Flowery hat making!

It’s been half term this week so my OH has been home.  I don’t seem to get as much crafting done when we’re both here as we have been out doing things.  One day we had a lovely trip to  Llyn  Brenig.  It’s a reservoir with a very peaceful stillness about it and a beautiful place for a walk across the reservoir or in the surrounding forests.  Until this occasion it was also the place where I had my second best ever piece of Victoria Sandwich cake, however they have redone the café and I think they might be trying to recoup the expense through the catering.  Suffice to say this is no longer somewhere I have fond memories of afternoon tea, although the atmosphere for walking is still wonderful!

I have managed this week to do  just a little bit of the ripple blanket and more of the same mitred squares – neither is worth posting a picture about – but I have managed to complete a new flowery hat!  I bought some amazing new wool online last month and it arrived this week  – it’s called’ Flower Colour Wool’ by Grundl and is very pretty.  Here is what it looks like crocheted into the base circle for a hat.

flower wool for a new crochet hat

right side of crocheted hat base

and here is the reverse side which is also very pretty as you can see the colours more:

flower wool reverse side

reverse side of treble crochet

It’s a mixture of treble crochet and back post stitch and easy to do once you get the hang of working round the little curly bits which form the ‘flowers’.

Here is the finished hat – I love it but it’s quite an eccentric hat my daughter said so I haven’t been out in public in it yet!

purple and pinky flower wool hat

Flower Wool Crochet Hat

And here is the reverse side:

flower eff3ct of using flower wool

back of hat showing the flower effect

 

So what do you think?

Linking up with Handmade Monday again!   And with Lily’s Quilts Thank you for all the comments – please do leave them – the name and site box do record your text even though it doesn’t appear.  Also if you uncheck a box called ‘authenticate’ on some browsers it makes it work.  Thank you – I hate missing out on all the conversation.

 

Warm Walks – it’s nearly Spring!

Burton mere lake with ducks on

Burton Mere 1st pic

I love this time of year when a hint of Spring is in the air!  After the torrential rain of the last few days it was so uplifting to see sunshine this morning.  We are lucky though, that we don’t live in a flooded area and I feel very sorry for all the families who do, it must be very miserable.

As it was so bright we went for a walk today to enjoy the air. The two photos here were taken about 40 minutes apart and show how quickly the light deteriorates in February, and with it the warmth as it went from comfy to chilly as well!  It was beautiful at Burton Mere though, it has a very quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

Burton Mere late afternoon

Burton Mere 2nd pic

I haven’t done as much of my ripple blanket (Attic 24) as I hoped as I have also started another blanket which is a pattern of mitred squares based on the pattern (here) –  which I will then make up into my own pattern for the blanket.

Mitred suares wool crochet blanket

Mitred Squares

I can’t seem to stop the beginning corners curling up so I will have to steam block them before I join them all up I think.  I must make the foundation chains too tight, but I can’t seem to not do it!

Lastly here is the Ripple!  I bought some more wool as I felt I needed more pinky, raspberry shades!

ripple blanket in multi coloured acrylic yarn

ripple-blanket-week-7

I do like colourful blanket-making when it’s cold and rainy but don’t think it will be as much fun when it’s warm when you are a menopausal hot flush machine!! – so I need to get cracking while it’s still only Spring!!

As usual I am linking up with Handmade Monday!

My comment box is still not fixed – it does work even though where you type your name and site appears not to let you – the text will be there when you publish your comment!  So please don’t let it put you off as I love reading the comments!

Yarn, Wool and Twine Week

Another week of enforced  ‘resting’ waiting to have stitches out has been quite pleasant really!  No housework and no driving has meant a lot of yarn, wool and twine crochet and watching TV!  Of course I can’t just do one project, oh no, I have to have a couple on the go to switch between every so often!

I’ve kept on with the ripple blanket and the woolly Beanie but not as fast as if I hadn’t started 2 other projects at the same time I suppose!  I love choosing the colours as I work but it was taking too long because I really didn’t have enough choice.  One late night perusal of Wool Warehouse website led to a fat chunky parcel on the doormat 2 days later!!   They are brilliant, not only are they cheaper than other online shops but they send the goods very quickly too!

Stylecraft premium Acrylic in pinky purple colours

new colours of Stylecraft Special DK

I just didn’t have enough pinky, purply colours!!

Multi-coloured riple blanket from a pattern by Attic 24

Ripple Blanket Week 6

I couldn’t  just do my blanket as each row is very long and I need more of a quick results experience so I started on  little hearts and flowers to make a spring garland!  Most of these are Attic 24 patterns and some are my own random crochet!  Here are some of the first ones I completed in the Stylecraft acrylic yarn again.

little crochet hearts and flowers using Attic 24 patterns

hearts and flowers!

I’m planning on completing this for Oestara, the Spring Equinox.

Anyway, despite being quite content with my crochet I was reading my Facebook newsfeed and fell instantly in love with a picture of a tote bag crocheted using twine.  It was posted by The Chunky Hooker as they sell the twine.  Oh, wow!  I couldn’t help myself when I saw the green twine!  Such a lovely colour!  I bought a ball of the natural twine and the green and decided to make a bag in each using the suggested pattern

As soon as I started to work with the natural twine I realised I wouldn’t be making it very quickly and probably wouldn’t make 2 bags as it’s quite hard work and is also ‘raspy’ on my skin.  I did wear a thin gardening glove on one had most of the time and this does help (it was suggested by someone commenting on the bag post, not my bright idea!).  It was hard to see all the stitches clearly and I think I interpreted some of the pattern wrongly as I didn’t end up with the correct number of stitches for the bag base and it was wonky! It’s far too much effort doing it to face unpicking so I decided to carry on anyway and just accept it will probably be a little lop sided in the end!

tote bag base crocheted in twine

base of tote bag in natural twine

The pattern is much easier to follow for making the sides – I love the star stitch which forms the pattern.  In the next picture I have just completed on row of stars, there are 5 to do and I will alternate with the green twine I think.

Tote bag crocheted in natural twine and green twine

Tote bag sides with star Stitch

I really do enjoy making this but I have to do it in stages, letting my hands rest for a day as it is really quite hard to manipulate.  The green twine feels much softer and I think it will hook much more smoothly. The Chunky Hooker is another great online shop – the parcel arrived in a couple of days with a note asking to see a picture when I’ve finished the bag!

So that was my yarny, woolly twiny week!  I really am neglecting my sewing though and need to get back in the craft room before I become addicted to slumping on the settee with my crochet watching This Morning and old DVD box sets.  My knee stitches ‘unpicked’ easily and I have my post-op clinic visit next Tuesday so no excuses after that.  I am ‘hooking’ up with Handmade Monday as usual and looking forward to reading about everyone’s crafty lives.  🙂

My comment box is still not working for everyone – Free spirit unchecked a box to enable it to work or if you type your name etc in the boxes even though it doesn’t show when you type it does actually record it.  I am missing all the lovely comments!!

Not a disappearing nine patch!……

Just a short post today as I have been in hospital for another knee op and so not been up to much sewing.  However, just before I went I made myself a very quick patchwork cushion for my bathroom chair as I thought it would cheer me up when I was hobbling around in there!  Well it sort of did – if I hadn’t had a forgetful spell whilst making it that is!  Can you guess what happened ?

cotton floral patchwork cushion

NOT a ‘Disappearing Nine Patch’ patchwork cushion!

I completed it fairly quickly, added a purple zip to the back piece and was admiring it in the bathroom when I thought – ‘the centre looks so plain’ – then BOOM the brain rebooted and I remembered I had been intending to make a disappearing nine patch pattern!   This looks best if the centre square is plain as you cut up the finished 9 square block to end up with four large squares comprised of a big floral square, two floral rectangles and a small solid colour square at the centre corner of each of the four new squares.  Then by rotating these new squares you can achieve pleasing results which are a bit more interesting than the above cushion!!

As this occurred the day before my op I cannot excuse the brain on grounds of post anaesthesia confusion either!  Oh well – will have to make another one as soon as I can get back in the sewing room!

Luckily I can still blog-hop even with a poorly knee so am off to Handmade Monday for the weekly linky party!

[Sorry if my comments box seems to work for some and not for others as it seems it allows all comments but won’t let some people add their name and link,  I am waiting for my web guru to fix it :)]