Zigzag wrist warmers pattern

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Natasja in Etsy, My crochet, Pattern

Tags

chevron, crochet, crochet pattern, fingerless gloves, wrist warmers, wristies

It’s officially Spring in the UK. The daffodils are out, pink and white blossoms can be seen on the shrubs, bright green new leaves are just about sprouting and ye, my hands were freezing on the walk home from the station last night. Of course I didn’t have any gloves with me – see the first sentence. What I need to carry with me for these in-between seasons is something to keep my hands warm yet not be a full-on woolen glove.

What oh what could that be? Oh, I know! The pair of zigzag wrist warmers that I crocheted on Saturday!

This pair.

crochet with fingerless gloves

See how great they are for getting on with things like crocheting and drinking coffee? My fingers can roam freely to do all manner of practical things, yet I ~~look~~ feel super funky while I’m doing it.

I’m a bit obsessed with chevrons lately. I’ve always loved stripes, so a pointy stripe is like striking gold. I love the ups and downs, the zigs and the zags.

Would you like to make a pair of chevron wrist warmers too? You’re in luck. Not only did I make myself a pair on Saturday I also wrote down the pattern and listed it in my Etsy shop! You can buy it for a mere £2.50. Just click on the photo below or on this link to go straight to the pattern. The pattern is downloadable as a .pdf file so you’ll get it straight away.

Just a word of warning. You may end up looking like you have broken your wrist when you try one your first wrist warmer. Don’t let the OnlyOneWristWarmerLook put you off off wristies. Once you’ve made the second one the look comes together beautifuly. Certainly don’t show your husband the first one and ask him how it looks because you will, I guarantee it, be the butt of a Michael Jackson joke.

Zigzag scarf pattern and a bit about ice cream

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Pattern

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chevron, crochet, crochet pattern

Do you remember my Sunset Shades Scarf? The one I made with the Vinnis Nikkim cotton yarn that my mom gave me which kicked off my love of Vinnis yarn? I blogged about that beautiful zig zag scarf way back in January and said that I will be writing up the pattern soon. “Soon” turned out to be two months later (whoops) but it’s done now and available to purchase in my Etsy shop!

I tried to make the pattern as easy as possible to follow. There are “Good To Know” and “Handy Tips” scattered throughout. There’s even links to two YouTube videos that will show you how to start the chevron and make Long SC stitches.

The magic thing about this scarf is the way the colours blend into each other so I took my time to write a pattern that would explain these colour changes as best I could. The scarf uses 10 shades (two of which are repeated within one colour sequence) so I had to keep my wits about me when I wrote the pattern! That, paired with all the hexagon joining of the Crochet For Kidneys Part 2 blankets, is the reason for the two month delay. Hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Scarf pattern collage

In my efforts to make the pattern easy to follow, each row is written in a font colour similar to the colour of the yarn. Bearing that in mind, do you see all the white, very light grey and light yellow in my scarf? It would have been impossible to read text in those colours printed on white paper, so I created a different colour scheme to write the pattern. The example is there in the bottom left of the photo above.

Do those colour also remind you of Neapolitan ice cream? It’s the pink and brown (or should I say strawberry and chocolate) that does it for me and brings back wonderful childhood memories of enjoying Gatti’s Neapolitan ice cream. (South African blog readers will know Gatti ice cream). A big bowl full of “that stripy ice cream” after Sunday lunch was such a treat. To me chocolate, vanilla or strawberry ice cream was okay on their own, but put them together and suddenly they became cool and made desert taste ten times better.

The same applies to the zigzag scarf pattern. Lots of colours in lots of stripes makes for a scarf ten times better than any other. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed Neapolitan ice cream.

*******

Chevron Zig Zag scarf

£3.50 on Etsy

Available as an instant download .pdf file

Sunset Shades chevron scarf ta-daaaah

17 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

chevron, crochet scarf

Ta-daaah!! My Sunset Shades chevron scarf is done!!

sunset shades chevron scarf

I love the chevron design, the way the colours go together, the way one colour flows into the next. The scarf changes from pastel yellow to light pink, to peach, to light purple-pink, and also from lilac, to violet, to plum, to wine. These two groups of colours are separated by off-white and very light grey. I really like how it turned out and I’m quite proud of my Missoni-ish chevron scarf.

I made the scarf very wide so that even though its not extremely long, it covers my neck right up to my chin. No need to wind it around and around – once is enough to keep me snug and warm.

It was a joy to crochet because although it’s only a plain and simple scarf, the colour changes kept it interesting and fun.

chevron scarf

I think the best thing about it, are the beautiful colours. I have really never seen anything like it, and even for a person who “doesn’t do pink” I really love it. I’ve blogged about this before, but I’ll just mention it again: my Mom gave me the yarn for this scarf. She chose the colours, and I just put them together in this sequence and thought up the chevron pattern. All credit should go to Mom.

I think this is a great scarf. Because it’s cotton, it’s soft against my skin without being scratchy and the more I use it, the softer it becomes. I was a bit worried that a cotton scarf wouldn’t keep me warm, but it does! Because it’s so wide and crocheted in dense stitches, it keeps the cold out just like a woollen scarf would – but without the scratchiness.

The nitty-gritty for my Sunset Shades chevron scarf:

Pattern: My own pattern. I am in the process of writing it up. It will be on sale in my Etsy shop soon.

Crochet hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Vinni’s colours Nikkim (a 100% cotton hand-dyed cotton yarn) in Natural, Stone, Ballet Pink, Baby Yellow, Pink, Purple Pink, Lilac, Violet, Red Violet and Wine. All these shades, apart from Purple Pink and Wine are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Don’t forget the 10% discount code on Winkieflash blog for the first 10 people to buy Vinni’s Colours from my shop. Seven people have already used the code , so only three more can get 10% off.

Read Wink’s review, and find the code, here.

Bring on the cold weather, I’m ready! In fact, I’m looking for excuses to wear the scarf indoors!

What do you think? Do you like it as much as I do?

Crochet Mood Blanket 2014 update

13 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My ramblings

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

#crochetmoodblanket2014, crochet blanket, crochetalong

Are you making a Mood Blanket? Have you joined the more than 2400 people from across the world in this year-long crochet along? It’s a great crochet along!

There seems to be a couple of interpretations of what the Mood Blanket is. Most people are doing it the way I am: you crochet a block, a hexagon or a row a day / once a week using a colour that represents your mood on that day (thereby giving you 365 or 52 of each). Most people are also using join-as-you-go because there’s no need to keep a pile of your motifs if the whole point is that the placement of the motifs have been determined by the day of the year it was crocheted on.

Some people not only use a shade of yarn to represent their mood, but also a different pattern, and others are crocheting whatever they want just “as the mood takes them”. People are crocheting ahead as well (that’s a bit strange.) Some people are making traditional granny squares, using a different mood-inspired coloured for each round to show how their mood changed throughout the day. “Mood Blanket” is definitely open to intepretation.

For me, it’s just a plain and simple exercise: I have six main moods so I have six colours. At the end of the day, usually after the washing up has been done and I’m in my PJ’s in front of the TV, I reflect on my day and choose a colour. My squares need to be 9cm so I only have four rounds of Lacy Cross to crochet. It’s quick and easy. By doing join-as-you-go, I can see how my blanket is growing each day.

Here is a photo I took on Friday to show you the first 10 mood blanket squares.

crochet mood blanket

I really love this way of making a blanket. No pressure. No rush. No worrying about colour placement. I have a year to make this blanket and the only thing I have to do, is reflect on my day to determine the colour.

I love my Mood Blanket!

Crochet in the office

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My ramblings

≈ 3 Comments

In November 2013 I started a craft group at the office. We meet every Thursday from 12:30 to 13:30 in a meeting room. Meeting rooms are usually reserved for client meetings, internal meetings of lawyers, training, seminars and the like….now it also hosts crocheters and knitters.

Conference phone + crocheted hexagons = my kind of office.

Meeting rooms always have water, coffee and tea. We like that.

It’s really one of the highlights of my week: I leave my desk for a full hour, walk up a flight of stairs and enter a room where I can be my True Self, crochet hook and yarn in hand. It’s also nice to know that there are others in the building who also get excited about yarn, spend hours on Ravelry and know what a crochetalong or “frogging” is. Makes me feel less like The Crochet Anomaly PA.

As you can see I’m working on my Crochet For Kidneys Part II hexagons using the Hexagons In Bloom pattern. I’m absolutely loving these hexagons. The blankets are going to be so pretty when everyone’s hexies are put together! We can go absolutely crazy with the colours, as long as the last round is white because the white will pull everything together. I love that! Colour is good, but more colour is better.

To give you an update on the hexagons, I can tell you that I’ve received three envelopes stuffed thick with hexagons. I will open, photograph and blog about them this weekend. I keep the packets closed until it’s time to take the photos on a sunny afternoon, over the weekend. I let them pile up in the week and then pounce as soon as the first ray of sunshine hits the living room. It feels a bit like Christmas every time.

Now I have to stop blogging and do some work. One day crochet will be my work, but until then I’m at the beck and call of the lawyers who pay my salary, or as I like to think of it, gives me money to pay the bills and most importantly, crochet supplies.

Hexagons In Bloom patterns

22 Sunday Dec 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, Part 2, Pattern

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

crochet pattern, free pattern, hexagon, hexagon pattern

Looky what we have here! Colourful hexagons featuring bobly flower centres. It can only be Hexagons In Bloom.

Hexagons In Bloom

Hexagon In Bloom (shells)

As promised last week and on Instagram, this post is my pattern for not one, but two types of hexagons specifically designed for our Crochet For Kidneys Part II blankets. They measure 15 cm from side to side and has the white border that you all voted for.

The plan was to only change the shape of my Granny Square In Bloom to a hexagon, but when I started playing with my Vinni’s Colours Nikkim, the creativity bug just took over. I ended up changing the flower (no raised petals), and as you can see, I also made two versions for the body of the hexagons. I honestly couldn’t stop playing. I blame the yarn. I don’t think it’s hand-dyed with dye, it’s dyed with creative juices.

The colours I used for my hexagons are Blue-Red, Red Violet, Cloud, Fern, Lime, Denim, Plum and Violet. It was so much fun going into my ~~shop~~ garage to choose the colours for my hexies. Like a kid in a sweet shop I tell you! (You can click on any of the shade names to go straight to my Etsy shop where you can buy a ball for £3.50.)

If you need any help with rounds 1 to 4, you can have a look at the photo tutorial for Granny Square In Bloom, as the flower instructions are the same up to round 4 (apart from there only being 6 popcorns in the hexagon, but 8 in the square).

I included a few photos that should help you figure out what to do in Round 4 and Round 5.

Hexagon In Bloom – shells

This pattern is written in US crochet terms
(US sc = UK dc, US dc = UK trb, US hdc = UK htr)

Hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Five shades of DK cotton. If this pattern is used to make hexagons for the Crochet For Kidneys Part II, one of the five colours has to white and should be used for Round 10.

Make a magic ring with colour A.

Round 1: Chain 1, 6 sc in ring, slip stitch in chain. 6 sc.

Round 2: Chain 1, 2 sc in each sc, slip stitch in chain. 12 sc.

Round 3: Chain 3 (count as dc.) *Popcorn stitch, 1 dc* Repeat from * to *. Join with slip stitch in chain. Six popcorns made. Fasten off colour B.

Round 4: Join colour B to any Popcorn stitch. Chain 1, 2 sc in same stitch. *Long sc over dc (crochet hook should be inserted in the sc of round 2) , 2 sc in Popcorn* Repeat from * to *. Join with sl st to top of starting chain. 18 sc. Fasten off colour B.

Round 5: Join colour C to long sc of round 4. Chain 1, 1 sc in long sc, chain 3, *dc4tog working first 2 legs in first sc and next two legs in next sc, chain 3, sc in long sc, chain 3*. Repeat from * to *. Join with sl st to starting chain. Fasten off colour C.

Round 6: Join colour D to sc between flower petals. [Chain 3 (count as dc), dc, chain 2, 2 dc (corner shell made)], *chain 1, sc in cluster of round 5, chain 1, corner shell*. Repeat from * to * end. Join with sl st at top of starting chain. See Good To Know.

Round 7: Chain 4 (count as dc plus 1 chain) [2 Dc, 2 chain, 2 dc] in chain 2 space of round 6. Corner shell made. 1 Chain, 3 dc shell in sc, chain 1, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 6. Continue working 3 dc shell in each sc and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain to last sc. 2 dc in last sc. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain.

Round 8: Chain 3 (count as dc), 2 dc in chain space (3 dc shell made), chain 1, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 7. Continue working 3 dc shell in each chain 1 space and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain.

Round 9: Chain 4 (count as dc plus 1), 3 dc shell in chain 1 space, 1 chain, corner shell in 2 chain space of corner shell of round 8. Continue working 3 dc shell in each chain 1 space and corner shell in each 2 chain space, separated by 1 chain to last chain 1 space. 2 Dc in last chain 1 space. Join with sl st to 3rd chain of starting chain. Fasten off colour D.

Round 10: Join colour E. Chain 2 (count as hdc). Continue working 1 hdc in each dc of round 10 – do not work a hdc in the chain spaces. Work *1 hdc, 2 chain, 1 hdc* in corner shell spaces. Join with sl st in chain.

Good To Know: Unlike granny squares, corner shells of granny style hexagons consist of groups of 2 dc, whereas the corner shells of granny squares are groups of 3 dc.

Hexagon In Bloom – solid

This pattern is written in US crochet terms
(US sc = UK dc, US dc = UK trb, US hdc = UK htr)

Hook: 3.5 mm

Yarn: Five shades of Vinni’s Colours Nikkim DK cotton. If this pattern is used to make hexagons for the Crochet For Kidneys Part II, one of the five colours has to white and should be used for Round 10.

Follow this instructions as for Hexagon In Bloom – shell to Round 6.

Round 7: Chain 3 (count as dc); *dc in next dc, [1 dc, 2 chain, 1 dc] in 2 chain space, dc in each of the next two dc, dc in 1 chain space, dc in sc. Continue working dc in each dc and in chain spaces of round 6 and [1 dc, 2 chain, 1dc] in each 2 chain space. 9 dc on each side of hexagon.

Round 8 and 9: Work dc in each dc of round 7 and [1 dc, 2 chain, 1 dc] in chain spaces of previous round. Round 8 will have 11 dc on each side of hexagon. Round 9 will have 13 dc on each side of hexagon. Fasten off colour D.

Round 10: Join colour E. Chain 2 (count as hdc). Continue working 1 hdc in each dc of round 9. Work *1 hdc, 2 chain, 1 hdc* in corner shell spaces. Join with sl st in chain.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message or comment on the pattern on Ravelry. If you’re on Ravelry please link to the pattern when you’ve used it because I would love to see how your hexagons look. You can also add your hexagons to the Crochet For Kidneys Part II Ravelry group so that we can all gawk and ooh and aaah about your pretty hexagons.

****

Please remember to vote for me in the National UK Blog Awards 2014. You can vote here.

Watch Me Crochet Wednesday

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Video, Watch me crochet Wednesdays

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cotton yarn, crochet, crochet event, crochet video, doilies, iMovie, Vinnis Colours

This is nothing fancy; just a short video of me crocheting whatever I’m working on at the moment. I hope you like it.

I made two more centerpieces for the tables at Saturday’s Crochet for Kidney Research UK event. There’s been a surge of interest in the event* so upped my table count from six to eight. No table left behind right? I used Vinni’s Colours Nikkim in Lilac, Violet, White and Dark Purple with a 3.5 mm crochet hook . I love working with Nikkim cotton. It’s so soft and easy to use. You can buy the purple shades here.

The pattern is Vintage-Style Vase Coaster from Nicki Trench’s book Cute and Easy Crochet With Flowers which I reviewed here.

If you are joining us on Saturday, you can buy a raffle ticket for £1 and stand a chance in winning a copy of Cute and Easy Crochet with Flowers. Cico Books also very kindly sent me a copy of Cute and Easy Knitting which you can win.

The big day is getting really close now. I’m not going to lie, I am nervous (fear of the unknown and all that) but I’m also excited. I trust that excitement will start to override the nerves. If it doesn’t, I’ll just increase my Kalms intake. The show must go on!!

*Watch out for the article by Kitty Dunn in Friday’s Get Surrey newspaper!

Watch Me Crochet Wednesday

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Video, Watch me crochet Wednesdays

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

crochet, crochet border, crochet edge, crochet video, iMovie, sharp crochet hook

This is nothing fancy; just a short video of me crocheting whatever I’m working on at the moment. I hope you like it.

In this video you see me using a Sharp Crochet Hook to make a cute border for a washcloth. Jessica Taufner sent me two Sharp Crochet Hook and Pattern Book sets – one for me to use and one to be raffled at the Crochet for Kidney Research UK event. Isn’t she kind?! (By the way, we’re up to eight raffle prizes!) Using the Sharp Crochet Hook was really easy. I’m using Anchor Freccia 6 and switched to a 2.25 mm crochet hook after using the Sharp Crochet Hook for the first row.

If you like what I’m doing in this video, you can buy a Sharp Crochet Hook on the website here. Jessica posts worldwide.

As the video only shows how I use the Sharp Crochet Hook, here’s a photo of the finished washcloth. In the end I didn’t do a fancy border. Just 5 (US) DC shells with slip stitches between each shell. I think less is more when you’re using teal blue and green…

washcloth edge and crochet cotton

Crochet mandalas ta-daaaah

28 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

crochet

Mandalas, modern doilies, large coasters, call them what you like. They are all the rage right now and I’ve hopped onto that bandwagon. I’ve actually been on the wagon since September when I made the “vintage-style vase coaster” from Nicki Trench’s book which I reviewed here. I really enjoyed working in the round, making each round a different stitch and different colour. I love mixing things up, so these kind of patterns are right up my street. When I made that purple and white vase coaster I knew it was going to be used as a centrepiece on the tables at the Crochet for Kidney Research UK day on the 9th of November. Now I just needed to make five more so that I had one for each of the six tables.

Out of the blue I remembered seeing mandalas in Simply Crochet magazines. They were designed by Marinke a.k.a. Winkieflash, which I follow on Twitter and Instagram. Her mandalas would be perfect for my tables! I had to flick through all my copies of Simply Crochet magazine to find the two patterns. It was a task I thoroughly enjoyed – there are so many things I still want to crochet! *Note to self: page through your crochet books and magazines more often* Lots of post-it notes and folded page corners later, I eventually found Marinke’s mandala patterns in issues 5 and 7. I made copies of the patterns and took it, my purple and white yarn and 4 mm crochet hook with me on holiday.

Aaah, what bliss to be crocheting on holiday. Between going to the beach, afternoon naps, discovering narrow streets and feasting at seaside cafes, it took me two days to crochet the mandalas. You’ve already seen the video of me sitting on the balcony, weaving in the ends. If you missed it, click here to go to the YouTube video.

I couldn’t resist hanging my mandalas on the washing line in front of our holiday flat. I don’t think anyone from the street noticed them, but I certainly couldn’t stop looking.

Now for the nitty-gritty of the mandalas.

Yarn: A mix of mostly Vinni’s Colours Nikkim and some Stylecraft Cotton Classique and Rowan Handknit cotton

Hook: 4 mm

Pattern: Summer Hearts from issue 5 and Picots and Petals from issue 7 of Simply Crochet magazine. Marinke blogged about her patterns here. She designed six mandalas for Simply Crochet magazine, so there are more to come. Yeah!

Modifications made: I had to modify them all. Not because I didn’t like the pattern, but because I had to make the mandalas bigger so that they would be roughly the same size as the vintage-style vase coaster and in proportion with a 6 to 8 seat table.

Summer Hearts 1 – I followed the pattern exactely to the end, and then repeated rows 5 and 6 and did a final row of (UK) DC with a long DC between the fans:

Summer Hearts 2 – I did rows 5 and 6 twice, left out row 11 (which is worked at the back of row 10) and then did the shells from row 6 again, finishing off with a final (UK) DC row:

Picots and Petals 1 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles:

Pictots and Petals 2 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles:

Pictors and Petals 3 – In stead of making (UK) trebles in the second-to-last row, I made (UK) double trebles@

And here they all are for the group shot. Pretty aren’t they?

When you see these babies again, they will be in the centre of the tables in the Vera Fletcher Hall underneath a glass vase with purple flower.

Pink brooches for Breast Cancer Awareness

25 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, My ramblings

≈ 3 Comments

In my last post I shared with you the generosity of Stylecraft Yarns, who asked me to make something for Breast Cancer Awareness using the Stylecraft Special DK they sent me. At first I wasn’t sure what to make until…. I started paging through old issues of Simply Crochet magazine. Soooo much inspiration in those magazines. In issue 5 I came across a super quick and easy flower brooch pattern. Absolutely perfect for Breast Cancer Awareness.

For my readers outside of the UK, I just quickly have to explain that here October is All About Pink and raising awareness about breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Care is a charity that does a great job supporting and advising women about breast cancer.

When breast cancer and its treatment overshadow everything, we see the woman underneath. Breast Cancer Care is the only UK-wide charity dedicated to providing emotional and practical support for anyone affected by breast cancer. We campaign for better support and care and promote the importance of early detection, involving people with breast cancer in all that we do.

Last year… 1.5 million people sought information or support from our website, 950,000 copies of our expert publications were ordered or downloaded, we answered more than 12,000 calls to our Helpline and more than 1,500 Ask the Nurse email queries, we reached 3,375 people with our breast awareness talks, over 7,000 people used our face-to-face or other specialist services

Breast Cancer Care also thought up Pink Fridays. It’s a brilliant idea. Stylecraft Yarns are holding their Pink Friday today, so it’s only right that I share my “something creative” with you today.

The nitty-gritty of my Breast Cancer Awareness brooches:

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Fiesta and Clematis
Hook: 6 mm for the back petals, 4 mm for the front petals
Pattern: Blooming Brooch designed by Cara Medus which appeared in Simply Crochet magazine issue 5
Modifications: For the centre and back petals I used both strand of pink together – that’s what the 6 mm crochet hook was for. When I did the front petals I did them in the same way as the back petals, but make 4 chains between each (UK) DC, instead of 3.
Embellishments: a pom-pom in the centre of three of the six brooches. You can see a video of me using the Clover pom-pom maker in this post.

Here they are – six pink flower brooches for Breast Cancer Awareness. As you can see, I’m wearing the cowl made with Stylecraft Espresso yarn that I won. I love it!