All posts by Martha

Inspiring Coffee Mugs

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 …)

These Cubism Inspired Blanket

And these two mugs have been my best mugs for some time now, no wonder the blanket wears their colors ☺

Inspired by Coffee Mugs

The pattern is wonderful, I use it for all the blankets lately!

coffee mug blanket @MarthasWorld

And what is your inspiration ?

Enjoy!
Martha

 

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Rainbow Kitties

Most of kitties were made for fundraisers, I so loved creating their lovely innocent faces ….

Enjoy!
 

Nina's sibling @Martha's World
Nina’s sibling @Martha’s World
Two rainbow kitties :) @Martha's World
Two rainbow kitties 🙂 @Martha’s World
Nina's sibling @Martha's World
Nina’s sibling @Martha’s World
Freya and her Furever Friend Raul @Martha's World
Freya and her Furever Friend Raul @Martha’s World
Freya and rainbow kitty :) @Martha's World
Freya and rainbow kitty 🙂 @Martha’s World
Rainbow kitty @Martha's World
Rainbow kitty @Martha’s World
#NOMASDAY #TinyTimmy @Martha's World
#NOMASDAY #TinyTimmy @Martha’s World
Rainbow Kitty @Martha's World
Rainbow Kitty @Martha’s World
Coertje's Rainbow Kitty @Martha's World
Coertje’s Rainbow Kitty @Martha’s World
Lavender Rainbow kitty, made for Deb's fundraiser @Martha's World
Lavender Rainbow kitty, made for Deb’s fundraiser
@Martha’s World
Made for Moki Fogg's fundraiser @Martha's World
Made for Moki Fogg’s fundraiser @Martha’s World
Nina, the most popular rainbow kitty :) @Martha's World
Nina, the most popular rainbow kitty 🙂 @Martha’s World
Ginger rainbow kitty :) @Martha's World
Ginger rainbow kitty 🙂 @Martha’s World

Fundraiser for Syrian and other refugees – coming soon!

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

Fundraiser for Syria

Soft Teddy
Soft Teddy
Furever Friend Raul
Furever Friend Raul
Speckle Teddy
Speckle Teddy
Gentle Teddy
Gentle Teddy
Speckle Buddy
Speckle Buddy
Lego Teddy
Lego Teddy

Shocking pink purse

Nowadays everything can inspire me, even a pair of shocking pink sneakers …

Now meet Katarina

Martha's World - Katarina
Martha’s World – 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.


''sneakers''

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.
the purse & the belt

Double lining, made by my husband (I can sew … I can! But he does it better, I admit)
lining, made by my husband  it fits of course!inserting ...

Sweet detail for owl loving Katarina, and my label 😉Martha's World - neon pink purse details

ta-dah!10


details

*details are everything!details
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

 

Rally Scarf for Isabel

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!)

isabel 0

Anyway, few hours later, the scarf for Isabel was finished and ready to play with the camera.

isabel 4

Isabel 1 isabel 5 isabel 6

THIS is how one is supposed to wear it 😉isabel 7

… 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

 

What goes around …

… COMES AROUND!

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 …

willow shop 2… and did I discover that yarn …

willow shop 3Oh, 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.

I made a pair of mittens with the 'original' skein I bought in Hay-on-Wye
I made a pair of mittens with the ‘original’ skein I bought in Hay-on-Wye

… 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!

rr 25
hand dyed merino & bamboo yarn from Hay-on-Wye turning into a shawl
rr 14
***me, modeling the shawl, minutes before I had to send it ‘back’ to UK … ***
rr 13
Oups! I wasn’t ready – but I sort of like this photo  🙂
rr 07
Better one, showing the shawl in its full size …
rr 03
… and the detail  …
rr 22
Nothing better than taking photos in ‘total’ sunshine … ☼
rr 23
That shawl enjoyed its photos taken, I am sure!

rr 21 rr 15 rr 09It 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.

BLOCK! Always BLOCK! Wool loves it.

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

 

”Patterns” – My Journey on Toni’s Magic Carpet

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 😀

Toni's Mandala - the research
Toni’s Mandala – the research, the math, the yarn … the joy!
Toni's Mandala - the research
Toni’s Mandala – turning 17 to 16 peaks *how engineer does it 😉
Toni's Mandala - the corners
Toni’s Mandala – corners
Toni's Mandala - the research
Choosing the right color combination was the hardest part of this project …
Toni's Mandala - the research
Toni’s Mandala – the part I didn’t manage to figure out
detail
Toni’s technique – how to ‘cut’ the yarn without cutting it 😉
two mandalas
FINAL SHOT! My Mandala – and her baby!reverse engineering

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

24 Square Bag

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 🙂

The final bag :)
The final bag 🙂

Done!

p.s. from my recent trip to UK I brought something to challenge my capable friend.

challenge #2
Hobbycraft goodies

Now I wait 😉

My First Round Ripple (Or How I crocheted Sunshine)

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!

orange juicer(maybe I could write a pattern for a juicer … nah …)

Anyway, Round Ripple works fast and I love it!round ripple

nice and flat round ripple

crocheted SunshineThe 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)

crochet crowd - round ripple diagram
copyright crochet crowd – round ripple diagram

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

Cats & Kittens

JJ Apollo, my friend from Down Under
JJ Apollo, my friend from Down Under

Over the last two years I searched for good Cat & Kitten patterns, and tested quite a few …

These are my favorite two, very different patterns, but both excellent 🙂 I  recommend both!

Bracken  Kitten Cat by Kate (The Patchwork Moose)
http://www.patchworkmoose.co.uk/

Cat Princess by Natalia (Stuff The Body)
http://stuffthebody.com/

 

Tabby Kitten
Tabby Kitten
Senniug
Senniug
♥
Pinky :)
Pinky 🙂

twins

Sweet Paprika
Sweet Paprika
Tiny Timmy
Tiny Timmy
Natalia
Natalia