Dark Blue Plastic Bag Holder

I just made this plastic bag holder up in a couple of hours, and it was put straight to work!

This took me just over two hours to complete, I used some dark blue acrylic yarn my mother gave me, and a large 5mm hook to make quick work of it. It is 9 inches wide, to start I just made a chain that was 18 inches long and sl st it to form a loop. The next round was a dc (US crochet) into every ch. The 2nd round was 3 ch, (sk 1 dc, 1 dc) repeated to end, sl st in 2nd ch. The 3rd round is sl st into next sp, 3 ch (dc into next sp, 1 ch) repeat to end, sl st into 2nd ch. Repeat 3rd round until the tube is 18 inches high. The last round is 2 ch (dc into next sp, dc into next dc) repeat to end, sl st into 2nd ch. Then finish with a chain that is 18 inches long. Thread this ch in and out of the last round of dc then sl st into 1st ch to form a drawstring, fasten off. Lastly, make another drawstring for the other end by starting an 18 inch ch anywhere at the end, then thread this ch in and out of the 1st round of dc, then sl st into 1st ch to form a loop. Pull the ch to tighten the loop.

Because I live in a townhouse, I need to make another one of these for downstairs! I wonder what colour I should make the next one?

Variegated Slanted Shell Cap

I’m really pleased how this cap turned out, I hope it fits the intended recipient and that she likes it enough to wear it!

For this cap, I used a beautiful variegated yarn from the Wangaratta Mill, which is in Australia. If I had a choice, I would only use locally produced yarn, but of course its amongst the most expensive. Luckily I found this yarn on special! It has flecks of green, purple, pink and blue in it, which is very nice! My guess is this is acrylic, not wool due to the price I got it at, but I might be mistaken as the label did not say.

For this cap I used the 4mm hook and started with 7 rounds of increasing dc. I then tried a new stitch I saw for the first time the other day on youtube called a slanted shell stitch. I had to have a think about how I would do it in a round though. I turned the cap around and went back the other way, starting with 3 sl st before starting the slanted shell pattern. There are 10 rounds of slanted shell in this cap. Finally, I edged it with 5 dc scallops, with a sc in the 3rd dc. This is 24cm along the rim (so 48cm circumference), and its 19cm high.

This cap might be too warm to wear on a hot summer’s day, but hopefully it will make a very pretty autumn cap.

Reversible Blue Cotton Cap with Ridges

I used some very nice 100% blue cotton for this cap, intended for a 9 year old girl. I hope she likes it!

Because the cotton has a bubble texture, I decided I needed a simple design for this cap. I chose to do ridges which you can see through the thick yarn, anything more delicate and you would have missed it.

I started with a 3.5mm hook, because with thicker yarn than I used for the other caps I made for this recipient, the hat would not be the same size in the end. This one has 6 increasing rows, and one side of that section has horizontal ridges. These ridges are formed by only going through one part of the loop when you normally go through two.

When the rounds stop increasing, I turned the cap over so the back became the front and the ridges on the underside were showing. Then I started making vertical ridges by going under the post. There are 8 rounds like that.

Finally I made all the stitches in the next 2 rounds go behind the posts, making them all sit forward, and the reverse side had ridges. The very last round is a row of sc through one loop only to again create a ridge.

Its a very ‘ridgy’ kind of cap! Hopefully the cotton will mean it ends up being a nice, cool one too!

Three chemo caps, medium size

I finished the medium size pink cap on Thursday, after finally working out a size that might fit a 9 year old. I made a small size, and then an adult size, before doing that though!

These caps are intended for a 9 year old girl who has started chemotherapy. How awful for her, I hope she likes at least one of my caps enough to wear and help her through this time (as little comfort as that may well be).

The light and airy, pretty pink cap has 7 increasing rows. Then there is the shell pattern to the end, finished off with a scallop edge. The pattern is 2 ch sk 1, 3 dc, sk 1 (1 dc, sk 1, 3 dc, sk 1) repeated to end, sl st. The scallop edge is 5 dc into every middle of 3 dc, with a sl st into the single dc.

I used a 4mm hook for this one, just like the other two pink caps I made. Without stretching it, the cap measures 23.5cm across the base (so 47cm circumference), the height is 19cm. There are 7 increasing rows, then 11 rows of shell pattern, then one round of scallops.

I hope I get to find out if any of these fit!

Handmade Green and Blue 1st Birthday Card

This is another simply gorgeous card made by my mother. This one is for Aiden, who turned one on Friday.

On Saturday afternoon we went to Aiden’s grandparent’s house for a party, it was lots of fun with lots of people there. I’m so happy to be able to give these special birthday cards, it’s so much nicer than store bought cards I think.What do you think?

Handmade 1st Birthday Card for Thomas

Thomas turned one nearly a month ago, but we’ve been so busy catching our breath after a very busy Christmas season, this is the first chance I’ve had to blog about it!

This was our first ‘proper’ Christmas with Thomas, as his first Christmas was spent in the hospital nursery, and I was still in hospital that day myself. That’s why we decided we should make an extra effort this season, and visit everyone in the family, which we managed to do, except for seeing my sister and her family in Darwin. We hadn’t gone anywhere all year, with Thomas being so small I didn’t feel confident enough. So Christmas was a very busy season for us indeed this year, and we’ve decided we should spread things out a bit better next year so it’s not so overwhelming!

One thing we can’t change though is Thomas’ birthday, which is on December 14th, right when things start to get busy. We had to have a party of course, in fact we celebrated all week with visits from family and friends spread out so our small home would not be too crowded in case it rained. Thankfully it didn’t rain! My mum came to visit Thomas on the day though, and brought gifts and this very special handmade 1st birthday card.

I just adore my mum’s handmade greeting cards, don’t you? They are so special. I’m trying to convince her to try and sell some, I think they might be popular!

A Christmas Eve Tea Cosy

This is my first attempt at a tea cosy, and considering I didn’t have the tea pot with me at the time to fit to measure as I went,  it turned out damned well!

It was pretty damn lucky this thing fit, but I did use a stitch that has a lot of stretch in it so it had a chance. I chose some nice soft acrylic my mum had spare and started with two rectangles of alternating rows of ridges. In hind sight, the ridges should have gone vertically instead of horizontally for even more stretch. This would increase the chance of the cosy being used for different tea pots. I chose the cheery and bright yellow colour, not only because it felt soft and would be nice to work with, but because it is a sunshiney happy colour for good luck, perfect for a family kitchen.

I was staring at the two rectangles wondering how to fix it all up as there were several options. In the end I opted to do a quick job with minimal fuss, with 1 dc 1 ch along the top for the ch pull handle. Next time this should only be 1 sc 1 ch to reduce heat loss. If I wanted to do a really good job, I could do two layers and sew them together with a 1 sc 1 dc lip, or maybe that would need the 1 dc 1ch lip, because it will be that much thicker. Also, there should be another row of dc above the lip, to further reduce heat loss. All good to note for the future, in case any one else wants me to make them a tea cosy.

I whipped up this tea cosy on Christmas Eve while everyone else slept and I couldn’t. It took me just under two hours, and I used either my 3.5mm or 4mm hook. On Christmas day I did a free form patch on my brother’s damaged beanie, I just used some blue that was on hand, it doesn’t match very well but I’m sure it doesn’t matter as this beanie is bound to end up in the bin. It was very tricky, especially as I’ve never done it before, but because I am so clever I did an absolutely awesome job!! I can not for the life of me imagine why anyone would think it was ok to take to an especially made custom crochet beanie with a pair of scissors to rig up a tea cosy, but truth is stranger than fiction it seems. Thanks for taking some time to read my blog.

Colourful ABC 123 Cube for a Baby

Here is an upgrade of my first attempt at a baby block. This one is for a gift, as we are part of a Kris Kringle this year. This cube has numbers and letters on it, as well as a bell inside to make it jingle!

I find our culture of gift giving at times very challenging. I’d rather give gifts as a matter of course, when things arise that someone needs or wants, then you give it to them if you can. I don’t like having to wait for a special occasion, then there is this culture of having to give a gift,  giving gifts the receiver does not need or want. This, in turn, increases the consumerism and rubbish that piles up on our planet. But unfortunately, I am a social creature, being a mammal and all, so I’m compelled to participate in this ritual and not cause offence to my friends and family. But sometimes I just wish we would get more practical with this gift giving thing! I think even gift vouchers are better than an unwanted gift, but for some people this is not in the spirit of it, and they don’t like it. I just loathe to see people on modest incomes waste their money on expensive gifts that are not needed.

A month or so ago we had a hail storm here in Brisbane, which caused some damage to the roof of my friend’s house. She lost her potted basil plants, so a perfect gift for her (I think, anyway), is a new basil plant! I took a cutting from my youngest plant, and put it in a vase on my kitchen sill. Now it has lots of nice new roots and is ready to plant in a nice pot. I just have to get some more potting mix and it will be ready for its new home.

Yet another Christmas, here we come!

Colourful Crochet Baby Cube

I was going to make a set of these soft baby blocks, and did this first one last year before Thomas was born. Now, I don’t think I’ll make any more quite like this.

I simply made 6 x 10cm squares of various colours in the same thick cotton I used for the drink coasters. They were fairly quick to make up, then I started joining them up into a cube with the black. I chose these colours because these were the brightest colours I had at the time, and the contrasting black is attractive to the eyes of babies. I then packed the inside with stuffing consisting of scraps of material saved from my sewing projects. I was unhappy with how the cube shape came out. If I packed it too much, it started to resemble a sphere! So I had to remove some stuffing, then the cube was a bit sloppy. So if I make any more cubes like this, they will need a firmer stuffing in the shape of a square, and the cube will have to be made to fit the stuffing. Hence why I probably won’t make any more, as I don’t have any stuffing material like that on hand, and I don’t want to buy it as I think it’s too expensive for what it is!

So here is an odd shape to throw into Tom’s toy box. Maybe in future I can make a sphere and a rectangle to match …

In other news, our little family has just got over colds that Thomas caught at a playgroup I took him to last week. That was the first time I’ve taken him to a playgroup and I won’t be taking him back. All we got out of it was the cold! This is the first time Thomas has had a runny nose and only the second time he’s been sick as the first time was a sore throat with fever. It was so awful listening to him breath through a runny nose all night! I know it’s good for his immune system to start building up resistances to these germs, but I don’t think he should spend his entire babyhood sick and uncomfortable. Getting sick only twice in 10 months is doing pretty well so far, considering how much illness is around!

Colourful Scrap Rug for a Toddler

This rug started off as a pile of scraps given to me by my mother last year, and is now the second rug like this I’ve done. I’m hoping it will be a useful rug for Thomas.

I really enjoy making these rugs. The material is not expensive, you can pick it up at op shops or find it in your own craft cupboard, and it’s satisfying to turn balls of left over yarn into something that can actually be used. I enjoyed making the first one so much I called it a ‘therapy rug’! There’s no pattern to the colours, the only rule is whenever I change yarn it’s a different colour to the last. It’s therapeutic because there is no stress at all about the design, it just comes down to a decision at the moment it’s time to pick a new colour.  And the idea of these rugs is to use up all of that left over yarn, that’s why there are not finished rows, rather they run into each other like spirals until the yarn runs out. Then I choose a contrasting colour to continue. This way there are no little bits left over at all.  That’s why this is much better than making a rug out of small granny squares sewn together. And I find sewing all those squares together at the end very tedious! For this rug, I used a 4.5mm hook, so not too small so it doesn’t take too long.

The first thing to do is sort the balls of left over yarn according to size. The very smallest ball of yarn is the one you want to start with, next choose a contrasting colour that looks to be amongst the smallest of the balls left. I’ve even resorting to weighing the balls on a small kitchen scale! This way you get the spiral effect. I’m rather proud how this one turned out, the pattern is quite nice considering there was little planning in it. It’s good to know I have something useful to do with all those annoying left over balls of yarn!