July Mystery Box Patterns

Tic-Tac-Toe!

One day when I was scrolling on social media, I came across a crocheted tic-tac-toe game, and I knew we needed some for our mystery boxes. We chose glow in the dark yarn, because that seemed like the right choice for a kid's game that adults love too. For both the patterns this month, we are including links for patterns that are fully designed, and there are notes here for what we did different for our samples.

Crocheted Tic-Tac-Toe game

Here is the link for the pattern we used as a starting point for the crochet project. https://mammathatmakes.blogspot.com/2014/01/citrus-tic-tac-toe-free-crochet-pattern.html

Here's what we did different:

• Instead of making all the squares different colors on the inside, we used one accent color.

• Instead of covering stones in crochet, we made circles that we surface crocheted on.

Here is the pattern we used for the X and O pieces. You'll need to make 10.

Abbreviations:

Sc = single crochet

Sc Inc = single crochet increase - 2 sc in one st

St = Stitch

With the main color:

Round 1: Sc 8 in magic ring.

Round 2: Sc inc in each st. - 16 sc

Round 3: (Sc inc, sc) around. - 24 sc

Fasten off

Using surface crochet, slip stitch "X"s on half the pieces and "O"s on the other half.

Knit Tic-Tac-Toe Game

Abbreviations:

K = knit

P = purl

Sl = slip stitch

Board

With main color, cast on 36 sts

Rows 1-50: Stockinette stitch (knit on right side, purl on wrong side).

Cut main color. With coordinating color:

Rows 51-56: Knit across.

Bind off until there is only 1 stitch left, rotate work 90 degrees and pick up and knit 37 sts along left side of the work (roughly using a ratio of 2 stitches picked up for every 3 rows) - 38 sts total.

Left border:

Rows 1-5: Knit across.

Bind off until there is only 1 stitch left, rotate work 90 degrees and pick up and knit 39 sts along the bottom of the work - 40 sts total.

Bottom border:

Rows 1-5: Knit across.

Bind off until there is only 1 stitch left, rotate work 90 degrees and pick up and knit 40 sts along the right side of the work (roughly using a ratio of 2 stitches picked up for every 3 rows) - 41 sts total.

Right border:

Rows 1-5: Knit across.

Bind off.

With coordinating color and duplicate stitch, embroider on a tic-tac-toe grid.

Playing Pieces (make 10)

With main color, cast on 8.

Rows 1-2: Sl 1, k7.

Row 3: Sl 1, k7.

Row 4: Sl 1, k1, p4, k2

Rows 5-10: repeat rows 3 & 4.

Rows 11-12: Sl 1, k7.

Bind off.

With coordinating color, embroider "X"s on half of the pieces and "O"s on the other half using a chain stitch.

When you're all done, charge your project in the sun for about half an hour so that the yarn glows in the dark next time you need to play a game of late night tic-tac-toe!