Happy Christmas Crocheting!

Just a quick post to wish you all a very happy, happy Christmas, and I hope that at this very busy time of year you manage to snatch some time to yourself for some crafting moments!!

I am very lucky to have all of my family together in Cumbria to celebrate Christmas this year; wonderful!

Of course I can't let Christmas pass by without a sneaky little early festive indulgence for myself, and my Yuletide treat this year is a new camera.  It's a Canon Powershot A3300 IS, and I'm thrilled with the photos I'm taking...  For the first time the pics of my, let's face it frankly loud & flashy, creations are coming out vibrant and vivid and most importantly the colours are true to life... perfect! 

My Granny Bobble Blanket isn't getting a look in at the moment due to compulsive hexagon production... I'm hooked!

Happy Christmas Crocheting!
xxxxx

Puffed Daisy Hexagon

Season's Greetings!

I'm sorry that it has been a while since my last post, but I've had some technical gremlins here that have kept me off-line! It's been wet, wet, wet here for so long that I've forgotten the last completely dry day we've had – mainly miserable rain, but mixed with some snow for the last few days. Not pleasant to be out in, but the perfect excuse to stay by the fire and crochet!

I'm still bobbling along, but the rounds seem to take an age to complete now, so I can only manage one or two rounds at a time...

Of course, my itchy fingers have needed something smaller and quicker to create between marathon rounds so some experimenting was in order. I have what can only be described as an obsession with floral motifs, particularly daisies, plus as you will know by now a real love of bobbles,and as I fancied a new hexagon motif the Puffed Daisy Hexagon took shape; instructions below.

Puffed Daisy Hexagon - FOR A PRINTABLE PDF OF THE PATTERN CLICK HERE.

 

I NOW HAVE A NEW WEBSITE AND THIS PATTERN CAN BE FOUND AT -

http://psicrochet.com/portfolio-items/puffed-daisy-hexagons/

I despair when I read my patterns; if any of you manage to decipher it/them you deserve a medal!

Anyway, I'm obsessed with these at the moment, so enough typing, I'm getting back to bobbling. If I don't post again before Christmas, Happy Christmas and a happy, healthy and creative New Year to you all. A big thank you also to those that have left such lovely comments, I do appreciate them and because of my technical problems I have been unable to reply before now, so until I do it personally thank you very much!

Happy crocheting

xx

Bobbling along!

Good Morning,

I'm sharing some bobble love today; I'm up to 27 rounds on my Granny Bobble Blanket and it's now big enough to keep me cozy as I crochet - very welcome as it has been blowing a gale and hurling down odd showers of hailstones here in Cumbria for the last few days.

It will need to be blocked to produce a perfect square, but for a general throw it is not too far off - I don't think I will bother as it pulls into shape well enough for me!  I'm loving it too much to finish now, but I think that I will tweak the pattern and try again when this is completed.

I'm quite fond of the back too - but the bobbles win every time!

Have a great weekend and happy crocheting!
x

Granny Bobble Blanket

With the nights drawing in and the evenings getting chillier, this is the perfect time to make blankets! I haven't made a blanket since my granny stripe last winter; I enjoyed making it so much, with each stripe subtly changing the whole and keeping me going until I was quite disappointed to finish it...

I would like to enjoy creating another one in the same way, but I don't really want another striped blanket, nor do I want a blanket made from small squares/hexagons with fiddling bits of colour changes. So my thoughts inevitably took me to a giant granny, but with a twist!

I love bobbles, so this afternoon found me experimenting to create a granny made from bobbles and I am finally happy with the pattern. It is quite a stash buster and uses a lot of yarn, but it makes a wonderfully thick, cosy fabric – perfect for winter. I will be plotting my progress of the blanket on this blog, but in the meantime I share the pattern below.

Granny Bobble Blanket

**EDITED 5 SEPTEMBER 2012**

A FEW PEOPLE FOUND THAT THEIR WORK DID NOT LAY FLAT.  I DID REMOVE THE PATTERN FOR A WHILE, BUT HAD MANY REQUESTS TO PUT THE PATTERN BACK UP AGAIN, SO I AM PUBLISHING IT AGAIN - I CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT YOUR WORK WILL LIE FLAT - IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS DO NOT TRY THIS PATTERN.

 

Oddments of dk yarn

4.5mm hook

This pattern is written in American crochet terms.

Abbreviations -

Sl st – slip stitch

ch – chains

dc – double crochet

MFB – Ch 3, 3dc in same stitch/space. Drop loop from hook; insert hook from front to back in top of Chain 3, grab dropped loop and pull through stitch.

MB – 4dc in next stitch. Drop loop from hook; insert hook from front to back in top of 1^st dc, grab dropped loop and pull through stitch.

Ch 4 & sl st into first ch to form a ring.

Row 1: Into ring; MFB, ch 4, *MB, ch 4, rep from * 2 times more, sl st into top of ch 3. Fasten off

Row 2: with a new colour join into any of the corner spaces(I start in a corner as it gives me more stitches to work over the end of the new yarn – then I don't need to embroider the end in later).

MFB, ch 4, MB (first corner made), ch 3, *(MB, ch 4, MB) in next space, ch 3; rep from * 2 times more. Sl st into 1^st bobble, fasten off.

**EDITED, 5th Feb 2012 - As there was a problem with the middle of the blanket not laying flat I have therefore changed the beginning of the pattern.  Start with a magic circle and into that work - MFB, ch 4, MB (first corner made), ch 3, *(MB, ch 4, MB) in next space, ch 3; rep from * 2 times more. Sl st into 1^st bobble, fasten off.    Continue with Row 3 below...  Basically I've taken out the first row and the pattern now begins with the second row in a magic circle.  I do apologise to any of you who have already started this and found the problem - I was too quick to share! sorry....

Row 3: with a new colour join into any corner space. MFB, ch 4, MB into corner space, ch 3, MB into next space, ch 3, *(MB, ch 4, MB) into corner space, ch 3, MB in next space, ch 3; rep from * 2 times more. Sl st into 1^st bobble, fasten off.

Continue in this pattern, doing 4 chains between each corner bobbles and 3 chains between all other side bobbles until the desired size has been reached.

I hope you like this pattern, and I would love to know if you are bobbling along with me.

Happy crocheting

x

Groovy Granny Pillow

Groovy Granny Pillow Making Up Instructions...

After finding the free pattern on Interweave's Crochet Me website for a granny spiral I had to give it a go... http://crochetme.com/media/p/95138.aspx

And once I got spiralling the little square didn't seem nearly big enough, so I kept going, and going, loving the pattern more and more, until it became obvious that this cute spiral needed to become an item to be displayed; so the Groovy Granny Pillow took shape and I thought it may be useful to some of you if I share the instructions for making up a pillow below.

This does not include the instructions for the granny spiral itself – this isn't my pattern, I've just adapted it to make it bigger – the instructions for the granny spiral can be found on the Crochet Me website (link above). The instructions for this pillow is to use any square pattern and any sized pillow, just make the squares to fit the pad accordingly.

I made the pillow with DK (8 ply yarn), using a 4.5 mm hook and American crochet terms to fit a 14 inch pillow pad.

• Front – make a patterned square to fit your pillow pad. 

• Make the back of the pillow the same size as the front – I worked a basic granny square in cream, working 17 rounds to fit my pillow pad. Do not fasten off.

• Now, to make an edge for buttons work a single crochet in each double crochet across 1 side of the square, chain 1, turn work and work a single crochet in each single crochet to the end.

  

• Now place work with right side facing down (and working thread in top right hand corner) and place patterned front on top with right side facing you (so wrong sides of each piece are together inside pillow). Pin the pieces together and then single crochet through both pieces along 3 sides to join them together – work sc, hdc, sc in each corner.

• Now the buttonholes needs to be worked on the remaining unworked front side edge; place pins evenly along the edge where you want the buttonholes to go. Taking into account the width of your buttons (mine were 18mm and I used 5) I single crocheted in each dc and ch1 spaces until I was 2 stitches past the middle of the proposed button space, then *turn, ch 3, miss 3 sts, slip stitch into next sc, turn sc 4 in ch 3 space, ss in next sc, sc to 2 stitches past middle of the proposed button space – repeat from * until all required buttonholes have been worked then sc to end of row and join in corner to make a neat corner/join. (if buttons are bigger work more chains and miss more stitches to make each buttonhole and if buttons are smaller work less chains and miss less stitches.)

• Sew buttons on button band to correspond with buttonholes.

The pillow could be left like this or a decorative edge can be added – I added a picot edge.

• For a picot edge work in each sc of the previous round – *work 4 sc, ch3, sl st in bottom chain, repeat from * around pillow. When you get to corners it doesn't need to be exact, work more or less sc to enable the picot to be in the corner, and if you make the buttonholes the same size as mine (with 3 missed chain in each) then work the picots to fall so that there is one at each side of the buttonhole (work the scs in the stitches at the bottom of each buttonhole between picots. Continue till 4 sides have been worked.

 

The button band will be hidden so doesn't need a decorative edge. Fasten off neatly and weave in ends.

I hope that's clear, Happy crafting!
x

A Welcome Break!

Just settling back in after a fabulous holiday in Florida; two weeks that flew past and left us all exhausted!

Magic Kingdom

The weather started out with constant rain for a couple of days, but that thankfully stopped and the remaining days were warm and lovely.  We last visited Florida in 1997, so there were quite a few new additions, in particular Disney's Animal Kingdom and more recently the Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios.

I was particulary looking forward to visiting the Harry Potter area at the Island of Adventure, but found it quite disappointing.  It is visually stunning, but it was just too busy to see it properly and the shops are so small that with the amount of people in each one it was a shoulder to shoulder shuffle through each one...

On the other hand, I wasn't that excited about visiting Disney's Animal Kingdom, but it was AMAZING!!!  Not really being a 'thrill rider' I enjoyed every bit of this park; the shows were spectacular and the features and rides were all fantastic.  I went twice and could have gone again and again. 

We were all looking forward to the Shamu show at Seaworld, but found it a bit disappointing this time around as the trainers no longer go into the water with the killer whales (quite understandingly following the death of a trainer there).  However there was a wonderful dolphin show called Blue Horizons that more than made up for this.

We flew with Monarch from Manchester to Sanford, and stayed in a lovely villa in Clermont, just off the 192.  It was really nice, with a spa and pool that backed onto a lake; we'd all definately stay there again.

There were lots of great restaurants nearby; I would recommend the Santa Fe Steakhouse for steaks and ribs, and The Crackerbarrel for fantastic breakfasts and dinners like meatloaf and potloaf.  While we didn't have any really bad meals we would not return to The Red Lobster or Applejacks...

Well, back in England now; I chose not to return to Switzerland, so I'm back in the Lake District with its usual fair share of rain and wind.

I'm busy knitting some dolls and I will blog their progress as soon as I take some photographs.

In the meantime, Happy crafting!

x

Wrist Warmers Anyone?

Hello there,

Despite the weather here still being in the late 20s, it can't last forever, so my hook has been busy with some pure new wool wrist warmers and it is my delight to share the pattern...

Chevron Lace Wrist Warmers

I NOW HAVE A NEW WEBSITE AND THIS PATTERN CAN BE FOUND AT -

http://psicrochet.com/portfolio-items/chevron-lace-wristwarmers/
 

Quick and easy to whip up for gifts, or just to treat yourself in some really yummy yarn....

Perfect for Autumn.

Happy Hooking Everyone.............xx

Hello Big Wide World!

Well hello, and welcome to my brand new blog!  Let me fill you in on a few things about me...

I come from Cumbria in the UK, but I moved to Fribourg in Switzerland 3 weeks ago after getting a new job as a House Manager, quite an adventure.  I've left behind my two daughters, Vicki and Emma, my two cats, Cleo and Georgie, and my Mum & Dad, Brother and family.

Emma is 20 and currently studying photography and art history at Roehampton University in London.

Georgie is just over a year old and has gone to live with my brother and his family. 

Cleo is about 17 years old and has gone to live with Vicki.

Vicki is 23, trained as a Nanny, and lives with her boyfriend Liam in Cumbria.

I can't tell you how much I miss them all at the moment.  Homesickness has well and truly set in... 

It's not just the people, it's the places; I even miss tesco! (and I'm not a lover of food shopping). 

I miss being able to communicate easily when I'm out and about - both French and German are spoken here, but mostly French and of the two languages I'm currently better at German...  I find German much easier to understand as it's quite a staccato language and even when spoken fast I can generally distinguish the words; with French however, everyone seems to be on a mission to talk as quickly as possible and the words just seem to blend together. 

I miss driving on the left, although I'm at least now not in danger of head on crashes with whichever unfortunate is driving towards me as I set off.  It's actually quite easy to drive here - they sure do like their roundabouts.

However, Switzerland is a wonderful country and there is so much here that I love.  The scenery is beautiful and the sun seems to continually shine (remember I'm from the Lake District where rain is the norm).  Everything is incredibly clean, and some things run incredibly efficiently.

Fribourg is a university town, so there are lots of students about, and I live near the university. 

I took these pictures earlier on today;

Now, another thing that I miss greatly is my HUGE yarn stash; I came over here with just my suitcase and carry on luggage, so the only thing I had room for was a few crochet hooks and a couple of balls of Cumbrian Alpaca Dk yarn -

It took me less than a week to find a source of more stash -

Current new project is the Sweet Eleanor Scarf - http://yarnandspices.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/sweet-eleanor-scarfwrap/

This is a lovely project; a lot of poeple of ravelry have commented that it is too monotonous and boring, but to be quite honest I have absolutely no staying power when it comes to boring projects and I find this quite nice to do - perhaps the colour play of the variegated yarn helps.  Anyway I'm pretty sure this is a project that will get finished.

Ok, my brain is boggled from the newness of blogging, so I'll say bye for now... xx