Choosing colors for my craft projects is not easy, I admit!
Lately, I’ve been making blankets. It seems that I am inspired by my favorite coffee mugs ☺
Here are the two
Juan Gris mug (it came as a present, with a jar of perfect coffee …)
And these two mugs have been my best mugs for some time now, no wonder the blanket wears their colors ☺
The pattern is wonderful, I use it for all the blankets lately!
And what is your inspiration ?
Enjoy!
Martha
Merry Christmas – Srećan Božić
♥
Martha
Most of kitties were made for fundraisers, I so loved creating their lovely innocent faces ….
Enjoy!
Teddies are ready, so are other items, including jewelry made by Claire, and lovely little toys made by Rebecca ☺ – our auction will start in a few days, we are raising funds to help Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and the other refugees. Join us!
Click here to see the Auction Album
*Claire’s album will be visible once the auction is open.
Claire, Rebecca & Martha
Nowadays everything can inspire me, even a pair of shocking pink sneakers …
Now meet Katarina
Katarina is my niece, very modest almost 8 years old girl. We went to the big shopping mall and all she picked was a pair of pink sneakers. And an umbrella, but that is another story.
We tried to find something that matches the sneakers, but we had no luck. So that afternoon (deep to the night) I made a matching … well almost matching little purse for her 🙂
Complete purse was made using single crochet stitch, worked in continuous rounds. The belt was reinforced with a ribbon to prevent stretching.
Double lining, made by my husband (I can sew … I can! But he does it better, I admit)
it fits of course!
Sweet detail for owl loving Katarina, and my label 😉
ta-dah!
♥
*details are everything!
Now I need a day or two to rest my eyes, as neon yarn makes my vision alternate all red colors to brick orange.
But it is worth. The biggest compliment from Katarina was her one word: WOW.
Tanja
If Road Trip Scarf (RTS) was ‘THE little black dress of 2014’ amongst crocheters, Rally Scarf could be one of “THE Gems of 2015′. I think the pattern hasn’t been properly discovered.
Yet.
Both patterns were designed by Zelna Olivier of Zooty Owl . I like her designs – because they are all simple and truly unique. One look, and you know ‘It is Zelna’. I make my ‘Zelna’s’ without famous braids, and they are still ‘Zelnas’.
For Rally scarf you’ll need 50 to 100 grams of yarn, eventually two buttons, and that is all. If you haven’t used the V-stitch until now, you missed a lot!
About this particular yarn … how do I say – it is … ummmm … ‘light, but heavy’? ‘It drapes nicely’ is probably better way to explain 🙂
With every new yarn I make a little ‘test circle’ because I need to see how it feels and behaves. (And because I ♥ taking photos of my yarn! LOL!)
Anyway, few hours later, the scarf for Isabel was finished and ready to play with the camera.
THIS is how one is supposed to wear it 😉
… but it can be a head scarf too, according to Isabel… I wish mannequin knew this, before the scarf popped into a box to cross the big pond! 😉
Enjoy!
Martha
And again, links for the Rally scarf pattern – on Ravelry and on Zelna’s blog :
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rally-scarf
http://zootyowlcards.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-rally-scarf.html
or ”How this wool traveled from UK to Serbia – and back!”
When we visited our friends Rhianon & Richard in Hereford last summer, they took us, well, everywhere! I could write quite a long story about that journey. Maybe some other time, I do have loads of photos …
Among the other places, R & R took us to lovely Welsh town of Hay, known as Hay-on-Wye … and did I find this shop …
… and did I discover that yarn …
Oh, yes … the softest merino & bamboo mix… Yummy! But only one skein in ‘autumnal’ was available. I bought few skeins of double knitted merino wool in blue/green, though, but that is another story. The beauty of hand-dyed yarn – every skein is unique …
I really loved that thinest thin autumnal yarn, I made a pair of mittens with it.
… And I wanted more …. Me being me … I tried to find The Wool and Willow Shop online, but no success. Luckily, I found the designer, lady who dyed that particular skein, Mrs Jenny Cook (Kingfisher Cottage). And Jenny dyed few more skeins for me, in a similar colour scheme!
Who else could I make a shawl with that new yarn for, but Rhianon!? 🙂 As of today, the yarn is back in UK, crocheted into a shawl … 2,000+ miles journey! And I can finally post photos! YAY!
It was a pure joy to crochet this shawl, with this yarn, I must say!
That is all for today …. ummmmm, almost all! If you don’t block, you are missing an important step.
And the important link – shawl pattern: Seems Like Old Times by Michele DuNaier. NB – I made few changes, as the variegated yarn doesn’t like too many different stitches.
Enjoy!
Martha
It is not about reading a pattern to the dot on letter ‘i’ … For me, crocheting is about research, it is about exercising my little grey cells .. about making an effort to figure things out. The journey itself is the joy, not necessarily about the final piece… Maybe that is why I don’t write patterns so often. But I LOVE patterns!
Toni wrote about this subject on her blog ”Just Dunny (Toni)
Crochet outside of the lines with Toni (Justdunny)” . And her words inspired me to write the above words about patterns. Or ”patterns”. Your choice!
A bit more about one particular design by Toni – the well known Toni’s Mandala.
I had a pleasure to be part of the small group that turned the amazing design by Toni into a pattern that can be used by every beginner. (I will tell you more about the famous CCC – The Creative Crochet Crew some other time).
What a challenge our project was, and what a joy for me, construction engineer …. Thanks to Angela and Oona, the pattern is re-written and detailed, and it can be found (free), on Ravelry, and on Toni’s blog. For the record, Toni’s Mandala is one of the most popular crochet Mandalas.
Here are only a few photos from my journey on The Magic Carpet …
*by now you know how much I love taking photos while I work 😀
If you like the shots behind the scene – this is how I work …. simple – Colors, drawings, paper … so called basic engineering! …. LOL!
*Toni’s notes with instructions for Mandala, and the proven version made by Angela and Onna (I helped in the process, mostly with figuring out some formulas, and with detailed photos) – can also be found on Ravelry
Enjoy!
Martha
Last month my dearest friend Jovanka brought me (literally) a suitcase full of yarn from Germany. I was overwhelmed! Between Rainbow Bravo, and all sorts of purple and lavender skeins that I asked for, 3 skeins of (very good quality!) acrylic yarn were sitting … Another challenge by my bestie – the colorway made for knitting jacquard sweaters. I hardly ever knit!
I know crochet toy will not look good. …. What to do…
I made one granny square to see how the granny square something – well anything! will look, and it looked great. Phew! One square led to another, kitchen scale said that 150 grams can produce 23 to 25 squares.
I went to my Pinterest board for help. And there it was 🙂
Pattern for 24 Square Bag, designed by Marinke Slump
With simple but excellent tutorial for lining, too!
And here is what happened in the next few days – crocheting was the short part, lining and sewing it in was a bit longer.
Oh well, I enjoyed, and the final bag looks rather nice 🙂
Done!
p.s. from my recent trip to UK I brought something to challenge my capable friend.
Now I wait 😉
After seeing so many photos of amazing ripple round afghans posted in crochet groups I belong to, of course I couldn’t resist!! Quick search for the pattern, few skeins of yarn that were sitting for (too) long in the box, and I was so ready!
I used Basic Round Ripple Afghan Pattern by Ideal Delusions .
It is great! But at the beginning I made a mistake – apart from being excited and forgetting to count *who, me?? … cough, cough* – I misread a ‘tiny’ detail from Round 3 …
‘‘Round 3: Ch 2, (*skip next dc, work dc, ch 2, dc in next dc.) Even shell made. Repeat from * around, ending with dc in base of beginning stitch, ch 2, join sl st in top of ch 2. (12 even shells)”
I worked that ‘dc in the NEXT stitch’ literally… It could be written with one more pair of parentheses… for us who forget to count *cough, cough* … like this:
‘Round 3: Ch 2, (*skip next dc, work [dc, ch 2, dc] in next dc.) Even shell made. …..etc. ”
… And yes, I should count my stitches … But at that time I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong, after the second attempt and getting the ‘bump’ instead of a nice flat circle again – I was desperate and turned to one of my groups for help … Within minutes, one diplomatic comment: ‘Perhaps I’m wrong, but the one in the link has 12 points, it looks like you’ve only got 8. ‘ did the magic …
How could I have EVER missed THAT!?
Some gasping, two minutes of frogging, and ♫ hi ho hi ho from magic ring I go ♪ 🙂
BTW, my first attempt reminded my fellow crocheters from CCC (Creative Crochet Crew Group) of an orange juicer! … LOL! Well it does look like one!
(maybe I could write a pattern for a juicer … nah …)
Anyway, Round Ripple works fast and I love it!
The other tutorial for Round Ripple pattern is very popular, too – Mickey’s ‘Crochet Round Afghan – Spectrum l’ video tutorial . You all know Mickey, from Crochet Crowd, thousands learn from him, so does yours truly 🙂 . Pattern for his Afghan is a bit different than the one I used, not only at the very beginning (first 5 Rounds) , but because in the pattern I used every third round has even (not increasing) corner groups!
At the moment link to Mickey’s diagram is broken, for those who like diagrams, here is the photo, (Photo Credit: Crochet Crowd)
One way or another, I love Sunshine, in my world Sunshine is written with capital ‘S’ … no surprise my ‘afghan’ is turning into something a bit different 🙂 ☼
Enjoy!
Martha
