A Year of Crafting

I've had a marvellous Christmas back in London and hope you all have as well!  With the new job taking up a lot of time, my crochet projects dwindled a great deal this year-but I am really proud of the things I did manage to make :-)  So here are some highlights :-)

As ever, there have been a few blankets:

Mostly little blankets but still an impressive number!

I've done some little gifts:

I finally made some 'Nanny Bags'

I have tried my hand at making a few more Christmas decorations but couldn't get a decent photo of them-I'm borrowing one from mummycat as she's taken a lovely pic of hers

I'm hoping Jess can take one of hers for me as well...

It's been a fun crochet year-I'm already planning my first blanket of 2014 (because it seems like ages since I made a proper size blanket)


Happy New Year everyone!

Taking a walk down memory lane

Phew!  I'm mostly done where Christmas is concerned-I've been crocheting every spare second I get and today, amid piles of wrapping paper, all my family presents are finished, wrapped and posted, all Myf's stocking stuffers are wrapped and about 90% of my Christmas card list is done :-)  I will of course share what I've made but I want to avoid spoilers so it'll have to wait until after Christmas...

I'm finishing up a scarf for a local friend and I'm making a crocheted neck warmer for my Dad and I need to get Myf's main presents wrapped and at some point tidy this mess of a house up!

For my nieces crocheted presents, I wanted to go with something close to my heart.  My paternal grandmother died when I was very young, only around 6 years old and I have no real concrete memory of her.  I know she loved to sew and knit and when I was really tiny, she made three little bags-one for me and one for each of my sisters.

I had it safely tucked away for years as it's all I have from her but I came across it recently during a house sort out and realised that it wasn't knitted as I'd previously thought but crocheted!  And now that I have joined my sisters ranks in the crochet army, I wanted to attempt to figure out how she made them and replicate it to pass on to our next generation.  Turns out it was a very simple granny style she used that was easy to do, so with a couple of personal tweaks, here is what I came up with

I thought using buttons to make the initials would be cute-Myf didn't want any on hers but I'm so tempted to make myself an updated version of my Nanny bag (with buttons!) to carry around.  I've had so much fun making these-I think Nanny would love the fact that three of her grandchildren are avid crocheters-that's the best heirloom I could have :-)

Christmas Special Blanket

Long time without posting-I'm working really hard which isn't leaving a lot of crochet time-a little frustrating as despite supposedly earning a wage, I'm still financially struggling.  Last year, I made most of the Yule gifts as I had no money-this year I have no money and no time to make anything!  Bit of a nightmare.

Anyway, a while back one of my close friends told me about fundraising she was doing to help out the people in her community who were saving through Park Christmas Club and whose savings were taken by their Park representative and not passed along.  Many have literally lost all the money they've been saving all year and due to a criminal investigation, Park say they cannot help with any compensation.  So there's a lot of fundraising going on to help out.  Follow this link for more details.  I suggested making a blanket (as usual lol) to go towards the raffle or to be auctioned, originally planning a 6 by 9
size but due to time constraints I made a much smaller 6 by 6 which will either make a lovely gift for someone's Grandma or be a nice tablecloth centrepiece.

The holly leaves pattern is from the amazing Attic24 but the stars, snowflakes and trees are mine :-)  Very pleased with how they turned out.

I kept the border simple with a round of sparkly deep purple, a round of white and a chain stitch round in red.  For the last round, I used red and put (in american terms) 1sc 1dc 1tr ch2 slst into first chain to make a small picot point and slst into the top of the prev tr then another 1tr 1dc 1sc and slst into the next chain sp and repeat along.  In the corners, I just did a slst 1sc slst and slst into next space as I didn't want to mess with corners.  Uses a LOT of yarn and took quite a while but worth it I think!  What do you think?

Edited to include my pattern for the snowflakes.  I've been playing with hexagons of late and they make a great snowflake base (they're also the base for the star).  My sister left a lovely comment asking for a link to the pattern for the snowflakes (which made me grin this much :-D) so I typed it out and messaged her.  Thought it may be nice to copy it here as well but be warned, I'm terrible at writing out a pattern (I tend to make things up as I go) and it may not make much sense...

I'm using american terms cos I'll only confuse myself if I try to translate it...Apologises for the poor pattern writing, it's not something I've practised much!

Snowflake 1) (round 1) ch 5, join with slst to first chain to make a ring. ch 3 and put 1 dc into the ring and ch2. (2dc, ch2) five times and join with a slst to the beginning chain3. You should have a small hexagon with six groups of 2dc separated by ch2.

This is the base for the first type. (round 2) Slst into the first ch2 space and ch3, 1dc. Then ch5 and put 2dc into the next ch2 space. (ch5, 2dc) into each space around until you have 2dc in each space separated by ch 5 spaces. Slst to close the round.

Now for the fun part...

(round 3) slst into the ch5 space. (1sc, 1hdc, 2dc, 1hdc, 1sc) into the ch5 space and join with a slst into the top of the dc from the previous round. (ch4, slst into third chain to form picot, ch5, *picot in third chain, ch3, picot, ch3, picot, slst into base of *picot, slst across the other side of the chain 2, ch3 picot, slst into base of opposite picot, ch1 and join with slst to dc from previous round.

Repeat this around so that in every ch5 space, you put the 1sc, 1hdc, 2dc, 1hdc, 1sc and on the top of the previous round's dcs, you make the picots. Join with a slst to close and fasten off.

Snowflake 2) (round 1) Make a small hexagon as above.

(round 2) slst into ch2 space and ch3, 1dc, ch2, 2dc, ch1. (2dc, ch2, 2dc, ch1) into each space around and slst to close. You should end up with a bigger hexagon with 6 groups of 2dc, ch2, 2dc, separated by ch1.

(round 3) slst into ch2 space. ch5, picot in 3rd chain, ch5, *picot in 3rd chain, ch3 pciot, ch3, picot and slst into the base of *picot. Slst along the other side of the ch2 and ch3 picot, slst into base of opposite picot, slst along other side of last two ch2 and slst into the ch2 space again. Slst across the top of the 2dc and into the ch1 space. ch4, picot in 3rd chain, ch3, picot, ch3 picot and slst into base of first picot and slst along the other side of the first chain, slst into ch1 space again. Repeat this around so that in each ch2 space you have a long piece with 5 picots in total and in each ch1 space you have a small piece with three picots. Join with a slst and fasten off.

Birthday presents for Mum

I was racking my brain trying to come up with an idea for Mum's birthday present and I turned to the copy of 'Cute and Easy Crochet' on my shelf.  It had a very simple pattern for a circular cushion cover and, as I happened to have a small circular cushion laying around, I decided to give it a go!  The pattern was basically a stripy circle, very easy to do and when I'd got it to the size I wanted, I thought it would be nice to add some embellishment to the front.  So I turned to my very much loved 'Crochet Bouquet' book for some compound leaves and simple flowers.  The leaves were perfect but halfway through making the flowers, I decided the shape was wrong so I improvised a more circular look.  Stitched everything on and crocheted the cushion pad in (it's non removable once it's done) and then thought hmmm...hope Mum's mind doesn't go to the same place that mine does!

They do NOT look like booby flowers, ok!?!

On the reverse...

Hope she likes it!

Myf has been working incredibly hard this weekend on presents for her 'Moogie' as well.  She has a few crafty books all her own and she wanted to knit her a little purse.  Unfortunately, the instructions were a little confusing and I can't knit at all (Myf used to know how but it's been a few years) so instead I crocheted a small strip for her and she stitched it together, added a button and then went to her new jewellery making book that an auntie gave her for her birthday.  She chose to make a bracelet with wire wrapped beads-aside from cutting the wire for her and making the fastening, she made the rest entirely herself.  She then made a silver one for me and a little one for herself that I'm going to take photos of to put up tomorrow as they're wonderful!

Back to another book to look at some card making techniques and she chose one involving stitching with wool-

And we're done!  Still got to finish up another project that despite its small size is taking forever!  My poor sister must be bursting with the suspense...:-( Sorry darling, I promise it'll be finished soon!

Having fun with crayons...

One of my lovely little nieces just had her third birthday and I couldn't think of a thing to crochet for her-I'm not very good at crochet toys and I wanted to make something a bit different this time!
Myf and I came across this on Facebook and decided to give it a go :-D.  We have a lot of crayons around...

And after much peeling away of paper and breaking them into pieces, we were ready to put them into the oven!  Ten minutes or so later...

They need a little stir with a toothpick to get the colours all swirled together-I think Myf enjoyed that part the most!

Once they'd hardened and cooled, it was easy to pop them out and voila!  Chunky crayons, perfect for little hands to scribble and scrawl with.

A little cellaphane wrapping, some purple sparkly ribbon and done!  We added a colouring book for her as well and hopefully she loves her present.  My other littlest niece has her birthday in a few days and we have another set ready to go :-D

West Ham Blanket

  When I was in London, I was chatting to my Dad about his work.  He's a carer and does a lot of great work with his clients.  I asked him whether it would be inappropriate for me to make a lap blanket for one of his clients-he said it would be fine as long as I'm not looking for payment or future business which of course I said I wasn't, this is a donation.  One of his clients has a degenerative condition that has some aspects in common with Parkinsons although it affects the mind first and he spends a lot of time stationary.  So Dad called his wife to ask whether it would be ok for me to make a lap blanket as a gift for him and she thought it would be a lovely idea.  The gentlemen was a big fan of West Ham football club (and Brentford to a lesser degree) so I decided to use the strip colours as the base and crochet over the top his initials.  I sketched it out and showed Dad-told him that I had plenty of those shades in my massive yarn stash (seriously, it's getting out of hand) and said that I'd make a start on it once I got home.  The gentleman may not react much from it but it should provide a good talking point that helps visitors engage in conversation with him.
  I got home a week yesterday and started it last Saturday.  As work was closed until Wednesday and Myf was away, I had plenty of time to get the squares done.  By Thursday, it was finished!  I've never made a blanket so fast from start to finish :-)  I posted it off yesterday morning so hopefully it'll be there by Tuesday.

So what do you think?  I really like how it's turned out.

'Neapolitan' Baby Blanket

My work situation over the past couple of months has been a bit of a nightmare as I've had less than 5 hours a week.  If I'm unable to find another job before next summer, I'm really worried as to how we're going to cope.  My plan is to make a decent stock of blankets for sale and either put them up on ebay or amazon or create a facebook page for them.  I have a lot of cool blanket ideas-I just need to balance making them with being able to sell for a mutually reasonable price.

So here is the first one to go into the stock cupboard-it would make a lovely gift for a new baby!