Last Week

while I am working on a new design for my PDF crochet patterns and try to picture as well as describe every crochet step as accurate as possible, I am a little absent here. sorry about that. I hope it will all be worth it in the end. 

how are you? is Spring peeking around the Winter corner where you are? here in The Netherlands she sure is and I am enjoying it. more light, a little warmer, singing birds everywhere… lovely.

on the crochet level, I have once again way too many projects on the go. sometimes I don't know what to crochet or I am not in the mood for it for weeks. other times I just can't seem to stop and my mind is racing to work on new ideas and patterns. oh well, never a dull moment haha. In the pictures, I am teasing you with the back of the pincushion I made, the yarn for a blanket crochet kit shipment, some squares I made a couple of months ago and yesterday they turned into coasters I will show you later. and there are still a few of my birthday flowers left, they have lasted over two weeks!

last but not least, on Saturday I was lucky to be able to join a sewing class organized by Textielstad and the Dutch publisher Tirion Creatief. the new book Naaien en Stikken came out, which is the translation of the English book The Great British Sewing Bee. it is packed with beautiful sewing patterns and on Saturday 15 excited ladies got to try out one of the patterns. more about that soon…

have a lovely week!

xo

Last Week

last week was the week of my birthday. we celebrated over the weekend with family, very nice to be able to do that again after 2 years in Canada. we served homemade soups, different cakes and pies and other treats. the weather was great, which resulted in Floyd being walked a lot, Spring is definitely in the air. a little early, but we enjoy it nonetheless. I blocked a doily I made months ago, later this week I'll show it to you in more detail. I started a new flower cushion project with my birthday yarn, and accidentally came up with a cute little pincushion for the heart pins. probably a pattern will follow later. 

and, this is the first time I am proudly showing you the new creJJtion logo. slowly but surely you'll see this logo appear on Instagram, here on the blog and in my pictures. for me it marks the beginning of a new phase for creJJtion. moving forward this year you'll see more changes and exciting happenings but I'll try to introduce them to you slowly, one at a time. 

have you had a good week of Valentine? celebrated with your love(s)? working on fun crochet projects? I'd love to read all about them.

have a lovely new week 

Just Some Happy

 just another Thursday morning, dreaming of too many projects, sipping latte and enjoying a Swedish magazine. happy heart pins that take my mind back to North America where I got them from darling Molly, 2 years ago on a cold Winter day in Chicago. and a finally blocked and finished doily, thanks to the pins.

enjoy your day

xo

Catching Up

Last week: preparations for Valentine's day with these hearts. 

I tremendously enjoy the beautiful ranunculus flowers these weeks. both in white as well as in those perfect powdery peach and pink tones, a wonderful gift from a dear friend who visited for my birthday, which was yesterday. I treated myself to a trip to a new-to-me wool shop and got some delicious Spring colours of Rowan wool. interesting how we seem to talk about yarn as if it were food, right? but really, I think they look delicious. more about those and a possible project in a new blog post tomorrow. 

have a great week of Valentine

xo

Tadaa: Pompom Scallop Scarf

the pompom-scallop scarf is finished ~ yay!

and I must say I am very happy with it 

it's texture ~ warm and wooly yet not itchy

it's length ~ not too long and perfect to wear indoors

it's colours ~ they go very well with jeans, grey, black, dark blue, it goes with all tones I wear basically.

the pompoms worked out as a cute little touch, they make me smile.

details for you if you'd like the Pompom Scallop Scarf yourself:

this scarf is made of one ball (50 gr) of each of the following Bergère de France ~ Berlaine colours:

red ~ bisque 25298

pink ~ bouquet 29213

purple ~ violine 23624

brown ~ cafe 21622

blue ~ vert d'eau 24601

I used a crochet hook size 4.5 mm, that's larger than the suggested 3.5 mm. with this larger hook the shawl became more flexible, fluffy and wearable.

the scarf measures 21x150 cm which equals 8x60 inches

the scallop pattern is perfectly done by Sandra on her blog here. I wanted the scallops to hang with their points down on both ends of my neck, therefore I ended up making two half scarfs and joined them.

I made two half scallop parts, as long as I could alternate the colours in the pattern I choose. 23 scallops on each half part to be exact. with the left over yarn I made stripes, still working on the two halves. the stripes vary in colour but are the same size. in the middle I joined them by picking up the loops on one end and make single crochet stitches all along, in red on one side and blue on the other.

bottom edging: attach same coloured thread to the corner of your scarf. make sure you are facing the front of the bottom scallop when making this 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*. 

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. 

happy day to you!

xo

Sunny Winter Days

blue skies make for such pretty Winter days. my absolute favourite weather. snow and ice would be nice, but even without them I am very happy. anything to lift the Winter spirits!

last week I attended the monthly knit and crochet get-together in our village again. such welcoming group of ladies, I enjoy it a lot. I took my scarf with me, all it's yarn ends still dangling around it and while chatting, sipping tea and laughing, I managed to finish most of them. the day after I had a lovely early morning phone conversation with a good friend. phone calls are really good for weaving in ends I find. I used to do it during Skype calls with family and friends too, when we lived in Canada. time goes by, you chat and enjoy the conversation, while weaving in ends on automatic pilot. so by the end of that conversation I was done! I could hardly believe it myself, haha. the joy of a big pile of tiny threads and a finished project. hmmmm perfection.

more pictures and details about the scarf in tomorrow's blogpost.

wishing you a sunny week of Winter

xo

Last Week

crochet-wise last week was all about the scarf that I finished, except for the ends to weave in. I played with little pieces of wood and glued them to a white board for display. healthy lunches, slow coffee, grey days, it is what January looks like in The Netherlands. I try to lift the spirits with flowers from the local market, candle light and cozy crochet.

tomorrow I'll show you some new yarn that I plan to use for a little Valentine's project…

have a great new week and keep up the spirit if you're in grey days too.

xo

Scallop Scarf Update

from two half scallop parts and a little bit of yarn left over…

…to an almost finished scarf with stripes in the middle, and practically no yarn left.

I know what I'm doing the following days when I have a few spare minutes. exactly, weaving in ends.

a finished tadaa post of this scarf to be coming soon, my first in 2014!

read here and here about the scarf and yarn, click here for the scallop pattern.

xo

New Week

these days I am enjoying beautiful January light, both in the city as well as out in the fields with Floyd. cozy knitting and crocheting time by candle light inside, beautiful flowers like these amaryllis but also tulips and hyacinths make me smile. pure mid-Winter loveliness, my favourite season.

have a beautiful new week

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

Gloves going on Sleeves

a couple of weeks ago I shared with you the pattern for these fingerless gloves. many of you picked up on the pattern right away and I received lots of photo's with your beautiful gloves in my inbox as well as on Instagram. I am so happy to read you are enjoying the pattern as much as I do. 

dear Deborah from  the cute Crochet Tea Party blog contacted me about her beautiful version of the pattern for a slightly thicker yarn. you can find it here, she even included a full crochet chart, isn't that fabulous? thank you so much Deborah, I am sure we will all enjoy your efforts in making this pattern so perfect!

 in the mean time I made 3 more pairs of gloves. I mean sleeves. yes sleeves, I crocheted the pattern in the round all along. no thumb part. these were the first ones I made:

you can read more about them in this blogpost. I found myself using them a lot in the house, for typing and holding my latte or tea. they make me happy when I wear them. 

I decided to share the happiness with my brother and his girlfriend, and crocheted a sleeves couple for them. they were wrapped up as gifts under the tree in Sweden, which is why I am showing them now.

the two-tone sleeves for her are also done with 2 balls of yarn; one green and one pink. I make them at the same time, to make sure I have enough yarn for each glove to reach the same hight. with the little bits that were left over I made the teeny decorative roses and leafs.

his gloves were made each of 1 ball of yarn. still, I made them simultaneously to make sure they would be the same in size.

my guess is I will make more of these in the future. they are perfect for quick gifts, and tempting to make matching with different of your own outfits and scarfs. I'd recommend using merino wool, or a wool blend that is washable. have you found 2 balls of yarn in your stash yet that are suitable for these?

happy crocheting

xo