Happy Flowers – An Addition to the Secret Project Box

I cannot stop making these flowers! It is easy to see why they have been named Happy, they are so colourful and uplifting for the spirit. Which ever colours you put together they work.

Another great pattern from Lucy at Attic24, the Happy Flower. The tutorials have plenty of images so you can be sure you are getting it right as you go along.

I have used my trusty stash of Stylecraft DK.

I find this such a great yarn to use for decorative projects and the colour range is fantastic, over 50 shades to choose from at a great price too. I have ordered from both Wool Warehouse and Sconch Textiles depending on who has the colours I need at time, both companies offer great service and fast delivery.

 

 

Floral Cushion

I am so happy that I have at last finished my floral cushion .

The pattern does show how to join them as you go but I could not decide on a colour sequence, so I just used to make them in between other things and when I was on the go. It was just easier to  make one and drop it into the collection.

Once I decided they would become a cushion cover and I started pinning them onto a cushion to guide me on the colours required.

Then the joining process began, it did not take long for me to realize the error in my method. It has taken an absolute age to join all these little flowers together although I have to admit that it is totally my own folly.

For the back I made two squares and an oblong using multi coloured stripes.

Using the oblong to overlap and held together with 5 different coloured buttons.

I totally love this pattern by. I will definitely use it again, only this time I will follow ALL of the instructions and join as I go.

The pattern by Adi Keren for these lovely flowers can be found here.

Directions for The Christmas Charity Blanket Project – Join in!

It appears that this fine project had gone global with pledges from a host of countries so thanks for spreading the word and don’t stop, the more squares, the more blankets.

Please find below a snippet of the details for the Christmas Charity blanket Project. For even more details and ideas go to Best of Crochet where you will find more links and images to help create the perfect blanket.

On November 11, 2013 by bestofcrochet.com

1. What squares?

If you prefer to go with the basic granny square, that is great! You can find a nice

• video tutorial on how to crochet a granny square here
• here is a graph of granny square and instructions how to read it.

If you would like a challenge or some variety, I’ve found some beautiful granny square variations with great tutorials here, here, here and here.

If there are some knitters out there who are excited to join, please do! Knit squares go just as perfectly!

2. How big squares?

I propose to stick to squares around 13 cm x 13 cm (5,2 x 5,2 inches). This is around the size I get when I crochet 4 dc rows with size 7/4,55 mm hook.

If your square is slightly different in size, don’t worry, I will do my best to fit it in.

3. What type of yarn?

Granny squares are awesome because you get to use up your left over yarn and combine different yarns. We will have different granny squares from around the world, so I am sure we will also have different types of yarn in our blanket. I am not a yarn expert, but would recommend you stick to fingering (if not too thin) to worsted yarns as shown in the pic here. Feel free to mix!

If you would like to contribute to the cohesiveness of the blanket, and if you have the chance, you may add a row of white in your square so it would be a repeating color.

This is a wonderful way to give something in this season of goodwill so a huge thanks to Best of Crochet in sweden for inviting us to join in.

Please also spread the word so that we can reach more people and make an even greater blanket!

Yarndale – A Festival of Yarn

Well at last the day arrived, and so did I very excited and in the lovely town of Skipton to visit Yarndale.

I stayed with my daughter in Leeds on Friday evening and decided at the last minute to leave the car and get the train. Boy was I glad I made that decision, I arrived at the station  at 9:30 and was greeted outside the station by this wonderful sight, an old fashioned double decker adorned with bunting. When we got on the bus I could not resist going upstairs and sitting at the front.

Inside there were more wooly treats, the advertising board had been covered with green felt and decorated with fluffy sheep and flowers, it was fab.

The traffic was unbelievable, backed up right down to the main road. But once we got to the venue there was bunting everywhere.

Then inside even more bunting, it was truly amazing! From the bottom of my heart I thank the lovely ladies who put on this great event, they did a fantastic job and I hope that it will be repeated next year.

I regret to say that it was so busy inside I could not get any photos, there were so many bodies it was hard to get to see some of the stands. There were places called Knit and Natter where you could sit, eat lunch and chat.

I hope it will suffice to say it was truly a celebration of yarn and talent, there was plenty to see and even more I wanted to buy. The workshops looked so much fun too and I regret not pre-booking, the yarn dyeing in particular looked great, but there will hopefully be next year.

I took the bus back into town and went to the Russian Tea Rooms but I will tell you about that another time.

Having exhausted both myself and my purse I headed back to the beautiful Victorian station and went back to my daughters to relax.

If you went too I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you didn’t I hope you can go next time. And thanks again to the Yarndale organisers, I commend you on doing a great job.

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• Yarndale – where addictions to wool can be fixed (tinkerbellknits.wordpress.com)
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Pot Holders for Afternoon Tea

‘Why can’t I find pot holders any more?” This is what I was asked recently whilst on a short break in Ripon.

The hotel owner saw me crocheting in the lounge and asked me this question, so when I got home I had a look online and found that there are many around but made by, and advertised amongst craft enthusiasts. I could not find any nice ones for sale in high street stores. Always keen to take on a new challenge I scoured my computers pages for some patterns and set to work to produce…….

I think that pot holders will really enhance that old fashioned english tradition of taking tea. At the The Old Deanery where we stayed in Ripon tea was wonderfully presented in silver tea pots with a pot of hot water and, yes really, sugar lumps, where do you see those today? We loved it. It was the perfect accompaniment to an hour of crafting (me) and reading (hubby) in the lounge before heading out to see the art exhibition in the Catherdral.

The hotel owner said she has lots more teapots but without the bakerlite handles so they get too hot to hold, hence the quest for pot holders. I added the loop so they could be hooked onto the lid of the teapot to be ready in place when the tea is suitably brewed and ready to pour.

 So here we have a close up of each one, starting with Daisy, this pattern is available free from many sites but I got it from Bobbles&Baubles.com we are told that the pattern originates from a dutch lady but I could not find her to give the credit deserved.

Next is the Flower Petals design, I did find another pattern for this but found that I preferred using the Blooming Flower cushion version from Attic 24. I just did less rounds of course.

Then lastly is the Star Flower, this pattern I found here at FreecraftUnlimited.com . I think this is my favourite but then I touch the others and they all feel so nice in the hand I keep changing my mind.

These are all free patterns so go on give it a whirl, they are really quick to work up however this last one took me a while to get all the twists into position.

The only thing I have not told you is that I used Debbie Bliss Bella, 85% cotton, 10% silk, 5% cashmere so they are rather luxurious. The cotton works well as it has a nice grip to it and where the pot holder pattern twists and folds you get a double thickness for heat protection. Not sure if I should look for some better value cotton yarn, any suggestions?

Related articles

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• Rummaging (vickieshouse1.wordpress.com)

Crochet Amish Ball with Free Pattern Link

This is something that as soon as I saw it I knew I had to make one. I have created this one in the same pinks as the baby blanket I made to make cute little gift set.

Made up of segments, the shaping of this little ball is ideal for little hands to grip and will also help with development and coordination, once they start crawling little ones will be able to push it or roll it along.

So here is how is looks through the stages, first, you make 12 segment pouches.

Then you make a string of lids for your segments. This can be done as one long string or in 3 batches of 4, it really depends on your choice of colours, if you are using all one colour you can do it it one string.

Once you have made all your segments and lids you can start to join them together stuffing them as you go. Once you have completed the first 4 they should look like this.

Continue stuffing until you have all 3 done.

Then all you have to do is slot them together to complete your ball.

I saw this on make my day creative where you will find the link to this free pattern. There are others too, animal and flower versions by the author Dedri Uys on Ravelry. I am going to try the flower one next.

I am a little puzzled by the name Amish Ball, does anyone have any information?

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Pink Cardigan with Frilly Edging and My New Labels

What I love most about this cardigan is the shape, it flares slightly and the frill trim that borders it doesn’t pull in like a normal rib would. I love to see little girls in dresses, but when they need an extra layer and you put on a cardigan and the rib pulls in all those lovely flounces on the dress. The flared shaping on this pattern allows it to sit so nicely over a little girls dress and allows the gathers to fall and float as they should.

It’s for my friends granddaughter who happens to be another Miss E, pattern no. 1721 by Sirdar worked in DK yarn so it works up quite quickly. It’s one I have had for ages and have made many times over the years for numerous little ladies.

The frill is worked around the whole of the cardigan also forming the collar and has a gorgeous trim formed by making 6 additional chains between every other stitch.

I am also pleased to show you my new ‘The Grange Range’ labels used for the first time on this pretty pink cardigan.

And a washing advice label too.

I had a bit of bother sewing them into place so will have to give a bit more thought to that on the next project.

Floral Cushion Work in Progress

The pattern for these gorgeous little flowers was found purely by accident one day whilst perusing Ravelry, and what a great find, aren’t they cute. It’s not easy to show in the images but the way they are made gives them a great depth and texture. They are great for using up scraps too, I am using Rico Essentials Soft Merino Aran scraps that I have left from making our daughters blanket last year.

The mistake I made was not following the instruction in the pattern about joining the flowers together as I went, I just merrily went on my way making them all individually and pinning them onto my cushion. I wanted to be free to arrange and re-arrange the colours. No problem, or so I thought. I would simply sew them together at the end. Oh dear, I definitely do not recommend this, it is taking me ages!

It will be worth it in the end I am sure but it is not a mistake I would make twice. They do look good but as you can see I do have a way to go yet.

The pattern is by Adi Keren available on Ravelry here there is such a lovely story behind it too, Adi along with other members of the family made flowers then Adi brought them all together to create a gorgeous blanket for her nephew. She explains that between them they used scraps in blues and greens in a mixture of yarn types and weights, this added even more texture.

An Unlikely Stash and a Crochet Blanket CAL

My Mum has always been a master crafter, everything from making our dresses and knitting our woolies when we were young to making soft toys and teddy bears of all sizes. The smallest was a  tiny, tiny 1cm bear, the biggest thing I can remember her making was a 6 ft clown!

Any way the point is she has been having a bit of a clear out of yarn and has been knitting and crocheting blankets for charity, I said I would do one too so she kindly passed some yarn my way. It is quite an unlikely mix of colours and textures but mostly DK, there is a bit of mohair in there too. I like a challenge so I went a-searching and found this crochet CAL on  Not Your Average Crochet. Here is the result of week 1.

It is so nice to feel you are doing a project with fellow crafters, I keep coming across different sites displaying their progress and it is great to see the different colour selections.

Ooooops week 2 image accidentally deleted but here I am almost at the end of week 3.

Use the link above and pop along you may find yourself joining in too.

I will keep you posted on my progress but in the meantime check out the sites below and see who else is joining in.

Keep hooking!

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Bright and Bold Baby Blanket

It has been an absolute pleasure making this colourful baby blanket and so quick too.

Using the same simple pattern I made 5 squares in each colour from my pay day stash, which incidentally is almost gone now.

Then laid them out random style following no pattern what-so- ever, so satisfying. Sorry about the colours, I am having a bit of a camera issue this the evening. this is a mixture of bold and bright colours mixed with a pale pink, blue and beige to provide a contrast.

I had almost enough squares but not quite so I laid the balls of yarn out in place of the remaining squares to help me decide which colours I needed to finish.

I wanted to try one of the borders from my new book Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. It is a fabulous book, not only is it packed with a varied range of borders it also explains how to count stitches around you work to make up your own border.

I settled for number 132 on page 269, I liked the way the bobbles reflected the holes formed by the pattern in the squares.

Highly recommend this book if you are a blanket or cushion cover maker.

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