Christmas tree, crochet style!

03 Saturday Dec 2011

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Behold our christmas tree in all its crochet glory!  Doesn’t it look christmassy, colourful and wonderfully crochety? (On this blog, crochety is a word okay?)

You will recognize the granny stars from previous posts. After selling one star at the market and giving 30 away, the rest went onto our tree.  Now I’m actually glad they didn’t sell at the market because they look every so cheery on our tree.

The round decorations are rounds 1- 3 of Attic24’s hexagons  and the christmas star at the top of the tree is this Super Mario Invincibility Star pattern. I left an opening between two of the points, and also ironed on fabric interfacing to the wrong side before sewing the two halves together so that it would keep its shape on top of the tree. It worked a charm.

All the decorations are done with Rowan handknit cotton in Bleached, Rosso and Gooseberry.

The stars even look good as part of the christmas wrapping!

Have you made crochet christmas decorations? Have you decorated your christmas tree? I’d love to hear from you!

Björk

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in My ramblings, Other people's crochet

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Source: google.co.uk via Natasja on Pinterest

 
 
 
 

For Bjork’s album Volta (2007) she collaborated with The Icelandic  Love Corporation, using crochet costumes, masks and dresses for the cover, and publicity shots of the album.

This is what she said of the experience:

flying from iceland on a sunday, slightly melancholic like

i sometimes am on planes but also full of anticipation for the destination. read the cultural pages in the paper.

see photos of the girls i have gradually been getting to know over the past months/years. the icelandic love corporations making art from liquorice. warms the heart. tear out one photo when the flight-attendant doesn’t see and slip it between the pages of my journal.

a photo of a mask.

find it incredible that while some kind of icelandic-woman-voodoo-music has been seething inside of me they have crocheted from cute grannydoilycrochet in neon colours this wild woman voodoo mask. and i can’t believe how similar our thoughts are. but i keep my council and decide to wait until i have worked more on the album, to see if we really are on the same wave-length. however, i do glue it on to the front page of my journal and between me and myself the mask transforms into the protector face of the project. a few months later we are all in the irish pub in hverfisgata and i find the courage to mention this to jóní. she is game. we then meet up in their studio (also in hverfisgata, the street obviously has had a very creative effect on the collaboration) and discuss our first assignment: to make a new character, an electro neon icelandic domestic joyous force of nature.

and it has gone so supernaturally well !!!

and been so much fun

because they are so good at creating creatures

that do not exist

and i wanted so much to be something

that I have never been

björk gudmundsdóttir

Forget the Swan Dress, Björk rocks crochet!

10 Things you didn’t know about me

30 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in My ramblings

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  1. My first language is Afrikaans.
  2. I hate raw tomatoes, but I do like gherkins. Whenever we buy burgers, hubby takes the tomato off mine and I take the gherkins off his. It works out well.
  3. I wear orthopedic insoles for my dodgy turned-in ankles.
  4. Hubby and I met on the internet 12 years ago. Next month will be our 10 year wedding anniversary.
  5. My favourite drink is English Breakfast tea with soy milk.
  6. One of my subjects in High School was pottery.
  7. I stole a postcard from the Vatican City. It wasn’t on purpose – really, who in their right mind would steal at the Vatican City?! The layout of the gift shop is part gift shop and part post office, with tills allocated to each section. We didn’t know that  so when I got to the post office part and paid for my postcard and stamp, they only charged me for the stamp but I only realised that after posting the postcard. Honestly, it was a mistake!
  8. I would love to have a Golden Retriever, but can’t as our house and garden is too small. His name would be Chutney.
  9. My green iPod Nano is engraved with “You rock my world” – it was a gift from hubby.
  10. I’m irresistibly drawn to milk jugs in any size.  Small ones like the one from DovieMoon‘s Etsy shop or bigger ones filled with flowers like the yellow one from MyFrenchCottage Etsy shop. They seem so innocent and perfectly shaped for their function. I think it has to do with point no. 6 and the idea that in the good old days people really decantered milk into jugs – before modern conveniences like Tetrapack and long life milk. Milk jugs, doilies and granny squares seem to go together for me (and you know how I feel about crochet!)

P.S. I got the idea for this post from Messy La – a lovely, creative young lady from Scotland. She also has an Etsy shop, selling beautiful cards and christmas wreaths.

Terrific Tuesday

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

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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

I so love the contrast, textures and shapes in this photo (taken last week along the South Bank, London). It’s not much – just pavement and grass, but the autumn leaves seem to bring them together in such a wonderful way.

Contrast

Do you feel inspired to take on Tuesday? I hope so!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Natasja

Crochet on TV (The Middle)

28 Monday Nov 2011

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More crochet spotted on TV! I think this shot from The Middle, Season 2, episode 2 probaby shows the most crochet blankets on one couch in the history of television! There’s a multicolour ripple, a single colour ripple and a granny square blanket! Score!!

In episode 5 of Season 2, one of The Aunts is sitting under the canary yellow granny square. I must admit that the sound of a granny square blanket with the last round of each square in canary yellow does not appeal, but seeing it in the flesh (in the yarn?), it really pops and I love it!  I can see myself sitting under something similarly clashy and bright when I reach The Aunt’s age.

My search for crochet on TV continues. Hey, it’s a tough job, but a hooker’s got to do, what a hooker’s got to do.

Stuff to do

24 Thursday Nov 2011

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notepad by modernmotive on Etsy

It’s Thursday afternoon and I’m already thinking of my To Do List for the weekend.

In no particular order (as the X-factor results man always says):

  1. Photograph the eight blankets and list on Etsy (I already have buyers for two!!! So happy!);
  2. Update my Ravelry notebook to include photos of the edgings I made using Edie Eckman’s Around The Corner Crochet Borders book;
  3. Write Christmas cards for friends and family living outside the UK;
  4. Start, and hopefully finish, the crochet edging on a fleece scarf for a friend. I’m meeting up with her next Saturday and would like to give it to her as a Christmas present so time is of the essence;
  5. Fix the seam of my grey work trousers*;
  6. Do the housework*;
  7. Work on the Identity Crisis blanket (only doable when hubby is not snuggled underneath it despite the inevitable half finished row and  ball of yarn hanging off the side. He really got tangled up in the yarn the other day. I had to unwind him! He says sitting under the  blanket is like getting a hug from me and he just can’t resist :-)) ;
  8. Work on my Winter Scarf
  9. Bake something nice. Don’t know what yet, but I’m in a baking mood.

*These items may will probably be deferred to next week.

 

Terrific Tuesday

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

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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

Today’s photo isn’t exactely a holiday snap, but it’s so colourful I just have to share it! These are four of the brooches that didn’t sell at the Christmas Fayre on Saturday, so I photographed them for Etsy. The sheet of colourful stripey paper was just begging to be photographed with the roses. It’s a match made in heaven don’t you think?


I hope my crochet roses was the burst of colour you needed to make your Tuesday terrific! (I’m wearing the blueish rose at the top of the bottom photo. If no-one wants to buy it, I might as well wear it hey?) 🙂

Natasja