My adventures in tarn.

Hi there. Wow, this week has really flown.  I have been putting off getting on the computer, as I have nothing much to report really, life has been humming along with all the usual good and bad stuff.  I have been pondering on the unfairness of life, how random our 'luck' seems to be, sometimes it is very hard to find the silver lining on all the crappy things that happen out there.  There seems to have been a lot of bizarre, terrible news happening out in the big wide world, it makes me wonder where we are heading as a society.  I'd like to think somewhere calm and enlightened and embracing, but I do wonder.  There have also been moments a lot closer to home where I have been forced to contemplate the randomness of good health. One day it is there, and seemingly the next it has dissolved before your eyes.  I have been sending lots of positive vibes to my extended family, everything is crossed and heres hoping for a great recovery.

As an antidote to all this kind of sad thinking, I decided to try something a bit new on the crafty front.  

I have to say, I spend a fair amount of time trawling Pinterest, and I do come across a lot of gems. 

A couple of weeks ago I found a great tutorial on how to make T-shirt yarn (tarn) for crocheting.  Yes please!  It was super easy, so on the weekend I had a go.  

I couldn't find any t-shirts around our house that were in colours I liked for crocheting, so I bought some cotton jersey from Spotlight, sewed it into long tubes and pretended it came from a t-shirt.(completely disregarded the thrifty, recycling element of this project).

......here is the green jersey all cut up waiting to be stretched....

.......and here are the finished piles of tarn waiting to be wound into balls.......

.........and here are the nice neat balls of tarn waiting to be crocheted into something fab!

I bought 1 metre each of 5 colours and was hoping to have enough tarn 

to hook up a 6 granny square bathmat.

Well, that wasn't to be.  

1 metre of fabric made about 42m of tarn, and I was quite alarmed at the rapid rate of consumption while hooking up the granny squares.  These squares really ate up the tarn!!

I  had just enough to make 4 squares with 1 colour left for a row of border.  I was hoping for 6 squares, but I guess 4 will have to do. Next time I will cut up 2 metres of each fabric, I need a much bigger ball of tarn!

Anyway, here is how it worked out, my slightly wonky bathmat. Tadah!

It is hard to tell how chunky and heavy it is from this photo, but it does feel very nice to walk on in bare feet.  And I guess it is nearly big enough, the granny squares are pretty huge!!  

This was a fun, frivolous project, and now I have a bathmat that ended up costing a lot more than if I had just bought one, but I don't know where I would have found a chunky, crocheted, granny square, tarn mat!  So I have a fairly unique bit of whimsy there!

Have you ever made anything from t-shirt yarn?  

Did your arms get sore? (mine did a little bit!)

Did you like using the huge hook? I used a 10mm hook, although I think I could have used a bigger one.

Well that's about all my tarning adventures for now.  If I find a better supply of fabric I might just dip my toe back in the tarn waters again, it was a fun side track to follow!

 Have a lovely day, wherever you are!

xxxxxxx

20/52 year of happy

Four things from my week that put a smile on my face.

1. I received some new shade cards from some yarn companies this week, and have spent a long time dreaming of all the new yarn I'd like to stock in my little shop. It is a surprising amount of fun putting together a yarn order!

2. I really like how good the colours look in rainbow formation, these are a range of 4ply cotton and I love all the colour!

3. I have splurged on a couple of magazines this week and I was lucky enough to receive the Simply Crochet mag in the mail this week, sent all the way from the UK from the lovely MemeRose, thank you so much it made my day!  I have spent some very lazy hours sitting curled up by the fire reading these, happy days!

4. I have been persevering with my quest to conquer fudge making, and I have to say, I thing I have nailed it this week with this chocolate coconut fudge !  It might not look that impressive, but it was Very addictive and sooooo good.  I will post this recipe and see if you agree 

( be warned, totally impossible to stop at one piece!).  These are the last two pieces and they were soon gobbled up!  My sweet tooth was very pleased.

What's been making you smile this week?

My creative space....pastel layers

Today has been quite the creative day for me! 

I did something a little bit out of my comfort zone and met up with a lovely group of ladies for some social hookie, a very nice way to spend the morning, they were very friendly and making some lovely things, I'm looking forward to catching up with them again. 

Then when I got home after a huge supermarket shop, restocked the cupboards and did a bit of other domestic goddess type stuff, I got stuck into stuffing and finishing off these layers that make up a few Christmas tree decorations.  These are for an order that I have been working on sporadically for quite a while ( luckily it's for a very patient lady!), but it is time to get them Finished Off!

What have you been up to today?

Stretched your creative muscles or no time for that sort of thing today?

Joining in with the other creative spacers over at Village Voices.

19/52 year of happy

Four happy moments from my week.

1. Wow! Thank you for such a great response to my crochet star tutorial!  So many lovely comments from you all, I was really surprised and delighted that these little things got such a nice reaction, it made me very happy to share the creative love!  Thank you for all the great encouragement you give me to continue with this blogging lark, hello and hugs to new followers!  I don't really know why you all keep coming back for my prattling on and sporadic posts, but I am really glad you do!  xxx

2. Mother's Day yesterday was a very cruisey happy day, I made muffins for morning tea with my mum, and spent the rest of the day just mooching around, doing not much at all.

 ( maybe a bit of crochet here and there too!)

3. Amazing cloud formations this afternoon, they were just about slipping away by the time I got my camera.  A wet, stormy week is predicted, so I hope to see some more dramatic skies in the up coming days.

4. Soup of the Week - lamb and barley - sooooo good!  Lamb shanks are perfect for this but I used lamb shoulder off cuts this time ( on a bit of a tight budget this week), and it was just as delicious!

So I hope you all had lovely a Mother's Day and were spoilt rotten, 

and have many happy moments in your week too!

Crochet Star Making - A Tutorial.

Hello. I have been making crochet stars this week.  For no good reason really, just because they're fun to make.  So I thought some of you might like to have a bit of crafty fun too.  

These stars use up tiny amounts of wool, so get your scraps box out!

I used a mixture of hot colours....

.....and a nice mix of cool colours.

You need to make 10 star 'points' or diamonds ( 5for the front and 5 for the back).  You can do them in solid colours or use a varigated yarn or you could stripe them like I did by changing colours every 2 rows.

You can make your stars bigger or smaller by varying the number of rows or by changing the yarn weight and hook size you use. Just make 10 of the same size and you'll be fine!

(leave a long tail at the beginning so you can use it to sew up later)

BASIC DIAMOND PATTERN

Ch 2

row 1: 2sc into 2nd ch from hook, turn.

row 2: Ch1(turning chain) 1sc into first st, 2sc into 2nd st, turn.

row 3: Ch1, 1sc into 1st st, 1sc into 2nd st, 2sc into last st, turn.

row 4: Ch1, 1sc into 1st st, 1sc into each st across until last st, 2sc into last st, turn.

Repeat row 4 until you have 11 stitches. ( or as many stitches as you like, more stitches means a bigger diamond and finished star , less a tiny diamond and finished star)

Start decreasing.

The decrease pattern is as follows:

Ch1, sk1st st, sc into next st and each st across, turn.  (reduces by 1 st in each row)

Continue doing this to each row until you have 1 st left and fasten off.

Make 10 diamond shapes for each star.

Next, sew the bottom half of one diamond to the next diamond, right sides facing each other.  I found that by matching up the 'bumps and troughs' along the edge, I could sew in and out of these and it gave a nice neat, even join. (see where I have put the needle and pin through in the above photo, the pin is through a trough, and the needle is through the bump!) 

Anyway, it should look something like this when 2 are joined together......

......and something like this when it all 5 are sewn together.  Make 2 star pieces like this.

Next, push all the extra hanging threads in the inside and pin the 2 pieces together, wrong sides facing. 

Sewing your star together : I decided to crochet around my star pieces to join them, as I like the outlined effect this gives.

Take a smaller hook than the one you used for the diamonds, and choose a nice contrast colour yarn

(or complementary, what ever you like) and join your yarn to the top of a point and start sc through both layers of the star, all the way around until you have one side left open (see photo above), gently fill your star with stuffing, (try and get a bit into the pointy bits)...........

.......then continue single crocheting along the edge to close the opening and join with a slip stitch at the top to finish off. 

(see photo above). 

And there you have it, one completed, slightly puffy star!

You could sew a button in the middle if you want to hide the centre joins, but I like mine plain.

I think these would look lovely dangling en masse in a window or as a mobile for a baby, and I plan to make a heap for the Christmas tree this year!

I hope this tutorial makes sense, I never can tell when I am trying to explain things.

Happy star making!

( If you don't crochet but knit, there is a similar star that you can knit here)

18/52 year of happy

Four things from my week that put a smile on my face.

1. This week I have been getting up a lot earlier than usual,  Jesse has decided he wants to go to the gym before school 3 times a week, so I am up early to make the school lunches.  I should probably do them the night before, but then I would miss glorious sunrises like this!

2. I have rearranged my crafty space this week, moved out a big bench and bought in my 'hard rubbish' table and chairs.  I think it would be quite nice having little classes around this table, and it is a lovely sunny spot in the mornings to do a bit of creative stuff.

3. Beautiful Autumn days, Max got a metal detector for his birthday, so we gave it a workout at Pt Leo the other day. The beach was deserted and perfect, such a lovely walk. (No joy on the treasure hunting though)

4. Did a spot of baking to try out my new 'ninja bread' men cutters. Cute!

  One more shot of my work table in the morning sun.

I hope you noticed some happy moments in your week too!

xxxx

weekend fun........

So, here's a few bits of my weekend in pictures.

Hope you had a good one too!

xxxxxxx

Knitting Skinny Scarves.......

Hello.  How's your day going? It has turned windy here and is currently blowing a gale, so it's nice to inside and doing a bit of housey stuff instead of the garden today.  

I have been doing a bit of knitting over the last few weeks, I made a few scarves for my stall, and I have to say it was fun getting out the knitting needles for a change!  

This is my go-to scarf pattern, I really like how it is chunky and a bit skinny too, and it is really springy and soft because of the ribbed pattern.  It also knits up very quickly on big needles!  What do you think of the ruffled edge? Do you prefer a straight edge or something a bit different?

I made these out of some of the wool I bought at the sale at Lincraft, the minty green and grey are a Lincraft brand called Luxe, and it is nice and chunky and very cosy.  It was a bit annoying to use as it had joins in it so I had to make sure I didn't end up with a knot in the middle of a row. 

 But aside from that it was quite nice to use.

 ( My lovely mum sewed all the ends in for me while we sat at the market, thanks mum!) 

 The pale pink was also  Lincraft wool called Merrijig, it is a 10ply wool, so I used 2 threads together to get a chunky weight.  The acid green was a Cleckheaton Country Aran 10ply (a really soft and cosy wool) and I doubled this up too to get a chunkier weight.  I think that one is my favourite, it is extra soft, light and warm and I really like the colour.

They are not overly long scarves, you can wear them doubled up like this to keep the ends out of your way...........

...........or just wrapped around like a normal scarf.......

The pattern is called Misti Chunky Ribs and Ruffles Scarf , by Nancy Kleiber and I highly recommend it!

          --------------------------------------------------------

I'm hoping to get stuck into my garden this weekend, I want to make a cutting garden so I can pick posies for the house in Springtime, I have a heap of bulbs to plant too, and some flower seeds I sowed in the hot house have germinated so I want to get them moving on before they die! Not to mention the vegie seedlings that are waiting to go in the ground, must get onto that!

We are also having a bonfire night at my parents place tomorrow ( if this wind dies down!) which will be fun, I've bought marshmallows in preparation!  My dad goes in for a hip replacement on Monday, so I think he wants to get rid of all the garden waste, prunings and what not, before he is out of action for a few months recuperating and getting used to his new hip.

Anyway, that's about it for now, what are you up to this weekend? 

Busy busy or cruisey?