Large Purple Granny Rug

I finally finished this rug yesterday morning, after I first bought this yarn in July 2009! So that’s 2 and a half years from start to finish, a very long term project indeed!

For this I used my 5mm hook, a bigger hook makes the rug go faster and for this one it needed all the help it could get. This is the largest rug I’ve done and it doesn’t even cover my queen sized bed! It’s only slightly larger than my other ‘therapy rug‘. I don’t think I’ll be doing many of these, they are kinda boring. I just did a bit when watching TV. I find smaller projects that finish quicker much more satisfying. Also, considering there is almost $20 worth of acrylic yarn in this rug I’m thinking it’s not really worth it. You can pick up a nice cotton blanket for less and it’s larger, you can also get polar fleece blankets for less and I think they’re warmer. So, not many more of these rugs from me! The pattern is a simple granny square, with 3 rows of dc at the end. The corner has an extra 7 dc in it.

I’m not sure where this rug is going, maybe on the single guest bed as it’s too small for the big bed. I’m just so glad it’s finished!

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!

Three Small Things – apple sweater, dishcloth, square motif

>>> I first saw an apple sweater at Crochetspot and thought it was a fabulous idea. An apple is a great snack, but doesn’t go very well in my handbag and always ends up getting bruised, but the sweater would protect it from that. More images of apple sweaters on google show different styles. I turned one of my baby beanies into an apple sweater by simply crochet a chain to go around the edge and sl st to join. This second one I made as an apple sweater from the start. It’s my own pattern, it’s like a baby beanie but with a chain threaded through the lip and sl st to join a ring. I used a 5mm hook and some more of the pink and blue mohair I had used for the hot water bottle cover. It now lives in our fruit bowl, waiting to be used!

<<< This aqua coloured flower dishcloth is a pattern I made up, turning over after every row to work in a ridge. The 5th round is some 5 treble flower petals. I ran out of cotton just at the end, so the last petal is 5 ch to form a handy hanging hook. For this one I used a 4mm hook and the last of the aqua cotton my mum gave me.

>>> I saw a lacey crochet square motif on a crochet blog, and I really liked it so I tried copying it. I didn’t follow a pattern, I just tried to replicate the image. I used my 1.75mm hook and some fine lilac cotton mum gave me. When I was finished this tiny square I wet it and blocked it as it wasn’t quite flat. I’m not sure where this square will live, perhaps it can be a dolly’s blanket.

Three Small Things – dishcloth, heart, face washer

>>> Here is a face cloth that I edged last night, I simply did one round of double crochet (US sc). This cloth came in a gift pack from the hospital where Tom is staying and it was perfect for a quick edge treatment! I nearly did the edge in blue but decided that would be too boring so did it in a contrasting green instead! The single row looks less frilly I think, so will go well in our growing stash of baby boy goodies. I vowed years ago never to edge face washers with crochet but I succumb to the urge this year while teaching myself crochet. So far I’ve edged a pair of white with purple, and a pair of pink with pink!

<<< I whipped up this variation of Suzetta’s small heart earlier this month. This one has a second round so you can have two colours like I have here. For this one I used my 1.75mm hook. I think this is my favourite heart pattern, thankyou Suzie! I first had a go at this pattern back in January when I was teaching myself how to read crochet patterns, and I’ve come back to this pattern several times so far.

>>> Here is a small ridged green cotton dishcloth that I did up earlier this month using a 4mm hook and the last of the cotton in this colour. I now have two dish cloths this colour, the other green dishcloth I made up last month.  The ridged stitch is at crochetspot.

Three Small Things – soap saver, dishcloth, square motif

<<< I don’t really understand why I woke one morning thinking I needed to make a soap saver for the laundry soap, but I did! I don’t usually use these things, but the soap I have in the laundry at the moment was a gift and really needed one as it was making a mess. I didn’t follow a pattern as it’s a pretty basic shape, but I did look at crochetspot and google for some inspiration, and used my thick cotton and a 4mm hook. I got the idea of continuing the first round all the way round the bottom of the first row from the free pattern at crochetspot, there are also pictures and patterns of other soap savers there. I’ve tested it out, so far so good. The plan is, when you get the little shards of soap left over at the end you keep them in the bag so you don’t waste them. Very thrifty, I like it!

>>> I have been working on a spiral dishcloth using the same aqua cotton as my first cotton dishcloth, but I’m not happy with it so it’s currently in my pile of unfinished projects. I bought some ‘amalfi’ yarn from Lincraft for $4, which is 100% cotton. I think the choice of colours look ‘dishclothy’, if there is such a thing, so chose the aqua greenish one. This time I made a bigger version of the basketweave dishcloth, as David asked for a bigger one. This used most of the 50g ball, there isn’t enough left to make another one this size. Consolation is that this cloth can be washed and reused for quite a while, so I can get my money and effort’s worth out of it. This didn’t take long to do, I used a new bamboo 3.5mm I thought to try for fun. I found working with the bamboo hook that it stuck a little, and is not as smooth as using a metal one. The final product measures 22cm x 18cm.

<<< I tried this square motif, I’m thinking of using it to make some baby play cubes. This coaster pattern is at crochetspot.

Crochet Motifs in White

Here are some more motifs I made using patterns in Jan Eaton’s ‘crochet basics’ book that I borrowed from the library and had to return last week. It such a good book, I might have to borrow it again!

• 3 Lacey squares, on pages 68-69
• 3 simple shapes, triangle on page 76, wheel hexagon 74, flower hexagon page 75

Like my other motifs and false starts, these will go in my sample bag. I wonder if I’ll be able to sew them altogether one day to make a big rug? Lol, not sure that will work with the lacey squares … hahaha

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

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.

Barbie’s Blue Jacket

I made this bolero jacket for a Barbie doll back in January using a beautifully soft blue wool kept from my childhood. It’s particularly nice, and although its a very simple design, it required some fiddly fine work. This is  my post for today’s Blue Monday which is hosted at Smiling Sally.

The purpose of me making this was to practice making a bolero jacket for myself. That is how all this Barbie thing started. I bought the doll purely for the purpose of practising making real clothes. But as I opened the box, the magic started all over again and I have fallen in love with Barbie once more!

I actually managed to keep my two childhood Barbie dolls up until I was in my early 30s, but lost them in a terrible accident that happened while I was moving around after I left my first husband. Before the ‘accident’, I used to look at them in disdain, wondering why I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, why was I carrying them around with me during such a difficult time? Now I know why, it was because I was in denial, I couldn’t admit just how much I loved my Barbie dolls!  They were in excellent condition and I had hung onto them for 25 years. But after the ‘accident’ they absolutely  had to be discarded and it’s a real tragedy!

Yesterday when David and I went to the Rocklea market, we saw a couple of  old Barbies from the 1970s and 1980s amongst the second hand treasures, all with very ratty hair so I didn’t get any. Instead we grabbed this really pretty blue vase which turns out to be slightly flawed.

I found an excellent blog devoted to collecting Barbie called “Don’t Just Play with Barbie, Be Barbie“. The inspiration for this blue jacket I found at Barbie Basics.

There seems to be a real Barbie doll enthusiast community, how fun!!

❤ ❤ ❤

Highlights from this week’s party include

• wonderful poetry, including a poem about a little girl who knows her colours @ Rinkly Rhymes
• Australian water-views and lighthouse @ A Tapestry of Life
• images of traditional Asian markets @ Travel In and Out