Tuesday 24 January 2012

Maybe A Little Too Excited! eeeek!

HIYA  :)

Ooooo look what I found! Whilst looking around some crafty blogs, I came across this fantastic competition held by Stocki


Basically everybody submits some little crochet squares by the 31st of January and they all get made in to one massive blanket, for each square you send you get one entry in to the prize draw to win the whole blanket! There are a few rules but basically your squares can be of any pattern/colour or stitch, they have to be 100% cotton and can be any size between 5cm x 5cm and 20cm x 20cm.

As you know I've not been crocheting for very long and have never heard of any such competition! its all very exciting and new to me but I thought I would give it a whirl :)

I have also given myself a challenge...... I have to make my squares using patterns and techniques I have not used before, first up.......

Flower Squares following this little pattern



Circles In To Squares, following Alice's Grandala Square Tutorial I made up this little gem :)



Although I have made Alice's Lotus Mandala Prayer Flags before (blog post coming soon) Which is similar, I have never turned a circle in to a square!




Lace-work & Hexagons, This one took me all day......




The Impossible Hexagon Pattern can be found here I'm so very proud of this one I missed out a round so as it was within the size limit but it still all worked out great :)



The Bobble Stitch, A lovely green square made with single crochet and bobble stitches, I gave myself a bit of a crochet blister on this one, It worked out well in the end but the tight stitches and splitty cotton made it a lot harder than it looks, phew at least I can say I can do a bobble stitch now though :)





The pattern is a free Ravelry download :)

So these are my entries for the Beautiful Blogger Blanket 2012. I used Puppets Lyric 100% cotton with a 4mm hook, The have had to whack the contrast up a little on the photo's so these are not true representations of the colours used, they are a little softer in real life, I am using these colours for another project so when that is ready I'll try and post some photo's in a more natural light :)




Oh yes and I've threw in a simple granny square for good luck :) I shall be posting tomorrow!

Almost forgot...........


                                                                                             Om Nom Nom.............. ;p

Saturday 21 January 2012

Hat Season.....

 Twin Hats.......




 Owl Hats.......



 Kitten Hats!!!!






So, as you can see I've been making hats! These are so simple to make following this fantastic Owl Hat Pattern........I have adjusted the sizes and played around with different ideas's to make my lovely kitten design and grey striped hats ready for when my twins arrive :)

PS. Sorry for the poor quality pics this week.

Thursday 5 January 2012

New Year, New Finds, New Projects, New Fun :D

Most people will be making new years resolutions such as to lose weight, drink less, keep fit or stop smoking, mine is to buy more yarn! I've been testing myself with different projects and they are all coming along very well, so well that I've decided I'm not going to let this crochet business turn in to a "fad" I love making gifts for people, seeing there face when you have given them something totally unique is priceless, Seeing all the crochet goodies in blogs such as attic24 and Crochet With Raymond has inspired me to revamp my living room with brightly coloured cushions, blankets and bunting, to take more photo's and be proud of my home!

I've started my household renovation with a pattern rewritten by Lucy to become a cushion, its been loads of fun making and there is still more to go, here is a few pictures of what I have so far....

Puppets Lyric DK In Bright Green(5012), Blue(5010) & Purple(5028).
Using a 5mm Crochet Hook.
Look At All The Petaly Goodness :)
I want to make this cushion quite large so I have just ordered 2 more balls of each coloured yarn, it seems to be going quite a long way, I've not quite got the hang of calculating the amount of yarn needed for each project yet, but I'm sure it will come to me soon ;)




My flower is currently 10inches total in diameter and i'm still on my first batch of yarn, I'm hoping to get it to about 15inches diameter altogether, I'll keep you all updated :)

Ahaaa! loook what I found, Alice from Crochet With Raymond has made these beautiful prayer flags! She has used 8ply wool but I'm going to experiment with some 4ply cotton I ordered by mistake, this will be another addition to my living room eventually. 

I keep finding so many great things, its hard not to get wrapped up in the whole thing, I need to make sure I don't have too many things on at once or I fear that I will have far too many unfinished projects! Oh but the hooky goodness attracts me so much, I cant wait to learn more techniques and discover new projects, this is my life now and the whole thing fits in a washing basket :)


Sunday 1 January 2012

Secret Santa :)

Time to show you that secret present I was making. Its an Ipad Cozy! :) Made for my sister Sam  I made the pattern up, kind of an experiment to see what I could actually do if I set my mind to it, I wanted it to be as unique as possible so set about using the different stitches I had learnt and created something I am quite proud of! OK OK so I admit I got the measurements a bit wrong, just as well Sam has a kindle eh! :)





 Ta dahhhh! 
The Finished Product!