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crochetime

~ So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time: story of my hooky life.

crochetime

Tag Archives: crochet

Terrific Tuesday

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Natasja in Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet swimwear

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

Source: etsy.com via Craft on Pinterest

 

It’s absolutely freezing here in the UK today. Super strong, super cold, Siberian winds make for eye-watering cold walks. What I wouldn’t give to be lying on a sunny beach right now – but not necessarily wearing this vintage crocheted bikini with the strategically placed flowers on the top…. 😉

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

Image

My Sunday afternoon

10 Sunday Mar 2013

Tags

crochet, Japanese crochet

20130310-115903.jpg

I’m on a Japanese crochet adventure…

Posted by Natasja | Filed under My crochet, My ramblings

≈ 12 Comments

Olek is right – happiness is an inside job

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by Natasja in Other people's crochet

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet art, Olek

Source: blog.makezine.com via Natasja on Pinterest

 

Once you realise that your joy comes from within, rather than in response to what goes on around you, life is easy, life is good and all good things come to you.

(The latest Olek exhibition is called The End is Far. You can see more of her crochet writings here.)

Terrific Tuesday

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Natasja in Other people's crochet, Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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

Beautiful crochet vases by Sanna and Sania. Oh, I do so much love a colourful stripe!

Wishing you all a Terrific Tuesday.

Natasja

Odd Molly crochet

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by Natasja in Other people's crochet

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet fashion, wearable crochet

The Odd Molly Spring / Summer 2013 collection is out now. It’s filled with edgy, yet feminine, crochet pieces. I love them all.

What I love most however, is the Odd Molly message: “you are perfect because you are not”.

Source: oddmolly.com via Natasja on Pinterest

Source: oddmolly.com via Natasja on Pinterest

Source: oddmolly.com via Natasja on Pinterest

Source: oddmolly.com via Natasja on Pinterest

Source: oddmolly.com via Natasja on Pinterest

Surbiton fruity yarnbomb update

25 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Pattern, Yarnbombing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

crochet, free pattern, Surbiton, Surbiton Food Festival

I think I’ve had my fill of fruit for now: 14 Days of crocheting fruit (including on the 07:26 to Waterloo and lunch hours in Caffe Nero), four balls of Stylecraft Special Chunky and six balls of Sirdar Hayfield Bonus Chunky later, I’ve made 64 pieces of fruit for the Surbiton Food Festival yarnbomb.

64 Pieces of crochet fruit over 14 days works out to just under 5-a-day. How health conscious am I?!

crochet fruit.jpg

Crocheting the fruit was fun, but doing the stems and leaves and then having to sew the three (tiny) parts together got a bit tedious by the time I got to pear number 15, give or take an orange or two.

Now, thankfully, it’s time to move on to stripes. My favourite thing in the whole world. Just mindless trebles in any colour and I can go as mad and bright as I want. In fact, for the purpose of a yarnbomb the more outrageous the colours the better!

My amazing husband was with me two weeks ago when I went to Surbiton to take measurements. He is a stickler for detail and an excellent draughtsman. With his accurate measurements and my love of colour, the yarnbomb is going to look great!

Yarnbomb stripes for lamppost.jpg

Lovely Alice of Knit n Run 4 Sanity has blogged about her very cute cherries, grapes and strawberry contributions here. She even shares her pattern with us. Thank you so much Alice!!

Just to recap, the details of the fruity yarnbomb is in this post, and the pattern for the crocheted fruit is on this link: Crochet fruit pattern. Anyone can crochet fruit and send it to me, as long as it reaches me before 22 March 2013. Apart from Alice and Louise (the designer of the fruit patterns) I have a lady from Dubai who is contributing and I think one or two from South Africa as well!

If you are also crocheting fruit for the yarnbomb, how many have you made?

You can be part of a yarnbomb!

11 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Pattern, Yarnbombing

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet applique, Surbiton Food Festival, Yarnbomb, yarnstorm

You know you want to!

All you have to do is crochet a piece of fruit and post it to me. No measurements to take, no getting onto ladders, no braving the elements to put up the yarnbomb. You dont even have to find a pattern, I’ll supply you with one. Just raid your stash, hook and go to the post office. Are you in? Want to know more?

The yarnbomb is for Surbiton’s first annual Food Festival from 4 to 19 May 2013. The organisers contacted Bobi of The Craft Inn to do the marketing for the festival and being a crafter extrodinaire she immediately thought of a craftbomb. My Thames Ditton yarnbombs (here, here and here) caught her attention so she asked me if I wanted to be part of this great crafty endeavour. Of course I said yes!

I don’t want to tell you exactly what I’m planning or how I’m going to use your fruit, but I can tell you that I need to cover a lot of space. I need a lot, or big pieces, of crochet. All before 29 March.

This is where you come in. It would be great if my blog buddies from all over the world could be part of the yarnbomb. A multi-national fruit salad for Surbiton!

As I receive your pieces I’ll give you credit on this blog and if you include a business card, I will attach it to one of your fruit as well . Due to a change of venue I will no longer be able to attach business cards to the crochet.

As for the pattern, you can find it here: Fruit crochet for Surbiton Food Festival (the link will open a PDF document). The pattern is in fact four crochet fruit coaster patterns, all courtesy of Louise Howe of the Lally Lou Lou blog, that I just put together in one document. Louise’s original patterns can be found here and here. Thank you so, so, so much Louise for agreeing to me using your fruit coasters for the yarnbomb. Dear readers, Louise has also promised to send me a couple of apples, pears and strawberries to use in the yarnbomb. It’s only right that the designer should have her handiwork included in the yarnbomb, don’t you think?

These are the fruit that I’ve made so far. I used Double Knit, Aran and Chunky yarn. I think towards the deadline of 29 March I’ll probably be sticking to only Chunky yarn as it works up so quickly.

crochet fruit.jpg

The orange was made using Double Knit cotton and a 4 mm crochet hook:

20130210-135112.jpg

Sliced in half apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook (and a dodgy uneven backstitch):

20130210-135119.jpg

Apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook:

20130210-135124.jpg

Strawberry in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. There is a combination of white french knots and two straight stitches to indicate the strawberry hairs. After three french knots I gave up and stuck to the straight stitches:

20130210-135131.jpg

Pear in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. Later I realised that the pear looks more like a pear if the leaf is at the top of the stem (the way Louise does it), not the bottom :

20130210-135137.jpg

I just want to stress that (if you haven’t already gathered this from my backstitch, strawberry hairs and pear leaf mistakes) the fruit doesn’t have to be perfect. Honestly, it’s just a bit of fun (I can hear Uncle Bryn‘s voice in my head as I’m typing here). The yarnbomb will be outside during the British Month Of April and when all the pieces of crochet are put together no-one will notice mistakes, so just enjoy it.

And of course you can send me any crocheted fruit, you don’t have to use Louise’s pattern. In fact, I hope someone will send me something different. The multi-national fruit salad could do with lemon, lime, cherry and banana.

When you’re ready to post me your crocheted fruit, send me a message and I will email you my address. The yarnbomb will be going up over the Easter weekend, and I need time to do my thing to turn the pieces into a workable yarnbomb, so I need your fruit before 22 March 2013 please.

I’m really looking forward to receiving your yarnbomb contributions. Remember, every time you finish a piece of crocheted fruit, it counts as one of your five a day. Fact.

How to de-Freddy a sweater

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My ramblings

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

clothing, crochet, Simply Crochet magazine

I have a H&M v-neck striped sweater that John absolutely hates. As a rule he encourages me to be unique, embrace my style and wear unexpected colour combinations – all things that drew me to the sweater in the first place – but this sweater is an absolute no-go for him. Literally. “No, I’m not going out with you in that.”

20130204-112652.jpg

He says it reminds him of Freddy Krueger, he of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame. Freddy is so frightfully ugly,  I don’t even want to put a picture of him in this post. In stead, here is a link to the Google image search for him. Go have a look (quickly!), then come back to the blog and read on.

Did you see the resemblance between Freddy’s red & black striped sweater and my pink, purple & black striped sweater? I don’t think mine screams Freddy Krueger, but I guess the black horizontal stripes and pinkish-red is close enough to bring back memories of watching the horror film. Knowing my husband, he probably watched A Nightmare on Elm Street when he was way too young and was scared sh*tless – hence visions of Freddy Krueger when his wife is wearing a sweater with black horizontal stripes.

No matter what the reasons for his Sweater Aversion, if I want to wear my sweater when out & about with him, I need to find a way to de-Freddy it. Enter Simply Crochet magazine Issue 2. It dropped through our front door on Saturday (yeah!!!). Just like Issue 1, it’s jam-packed with crochet projects, one of which is a crochet pocket patch. When I saw it, I just knew it’s the perfect adornment to de-Freddy my sweater.

I whipped it up in ten minutes using a 3 mm crochet hook and black Elle Family Knit 4-ply yarn, and sewed it onto the sweater with invisible thread.

20130204-112044.jpg

Seeing as I used a 4-ply yarn, and not DK as in the pattern, my pocket patch came out smaller, but it’s perfectly proportioned for my sweater.

20130204-112635.jpg

When Hubby saw the sweater he was very impressed and said it “looked great”. He even agreed to be seen with me wearing it!

Freddy Krueger 0 – Crochet 1. Result!

Terrific Tuesday

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, My ramblings, Terrific Tuesdays

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet blanket, ripple

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

20130203-202614.jpg

 

I’m still busy with the ripple blanket in blue. I have about seven rows left to go, then I have to wash the blanket so that I can “open up” the ripples and stretch it a bit, weave in the ends and then do a border.

With each crashing wave and bubbling ripple of white foam, I’m getting closer to finishing my oceanic blanket.

Wishing you a terrific Tuesday!

Natasja

 

Decoding crochet with the help of Eric. Giveaway included.

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet chart, crochet symbols, giveaway, iPhone

In August 2012 I told you about a great App for crocheters, called Crochet Decoder. Since then, sugar coded apps have released an update, which now includes easy to follow instructions for making the most commonly used crochet stitches.

It’s very easy to use. You just choose the stitch and drag your finger down over the step 1 image to see two more steps. The drawings are clear and easy to follow. In my example I chose to see how to crochet a Half Double crochet stitch:

20130114-201343.jpg

20130114-201349.jpg

20130114-201354.jpg

As before, you can still look up a crochet chart symbols; find the recommended hook size for six types of yarn and description of the yarn weight; scroll through a dictionary of crochet pattern abbreviations; and find the metric size of crochet hook sizes. Screenshots for these functions can be seen in my 5 August 2012 post here.

The app now really has everything you need to read any crochet pattern – especially those intimidating Japanese charted patterns where all you have to go by are crochet symbols – and a handy reference tool to consult when buying hooks and yarn.

It’s a great App isn’t it? And you know what, this app is written by a man who hasn’t even crocheted anything (yet)! When Eric, of sugar coded apps, contacted me to tell me about the upgrade, I took the opportunity to ask him for the back-story of the app. I’m so glad I asked! Here it is:

I basically have many friends who are crafty… some of which learned crochet, but found the process of following patterns daunting because of the lingo, symbols, abbreviations, etc. It seemed like a good fit to help them out by using my skill of app-making to help them pursue their craft.

I did some research and saw there wasn’t really a quick reference app to decoding crochet patterns. Everything was more like a tutorial on ‘how to crochet’. This app is designed to be more of a ‘cheat sheet’ to the basics once you start reading patterns, writing you own patterns, etc. It’s not designed to ‘teach you how to crochet’ per se’. I did add ‘Basic Stitch Diagrams’ in the new update, because it was so requested. It should help those new to crochet who haven’t memorized how to do all the basic stitches yet.

I’ve actually done a little crochet in the past & find the craft fascinating. Making the app, researching it, & finding places to spread the word has me even more interested in the craft than ever & makes we want to learn how to make an actual project!

Well done Eric! Thanks for coming to the rescue to us technophobes-with-hooks.

Now for the best bit. Eric has give me ten codes that I can give away to ten lucky readers to download the app for free! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post. The first ten people to leave a comment will receive a code to download the Crochet Decoder app for free!

To redeem, go to App Store on your iDevice or in iTunes on you computer. Then simply type the code into the REDEEM option in the App Store (like you would when redeeming a gift card.)

I’m so grateful to developers and app writers like Eric who can give crafting, and sharing of that craft, a techy twist. The makers of Ravelry, WordPress, Blogger, Pinterest, Instagram, PicMonkey, Gathered magazine, sugar coded apps – you guys are the best!

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