29 Saturday Oct 2011
Posted in Other people's crochet
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You don’t always have to do a fancy crochet edge, or make granny squares in multiple colours.
Source: toast.co.uk via Natasja on Pinterest
Source: toast.co.uk via Natasja on Pinterest
27 Thursday Oct 2011
Posted in My crochet, My ramblings
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Apologies people, but I’m just testing out Flickr’s cool feature where you can post a photo from your Flickr account directly to WordPress.
If this works, you would probably want to know a bit more about these cushions. Well, I made them for my brother way back in March. I used Stylecraft Special DK and the eight blocks are from Jan Eaton’s (brilliant, fanastic, addictive) 200 Crochet Blocks book (you can find a link to the book on the right of this page). The squares are: Big Round, Lacy Cross, Begonia, Mesh Fantasy, Edwardian Fantasy, Catherine Wheel and Circle In Square.
Okay here goes, I’m going to hit the Post button and see what happens…
Update: It worked! Yeah!
21 Friday Oct 2011
Posted in My ramblings, Other people's crochet
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Some people really shouldn’t…
18 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in My crochet, My ramblings, Pattern
My husband and I visited Hampton Court palace on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. My handbag of choice for the day was my Larger Than Life crochet handbag. Looking back at the photos of the day I realised, once again, what a thing of beauty it is. Seriously. I’m not even afraid of sounding vain because I’m just totally in love with my crochet handbag.
In this photo I’m wearing a Green Velvet Travelling Cloak, courtesy of Hampton Court Palace. Its soooo much fun and it really gets you into the spirit of (Tudor) things, but what stands out in this photo, is the handbag.
Now that I’ve whet your appetite, you probably want to know a bit more about this bag. It’s official name is the Larger Than Life Bag by Cecily Keim. Mine is done in Rowan Handknit cotton, the blocks are “Willow” from Jan Eaton’s book 200 Crochet Blocks, and instructions for the construction of the bag, as well as the Willow pattern, is published in the Interweave Crochet magazine – Spring 2007. You can see more of these Larger Than Life bags in the Flickr group.
I loved, loved, loved crocheting the blocks and playing with the colour combinations. I was very scared of the sewing involved in turning the crochet blocks into a proper handbag. Luckily I have an amazing husband who helped me every step of the way. We finished the bag on 7 March 2010 and I couldn’t be prouder.
If you want to make a crochet statement and scarfs are not doing it for you anymore, have a go at this bag. You can’t go wrong!
12 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted in My ramblings
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Granny square hot pants!
With my beady little eyes no granny square shall go unnoticed.
As seen in Stylist magazine, advertising Toni & Guy’s Hairmeetwardrobe.
11 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in Other people's crochet, Pattern, Terrific Tuesdays
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!
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Today’s colour burst comes from Karen M. Andersen’s blog. I just love love love this colourful photo! It’s part of her brilliant tutorial on how to make crochet hangers.
I’ve always wanted to replace all the plastic hangers in my cupboard with colourful crochet ones, but there just always seems to be something else on the hook – notably stock for my Etsy shop or a craft market. I’ll just have to add this brilliant project to my Ravelry queue with the seven hundred and forty nine other projects. Okay, not 749 exactly, but it does feel like it sometimes.
Have a happy hooky Tuesday people!
05 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted in Markets, My crochet, Pattern
I’m hard at work making stock for the WI Christmas Fayre in November. That means every spare minute I’m hook-in-hand, including on the train to and from work. This morning while I was hooking away (entertaining the people standing in the aisle pretending to read the newspaper *if you don’t turn the page I know you’re watching me*), I did some Market Maths.
If I want to make eight sets of six granny stars, I need 48 granny stars. I managed to do four stars this morning on the train. I do two train journeys per day. That means eight stars per day. 48 ÷ 8 = 6. Just six days, or 12 train journeys, and I’ll be done with the christmas decorations for the market!
I couldn’t resist hanging the stars off the gladioli that I bought for my boss who is coming back from maternity leave tomorrow. Christmas trees are so last year. Gladioli are the way to show off your decorations!
27 Tuesday Sep 2011
Posted in My crochet, Terrific Tuesdays
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!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Today’s colour burst comes from four lap blankets I made for Huis Uitsig in South Africa. My grandmother, who passed away in July 2004, was very involved with this carehome. Right up to the age of 73 she helped out at the carehome. She used to call the residents “ou mensies” which is an affectionate Afrikaans way of saying the “old people” – she was older than a lot them, so it that just speaks to her-young-at-heart attitude which I so loved.
I only started to crochet after my grandmother had passed away, which is a pity. Making these blankets is my small way of continuing the good work she did at Huis Uitsig. I’m sure she will approve.
The technical bits of these blankets: The body of the blankets are white polar fleece with crochet edging done in Stylecraft Special DK. I had to choose unisex colours, and had to be careful not to make the blankets look like baby blankets. The rows are just shells of 2dc, with the very last row done in sc. In order to tie the borders in with the white fleece, I did the second to last row of all the blankets with white.
I’m definitely going to make more of these in the near future. I was so aware of my grandmother whilste making them! Every time I chose a new ball of yarn and wondered whether it’s too bright, I thought of Gran and I knew she would have said “Go for it! It will cheer up the old mensies.”
I hope these cheerful stripes brighten up your Tuesday!
24 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in Markets, My crochet
Post market stall greetings to all! Today was A Good Day. I sold a record breaking six brooches and a blanket!!! I know it doesn’t sound like much to you, but to me, it is. At the last market we didn’t sell anything, so things are definitely improving!
Apart from people buying, a lot of people took business cards. I even had two people taking photos so that they could show it to friends / family. It was really lovely getting such a lot of positive feedback from passers by. Ladies stopped to chat with me about crochet, french knitting (still have to Google that…), the price of yarn, one even said she was going to email me a pattern for a shawl that she has made more than a hundred of! So so so lovely!
But you know what I enjoyed the most? Seeing the smiles on people’s faces as soon as they see my table! I just love that! Even if they don’t buy, I cheered them up. Result!
Just like last time, I learned a few things which I am going to put to use for the WI Christmas Fayre in November:
All in all it was a very good day. The Festival was well organised and drew A LOT of people! I posted a video to the crocheTime Facebook Page if you want to see the Morris Dancers and a couple of old cars.
I also have to say a big big thank you to my lovely husband who sat patiently next to me entertaining himself watching the rugby on his iPhone, and later playing Angry Birds on his iPad. He also did the coffee & pies run for us and was just generally being a loving and supportive husband. Love you like Rowan ♥
22 Thursday Sep 2011
Posted in My crochet, My ramblings
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It was such a lovely morning today, instead of taking the bus I walked from Waterloo station through a little park, along the South Bank and over Blackfriars bridge to work.
My bag of crochet goodies came along and we both enjoyed the view.
crochetime 