The Striped Stopper

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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

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In my Christmas Eve blogpost I briefly mentioned the draft stopper that I am making.  (You may have skimmed over that sentence because it was a post about completion of my Winter (AndI’mStillTotallyInLoveWithIt) cowl.)  Anyhoo, this post is all about the draft stopper.

Before I unveil the Striped Stopper, I have to give some background info.

Our livingroom door is one foot away from our front door so any cold air seeping through the letterbox promptly whooshes into the living room via that teeny tiny opening underneath the door. We’ve been using an old towel to try to keep out the arctic air, but that just looks tacky.

Hubby: “Can’t you crochet something for us?”

Me: “Hell yes! Why didn’t I think of that?!”

Hubby: “Because you’re so busy with my blanky. I’m cold now, so I’ll take blanky for now, then you can do the door thing.”

Me: “Okay, but what colour should it be?”

Hubby: “Nothing too bright.”

Me: “Have you met me?!”

Hubby: “Yes. Of course. Well, as long as it doesn’t stand out too much. I trust you.”

….. are you sure about that?

So what did I do? I made a 18 colour striped draft stopper that matches our striped Ikea carpet exactly! If you lay it flat on the carpet, you can’t even see the stopper, that’s how not stand out-ishly good it is.

It looks sooooooo nice against the door.

Even though it’s very bright and striped, it blends in fantastically with the rest of the room.

I used Rowan Handknit Cotton and Drops Paris from my stash and a 4mm hook. You can see the stash, and the carpet, here. I followed the Lionbrand pattern, but added an extra round so that my tube ended up being just a tad wider than theirs. In other words, instead of 36 stitches for a round, I have 42. I obviously also didn’t follow their stripe sequence as I had to keep the width of my stripes the same as my carpet.

I actually finished the crocheting on Boxing Day, but had to wait for the postman to deliver little plastic pellets so that I could stuff it and crochet the end. It’s stuffed with alternating layers of plastic pellets (for weight) and polyester stuffing (as insulation).

Hubby then made the very clever suggestion that we should add velcro strips to the stopper and the door, so that it will stay attached to the bottom of the door even when we LEAVE the room & close the door behind us. Isn’t that genius?

He insisted that he should be the one to have the “privilege” of using the hot glue gun to attach the velcro to the door.  (A glue gun is extremely manly you see, and well, it was his suggestion to add the velcro so it’s only fair that he should be the one to use the glue gun.)

So here we have it. The Striped Stopper, requested by Hubby, executed by Moi and, in an ever so masculine way, improved upon by Hubby.

Terrific Tuesday

10 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in My ramblings, Terrific Tuesdays

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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 every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

This photo of the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas was taken on 14 December 2011, on my 10 year wedding anniversary. In our first year of marriage Hubby and I promised ourselves that when we reached the 10 year mark we would renew our vows in Vegas, so we did!

It was fun, and at the same time I had to wipe away the odd tear when we exchanged rings and said “I do” again.  I really didn’t expect to be so emotional, considering we were at the same quicky wedding chapel that Demi Moore & Bruce Willis, Britney Spears & Jason Alexander, Frank Sinatra & Mia Farrow and Peter Holm and Joan Collins (amongst others) had used. ♥ I guess if the love is real, it doesn’t matter where, how, or how many times you say “I do” ♥

Little White Chapel

We made a little video with the photos taken that day. You can see the video on my Afrikaans blog here. (WordPress wanted to charge me to upload the video, and Facebook and YouTube had issues with the background music, so Blogger was the only place I could upload the video.) The music really “makes” the video so put on your earphones and turn op the volume.

If nothing else, the song will make you feel good and brighten your Tuesday!

Have a terrific Tuesday friends!

Natasja

2011 In Review

09 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in My ramblings

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for my blog. 

I have to say I’m quite happy ecstatic about these stats considering my first blog entry was made on 8 August 2011, so these stats span only 5 months.

Thanks to everyone who has read my blog, commented and liked a post. You are the best and I appreciate each every single one of you!!!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 9,800 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

P.S. Since this report was generated I posted the Identity Crisis blanket Ta-daaaaaaaah. To date I have received 14 comments on that post (thank you so, so, so much for all those lovely comments!!!!) so it has generated more comments than the crochet flowers pattern post mentioned in the report. I also reached 11,008 hits, which is more than the (already astounding) 9,800 mentioned by the report. These figures are very humbling and mind-blowing amazing to me. Seriously!

Once again, thanks to everyone who took the time to read and comment on my hooky ramblings. You really  have  no idea how much I appreciate each any every one of you!

Identity Crisis blanket Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

07 Saturday Jan 2012

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

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It’s a long “dah” today, but that’s because it’s proportional to length of time it took me to finish this bad boy*. To wit, 2 years, 1 month, 25 days in the making. Or to put it differently, 785 days / 67,824,000 seconds / 1,130,400 minutes / 18,840 hours / 112 weeks.  (*The link takes you to the post that explains where I got the name Idenity Crisis from. You’ll see… It makes perfect sense.)

To be fair I couldn’t work on it, or should I say “under it”, during the Summer and it a very big blanket. The point is: I finished it and I’m proud of it!

Blanket statistics are as follows:

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK. I think I used roughly 5 skeins of each colour, but it may be more.

Colours: Plum (maroon), Meadow (green), Denim (dark blue), Parchment (off-white), Cloud Blue (light blue) and Mocha (brown).

Blanket pattern: Spicey Delights by Lionbrand yarns

Border pattern: Border #112

Layout: 72 rows of stripes, one row of 21 4-round granny squares, 20 rows of stripes, one row of 21 4-round granny squares, 20 rows of stripes, one row of 21 4-round granny squares and a final 72 rows of stripes.

This is where it all started. I took this photo on 21 November 2009 – one day after starting the blanket. I can hardly believe the blanket was ever this small!

It hasn’t always been an enjoyable journey though… Here is what I wrote in the Notes of this project on my Ravelry page.

I’m making this afghan to match the Granny and Grandpa square cushions in our bedroom. I had to promise hubby that I won’t use any pink, but that’s a small price to pay to get my hooky way 🙂

I’m using Biscuit and Jam’s Random Stripe Generator. What an amazing tool!!!

31 December 09: I am really getting tired of working on this ginormous blanket. The only thing keeping me going is seeing how it changes as I add more stripes. Thank goodness for the stripe generator!

5 January 2010: I’m starting to resent this blanket cause it just doesn’t want to get bigger even though I already have 72 rows! I hook and hook and hook and it still looks like a really big scarf.

29 May 2010: I’m starting the blanket again, but I’ll be doing 4 round granny squares for the middle section.

30 August 2011: I’m baaaack….

31 December 2011: All rows are finished and the blanket is the size I wanted. Weaving in of the ends and edging left to do.

1 January 2012: All the ends are woven in.

2 January 2012: Added Around the Corner Crochet Border # 112, and I’m done, finish, kaput! 20 November 2009 – 2 January 2012 in the making.

It was all worth it in the end though. Here’s why.


Thank goodness we have only one double bed in our home, otherwise I might just be tempted to make another huge blanket because, all things considered, I would do it again.

Crochet in the movies (Smurfs)

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in As seen on TV, Other people's crochet

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In the latest Smurfs 3D movie there is a crochet afghan and a circular tablecloth in the livingroom. Have you seen? Isn’t the blanket just totally amaaaaazing?!

The blanket definitely has a distinct Babette blanket look to it. You can recreate it with the free Babette pattern on Interweave’s website.

If you don’t feel like crocheting the blanket, you can buy the blanket here. The link comes from a comment by Regina Graves, who was the set designer for the movie, on the Knit One Knit Two blog, so you know it’s the real deal.

As for the circular tablecloth, try Crocheting with Raymond’s pattern for a circular granny mandala and just keep on going until it’s the right size. To get the shabby look like in the movie, use a too big hook for your yarn, for instance a no. 6 with DK, or a no.4 with fingering, that way it will be very open and drape nicely. When you’re done crocheting the circle, add pompoms. Sarah London recently blogged about her pompoms here.

So there you have it – you can buy or recreate the blanket and you can recreate the tablecloth as used in a Smurfs movie.

Who would have thought that the Smurfs and crochet would ever be mentioned in the same sentence?!

My first ever blog award

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in My ramblings

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Thanks to the wonderful Christelle of Haak-en-stekie, I received my first ever blog award today: a Liebster!

Christelle and I are joint administrators for an Afrikaans crochet page on Facebook, called OnsHekel (it means “We Crochet”).  I think Christelle (probably) feels the same, but I would consider her a friend, even though we haven’t met in person – that’s the wonderful word of blogging and Facebook for you: shared passions link people together that would otherwise not have met. (Well we haven’t met face to face, but you know what I mean.) 

Christelle’s blog (Afrikaans for “hook and stitch”) is written in both Afrikaans and English so don’t let the Afrikaans title put you off, and it’s full of lovely photos and inspiration. Please pay a visit and add it to your blogroll.

As I am now the (very proud) recipient of a Liebster, I have to follow the rules and give the award to five other blogs with less than 200 readers. By the way, Liebster is German for “dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome'”.

The full list of rules are:

Rule #1. You must acknowledge the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Rule # 2. Give this award to 5 other bloggers. Please let them know through a comment on their blog.
Rule #3. Post this wonderful award on your blog.
Rule #4. Bask in the glory bestowed upon you and appreciate all the amazing bloggers out there.
Rule# 5. Enjoy and spread the good vibes around.

So here goes. My list of five blogs with 200 or less readers that I find “liebster” goes to:

  1. Maudi Made: http://www.maudiemade.com/
  2. Skyscrapers and String: http://silkelf.wordpress.com/ 
  3. Little Messy La: http://littlemessyla.wordpress.com/ 
  4. Not your average crochet: http://notyouraveragecrochet.wordpress.com/
  5. Unbound: http://bonniejames.wordpress.com/

I don’t want to give summaries of these blogs – I want you to visit each and every one of them to see what they’re all about. I can however tell you that they are all creative, informative, interesting, personal and just a downright pleasure to read. Definitely deserving of a Liebster. 

For the rest of the day I will be diligently executing rules no. 4 and 5.

Thanks again Christelle, you’ve made my day 🙂

 

Krochet Kids

05 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Other people's crochet

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While on holiday in Santa Monica, I came across these beautiful crochet beanies in Nordstroms.  You have no idea how incredibly soft these hats are. It feels like silky rabbit hair. Honestly! After closer inspection I became intrigued by the label “Krochet Kids” and the tag line “Buy a hat change a life”.  

Now that I’m home, I finally got round to Google-ing “Krochet Kids”. What an amazing find!

Please do yourself the favour and read their story here. This may be a spoiler alert, but the Krochet Kids are three guys! Three men who know how to crochet, and in this case, start a non-profit organisation to teach women in Northern Uganda to crochet so that they can support themselves, really is something very special!

When you buy your hat you will see a label showing you who crocheted it.  You can then go to the Krochet Kids website to find out more about the lady who crocheted your hat and then send her a message to thank her!!!

By sending her a thank you note…

 You have a powerful opportunity to encourage, instill confidence, and further empower women around the globe that are rewriting their futures.

How amazing is that?!

If would like to get involved with Krochet Kids, you can do so in four ways. Read about it here.

Empowering people to rise above poverty = powerful crochet!

 

On the edge

03 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in My crochet, My ramblings

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If you follow me on Facebook, you would have seen that 31 December 2011 was a HUGE day for me: I finished crocheting the (what felt like millions of) rows of the Identity Crisis blanket!!!! No more shells. No more rows. No more colour changes. Done – blanky reached double bed proportions.

This meant that on the first day of 2012 I was weaving in ends. Loads of ends. Luckily Hubby lent a hand in his own, ever so practical, way:

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we really could leave loose ends nicely tied into bows? Unfortunately no 😦

2 January 2012 was all about edging along Edie Eckman’s book Around The Corner Crochet (get it, edging along, crocheting an edge :-)). I chose border #112. It’s a nice and simple pattern that wouldn’t draw attention away from the rows and grannies, but still finishes off the blanket nicely. A border is so important for blankets I think. Strangely enough, Lionbrand doesn’t say you should add a border to the Spicy Delights Afghan pattern. I can’t imagine leaving the blanket edge like this: Can you?


First thing I had to do was create a base row of sc all round. Edie suggests three sc for every two dc on your vertical edges. Horizontal rows are easy, you just do a sc in each stitch of the row. For the corners, use three sc and put a stitch marker in the second/middle sc of the group of three.

The second row of my edging, which is in fact the first row of the pattern, I initially had in maroon, but had to undo it all because the maroon was just too dark to stand out between the navy rows. See what I mean?

This is the white row that replaced the maroon.

Then, the last row of the pattern is dc’s in the sc of your previous row, and three dc’s in each space between.

This is the result. Border #112 done and dusted. However….. I felt it needed something extra. Just something to finish off properly.

So this is what I did. A simple sc row of maroon. It just pulls everything together and I get to use the maroon that I had to undo earlier. Result!

That’s it. With the border on, I was done!!!!

If you want to see the finished product you can have a look at the Facebook page. It’s not the best photo (it’s a bit yellow due to the electric bedroom light) but I was so excited I just had to take a picture. This weekend I will make blanky pose for its photoshoot in lovely natural light and take loads of pictures of all angles. I will also recap the pattern and yarn that I used.

I never thought I’d see the day when I can blog about woven ends and border for this bad boy. I’m so happy it’s done, proud of myself for seeing it through, and I love to see the blanket being used.

I definitely want to make another blanket – smaller!!!! – because I like the idea of crochet blankets to keep friends and family warm and cozy. There are such a lot of patterns and yarn to choose from…..

What am I saying?! Another blanket?! This one isn’t even 24 hours old! I think I just got a shot of the hormone that mothers release straight after childbirth. You know, the one that makes you forget all the pain and agony of childbirth so that you only focus on your beautiful baby? I think it applies to huge crochet projects as well.

I must be….

on the edge of crochet madness.

On the edge

03 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in My crochet, My ramblings

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 If you follow me on Facebook, you would have seen that 31 December 2011 was a HUGE day for me: I finished crocheting the (what felt like millions of) rows of the Identity Crisis blanket!!!! No more shells. No more rows. No more colour changes. Done – blanky reached double bed proportions.

This meant that on the first day of 2012 I was weaving in ends. Loads of ends. Luckily Hubby lent a hand in his own, ever so practical, way:

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we really could leave loose ends nicely tied into bows? Unfortunately no 😦

2 January 2012 was all about edging along Edie Eckman’s book Around The Corner Crochet (get it, edging along, crocheting an edge :-)). Tou can find a link to the book on the right of this page. I chose border #112. It’s a nice and simple pattern that wouldn’t draw attention away from the rows and grannies, but still finishes off the blanket nicely. A border is so important for blankets I think.  Strangely enough, Lionbrand doesn’t say you should add a border to the Spicy Delights Afghan pattern. I can’t imagine leaving the blanket edge like this: Can you?


First thing I had to do was create a base row of sc all round. Edie suggests three sc for every two dc on your vertical edges. Horizontal rows are easy, you just do a sc in each stitch of the row.  For the corners, use three sc and put a stitch marker in the second/middle sc of the group of three.

The second row of my edging, which is in fact the first row of the pattern, I initially had in maroon, but had to undo it all because the maroon was just too dark to stand out between the navy rows.  See what I mean?

This is the white row that replaced the maroon.

Then, the last row of the pattern is dc’s in the sc of your previous row, and three dc’s in each space between.

This is the result. Border #112 done and dusted. However….. I felt it needed something extra. Just something to finish off properly.

So this is what I did. A simple sc row of maroon. It just pulls everything together and I get to use the maroon that I had to undo earlier. Result!

That’s it. With the border on, I was done!!!!

If you want to see the finished product you can have a look at the Facebook page. It’s not the best photo (it’s a bit yellow due to the electric bedroom light) but I was so excited I just had to take a picture. This weekend I will make blanky pose for its photoshoot in lovely natural light and take loads of pictures of all angles. I will also recap the pattern and yarn that I used.

I never thought I’d see the day when I can blog about woven ends and border for this bad boy. I’m so happy it’s done, proud of myself for seeing it through, and I love to see the blanket being used.

I definitely want to make another blanket – smaller!!!! – because I like the idea of crochet blankets to keep friends and family warm and cozy. There are such a lot of patterns and yarn to choose from…..

What am I saying?! Another blanket?! This one isn’t even 24 hours old! I think I just got a shot of the hormone that mothers release straight after childbirth. You know, the one that makes you forget all the pain and agony of childbirth so that you only focus on your beautiful baby? I think it applies to huge crochet projects as well.

I must be….

on the edge of crochet madness.

Terrific Tuesday

03 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Terrific Tuesdays

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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 holiday snaps every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

It’s the first working day of 2012 so I think we need something really pretty. I so love this photo I took of the single huge chrysanthemum on our coffee table. The cushion in the background was my first attempt at designing and embroidering a cushion. To make it hazy and extra lovely I used the Instagram effect called Amaro.

I hope I managed to add a spot of colour and happiness to your day. Here where I am it’s pouring with rain and you can’t even use an umbrella because the wind is too strong! I’ll be referring back to this yellow flower and cozy livingroom photo a few times today. Feel free to do the same 🙂

Have a terrific Tuesday.

Natasja