Handmade gift giving.... Crochet Placemats

Who doesn't love a good sniff around the Purl Bee blog!?  It's always full of crafty tutorials and inspiration!

 

I've been attracted to the pattern they shared on crochet placemats and thought they would be perfect for my friends upcoming birthday.

 

To give you an idea of size I've included my lovely Rob Ryan plates in each image!

 

I've used a cotton blend for mine so they should be easy to wash and care for.  They were simple to whip up as well and when I shared them on instagram someone said that the pattern they created looked a little like a magic eye image!  I'll definitely make these again but in future I might stick with one colour for the border.  While the bright colours I've used here look great individually, I'm not sure they work well together, and I really like the subtle look of the yellows used in the original pattern. Hope my friend still likes them!!!

My creative space... The sunny spread

A while ago I came across an pattern called the Sunny Spread.  'Twas pretty and quite yellow.  I pinned it and then promptly forgot about it.  Then I came across the beautiful crochet work of Dover and Madden, and quite clearly I was so enamoured I had to copy her!  I realise this is soooooo not the done thing and is quite frowned upon by crafty types but I'm not selling this, or mass producing it or anything.  It's merely a wee blanket gift for my brother, his wife and their soon to be baby (girl!!! so they say!!!). 

 

The pattern itself is so super simple and so lovely!  Those raised sections are created by crocheting behind a stitch as the circle increases.  Super Clever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not a huge blanket and is really only intended to be used in the pram or praps in a cradle when the lovely wee baby comes home.  I should also have blocked it, something I have never done with my crochet because I am a lazy crafter.  I think I shall just sit something heavy on it and hope for the best!

 

How can one not include a photo of the craft project with peeping toes on display?!  This is standard crafty instagram fare when photographing blankets right?!

 

Then I tried to get toooo crazy....

This is totes supposed to be one of those shots of the crafty type with their crafty blanket floating beautifully next them... looking all crafty, serene and clever. 

Perhaps not.

Work in progress....

Poor me.  I am having such a blah day.  No reason really, 'cept I'm feeling on the sluggish, fat side and I turn 38 next week which is really not that far away from 40.  Poor me.  Play the violins.  I should probably not have eaten the entire wee tub of chocolate covered proper fresh raspberries that I bought home from Tassie with me.  Or the marshmallow chocolate snowballs from the chocolate factory.

 

Something that always makes me feel better is to pleasantly waste the day away on Pinterest looking at pretty things. 

 

I came across this pretty thing recently and knew straight away it would be perfect for my brother's as yet unborn baby of no known sex!

 

I loved the greys, the yellow and the black in it and am shamelessly copying the beautiful colour palette that Vicki has produced in this blanket.

 

The pattern is called Sunny Spread and is really simple to follow and looks amazing as a finished square.  It has this quite funky stitch called a front post treble crochet where you make your treble behind a previous stitch which then creates the ridges you see on the square!  Very fancy!

 

 

 

 

 

Has anyone ever actually tried crocheting with black wool?!  Well nigh impossible!  Wear glasses!  And have a good light right behind you!  And squint!

 

 

 

So far I have only done the border on one circle just to see what she looks like and I think it's marvellous!  It may need blocking though as they all have a tendency to curl up on themselves.

An easy present for boys!

To make this envelope cushion cover to fit a 45cm square cushion you'll need:

A piece of yellow material for the Lego man and a Lego man template. You can make this any size you like. 

A piece of fusible interfacing so you can iron your Lego man onto your cushion fabric. 

Cushion fabric - three pieces measuring 18"x18" (the front of the cushion), 18"x14, and 18"x12" (the two back pieces which will overlap creating an envelope opening. No zips!!!)

Print out and trace your Lego man onto your fusible interfacing then iron that onto your yellow fabric. The interfacing I use is double sided so I ironed it onto the yellow fabric then cut out the yellow Lego man, peel off the backing and...

These pieces will still measure 18".  You are folding, ironing and sewing the 14" side and 12" side. 

I like to use my 14" back piece first, then the 12" inch piece.  This gives the rear of the cushion a nice long covering on its envelope back. 

I say this with my tongue firmly in my cheek! I am very much in the camp of 'close enough, good enough' with my sewing, cutting and measuring!

I've made two of those now for boy's birthday presents this weekend. I may add a mini figure with them for good measure in case the birthday boy's are not huge fans of soft furnishings! 

 

Told you it was easy!

Crocheting with zpagetti



 

Ever worked with zpagetti?  Lordy me, is it hard work!  I have had a cone of this teasing me from the craft shelf for a while as every time I tried something with it I really struggled to get it started without it looking too messy.  And even though you hold the hook and yarn as you would normally, you really need to throw the rest of your body into it as well!

 

 

I've been super attracted to those rather large doily rugs you see on pinterest and thought I might see what I could come up with.  I didn't follow a pattern at all so it's pretty straightforward.  Best thing to do when starting off is to use a magic circle cause you need a big fat hook for this stuff and therefore a nice big starting circle too.  I also found it best to be a bit 'loose' with your stitches too!

 

Zpagetti works up fast and runs out quickly!  The rug I have made is only 55cm across at the moment.  I should probably get another cone of the stuff and make it bigger...

 



...which I will have to do anyway since I have run out halfway through on what might have been my last round!

 

Anyone else worked with this or something similar? 

My entry for the 2013 Hottie Challenge

 

 

 

 

 

I posted my hottie off to Cam yesterday, just in time for the Thursday cut off date this week for the 2013 Hottie Challenge!  It was not an easy road!!!  I planned to whip up some wee granny squares, seamlessly join them into a hot water bottle cover and send it on it's way within days.  Except those little squares take longer than you think.  Sewing in those pesky ends was painful.  Seamlessly joining teeny squares is not straightforward and if I dared to show you the other side of my work you would die laughing at how messy it looked!

 

 

My first attempt at joining them made all the wee squares stick up like bubbles.  It was annoying and frustrating since they are so fidgety to put together!

 

 

So of course I pulled them all apart and let them sit on the desk in my craftroom for a month!

 

 

When I attempted it again it was with a calmer frame of mind and a looser hand and hook!  I may also have sat some heavy books on top of it all to flatten it down a wee bit (a very technical crochet process!!!).  I left the top and bottom open so it could potentially fit a real hot water bottle and be used for what it was intended for!

 

(still a bit to pouffy for my liking!)

 

On the back is a plain white granny stripe right up to the neck.  I slip stitched the front and back together inside out so all the messy bits are nicely hidden away before I turned it back out to the right side!

 

 

 

I'm happier with the finished product than I thought I would be.  I love the colours and I think it looks a wee bit like a granny square blanket that your nanna might have made you... soft, squishy, cosy and warm. Just what you need in a hot water bottle cover! 

To see some beautiful, super creative hot water bottle covers pop over to Curlypops blog or instagram feed and search under #hottiechallenge2013. 

All hot water bottle covers will be displayed at Opendrawer's Gallery from Friday July 5th to Sunday July 28th.  The address is 1158 Toorak Road, Camberwell in Victoria.  They are then sold to raise money for the Margaret Pratt Foundation Heart Lung Transplant Trust.

 

*giant doily cork board from Typo

 

 

 

 

My creative space...

I made a beanie.  With granny trebles.  And no pattern.  Why have I not done this before? 
So super easy.

 

Prompted by a chilly morning at under 9 football on Sunday where many a mum was adorned with some kind of furry, puffy, vesty/jackety number, scarf and woolly headpiece, I felt the need to join the group... (although I vow to never venture into a puffy anything!  So not flattering... on me anyway!)

 

I can't believe how easy this was and how quickly it comes together.  And although I made a few little errors which required some undoing and redoing, it used only a ball or so of wool. 

(Initially I tried to add ear flappy bits with plaited ties hanging off them but then it dawned on me that I am not a 17 year old babe waiting on the beach for my surfie boyfriend to return from the waves and join me!)

 

 

The Pattern.... (I'm assuming you have some crochet knowledge!)

 

Chain  5 or 6 and join with a slip stitch to the starting chain.

Double crochet 12 times into the ring and slip stitch to close.

Treble into each previous double crochet adding some space between these trebles by chaining two or three.  Join with a slip stitch.
 

In the next round, three chain and two trebles into the first space, and then three trebles into each space after that.  Join with a slip stitch into the third chain of your three chain starting point.

So your beanie doesn't start folding in too early, increase your rounds slowly and keep testing it out on your own head.  Initially I increased by adding a few chains between each set of three trebles.  Then increased some more by doing two lots of three trebles with a chain in between in each alternate space of the round.  I did an increase round, then a non increase round 2 or 3 times till I felt it was going to be wide enough to fit my moon head.
 

Eventually you will end up doing those three lots of trebles into each space with maybe a chain between each set 9-10 times till it comes far enough down your head.  To finish I used a different colour and did three rows of double crochet around the edge.  I may well add a pom pom!

 

Take it out onto your front porch and take 22 selfies before you find one that you are vaguely less critical of.  Muck around with it on instagram until you find the most flattering filter while your internal self continues to berate your moon head, the bags under your eyes,  pointy chin and puppet lined mouth.

 

Enjoy at a cold under 9's football match where you lose count of how many times your child pulls up their socks and repeatedly removes their mouthguard... while only touching the actual football twice. 

 

In absentia....

Olivia the Pig fabric made into a sweet wee girly skirt.

Progress on my ripplealong rug started with a whole bunch of people over at One Crafty Mumma.

To much running equals plantar fasciitis.  Whoops.  Still running in Run for the Kids though in two weeks time.  I'm embracing the pain!  (And strapping it and having some proper treatment just to be on the safe side!)

My completed quilt top from the scrappy quilt along that was doing the rounds on instagram.  Just got to teach myself what to do next!!!

Some crochet blankety progress.  It needs to be bigger!

 



 

I have not been here.  I have been everywhere else instead.  Mostly working (relief teaching) and lots of running with a little bit of parenting thrown in for good measure.  And some craft. 

So while I may not have been physically here I am actually still here.  Reading all my favourite bloggy things, wasting time on Pinterest, instagramming till the cows come home.  Basically as much procrastination as you can possibly imagine.

 

I would looooove to have a big clean up here.  Getting a real person to show me how to pretty this place up.  Use an actual camera for photos instead of repeated instragram ones.  Commit to blogging more regularly.  It takes time though, and that's just not on my side at the moment. 

 

I say thank goodness too that this revolting Melbourne hot spell appears to be coming to an end tomorrow as well.  Can everyone give me a halla-bloody-lujah!?

My creative space....

I have decided to join in with Melissa at One Crafty Mumma and do a Ripple-along!  Now I could have easily used up some of the stash in my cupboard but it was all so bright and lary and made up of bits of this and bits of that.  And while I would have much preferred to be able to wander into a lovely wooly shop like The Stash Cupboard, Hobart was just too far away (Sorry Penni!), so I went with the old faithful and had an emergency dash to Spotlight.

 

I saw this pin on pinterest that inspired my colour choice as well as my decision to go with fat ripples.
 

Source: hellosmitten.tumblr.com via Sonia on Pinterest

 

 My colour choices - trying to keep it simple.



 

Now I just have to settle on which ripply pattern to follow:

(click on the image and it will take you to the respective patterns)

 

The Royal Sisters...

 

Attic 24...

 

Meet Me at Mikes...

 

And, hark!  What else did I spy at Spotlight?! 



Timber Babushka cross stitch!  Well of course I needed two!

This is where I am up to with my scrappy quilt along thingy.  Just two more blocks and I think I am done.  Then of course I have to work out what to do next!!!  This is not the final placement of each square - I just needed to lay it all out to see what colours I need to go with for may last two pieces.  I'm thinking a greeny block and maybe a purple one too.

 

My creative space....