 Back in 2017, I teamed up with a few crochet designer friends to host a 10 Days of Thanksgiving crochet event. Each day for 10 days, we would share something personal about ourselves and offer one of our crochet patterns for just $1 that matched a theme for the day. We held this event for 3 years until I had to go back to work full time and no longer had enough time for crochet. It was something I looked forward to each year as we planned our themes for the 10 days. I really enjoyed the friendships we had and being able to visit online each day. Sadly, after a 4 years of being out of the crochet community, collaborating groups of designers has changed. While I still can reach out to past designer friends, it's different getting back into the scene. SO many new faces!!!!  With this, I'm hosting the 10 Days of Thanksgiving on my own this year with the hopes that I can get back in the groove of things and bring it back strong for 2025. For now, would you sit with me for a minute each day and we can get to know each other? Many of you have been here since the beginning of Crafting Friends Designs and I am Sincerely thankful for you and your support. Some of you are new here and I would love to get to know you! So, here's how it works... Each day for 10 days, I will add to this post with a Theme of the day and a crochet pattern that may coordinate with the theme. The pattern will be discounted to just $1 during this event. (expires 11/30/24) As some of you have had trouble with the coupon codes, I'm switching so the discount is set so you can add all patterns to your cart at the same time if you prefer. **All patterns purchased here on my website will also be sent through Ravelry to the email used for the purchase so you can store them in your library there too.** Comment with your thoughts each day either here on the post or on my Facebook page so I can get to know you too! Are you ready for Day 1? Alrighty then, let's jump down below for our first pattern... **This post contains affiliate links through which I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you for purchases made**  As we close out our 10 Days of Thanksgiving Crochet Event, my heart is full! I am so thankful for each of you who joined me this Thanksgiving week and taken the time to email me or comment. I understand how crazy life can be and how precious time is. Who I am today...I am a wife and mother first. Relationships throughout my life have been a struggle. I always seemed to get the short end of the stick in relationships and tend to give more than I receive. It's taken me years to learn to set healthy boundaries and it took some time to trust that I deserved to be loved as much as I love. With this, I became a very independent woman. I don't like asking for help because I don't want to be a burden on anyone. I became determined! Determined to learn and to grow and to do as much on my own as I could. I was a single mother for many years and while it wasn't easy, I appreciate the opportunity I have to be a mother. I appreciate that I have a husband who loves me and supports me and our girls in our creativeness. I appreciate our home and our jobs and the life we've been able to build together. I appreciate the blessings we've had in growing our own garden and being able to preserve everything to enjoy throughout the coming year. I appreciate the ability we have to teach our girls how to work and how to be independent and build skills that will help them throughout their lives. Family is my most important part of life. I sincerely live for my family and wish the best for everyone around me. I believe that while we all have our differences, we absolutely have more in common than what is different. I believe in serving others. I believe that if we all can focus on the positive in others, the world would be a better place. I believe that we all have a purpose in life and we should cheer each other on. I hope that when others hear my name that I will be known for or remembered for having a big heart. I hope that my life will touch those around me in a positive way. I hope that everyone around me will feel loved and know that they are beautiful, smart, talented and important. I hope that each of you has been able to have a beautiful and peaceful Thanksgiving week and that you will be able to enjoy a little more crochet time in the coming weeks. Happy Thanksgiving!!! So, for the last day of this event, the patterns offered are about Love. Enjoy each of them for $1 through November 30, 2024. No code needed! And if you missed any of the previous patterns, go ahead and scroll down to add them to your cart for 1 simple checkout. I would absolutely LOVE to hear who YOU are. What state or country do you live in? What's life like for you? What's your favorite thing to crochet? Do you have other similar hobbies? Comment on this post or my posts on Facebook or Instagram so I can get to know you too!  I have to be honest, I love watching my girls grow and become beautiful young ladies but sometimes, I miss those baby and toddler snuggles. You know the days when they looked up to you as a mom and thought you were the queen? It was good for the soul! Now, I still get the side hugs and "I love you" but with 3 in or near the teen years, I get just as many looks that let me know I don't know what I'm talking about and moms don't know anything lol. It seems like just yesterday, they were learning how to walk and going on adventures together in the yard. Knowing how fast they grew up, I'm sure they'll be out on their own before I'd like them to be. Some day though, I'll have grandbabies to snuggle and spoil and it'll give me a reason to design even more blankets! The days are definitely chilly here in Northern Utah and every night, I appreciate the Reversible Textured Chevron blanket being on my bed. I love it for the weight but since we like to sleep with the window slightly cracked, this blanket seriously keeps me warm. It's fantastic! Especially this weekend which is meant as a time for family and friends, I hope that you have some time to relax, crochet and get some snuggles in! Enjoy these 3 blanket patterns for just $1 each through November 30, 2024. No code needed. If you have missed any of the previous days patterns, you can go ahead and add them to your cart to check out together. Best wishes!   Do you have long time traditions that you will keep going for as long as you are alive or are you more likely to have traditions for a while and then switch them up as life changes? When I was little, there were really only 3 constants that I can remember. The first was mentioned in a previous post where my grandma had her set holiday decorations and the candy dish on the banquet table with orange sticks and bridge mix. The second constant was homemade treats! My mom's parents would make homemade graham cracker fudge and a frozen drink each year that was delicious! My dad's sister would make homemade old fashioned candy each year and his brother would make dipped chocolates. I stayed with him and my aunt for a while during high school and was there when he was making them one day. He was dedicated! He had everything set up nice and neat in his garage and turned the heat down to get just the right temp for the dipping chocolate. I asked his family a few years ago if any of them knew his recipes and they said they had looked for them but didn't know where they ended up after he passed away. I was so bummed!!! I would have loved to carry his recipes over for everyone. My aunt's recipes were never written down. She just knew how much of the "a little of this and a dash of that" went into everything. As she started getting older, I asked her a few times for the recipes and she sort of brushed me off because she wasn't ready to let go of her secrets yet. One year, I asked if she would teach me and she agreed but when the time came, she had her DIL make the candy with her instead. I was slightly frustrated but it was good for them to have time together too. Then, one year, she became quite ill. One of her organs wasn't working properly and we knew she wouldn't make it through. As I visited with her during her months of struggle, I was able to get the basics of her candy recipes. It took a bunch of trial and error to get them as creamy as could possibly be but it was worth it to keep her tradition going! Her yummy goodies have sort of made me and my kids candy snobs. I absolutely refuse to make fudge with chocolate chips. I understand that some people do for time restraints but there honestly is not a good substitute for handmade, old fashioned candy. Each holiday season, I try to make the old traditional candies - Fudge, Penuche, Boston Cream, Carmel and our newest favorite is Butter Pecan Fudge. Each batch takes a couple hours from start to finish but it's a tradition that I hold dear to my heart and enjoy sharing it with my parents and siblings each year. If you're interested, I'll post the recipes on my recipe page HERE You can find the recipe holder craft HERE So, with so much cooking during the holidays, I ALWAYS have to have my kitchen towels hanging on my stove and a couple on the handles of my lower cupboards so that I have one easy to access. I just love them! I'm hoping to come up with a couple more towel patterns soon so watch for that. For now, I hope you'll enjoy each of the towel patterns for just $1 through November 30, 2024. Happy crocheting!  Do you have enough crochet time? When my girls were little, would play with them during the day and tend to crochet when they were napping. Then, as they started running around more and entertaining themselves, I was able to sit out on my patio swing and crochet while we spent time outside. I loved designing clothing for them and would stay up late for a little peace and quiet so I wouldn't get distracted while writing patterns down. Now, since I've been back to work for 5 years, my crochet time drastically dwindled until recently. It's my little bit of stress reliever that I sneak in where I can. When we found out that we were expecting our 4th baby, we decided to be surprised on the gender at birth. I knew my other 3 were girls and this one was so different that I was sure it was a boy. For my oldest daughter, my friend's mom made her blessing dress, my husband's stepmom made the blessing dress for our 2nd daughter and my mother made our 3rd daughters blessing dress. For our 4th, it was my turn. Since we didn't know if it would be a boy or girl, I had to be prepared!!! I designed the Angelique Dress and the Jackson Tuxedo set back in 2012 in preparation for our new addition to our family.  Angelique Baby dress by Kate Wagstaff of Crafting Friends Designs Surprise! It was another girl and while my husband may have been slightly bummed he didn't get his boy, he absolutely loves and adores his girls. Each of them have a bit of his cowboy/country side to them and I love seeing him spend time with them. Knowing that time goes by as fast as it does, we'll soak in every minute we can with each of them! I recently decided it was time to update all my oldest patterns and started with the infant clothing. The Jackson Tuxedo pattern will hopefully have more sizes soon and then I'll look at doing the same for the Angelique dress so now is the perfect time to get them and receive the updated patterns automatically through Ravelry when they're released. Each pattern is just $1 through November 30th. Discount is automatic so if you've missed any of the previous event patterns, you can add them to your cart and check out everything together.   Do you have a favorite season? Autumn is such a beautiful season here in Northern Utah! Every year, I wish the leaves could hold on to the trees just a little while longer so we could enjoy their colors. Well, this year, we've had just that. Here we are with only a few days left until Thanksgiving is here and yet we still have some leaves hanging on. It's been an odd year for weather for sure but I'll take it and appreciate each change as they come. For my youngest daughter, she's praying for snow as that is her absolute favorite. There have been days when we have had to get after her to get in the house and warm up after being in the snow so long. I can't imagine living somewhere without such amazing changes between spring, summer, fall and winter. It's just such a blessing to be able to enjoy each one. For today's $1 patterns, I chose my 2 fall blankets as I just love the texture of them with the fall colors. As mentioned above, since some of you have had trouble using the codes, I've switched the promotion so the discount is automatic. This is a great way to just add any you've missed to your cart and be able to check out everything at once.  One of my favorite crochet patterns to share is the Cabled Zig Zag Scarf. Partly because I love the look of it with the beautiful texture and different options it offers but more importantly because it warms my heart to see my girls laughing and smiling with each other. As a mom, I hear the typical bickering between siblings and negative can definitely weigh on me. More often though, they are joking around and visiting with each other and busy being friends. Laughter is a funny thing! How often have you found yourself watching a video on social media of babies laughing and you watch it over and over? Why? Because it triggers happiness in us. Because it brightens our day. Because laughter is contagious. Everyone needs a little laughter in their lives! Automatic discount at checkout  Crochet Pattern, Cabled Zig Zag Scarf or Cowl It's day 4 of the 10 Days of Thanksgiving Crochet Event and I hope that you're enjoying our time together and the special patterns being offered. Today is all about the holidays. When I was just a little kid around the age of 4 or 5, I remember walking across the lawn to my grandma and grandpa's house on Thanksgiving and watching her cooking. They were my dads parents and I feel truly blessed to have lived next door to them. Grandma had a beautiful banquet table where she would always have a 2 tiered candy dish with bridge mix, orange sticks and nuts. It was always scary trying to find the nuts in the bridge mix and disappointing when you bit into a chocolate covered raisin! For Christmas, she had a beautiful, large ceramic nativity set on display that my aunt had made and painted for her. Grandma and grandpa were just as cute as could be and I miss them tremendously. The holidays has always been about family for me. Sure, there were a handful of years that I was excited for Santa to visit and I swear I saw him late one night. My siblings and I would take turns sneaking downstairs to see if our gifts had been delivered yet. There were 3 large windows in the bedroom I shared with 1 sister and we could see the whole valley from there. It was an amazing thing to look out and see the lights glimmering 30 miles away with the mountains in the background. Watching for the reindeer in the sky on a crisp, clear evening was just as magical. As I've been able to enjoy the holiday season with my own kids over the years, it's been fun to watch the magic in their eyes as our 2 "Service" elves on the shelf visited with suggestions to do things for others instead of being naughty. My girls just LOVE taking treats to neighbors and friends. The best memory was a few years ago when we bought Christmas for some neighbors who have adopted 19 kids through Foster care. They still had 3 at home and one with severe disabilities. They are the most amazing people we've ever met!!! My husband went with us to sneak the baskets to the door and it was so fun to watch him running back with the girls to not get caught. It's a memory that I hope will never be forgotten. Life is flying by way to fast and I wish I could slow it down and spend many more holidays with everyone. I hope that you've been able to enjoy a lifetime of amazing holidays too and have just as many beautiful memories! Life is full of up's and down's and for this reason, I've chosen the Loop the Loop tree skirt and stocking for today's $1 special offer. Automatic discount at checkout  Welcome back to day 3 of the 10 Days of Thanksgiving Crochet Event. Thank you so much for joining me and for commenting on various posts with your thoughts too! Today, I'm thankful for color. It's something that we take for granted because we typically won't ever know what it's like to not see various colors. My grandma who I mentioned in yesterday's thoughts began losing her eyesight quite a few years ago. My heart ached for her as she had to give up playing the piano and slowly gave up crochet. She kindled the love of crochet in my mom who in turn started the fire in me for my crochet passion. As I've sat and visited with her over the past year, I've come to appreciate more through sight. Not that I didn't enjoy seeing things previously, but I consciously stop to take photos of life more often and I view everything with more respect and love. Colors and color combinations are something that I've struggled with over the years. In the past, I've designed with specific people in mind and tried to use colors they would like to keep. Colors themselves have more meaning. Deep purple used to be my favorite growing up and now, when I see deep purple, there are memories that pop into my mind at the sight. Red will always remind me of my grandma. She absolutely loved red and when I stayed with her and grandpa for a while during high school, I slept in the red room they had. Pink makes me think of my mom. It's just seems timid, peaceful and kind and it's also her birthstone. I'm not sure if it's her favorite color but it represents her well. Colors are more than just colors. They represent different holidays and different seasons. Pastels for spring and Easter, Bright and cheery colors for summer months, rustic yellows, browns and oranges for fall and deep rich colors for winter and Christmas. I really don't have a favorite 1 color any more as I have grown to love so many colors for so many different reasons. How about you? Do you have a favorite color? Is there a certain color that brings back memories for you? Because Christmas is upon us and I love the deep rich shades of Christmas, pattern is the Christmas Angel Blanket. Automatic discount at checkout Get the Christmas Angel Blanket pattern for just $1 through 11/30/2024  Crochet Pattern, Christmas Angel Blanket
 When I was a kid, birthday parties were a big thing and it seems like every one I went to had a ton of kids there. That was back in the days when we all had sleep overs with 10 or so kids, ran around town playing night games in the dark and life was just enjoyable. Not a stress in the world. Over the years, between Birthdays and Christmas and the many gifts I've received, there are only a few gifts that I still remember. It was either my 9th or 10th birthday and Cabbage Patch dolls were still a big thing. I was able to have a handful of girl-friends over for a sleep over and my grandparents came out for cake and ice cream. My grandma was always crocheting and my mom was always sewing. Mom would sew each of us kids pj's for Christmas every year (my favorite!). Grandma made 1 blanket for each grandchild over the years and also gave each of us a doily when we got married. Handmade gifts were THE BEST!!!! Anyway, this particular birthday, my mom had sewn me my very own cabbage patch doll. The "real" dolls were just to expensive but there were Kits available at the craft stores so my mom was able to give me something special - even more special than one bought with money. My grandma's gift was crocheted outfit for the doll with little britches, a sweater vest, shoes and a bonnet. They both also sewed some velvety coats, night gowns, pj's and scarves. Her name was Vanessa and I absolutley loved her! You see, had that been a store bought doll and clothing, I'm sure we would have thrown it or given it away years and years ago. Yet, since it was something so special that my mom and grandma took the time to make for me with love, I still have them tucked away safely in my cedar chest. My girls were allowed to play with them some when they were smaller but now that they're out of the doll stage, we'll save them for hopefully one of my granddaughters to play with in the future. For my girls, it was the American Girl Dolls and I just couldn't justify spending that kind of money on a doll that I knew would be gone in a few short years. So, I found some cute generic dolls and created my own dress patterns for them so the girls could choose their colors and styles. If you ever find yourself in a spot where something your child or grandchild desires is a little out of price range, NEVER feel bad about giving something similar that is hand made!!! The love that they will feel knowing you did something special for them will last a lifetime longer than money spent. For this reason, I'm hoping many of you will enjoy making some quick little dresses for birthdays and Christmas this year. The great thing about these dresses is that they do fit a variety of dolls and are also fantastic for preemie babies! Automatic discount at checkout to get the doll patterns for just $1 through 11/30/2024  Over the many years of my life, I've had some wonderful friends. Some are simply work friends who make the work days go by faster when they were around. Others are online friends who live miles and miles away and we've never met but I've enjoyed visiting with them often. My hubby is my best friend and the one I turn to the most. He's put up with my crazy crochet addiction and helped me figure out how to do a couple of crochet patterns from a math side of it when I've doubted myself. There have been a few crochet friends with whom I adored and spoke with pretty much daily that have gone their separate ways because worldly views were more important than friendships built. I've struggled with this over the last few years because I sincerely believe that we all have more in common than not and that it's ok to agree to disagree and focus on the good in others. On the bright side of things, I do choose to focus on the good and while I've been hurt by a few, it will not outweigh the many who are still there for me and I'm here for everyone!
2 Comments
Jan Meyers
11/19/2024 02:22:58 pm
I am 85 and have crocheted since I was nine.. Because of an automobile accident I have lived in an Assisted Care Facility for the past 14 years.. I am not able to purchase patterns because my insurance money goes for rent and medical costs.. I broke my neck and have two steel plates with six screws in my neck..it is a Godsend that I can still crochet.. I mostly like to do doilies because yarn is so expensive.. I was at a yarn store yesterday and I wanted to do and sweater and the yarn was approximately $40.00 without the tax.. I was able to get three rolls of thread at $1.99 a roll so at least I got some new colors. I live in Western New York my entire life but many things have changed since my accident and two of my adult children live far away..
JOELLEN S ADAMS
11/26/2024 06:17:59 am
Love your $1.00 Patterns,. I purchased a couple more but haven't received the download! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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Kate WagstaffHey there! Thank you for joining my blog here at Crafting Friends Designs. Grab your hook, some yarn and get comfy as we crochet some fun, unique and beautiful projects together.  Archives
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