Simply Crochet Chunky Scarf

I've been addicted to the UK magazine Simply Crochet since it first came out.  I have a lovely newsagent who pops one aside for me every month and I get a dreadful womanly rush when I discover that both Simply Crochet and Mollie Makes have landed at the same time giving me reason to ignore everything else around my while I flick through both!

Each month they have a wee freebie something on their front cover and I couldn't resist making this scarf with the freebie giant wooden button!  Such a simple stitch too to create those ridges!  It almost looks knitted!

Given the distinct chill in the air I am feeling at the moment, I don't think it's going to be too long before I can gallivant about in it!

Handmade gift giving.... Crochet Placemats

Who doesn't love a good sniff around the Purl Bee blog!?  It's always full of crafty tutorials and inspiration!

 

I've been attracted to the pattern they shared on crochet placemats and thought they would be perfect for my friends upcoming birthday.

 

To give you an idea of size I've included my lovely Rob Ryan plates in each image!

 

I've used a cotton blend for mine so they should be easy to wash and care for.  They were simple to whip up as well and when I shared them on instagram someone said that the pattern they created looked a little like a magic eye image!  I'll definitely make these again but in future I might stick with one colour for the border.  While the bright colours I've used here look great individually, I'm not sure they work well together, and I really like the subtle look of the yellows used in the original pattern. Hope my friend still likes them!!!

Slippers in Summer!

Last night I found the easiest, cutest granny square slipper pattern on youtube!  I have been searching for an easy pattern for these slipper socks for ages as they remind me of the knitted slippers my nanna used to makes us when we were kids - a fresh pair every season!

After a quick read through of the pattern, and a quick watch of the youtube tutorial, I had whipped a pair up last night in an hour and another came off the hook this morning!  I'm adding these to the presents pile... an easy, simple gift for my attempt at handmade this year!

The video tutorial is here and this particular lady has a whole channel on youtube of easy crochet projects.  I always find it funny to watch how someone else hooks!

The link to the written tutorial is here.

To fit my size 9 foot I ended up doing 11 rows after the toe of the slipper is done rather than the 9 suggested.  And dare I admit it, but I actually used a Spotlight acylic yarn for them.  I much prefer to crochet with wool or cotton but I figured these would get a quite a bit of wear and tear and to make them easier to throw them in the wash, acrylic it was... plus, I am trying to use some of my stash up!

Handmade gifting....

Would it be making bold statements to profess that the handmade gift giving commitment I made at the start of this year has well and truly started with a bang!?!

I started the corner granny blanket only two weeks ago and it has come together pretty darn quickly.  It is super simple to make with those rows of lovely trebles running down two sides.  I completed it with a simple red border since the recipient of this one is an Australia Day baby, hence the red, white and blue!

And all wrapped up...

I'm certain I saw this idea on Pinterest at one point - stitching names into paper doilies and then whacking them onto the gift, but for the life of me I can't find the linkyloo to it!

(yes, that's Christmas wrap... but it's Knitted!  Perfect for wooly gifts!)

I forgot to measure the blanket before I wrapped it up but it's certainly large enough for a toasty lap blanket for a grown up and since this is going to a nine year old girl I am sure it will be fine!  I used Patons Cotton Blend and went through a hole bunch of the cream but only a few balls of the blues.

Happy New Year Craft!

Ahh, Christmas.  Done and dusted for another year.  Our tree came down yesterday along with all the other house decorations.  New Years Eve saw me watching The Sound of Music on tv, barely awake myself, listening to the snores from a certain family member at the other end of the house.

 

We spent today having a wee Sunday drive on a Wednesday down to Flinders for a looksy and a picnic.  Where we got rained on.  And it was freezing cold.  Seriously, summer, wherefore art thou'?

 

I have an amazingly generous friend who gave me this beautiful felt ball wreath for Christmas.  I have hung it on my craft room door and it is never coming down!

 

 

This afternoon, post Sunday driving on a Wednesday, I managed to finish off this wee little number too... a mini granny square wreath!

 



 

I had a little foam one in my craft cupboard and this pin keeps popping up in my feed so I felt all inspired to make my own!  Six three round grannies joined together as I went.  I sewed the two ends together and then made three rounds of granny trebles on one side of six squares so it looked a bit like a cowl.  Then all you need to do is wrap it around the wreath and join the edges up.  If you look carefully in the centre of my wreath you can see the ridge from the join.

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

Dishcloth Swapsies Number Two!

Round two of One Crafty Mumma's dishcloth swap has been going strong. 

 

I followed this simple pattern for all of mine and am seriously considering whipping up some more as teacher gifts this year.  Who doesn't love handmade!!!???

You can see some of the lovely creations on her blog (including mine!).  I was super impressed with the ones I received in the previous round and can't wait to see what arrives in this one.

 

 

Since they are all made with 100% cotton you really can use them as dishcloths. They wash up quite well although I do tend to keep them away from manky saucepans of any kind!

 

 

It's beginning to look a wee bit like Christmas...

 

I spied some beautiful cards the other day that had doilies sewn into them and felt all inspired to do my own. With Christmas fast approaching and this simple and easy pattern from The Royal Sisters I've ended up with these...

                  

   I've made them in the past as bunting too which I will be doing again this year!

Is anyone else freaking out about Christmas Day being one month from today!!!???

 

I am literally about to go and get the tree out of the garage so I can do a decoration sort before the tree goes up on December 1st.  Really, it was such poor planning on my part to birth a child in early December as I always feel like my head can't cope with birthday parties and Christmas prep all at once!

One Crafty Mumma's Dishcloth Swap

 

These wee dishcloths are off to Tassie tomorrow after I whipped them up this week so I could participate in Mel's Aussie dishcloth swap.  I've always quite liked the idea of crafting something up to swap with someone else and have done a couple swapsie things in the past - here and here.  I think one just has to be careful not to participate in something that's going to overwhelm you so this dishcloth swap was perfect!  They come together so quickly and are almost too pretty to use.  I made these with Panda Herron which is 100% cotton so perfect to use for washing!

Getting my late night craft on!

What's a girl to do when she spies Pip's crafty larksfoot iPad cover in the new Mollie Makes Crochet book but to go right ahead and make it!

 

I just used some left over wooly yarn I had from another project to create a bit of a rainbow.  It whipped up super fast (took me two nights and just a couple of episodes of True Blood...which I am secretly addicted to!!!!) and the pattern was very easy to follow.  Makes me want to use it again on a larger blankety style project. 

 



 

 

Click here for a linkyloo to Pip's larksfoot pattern on her blog.

 



My creative space... The sunny spread

A while ago I came across an pattern called the Sunny Spread.  'Twas pretty and quite yellow.  I pinned it and then promptly forgot about it.  Then I came across the beautiful crochet work of Dover and Madden, and quite clearly I was so enamoured I had to copy her!  I realise this is soooooo not the done thing and is quite frowned upon by crafty types but I'm not selling this, or mass producing it or anything.  It's merely a wee blanket gift for my brother, his wife and their soon to be baby (girl!!! so they say!!!). 

 

The pattern itself is so super simple and so lovely!  Those raised sections are created by crocheting behind a stitch as the circle increases.  Super Clever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not a huge blanket and is really only intended to be used in the pram or praps in a cradle when the lovely wee baby comes home.  I should also have blocked it, something I have never done with my crochet because I am a lazy crafter.  I think I shall just sit something heavy on it and hope for the best!

 

How can one not include a photo of the craft project with peeping toes on display?!  This is standard crafty instagram fare when photographing blankets right?!

 

Then I tried to get toooo crazy....

This is totes supposed to be one of those shots of the crafty type with their crafty blanket floating beautifully next them... looking all crafty, serene and clever. 

Perhaps not.

Work in progress....

Poor me.  I am having such a blah day.  No reason really, 'cept I'm feeling on the sluggish, fat side and I turn 38 next week which is really not that far away from 40.  Poor me.  Play the violins.  I should probably not have eaten the entire wee tub of chocolate covered proper fresh raspberries that I bought home from Tassie with me.  Or the marshmallow chocolate snowballs from the chocolate factory.

 

Something that always makes me feel better is to pleasantly waste the day away on Pinterest looking at pretty things. 

 

I came across this pretty thing recently and knew straight away it would be perfect for my brother's as yet unborn baby of no known sex!

 

I loved the greys, the yellow and the black in it and am shamelessly copying the beautiful colour palette that Vicki has produced in this blanket.

 

The pattern is called Sunny Spread and is really simple to follow and looks amazing as a finished square.  It has this quite funky stitch called a front post treble crochet where you make your treble behind a previous stitch which then creates the ridges you see on the square!  Very fancy!

 

 

 

 

 

Has anyone ever actually tried crocheting with black wool?!  Well nigh impossible!  Wear glasses!  And have a good light right behind you!  And squint!

 

 

 

So far I have only done the border on one circle just to see what she looks like and I think it's marvellous!  It may need blocking though as they all have a tendency to curl up on themselves.

Crocheting with zpagetti



 

Ever worked with zpagetti?  Lordy me, is it hard work!  I have had a cone of this teasing me from the craft shelf for a while as every time I tried something with it I really struggled to get it started without it looking too messy.  And even though you hold the hook and yarn as you would normally, you really need to throw the rest of your body into it as well!

 

 

I've been super attracted to those rather large doily rugs you see on pinterest and thought I might see what I could come up with.  I didn't follow a pattern at all so it's pretty straightforward.  Best thing to do when starting off is to use a magic circle cause you need a big fat hook for this stuff and therefore a nice big starting circle too.  I also found it best to be a bit 'loose' with your stitches too!

 

Zpagetti works up fast and runs out quickly!  The rug I have made is only 55cm across at the moment.  I should probably get another cone of the stuff and make it bigger...

 



...which I will have to do anyway since I have run out halfway through on what might have been my last round!

 

Anyone else worked with this or something similar? 

My entry for the 2013 Hottie Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

I posted my hottie off to Cam yesterday, just in time for the Thursday cut off date this week for the 2013 Hottie Challenge!  It was not an easy road!!!  I planned to whip up some wee granny squares, seamlessly join them into a hot water bottle cover and send it on it's way within days.  Except those little squares take longer than you think.  Sewing in those pesky ends was painful.  Seamlessly joining teeny squares is not straightforward and if I dared to show you the other side of my work you would die laughing at how messy it looked!

 

 

My first attempt at joining them made all the wee squares stick up like bubbles.  It was annoying and frustrating since they are so fidgety to put together!

 

 

So of course I pulled them all apart and let them sit on the desk in my craftroom for a month!

 

 

When I attempted it again it was with a calmer frame of mind and a looser hand and hook!  I may also have sat some heavy books on top of it all to flatten it down a wee bit (a very technical crochet process!!!).  I left the top and bottom open so it could potentially fit a real hot water bottle and be used for what it was intended for!

 

(still a bit to pouffy for my liking!)

 

On the back is a plain white granny stripe right up to the neck.  I slip stitched the front and back together inside out so all the messy bits are nicely hidden away before I turned it back out to the right side!

 

 

 

I'm happier with the finished product than I thought I would be.  I love the colours and I think it looks a wee bit like a granny square blanket that your nanna might have made you... soft, squishy, cosy and warm. Just what you need in a hot water bottle cover! 

To see some beautiful, super creative hot water bottle covers pop over to Curlypops blog or instagram feed and search under #hottiechallenge2013. 

All hot water bottle covers will be displayed at Opendrawer's Gallery from Friday July 5th to Sunday July 28th.  The address is 1158 Toorak Road, Camberwell in Victoria.  They are then sold to raise money for the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust.

 

*giant doily cork board from Typo