Photo Tutorials

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Photo Tutorial

Tags

crochet, crochet instructions, granny square, photo tutorial

I learned to crochet with the help of YouTube, yarn websites like Garnstudio & Lion Brand and crochet bloggers. These are free websites, or run by people like you and me who just want to share their knowledge and make other crocheter’s lives easier. I’ve learned so much, and taken away so much inspiration from others that I think it’s high time I start doing the same.

This blog is already my place where I share what I’ve done, but I don’t feel I’ve really taught anyone anything. Not in the way that I’ve been taught by bloggers who take the time to take step by step photos, or make detailed videos.

In light of this, and St. Francis of Assisi’s wise words: “For it is in giving that we receive” there is a new section on my blog called Photo Tutorials.

I’ve only made one tutorial so far: How To Make A Single Colour Granny Square. It’s not a ground breaking new design, but I had to start somewhere. 🙂 In time I will add more photo tutorials and eventually video tutorials as well.

Single colour granny square tutorial front page I will do all my photo tutorials as PDF documents. That way I don’t create huge blogposts, and the document can be printed. It will also include a (hand drawn!) crochet diagram. I think crochet diagrams are great. If you learn to crochet with a set of photos and then look at the diagram for what you’ve just crocheted, it should be easy to grasp how to crochet from diagrams. That’s how I learned, so I’m hoping it will work for others too.

Please give me your feedback. If you think it’s okay and clear enough, I will use it as a template for all future photo tutorials.

You can find the link to my Photo Tutorials page here.

International Yarn Bombing Day 2013

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Yarnbombing

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

crochet, IYB2013, Thames Ditton, Yarnbomb

8 June 2013 is International Yarn Bombing Day. Were you aware? I wasn’t, until I read Christelle’s blogpost on Wednesday. Wednesday! IYBD is on Saturday! What to do? Well for one thing, I couldn’t in good conscious let the day go by without yarnbombing something. It’s the one day in the year when I’m not the only weird one for attaching yarny things to railings and benches!

Something had to be done.

Same as my last minute Genoa yarnbombing of Intrecci Urbani, I got out the squares from Rachel’s Crochet Along. I had 11 completed crochet squares, left over Stylecraft DK and a yarnbombing deadline. It was an easy decision to make.

My plan was to use the squares to add to my bench yarnbombing in Summer Road because it seems to be a hit with the local Thames Ditton residence. No-one has tried to remove the crochet or damage it. In fact, people play and interact with it! I think of it as a yarnbomber-friendly-zone*. The railing behind the bench has been calling my name for quite a while now. Just as a living room looks best with something on the wall behind the couch, so my crocheter mind thinks the railing behind the bench could do with a little yarn loving…

Behold, my contribution to International Yarnbombing Day 2013:

As you can see, I joined up the squares (all crocheted from patterns in 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton), and added an edging to the bottom.

The edging pattern is as follows:

Row 1: SC in purple

Row 2: DC in purple

Row 3: *2DC, 2 chain* repeat in deep red

Row 4: *2 chain, 2DC* repeat in bright blue

Row 5: SC in lavender

Row 6: *SC, skip 3 stitches, 9 DC in same stitch* repeat in yellow

John and I put up the yarnbomb on Friday evening so that the Thames Ditton residents would wake up with a yarny suprise on the morning of International Yarn Bombing Day 2013.

Here is a video of me putting up the yarnbomb.

*Unfortunately this video and blog post is the only evidence of my yarnbomb. When I returned to the park on Saturday afternoon, someone had already, probably during the course of Friday night, tried to remove it. Out of the more than 20 cable ties I used, only five remained. Not only did they try to remove it, but they damaged the border in the process.

My contribution to International Yarn Bombing Day 2013 was visible for less than 24 hours, but I did take part and I have a video to remind me. I was really heart broken when I had to take down my crochet work, but I guess it’s just the risk you take with these kind of things.

Terrific Tuesday

04 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!, Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet thread, Japanese crochet

On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

Today we have two pictures. Lucky us!

What you see here is a crochet coaster that I made as an extra little something for the South African lady that commissioned the lace crochet basket. The basket looked so sad and lonely, and she is such a lovely lady, I just had to make her something extra.

Nitty gritty of the coaster:

Pattern: Round Coaster by Sachiyo Fukao from Kuuto! Japanese Crafts Lacy Crochet (the lace basket is from the same book)
Hook: 1.5 mm
Yarn: Coats Aida 10 in light grey to match the basket and DMC Coton Perlé 8 in shade 932 for the blue edging
Time spent: 30 minutes

I’m really starting to enjoy working with crochet thread and a teeny tiny crochet hook. I think it’s because I know this is how my great grandmother, who passed away when I was a little girl, crocheted. Whenever I use crochet thread I always think of her and imagine what life was like the last time she used Coats Aida thread. I distinctly remember the towers of Coats Aida thread in her room. My grandmother always had to buy it for her from OK Bazaars (the, then, John Lewis of South Africa.) I can’t remember Aggie ever using bright colours, but I was certainly drawn to the bright balls on the shelves of OK Bazaars. (Not much has changed then.) What she did have was an amazing tin of brightly coloured buttons which I adored. Now I keep my buttons in a glass jar and just like when I was a little girl, I can play with and admire then for hours.

I may use an iPhone to take photos of my crochet, use the internet to tell hundreds of crocheting strangers about what I do, buy my crochet thread online and use a Japanese pattern, but the basics of that which binds Aggie and I are the same. I have a bond with Aggie through crochet, and I love it.

Granny square blanket Ta-daaaah!

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet blanket, granny square, granny square afghan

All done! Nicole’s granny square blanket is ready to adorn the new couch in her new home. I had a great time making this granny square blanket and I’ll do it again in a heartbeat!

The border had to round off the blanket and be understated enough not to distract from the granny squares. I didn’t do anything fancy; just 4 rounds of shells and a SC row, but I included two colours. Picking only two colours out of 15 was tough! I changed my mind a hundred times. Even when I had settled on two colours, I still had to decide which one to use for the shell row and which for the SC row. So many choices! In the end John helped me settle on bright turquoise and bright purple. We worked out that the blanket looked best with the darkest colour for the absolute final row so that narrowed things down quickly.

Here you can see the blanket in its full glory. Do the rounds of each granny and the square arrangement look random? I planned it that way you know 😉

The nitty gritty of the blanket:

Yarn: Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK colour pack from Deramores. I used all the colours in the pack, except Pink. The grey is Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK in shade 814 – Light Grey Mix. The Deramores pack is a brilliant idea and the key to the success of this blanket I think.
Hook: 4 mm
Pattern: 70 traditional granny squares consisting of 6 rounds each, arranged 7 wide x 10 long. The 6th row of each granny is done in Light Grey.
Joining method: My Rose Valley’s Join-as-you-go method.
Border: Two rows of granny stripe shells in Light Grey, a row in Bright Turquoise, a row in Light Grey and then finally a row of SC in Bright Purple. To get the border to lie flat, I used Bunny Mummy’s technique that she explains here. I also followed Lucy’s tip on steam blocking acrylic yarn so that the final SC row wouldn’t curl up. It worked liked a charm!
Finished size: 140cm x 96 cm
Time spent: I started on the first Bank Holiday Monday in May, and finished on the second Bank Holiday Monday in May, so 22 days.

Liezel and I will be meeting Nicole on the 15th of June to hand over the blanket. Liezel came along because it was through Liezel’s Instagram feed that Nicole found me and asked me to crochet the granny square blanket for her. I’ve never met Nicole, and Liezel has only met her once. Can you believe it?! The power of Instagram, iPhones and mutual friends is a thing of beauty!

Nicole, I hope the love and joy in each crochet stitch will bring you years of snuggly happiness and blessings in your new home.

A few of my favourite things

26 Sunday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My ramblings

≈ 4 Comments

Tea in a cup made with love by John, my cute milk jug(gy), bunting, sunshine, crochet. All of this on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Life is good!

Happy granny squares

22 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet blanket, granny square, granny square afghan

Don’t these colourful granny squares just make your heart sing? I certainly does mine! I was dancing, literally dancing, around these 70 squares on Sunday. They give me such a happy buzz!!!

I had to lay out the 70 squares on my striped carpet so that I could arrange them before doing their 6th and final, join-as-you-go round in grey. There’s that planning randomness again…. This time I didn’t have a structured plan like I had for making the granny squares, I just played with my squares until they felt right. John was sitting on the couch with me and my excitement even spilled over to him. By the end, he was also squinting to see if the red and yellow was spread out evenly, rearranging squares because “that corner looks a bit dull” or “I think you need more red over here”. Seems like no-one can resist the charms of the humble granny square.

At the bottom of the photo below you can see the first row of seven granny squares I joined together with the grey yarn. It’s absolutely amazing the difference that round of grey makes to my zingy granny squares. The colours calm down immediately; it’s like giving Ritalin to an ADHD child.

I really can’t wait to see how it will look when I’ve joined all the granny squares with the grey. I’m sooooo excited! Honestly I am. Just typing this post and look at the photos again makes me buzz with joy.

A good ending for this post would be for me to now say I need a Ritalin to calm me down, but I like feeling excited about my crochet – why would I want to change that? It’s a blessing when your craft gives you such fulfilment. I sincerely hope your craft has you bustling with merriment, the way crochet does me.

Happy dance

12 Sunday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

GIF, granny squares

Bright colours, stripes and granny squares make me happy.

Beautify the bark

10 Friday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Yarnbombing

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Yarnbomb

Whilst on holiday in Cape Town, I yarnbombed a tree branch in my mom’s back garden. Why? ‘Cause that what I do!

Tree yarnbomb with crochet circles

It was a very easy yarnbomb to make. Just a 4 m string of crocheted circles joined together in the join as you go method, and wrapped around the branch. I just had to sew a couple of circles together at the beginning and the end to secure the string, and that’s it!

It took only 10 minutes to put up (and about a 2 weeks to crochet all those circles).

I really love how it turned out so it was totally worth it. If I had a tree in my back garden I would cover the whole tree this way!

I think the pastel colours work well in the shady spot, and my Mom loves it. She looks out onto this tree from the dining room and the kitchen so she sees it every day.

Tree yarnbomb with crochet circles

If you have a tree and scraps of cotton yarn you should do it too! Wrapping a string of crocheted circles around a tree or a branch is a quick and easy way to start yarnbombing. The extra colour will also liven up a bare tree in Winter.

Mmmmm… I think I’ve just talked myself into planting a tree in my back garden. Only a yarnbombing crocheter will plant a tree so that she can decorate it with yarn. Man, I just LOVE this crochet obsession!

Atlantic Waves ripple blanket Ta-daaaah!

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Around the corner crochet, blanket, crochet, crochet blanket, crochet border, crochet chart, crochet pattern, ripple

Ooo, wee this ta-daaah post has been a very long time coming. It’s been a draft post since February 2013! Shock horror. Hopefully you will understand why I have been hanging on to this one for so long, when you hear my ~~excuse~~ reasoning.

You see, the Atlantic Waves ripple blanket is inspired by the sea and made for someone who loves the sea. Hence, it is only fitting that I should photograph it on a beach of some sort. Seeing as the English weather have been grey and cold for, what feels like, a million years, I couldn’t go to the beach to photograph the blanket.

Luckily I have been on a South African holiday for a week…. my family is from Cape Town which means we are surrounded by water and encased in blue skies and sunshine…. and the recipient of the blanket is my Dad…. so I managed to finally take the photos just a few days ago!

There’s just a slight problem. My Dad and I went on a roadtrip to Cape Agulhas (where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet) on Wednesday morning. We drove the whole day and was only just able to catch the last rays of sun at the southern most point of Africa.

That meant that the next day had to be the day of The Seaside Photoshoot. That was also the one day out of my 10-day holiday that it rained. It basically looked like Britain. Gggggrrrrr. Hey-ho, my Dad and I now have a good story to tell about The Wet And Windy Photoshoot. Here you can see me, wind-swept and wet taking photos of his blanket. Oh the things you do in the name of crochet!

More about the blanket.

Almost everyone that crochets knows Lucy of Attic 24’s easy ripple blanket. Lovely at it is, I didn’t want to make a Lucy ripple, but I did want to make a ripple. The term “ripple” or “wave pattern” always evoke images of water, the sea, waves breaking and water receding against a shoreline to me. It just felt right that I should use this pattern for my Dad’s blanket seeing as he loves the ocean and he loves blue.

I wanted my ripple / wave pattern to be a little different and special, with texture and lots of interest. I paged through the Crochet Visual Encyclopedia and immediately fell in love with this pattern.

Guess what this ripple pattern is called. Atlantic Wave! The perfect pattern for my sea theme ripple blanket! The raised Fpdc adds the texture I was looking for and enhances the 3D effect of my dark to light to dark colour sequence. (It amazes me that they used a green yarn to demonstrate a sea themed pattern… strange don’t you think?)

To strengthen the sea inspiration, I used shades of blue ranging from navy to powder blue, and cream. I didn’t want the cream and navy to be next to each other as the colour contrast would draw too much attention, so I decided to go from dark to light and back to dark etc. That way I get a beautiful colour rhythm, gradual colour changes and a 3D optical illusion.

In my mind the cream is the sea foam and the blues represent the ocean as it changes from light blue just behind the sea foam, to navy at the horizon.

So here are the photos of my Atlantica Waves ripple blanket, taken with the Atlantic Ocean in the background!

I think this ta-daaah post was worth the wait. Nevermind the wet, stringy hair and cold feet.

The nitty gritty of the Atlantic Waves ripple blanket:

Pattern: Atlantic Waves by Robyn Chacula
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Midnight, Royal, Aster, Cloud Blue, Cream
Crochet hook: 5 mm
Border: No. 39 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. It was the perfect border for this blanket – it even has a Treble, just like the ripple pattern!

The blanket is now safe and sound (and out of the rain) on my Dad’s bed. Just in time for the South African Winter.

Dear Husband and my Dad really like the blanket. John like it so much that he actually tried to get me to not give it to my Dad: “He doesn’t know he’s getting the blanket. It could just stay here with me.” He really enjoyed “test driving” the blanket again and again and again 😉 It’s obvious that John would like his own blanket….. bring on Autumn 2013 – I’ll be hooking my husband a blanket. I already have a pattern in mind. As you do.

Terrific Tuesday

23 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

crochet, crocheted granny squares, granny square, granny square afghan, Instagram, Spring

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

John and I spent the whole weekend outside. I picked these daffodils from our garden, John got out the patio furniture, I worked on granny squares for an afghan order (I got the order because of a photo I placed on Instagram!), and we had a BBQ with friends. All of this happened under a blue sky with the sun baking down on us. It was only about 15 degrees, but the sun was out and we cherished every moment.

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

(If you want to follow me on Instagram, I’m natasjak)