My Belle modifications

14 Monday May 2012

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My Belle top is almost finished. I’m so, so, so close! As we speak it’s lying on the living room couch waiting for me to whip stitch the underarm & sides. Then it’s done! Whoo-hoo!

When you saw it last it was in the video and didn’t look like much. My oh my how it has grown!

In the video I talked about making a modification to the width – changing it from 23cm to 20cm. I was spot on. Taking the 3cm off each side has made a huge difference and definitely streamlined the top.

This photo of Belle being blocked, shows you all the changes I’ve made. Please note the 23cm 20cm is specific to size M.  The pattern dimensions are given in red and what I hooked, is given in purple (to match my purple Crocs of course).

Apart form the sides that I changed from 23cm to 20cm, I made two other changes:

  1. I added 3cm to the hem lace panel. To achieve this, my foundation chain was 39 stitches instead of 33 stitches. The panel is only 3cm wider, but that makes a big difference to the overall look. Remember, the hem panel is attached to the body on its side, so the panel had to be made wider, in order to lengthen the top.
  2. The other change (mentioned in the video), was to join my front and back panels 9.5cm from the edge of the central panel, in stead of 5.5cm from the edge of the central panel. My neckline is now wider than the pattern instructions. I’m very happy with my decision to do this, as you have to finish off the neckline with two rows of sc (American) / dc (English), so that decreases the neck opening even more.  Unless you have a very thin neck, I would suggest you also join the front and the back at roughly 9.5cm from the central panel.  You can always use whip stitch to make the neckline smaller if it’s too wide, but you can’t make it any wider once you’ve joined you front and back!

By the way, once again I’m so impressed with  my blocking boards. I’ve seen many other crochets and knitters use these. They really are so handy. It’s EVA foam interlocking mats. As you can see, you can place them to suit the size and shape of your crochet piece. I bought mine on eBay but you can get them at toy shops, like this one.

I’ll be whip stitching at the speed of light tonight so that I can do a Ta-daah post tomorrow.  Uhm, I wonder what I’ll be wearing to work tomorrow…?

A Mastercard Morning

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in My crochet, My ramblings, Pattern

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My Mastercard and I have been doing our bit for the British economy, keeping Royal Mail in business and contributing (quite substantially) to my yarn stash. The purchases haven’t been willy-nilly, random “ooh that’s pretty!” (although they are) purchases though. I have a plan. You see, Garnstudio has a Supersale on until the end of May, so I’m taking advantage of that. I also know exactly what I want to use the yarn for, so I know how much to buy and I know the yarn I choose will work for the pattern. Purposefully expanding my stash. See. A plan. Do you want to see what I bought and what I’ll be using it for? Of course you do!

First up is Doris Chan’s Tall Latte v-neck sweater from her book Everyday Crochet (there’s a link to it on the right of the page).

 
 
I’m not going to make the ribbing-like neck and sleeve edging – I have a better plan which I will tell you about once I start working on Tall Latte. I’m going to use Drops Merino Extra Fine in shade 04 – a medium grey. Yes I know grey is, well, grey, but I have three patterned Boden skirts that will look excellent with a grey top, so the whole outfit won’t be drab & dreary and I’ll get a lot of use out of the grey top.  Merino Extra Fine is one of the Super Sale yarns. In stead of paying £3.10 per ball, I paid £2.75 at The Crochet Chain.
 
Next up is a Garnstudio top called Country Dream. Sooo pretty!
 
 
The suggested yarn is Drops Safran. After the success of Whispers, I’m quite keen to stick to the suggested yarns for Garnstudio patterns, but Drops Safran isn’t on the Garnstudio Supersale list of marked down yarns. Luckily Scandinavian Knitting Design shop is offering it on sale! I bought shade 51 (Petrol) for £1.87 in stead of the usual £2.49! I’m going to modify the top so that it doesn’t hang over my hips, which means I could buy one less ball than suggested by the pattern. Another saving right there!
 
Last, but not least is a Vintage tank top. I bought the vintage Sirdar pattern from PastPerfect patterns this morning (and got the pdf within two hours!)
 
 
I’ll be making the one on the right with the flowery neckline. Isn’t it pretty?! I love the idea that I’m going to make something that’s proper vintage. Not a modern pattern reworked to look vintage, or vintage inspired, this baby is really truly from a vintage pattern.
 
All the Sirdar yarn they suggest, have been discontinued by now, so I had to find a substitute. Luckily I only need a very small amount of yarn as it’s a sleeveless pattern so I splurged and bought three balls of Rowan Sienna for £4.75 each. It’s not on sale, but at £4.75 a ball I know I’ll never crochet a whole sweater in this yarn, so as I only need three balls I thought what the heck. I bought a lovely green called Grasshopper from MCA Direct.
 
 
As soon as I’ve finished Belle I’ll start with the vintage tank top. I plan on taking it with me on holiday to Corfu at the end of this month. We’ll be there for a week. I can’t think of anything nicer than enjoying the sunshine in a foreign land, crochet hook and Rowan yarn in hand. I may even be able to finish the tank top whilst I’m there! Nevermind blocking, if I manage to finish it in Corfu, I’ll be wearing it in Corfu!
 
Drops Merino Extra Fine: £3.10 £2.75
Drops Safran: £2.49 £1.87
Rowan Sienna: £4.75

Three new crochet projects to get my hook into: Priceless

Constructing the Belle top – a video

05 Saturday May 2012

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It’s my YouTube debut today! I’m so excited about Belle and have such a lot to say, a typed blogpost just wouldn’t be able to get the message across, so I did a video!

I put together the video to show you how to construct Belle. (I blogged about the gauge swatches and finding yarn for Belle, here.)

Please be patient with me, as it was the first time I did a video. You might have to turn up the volume a bit. There’s a lot of uhm’s and a bit of eye rolling whilst I try to find my words. The video also ends quite abruptly, but that’s because there’s a ten minute limit on YouTube videos (I actually talked for about 15 minutes, with a proper ending, but hey-ho.)

I hope the video helps you if you are making Belle, alternatively it gives you ideas for making a similar crochet top.

Please note that I’m making size M, so where I refer to 89 dc and 23cm, that’s specific to size M.

Terrific Tuesday

01 Tuesday May 2012

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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

It’s such a rainy, miserabley gray day here today I just need to be reminded that blue skies, sunshine, crystal clear water and white sandy beaches do exist.  Indeedy, it does and I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Honest! This photo taken at Alicante in 2009 from atop the Santa Barbara castle is proof. If you’re also surrounded by the wet and gray, I hope this photo can restore your faith in all that is dry and sunny.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has left such wonderful comments on my posts recently. I read every single one and appreciate them all. Thank you all so much!

I hope you all have Terrific Tuesday, no matter what the weather is like.

Natasja

Blog Week retrospective

30 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in My ramblings

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It’s been a blogtastic week don’t you think? Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2012 was a huge hit. I received a lot more views on my blog, new subscribers, lots of comments and best of all, I found five new blogs to follow!

It was fun having to stick to a prescribed topic and force myself to think about stuff that I wouldn’t otherwise have blogged about.

I think my favourite post to write was My Perfect Crafting Day, but I’m proudest of the Something A Bit Different GIF that Hubby and I made (he was standing on a chair taking aerial photos while I crawled around on the carpet spelling out letters in crochet hooks and clocks. Good times!)

If you liked my Something Different post, you can nominate it to receive the prize for most creative post, by using this form. Before you, first do a Google search for “KCBWDAY5” to see if there is any other blogpost you would rather nominate. You can only nominate one blogpost so choose wisely.

I’m sponsoring the second prize in the Photography Challenge so I don’t think my Photography Challenge post can be nominated, but that doesn’t stop you from nominating anyone else’s post. Do a search in Google for “KCBWDAY2” and use this nomination form.

Roll on Knitting and Crochet Blog week 2013!

Retro Looks granny square cushion

29 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in My crochet, Ta-daah!

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A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo on the crocheTime facebook page of Page 57 of Mollie Makes Issue 13. It was Ilaria Chiaratti’s granny square cushion. Boy oh boy, how pretty is that cushion?!

I wasn’t the only one that thought so. Lynn Holland of OneIMadeEarlierToday thought so too and asked me to crochet her the cushion. I was delighted and got to work immediately; it’s granny squares after all and I loooooove granny squares.

As you only need scraps of yarn, I was able to raid my Stylecraft Special DK stash. Who knew I had so much yarn? After a long deliberation I whittled it down to 16 colours plus white.

I made 36 3-round grannies, of which the last round is always white. I used Ida’s own join-as-you-go method described here, crocheted a giant white granny square for the back and sewed the front and back together with this method.

Then all I had to do was add the six buttons. Mollie Makes Issue 13 came with this pack of 6 cute buttons.

I used two of the Mollie Makes buttons, then raided my button tin for the other four. I would never dream of using six of the same – mix it up and the more the merrier is what I say.

Here are photos of the end product.  There just is something special about colourful granny squares surrounded by white. So fresh and pretty. I love it!

As the article says:

A simple white backdrop is just the thing to show off bright colours, and it works likea dream for this crochet cushion.

I’m only able to enjoy the Retro Looks cushion for one more day as tomorrow she’s going in the post to Lynn and her new home in Lynn’s studio.  It was such fun making this cushion I may just consider making more to sell in my Etsy shop (once I’ve got rid of the wearable crochet bee in my bonnet that is).

Crafting balance

29 Sunday Apr 2012

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Do I have a balanced craft life? No. Hell no! For me it’s all about the hook.

I do know how to knit though. I was taught to knit in school and my mom knits. But to me knitting is just a bit boring and everyone does it.

I think Stephanie of ObeyCrochet feels the same way as I do.

There are machines that can replicate knitting, whereas no machine can truely replicate crochet. I like to be a bit different and I’m proud of the fact that I use yarn in a way that no machine can.

I also can’t imagine my life without a granny square. Really. That would just be unthinkable!

Crafting balance. Hmpfh, what crafting balance?

Improving my crochet skill set

28 Saturday Apr 2012

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I’ve been crocheting since August 2009 and to date I haven’t had a single lesson from a real person.  I’m not trying to impress when I tell you this, to me that means that there are quite possibely a whole list of things I’m doing wrong – but I wouldn’t even know it! Hahaha. Ignorance is bliss hey.

I’m happy with how my crochet skills have progressed and I think my crochet is neat and pleasant on the eye. A lot of what I know, I learned because I fell in love with a pattern and was forced to learn to do whatever the pattern asked me to do.

My skills in finding help and instrcutions through Google, is my saving grace (and my teacher). So many people share their knowledge that nothing really stands in my way when I want to try something new. I’m so grateful to the internet for being my teacher.

Having said that, I would like to attend a crochet class of some kind. Maybe not the basics of crochet as I think I’ve mastered that, but I am interested in learning how to shape wearables. A lot of the crochet patterns that I fall in love with turns out to be quite boxy which puts me off from actually making them as they will make me look too… well, boxy.

I’ll give you an example.

The Vogue Crochet Special Collectors Issue 2012 preview was launched a couple of days ago. (The magazine itself will only be availbe in store, and in electronic form, on 8 May.) I almost wet myself when I saw the pictures. Honestly. I was saying yes, yes, yes to almost everything I saw.

BUT, on closer inspection I had to ask myself how many of these beautiful things would I really wear, so that narrowed it down a bit. I was left with these as possible contenders for adding yarn to hook.

They’re stunning aren’t they? At first glance that is.

The first one is very interesting. However the neckline is very wide and off the shoulder, but I guess you could change that when you sew the front to the back at the shoulder seams.

The second one is Doris Chan design which is so pretty. However, it goes over the hips and my dear hips don’t need any more attention drawn to them, so I would have to adjust the pattern. The top is wonderfully shaped and nipped in at the waist so it won’t be a simple case of just making it shorter, you would have to know how to shorten it whilst retaining the nipped in waist.

The third and fourth are my favourites and the ones I initally thought I would definitely make. But they’re boxy and square which does not suit my body shape. I’m a pear shape, so I need definition in the waist, otherwise I end up looking like a milk carton.

The only one I could see myself making is the last one. But would I want to buy the whole magazine, only for one pattern?

If I could however figure out how to add, or change, waist shaping of a crochet pattern it would be a no brainer – that magazine would be mine!

I would love to learn how to do shaping face-to-face, but in the absence of a class I went to my virtual teacher: Google.  Guess what I found.  This excellent article on the crochetMe website that explains exactely how to adjust a pattern to include waist shaping. It’s actually precisely what I wanted!!!! (By the way, they also have an article on adding bust shaping to crochet here).

I started off this blog post with the idea that I will be left with this one crochet skill that I won’t be able to learn without face to face action, and yet again, the internet came to the rescue.

I guess my crochet learing process looks something like this:

Fall in love with pattern + Google search = another skill learned = Happy Hooker

Roll on 8 May, cause Vogue Crochet Special Collectors Issue 2012, you’re mine!