Last Week

another week has gone by and unintentionally I didn't blog. days seem to pass by like hours… 

I am enjoying them greatly though, in good company and with lovely weather. a little bit of Spring cleaning and de-cluttering here and there feels good. fixing the sleeve Floyd chewed a bit was easier and quicker done than I thought. fun times exploring new places and spaces in Den Bosch, taking the blossoms all in, and crocheting up some Easter themed pastel doilies. the pattern is from the lovely book Crochet Living by Nicki Trench, one of my favourite designers. it's a book made with Debbie Bliss yarn and the doilies are named Dashing Doilies. the colour possibilities are endless, I love them.

I will try to arrange a blog post about the doilies and Den Bosch this week. 

But first I'll enjoy a latte in the sunny backyard. Life is good!

xo

New Project

let's call it my birthday yarn. the Rowan pure wool DK selection I got on Monday. I am planning to make a cushion cover in Spring theme with popcorn flowers, for our couch. I made a couple before, you may remember them when you have a look here. the colours I choose this time are partly my all-time-favourite-go-to-colours; teal and blue. partly they totally match our interior colours; grey and dark gray, as well as peachy salmon. and then there's yellow, a colour that I am slowly starting to like especially in this golden hue. in real life it is not as orange as it appears on the pictures here. the yellow sure does bring a nice spark to the scheme. the idea was to make flower squares and join them with single crochet in yellow. but who knows what will happen on the way…

the pattern is based on the popcorn square pattern by Mille on her blog Mille Makes. I altered the flower here and there, and I am playing around with ideas for a smaller square shape. aaaah of course I started with teal, how I love this colour. the combination with peachy salmon is perfection to my eyes. calm and fresh, great for Spring.

to be continued…

xo

My Heart…

the crochet hearts story continues. my plan was to crochet hearts and hang them as a garland for Valentine. I wanted to make silhouette hearts, instead of the hearts we usually crochet like these ones.

so far I am not too happy with the results. the Einband heart is done with single crochet stitches around a little iron wire and then shaped into a heart. I quite like it.

the soft fun by Scheepjeswol heart was done with a chain, then single crochet into each chain, 2 single crochet in the top 3 stitches of each heart-top, skipping stitches in the middle. I find it ok, but not really nice.

the lettlopi heart is a long row of chain stitches, then single crochet around that chain. by moving the stitches closer together or wider apart, you create curves. hmmmm, I find it the least successful heart.

what I do like about the hearts is their different textures, the combine really nice and make the single coloured hearts quite interesting I find.

what do you think? with which one should I continue? or let them all go and start a new version?

my idea is to try the wire heart with both other yarns, and try to felt the lettlopi heart and block it in the right shape. do you think that will work?

any advice is very welcome, I'm a bit stuck with these hearts.

xo

Mini PomPom Love

crocheting happily on my new scarf in progress. the scarf itself is not finished yet but I did work on the pompom ends already. why, you ask. well, I have got only 5 balls of yarn for this scarf, one of each colour, and I do not plan to get more yarn. therefore I wanted to make sure the ends were done first, before I run out of yarn. aren't these mini pompoms the cutest thing? I figured that if I wanted both ends of the scarf to have pompoms, I had to make two half scarfs and join them afterwards. otherwise the clamshells would look up on one end, and down on the other. therefore, two halves of one scarf to be.

also, do you use a scale when crocheting or knitting? I do quite often, to calculate how much further I can go with this one ball. in this particular project, to estimate how long this scarf will be if I continue with the same pattern. it may look or sound complicated and I agree, crocheting is much more fun than calculating weights and sizes. however it does save you lots of out-of-yarn stress, issues with different die lots, discontinued colours etc etc. trust me, I have been there several times. also, I often find that limitations ~ aka limited amounts of yarn ~ lead to creative ideas.

if you're interested: more about the start of this scarf and the yarn here, clamshell pattern to be found here

pattern edging: repeat *slip stitch, single crochet, half double crochet, treble crochet, chain 2, slip stitch in top of treble, double crochet, half double crochet, single crochet*. make sure you are facing the front of the bottom scallop when making this edging. 

pompoms: attach contrasting coloured yarn in chain 2 loop, chain 2, bobble stitch of 7 double crochet leaving last loop on hook, yarn over and pull through all 8 loops on hook in once. chain 1 and weave in ends. you're right, I haven't completed that last and fun step yet. I'll save that for later, ahum.

wishing you a happy Friday and a great weekend

xo

Fingerless Gloves Update

a little update on the fingerless gloves project. the new style bobble stitch glove is finished, yay! it's longer and I like the stitching better. I will probably just add a half thumb and that's it. I love how the variegated invicta colour yarn from Scheepjeswol shows it's colours. however, when looking at the wave stitch glove in progress below, I have a feeling I might like that too. or even better? let's see how it progresses.

I will share the pattern for the bobble stitch glove here next week and I am still working on the wave or shell stitch one. it's a challenge thats for sure! but the kind of challenge I enjoy a lot.

Fingerless Gloves ~ Progress

an update on the fingerless gloves in progress. last week I showed you some samples in this post, I was trying to figure out what stitch to use for this project and invicta colour yarn by Scheepjeswol. 

I ended up making one glove with thumb (to the right in the picture below). I like it, however it is too short to my liking and I am not a big fan of the 'lines' in between the bobble stitches. as a result, I started a longer glove without the lines (left). a few more rows till I am finished. question is: to crochet a thumb or not to crochet a thumb? what is your idea on that? 

and I couldn't resist starting a second design with the wave pattern (middle), but it is quite the puzzle. I have said some nasty words in the past few hours to get it right. it is too wide for my wrist now, so I have to unravel it one more time I hope. and then let's see how that one will work out.

in the mean time I am still struggling with the saturation and other settings of the photo's of this project, I hope it doesn't hurt your eyes too much looking at these images on your screen...

oh and don't you like these rather special ranunculus? I had never seen them before and like their frills.

Last Week

the better the weather, the more I am outside enjoying it all. as a result, the fewer time I am spending indoors behind the computer and on the blog. until humidity hits and temperatures rise, this will be it.

I have started a project in yellow-gold tones paired with grey and white. very unusual for me. but it is also very much to my liking at the moment. still a secret though... 

magnolia's have started to bloom, they are to be found at every other neighbors lawn, so pretty! healthy eating, working on the patio furniture in our backyard, playing with Floyd in the water, and enjoying all the colorful flowers, is what I've been up to.

and I am working on a very fun project that is going to take place in the near future. 

ladies in The Netherlands be aware...

wishing you more Spring warmth and joy!

Grande Project ~ 5

picture by Marie-Thérèse

it's hard to believe we are already at the fifth update of this Grande Project, and Marie-Thérèse is almost done with the crochet baby poncho for her baby girl. she wrote me she enjoys crocheting this poncho so much, she's a bit sad it's almost done.

pictures by Alessandra

Alessandra's table runner is growing rapidly, row by row and she also wrote me how happy she, is working on this project. two ladies happy crocheting, I'd say mission accomplished.

as for me, I am only just a little jealous of the sunny and warm pictures from Indonsia. a little. 

ahum ok, not just a little haha

not so much sunshine and warmth today here in Canada, however quite a growing and shining blanket in my home. while it's raining cats and dogs I am weaving in ends, and making progress with the new color blocks in light blue and pink/red. I couldn't decide on choosing pink or red and ended up using both.

three projects, the same yarn, all coming close to being finished...

if you've missed the previous posts, look here for the beginning

update ~ 1

update ~ 2

update ~ 3

update ~ 4

Grande Project ~ 4

pictures by Marie-Thérèse

it's Wednesday... time for a Catania Grande Project update

Marie-Thérèse started with her baby poncho last week, and has added quite a few rows this week. it is coming together nicely as you can see. the shape is showing very well on the vase, so cute and pretty. she says: I love to crochet with this yarn. it doesn't fringe and feels very soft. the colors are very pretty. I am very happy with the yarn and plan to use it for future projects for sure!

pictures by Alessandra

last week the yarn arrived with Alessandra in Indonesia, and she started crocheting the first rows of her table runner. the colors she picked are red, green and pink. I rarely work on a project without a shade of white in it, so I was eager to see how these colors would work together. and I love it, it gives a real dense color splash. she says: I remember entering for the yarn challenge, and never thought of the possibility of winning, there are so many great crocheters out there! but now I am in and I am playing the game with joy. I am usually an acrylic yarn girl; it is a little elastic when you work with it and I like that. so at first I was a little scared to work with cotton. but after the first rows, I can say Catania Grande is just fabulous in your hands. it is soft enough and a pleasure to work with. what I like most is the quality of this cotton; when you crochet with it, it doesn't split in fact it keeps it's shape. I love it!

and my own project, the baby blanket, is taking shape as well. I am almost half way! it is becoming a decent size blanket, quite thick and sturdy, yet very soft and even warm. I can't wait to start with the second half of the blanket and pick my colors for it. light blue for sure, I am doubting on red or pink... oh and then there are quite a few yarn ends to weave in. not looking forward to that at all haha.

three very different projects, in different color combinations, coming along nicely if you ask me! stay tuned, there'll be a new update next Wednesday

a big hug to Marie-Thérèse and Alessandra for playing along with me, I am so lucky to have these dedicated girls on board with this project!

if you're new here and would like to know the background of this project:

this is how it started

update 1

update 2

update 3