African flowers for a cushion cover

Hip hip hooray! My first attempt at African flowers and i'M A-LUVVIN THESE!
If you like them too, I found the pattern over on FLICKR in the african flower crochet group.
They have the pattern in words as well as a diagram. Have a go, these are fun!

And you have 5 rows of colours to play with. I have crocheted them together on the fifth row.

It's a wedding present for my sister who is getting married for the second time and who has requested only handmade creative presents..... And their campervan ( new) is a deep red, hence the choice of colours.

Something to make it look cosy and to rest a weary well-travelled head on....

14 colours from my stash and some I bought specially: mostly DK cottons, some bamboo, all different brands: Patons, Wendy, Rowan,King Cole,Elle,Sirdar and so on.

3 greens, 3 reds, 2 orange tones, 1 peach, 3 pinks,2 beiges. Some to brightly clash a bit. Fun.

At forst I thought it wasn't so portable, but then I thought why not crochet the first 4 rows ''on the go'' ( train journeys, hockey matches, waiting in line at Mme Tussauds.....) and then do the joining row at home?!! So that's what happened above, both made in London on 2 August.

same 2 with a flash, colours don't look so good now?Another 16-18 to go I reckon!

That's the perfick ( a la Larkin) project for our little holiday starting tomorrow! A great adventure on the canals: our first mission in travelling by narrowboat.......!!!!!! Will I have time to crochet? Or will it all be ''all hands on deck'' for all those locks, 36 I believe.

Calling Lola and earth hour imminent

Calling LOLA because YOU have won the above brooch in the bloggiversary draw!!!! Hip hip hooray!!! I have tried to contact you several times and no reply yet, now you have 10 days from today to read this and e-mail or message me the address to which I will post it?

After this it will re-enter the draw for the other 5 followers. The smaller brooch has been posted to the other winner.

I finished Miss Y's cardigan by 22 March!!!!! Now I am writing up the pattern frantically before she chooses to wear it, there are stitch markers still in all the places where I did some shaping...

The above is a WIP photo , fear not it looks so much better now!

I am so very much more pleased with this new cuff, what do you think? Much better than the wee pink flowers I tried before and Miss Y simply LOVES iT apparently. Goody goody.

This was for Mothers' Day: I was so very pleased with it, made by Miss Y.

And 2 animated cards from Miss E, fuzzy pics , sorry... Got to dash now as EVERYTHING is being switched off for EARTH HOUR : in our house from 20.30 to 21.30 . We have candles and torches on standby and we are ALL going to bed early.... WHOOPEE!!!!!!

tHAT IS AFTER we have eaten the Delia rhubarb brulee which I have just made: scrummy!

The juices from the ginger and rhubarb I drained as per julia but I didn't throw it out, it's my hot drink mixed with white wine....LOVELY!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND evryone and see you soon, I hope.

FREE Floral brooch in PRIZE DRAW

YES siree here they are, albeit fairly poorly photographed today. Sorry but had to rush to get it on here in time! 2 prized up for grabs: a 9 cm and a 5 cm brooch, one's all pinks and the smaller one has a bit of purple too. The orange-brown looking one is the pink one with the flash turned off...ah well. Typifies the day a bit.

Below is the smaller one. Good Luck for the Draw tomorrow!!!!

Happy hooking and enjoy the weekend!!! Especially a happy Mothers' Day too if that applies to you.

ANNIVERSARY ALERT Prize giveaway THIS WEEK

Hey! I have been so busy ''being a rock'' and propping up the family emotions that I have missed, nay really really missed the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY ( 24.02.2009) of this version of my blog alltogether!!!

So I'm off on a jaunt to Southampton tomorrow but at the weekend: in fact on MOTHER'S DAY
I will do a prize draw from my followers for a crocheted floral hairclip or brooch.
Can't show them yet as I haven't made it yet, but it'll be in pinks with a bead or button centre.
So if anyone is interested: sign up now to be a follower and it could be YOU!!!

Photo of prizes will be blogged by Saturday 13 March and the draw will take place at 9pm on Sunday 14th March, Mother's Day.


GOOD LUCK!!!!

Bright Puppy and finished bootees

Ta dah! Both puppy and bootees finished today! This pup is in 100% DK cotton and in bright colours for (a baby and ) mother who are very partial to bright colours.... I'm guessing her about the baby as it's not been born yet but when I had mine I remeber reading that babies see bright colours better so my nursery was always in the primaries: Yellow, Red and Blue!

Cute?

Sweet?

I gave him/her a big smile but it's not easy to see....

There it is! Very a la ''snoopy'' don't you think?

The red ribbon in the local shop didn't quite match the wool, neither did the blue or the green so I've chosen this orange organza ribbon which tones/matches the orange wool....
It isn't ''too girly '' is it?

I'll be posting it tomorrow. Meanwhile when I SHOULD be doing course-work I got distracted by the scarf/hat/mittens needed for the OperationChristmas Child Appeal: see also here where I did the same ( almost) last year.. In fact I couldn't remember the pattern so I had to look it up on my old blog! LOL.

Mittens and socks: a triumph!

A real crochet post this: FIRST the scarf Miss Y made herself, entirely by herself except for the pom poms which I helped with. It's Marble Chunky and a 6 mm hook and ALL dc ( USA sc's).



She made it in the evenings/afternoons while watching Blue Peter etc and it's over 1.5m long and 16cm wide ( about 20 sts). I am oh SOOO PROUD of her , I'm fit to burst! And the added icing on the cake is she loves it too!!!



So to complete the ensemble and part of the ''getting ready to go back to school'' ritual I made her some mittens to match.

These are in the same Marble Chunky and the pattern is from a book that has come out recently: it's called: CROCHETED GIFTS and is by KIM WERKER, published by Interweave Press but available from Borders or Amazon in the UK.

Beware it does use USA crochet terms. It also features patterns by many famous USA crochet designers so you may find a favourite included, it reflects very different styles due to this wonderful mix of contributing talent!!!

These mittens were a BREEZE to make: very quick and easy and so comfortable too. The book gives patterns for children's and adult sizes.

She's even worn them already when we cycled to school very early and there was quite a chill in the air last week. Now way back in the summer of 2005 in Delft I had a go at making crocheted socks, I'd got the yarn at my dream store in Delft-De Wolgaarde in the centre of town- and I had brought with me a book on crocheted socks, a USA book.

I taught myself the'' ESC'' : extended single crochet stitch which is a dc with an extra bit added in and crocheted in the evenings while the kids slept when we visited Delft at Half Term.

The result was interesting but HUGE!

They did not fir me but JJ!!!So I did start sock #2 but was no longer very motivated because JJ does not care for his socks, always losing some etc. He didn't fancy them as a present and I could not quite figure out how to adjust them! I have very small feet: a size 3 or European 36 and fit into kid's shoes and socks easily.

I moved onto other things as you do, especially as working with a 3mm or smaller hook is not my fave thing to do and the fine yarn makes it a lengthy project( another ''NO NO'')

Then along came the Cecily Moebius and I did it in stash yarns but then I bought some sock yarns to do it ''properly'' and found that my lovely soft Silk and Wool Regia yarn had a variegated effect that was too widely spaced. I mean that when you work the stars it looked awful! 2 white and 2 blue'' petals '' just didn't look right so it was frogged.

BUT BUT BUT this is lovely SOFT yarn so I decided to give socks another chance: a 3mm hook was found and I tried the socks in the book abovea pattern by ROBYN CHACHULA this time.

They are called RAVISSANT SOCKS. And as you start from the toe up I could adjust the pattern to fit!!!
You can see I'm very chuffed with this! This is as per pattern , but as I had yarn leftover but not sufficient for sock # 2, I extended the leg to cover half way up my calf. ( NOT pictured)
They are warm and very soft and ooooh soooo comfy and look and feel GREAT inside my crocs or my boots!!!
Here's my foot and heel doing a little JOYFUL dance: tralaaa trala tralaaaa!

Then it was off to order a second ball of yarn from Ilkley: and you know what? It arrived the NEXT day!!! TERRIFIC or what?! Now I must just sit down and crochet sock # 2.........

Oh and yes there's the heel: you crochet it last and thus when it wears out you can easily rip it out and replace the worn out bit just like that! It's so clever and practical and the shell stitch is fun to do- better than endless ongoing ''esc'' anyway....( as per the JJ sized ones...)

ESC means ESCAPE in my book and when it goes on for too long that's exactly what I want to do!