it's been a while......

well it certainly has been a while since I last looked at my blog or even thought about blogging, been trying my hardest to win the battle with ME and I'm getting there, I'm pleased to say.

Since September last year I have been doing some adult education classes, which have really been great to get me out the house, meeting people and even doing a bit of exercise!

I'm currently doing beginners French, intermediate Spanish and a yoga class and it really has been great fun using my clapped out and often exhausted noggin again.  And who knew I could be so bendy..... certainly not me, but some of the positions I can move myself into thanks to yoga is quite astonishing!

I haven't been neglecting my crafting either, Christmas was fraught with weaving in ends and late night hooking as I battled time to get everything finished.  I had decided that where ever possible people would be getting homemade gifts and with the exception of my Dad, Uncle and brother in law I made Christmas 2012 a hooky gift one.  I even managed to rustle up a couple of cards with crocheted decorations on them as well, get me!!

My 4mm crochet hook hasn't had a minutes peace since way before Christmas and has worked solidly since the New Year making blankets and draught excluders for the house as it has been an unusually long and cold (but thankfully not too snowy) winter here in Edinburgh.



Cosy

cosier

Cosiest

 

In between the blankets and draught excluders I made some lovely Easter bunnies for my niece from this gorgeous pattern (the owls she is referring to can be found here).  I have to give a shout out to Lucy from Attic24 who posted the links to these originally, I  just love her blog so much, it's full of beautiful colours and things I want to make!

In the UK we celebrate Mother's Day earlier than the rest of the world, for us it was 10 March, the day after my sister's birthday, she was in fact born on a Mothering Sunday, what a gift that was for my Mum I'm sure!!!

 

Due to money troubles we are all feeling my Mum gave me a stern warning not to get her anything for Mother's Day and being the good daughter that I am, I completely ignored this request! 

And yes you are correct I didn't buy my gift I made it........ a crocheted flower and paper leaf picture collage.

 

This isn't the one that I gave my Mum, this was an experimental one that now resides on my kitchen door!  I'm very pleased with the way the vase turned out as I was just literally making it up as I went along!

For my Mum's collage I used a combination of paper leaves cut using my Cricut and crocheted roses and leaves, I also used a Japanese paper teapot instead of a crocheted pot.  It worked out really well, no photo though need to get back in the habit!

And keeping with the paper and crochet theme, her card was small crocheted flowers with stems that I hand sewed directly onto the card.

The no money on presents theme continued with my sister's unusual birthday request - Crochet lessons.   Happy to oblige there little sis!!  Our first lesson was last week and we looked at chain stitches and single crochet (double crochet if you are in the UK).  it's funny how we learn differently and she found doing chains kind of tricky, I think she was holding her hook too tight and the yarn not tight enough, but we got there and managed a row of singles before she had to go home.

Like all good teachers I have given her homework - find a comfy way to hold the hook and yarn, do lots of chains and then lots of singles, oh we'll be making blankets together in no time!!

well, I've blethered on for quite a bit now, so I'm off for a wee cuppa, but will leave you with some piccies of other things I've made, a teaser of what is currently on the go and a joyous photo of the tree in my front garden that shows spring is well and truly on its way.  Hurrah!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G for a girl

In my weaving in those loose ends post I showed a picture of a half finished blanket I was making for my niece.  I'm pleased to say that I have finished it and couldn't wait until Christmas to give it to her, so she has it and loves it because it's pink (what a clever Auntie I am knowing she likes pink!!)

And here is the finished blanket

It's really straight forward to make, the G and the cream background is made up of plain granny squares, with a border of  3 rows of single crochet around the letter to make it stand out more, then just rows and rows of granny stitches and a fancy border to finish it off.

And there you have a cosy blanket for lounging on the sofa, or use as a play mat, or to keep you warm in bed!

More flowers for my sofa garden

Before I made the Sunflower Cushion I featured the other day, I made a rainbow one from this pattern on the utterly fabulous Attic 24.. This site is truly delicious and full of wonderful things to crochet, look at and eat!

So here is my version of Attic 24's rainbow cushion:

I opted to do two rows of petals in each colour, that way I always knew I had crocheted an increase and non increase row behind each round of petals before I started a new colour.

I made this when I was having trouble finding circular cushion pads, so ended up turning the circle into a square once I had finished all my petal rows and I think it turned out really well considering I had to do a bit of maths to work out how to make it into a square and maths was never my strong point at school!

If you want to turn the rainbow cushion into a square then here's what you need to do:

Once you have made your flower to the size you want, do one final round of non increase behind your petals in the colour of wool that you want to make the square part of your cushion.

Take a note of the number of stitches in this last round.  Divide this number by 4, then divide this number by 6.  All mysterious just now, but will make sense soon, I promise!

For my cushion this worked out as

140 divided by 4 = 35, 35 divided by 6 = 5.8 so I called that 6 and that's the number we need to convert our circle into a square.

And why is this number so important, well this will allow us to use stitches along the row to build up the edges and corners like so:

At your starting point chain 3 and 1dc in the same stitch (this will eventually become the edge of your last corner)

For my cushion I then did the following:

1dc in the next 6 stitches, 1hdc in the next 6 stitches, 1sc in the next 12 stitches, 1 hdc in the next 6 stitches, 1dc in the next 6 stitches, then (2dc, ch2, 2dc) in next stitch and there you go a straight edge and corner made.

If your number comes out differently to mine then just substitute the 6 for your number (the 12 singles are because you are doing back to back sets of 6 singles).

Now continue this pattern all the way round finishing with a slip stitch to join to your starting chain.

Once you have this initial row you then just work 1dc in every stitch with the 2dc, ch2, 2dc pattern for the corners and continue until you have the size of square that you need.

At that's how I made my circle a square! Nothing to it really!

And then I found those Ikea cushions so had to make a proper round one, it's much bigger than I thought it would be, but I love it!!

So that's a sunflower, a rainbow and a giant - well I'm not sure what kind of flower this one is (kind of chrysanthemummyish isn't it?!) - all in my sofa garden!

 

Banana giraffes......!

Steven was on holiday from work a couple of weeks ago and my attempts to eat healthily went by the wayside just a tad.  As a result the lovely bunch of yellow bananas in my fruit bowl had turned into giraffes by the time I packed him back off to work.

Not wanting to waste them, I rummaged around the internet and my mountain of cookery books and came up with 2 recipes; one for banana and walnut bread, the other for banana muffins.  Both were so good when I made them (oh the modesty!) that they didn't last long.

But low and behold another herd of giraffes mysterioulsy found their way into my fruit bowl this week!  So today was muffin making day!  Sadly there were not enough giraffes to stretch to banana bread, but hey choc chip and butterscotch muffins are sure to fill the gap!

choc chip and butterscotch banana muffins

To make these delicious and light and kind of healthy muffins you will need:

3 very ripe bananas
100g butter (I use unsalted, but use whatever you have)
2 eggs
250g self raising flour
100g light muscovado suger (or light brown sugar)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
150g of something like choc chips, butterscotch chips, fudge pieces or add things like blueberries, chopped raspberries etc

To make:

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

Add the bananas, smush them up and beat them well into the mixture (it will look hideous at this point, don't panic it'll be fine!)

Add the 2 beaten eggs and mix well (still looks suspect, but bare with me)

Next add the flour, bicarb and baking soda, mix well to incorporate all the ingredients (see I told you it would be fine!)

Finally add your extra ingredient, I added dark choc chips and butterscotch to mine, give it a final swirl to evenly distribute your extra items.

Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake for approx 20 mins at 200 degrees C

Then remove from oven, place on a cooling wrack, make some tea/coffee and eat one while it's still warm, you deserve it!

Indoor sunshine

I don't know about where you are dear reader, but here in Edinburgh it's been grey and rainy and drizzly and breezy and chilly for weeks now and it can get really quite depressing considering this is July!

But to cheer up the house I made a sunflower cushion, lovely bright gold petals, just what the living room needed to brighten it up through all this gloom!


                       
                                     


I hadn't intended to just sew it onto another cushion, but do you think I could find circular cushion pads?  No, not a shop in Edinburgh has such a thing, but then I spyed these cushions on sale in Ikea and thought that the green would be the perfect background for my sunflower.

To make the sunflower you will need

Brown wool

Yellow wool ( I used a DK wool that I had lying around in both colours)

Crochet hook - I used a 4mm hook which is a UK8 or a US F, but if use what your wool suggests.

Notes:  Although from the UK, I am a self taught crocheter from a US crochet book so my pattern will be in US terms, here are the different stitch names in case you need them.

US                                                            UK

single crochet (sc)                                    double crochet (dc)

half double crochet (hdc)                         half treble (htr)

double crochet (dc)                                  treble (tr)

triple crochet(tr)                                       double treble(dtr)

To make the sunflower

  Chain 5 and slip stitch to join.

1.  Ch 1 (counts as first single crochet (sc))  then 14 sc around, sl st to join to first ch.  15 Stitches.

(We are working in the round so do not turn your work, always have the right side facing you)

2. Ch 3 (first double crochet (dc)) then dc in SAME stitch, then 2dc in each stitch around, sl st to join.  30 stitches

3. Ch3 then 1dc in each stitch around, sl st to join.

4. Ch3 then 1dc in same stitch, *1dc in next stitch, 2dc in next stitch. Repeat from * to end, sl st to join.  45 stitches.

5. Ch3 then 1dc in each stitch around, sl st to join.

6. Ch3 then 1dc in same stitch.  *1dc in next 2 stitches, 2dc in next stitch.  Repeat from * to end, sl st to join.  60 stitches

7. Ch3 then 1dc in each stitch around, sl st to join.

8. Ch 3 then 1dc in same stitch.  *1dc in next 3 stitches, 2dc in next stitch.  Repeat from * to end, sl st to join.  75 stitches

9. Ch3 then 1dc in each stitch around, sl st to join.

This is as big as I made my flower centre, you could of course make yours bigger by continuing the pattern of increases.  If you do then ensure that each increase round you make is an increase of 15 stitches eg

the next increase round would be dc in next 4 stitches, 2dc in next = 90 stitches

the next increase round would be dc in next 5 stitches, 2dc in next = 105 stitches etc etc

Secure brown wool and cut off leaving a tail for weaving in later.

To make the petals

Join the yellow wool into the FRONT LOOP of any stitch from the last round of brown.

1. Ch 1(counts as sc), then 1hdc in next stitch, 5dc in next stitch, 1hdc in next stitch, 1sc in next stitch.  1 Petal made.  This pattern is 1sc, 1hdc, 5dc, 1hdc, 1sc over 5 stitches.  Continue this pattern around, working in the FRONT LOOPS only.  Sl st to join.

Now we will be working in the BACK LOOPS from the petal round and as our last round of brown was not an increase round, we will be INCREASING the stitches from here.

2. Still with the right side facing you, slide your hook into the first back loop and ch3 then 1dc in same stitch.  *1dc in next 4 stitches, 2dc in next stitch.  Repeat from * to end, sl st to join.  90 stitches

3. Now repeat the petal row working in the front loops only (1sc, 1hdc, 5dc, 1hdc, 1sc)

4. Non increase round - hook into back loop, ch3 then 1dc in each stitch round, sl st to join.

5. Petal round

6. Increase round = ch3 and 1 dc in same stitch, 1dc in next 5 stitches, 2dc in next all way around

7. Petal round

This is where I finished, only doing 4 rounds of petals, but again you can do more making sure you do an increase round every alternate non petal round

so the petal pattern is

petal round

increase round

petal round

no increase round

petal round

increase round

petal round etc

Just remember the petals are worked in the front loops only and the plain rounds in the back loops.

Once you've reached the size of flower you want, fasten off and weave in the ends.

I then sewed the flower to my Ikea cushion and days of indoor sunshine can now begin!

If you are lucky enough to have circular cushion pads and wanted to do a crocheted back, then all you need to do is follow the pattern for the flower centre and continue increasing alternate rows, until you have the size the you need, then sew or crochet your front and back together and insert your cushion pad.

Then sit back with your ray of sunshine and hope the real sun turns up soon!

yours, hoping for sunny days

Louise

xoxox