Both versions of this pattern are terrific! I wouldn’t change a thing, even the styling. Those girls look great.
Remember this pattern?
I started on the jacket when I was away at Sewjourn earlier in the year. It’s been sitting on the almost-but-not-quite-finished pile for too long. Finally I can move it to the wardrobe. Many thanks to Mum for hand-stitching the lining into place for me!
Unfortunately, Stella wouldn’t model it for me. Here’s hoping that it will fit! It matches her pinafore. Pinwale corduroy from Spotlight, lining fabrics from stash. The back has a half-belt across the inverted pleat.
This is such a lovely style that it really deserves to be made up in a plain wool or cashmere in order to show off the details. The front and back yokes, inverted centre back pleat, little collar, and sleeve shaping are all quite special. But will she wear it? Stella is at the funny stage where you never quite know what clothes she’ll kick up a fuss about and what she won’t. Fingers crossed!
My gorgeous cousin Freya is blessed with three sons. Perhaps unexpectedly (or maybe to counteract the testosterone) her family lives in a house that is full of beautiful feminine details. All those guys haven’t managed to change her style at all! When I was making this scarf with its flowers and soft colouring, I thought of Freya.
The pattern is the Cecily Mobius Scarf (Ravelry link) from Issue 1 of Inside Crochet magazine. I used Lincraft Prism (which is a wool/soy mix) in cream and three variegated shades with a 5.5mm crochet hook.
The yarn has beautiful colour changes. It’s much thicker than the yarn specified by the pattern, which is why this scarf isn’t all that drapey. Rather, it’s warm and chunky. Because it’s a moebius scarf, it was turned in half before seaming the ends together. This gives it a twist in the middle that helps it to sit nicely.
Enjoy your scarf Freya – I hope it keeps you warm and snuggly on those cold morning walks to school. The boys won’t be borrowing this one!
One of the reasons I signed up for Around The Block was to have the opportunity to learn about patchwork and quilting from women who were way more experienced than me. I haven’t had the opportunity to do any quilting courses, so am relying on books and the internet. Before I make blocks using anyone else’s fabric, I intend to practice them first using some of my own. Then I’ll end up with a sampler quilt of everyone’s chosen blocks in addition to the blocks that everyone in the quilting bee will make for me.
Considering how little patchwork I’ve done, I thought I’d better practice with my scraps even before practicing on my own “good” fabric. I started off by giving paper foundation piecing a go, and ended up with this block.
It’s actually a combination of four foundation pieced blocks (following the instructions here) and then I just added strips in a courthouse steps pattern to get it up to size (I’m making all these 12.5 inches just in case I want to join them together for a scrappy sample quilt eventually). Then I gave birdhouses a try.
I really like paper foundation piecing! Can’t wait to try some more. But it was time to move off paper and on to log cabin blocks, since our first Around The Block participant has chosen log cabin blocks for her quilt.
I followed some instructions I found here for this one, with a 3.5 inch centre block and 2 inch strips. Unfortunately, I didn’t do the maths myself – this gives a 12 inch finished block rather than 12.5 inches – no seam allowances to join it to the other blocks. So I made another, this time with a 4 inch centre block.
12.5 inches square, yay! I am really enjoying cutting bits of fabric out to join them back together again. Next blocks on my practice list – some Wonky Houses and then maybe some Wonky Log Cabins.
Had a brilliant day at Jeff’s Shed on Saturday with my Mum and Clare at the Quilt and Craft Fair. We were there from 10.00am until 4.30pm, which astounded us all! Started off by looking at all the quilts on display – the amount of work involved in making all those quilts is almost beyond my comprehension. Clare had difficulty choosing her favourite – although her eventual first choice was a mermaid quilt. Managed to have morning tea with the delightful Kellie and also ran in to Liesl, Gina and an ex-work colleague (but still friend) Emily. Quite the social occasion! We didn’t do any of the classes that were on offer – actually, not many of them appealed to me all that much, unlike the classes that were offered earlier in the year at the Stitches and Craft show – but we certainly browsed and shopped. Which is where Sunday Stash comes in – I purchased these lovely pieces from Amitie to add to my selection for Around The Block (even though there are still a couple of months before it is my turn to send out fabric).
There were also some terrific purchases from Kelani Fabric and some astounding yarn from Prudence Mapstone and Sarah Durrant – but I’ll save those for another time!
Thanks Tamara for hosting Sunday Stash.
Whew, just getting this post in on time! Given that it’s winter and we need to keep warm and cosy, today we have some crocheted headwear.
And some more!
I’d really like to see these photographed from a different angle. I rather fancy the lacy one on the right in the second photo.
Off to the Melbourne Quilt and Craft Fair at Jeff’s Shed tomorrow – lots of inspiration ahead I’m sure! There’s also 25% off all patchwork fabrics and craft accessories at GJ’s Discount Fabrics at the moment – well worth a visit. They’re at 443 Lygon Street, Brunswick.
I’ve built up a crochet reference collection over the past couple of years, and thought that some of you might be interested in what it contains. Firstly, if you like yarn and crochet (or knitting or weaving or spinning) you really ought to be on Ravelry. It really is the most astounding website. As well as being a terrific way to keep track of your own projects, you can queue projects, keep track of your stash, keep track of your library, favourite other people’s projects or patterns, participate in forums, access the myriad of free patterns available on the web, buy patterns, etc etc etc. The list goes on! One of the best things is the way that everyone’s projects, yarns and patterns are cross-referenced with one another. Just marvellous in every way.
I subscribe to Interweave Crochet magazine. It’s an American publication and I think it has the most fashion-forward crochet designs around. Love it! You can often buy single copies here in Australia at the newsagent. I also subscribe to Crochet Today!, another American publication. It comes from a particular yarn company so only used their yarns, but has a good mix of projects. Not as modern as Interweave Crochet in my opinion but the yarns used are often much more affordable. That isn’t really an issue for me anyway since I always substitute yarns for those I can buy easily here in Australia. I’ve also just bought a copy of Inside Crochet from the local newsagent. It’s a UK publication, and I really like lots of the designs it contains. I’m definitely planning on buying this one regularly.
So, onto the books! These are almost all Amazon links but if you’re interested you could also try Fishpond or your local bookstore or library. In no particular order:
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Stitch’n’Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller
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Everyday Crochet by Doris Chan
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Crochet Me by Kim Werker
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The Crochet Answer Book by Edie Eckman
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Amazing Crochet Lace by Doris Chan
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200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton
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Vintage Crochet by Susan Cropper
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Basic Crochet Stitches by Erika Knight
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Crochet Boquet by Suzann Thompson
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A-Z of Crochet by Country Bumpkin publications
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150 Crochet Trims by Susan Smith (hubby bought me this one as a birthday present without any sort of prompting!)
What I like about my personal library is the mixture of technical, reference type books with fashionable patterns. So far the ones I’ve used the most have primarily been the reference books, but I have quite a queue of garments that I want to make. I also have a few more crochet books in my Amazon wishlist, including these:
and about another ten, all waiting for the Aussie dollar to get higher, higher, higher, one day.
My crochet library reflects the type of crochet I like to do – scarves, hats, bags, garments, blankets. I don’t make toys, as cute as I think other people’s amigurumi can be. I like the challenge of lace patterns and making things that my girls can wear. I also like learning new techniques and ways to make my crochet look as professional as possible. Good reference books are really worth purchasing.
Then there’s the vintage crochet pattern books and magazines, but that’s a whole other post! As is the one about all the crochet blogs I read….
These are the last of the blocks I’m making for Chaletgirl’s Block Swap. They’re not actually due back until the end of September. I don’t know what came over me with this swap, but I zoomed through the blocks. A sign of what fun I was having with it! The first two are for Bronwyn.
The next two are for Leah.
And the final four are for Lynn.
I’d originally been nervous about Lynn’s fabric, worrying how I was going to match the variety of colour and busyness of print. Surprisingly I came up with quite a few combinations fairly quickly and I’m really pleased with these final choices.
So now what do I do while I wait for my blocks to be returned at the end of October? Oh that’s right, I start planning for Around the block – a quilting bee! I’ll get to make all sorts of blocks in all types of prints. Another massive learning curve! What type of blocks will I ask everyone to make for me? At the moment I’m thinking of blocks with points – pinwheels, stars, flying geese blocks. And I’m hoping to use stash fabric – possibly my Tula Pink Flutterby collection with some others thrown in for good measure. Huge thanks to Sheridan for running the nine-patch block swap so beautifully and now for getting us going on Around the block!
Did I intimate that unless I’d made a doily I couldn’t consider myself a real crocheter? I suspect that I did. So I made one. In fact, I made two.
The first is made with size 20 crochet thread, using a 1.25mm hook. I found it bloody difficult. The pattern was straightforward enough (when I followed it properly – I had to pull out three rows of the outer lace because I’d assumed what would happen next instead of actually reading it and I was wrong) but keeping adequate tension on that stiff cotton thread was hard work. I did a better job of it once I got to the outside part. The inside is much too loose and the definition of the pattern is lost in all the loops. So I tried again in a thicker yarn.
This one is in 4 ply cotton, with a 3.5mm hook. The tension is much more consistent and the lace pattern more clearly defined. You can really see the difference between the two here.
The 4 ply doily ended up being almost 11 inches in diameter. The thread one is around 7.5 inches in diameter.
The pattern is a free one, Winter’s First Snow, available here. It was interesting to make these two but I doubt that I’ll become a regular thread crocheter. My crochet technique makes it hard to get the right tension. Possibly it’s partly due to my arthritic hands (I have rheumatoid arthritis in remission) but I think it’s likely to be the way I hold the yarn and hook (not the way that ANY of the books teach you). No matter! I enjoyed my foray into doilies.
I had a great time on Saturday afternoon at Kirsty’s HAC craft class making my very own multitasker.
What IS a multitasker, I hear you say? Other than most of the women you know, of course. Well, this multitasker is a very handy item to make quilting/sewing/applique/crafting that bit easier. One half of the inside has a cutting mat; the other side has fine grade sandpaper to hold those fiddly bits of fabric in place while you arrange and rearrange them. There’s a flap of leatherette in the centre to protect surfaces.
Since when you turn it over, you have an ironing mat!
All made with mostly reclaimed materials. What an excellent afternoon – great company, making something that’s practical and good to look at. And there was even champagne, I believe, and yummy cheese and crackers and mouthful sized melting moments (the biscuits, that is). You can have a look at all of us and our finished multitaskers here. Kirsty is one clever woman to figure out how to make these and do it in such an environmentally sensible (and frugal) way! Thanks Kirst.
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