute drive somewhere. For bigger trips, I’ll pack my current WIP if it is a smaller project that can travel well. If the WIP is almost done, I’ll gather up the yarn for my next planned design, and I almost always also pack a miscellaneous skein or two from my cotton stash, depending on the length of trip, so I can start a chemo hat for Halos of Hope when I finish my WIP.

Visit Darleen’s Site: NatCroMo Specials

Kitty Cat Blanket | Darleen Hopkins

I’m giving away 5 copies of my Patchwork Baby Kitty Blanket pattern in pdf format. Comment on the give-away post on my Facebook page between now (March 20, 2016) and Friday, March 25, 2016 for a chance to enter. Winners will be selected and notified via Facebook on Saturday, March 26, 2016.

Darleen’s Designs:

If you’re not familiar with my work already, I’d like to share three of my designs with you.

Black Raspberry Shawl | Darleen Hopkins

1. Black Raspberry Shawl, $4.99

Wear it as a traditional shawl, a scarf, or a cowl. Either way is beautiful. The pattern is written for DK weight yarn but feel free to use whatever yarn you like. Worsted weight yarn will yield a slightly larger wrap while sock yarn or lace weight will produce a beautiful shawlette. One size fits most. Before blocking, approximately 60” wingspan, 16” at widest point.

Pretty Spiffy Tuxedo Baby Big | Darleen Hopkins

2. Pretty Spiffy Tuxedo Baby Big, $3.49

The perfect bib for baby’s first formal event, holiday dinner, New Year’s Eve celebration, or a wedding. Drool, spit and burps happen so keep your baby looking spiffy with the Pretty Spiffy Tuxedo Baby Bib.

Shells of Love Baby Blanket | Darleen Hopkins

3. Shells of Love Baby Blanket, $4.99

Beautiful Baby Blanket for both beginner and experienced crocheters. TIME SAVER PATTERN! Learn how to change colors without having to break off the yarn at each row and therefore have MINIMAL ENDS TO WORK IN!! Pattern includes instructions for worsted/aran weight yarn and explanation of how to convert the pattern to lighter weight yarn or to adjust the size.