Fun at the fun park

While everyone else was struggling with soaking wet slippery slides, too fast cornering down steep hills and sunshine, I was quietly enjoying a break from housework.

With just a friend to talk too, icecream to eat and a wonderful shady roof over my head I was able to spend Saturday crocheting to my hearts content.

.

Today I'm........

....finishing off this skirt for a friend. I found the dress, a size 12, and knew instantly that it belonged to Mellie. Unfortunately, she is a tiny size 8.

So with the help of a mutual friend who does her ironing I cut the skirt down to size yesterday.

Today I've done everything except sew the final hem and finish the waistband.

Haven't decided what i will do with that yet as I want to keep the fabric from the top of the dress to make something else with.

......receiving this in the mail.

I bought these from an etsy seller called Needle Creations.

These are divine. Perfectly made and so tiny.

I think I am going back for more.

Happy, happy, happy

Kate from Foxs Lane suggested we tell the world our reasons for happiness today. 

I have to say my number one happiness today was learning how to crochet ric-rac which I learned from Kate's very own tutorial. It is so simple. I've made it using some thrifted cotton I picked up last week.

And can you beat these gorgeous cushions at only a dollar each. I didn't even know their price but I knew they were mine as soon as I saw them.

So creamy and rich in their crochet.

They are dfinitely keepers.

I am also very happy that we can get secondhand clothing here so cheaply. Many ideas here for me, my daughter and friends.

And I am happy for the lovely small circular cloth my friend dropped on my lap this morning.

And above all I am happy for having such wonderful company to enjoy every Friday morning.

Such great friends whose company inspires with it's intellectual, spiritual or trivial content depending on our joint moods. 

I never fail to have been lifted emotionally when I part from them.

Now some accent colours

I made DD1 this rug about 3 years ago based on the concept of fluffy, metallic and plains placed randomly in a pretty granny square rug featured in Better homes and Gardens.

Obviously she still likes these colours because here is the piece of artwork she made just before she moved up.

Remodelled shirt completed

Cut, shortened in both the sleeves and overall length and unburdened of it's collar and central bands, this poor Miller's shirt has evolved into a comfy little jacket (that still looks great over my favourite nightie!).

The edges were first overcast on the sewing machine, then turned under and crocheted into using a 1.5 crochet hook. Occasionally, if the seams were too thick to push through, I pulled out the trusty, tiny-weeny .75.

The second row is all trebles. The third row consists of shells with 7 trebles in each seperated by 3 stitches with a seperation of 4 stitches on the back collar. I'm not sure if all this makes sense to anyone but I also use this blog as a diary of what I have done in each project so please ignore the unprofessional crochet terms.

The cotton is a fine DMC Perle 8 Colour 304.

Just a quick nudge: If you haven't voted in the CurlyPops poll you still have until 3PM tomorrow to do so.

Please don't forget to vote for the littlies - B1, B4 and D3.

My creative space

Getting there quite quickly.

Hanging teatowel tutorial?

I could never really understand how these were done. I thought maybe all those teeny-tiny stitches along the edge were some form of blanket stitch - but what form?
So last year I asked a granny, lovely Lydia in Albury. She scrambled around around in her crochet bag and came up with a size 1 hook. Instead of getting me to do the work she crocheted away while talking to me but still managed to impart the right knowledge. Yesterday, after 9 months, I finally gave it a go.

Of course. before you start crocheting, I imagine you will want to cut your teatowels in half, although some people just fold them and have a double hanging towel. If you cut yours in half, you might like to work out how to deal with the rough edges in order to strengthen them. You could zigzag along them or overlock them. I simply folded the cut edge in, approximately 5 mm which was about the depth of the first row of crochet, so that the crochet actually overlocked them.

I used a size 1.5 hook because the only other option was a 0.75 and I reckoned that might not even have a hook on it, it is sooo tiny. LOL! The yarn is a cotton, I think. I bought it for $2.99 at the local cheapy shop because there is no where else around to get it here except maybe Kmart.

Then I just start to crochet into the fabric. That's right - you just poke the hook into the material and pull your yarn through and do ordinary double crochet stitches. That is why you need such a tiny hook. I imagine a finer teatowel could well do with a finer hook and possibly that may require thinner yarn.
Next 2 rows I only crocheted every second stitch, again in dc.
Next 2 rows have a treble in the first 2 stitches, miss a stitch, then repeat. Because of the unknown quantity of the original number of stitches you may have to have a stitch more or less at the end. Play it by ear.
At this point I had 8 stitches. I continued on doing treble for 16 rows of 8 stitches.
17th row. 2 treble, 4 chain, 2 treble.
18th and final row. 1 half treble crochet, 1 treble 4 trebles in chain gap, 1 treble, 1 half treble crochet and sign off.

On the bottom of the towel I crocheted into the towel and returned with a row of lace, each time something different according to how I felt.

This is a very basic tutorial. A lot of what you do will have to be arranged according to how many stitches you originally crocheted into the towel. I guess this is a bit like the older cook who knows the basic recipe and just does it without ever measuring a thing and it always works. Hope this works for you too!

Crochet ~ for Rhonda Jean

A couple of days ago Rhonda from Down to Earth asked for readers suggestions for shawls. ( If you haven't yet read Rhonda's blog you certainly should give it a go. She is full of practical advice that would normally be handed down through the generations but is sadly lacking in our highly mbile and materialistic times.) This reminded me of a blanket which I made a year ago for my oldest daughter. Most of it was done whilst holidaying with an older friend. She became so enamoured of the design that I was working on that she has made approximately a dozen such blankets and her daughter a similar number. Of course, that means spending as lot of time down at the wool shops but, fortunately for them, a local icon was closing down and selling out all their fabulous wool at dirt cheap prices. It was also the end of season sellout at Spotlight (Australia's premier cloth and craft shop) so they bought up big. That really helps with this type of design because the best results come from an array of textures and colours, although having a colour scheme is still desirable.





On the train trip home I began another blanket, this time based around a rather garrish (I thought) pink being thrown out by a friend, who had in turn received it from a worn out knitter. I am particularly slow at doing long term projects because of my sleep problem so I have not progressed very far with this particular one but here it is. I call it my pink vo-vo blanket after the biscuits of the same name. Whilst I was working on this a young lass asked me to make her a scarf. I finally got around to that a week ago. After that I made one for her sister and another for my youngest daughter. I'm not really keen on this scheme but it shows you the possibilities.

This daughter has also gotten the bug and learnt to crochet this week Here is her first ever attempt which she has kindly made for her favourite aunt. I really loved this scarf even though it is different from my work in that she has used a single crochet stitch where I generally use a treble.





I think this shows the endless possibilities with this style. You could work it either in knitting or crochet. Crochet, double crochet,treble or fanned treble are all perfectly acceptable. The only rule is that every row is done in a different wool texture. You can work in combinations of light or dark or stick to just one or two colourways. IT IS THE TEXTURE THAT IS IMPORTANT.





Novice crocheters should probably not use really long fluffy wools such as feathers as this makes the next row difficult to work on. A more skilled worker should be able to overcome this difficulty by feeling for the next space with their fingers. I find that it helps to put three trebles into one space then skip two before repeating. If you want any help with this style please leave a comment and I will answer it as soon as possible.



Cheerio!~