Grey May - The Month That Was

I only say that May was grey as the colour predominantly featured in almost everything I put my hand to. Nearly all of the crochet that I have done is grey. Hence my monthly mosaic is ... yes you guessed it.. very monotone GREY!

Hope you have enjoyed the month.
There are a few photographs I took on not such a grey day of the shop window of Jetty Babes on Jetty Road Brighton. It is a visual feast for children and always full of special toys and lovely crafted items to covet, especially if you have little ones at home. There was a lot of glare off the window at the time but I took a picture all the same.

Okay everybody say Yay!

Look it works!

Sigh of relief I don't have to pull it out again, I dont think the wool could stand being wound up into a fraught little tight ball again and having the life squeezed out of it. 

Apparently if you wait long enough the little bobbles will pop out all by themselves without any help from moi. Crazy idiot I am for pulling out all that work to begin with

A little brag time. Here is what my daughter has been up to. She is insistent about making a skirt with sunflowers and because I haven't actually seen any fabrics available recently with sunflowers on it she decided to carve her own lino print and then print her own. She must have been paying attention somewhere along the way because she managed pretty much all by herself. I just had to get the equipment out 

Jordy took the photos of her work and then put a few of herself up - no shame that girl! I told her that I was putting them up for the whole world to see or at least those whom could be bothered dropping by (and thank you for doing so, you keep me motivated)  But she couldn't care less. Love it a girl after my own heart!

 

Bobble Cushion - Orange You Glad I Share !

Dilemmas  Dilemmas Dillemmas

That's why the caption "Örange You Glad I Share" It's nothing really. As mentioned earlier i decided orange was a neat alternative to grey especially when you pick up 6 balls in the op shop for a reasonable price.

I have started this bobble cushion three times. First I followed the pattern and decided after a few rows I didnt like the bobble that they had as a pattern (Or I wasn't doing it right)

Then I decided to do a bobble stitch I knew (below). They look a little like buttercups don't you think?

But as you see somewhere my counting was out and my pattern is not symmetrical - one diamond bigger than the othe. I knew my count was out earlier on in the work but decided to continue to see how much it affected the work. Not necessary to state the obvious - urgh - I have pulled it all out

So now we are on to a third attempt. Yeh the counting is correct and everything symmetrical.

So tell me why does my bobble not puff out like the blue cushion bobbles? Do I continue on as is or do I try to redo it again or just forget it altogether!
I think my trebles in the bobble are only half trebles but I cant figure out how to retain the six loops on the needle when forming a complete treble without hooking through the loops

Here is how the pattern reads to make bobble

leaving last loop of each on hook work 6 treble into next stitch, yarn round hook and draw through all 7 loops on hook, push treble together and work 1 chain to secure

Dilemmas dilemmas dilemmas :) Bobble on!

Waffle Weave Pillow

Over  the weekend I hung out on my bed and spent many hours crocheting. The bulk of this grey pillow was done Friday night and all day Saturday. I had a busy few days galavanting around town and eating lunches and op shopping so I was inclined to do not very much by the time Saturday rocked around.
Once I got into the hooky swing of things I just couldn't stop. My wrists actually still feel a little sore from over exposure to the crochet hook !
This is the rib stitch which I seem to have converted into a waffle weave stitch along the way. When compared to the picture that shows how the stitch should look I can see where I have altered the pattern but decided I liked it this way. So this pillow was intentionally produced as a waffle weave, whereas my hot water bottle was supposed to have a rib stitch across the top.

This waffle weave is  double thickness of  a normal treble stitch and is really heavy. It also guzzles up the wool at a rapid rate! It would make a great mat or a really heavy blanket.

As usual I have taken photographs at night (otherwise it just wouldn't get done!)

The reverse side with four button holes.

I have just started a new pillow but this time have steered away from grey. It gets a little tiring always utilizing grey although i do like using grey to decorate with colour. I still have half a reel of grey to go so I can see many more projects being greyed in.
Colour of choice orange!

I never know whether to show a finished product first and then yabber on about the progression or show progression and work my way to the finish line! What do you do?

Anyway I have  taken a few photos as I have progressed with my crochet hot water bottle cover and have decided to present it as follows

Making the neck of the hot water bottle was done by reducing 2 stitches each end of a row four times and then a row of treble. Followed by four rows of rib stitch (Basically treble formed in the front or back of a stitch) It feels really springy and would make a really warm scarf or a lovely textured pillow....I'm thinking textured pillow , my next adventure after I produce a cabled hat for Jordy

A lovely snowflake motif for the front of the hot water bottle.

I picked up a really great hint from Lucy at Attic24 to shape your crochet - pin it to your ironing board, set your iron at the lowest steam setting and hold the iron above your work for ten seconds with steam. Then allow to cool and voila your work is set
Nifty idea for small pieces!

I still like using a board with nails for square work then I don't have to muck around setting up the iron especially if I have multitude numbers of the same kind of work.

 Testing out placement.

If I was sensible I would have made the motif first and sewn in place on the front of the cover before sewing together - but I'm not overly thoughtful that way

Sewn in place

Antique buttons for the buttonholes
I like the first ones, my son like the second - so I went with the second- seeing as I did ask his opinion!

Super large button jar one of three white jars I have. I should sought through and make a mounted frame with my favourites on it

One more button to sew and I'm done, just have to source the hot water bottle - the one I have is missing the cap, so I found out yesterday!

A Trip To Town

 A trip into town today with my good friend Richmal saw us wandering the mall for quite some time. There is general kaos in the mall at the moment with renovations to the walkways and generally the enterance into to the mall is a disaster. Our original intention was to picnic in the Botanic Gardens but the prediction of inclement weather caused us to rethink our plans.So instead of seeing the lovely lily pads in the garden ponds I saw  a lovely mural of lilies and carp in the mall.

Instead of a picnic in the park we found  a laneway off the mall set up as a picnic market place complete with fake grass and three charming and enterprising young lads making the most fabulously delicious lentil and halloumi burgers. The picnic ground came complete with ginham covered stools with very comfy chair pads and a view created by artists on the walls of the gallery opposite. I should have photgraphed the pigeons and doves painted on the walls - but I was too busy enjoying my burger!

Yummy burger !

We then went to the art gallery and I visited my favourite room - textiles including those by William Morris- and lovely glassware. I also wandered around the gallery walls to see what's hanging and found that one of my all time favourite and hilarious paintings had been taken off the wall - shock ! horror!  This painting I don't know who painted it. It is a very large black surface with a bordered red edge of two inches and nothing more. The interesting thing about this painting is not the painting itself but the reaction it gets. You just have to hang back to see  peoples reactions - the number of people whom go up to it and look around its sides just to see if there is more! And that is where the beauty of the painting is to behold - in people's reactions. I have seen few other works get such attention and involvement from its audience and it just goes to show sometimes the simplest things are the most interesting.
After our art adventure we went to check out Urban Cow a hip art and craft store on Pultney Street and attached a coffee / wine bar called the Howling Owl.
Don't you love the servery area - the old fridge. I was impressed by the variety of gin and the lovely recycled crockery which made up the sailing ship - Her Ladyship -

Crochet on the go

With the colder weather I thought it would be nice to invest in a hot water bottle and make a cover for it. I saw a pattern for a cover in "The Art Of Crochet" publication. Its one of those series of projects that are released on a weekly basis and end up giving you a complete compendium of patterns and stitch directories. The  person whom collected all the articles would have paid a fortune for them, but I picked up the folder for a mere four dollars from the craft trading table last week.

Anyway when this hot water bottle cover is finished it will have a lovely snowflake on it for decoration.
I quite like the base stitch, it has a nice texture and is easy to do - alternating stitches of double crochet with treble and the next row alternating treble with double crochet to give a ribbed effect.

I am still using the reams of grey wool that I purchased, hence all the grey based projects. I thinks I've used about half of the wool

see what I mean about the textured effect.
And below is the finished poncho with neck trim and zipper in situ and scalloped border.  Just have to get to the post office sometime this week - sometimes I just let things lie around for a while before they get sent off to their recipient.

So Close...

Yesterday I went to Spotlight to obtain some more wool so that I could finish crocheting the poncho for my niece. Without the coloured border trim the poncho was very grey and rather dull. The trim makes it more cohesive and appealing to a 10 year old, lets face it girls generally want pretty. 

I purchased of 3 balls of wool which I thought would be enough for a round of each colour in blue and pink. (I still had two balls of green) I am utilizing double yarn when crocheting and expected to use a fair bit but thought I would make it.... The one ball of blue made the round of double crochet fine ( I used both ends of the wool to double the threads together) but alas the two balls of pink are not going to make the scalloped border the whole way round...  So close yet so far..That means I must make another 20 minute trip to Spotlight so  I can complete the final side. Then all I have to do is sew in all the ends - my favourite job. 

Mum suggested I sew in a zip to close the neckline - it would make the poncho warmer and hold together more securely and then I could trim the inner neck with pink. Anyway I'll keep plodding along and hopefully finish it this weekend. Stay warm!

M.I.A - Missing In Action

Sometimes it is easy to get lost and disappear  Sometimes I just don't have a lot to say and sometimes I just plod along with whatever craft activity takes me and do that rather than blog. Anyway I've been missing in action for a few weeks and just really couldn't be bothered.

Well here we are once again. I've almost finished the poncho for my niece. I'm not really sure I like it but I know it will be really warm to wear and heavy. Just got the scalloped border to complete and then sew in all the ends, and add on a tassel to tie at the neck - 3-4 hours work at least.

The last two weeks have involved a sleepover for Jordy where they constructed a tent in the lounge room to sleep in. 

 

Ski training for the girls on the weekend, just because they are keen. The season for surf lifesaving has finished but not for these die hards. They dont mind a bit of cold water... brrrr.

Surfing down the coast at Middleton, near Victor Harbour, SA

 Bird watching in the car park before getting a pedicure.

Eating really fattening food.; Jordy made a blueberry and pear pie with almond crust.. full of butter and sugar.

The local rag put the boys on the front page to congratulate them on their medal placing at the Aussie surf lifesaving titles. Its the first time SA has place in the water for their age group U17

Beautiful skies to watch when dropping Ben off down the beach to train...really getting cold in the water though.