Jumble sale booty!

I only really have one thing to show you because we arrived ten minutes after opening. When we got there we saw people leaving with the most amazing stuff but sadly when we went in the scrum had dissipated leaving only a few practically empty tables. I don’t know about your part of the world, but here jumble sales last at most half an hour so ten minutes is a long time in jumbling!

Anyway, this is what I got:

Ten knitting magazines for 50p! Anyone who knows me knows I like collecting patterns even more than I like knitting. I trawl the magazine bins of charity shops as well as craft book sections but people never seem to get rid of knitting magazines and books. Lots of single 80’s jumper patterns to be had, but nothing more modern. Ok, so I might only knit one thing from all these mags but for 50p? A bargain!

I’ve already had a look on Ravelry and there are a few gorgeous versions of some of these patterns, plus ideas for cheaper/better yarn substitutions. Why do these magazines insist on using lime green and hot pink all the time? Often they manage to make an expensive yarn look cheap just through poor colour choice and styling. Rowan magazine is the only exception. Drool. Ravelry (or at least the extremely talented members) can be a godsend for helping you see through all that and make the right choices.

Beccy

Crochet progress…

The blanket – my blanket – is coming along nicely. It doesn’t look that big in the photos but its about 3 1/2 feet long and 6 (ish) feet wide. 80 rows in and I’m much happier to be into the red. It was looking too cool and I needed the hot colours to make it happy!

I have 18 colours but I accidentally missed out a turquoise on the first run. Now I’m reversing the colours I’ll add it in - I don’t mind if its not perfect. I love the way it’s turning out with a few rows of strong then a few rows of paler colour. 

Can’t wait until it’s finished!

Beccy

Rippled blanket crochet fun!

I’ve been crocheting again! It’s been a while, I haven’t done any since the speed blanket just before Christmas (which I finished at 3am on Christmas morning)

This blanket is a lot more straightforward – no tiny fiddly squares for me this time! The pattern is from Lucy at Attic24 and I’m loving the easy pace and speedy growth.

The yarn is my Stylecraft special DK which I’ve used for all my blankets – I love the bright colours, price and the fact that you can stick it in the washing machine.

This is my map of the colours I’ll be using, there are 18:

It’s Lucy’s pick of 17 available from Mason’s (plus white from stash) and it costs £25.50 plus delivery.

I think I’ll be happier when I get to the Pinks! When I finish the colour run I plan to reverse it so I get a double rainbow.

It’s great to have something productive to do in the evenings when the telly is on (and it’s always on, Olympics anybody?)!

Beccy

Crochet for cats!

I’ve decided to have an unhealthy obsession with making toys for my cat, Kitten. Unfortunately he has been diagnosed with FIV so will have to stay indoors. Fortunately he only goes out once a day anyway and is very healthy. I’ve read a lot about FIV over the last week and it turns out they can live a long and happy life but will be less stressed staying indoors if they have lots to occupy them.

While mice are great, I wanted something a bit different to the toys you can buy in the shops so I made a little crochet Totoro!

I used Lucy Ravenscar’s pattern on Ravelry (hers is much nicer than mine, but I don’t think Kitten minds). It’s amigurumi really, and 4 1/2” tall but a good size for Kitten who is huge.

I also added two catnip pouches, one in the back and one under the stomach patch. I’ve bought a sack of catnip just for him!

Crochet and knitting are great for cats toys, as long as you don’t mind them quickly becoming loopy and destroyed! Of course, this is the only time he’s played with it – maybe the staring eyes look like a challenge? I’ve ordered some catnip spray though because I’m not convinced it was very fresh, maybe he’ll play with it then!

Right, I’m off to trawl Ravelry for more potential cat toy patterns!

Beccy

Crocheted periwinkles…

…and other assorted flowers.

I got the book 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet by Lesley Stanfield for Christmas and it’s so full of eyecandy you’ll want to make them all! If only I had the time.

See what I mean? Here are the few I’ve made so far using scraps of stylecraft special dk.

I haven’t got a clue what I’m going to do with them, at the moment they’re adorning the mantelpiece but they might find their way onto bags or crocheted cushions or made into brooches. More likely I’ll use them on my next granny blanket though.

Have any of you got this book?

Beccy

The baby blanket is finally finished!

At long last. I always underestimate how long these things are going to take. It was supposed to be finished by October, but the birth date came and went so I decided to make it for Christmas instead. At least it’s still Winter!

The worst was weaving in all the ends – look at this!

Anyway, on to the finished blanket.

It’s a bit less wonky in real life (although I think I might have added an extra stitch into that border somewhere), but I needed to take photos quickly! Mum wove in all those ends for me since I did all the crochet. She’s a godsend!

The final size was about a metre and a half by a metre, but I forgot to measure it before I wrapped it up.

I’m pretty pleased with it, and I hope Lindsey and David like it too!

Beccy

Christmas making…

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been doing lots of last-minute making. Well not last-minute as such because I budgeted the last few days for those smaller things. Honest.

A lovely chunky cabled hat for Tracey. She wears muted colours so I had to fight my urge to make it rainbow coloured! I used Lion Brand Thick and Quick in black. It doesn’t photograph particularly well but it looks lovely and warm! The pattern is Speedy Cabled Beret by Paula Chin, available on Ravelry. You need a Ravelry account to see it, but it’s a free pattern. If you don’t have a Ravelry account by now, you should!

A cute little kitten for David’s baby’s sister. It occurred to me that I was only making for the baby – how awful is that? I totally forgot he had a sibling. Ok, so I’ve only met her once, but that’s no excuse. The pattern is Crazy Kitten from Super Cute: 25 amigurumi animals by Annie Obaachen and I used half a ball of Sublime merino. It’s not the best book in the world since there are no making-up instructions and the materials list is more of a hint. Ravelry was a godsend.

An ear-warming headband for Elle. It’s hard to knit things for Elle because A) she knits herself and B) so does her grandad (he knitted the socks I’m wearing right now, they are amazing!) So I chose something that she could wear under the hat he will inevitably make her and that had a bit of lace she could appreciate. The pattern is Blue Leaf Headband by Adrienne Krey and is free from Ravelry and the yarn is Wendy Fusion.

That’s enough my stash-busting Christmas making for now!

Beccy

My hook is on fire!

Not really, it’s made of metal, but if it was wood…

Remember these?

Well I finally made enough to start sewing them together to make the baby blanket for little Liam. It was supposed to be a present for the shower but since he was born in October it’s a little late. Now it’s a Christmas present!

I’ve sewn the granny squares together into strips and now I’m joining them with two rows of double crochet sandwiching a row of shell stitch.

I’m using the Attic24 colour pack of Stylecraft special DK because it’s my favourite (I have a further unopened pack in my stash, I love it that much)

Right, better get cracking – I have two more strips to join then lots and lots of edging. I’m hoping Lucy blogs her tutorial soon for the lovely edging she’s been working out.

Beccy

Crochet flower cushion…

This is a practice for Christmas presents (I know, it’s June, but if I don’t start really early I’ll be doing it all last minute!)

The pattern is Fanciful Flowers Potholder by Claudia Lowman.

I used an old jumper for the back but it is a bit too stretchy – next time I’ll crochet another circle (I’m just too lazy to do it just now for this one) I also won’t use white for the base but it was an odd ball I wasn’t likely to use for much else and this was only meant to be a practice run.

Sewing the back to the front face-to-face was a bit tricky because of the different weights and the extra row of petals on the edge of the front getting in the way.

It worked out ok though! When we got rid of our old sofas I kept all the cushions with a view to reusing the stuffing for this sort of thing. Don’t you just love it when your hoarding tendencies are justified? This cushion cost about £1 to make (if I don’t bill for my time) but it’s worth much more because handmade is pretty much always better.

Next time I’ll crochet the back, use a darkish colour for the base layer, and I might stick a great big button in the centre. All in all I’m pleased with how it came out and I’m looking forward to making lots for prezzies!

Beccy

Crochet car seat covers finished!

So, I dropped a cake (icing down of course) on the passenger seat of my car… and then Elle did the same thing. It was the stupid cake tin’s fault and it was such a beautiful lemon cake with lemon butter icing that I had baked the day before and we were taking to a friends house.

We ate the cake anyway because it was a nice cake and the germs don’t stick if you pick it up within 2 seconds right? But buttercream is very hard to get out of seat covers so I decided to crochet some lovely new seat covers to cover the stain. I was always going to anyway, but now I had a reason.

Some people pimp their rides with giant speakers and weird blue lights underneath, not me.

The hexagons are motif 30 from Edie Eckman’s Beyond the square, but only the first two rounds because I think smaller is cuter. I crocheted a lot of them before I actually bothered to measure the carseat, and even when I did I had to make a fair few more.

Doesn’t look like much so far but I wanted to show you a work in progress pic - I was making it up as I went along! (and you can just see the water stain in this pic, where I had tried to clean the buttercream off)

And the final covers. What you can’t see in the photo is that I made them a bit like box cushions but without a base and a back, and then I crocheted a final row around the bottom with a loop every 5 stitches or so. I made a long chain to thread through all the loops and tied it behind the seat.

All done! They took a couple of months because I was winging it but I’m pretty pleased with them – I want to make covers for the backs now but I might have to do something a bit simpler.

Note: Make them slightly smaller than you need because they will stretch!

Edited to add:

I was asked for a picture of the edging so here you go!

The loops are formed by chaining 5 then single crochet into the next stitch. Single crochet 4 more then form another loop.

The loops on the points are chain 5 then single crochet into the same stitch.

Beccy

Finding crochet time…

Since I’ve been so busy over the last few weeks I’ve really been missing my crochet. Open studios is finished and to get over that after-the-event feeling I started a new wip.

Due to two freak cake + passenger seat accidents, I needed something to cover a nasty icing stain and decided on some lovely crochet. These are stacks of basic hexagons made using a pattern picked from the lovely Beyond the square crochet motifs by Edie Eckman. This book is serious crochet eye candy, I just wished she’d picked prettier colours for the motifs – why are half of them green and orange? My little hexagons will eventually become some custom seat covers for Ruby our little car.
The yarn is Stylecraft special DK, bog standard acrylic but it comes in at least 56 great colours. In the UK you can buy the perfect selection of 17 colours from Masons for about £25, or individually for £1.50 per 100g ball.
Beccy

The finished blanket…

Just a quick post to show you a photo of the finished blanket, hastily photographed moments after my aunt unwrapped it on Christmas day!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
Beccy

We’ve been crocheting mad…

Or driven mad by excessive crochet. Either way, since we’ve each had bouts of flu-like symptoms mum and me have had a lot of free time we could only fill with low-impact work.

This blanket is a Christmas present for my aunt, there are 289 little squares and every single one is different (well, nearly – I made a mistake and repeated one square, prizes if you can spot it) It’s not huge, but it is very pretty. We used Stylecraft special DK because the colours are amazing and easily washable. It’s blocking now, so just the edging to do and it’s finished. It’s based on Attic24’s cushion, in fact my recent preoccupation with crochet is entirely based on Attic24 which I discovered a couple of weeks ago. I could already crochet but Lucy’s blog is really, really inspiring – if you haven’t discovered it yet, go and have a look!

The crochet birds are also Christmas presents, and yes the pattern can be found on Attic24. 

I bought this lamp (sorry no before pictures) from a charity shop for £2 because my last one blew up. I liked the shape but the base was a sort of pastely purple with oily lustre. Yuck! So I crocheted a cover for it and slung a tatty vintage traycloth over the top. Much nicer, and it only took an hour or so.

Hail to the all new colourful life!
Beccy