Category Archives: My ramblings

The progress of Rose

03 Friday Jul 2015

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I’m making progress on Rose! I actually turned the corner right after I wrote last week’s post. Funny that. As soon as I put down in words what was bothering me, it stopped bothering me.

The sudden burst of enthusiasm may also be because I’m seeing the top take shape. I now have a neck and armholes. Whoohoo! I had to keep my wits about me when I joined the shapes for the armholes and neck. I made a mistake once (okay, it was twice) and had to undo a few motifs (not easy when they are join-as-you-go!) but I enjoyed the problem solving.  Oh, I also realised that I had to go up a size for the armholes, so that caused a few problem solving situations as well.


 Rose crochet top

And what do we have here? A single greenish motif?!

Detail of Rose crochet top

It had always been the plan to make the last row of the body and the sleeves in this colour, but of course I had to reach the second-to-last row before I could add the green. I just HAD TO hook up the green motif as soon as I was able to join it to something just to see what it would look like: me like-y!

I’m excited about this crochet top and can’t wait for Sunday when I plan to do a lot of hooky on Rose.

The problem with Rose

24 Wednesday Jun 2015

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Have you ever felt excited about a crochet pattern, bought the perfect yarn, started crocheting and one week in you just feel kind of bleh about it?

I’m sure other people must loose interest in their crochet projects because something new comes along, but I’m not one to leave a project halfway for something else unless it’s something with a deadline (like a pattern for a magazine). That means that if I’m bored/frustrated/uninterested with a project it bugs me soooo much because I just can’t pack it up and get on with something else – I HAVE TO finish is.  But if I do decide to start a more interesting project I can’t fully enjoy it, no matter how much more interesting it is, because the boring one haunts me.

The piece of crochet that has me feeling so uninspired, is the beautiful Rose top from Marie Wallin’s book Filigree.Rose crochet top Natasja King Instagram feed

I’m using a lovely blue King Cole Bamboo Cotton 4 ply yarn which is a joy to work with. I have the motif memorised and I know the Rose top will be very wearable. I really want to finish it so that I can wear it, but I just can’t “get stuck in”.  Do you know what I mean? I crochet a motif, I join it to the others and then I put it down and stare out the window. Or I make a cup of tea. I return to my spot on the couch and with a big sigh start the next motif. Two rounds in, I put it down and stare out the window. Or rearrange the flowers in the vase. Then I check my Instagram feed and think to myself “Should I take a photo of Rose? Nah. Can’t be bothered”. I pick up the half finished motif and do two more rounds, join it to the rest and…. stare out the window. This goes on for about 30 minutes and then I give it up until tomorrow. Or not. Sometimes I give it up until next week.

Can you see where I’m going with this? (At least something is going somewhere – unlike the progress on Rose!)

When I was making the CFK4 blanket (I gladly interrupted Rose for this very worthwhile cause) I was flying through the granny squares. Granny squares are a million times easier to make than the motif for Rose, so you would think I would have been bored. But I wasn’t. I was excited and driven. I had to decide which shade of blue to use and think really hard about it, because I was doing join-as-you-go, so if I didn’t like my colour choices, I was stuck with them. There was a lot to think about, but I loved making that blanket and finished it in three weeks!

Last week I bought a new Japanese crochet pattern book which arrived yesterday. Having paged through the book all I want to do now is figure out those diagrams and get started with a beautifully intricate crochet top. The challenges of reading a Japanese crochet diagram is super enjoyable for me. Even if I only use one colour (like I did for this one) I just can’t stop crocheting because the pattern is so interesting.

Now that I’ve written down my thoughts here I think I know now what the problem is with Rose: it’s not challenging enough. I need to play with colour, solve colour problems or figure out a tricky diagram to get me excited about crochet.

Knowing why I’m bored with Rose, still doesn’t solve my problem though. I desperately want to finish it so that I can wear it and get on to other Japanese-y crochet patterns, but I’m just not motivated.

I guess I’ll just have to suck it up, buckle down and get on with The Business Of Rose.

My blanket for Crochet For Kidneys Part 4

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, My ramblings, Part 4

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We have one blanket for CFK4!

I just love granny squares! Just look at them!

I started the blanket on the weekend that I launched CFK4, and finished it yesterday. How super quick was that? Nothing beats a simple granny square for speedy blanket making or for a super fun time playing with colour combinations.

For the border, I used Border 138 from Around the Corner Crochet Borders book. It’s a striking border with a slightly raised ridge and very easy to do: just three rows of (UK) double trebles / (US) trebles, but on the second and the third rounds you work around the posts of the stitches in the previous round from the back. If each round is done in a different colour – in my case turquoise, grey and finally navy – it gives an really interesting effect.

I don’t know about you about I always place my darkest shade at the very edge of my border. I think a dark colour on the outermost edge pulls everything together.

The nitty gritty of my Blue Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 blanket:

  • Pattern: Traditional 6-round granny square, the last round of which is a different colour, arranged as 9 rows of 7 squares per row.
  • Yarn: Various DK acrylic yarns in shades of blue and a silver grey
  • Hook: 4 mm
  • Joining method: My Rose Valley’s Join-as-you-go method.
  • Border: Border #138 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders
  • Finished size with border: 135 cm x 97 cm

I am relieved that I’ve done my blankety bit for CFK4. Even if no-one else sends me a blanket for the kidney dialysis patients I know there’ll be at least one that I can hand over to the nurses at the Royal London Hospital.

I’m going to make one more blanket like this, but in shades of pink. Wouldn’t that look nice?

Before I start the pink blanket though I think I want to finish my Marie Wallin Rose top first – especially as it looks like Summer has finally arrived in the UK. Warm sunny days are not the best time to work on a blanket!

If you’re working on a CFK4 blanket, thanks! If you haven’t started yet, maybe you could consider making a blanket – it’s a great way to use up your stash and you’re make a comforting blanket for someone going through very unpleasant kidney dialysis.

All the detail on Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 can be found in this blog post.

Old cushions get a bit of an edge

04 Monday May 2015

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When you’ve been crocheting as long as I have, you sometimes need to do a bit of maintenance on your crochet pieces. Luckily I haven’t had anything unravel or fall apart, but what I do suffer with is saggy cushions. They didn’t become saggy by themselves, no it’s mostly due to me grabbing the cushions at one corner, and thereby stretching them out of shape, when I take them off the bed. User error in other words. In my defence these cushions are about five years old and they are used daily…

The cushions in questions are my very first two crochet projects. It’s because of them that I made the Identity Crisis Blanket because who can have cushions without a matching throw?

Do you see the green square in the centre of the cushion below? That was the very first thing I ever crocheted, back in August 2009. That square is the result of an afternoon in front of YouTube with a library book at my side and lots of swearing (from me), comforting words (from John) and cups of tea. There is no way I will ever get rid of the cushion, so when it started to look exceedingly saggy (much like its owner’s bottom) I had to fix it.

All I needed was a plan, a ball of Parchment Stylecraft Special DK and a 4 mm crochet hook.

But first let me show you what I mean by a saggy cushion. Where my thumb is you can see the cushion inner if you look closely. That means there are about two rows of DC shells that don’t sit tight against the inner any more. Flabby and saggy indeed.

But my rescue plan worked! No more saggy cushions!

All it needed was a row of slip stitches around the posts of each DC in each shell, but going through to the corresponding DC post at the back at the same time. Between shells I worked a chain and on the corners I worked two chains.  It’s super easy but also super effective.

The light blue DC post you see below, is from the back of the cushion. So here you can see how I place my crochet hook to do a slip stitch over the post of the front and back DC stitch:

Three slip stitch made over the three DCs of the shell:

This is how it look at the back:
 

 Behold saggy cushions no more – in fact they now have A Bit Of An Edge.
 

The slip stitches on the front makes for a lovely detail which I like.

And in the back the stitches are almost hidden and all you see is the indentation.

So there you have it! If your cushions have stretched out of shape and are in need of restoration, give this method a go. I actually think the row of slip stitches finishes off the cushion so you may want do it on purpose for your next cushion – just make your cushion two rounds bigger than it needs to be, and add a round of slip stitches around the posts of the front and back DCs! The only down side is that you can’t have a cushion opening along a side, you would have to do an envelope style opening at the back.

Now if I can only sort out my saggy bottom, I’d be one happy lady.

67 blankets for Nelson Mandela day

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

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What an amazing achievement by the South African crocheters!

nelson mandela

67 blankets official logo

Well done South-Africa!

 67 blankets for Nelson Mandela Day has just set a new ‘Guinness book of world records’ for the world’s largest handmade blanket! The 3133 square meter blanket at the Union Buildings in Pretoria beats the old world record by more than 3 times.

aerial shot and quote

The BIG blanket is not only setting a new world record, but this winter 21000 underprivileged South Africans will be snug and warm under one of these handmade blankets, all in the name of Nelson Mandela.

peter morey collage

Cornel and Elsbeth went to see the BIG BLANKET and would love to share some of the blankets that caught their eyes.

They picked 67 blankets that they absolutely loved.

HERE THEY ARE:

67 blankets for Nelson Mandela67 blankets for Nelson Mandela67 blankets for Nelson Mandela67 blankets for Nelson Mandela67 blankets for Nelson Mandela67 blankets for Nelson Mandela67 blankets for Nelson Mandela

67 blankets for Nelson Mandela

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AND THIS IS THEIR TOP 3:

our favourites

May Nelson Mandela’s legacy of compassion, forgiveness, understanding and tolerance continue!

This is what South Africa is about.

NELSON IS PROUD by elsbeth eksteen at the union buildings 21 april

Please go here if you would like to know more about the 67 minutes concept…

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The problem with buying yarn online

20 Friday Feb 2015

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Like most of you, I do love my online yarn shopping. It’s convenient, the websites are very user-friendly, delivery is usually fast, online yarn shops regular send out great voucher codes and best of all you can do it from the comfort of our home.

This morning I decided to buy the yarn for one of the beautiful crochet and knitting tops in Marie Wallin’s latest book Filigree. She used Rowan 4-ply Summerlite so I thought I’d do the same. No substituting, no worry about getting the gauge right – all I had to do was decide what colour I want to use for Anemone.

I have two favourite online yarn shops: Deramores and Loveknitting, so that’s where I pointed my mouse, expecting to only have to compare the prices of their Rowan Summerlite.

Oh dear.  This was not going to be as easy as I thought. The shades of Rowan Summerlite on these two sites might as well have been two different brands, they were so different. The Pinched Pink shade immediately stood out for me, but for the wrong reasons.

On the Deramores site, this is what I saw. Pinched Pink is the colour in the big square. It looks like a muted orange-pink:

Rowan Pinched Pink Deramores

Here is Loveknitting‘s version of Rowan Summerlites shades with Pinched Pink as the main colour.  It looks fuchsia pink. Can this be the same yarn? Can it be the same shade? Apparently it is.  After reading this blogpost, Loveknitting have corrected the photographs they had on their website.

Rowan Pinched Pink Loveknitting

The correct shades are now showing on Loveknitting.com and they left a comment on this blogpost.

Loveknitting Rowan summerlite

On Rowan’s own website this is what Pinched Pink looks like. This is much more of what I would have expected from a Rowan shade: muted and soft. Not even close to how Deramores or Loveknitting has photographed the shade:

Rowan Pinched Pink Rowan website

I know we have to take into consideration computer resolution when looking at colours on a website, but I’m looking at these three website on my one laptop, so the differences are not in my screen resolution, it’s in the way the websites photographed the yarn.

I’m hesitant to make any colour decisions now that I’ve seen this. I was leaning towards Periwinkle or High Tide, but how can I be sure of what I’ll be getting? Go look for yourself the differences in High Tide on these three website. It’s quite shocking.

What would you do in this situation? It’s probably safest to use the Rowan colour chart to make my decision on what shade to buy. Or do it the old-fashioned way and just go to a bricks and mortar yarn shop.

Have you ever bought yarn online expecting one shade, only to find it looking totally different when it arrived?

Crochet Mood Blanket 2014 ta-daaah!

31 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in My crochet, My ramblings, Ta-daah!

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Behold my Crochet Mood Blanket 2014!!! All 357 squares of it in its colourful glory! I started it on 1 January 2014 and completed it 31 December 2014 – precisely one year in the making.

crochet mood blanket 2014

The Crochet Mood Blanket is the brainchild of Stacey Wentworth-Hall (@frofunky on Instagram). You basically just crochet or knit a block or stripe everyday (or once a week if that suits you better)  using a colour that you feel reflects your mood.

If you would like to get on board for 2015, have a look and join the Facebook Group here.

Our blanket will be moving between the living room and the bedroom. I just love how colourful it is! It cheers up any space!

Crochet mood blanket 2014IMG_1251

The Mood Blanket has taught me a lot about myself and how my moods change. John said the blanket is a testament of his patience 🙂  I love that for years and years to come I will always be able to look back at my blanket, and therefore on my emotions during 2014. It’s been a good year and for that I am very, very grateful.

lacy cross crochet squares
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The border I chose for my Mood Blanket is a variation on Border #39 that I used for my Dad’s Atlantic Waves Ripple blanket. The border is made up of  three rows of single crochet, a row of double crochet (which in the original Border #39 is a treble) and a final three rows of single crochet. I used all seven of my colours for the border.

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Seeing as the Crochet Mood Blanket is based on the days of the year, I wanted to be able to remember where it all started. In other words which square represents  1 January 2014? I did this by switching around the colours of the first two rows of the borders. See?

mood blanket corner border

Around the square for 1 January, I used purple as the first row, whereas for the rest of the blanket I used yellow for the first row of the border.  I don’t think anyone else would even notice this small switcharoo, but it’s the perfect reminder of my very first mood of 2014 – in this case a happy lime green.

The nitty gritty of the Crochet Mood Blanket 2014:

  • Pattern: Lacy Cross from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton
  • Yarn: Hayfield Bonus and Hayfield Baby Bonus
  • Crochet hook: 3.5 mm
  • Joining method: Join as you go
  • Border: No. 39 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman.
  • Size: 21 rows of 17 squares, which makes 357 squares. Completed size with border is 165cm x 135cm.
  • Colours: The colours of the Mood Blanket were chosen to represent my seven moods. This is how may of each colour I used for the blanket:

Crochet Mood Blanket 2014

I did some number crunching and at the end of 2014 I can reveal that I had 6% sad, 7 % irritable, 7% ditsy, 4 % stressed, 30% not great but not bad either, 29% happy and 17% grateful days.  I know this because of a crochet blanket! How crazy and amazing is that?!

Making the Mood Blanket was a great eye opener. I had to be honest with myself about my moods. If that meant that there were three days of being depressed, then so be it. Three grey squares it shall be. I also had to reflect on my day at the end of every day. Some days may have started as green (happy) days, but then something would happen at work which upset me and the day turned into a stressed day. At the end of the day I had to look back and decide what was the prevailing mood for the day: the happiness of the morning, or the stress? Did I allow the stress to get to me or did I look on the bright side and manage to keep my day happy. If I allowed the stress to get to me, then it had to be honest with myself and make the day a red day.

At one point during 2014 I also realised that although I had lots of green (happy) days, I didn’t have that many grateful (turquoise) days. That’s not good and that’s something I had to, and still have to, work on.

If you are ready to be honest with yourself and stick with it, you can use a crochet project to analyse your moods, attitude and emotions for a whole year. As a bonus you’ll have a blanket at the end of the year. I highly recommend it.

Three projects for 2015

23 Tuesday Dec 2014

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How are you all doing on this the eve of Christmas eve? I’m in the office doing my PA thing, hoping for things to quiet down soon.  I’m very much looking forward to hometime tomorrow which will hopefully be earlier than the usual 17:30! John and I are going to friends for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day I’m cooking a pimped-up-Sunday-lunch-type-Christmas-theme-sort-of-meal. Apart from these two things we have absolutely nothing planned until we are both back at work on 5 January! Isn’t that fantastic?!

I say “nothing planned” but what I mean to say is that we don’t have places to go or people to see – I actually do have one thing planned: FINISH THE CROCHET MOOD BLANKET 2014!!!

For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to catch up on my daily (hahahaha, that was wishful thinking!) squares. As of 23 December, I’ve crocheted squares up to 1 October. That means roughly 80 to go, plus the border. Luckily the last nine days of 2014 won’t be mood-hooked because that would leave a row of only 9 squares in my blanket, so I have a bit of breathing space, and time to finish the border before 31 December 2014. I have to, have to, have to, finish that blanket before 31 December!

After that it’s on to three beautiful pieces of wearable woolyness: one knitted and two crocheted. I just have to share them with you. I’m super excited and can’t wait to get started.

Number one on the list is pattern 136-23 “Blues” by Garnstudio.

Drops Design Blues squares and stripes crochet top

This top will be the third crochet top from the Garnstudio 136 collection.  The other two are Whispers and Country Dreams – both pieces I loved making and still enjoy wearing.

I’ll be using one shade of Vinnis Serina for this baby. I showed you how beautifully Serina (a 4-ply Bamboo yarn) works up back in June, and complained that the Japanese diagram top I wanted to use it for, would use too much yarn. I’ve since changed my mind (there’s a shocker) and will use Vinnis Serina for a top, no matter how much yarn it uses. I changed my mind because I’ll be on holiday in South Africa at the end of January which means I’ll be right there to buy more yarn from I Love Yarn if needed. Yeah! Hopefully Blues will turn out to be a super fun holiday project just like my Rowan Dusky top, which I finished whilst on holiday in Corfu.

Second project for 2015 will be Paget, a knitted cardigan which can be worn back to front!

paget by berroco

Just yesterday I was looking for an easy knitted cardigan pattern but gave up the search. This this morning I stumbled upon the Berroco Design Team Blog post called “Style Your Knits: Paget” in my WordPress Reader. The video in the post demonstrates four ways of styling the very versatile Paget . It was absolutely perfect for me! I immediately bought the pattern for $6 through Ravelry. The suggested yarn is Berroco Flicker but I think I will rather use Drops Paris. The shade is yet to be decided…

Last item on the 2015 To Hook List is the Convergence Top by Linda Skuja for Interweave Crochet Spring 2014.

convergence top
Isn’t this just amazing!?! I bought the pattern yesterday for $5.50 directly from the Interweave store, only to see that it is on sale as of today for a mere $3.85. Click here. Go, go, go!

I plan to make my own self striping yarn for this one. I have two balls each of King Cole 4 ply Bamboo in Glacier and Denim. I desperately want to use it, but I love the effect that self striping yarn gives to Convergence. In fact, I think self striping yarn is essential to make the design of Convergence work. Luckily there are very clever knitters out there who blog, and make videos, to show you how to make your own self striping yarn! Lorraine of Knitting Pipeline explains how to make self striping yarn with small bits of leftover yarn in her blog post here (she calls it a Magic Cake). You join the pieces of yarn with a super strong Double Knot. Watch the video of the Double Knot method on YouTube here.  Closer to the time I will work out a method of ensuring my two colours are truly randomly joined, but for now at least I have the beginnings of a plan.

I can’t wait to get started crocheting and knitting wearable pieces again. I was very busy the past six months designing patterns for I Like Crochet magazine and I published my iBook Crochet Pretty (which Inside Crochet magazine wrote about in Issue 61!!!). Things have also changed on the work front (with more, bigger changes coming) so I’m a bit tired now and ready to take it slow, easy, bright and breezy.

Do you like any of my three upcoming projects?  It will be great if you join me making one, or all, of them! What are your yarny, hooks and needles plans for 2015?

 

 

 

 

 

Hema just a little in love

19 Friday Dec 2014

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Do you also have a thing for pretty stationery? Stickers, post-its, colourful pens, to do notes? As a PA I am forever writing to do lists, or instructions like “please sign”, “please pass this on” or “send by courier” on post-its. The stationery cupboard on each floor of our firm has the bog standard pastel yellow post-it notes, but I HATE them. I buy my own post-its. They have to very colourful and preferably in a weird shape. I’m the only one who uses my own post-its, so much so that I don’t even have to write my name on the bottom anymore because everyone knows the green apple or orange star post-it comes from Natasja.

I also love notebooks. I have a notebook for everything!  I buy different size notebooks with different purposes. My notebooks are for “crochet designs” or “inspiration” or “soul trader business notes”, but in the end all my notebooks become a combination of all three of these – I just grab whatever is closest and start scribbling. I’ve stopped trying to restrict myself. Instead I’m embracing this by buying big, thick notebooks that can hold all my jotting, no matter what the subject matter.

Being so in love with stationery, I’ve always gone to Paperchase with their beautiful prints and designs but it is quite pricey, especially if you have a paper addiction like I have. What I need is a shop where I can buy cheap, but fun, practical and crafty stationary. I think I found it:

HEMA

Hema is a Dutch chain that recently came to the UK. They have three stores (Victoria, Brompton and Kingston Upon Thames) and an online shop. I visited the Kingston branch this morning and I fell in love! If you like Ikea designs and Tiger stores prices, HEMA is the place for you.  Hema design and test everything they sell, themselves. It has a distinct Dutch feel to it, which I love. Their Dutch biscuit range is out of this world! (If I didn’t have a sugar intolerance this blog post would have been about Hema biscuits, not Hema stationery!)

Here are a few of my favourite things from the Hema online shop.

Hema selection 1

  1. First off, a set of 5 erasers shaped like balls of wool and knitting needles. I mean really. How perfect?! Price: £1
  2. A “knitted” iPhone 5 hard-case cover. I know it’s not stationery but it goes so well with no. 5 I just had to include it in my list. The knitting is photographed so it really looks like your iPhone has a woollen cozy. The covers are also available for iPhone 4 and Samsung S4 and S3 Price: £5
  3. Postage themed washi tape. Perfect for when I post Vinnis yarn to my Etsy customers. Price: £3
  4. Packaging boxes with mint green stripes. I might just switch to these when I post balls of yarn. The boxes are great for wrapping and/or posting oddly shaped items. Price: £2 for a 2-pack
  5. An A5 notebook to match the “knitted” iPhone cover. This design is also available in other colours and in other sizes. If this notebook was available in the Kingston shop I would have bought it. Instead I bought a light green notebook with the words “Anything is possible” on the cover. It’s so lovely! Not everything in the stores are available online, so it is worth checking in store and online. Price: £2
  6. I bought this set of sticky notes for work. Wow, wow, wow. Did you read my first paragraph? Can you see why it would be perfect for me to use at work? Owls that say “hello” and goldfish that say “lala”. Just what the lawyers need to liven up their desks! Price: £2
  7. Postage themed stickers. This was my third purchase, so expect a sticker on your parcel of yarn when you buy from my Etsy shop. I just love it! Price: £1

There is so, so, so, much more that you will love in Hema. And it’s so cheap! Expect a few more of these #loveHEMA posts. I can go on about them for days!

(I have not been asked, or paid, by HEMA to write this post but it does contain affiliated links.)