Review of How To Crochet book by Mollie Makes

30 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by Natasja in Book reviews, My crochet, My ramblings, Ta-daah!

Tags

crochet, crochet blanket, giveaway, granny square

The lovely people of Mollie Makes magazine sent me the book How To Crochet, published by Pavilion, to review here on my blog.

I have to apologise to the publishers that it has taken me this long to do the review, but I wanted to do the review justice by completing one of the 20 projects featured in the book.

I chose to make the Granny Square Blanket With Edging, designed by Anita Mundt. You guys know how I love granny squares! They are my all time favourite thing to crochet. For Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 I made two 2-colour 6-round squares in blue and in pink, and in 2013 I crocheted a traditional granny square blanket for a friend and even posted on my technique for choosing random colours.

I started the blanket on the 30th of June and finished it today. Precisely one month! This granny square blanket will also be my contribution to the charity crochet campaign, Crochet For Kidneys Part 5. I had two weeks in that month where I was on sick leave so I had bit more time than usual for crocheting. (I had an operation to my foot on the 18th of June. The cast is coming off on 13 August and a month or so later, it will be the turn of my left foot to go under the knife and stay in a non-weight bearing cast for 8 weeks – expect a few more blanket ta-daaaah blog posts over the next 3 months!)

I really enjoyed following the colour scheme suggestion in Anita’s pattern. I know how to make a granny square so I didn’t need the pattern for that, but I found that following the designer’s colour scheme took away all the worry that I may get my colours wrong.

In this pattern the colour combinations are partly fixed and party random. Rounds 1, 2 and 6 are fixed colours, round 3 is random and 4 & 5 are also random but you use the same colour for both rounds. Once I had decided on the colour for rounds 1 (green), 2 (white) and 6 (Parma Violet), there wasn’t much ‘randomising’ left to do. Choosing my colours for each square was really quick and I think I will stick to this partly fixed, partly random, colour scheme for all my future granny square blankets!

The colours I used were: Stylecraft Special DK in White, Saffron, Wisteria, Spring Green, Citron, Cloud Blue, Parma Violet (for the last round of each square) and the bright green was James C Brett Supreme Baby DK in SNG7. I really love that Parma Violet shade. It’s not grey, it’s not purple, it’s just a beatiful tie-it-all-together shade.

Please excuse the wonky photo but it’s difficult to get a blanket to lie flat and take a perfectly straight taken-from-above photo when you have only one leg to balance on!

For this blanket I also didn’t have to go looking for border like I do with my other granny square blankets – Anita’s border was just so perfect – I just had to follow her pattern.

The team from Mollie Makes (the UK’s most successful lifestyle and craft magazine) hand-picked the projects for this book. All the patterns were designed exclusively for this book by the team’s favourite crochet designers: Ilaria Chiaratti, Emma Lamb, Beata Basik, Cara Medus, Pip Lincolne and Anita Mundt. Apart form the Granny Square Blanket With Edging which I made, there are more fun and beautiful projects like the adorable set of Russian dolls from the cover photo, Bouquet of Flowers, pocket placemats and Monster Gadget Covers called Chomper, Nibbles and Tryclops. How To Crochet contains all the techniques you need to get started with crochet, with step-by-step instructions and clear, beautiful illustrations. Each of the 20 patterns have a Crochet Story which I really enjoyed reading – even if I weren’t going to make the project. How To Crochet is available on Amazon for £9.99.

If however you don’t want to purchase one, why not enter my giveaway!

I’m giving away two copies of How To Crochet by Mollie Makes. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blogpost telling me what your favourite time of day and/or week is to crochet. There’s no special reason why I ask this question, I’m just interested to know when my readers sit down with their yarn and hooky stick. The winners will be drawn randomly and announced on my Instagram feed (natasjaking) and crochetime Facebook page on 7 August. Good luck!

One more blanket

14 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Other people's crochet, Part 4

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

crochet, granny square

I have one more blanket to show you for Crochet For Kidneys Part 4. A beautiful giant granny square blanket made by Jennifer. I love the muted shades she used, and what a clever idea to start off with two 4-round granny squares?

Jennifer hand delivered the blanket to my home – I’m so sorry I was at work when she came over.

Jennifer

Jennifer’s blanket came with this really cool card. Life is definitely much better when you’re laughing!

With Jennifer’s blanket, our total is now at a record 27 blankets for dialysis patients!

That reminds me: have you guys seen the graph I made to show how the blanket count has gone up over the four CFK’s? I posted it on the Crochet For Kidneys Facebook group a few weeks ago, but here it is again.

blanket v people graph

Blanket count up, participants down. Who would have thought?!

Now that all the blankets are in, I’ll be spending today and tomorrow hand writing the tags to go with each blanket.

We’ve also been thinking about the logistics of carrying 27 blankets to the hospital. Last year we had three huge bags for the 17 blankets of CFK3, so 27 is going to be even more challenging. Fortunately John had the great idea that we should vacuum pack the blankets which will reduce the size considerably. Clever man!

The next time I blog about Crochet For Kidneys it will be to tell you about delivering the blankets to the hospital on the 24th. 🙂

My blanket for Crochet For Kidneys Part 4

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, My ramblings, Part 4

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

blanket, cfk4, charity blankets, crochet, crochet4kidneys, granny square, granny square afghan

We have one blanket for CFK4!

I just love granny squares! Just look at them!

I started the blanket on the weekend that I launched CFK4, and finished it yesterday. How super quick was that? Nothing beats a simple granny square for speedy blanket making or for a super fun time playing with colour combinations.

For the border, I used Border 138 from Around the Corner Crochet Borders book. It’s a striking border with a slightly raised ridge and very easy to do: just three rows of (UK) double trebles / (US) trebles, but on the second and the third rounds you work around the posts of the stitches in the previous round from the back. If each round is done in a different colour – in my case turquoise, grey and finally navy – it gives an really interesting effect.

I don’t know about you about I always place my darkest shade at the very edge of my border. I think a dark colour on the outermost edge pulls everything together.

The nitty gritty of my Blue Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 blanket:

Pattern: Traditional 6-round granny square, the last round of which is a different colour, arranged as 9 rows of 7 squares per row.
Yarn: Various DK acrylic yarns in shades of blue and a silver grey
Hook: 4 mm
Joining method: My Rose Valley’s Join-as-you-go method.
Border: Border #138 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders
Finished size with border: 135 cm x 97 cm

I am relieved that I’ve done my blankety bit for CFK4. Even if no-one else sends me a blanket for the kidney dialysis patients I know there’ll be at least one that I can hand over to the nurses at the Royal London Hospital.

I’m going to make one more blanket like this, but in shades of pink. Wouldn’t that look nice?

Before I start the pink blanket though I think I want to finish my Marie Wallin Rose top first – especially as it looks like Summer has finally arrived in the UK. Warm sunny days are not the best time to work on a blanket!

If you’re working on a CFK4 blanket, thanks! If you haven’t started yet, maybe you could consider making a blanket – it’s a great way to use up your stash and you’re make a comforting blanket for someone going through very unpleasant kidney dialysis.

All the detail on Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 can be found in this blog post.

Smiling kidney in a square crochet pattern

07 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by Natasja in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet pattern, granny square, kidney research UK

The Crochet for Kidney Research UK event now has it’s very own, unique, especially commissioned granny square featuring a smiling kidney! The pattern was designed by the very talented Carolina Guzman of One and Two Company.

Click on the picture below to view the PDF of the pattern. It’s cute isn’t it?

Back in August 2012 I blogged about hand towels that I embellished with crochet applique. I used a combination of two of One and Two Company’s designs – Cow Pig and Farm and The Tree The Houses and The Cloud. You can see the towels in this post. Knowing what Carolina is capable of, she was my first, and only choice, when I needed someone to design a kidney shape. Carolina didn’t disappoint. Not only did she design a crochet kidney applique shape, she also converted the shape into a granny square. Brilliant! She did all of this whilst submitting work to Design Wars 5, heavily pregnant and for free!

Carolina has 76 crochet patterns, and 86 crochet applique patterns on her website. This lady is a crochet design machine! She designs baskets, security blankets, garlands, rattles, and more. As for the applique – don’t get me started. Each and every one is just so cute damn cute: cars, rockets, reindeer, butterflies, snails on a branch, VW camper, penguins – there are just too many to mention. What I like most about Carolina’s work is her style, which comes through in each and every pattern. You can always spot a One and Two Company design. She has a colourful simplicity to her designs. You know exactly what it is, but it’s paired down and simplified so that it is easy to crochet without too much fuss. Her patterns are a breeze too – it’s written and charted so anyone can follow. I think One and Two Company designs and patterns are absolutely brilliant.

Here are three squares that I whipped up over the weekend. I had a great time playing around with the facial expressions of the kidney. *There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say*. I used this website for instructions on how to embroider the eyes, and this one for the mouth. This tutorial on doing a running stitch on crochet was also helpful. For the middle square I just did plain ole french knots for the eyes, but I think the embroidered eyes look better. What do you think?

Stephanie’s pattern shows three rows of shells, but to get my square to 15cm I added two more rounds. I used Vinni’s Colurs Nikkim in Dark Purple, Lilac, Violet and White.

If you make any Kidney Granny Squares, please share it on Carolina’s Ravelry Group here, and on the Crochet for Kidney Research UK Ravelry event page here.

I’m so excited about our blankets for dialysis patients! What do you think? Do you like the smiling kidneys?

Crochet on TV (Taxi)

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Natasja in As seen on TV

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

chunky yarn, granny square, granny square afghan, Taxi

Yesterday I received an email from Cade J. Campbell of Cleburne, Texas alerting me to another Roseanne style granny square afghan on a TV show: the crochet afghan on Zena’s parents couch in Season 2 of Taxi, episode 13 Louie Meets the Folks.

I’ve never seen the TV show Taxi, but luckily I could watch Episode 13 of Season two on this website. (A lot of website don’t want to play the clip as I am located outside of the US, but this one does.)

Most of this episode is set in the living room where the granny square afghan is thrown over the back of the couch. It really is a beautiful multi coloured granny square. It livens up the scenes with its bright mix of colours. I love it! I’m so glad Cade told me about it! Cade also very kindly sent me a couple of screenshot. Thanks Cade!

To recreate this granny square afghan you would need 4-round traditional granny squares in a mix of bright colours. I think the square are arranged in 9 rows of 14 squares each, so that would be a total of 126 granny squares.

The squares look quite big for 4-rounds granny squares, so I think they used a Chunky yarn.

What makes this afghan different to, for instance, the Roseanne crochet afghan is the way the squares are joined. In the Roseanne blanket the black yarn was used as the last round of each square. From what I can see the black yarn in the Taxi afghan was only used to join the squares. I think they did a slip stitch through the chain 1 space of both squares, then chained 3 and did a slip stitch through the chain 1 space of both squares again and so on. Where four squares connect, the centre looks quite dark. This would happen when there is a slip stitch in each corner shell of the four squares – the four slip stitches, seen together, will make a tiny black square. The border for the afghan looks like a row of shells, done in dark green.

You can have a look at the Photo Tutorials tab of this blog to download a pdf document that shows you step by step how to make a multicoloured granny square.

Don’t you think it’s amazing what a difference the way you join granny squares, can make to the overall look of an afghan or blanket? The Roseanne and Taxi couch afghans are both done in traditional granny squares, both in bright colours arranged in no particular order and in both blankets the squares are framed in black – it’s just the amount of black that differs and yet the two blankets look totally different. And this is why I love granny squares – the possibilities are endless!

Granny Square In Bloom cushion

04 Sunday Aug 2013

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

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet cushion, crochet flower, free crochet pattern, granny square

You know that square motif I’ve been telling you about that had me so excited? Well, here it is. It’s called Granny Square In Bloom.

I used the squares to make a cushion for my very good friend Liezel, as a birthday present (you can see her photography blog here).

She reads this blog and follows me on Instragram so I couldn’t post regular photo updates. I gave her the cushion yesterday which means I can finally reveal it to my lovely blog readers. The cushion was a huge hit! I’m so glad that I could make her happy with something handmade.

Liezel went home and took these photos of the cushion in it’s new home.

As you can see, she has a bird theme for the cushions on her bed. I wanted to stick to her theme, so I used three Red Robbin buttons. Aren’t they cute?!

Nitty-gritty of the cushion:

Yarn: Stylecraft Cotton Classique in White, Rowan Handknit cotton in Ice Water, Raspberry, Linen and China Rose.
Crochet hook: 3.5 mm
Pattern for the front: Eight traditional granny squares of 4 rounds each in white, finished off with a row of SC. (Each of the four colours were used for two squares.) Plus the eight 3-dimensional flower squares which are my own design. I call it Granny Square in Bloom squares. The pattern is available for free on the Photo Tutorials tab, in this blog post and also on Ravelry. I didn’t add a row of SC on the flower squares.
Pattern for the back: Traditional granny square of 19 rounds. Each colour round is seperated with two white rounds. I edged the granny square with SC in Linen.
Construction: The 16 squares which together forms the front, and the three side seams were sewed together with a slip stitch seam as described here on the Simply Crochet website. For the opening I slip stitch-joined up to the first shell on each side so that it would form neat corners.
Inner: Microfibre 16″ inner bought from Design-a-Cushions. Design-a-Cushions recommend purchasing an inner one inch bigger than your cover. I therefor made sure my covers were 15″ squared. Doing it this way gives you a perfect puffy cushion. I can highly recommend Design-a-Cushions. They are my favourite cushion inner supplier in the UK.
Red Robin Button: Natural Shell Zakka buttons that I bought on eBay from this seller.

I thoroughly enjoyed designing the square, knowing that my friend will be the very first person to own something made in that design. Liezel, I hope you have the sweetest of dreams when you’re resting your pretty head on the cushion.

Lots of love

Jou maatjie, Natasja

How to weave away yarn tail ends

19 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by Natasja in GIF, Photo Tutorial

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

crochet, granny square

The dreaded weaving away of tail ends. It’s a not a fun job, but has to be done right. Right?

I reckon if you have a yucky job to do, you may as well do it well so that you won’t have to do it again. Do it once, and do it right I say.

Below is a GIF (a series of photos in a loop) to show you how to weave away the tail ends in a way that they will stay stuck. The GIF may take a few seconds to jump to the next photo, so just give it time. It will loop back again to the first photo so you can watch the process again and again. For clarification, what you’re looking at is the back of a granny square.

The trick to keeping the tail neatly and tightly woven away is not so much the weaving action, but the change of direction. Try to change the direction of the weave as many times as you can. In a typical shell, like in the photos above, I manage to fit in three directional changes. I’ve never had a tail end come loose, so aim for at least three.

~~GIF~~ Give your yarn tails a bit of love and they will stay hidden through the years of snuggling, stroking and cuddles.

How make a multicoloured, traditional granny square

17 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Photo Tutorial

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet instructions, granny square, photo tutorial

Last week I showed you how to make a single colour granny square. Today I’ll show you how to crochet a multicoloured, traditional granny square.

This is probably what you think of when you think “granny square”. If you’ve seen granny square blankets on shows like The Big Bang Theory or the Roseanne show, this photo tutorial will show you how to make one in the same style. I’ve blogged about those famous granny square blankets here and here. If you want to make those blankets, just use black as your final round and be as bright as you like with the other rounds.

As for the green bunny in the photo…. I just couldn’t resist. His fur matched the centre of my granny square so perfectly, he was just begging to be on the cover!

You can hop on over (see what I did there?) to the Photo Tutorials page here, or click on the photo above to download the pdf photo tutorial.

Photo Tutorials

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Photo Tutorial

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet instructions, granny square, photo tutorial

I learned to crochet with the help of YouTube, yarn websites like Garnstudio & Lion Brand and crochet bloggers. These are free websites, or run by people like you and me who just want to share their knowledge and make other crocheter’s lives easier. I’ve learned so much, and taken away so much inspiration from others that I think it’s high time I start doing the same.

This blog is already my place where I share what I’ve done, but I don’t feel I’ve really taught anyone anything. Not in the way that I’ve been taught by bloggers who take the time to take step by step photos, or make detailed videos.

In light of this, and St. Francis of Assisi’s wise words: “For it is in giving that we receive” there is a new section on my blog called Photo Tutorials.

I’ve only made one tutorial so far: How To Make A Single Colour Granny Square. It’s not a ground breaking new design, but I had to start somewhere. 🙂 In time I will add more photo tutorials and eventually video tutorials as well.

Single colour granny square tutorial front page I will do all my photo tutorials as PDF documents. That way I don’t create huge blogposts, and the document can be printed. It will also include a (hand drawn!) crochet diagram. I think crochet diagrams are great. If you learn to crochet with a set of photos and then look at the diagram for what you’ve just crocheted, it should be easy to grasp how to crochet from diagrams. That’s how I learned, so I’m hoping it will work for others too.

Please give me your feedback. If you think it’s okay and clear enough, I will use it as a template for all future photo tutorials.

You can find the link to my Photo Tutorials page here.

Granny square blanket Ta-daaaah!

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet blanket, granny square, granny square afghan

All done! Nicole’s granny square blanket is ready to adorn the new couch in her new home. I had a great time making this granny square blanket and I’ll do it again in a heartbeat!

The border had to round off the blanket and be understated enough not to distract from the granny squares. I didn’t do anything fancy; just 4 rounds of shells and a SC row, but I included two colours. Picking only two colours out of 15 was tough! I changed my mind a hundred times. Even when I had settled on two colours, I still had to decide which one to use for the shell row and which for the SC row. So many choices! In the end John helped me settle on bright turquoise and bright purple. We worked out that the blanket looked best with the darkest colour for the absolute final row so that narrowed things down quickly.

Here you can see the blanket in its full glory. Do the rounds of each granny and the square arrangement look random? I planned it that way you know 😉

The nitty gritty of the blanket:

Yarn: Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK colour pack from Deramores. I used all the colours in the pack, except Pink. The grey is Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK in shade 814 – Light Grey Mix. The Deramores pack is a brilliant idea and the key to the success of this blanket I think.
Hook: 4 mm
Pattern: 70 traditional granny squares consisting of 6 rounds each, arranged 7 wide x 10 long. The 6th row of each granny is done in Light Grey.
Joining method: My Rose Valley’s Join-as-you-go method.
Border: Two rows of granny stripe shells in Light Grey, a row in Bright Turquoise, a row in Light Grey and then finally a row of SC in Bright Purple. To get the border to lie flat, I used Bunny Mummy’s technique that she explains here. I also followed Lucy’s tip on steam blocking acrylic yarn so that the final SC row wouldn’t curl up. It worked liked a charm!
Finished size: 140cm x 96 cm
Time spent: I started on the first Bank Holiday Monday in May, and finished on the second Bank Holiday Monday in May, so 22 days.

Liezel and I will be meeting Nicole on the 15th of June to hand over the blanket. Liezel came along because it was through Liezel’s Instagram feed that Nicole found me and asked me to crochet the granny square blanket for her. I’ve never met Nicole, and Liezel has only met her once. Can you believe it?! The power of Instagram, iPhones and mutual friends is a thing of beauty!

Nicole, I hope the love and joy in each crochet stitch will bring you years of snuggly happiness and blessings in your new home.