Revival!

Hmmm... I feel another 70's revival coming on. Firstly, I've been thinking about macrame for the past few days. I remember a girl teaching me how to macrame in the playground at school when I was about 7 years old. Back then every home seemed to have at least one macrame plant pot holder and one macrame owl.



I want a macrame owl!! I want to make a macrame owl. But I can find hardly anything about macrame on the net. Let me know if you find something!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And how about this in all its 70's rainbow glory.


I found this image over on Thrifty Fox's blog this morning. I am definately going to have a crack at one of these great pillows!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, while we're at it I recently received some beautiful samples of vintage wallpaper from Johnny Tapete. I just love vintage geometric wallpaper and was hoping to cover one wall in Leo's room with it. Alas, too costly at the moment, but not wanting to waste the samples I covered a couple of empty formula tins with the stuff and hey presto, two lovely new containers for odds and ends!

Feeling creative again!

I seem to have a constant string of crochet projects on the go. I've just finished this little cushion for Leo's room, which seemed to take an age to do!



And I'm playing around with these buttons that I've just unearthed in a jar somewhere... but what to do with them?


Suggestions please. I'd love to string them into a necklace but haven't the faintest idea how to do it!

It's a stashbusting day!

I may already have mentioned once or twice that I am having a baby very soon (did I mention that... sorry I'm just really excited about it)! And I want to make something very special and heirloomy for him. A gorgeous blanket made with love. Having very few pennies and not really enough to splash out on lots of lovely new yarn I decided to face the bitty stash that I have already. After rewinding it, it turns out I have quite a few lovely colours to turn into something.


With the addition of a huge ball of chocolate Cascade Eco Wool, I have found the perfect project to inspire me... the Sunshine Day Afghan by Alicia Paulson.


I love the combination of bright solid colours against a muddy tweed background. Just gorgeous!! Hopefully I'll have it ready in time for winter!

A Very Large Doily

I'm into doilies again... with not much else to do right now, except get married and wait for my baby to come, it's the perfect time-killer.


This is a whopping 17"/43cm across! Maybe I'll frame it.


And it is infact a lovely shade of mustard/chartreuse and not bogie-green as the pictures seem to portray :)


Pattern details on Ravelry.

that's more like it

Now this is what I have been waiting for. The LYS made truly cool! Great minimal design and bang on trend. Here is Wool and the Gang (just not sure about that name, anyway...)









They also have a blog here

don't do it!!!

This gave me such a laugh this morning! I discovered this brilliant blog dedicated to all crocheting blunders called what not to crochet. I do urge you to take a look, if only to remind yourselves not to attempt that Elvis statuette. Or were you feeling the urge to whip up a tampon cozy?













If you discover any crocheting catastophes, then submit them to whatnottocrochet (AT) yahoo (DOT) com!

my first pattern

I have just published my first ever pattern... my little hexagon pincushion. It retails for 3 euros, but in celebration of this momentous occasion, the first five of you to leave a comment will get a copy for free!

Thanks girls - patterns are on their way!


Or you can buy the pattern directly here

spotlight on... Emma Lamb

One of my most favourite of blog friends and goddess of granny chic is the one and only Emma Lamb. I'm sure many of you are getting to know her name as she is deservedly appearing everywhere lately and slowly taking the yarn world by storm with her cushions and potholders. Which all have fantastic granny names like Audrey and Doris by the way!



Her sense of colour is outstanding and her work is so exquisitely executed... just get a load of those granny squares!!



And I just love all the beautiful little details too...




Emma runs some amazingly inspirational groups on Flickr too including .knit.solid.yarn., granny chic... and all colours in... which are definately worth a look over a cuppa. All this along with a day job as a textile designer - I really don't know how she fits it all in! But I'm glad she does. Here's to you Emma!

trying to cope

I just have way too much on my plate right now to blog properly, so sorry for the sporadic posts. I am desperately trying to motivate myself and not let myself slide into depression, and job-hunting like crazy. I have one or two issues in my life which make this a slightly more complicated task for me than for others, but I won't bore you with that right now.
One thing I am trying to figure out is what to do with my crochet skills, money-making wise, but I just keep staring at my hooks. I hope the lightbulb in my head will come on soon... in the meantime, a few shots from my workspace. And all inspirational, motivational comments/stories are most welcome!




And a BIG thank you to all of you who replied to my previous post... you really did make me smile :)

one hot hooker

It's 42 degrees here, but... I'm still crocheting... very slowly... with wool!! Just putting a companion together for my Granny Square cushion below...



There is a great tutorial for larksfoot stitch here.

it's not supposed to be difficult

I seem to be spending way too much time making this damn cushion cover. Apart from procrastinating for weeks over the perfect colour combo.. which I'm now pretty sure is right... I just seem to need so many squares to cover one side of a 50x50 cushion pad. Twenty-five infact!

And I could never quite 'get on' with granny squares personally. They were never quite cushy enough - I've got round that by doing 4 dcs instead of 3. And I hate the way that (well, mine anyway) kind of start 'skewing' once you get past a certain number of rounds. I block them of course - slowly, one by one.

So I've gone for the 'many-small-squares-joined-together' option.

But then there's the joining together. Took me another couple of days just to figure out which kind of join I like best. But I think I like my single crochet ridge the best.

I still haven't decided how to back this yet. Another side of crochet or backed with fabric?? Decisions, decisions... it might be ready in time for Christmas...

super simple hexagon

While I love my regular hexagons, I do find them a bit tiresome after a while and by the 4th chain round (of 5 rounds) I'm usually reaching for the kettle for a wee break. But these whip up in minutes and have only 3 rounds! They work in a very similar way to a granny square, but are much prettier I think.


So, here it is as promised... my Super Simple Hexagon! It's a short pattern so I'm posting the full instructions here, but you can also download it in printable form here.


There is no copyright on this... please feel free to use it for whatever you want! But a little credit and a link back to here would really make me smile! So, now on with the pattern:

Abbreviations Cl St = Cluster Stitch: YO and pull a loop through ring, YO and pull through 2 loops on hook (3 times), YO and pull through all 4 loops on hook.

Pattern written in US English. (because it’s what I’m used to)

Ch 5, join with a sl st to form ring.

Round 1 Ch2, yo and pull a loop through, [3 loops on hook], yo and pull through 2 loops [2 loops on hook], yo and pull a loop through [4 loops on hook], yo and pull through 2 loops [3 loops on hook], yo and pull through all 3 loops on hook, ch2, (cl st, ch 2 into ring) 5 times. Join to top of first cluster with a sl st and fasten off. Pull central thread gently to close ring. [6 cl st and 6 ch2 spaces]

Join in new yarn. Don't forget to work in your ends as you go!

Round 2 Pull yarn through next ch2 space, ch2, (yo and pull a loop through, yo and pull through 2 loops) twice, yo and pull through all 3 loops, ch2, cl st in same space, ch2, *(cl st, ch2, cl st, ch2) all in next space*, repeat from * to * 4 more times, join to top of first cluster with a sl st and fasten off. [12 cl st and 12 ch2 spaces]

Join in new yarn.

Round 3 Pull yarn through next ch2 space, ch3, 2dc in same space, *(3dc, ch2, 3dc) all in next ch2 space, 3dc in next chain space*, repeat from * to * 4 more times, 3dc, ch2, 3dc in final ch2 space, join to top ch of first ch3 and fasten off. [18 3dc groups and 6 ch2 spaces]

You can join your hexagons in whichever way you want. Alex at Moonstitches has quite a good method for joining as you go. Otherwise, you could stitch them all together at the end with a contrasting yarn, which looks lovely.

Do let me know if there is anything you don't understand or if you find any mistakes. Other than that, I'd love to see what you do with it!

what we need. part 2

You know I love crocheting hexagons don't you! Well, you do now. Specially worked up in gorgeous rich colours. Spotted these beautiful things over on the Garnet Hill website via Put a sock on it!. (There are close-ups available on the Garnet Hill website). What's even more exciting is I can work out a very similar motif for myself, and super simple it is too. I will post some instructions if anyone's interested!

up and running

Phew... finally back online after our connection went down on Friday night. We've had no telephone either and the occasional power cut too... not a lot of fun in this heat, I can tell you! But, that didn't stop me crocheting and I've been busy making a batch of these cute little motifs with my new thread. Oh, and a lovely little pin cushion too!