Crochet Flowers

Whoopee! I'm a-feelin all flowery 'n all, don't you know? The above is in DK cotton with a 4mm hook and from the amazing book below.Geranium.

It's 60 or so crochet flower patterns and all with diagrams and I can't believe I was given it for my birthday in May 2009 and had not made anything from it until January 2011!

I feel a very flowery floral kind of a Spring coming on so it's flowers we'll be needing.

This is the book picture of my flower at the top: a geranium page 76, flower # 57. And I have to give special thanks to my friend Ruth who asked for help on flower # 41: the first crochet flower in the book: a Hellebore.

We had a crochet lesson session on it and it made me want to make a few more.

There's this one, Auricula,made in tapestry wool; anchor tapestry wool at 90p for 10m. And a 4mm hook.

It turned out a bit large to use as a brooch closure on my new clover cardi-jacket : it's 11 cm across but it is lovely though. I love the cupped 3d petals and the deep centre and stem.

The palest lilac was a paterna tapestry single strand wool at 50p a skein, using 4 strands together.

Here's that first flower: I did it in a burgundy wool 4 ply but should have taken more than one colour with me.

I rather liked this chrysanthemum in the book so I made it in clover mohair that I found in my stash and added a silver bead in the centre. Now I have a brooch to close my cardi-jacket and it had it's first public outing on Sunday.

I might not always want such a big blousy closure so I also made the little one below: Zinnia from just over 5m of tapestry wool, a 3mm hook and the pattern on page:88.

Don't ask what happened to the colours, It's the darker purple ''clover'' colour to match in tone but be slightly contrasting with the cardigan. The photo with it lying on the book is more like the real thing. Back to making more flowers! Bye see you someday soon? Happy hooking!

January creations : a new bag: reversible bucket bag

Happy New Year!!! A bit more tardy than last year... Been busy busy busy: ta dah! Made the above bag on 2nd January : first thing I made in 2011. It's called the reversible bucket bag and the pattern is from an amazing new book I discovered called the Bag Bible by Lisa Lam . Abslolutely fabulous patterns and instructions: I made this in an evening!!!

The pink is a fabric given to me by my sister when Miss E was born and she's now 12. The 2 blue fabrics were acquired especially for this bag from Masons just before Christmas. It was a project I thought we'd all enjoy for the Christmas holidays, but we were either feeling poorly or just too busy with other bit that it almost didn't get made at all.

It says a lot for the book, I have 4 other ''bag making'' books out of which NO bags, none , nada have yet been made. Plans yes, actual bags: none!

Totally reversible: see?!!! This is the lovely elegant blue/white side whereas the pink ios the mad summer side or the side for grey rainy days too. I even bought the gadget and made the little flower for the brooch fastening. It was fun to do and very rewarding.

Just a quickie to show our flowers for New Years Day: ta dah! They were so blousy and cheerful and quite made the day- as did the New Yera's concert of course - especially the music and the ballet- SUPERB!!! Didn't think anything of this year's Queen speech though: very annoyingly patronising.

Quick look at the flowers again to erase that memory! Also finished properly the chair seat cushion cover by inserting the zipper: ta dah!!!

100% recycled materials: foam from old dog beds, used and worn out jeans and a zipper recovered from an old dress.Finished all 4 of the hats, here's the pom pom one with earflaps- pattern on Ravelry. Except the earflaps are ALL MINE. All fully lined with fleece hand sewn in.

This is what 80% of the Christmas holidays was like: both girls totally pre-occupied with phone games, i-pod/i-pad and other electronic gadgetry. I on the other hand re-discovered my love of sewing and made this ''Buid-a Bear'' Bunny a nightie. My own pattern. Soft vintage cotton jersey and a wee pink bow.Aaaaaah. In the New Year we did manage just ONE walk: voila.

Miss Y showing off her Cath Kidston umbrella that Santa had brought her. My new bucket bag gets it's first outing. Family photo? No chance! Well 4 out of 5 ain't bad. Miss Y also sports her new fab spotty scarf and her new - market and knitted boo hiss- earflap hat.

Miss E stomps off in a huff in fabulous new Jack Wills coat, new tartan Toggi wellies and hoodie sweatshirt for her upcomig Aberdyfi trip.

JWills, C Kidston, Toggi- ah yes we've entered the very brand conscious age for the girls, not my cup of tea I must admit. ''Made in China ''features far too heavily for my liking. Where's the '' home-made'' or the '' I made it myself''???

CU SOON? !

FLOWER CROCHET COMING UP NEXT....
Bye for now.