Variegated Plastic Bag Holder

Well, three of these plastic bag holders in almost as many days, I don’t plan on doing too many more of these any time soon!

I made this one for my friend after she saw the photos of my other bag holders on Facebook. We went to coffee and Lincraft yesterday and she picked some yarn she liked. Its a nice variegated acrylic with flecks of green, purple, orange and pink. For this one I used my 4.5mm hook because I started it at the library and didn’t have my 5mm with me, I don’t have a 5.5mm and the 6mm was too large. It still didn’t take me too long to make it up, especially because my husband made dinner so I could finish it!

I’ll probably make more of these, especially if the ‘product testing’ (!) goes well, just not too soon because I have lots and lots of other projects I want to make within the next 2 months. There are so many birthdays coming up, I’m not sure how I’m going to get it all finished!

Small camel stitch purse with a fluffy edge

I just finished this small purse today, completing the purple fluffy edge. I had made this to give to a friend as a gift, but I’ve decided to make her something else instead! I don’t know who I’ll give this one to.

The other week while on youtube, I stumbled upon some videos of a stitch I didn’t know. It was called the ‘camel stitch‘. It was interesting because it’s supposed to resemble knitting, so I decided to give it a try. I made a rectangle that measures 18cm x 8cm of the camel stitch. Then I went around it with a border of 2 rounds of sc. I used the last of my berry pink yarn from Lincraft, and a 4mm hook. Then I folded it to make the purse and stitched the sides and the lip in sc, leaving a 5 ch loop for the button, using the fluffy purple yarn. I ended by stitching a large purple button on the front. Hey presto! A small purse!

The finished product measures 11cm x 9cm, I wonder if anyone would like it.

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.

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!

Small striped bag with flower & Handmade 1st Birthday Card

Today is the second 1st birthday in our mother’s group so we have a party to go to, it’s very exciting! I made this small striped bag with a flower as a gift, I hope she likes it!

I used 5 colours from my batch of cotton blend, it’s a thick yarn so I used my 4mm hook. It’s a simple bag, changing colours every row of sc using orange, yellow, green, purple and white. I didn’t follow a pattern for the flower either, just did a couple of rounds in yellow ending up with 16 sc, then changed to orange and did 8 petals. Each petals started as 3 ch in every 2nd sc, then the second row is 5 sc into the sp with a sl st to start a new petal. I used fine cotton and needle to do a simple running stitch to attach the flower to the front. For the bag, a sc ch lip for a ch handle to be threaded through, and a larger ch handle with a second row of sc in orange. The one thing I’m unhappy with is this cotton is too thick to thread through my needle so I couldn’t finish off the ends very neatly. Instead I have to weave them in with my crochet hook which means the ends can poke through easily. Eventually there will be some loose ends visible in this bag which will make it look a little rough. Hopefully that will add to the home made character of it!

To go with this gift my mum made a special home made birthday card, which is very nice! I’ll also include a small Fisher-Price little people car inside the bag, and of course a book which I always love to give children! Children can never have too many books!

Simple Gifts – girl’s handbag, soap savers, dishcloths

I made these things to give as gifts this Christmas, finishing the dishcloths today.

<<< My sister told me her daughter would like a grey and pink bag like the one I gave her last year, but this time with a zig zag or polkadot pattern. So this is what I came up with! It’s my own pattern and required a second attempt, the first one was just to work it out, then it got unravelled! The pattern is basically a sl st, sc, hdc, 3 dc, hdc, sc, sl st repeated, every second row does the same pattern but inverted with the sl st falling on the middle dc, if you know what I mean! Two rows one colour then the next two rows the other colour result in these wavy stripes. Otherwise, it’s a pretty straight forward bag, with a row of dc in the handle. I think I used a 4mm hook, I really like the pink I used its a vibrant colour, and some dark grey wool.

>>>My favourite soap is the pink Dove soap, its a pink ribbon fund raiser and is very nice, soft and creamy. I decided to use some pretty pink cotton I have left over from the sun hat I made for my niece last year, to make some pretty soap savers! Again, I had to have a second attempt, the first go I worked out the pattern then had to unravel it and start again properly. I started at the bottom with 9 ch, then a dc in every ch, 3 extra at each end, then another 9 on the other side of the ch to make a round. After that there are 7 rows of lace, the pattern is 2 dc 1 ch 2 dc, sk 2, 1 dc 3 ch 1 dc, sk 2, then alternated into the sp, if you know what I mean! Then the top is 1 dc 1 ch, and a ch threaded through and sl st onto itself to make a closed tie handle. I used a 3.5mm hook and a 50/50 cotton and acrylic blend. I hope the recipents like these, I think they’re really nice anyway!

<<< Today I finished these pentagon dishcloths using up the last of the pretty 50/50 cotton acrylic blend. It’s so sad to see the last of it go! Again I used the 3.5mm hook, and my own pattern. This is like other pentagon dishcloths I’ve made, but slightly bigger as my husband has said they need to be! If I didn’t run out of cotton they would be even bigger! I’ve made these for people who mentioned they’d like home-made dishcloths, I hope they like these!

Merry Christmas!!!

❤

Two Handmade Birthday Cards

Two good friends from high school celebrated their 40th birthdays last month. A special occasion like this required a special something sent in the mail!

My mother has started making more greeting cards and I must say they are rather good! I chose these two to send to my old friends, and I’ve since heard they both reached their destinations safely! And that was despite rainy weather – there’s always a danger that snail mail will get waterlogged! You don’t get that problem with emails over the internet!

My friend Karen has always kept birds, usually cockatiels, so I thought the pretty card with the caged birds would be nice for her. The owls look rather cute and thoughtful so I sent them to Marina. She has since told me that owls are one of her favourite things, possibly due to being a librarian, but I’m not sure!

Three Small Things – baby beanie, dishcloth, headband

Here are another three small things I’ve completed in the last couple of days, a baby beanie, a wavey dishcloth and a crochetted headband.

>>> I bought some yarn made from the Wangaratta Mill Shop , part of the Australian Country Spinners, that Lincraft had on special. I’m wanting to find some locally grown and spun yarn, hopefully this is what I’ve been looking for. I really liked this sea green colour and made a beanie for Tom with it. I used a 4.5mm hook and used front post ridges to mark the increases in the crown, then plain down the sides, and finished of with some star-fish looking clusters. I wonder if the nurses will use this beanie? My starfish cluster pattern goes something like this … ch 1, [sk 1 st, (htrb, trb, d-trb, trb, htrb) in next, sk next, dc in next] * repeat to end

<<< I’ve been meaning to make something with this wavey stitch for quite a while and have never gotten around to it. The cotton I used for the pentagon dishcloths was so nice, I decided to use the last of it up to make this cloth, which I might use as a dust cloth for my piano. There are references to this wavey pattern in many places, in the end I used one at eHow. I used a 3.5mm hook for this cloth.

>>> I’m really proud of this new headband, this is the first time I’ve made something like this. I only have one headband, made out of black t-shirt material, and I am so very over black that I need a different colour! So I gave this one a go, using a 3mm hook and some greyish-lilac cotton I bought and still haven’t used until now. I found the pattern after searching google for ‘stretchy crochet headband pattern‘. My pattern is based on this but it is different as I turned for every row.
My version of the stretchy headband pattern
1. ch 8, dc (US sc) in second ch from hook, dc in every ch to end (7 dc), turn
2. ch 1, dc in first dc, dc in second dc, ch 3 skp next dc, dc in next dc, ch 3 skp next dc, dc in next dc, dc in last dc, turn
3. ch 1, dc in ea next 2 dc, dc in 3 ch sp, ch 3, dc in next 3 ch sp, dc in ea last 2 dc, turn
4. ch 1, dc in ea next 2 dc, ch 3, dc in 3 ch sp, ch 3, dc in ea last 2 dc, turn
repeat round 3 & 4 until desired length is reached for firm fit
last round. ch 1, dc in ea next 2 dc, dc in 3 ch sp, dc in next dc, dc in next 3 ch sp, dc in ea last 2 dc
sl st to other end to form ring

Small Purple Plarn Basket

This small plarn basket was made from about half a dozen Lincraft plastic shopping bags, so it’s mostly purple with some flecks of white.

I used a 7mm hook and single crochet (UK double). I did a little on this project every now and again, as it hurts my thumb to work with this tough yarn. So from start to finish this project took a couple of weeks.

I finished this basket to decide if it’s something I want to continue doing, or should I just discard my collection of plastic bags? I don’t know if I can find a use for this small basket, making larger ones might be more worth the effort. And it does require effort, the making of plarn baskets is not enjoyable, but the one consolation is that the material is free.

Knowing how to make a basket from recycled plastic bags surely will prove to be a useful skill at one time or another!

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.