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.

My creative space : granny love

Hello.

How has your week been going?

It has been very cruisey around here, the weather has cooled off, and we are getting back to normal, I haven't had much work on this week, so I've had time to do some daytime crochet.

 What a luxury!

I have started a new granny blanket, and I am very happy with how it is coming up.

So today I have been sitting at my little red table hooking away, with a bit of choice music on, and watching the chooks play around out the window, a very pleasant afternoon !

I think I'll do a proper big post tomorrow and show you all my new granny love, I have taken a heap of lovely colourful photos, so must share!! :)

I'm joining in over at my creative space today, so have a look over here at what the creative people over there are getting up to!

Have a great day!

On getting stuff done.......

my front garden is in need of some serious attention!

Hello.

Well, it is nearly the end of October and Blogtoberfest, and I have to say I did not do very well at the 'post every day' bit.  Pretty damn poorly really!   I should know better that to commit to these things, but I like to be involved, even if it ends up in a half-arsed way.  

So hope I make the last post tomorrow, it would be nice to go out on a high note. 

I have noticed a few other interesting bloggy type things going on, and am tempted to join in those as well.  I might do a better job of keeping up this time! (but no promises!)

There is the Month of My Creative Spaces in November that might be just what my lack lustre creative mojo needs to get reignited.  I have not been feeling like making things recently, very unlike me, I have to say.  There has been a lot of things happening in real life that have left me feeling restless, unsettled and a tad anxious.  Life has also become super busy, with a heap of helping commitment for the school taking up a lot of time and mental energy. 

Not really conducive to quality creative output, and I feel like my crochet along has stalled due to lack of time for calm crocheting.  I really want to change that soon, I feel I am letting my little band of crochet-alongers down with such sparse posting, and am so sorry for that, I am going to try and settle tomorrow for some guilt free creative time and hook a few rows just for me.

 (and then post them for you!)

I also like to make a softie at  this time of year for the Softies for Mirabel charity here in Melbourne, I think it is a nice way to share a bit of creative love with kids who might not have much to smile about.

And I have joined the Christmas decoration swap over at Christina Lowry's lovely blog.  I have actually had an idea for this, so am trying to work up a prototype to see if it looks like I imagine in my head.  

So there is plenty to keep me busy at the moment, and I am sure I will bite off more than I can chew, but you know what they say, busy people get stuff done and something great might come out of it too!

Do you over commit to things?

Or do you know your limits?

Are you joining in the Month of Creative Spaces?

My creative space...still hooking on...

My creative space today is happening on the couch, some Eddie Vedder on the stereo, (are they still called stereos?) hook in hand, green wool at the ready and longggggg rows of stitches ahead. 

Kids self occupied.  Pretty well my perfect crocheting scenario. 

 Nearly time for another crochet along update if I get enough done.  

We'll see what happens today.

Joining in over here today.

my creative space....squares

Hello.

So for my creative space today I am sewing rows of squares together for my mini square winter blanket.  This is going to be a large blanket, I am doing 20 squares across and want about 30 rows, so many squares to go yet!  

I've decided to sew the squares together it rows as I go, through the back loop only, I think it should be an almost invisible join if I am careful.

It is fun to see this grow, I hope I can keep up the momentum for this blanket, I thought it would make a good bed spread for one of the boys, but Max told me he doesn't want it as the colours are too boring.!  So I guess I'll see if the older 2 like it (probably will be completely disinterested and I'll get the standard 'meh' response, crochet is not really on their radar :)  )  My darling teenagers.

 Maybe I'll go for 40 rows and put it on my bed!

Have a great day!

Have a look over here if you've got a few spare minutes to see what the creative types have been up to this week.

My creative space..flowery

sorry about the dark pics, very dull here today!

For my creative space today, I am making some little flowers.  I mean quite tiny flowers.  I'm thinking they would make a pretty necklacey thing.  Or maybe a tiny garland to hang across the window.

The round ones are waiting to have the 'petals' done and to get their flowery shape.

These little flowers are making me very happy and are turning out so cute and dainty, I think they have a bit of a 'Japanese crochet' feel to them. What do you reckon?

The pattern is just a modified version of the flower pincushions I was making a while ago....

I was also playing around with some different stitch patterns to use in my next random stripey blanket.

I came up with a kind of wavy line pattern and a row of circles that could have sc rows in between the circles.

So what have you been up to today?

Joining up with other creative spaces over here.

Hooking up a storm.....

Hello!

This week has flown, and it's already Thursday, and time for a creative space post again.

Today is very cold, rainy and dull here so it is perfect for finishing off my new little make.  Just a peek at it here, I'll show you it all tomorrow when it's all tadah like.

I am enjoying experimenting with crochet stitch combinations, searching for an elusive look, and finding some other stitch patterns that work well along the way.  I am sure there are patterns out there on the internet, but it is fun trying to figure out how to get the look you want all by yourself.

Lot's of colour and a few fiddly parts but I think it is coming together ok! 

Be back tomorrow to show you!

On another note, thank you very much to the lovely ladies who nominated me for a Sunshine award, I appreciate your kind thoughts and I'm glad you find this blog a sunny place to visit! 

Thanks ladies, Peli, Fleur and Laura Miller!

Playing along over here today

my creative space...turn a square hat

Hello.

So today I have finished knitting my new beanie!  I think this might become my favourite hat pattern!

The pattern I used is  Turn a Square by Jared Flood  and I really enjoyed making this little hat.  It has been quite chilly round here recently so I should get a bit of wear out of it soon. 

It is made with a solid colour for the main colour and a self striping yarn for the other stripe.  I used a nice charcoal and some left over Noro Silk Garden for the colourful  stripe.  The crown is a great squarish shape due to the way the decreases are done, and pretty easy to knit even though I don't have a lot of experience knitting in the round.  I think I could make a few more of these is other colour ways.

Hope you are having a creative day too!

Joining in over here.

flower brooch tutorial- wanna make one?

Hi there.

How's your week going? Good I hope.

Today I have a little tutorial for you.

Do you want to make a flower brooch? You do? Great! 

You will need some 8ply (DK) yarn in a few different colours if you are like me and like lots of different colours in your flower, or you can use just one and not bother with all the colour changes. It's up to you!

You will also need some 3 or 4 ply yarn (I used cotton)  to 'outline' your flower in sc.

You will need a 3.5mm hook and a 2.5mm hook. And a button. And a brooch clasp.

I think that's all.

I am explaining this in US terms, so for you English ladies, sc = dc, dc = tr, tr = dtr.

Anyway let's have a go.........

Use your 3.5mm hook to start with.....

......Make a magic ring by cutting a piece of yarn and making a loop, like so.  This is the centre of your flower, and you join your centre colour over the doubled part of your loop....

 ....and make 20 sc stitches in this loop.

Now pull the two threads that made your magic ring and it should tighten up nicely into a circle, now you can close the circle with a slip stitch into the first ch.  Bind off if you are changing colour for the petals.

Join petal colour to any st, ch3, *skip next st, and into the next st, sc, ch2*  continue around the circle in this fashion and join with a slip stitch into first ch. 

  

You should have 10 2ch loops around your flower centre.

  

Next, slip stitch to the first loop and make a petal into the loop.

PETAL: 1sc, 1hdc, 2dc, 1tr, 2dc, 1hdc, 1sc. 

Make 5 petals around your flower, going into every second 2ch loop

Join the last petal to the first with a slipstitch and bind off.

Now to outline the flower.  Get your 2.5mm hook and the thinner yarn and join to the start of a petal.  Sc around each st, doing 2sc in the top 3 stitches of each petal to help them sit a bit better.

Slip stitch across from the last stitch of one petal to the starting sc of the next, and when you have gone around the whole flower,join with a slip stitch. bind off.

You should have something that looks a bit like this.  This is the front set of petals, now you make the back petals.

Back to the 3.5mm hook, turn the flower over and find the 2ch loops in between each petal, like this.

Join you second petal colour to any of these loops, and make a PETAL. (the same as the front petals).

(fold the front petals into the middle to make working this behind round easier)

After making the first petal, ch2 behind the front petal to get you to the next 2ch loop, and continue in this manner around the flower until you have 5 back petals made, ch2 across to the first one and join with a slipstitch.

It should look something like this now!

 Change to 2.5mm hook and thinner yarn and outline the back petals.

Join the yarn to any 2ch in between the back petals and slip stitch to a petal.  Sc in each st around the petals, doing 2sc in each of the 3 top stitches, the same as the front petals, and a slipstitch across each 2ch between the petals. Join with a slip stitch and bind off.

Tighten the centre ring again if it has loosened and knot the ends together. It is just about finished!

Sew a button in the middle, and tidy up the threads, and you have a completed double petal flower! Yay!

At this point you can sew the brooch clasp on and be completely finished, or you can make a couple of leaves to sit behind the flower.

 To make a leaf, I just chained 13, then skipped the first stitch, and did the following into the chains:

1sc, 2hdc, 2dc, 1 tr, 1dtr, 1tr, 1dc, 1hdc, 2sc,   

and then I worked backwards along the other side of the chain for the second half of the leaf.  You can adjust this to as many or few chains as you like to make a bigger or smaller leaf.

Sew the leaves onto the back and sew a brooch clasp on too and you have one finished flower brooch!!

Ta dah!

I hope that was easy to understand, probably clear as mud! haha!

I found it was quite easy to crochet over the threads from the previous rounds so it was easy to tidy up all the ends by just snipping them off.....

umm...what else? I'm sure I've forgotten to tell you something but I can't think of anything at the moment so I hope it works out ok!

Joining in over at  the new Our Creative Spaces here if you want to have a look. 

Have a great week!

Fun flower make

Hello

So after my big few weeks of blanket hooking I have been having a nice change with some much smaller makes.  Instant gratification. You can't beat it.

I wanted to make a double layered flower that was kind of a graphic representation of a flower, with a fairly sculptured, 3D effect.  I like edging the flower petals with sc, I just like the play of colours that this allows I guess.

I couldn't be bothered looking for a pattern in googleland, so had a bit of a play around and made something up myself, I am sure it is not that original, there are heaps of flower patterns out there already!

The red one at the back is my first version, I improved it slightly for the red and white one, and made a couple of other changes for the blue and green one.

I have to say it was FUN making these!  I want to make a lot more!  It is so great to be able to potter around with colours and different yarns and buttons. It was so good to stretch the creative muscles (even if it was only for this little bit of whimsy!), and I am really happy with my sunny flowers!  Having a design idea in the head and then seeing it come together as a finished thing is very satisfying.

I am making these flowers into little colourful broaches ( I suppose they are quite chunky really).

I was inspired by the fact that Mother's Day is next Sunday here, and I wanted to make something for my Mum.  My poor Mum, still getting handmade presents from me, nothing's changed since primary school!! Hah.

Anyway, I've got to go and get a few broach backs for these ( this one is just balancing on my cardi for the photo, could not find one safety pin in the house!) 

So I am off to enjoy the gorgeous sunny day we are having with a big walk, a nice bowl of soup for lunch and some cooking for the boys this afternoon.  I do have a very lucky life!!

Hope you are all having fun creative days wherever you are!

Joining in with the peeps over at Our Creative Space, go see what everyone has been up!

rainy day craftyness....

.........so what have you been up to today?  

It's been raining here all day, gloomy and cold, so I got the fire going this morning, warmed the place up, and bit the bullet and tidied up my craft room.  I felt so much happier after it was all nice and tidy, and the best bit was I didn't feel guilty about spending the next couple of hours hooking away on my blanket!! A very pleasant afternoon on this rainy day. (Another star stitch blanket.)

....here's a flatter version, must admit I do like these colours! 

....and one very soggy garden!!  It usually takes a few days  for the water to subside once we get puddles like this.  At least the garlic is getting a good soaking in!

......my poor chookies (a bit blurry, sorry!) looked very bedraggled, they have a nice dry house they can go into, but they preferred the rain!

Anyway, see you later!

My creative space.....finished blanket tadah!!

Hi there.

How's things going for you?  Are you having a good day? Getting much done, or just mooching around like me?

I thought I'd show you what I have been up to crochet wise recently.  I have finished the star stitch uneven stripe blanket. I think I created a new record for myself, this blanket is totally complete, all threads weaved in and edge done, in around 3 weeks!  It was a nice easy crochet pattern that I had fun with, I loved seeing it change with each new colour addition.  Having a drawing of the colour changes really helped in the speed of it I think, there was a lot less procrastination over what colour to do next, I just checked my drawing and off I went!

So anyway, here are a few pictures, it is about cot size I think ( 85cm x125cm approx) and made from 8 ply (DK) 100% fine merino wool from the Colorworks range, such lovely colours, I love using these yarns.

( I am thinking of selling these yarns in my on line shop, what do you reckon?)

It is super warm and cosy, as the star stitch creates a nice dense fabric, not really a 'gappy' pattern at all.

I ended up doing a couple of rows of sc as the edge, just something nice and simlple.

I have already started another one in different colours, I enjoyed making this so much!

If you want to see how to do star stitch, there is a tutorial over here at Crochet Spot that gives you the lowdown.

Ok I think you're probably bored by this by now, so I'll see you later!

Joining in over here today if you want to see what other peeps have been up to.