Katya Spring Shrug

I loved this pattern! It is easy to do, works up quickly and wears great! It takes a bit to get used to how short it is (I am used to shrugs that cover your boobs).

It's a pattern I saw while roaming and just had to buy - here is the link:-

Katya Spring Shrug

I used Bella Baby Alpaca Blend which is lovely and warm to wear.

Comfy cardigan

This is a pattern from one of my favourite books:-

I have used the yarn that is called for in the pattern and I still had to go down from a 4.25 hook in the pattern to a 3.25 hook to get the right gauge ? I had no idea I was such a loose hooker :) I started with size 38 but ended up doing 35 as it was clear from the first row it was going to hook up way bigger even with the smaller hook. it turns out the pattern does actually pull in a fair bit when you have done multiple rows but and size 35 was still ok especially considering the size of the arms.

Ever noticed how when you read a pattern at night when you are tired it makes no sense then you look at it fresh in the morning after a cup of coffee and it makes perfect sense?? Thought I was going to have to unravel the whole centre arm section but all good.

I adapted the pattern a bit to make the breast panels one pattern repeat wider so it fits over my boobs. Other than that looks like the size is ok.

Can I suggest when you are doing the ribbing that you constantly check the number of stitches because somehow they just disappear. I went from 17 to 13 and I had to unravel a bit to get back to 15 - not unravelling the whole lot that’s for sure takes too long to crochet ribbing again.

The yarn is Blue Sky Blue Alpaca Silk in Amethyst which is lovely to work with. It was slightly scratchy when I tried it on but after blocking came out ok. 

Mixed Stitch Stripey Blanket - #2 Frog Post

Ok so here goes frog post #2...

Another thing the pattern clearly says is to COUNT YOUR STITCHES REGULARLY! After doing the zigzag pattern I somehow managed to pick up an extra 50 stitches (I started with 216) so the blanket bulged out all wokeye after that. Again I didn't notice it until 8 rows later...no fixing this one I just unravelled and started again from the top of of zigzag stitch decreasing one stitch every 5 stitches.

Its a good thing I love crochet so much!!! And kitty does too...

Mixed Stitch Stripey Blanket - #1 Frog post

I started a blanket (my first one!) and have been using the pattern by Hannah Davis at Not Your Average Crochet - you can find the link here.

This project highlights the problems you can come across WHEN YOU DONT READ THE INSTRUCTIONS PROPERLY!!  See the Catherine Wheel pattern in dark blue and white? Well the pattern clearly says to use a bigger hook or crochet very loosely as it will pull in your work. Being  my usual stubborn self thinking I would be fine I used the same crochet hook and didn't really try to crochet loosely and it did pull in dramatically. But did I stop and pull it out?  NO! I kept crocheting along another 20 rows thinking a good blocking at the end would fix it. It became painfully apparent that no amount of stretching or blocking would fix this. Faced with the prospect of unravelling about 20 cm of hard work I decided to fix it from the shorter end (about 10 cm). 

I couldn't find any instructions on the web on how to do it so I took a deep breath and undid the knot at the beginning of the Catherine wheel row and started unravelling. I was left with the bottom end of a double crochet row which did not look at all right to leave as is. 

So I had to work out a way of finishing off the row.  I used a larger hook (4.5 hook) and did a row of single crochet into the end of each of the double crochet that were left unfinished. 

Now I think about it more I could also have undone and then redone the Catherine wheel stitch and then joined the lower part with a row of single crochet in the same fashion. Too late now I unravelled all of the lower part. Not sure that the join would have looked so good to my perfectionist eye (what a curse that is!) anyway I am very happy with the progress ! 😊

Blue Mandala throw

Ohmygosh it has been so long since I have posted! Working two jobs that is why. I have been crocheting up a storm but I never seem to finish anything. I have about five projects on the go at the moment - but here is one that I have finished...

The free pattern for it can be found at Ravelry. Just make sure you look at the errata as well is is at the same site at the bottom of the page.

It is a bit tricky to start (it helped me to look at some finished projects to see how the spiral starts and the edging pattern works) but I got there in the end.

It gobbles up the wool though. I used Patons Cotton Blend 8 ply and a 5.5 hook.

Brain Waves Beanie

The latest instalment of Tassie wear - the Brain Waves Beanie! My partner had been asking me to make him a beanie but he didn't like any of the patterns I found. I came across this pattern at +Craftsy  and made it before he could knock the pattern back :)

I used the Cleckheaton yarn I had left over from the Wool Hooded Cardigan I made for bub so they will be matching when they wear it together. The hook used was size 5.5 (I). 

I think it suits him with his wooly beard on. 

The pattern is a free pattern by Playing Hooky which is linked below:

Brain Waves Beanie

Angora Mariposa Beanie

Another item for the Tassie trip! 

This is made from 100% Angora hand spun yarn which is wonderfully soft and warm! And a lovely pattern to make from The Crochet Lounge called the Mariposa Beanie. I can’t wait to wear it in the cold. This is the first time I have used the foundation chain and I will never go back to the ordinary
way of doing chains and then sc for the first row where I can avoid it!

The yarn was purchased from Morris & Sons Sydney a while ago and I was waiting for the perfect project to use it. 

Wool Hooded Cardigan

Off to Tasmania for a holiday yay! So I thought I had better make some winter woollies for my little man - such fun because we really don't get to wear them up here.

This is a lovely stitch pattern to make and it grows very quickly. I couldn’t buy the Sirdar Eco yarn used in the pattern so I had to substitute with Cleckheaton yarn and the colours are very similar. Had a bit of trouble with the hook size and had to redo it a few times until I settled on size 3.25 hook.

Well a few frogs along the way - must learn to pay closer attention to the pattern and not the tv (Game of Thrones!!!) As it is not as soft a wool as I would have liked I decided to make a lining for it. I had some beautiful royal blue coloured Chinese design silk material which goes quite well.

The pattern is from a lovely book I borrowed from the library - click on the book cover to go to the Amazon link to see more:

I formed the idea about how to do the lining from the website link below:

Instructables: Lining a hand knit sweater

Baby Boy Blue and Grey Cluster Yoke Cardigan

I originally made a jacket with this free pattern from Patons for my cousin's baby in the reverse colours - mainly grey with blue. The yarn is a lovely merino super wash 4 ply which was purchased from Morris & Sons Sydney. I must say looking at the range available now the colours are much better than they were when I bought the yarn a few years ago.

The pattern link is still available in Ravelry at this link - it is called Patons Cluster Yoke Cardigan

Hot Pink Vintage Doily

I found some pretty Japanese patterns for doilies and I thought I would spruce them up with some colour...can't go past hot pink for vintage style. 

Thinking of bright yellow and orange for some of the other designs :)

Cute Valentine's Day Pattern

I haven't had a chance to make this yet but I found this gorgeous free design on a Spanish blog called Anabelia Handmade

Just gorgeous don't you think?

My Etsy Shop!

I finally did it! I opened a store on Etsy on Valentines Day :) I only stock a few items I have made that are not copyrighted. Just for fun. 

Girls Blooming Flower Pillow

I had started this cushion for myself but the colours ended up being very girly so I decided to give it to my daughter. The pattern is originally an old 1946 vintage one which can be found here:

Vintage Pretty Petals Pot-holder

However the design has been reworked by Lucy@Attic24 and I have the link to her tutorial below. As per usual I pulled mine apart a couple of times and changed the pattern so there were not so many increases (as they made the cushion top ripple and not lie flat). 

Attic24 Blooming Flower Cushion Tutorial

I used the lovely 10ply cotton Lily Sugar'n Cream which I had shipped from the USA and a size 4 crochet hook. For the back I found a pattern for basic granny circle at Crochet with Raymond. The only problem is that I have used up all my round cushion inserts which I cannot buy anywhere in Cairns. I was hard pressed to find any in Australia actually - now why is that?? I ended up ordering two in from Sydney.

Pretty happy with the results and my daughter loves it :)

Rainbow African Flower Pillow

Just finished my latest pillow! Just loving the rainbow hues at the moment...

Here are a couple of African Flower motif free patterns on the web:

The Yvestown Blog - African Flower tutorial

Craft Passion - African Flower tutorial

I used Panda (now Patons) Regal 4 Ply 100% cotton and Clever Country 4 ply cotton (which has some gorgeous bright colours) and a size 3 hook. 

Had a few unravellings and variations along the way. I didn't like the original way I joined the flowers (which was a join as you go method - does not work really well for multi coloured motifs as you can see below) so I pulled them all apart and used another 'invisible' method which I found at a blog called Woolnhook.

I found the edging pattern from a book I have had for a while but haven't used before called The Finer Edge by Kristin Omdahl which you can have a look at here:

This was my inspiration which I also found wandering around crochet blogs:

A shoebox of photographs: keeping my hands busy