Three Motifs in Navy Blue

It’s time to return my library book as I’ve had it for nearly 2 months! I’ve got some fun ideas from it, here are some more. These three motives, which I’ve done here in navy blue craft yarn, are all from patterns on page 60 of ‘crochet basics’ by Jan Eaton.

<< Saint George Square

>>Harmony Square and Circle with Spokes, patterns all on page 60

These three will go in my bag of samples. I’m thinking that when I have enough, I’ll stitch them all together to make a mish-mash rug of all different shapes and colours.

Pretty Pink and Purple Bag

Here is a small handbag that I made on an impulse a few days ago and am particularly pleased with how it turned out.

I really liked the look of a motif featured in Jan Eaton’s book, crochet basics, but couldn’t find the pattern anywhere within the actual book! So I guessed from the pictures what it was, and reproduced this motif. I liked it so much I made another, using some light yarn from my scraps bag in two pretty colours. They seemed to tell me they wanted to be made into a bag! I don’t know why, I didn’t ask them. I’m not so crazy to ask questions of crochet motifs, but there you have it. A cute and pretty little bag with a draw-string lip. I don’t know if I’ll ever use it, I wonder if anyone would like it as a gift?

My guess at the pattern motif
1. contrast colour (opt.), ch 5, sl st to form ring, ch 2, 15 trbl (US dc) into ring, sl st to join, (16 trbl)
2. main colour (opt.), ch 2, (trbl in next trbl, ch 1) in ea trbl, sl st to join (16 trbl, 16 ch sp)
3. ch 2, 2 trbl in same ch sp, 3 trbl in ea ch sp, sl st to join, (48 trbl)
4. contrast colour (opt.), (dc (US sc) in space between 2 sets of 3 trbl, ch 3) 3 times, (dc in next space, ch 5) in next space to form corner, repeat 3 times to end to form 4 corners, sl st into starting dc
5. ch 2, 2 trbl in same ch sp, 3 trbl ea in next 2 ch sp, (5 trbl, ch 1, 5 trbl) in corner ch sp,  repeat 3 times to end with 4 corners, sl st into starting ch, (67 trbl)
6. main colour (opt.), ch 2, trbl in ea trbl, (2 trbl in corner ch 1 sp), repeat around to end with 4 corners,

My pretty bag pattern
1. make 2 square motifs of same size
2. trbl in ea trbl of one motif on 3 sides only
3. sl st 3 sides of two motifs together
4. ch desired length for handle (90 ch), sl st to start of row 3
5. ch 2 sl st to same trbl, trb in ea ch of handle to start of row 4, sl st
6. ch 2, trbl in ea trbl across top lip of bag with 2 trbl in start of handle on ea side, sl st
7. ch 2, trbl in ea trbl around lip of bag, sl st, fasten off
8. contrast colour (opt.), ch length longer than lip of bag, thread in and out through trbls at top of bag lip, sl st to form ring, fasten off

Homemade Wedding Card

I think this is really special – it’s a hand made card my mum gave us for our wedding.

Both David and I thought this was a store bought card at first, but when I looked closer I knew it was my mum’s handiwork. Her skills with this are really coming along and looking very polished.

I really appreciate these things more if they are home made. It gives it that extra personal touch, encourages creativity and resourcefulness in our culture, and anything that challenges the artificial guilt we have been brainwashed into wearing so we buy gift cards, wrapping paper and presents from the shops, I’m all for it!

How to have a simple wedding

David and I decided early last year that we would get married, after he romantically proposed during a holiday at a place called Secrets on the Lake in Montville. The how and when of it was all up in the air. The thought of organising a wedding was very daunting for both of us as we have become real hermits in recent years! But it was pretty obvious to us from the onset that whatever we did, it would have to be very simple and low stress!

By holding the ceremony in the cute and quaint backyard garden of a local celebrant, and only inviting parents to witness it, a relaxing lunch for 6 topped off the day and rain by no means dampened the mood.  The day was all about David and I celebrating our love and making our marriage official, skipping a lot of traditions but keeping the few that were meaningful for us. Below I outline the details of our little wedding for future reference, and how we organised it in about 6 weeks and for a cost of less than $1200 (if you don’t count our rings!).

My Great-grandmother's Brooch

This is such a special thing, an old brooch that once belonged to my mother’s grandmother.

It was time for me to purchase my maternity bra, but when I tried it on with my wedding dress it showed, so I needed a brooch to hold the dress in place. I had a wardrobe delimna, but didn’t like any of the brooches I saw in the shops. Lucky for me, my mum lent me this old brooch. I had my doubts, thinking I would have to wear a normal bra which has been getting very uncomfortable lately! But when I tried it on it suited fine, which was lucky! This is the ‘something borrowed’ and ‘something old’ to bring me good luck on my wedding day, which I dutifully returned to my mother the same day. I also wore a new blue dress for good luck!

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in your shoe

• The “something old” represents the couples friends who will hopefully remain close during the marriage. Traditionally this was old garter which given to the bride by a happily married woman in the hope that her happiness in marriage would be passed on to the new bride.
• “Something new” symbolises the newlyweds’ happy and prosperous future.
• The “something borrowed” is often lent by the bride’s family and is an item much valued by the family. The bride must return the item to ensure good luck.
• The custom of the bride wearing “something blue” originated in ancient Israel where the bride wore a blue ribbon in her hair to represent fidelity.

I found this information on Wedding Customs here.

Light and Lacy Purple Scarf with Flower Ring

I’m really pleased how delightfully light the lacy trellis stitch on this scarf turned out. Finished with a nice scalloped edge, it has a cute detachable flower scarf ring.

The scarf took me a couple of evenings to complete while watching Battlestar Galactica on our tivo. I used some of the left over winter warmth yarn from Lincraft and an 8mm hook, following the ‘plain trellis’ lace stitch which is basically made up of 5 chains,  on page 94 of Crochet Basics by Jan Eaton. It’s a handy book so I extended my library loan on it for an extra month. The light purple yarn turned out beautifully I think, and I made it nice and long, too. The edges are some scallops I added to make it a bit more ‘pretty’, putting 7 trebles (US dc) in each one, 4 in the corners, each edge has 2 rows of scallops to round it out nicely.

I still felt the scarf needed ‘more’ so I searched for a new flower pattern. I wasn’t happy that the ones I know would ‘match’, so I found this flower on youtube by Teresa. She does heaps of very  well explained crochet tutorials on youtube and has helped me with several things so I do recommend her. This flower turned out real cute, using a 4.5mm hook to make the shape more defined than the loose stitch in the scarf. By making a chain on the back, the scarf can be threaded through and held firmly, so this flower can be used as a scarf ring which can be removed.

I made this purple scarf with my mother-in-law Freya in mind, as I remember she likes purple and I still had this beautiful yarn in my stash.  Although winter is over, it’s still a little chilly, maybe she will get some use out of it before it gets really hot. I hope she likes it!

Purple Pink Green Granny Square Baby Blanket

This rug is made the same way as another rug I’ve made, which is simply one very large granny square.

For this one I used some left over baby wool in purple and green, as well as some very pretty pink baby wool my mum gave me ages ago. The pink is so nice I just had to use it somewhere, even though we are expecting a baby boy early next year, but with these complimentary colours I’m sure it’s quite ok as a rug! I really felt a need to finish off the purple and green, which is an acrylic/nylon blend of Patons baby yarn called ‘Big Baby’. For this very simple rug, which took me just over a week of evenings while watching TV to complete, I used a 3.5mm hook and the end result is 70cm square.