05 Monday Nov 2012
Posted in In the press, My crochet
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My yarnbombing shenanigans has made it into Thames Ditton’s local monthly magazine, About Thames Ditton!
I love that they call me the “talented perpertrator” and the comment “Make Wool not War” is great.
It’s so lovely to see that other people enjoy and appreciate the yarnbombs. I was planning to do another yarnbomb anyway, but after reading this, I’m definitely doing more (and making it Bigger & Brighter).
31 Wednesday Oct 2012
Posted in My crochet
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It seems that Autumn has well and truly arrived in the UK. That means only one thing: time to start making those wooly sweaters and cardigans. Yeah!!!
I actually started planning the sweater I’m currently (inbetween the projects with my Aida crochet thread) working on, way back in May. If I say “plan” I mean, find a pattern and buy the yarn. The dark grey Garnstudio Drops Merino Extra Fine was bought on Mastercard Morning. Two of those Mastercard Mording projects are completed, this one is the only one left to go.
I’ve since changed my mind about the pattern though. I really tried to get my head around Doris Chan’s Talle Latte but I just couldn’t do it. It was causing me so much stress to figure out what she wanted me to do, that I just gave up and looked for something that I would enjoy making – enter Lionbrand’s Driftwood Pullover. I will only refer to it as Driftwood this once though… Watch this clip from Meet the Fockers, and you’ll know why. Until I find a more suitable name for the sweater, I’ll just call it The (mainly) Grey Sweater.
“Mainly” because I’ll be adding Redcurrent red to the grey. Surely you’ll know by now that I would be incapable of doing a whole sweater in a solid charcoal grey. No Sirree. I’m going to use the Sublime Extra Fine Merino for the neck, wrist and bottom edging. Right? Can you see it? The tiny lines of red just to add a pop of colour to the dull grey? Yes Sirree!!
The Sublime was bought at a online haberdashery store I stumbled upon called LoveKnitting. Now you crocheters shouldn’t be putt off by the reference to knitting. As can be seen from the photo below, they also sell crochet hooks so it’s not all knitting. I bought the 12mm KnitPro Symfonie hook to take along to the Granny Square Workshop I’ll be attending at Toft Alpaca Farm on Saturday. (Can Not Wait!) I’ve never used Symfonie crochet hooks, but they look so pretty and colourful how could it not be a great crochet hook?
I was so impressed by Loveknitting’s packaging that I just had to take a photo to show you. Can you believe that this is the way a big online store would package their items? It looks like I bought the yarn and crochet hook from an Etsy or Folksy seller. Huge thumbs up to Loveknitting for adding a personal touch!
Another great thing about Loveknitting is the 10% discount you receive on your first order and they also do free postage if you spend more than £25 in one go. I also like the way they sort the yarns on their site: you can search according to weight, brand, colour and/or fibre and the whole site has a clean and modern feel. For an online store only operating since April 2012, I think they’re great!
Before I spend more money at Loveknitting, I have to finish 42 of the 58 squares for The (mainly) Grey Sweater. The sooner I get through the grey, the sooner I can get my hook into that Sublime Redcurrent and then on to the gazillion other crochet projects on my To Hook List.
Oooo, I see that Loveknitting gives you 10% off all yarn bought before midnight 2 November with code 10SPOOKS…. as if I need any more encouragement to buy more yarn!
14 Sunday Oct 2012
Posted in My crochet, Yarnbombing
I did it again! Another yarnbomb for Thames Ditton. I had such a great response from the squares at the station, I just had to do another.
This time I chose to beautify the bench in front of the Summer Road Recreation Ground. I did my measuring on Friday, crocheted the “leg warmers” on Saturday and sewed them onto the slats on Sunday afternoon.
The slats are 4.5cm in circumference. To make the crochet strips 4.5cm wide I chained 21, starting the DC in the 3rd chain from the hook, and did 28 rows of DC. I only used warm shades of Stylecraft Special DK, starting with yellow and ending in a maroon & bright red stripe.
Hubby was the willing accomplice (or as he thought of himself – my bodyguard) and photographer.
The autumn sun shining down on the bright yarn, really makes it sing don’t you think?
I truly hope the park users will enjoy the new and improved bench.
I’m not planning another yarnbomb in Thames Ditton until later in Autumn when the trees (actually, one specific tree) has lost all its leaves 😉 Fear not, I will strike again!
Update on the Station Road / Speer Road fence: two of the squares have been removed and one torn. It’s sad, and mind-boggling to me, that someone would take the time to cut through cable ties to remove something that’s only purpose in life is to be pretty. Let’s hope the remaining seven squares, and the park bench yarnbombing, will stay put.
10 Wednesday Oct 2012
Posted in CAL, My crochet
Here are my blocks ten to 15 of Rachell’s 200 Blocks Crochet Along. You will see I only have five blocks instead of six. That’s because I didn’t make block no. 11: Baby Blocks. For the life of me I just couldn’t figure out how to carry the yarn and I got confused with which SC counted as the first stitch of the new colour. I really tried, but then I thought &%$*% it. I can always repeat one of the other block designs and seen in the big scheme of things, who cares whether I can make Baby Blocks or not (I certainly don’t).
So here are blocks 10, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
My least favourite block is Fine Lines. Hubby said it reminds him of a banana peel. I kinda see where he gets that.
Circle in a Square is definitely my favourite. I used it when I made cushions for my brother, and also for my first yarnbomb. For the yarnbomb I only did rounds 1 to 5 and it still looked great. It also works up really quick.
And a group photo. It’s very colourful isn’t it…?!
08 Monday Oct 2012
Posted in My crochet, My ramblings, Yarnbombing
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I did it! I did my first yarnbomb!!!!
I staked out my corner on Wednesday morning and planned the yarn attack all day Wednesday.
Wednesday evening I returned to measure the location of the attack fence. Measure is probably too technical a term: I put my hand horizontally next to the fence and took a photo, and stood next to the fence, making a note of where the top of the fence reached in relation to my body. When I got home I measured those distances et voila: I needed nine 10cm x 10cm squares. (Might I just add that I did the measuring when everyone from the 18:06 from Waterloo had left the station area so as to not draw too much attention. Yes, that’s right. I didn’t want to draw attention to the 2 minutes of measuring …… for a yarnbomb… using nine crochet squares… to be attached in daylight… on a Saturday… on a busy street corner. Sometimes even I have to shake my head.)
The look I was going for with this yarnbomb, was a zig zag design of floating brightly coloured squares, giving a stained glass window effect to the metal fence. I think I achieved this. Sort of.
As I wanted the squares to appear to be floating, I didn’t use yarn to sew them to the railings, but in stead used cable ties. It worked brilliantly! As a bonus the squares won’t slide down the metal when they get wet, so my squares will stay put.
The pattern is “Circle in a Square” from Jan Eaton’s 200 Crochet Blocks, but only did rounds 1 to 5. All the squares are done in Stylecraft Special DK with a 4mm crochet hook.
My willing accomplice lovely friend, Liezel, joined me on Saturday to attach the nine squares and to get evidence take photos of the guerilla crochet. It was so much fun! And such an adrenaline rush! Carrying cable ties and side cutters in your handbag tend to do that.
We weren’t doing anything illegal and we did it in the light of day, but it still felt sneaky and rebellious (says she who’s biggest act of rebellion to date was wearing a rub-on tattoo on holiday last year.)
I really hope people will enjoy the nine little pops of colour on their way to and from Thames Ditton station. If it makes just one person smile, that will make me smile.
06 Saturday Oct 2012
Posted in My crochet, Pattern
The tutorial that shows you how I made the crochet border for these towels, are available on Boocoos Blogthingy blog, here.
Boo asked me to be a guest blogger on her blog. I’ve never done a guest blog before, nevermind on the blog of a paid crochet instructor who has been crocheting since she was 8 years old. I learned a lot just from the Tips, Techniques & Promises section of her blog so I really didn’t think I could do anything crochet related that would be good enough. Luckily Boo liked what I did and even said that I could come back and do a guest blog on her blog again any time. Whoohoo!
I hope you enjoy the tutorial, and all the other interesting crochet related things on Boo’s blog.
28 Friday Sep 2012
Posted in My crochet, Pattern, Ta-daah!
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Check out my Dad modelling a crocheted scarf!
Doesn’t he look like Sean Connery?
The scarf is a Christmas present for one of Hubby’s friends. I started work on it on 20 August and finished it while Dad was visiting me. I just had to rope in Dad to play model – that beard and suntanned skin is perfect for a winter accessory photo shoot.
Check out the “I’m staring into the Great Wide Yonder” pose:
And “I have to wear my sunglasses against the glare of the snow”:
Dad The model requested a mug so that he could “make the blog people think it’s very cold. Brrrrr.” No really, he said Brrrr out loud. Method modelling obviously works for him.
If I can drag you away from David Gandy-30-years-from-now, I’ll tell you about the scarf.
I was inspired by Jan Eaton’s chocolate box block from her 200 Crochet Blocks book . I used chocolate box for my livingroom couch cushions and they look really great. To my great surprise I turn the cushions so that chocolate box is at the front, more than the Roses & Daisies. Who would have thunk?
This scarf is basically just a row version of the chocolate box square. I thought I was very clever turning a square into a row. Little did I know that the stitch is an existing crochet stitch called Brick Stitch. I found this out when I bought Robyn Chachula’s Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia. Right there on page 15 is my Manly Scarf sans the Sean Connery lookalike! So much for originality. On the other hand, I was quite pleased to see that my handwritten filofax pattern looks almost identical to Robyn’s diagram for the stitch. Brownie point for me.
The nitty gritty of the scarf:
Pattern: Brick stitch as per my pattern below. For more accurate instructions than my handwritten scribble, see Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia. (On Amazon you can “Look inside” the book and if you log into Amazon you’ll be able to see the full written and diagram instruction for this pattern.) The @ on the edges of my pattern tells me where I should put the stitch markers to indicate the top of the 3 chain turning chain. I know it seems a bit over the top, but whenever I’m doing anything with straight lines I rely heavily on my stitch markers to keep track of the top of my turning chains.
Hook: 4.5 mm. I know the photo above says 4mm, but once I started working on the scarf I felt that a 4.5 mm was better.
Yarn: I used seven colours varying from 100% acrylic, to an acrylic & wool mix, to 100% wool. They were:
Charcoal: Stylecraft Life DK
Claret: Stylecraft Special DK
Gray: Stylecraft Special DK
Black: Stylecraft Life DK
Turquoise: Schoppel-Wolle Admiral 6-fach left over from the Childhood Memories shawl
Silver: Stylecraft Special DK
Mocha: Stylecraft Special DK, left over from the Identity Crisis blanket
The tassels I made using my Finishing Techniques for Crochet book, but you can also get the instructions here. It’s extremely easy to do. Promise. Whenever the tassel is attached to a DC row, I used three strands, and for a SC row, I used two strands.
That’s it. One manly scarf as modelled by Dad.
Thanks for making the scarf look so great Dad, and for being such a great (role)model. ♥
24 Monday Sep 2012
Posted in CAL, My crochet, My ramblings
Ooo, this post has been a long time coming! Since 1 September in fact. Bad Natasja! But in my defence, I was entertaining my dear Dad on his visit to my neck of the woods, and enjoying it so much that I didn’t even have any time to blog. I’m sure you’ll understand. (It’s a good sign when real life takes precedence over blog life don’t you think?)
Anyway, here’s what I want to show you. Blocks 1 to 9 of the 200 Crochet Blocks with Rachell Crochet Along. We’re making two to three blocks per week, starting on 1 September, so seeing as we’re in week four I should have at least eight blocks. I’ve got nine to show you and two more at home that I haven’t photographed yet. I’m back on track baby!
So here are my nine blocks. They are all done in Stylecraft Special DK with a 4 mm crochet hook.
These blocks have already been wet blocked, but not very successfully… That’s the thing with acrylic yarn – it doesn’t block as easily as natural fibres. At least the blocks are all 15cm x 15cm, just a bit wobbly around the edges. Hopefully they will straighten up nicely when sewed together. I hope…. if not, I’ll just wet block them again en masse.
My favourites are Popcorn Flower and the Corner Granny. I don’t like Twin Stripes and Triangle Stripes very much, but I’m glad I made them. This CAL is forcing me to make things that I wouldn’t normally be drawn to, which is a good thing.
If you’re taking part in the CAL, how far along are you? Do you have a favourite square?
21 Friday Sep 2012
Posted in In the press, My crochet
What do we have here? It’s me, holding a copy of the latest issue of Simply Crochet magazine. Why am I so excited about this magazine?
I’m excited because on Page 9, this blog is listed as one of the two Top Blogs To Follow!!!!!
I was contacted by Jenny of Future Publishing in July to ask me for a couple of photos to use for this piece, so I knew it was coming but in the back of my mind it seemed to good to be true so it was a HUGE thrill to see it right there in the magazine! I feel so blessed that a UK magazine, dedicated to crochet, would think of my little blog as worth mentioning. Blessed I tell you!
If you’re reading this blog because of the mention in Simply Crochet, welcome! If you’ve been with me for a while now, thanks for sticking round and please go out and buy the magazine – not to see my blog in it, but for all the other wonderfully interesting articles, interviews and lots of crochet patterns.
I just have to say it one more time: blessed!
06 Thursday Sep 2012
Posted in My crochet, Ta-daah!
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Raise your chopsticks crocheters, my first crochet item from a Japanese pattern is done!
I know it’s only a scarf and that once you get the motif under the belt, it’s just a case of repeating it a hundred times – literally, so it’s probably not the fanciest, most intricate piece of Japanese crochet, but still. I’m proud of it and I think my friend will like it too.
I’ve shown you the halfway mark and some sneak peak photos but this photo really shows off the intricate lacyness to its best (hanging from a hanger, hooked onto the Ikea floor lamp. As you do.)
Doesn’t the scarf look great with the coat (hanging from the neighbour’s fence. As you do.)?
I just love a scarf that can throw shadows on your coat! To get the scarf this open and fine, you absolutely have to, have to, have to block your work. Have a look at my halfway mark blogpost and you’ll see how the scarf looked before blocking. For this scarf, blocking isn’t optional, it’s essential.
The magic of this scarf and yarn combo is that eventhough it’s super light, open and lacy it’s still nice and warm as a scarf should be. And there’s so much going on! Every motif is different.
I think the variegated yarn really works extremely well with this scarf. The scarf in the book was done in navy and it looks great, but I think variegated yarn looks better. On the other hand, it might be that I’m just biased seeing as I really can’t imagine enjoying crocheting 100 navy motifs, but 100 uniquely different motifs, that I could do.
The nitty gritty of the Japanese scarf:
I hope I’ve inspired you to also try your hook at Japanese patterns. It really isn’t that difficult. Honestly. If I can do it, anyone can! (If you need a couple of pointers, I give links to helpful websites towards the end of this blogpost.)
Konichi wa hookers!
crochetime 