Birthday Crochet!

So a whole month has passed, and I still haven't posted anything of Eve's first birthday. But I will!! My sister did a family photo shoot and I have to say, she did a smashing job. I can't wait to show you.

In the meantime, here is one of Eve's first birthday presents that I made for her. I used a pattern for the squares from a Mollie Makes magazine and then grannied around until it seemed done. I took the idea from Tif of Dottie Angel who is an endless source of crochet inspiration. I can't find the exact post right now, but it is in there somewhere!

Because I get extremely itchy and rashy when I crochet with wool, this is a washable acrylic yarn, which, on the bright side is nice and hardy for being dragged around by the unstoppable Eve!

I loved making this blanket for my littlest one. I have plans for more, I'm sure Caleb and Jemima are due for another one?

I have been making quite a lot of stuff lately, but have fallen off the blog bandwagon. I hope to climb back on somehow.

I made something!

My husband and I went away for the weekend just gone to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We took the Scmevebot (aka our baby Eve) with us, as she still gets all her drinks from me. The older two had an absolute blast with my mum and dad including going to a music festival on Saturday night. They especially enjoyed rocking out to the band, Chasing Light which both my brothers are in (the singer and the bass guitarist). They have pretty cool uncles really. I claim to be cool by association.

Anyways, on the weekend I made this little hat using this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess. Thanks Elsie! It ended up a little bit on the small side, and so doesn't stay on very well, but it is still a cute statement! I have another one on the hook already for a little friend.

Feels so good to finish a project- and actually blog it!

hmmm, so cute!

Tissue box cover

A couple of years ago it would never have crossed my mind that I would one day desire a crocheted tissue box cover, much less be inspired to make one myself. But that is exactly what happened a few weeks ago.

I used this smashing tutorial over at The Royal Sisters and in my usual style started and unravelled the project about 5-6 times, but once I got going, it was just a case of grannying away.

I am posting by way of distraction this afternoon. My baby is sick. Not sick sick I don't think, but you never know if things will go that way... and that is the root of my anxiety. She has had a cough and a rash, but is still smiling and rolling and chatting away. I am watching her like a hawk, and thanks to the Doctor we saw this morning, I have a pretty good plan should things get worse. Isn't it the pits when the little ones get sick?

Nesting?

I never got any nesting urges in my previous pregnancies, but this time around, I feel a little bit like our baby's arrival is a deadline for getting a whole lot of cleaning out and crafting done. I know from previous experience that life does indeed go on after baby comes, but I guess I want to be as prepared as possible to simply enjoy the last time I will bring a newborn home.

Pictured above is Caleb's snuggly blanket. Another giant granny like Jemima's, but a bigger hook (8.5 I think) and Lincraft's Veronica yarn. I started this last year and ran out of yarn, so it's nice to get it finished. And Caleb likes it. So does Chris. So do I. I think that I need to make another one.

These are the result of some impulse buying when I was at Lincraft buying yarn. I bought the letters and used some acrylic paint to decorate. The patterns are traced from the Stencil 101 book by Ed Roth. (But not used as stencils as I wanted the brown to show through the white. For some reason.)

They need to be spray varnished, but as the gloss I have has a warning on it (something about being toxic for unborn babies, yikes) that will be done either later or by someone else!

Giant Granny Square

I started making Caleb a giant granny out of very chunky yarn last winter, but ran out and haven't been back to Lincraft since. Not sure why. So that is still on the go, but the desire to do some simple TV craft meant that Jemima has scored a blanket first.

I have to use acrylic yarn because I am pretty sure I am allergic to wool (such a shame!) so this is just an 8 ply acrylic from my local "junk shop" as we affectionately call it. She is mad for pink and purple, so that's what it is.

The things we do

A few years ago, perhaps even 6 months ago I would have honestly thought anyone who crocheted their own dishcloths was a little bit barking. Why spend all that time making something you wipe down benches with? Invest that crafty time into something a bit more fun! Buy a dishcloth for goodness sakes! I would say.

I saw this a while ago, and thought they were just so appealing. I can't explain it.

And you know what, why not have something cute and handmade for a task you do several times a day, and an item which is on display all day long?

I draw the line as hand washing my dishcloths in wool wash however. I have washed the blue one in a lingerie bag in with my normal clothes washing and just let it dry flat on top of my washing machine rather than hanging it on the line so it kept it's shape. It is not quite as soft as it was, but hey, it IS a dishcloth.

Now the pink one is off the hook too and ready to get grubby!

PS If you haven't already seen it, check out my giveaway!

Ah me.

There is nothing particularly wrong in my neck of the woods, but I am tired and feeling a bit sad.

The tired one stems from Chris' absence. 8 days down, 6 to go. This time around I have just not been able to sleep. Strange really as he has travelled a lot in the past, and I have never experienced insomnia to this degree before. On more than one occasion I have slept with a weapon (a club that a friend brought back from Africa!) because I freaked myself out...

... and we all know what the effects of sleep deprivation can be. Tempers (mine) fray more readily, leading to inevitably to guilt, and problems lead to disproportionate anxiety.

The sad one I can't really elaborate on in a public forum as it involves tragedy that effects someone else, but I am a bit caught up in it as it is just that sad.

One of the coping strategies I employ in such times is to make stuff.

Banana bread from this recipe which is delicious, but Caleb and Jemima took one bite and spat it out. The recipe said it takes an hour to cook, but my tin was different dimensions and it only took 35 minutes. I have had a number of baking failures recently as I am a bit of a novice, so I am pleased that this one is more than edible. For the people over 6 years old in this house anyway.

And some random granny goodness. No real purpose in mind, just using up some wool I have lying around. It had been so long that I had to re-teach myself, and I don't think I am doing the slip stitch properly to do my joining up, but I am enjoying the colours. And the comfort of repetition.

Warm hands, Warm heart

I saw these over at The Bird Bath a little while ago and I thought, "I could make that!".

The other morning I was going for a walk and it was awfully chill, and I thought, "Why haven't I made that yet?"

So this weekend I did it. I used a different number of stitches, just popping it around my wrist every so often to make sure they fit. And added a little granny goodness.

I made something else on the weekend too. More about that another time!

Luna Lovegood: Style guru

I wanted to crochet a light scarf and so to a-Ravelry I went.

I found this great pattern inspired by a scarf that Luna Lovegood wore in one of the Harry Potter movies. (While I love the movies and books, I am no fanatic, or else I would know which book/movie exactly off the top of my head... and I don't. for shame.)

Half way through I realised that I might have mixed up the US/UK terms in my head and had done it all wrong. But I just kept what I was doing consistent as I quite liked how it was turning out anyway. It is riddled with errors and asymmetry, but then, so am I.

I passed this scarf onto my poor sick sister this afternoon, hoping it is imbibed with magical medicinal powers to cure her bronchitis. Get well soon Sairs.

Crazy for crochet

I joined Ravelry last week as I think this crochet thing might just stick. I really wanted to do a hat and I found this one that I downloaded for a small fee from Ravlery, but you can also see it at this Etsy shop. A very nice design I think you'll agree. Kinda different from what I ended up with, but more about that later.

Being new to crochet I don't really understand how you check gauge etc, so I just used the hook the designer used and have ended up with a tiny hat that barely fits Jemima. So funny. I will finish it up though and give it to a baby friend, or adorn the hat of a dolly that lives here as a reminder to always check the gauge before beginning a new project. 

Obviously I figured the gauge thing out, though I had trouble with the brim of this hat. If you went and checked out the pattern you will see that the brim (turned down) has stitches that seem to be running in a different direction from the crown. In my hat they all run the same. Which is why I turned up the brim, to give the hat some interest. I think the problem lies in the direction: "work back loops only". I seem to do all my crochet that way- working in the back loops, so the stitch was indeed the same for the brim and crown in my case. Or perhaps I wasn't working the brim in "rows" as opposed to "spirals" as you do for the crown... Anyway, I am determined to get to the bottom of it so I can make this hat as designed. Anyone out there got any ideas? I am going to find some helpful person on Ravelry and bombard them with questions. 

But I quite like my blue hat despite all that. The wool is from my mum's stash and the blue button was from mine, so a pretty economical little project too. 

Tweaking

I did some tweaking with the buttons on Jemima's capelet this morning. It sits quite a bit better now and the buttons are now sewn on with cotton, not wool. Much better.

Capelets for all!

I finished MY capelet (another from Leila and Ben) last night after a very long wrung out kind of day. I get these atypical migraines once in a while where I lose my vision and sensation down one side of my body. If the migraine biz is in the left lobe of my brain I also lose my ability to speak. Quite unnerving for anyone, but as a speech pathologist also strangely interesting as I figure out what neurological pathway is being affected. A bit nerdy, yes. When I first had one of these migraines, I thought I was having a stroke and was very freaked out. Yesterday, it must have been the right lobe as I got left numbness and kept bumping into things.

I managed to catch it early with panadol and a lie down and a very kind mother of mine who took Caleb to preschool and Jemima off my hands for the day. 

So am feeling a little fuzzy today, and thought this photo was therefore appropriate.

But anyway, back to capelets. After making Jem's about a week ago, I found this one came together very quickly. I am loving crochet as the ultimate pick-up-and-go craft, and have taken to it a lot more easily than knitting. I have yarn for another of these for a little friend... who knows where it will end. 

Eye Spy... green

A very well timed eye spy theme from Trashalou this week, as Chris and I have spent the weekend among the rolling green hills of Berry and it's surrounds.

The kids had a weekend with my mum and had a super great time, and while we spent a fair bit of time talking about them, and missing them, it was really nice to spend some time just the two of us. Everywhere we went the food was amazing, and everywhere you looked there was something beautiful.

We spent some money too (or actually on reflection, I was the one who spent most of the money.) I especially loved the craft shop "Sew and Tell" where I spied Weekend Sewing (among other things) and snapped it up.

You may notice I haven't posted anything since last Sunday and this is why... 

I spied this adorable caplet on Lisa's blog, and after checking in with her about how hard it was, I bought it from Leila and Ben and had a go. I have never unravelled so much yarn in my entire life! It was a pretty consuming project as I have all of a handful-of-granny-squares-experience in crochet, but after a lot of perseverance and laughing at my own incompetence, I cracked it and am now making one for myself! The Leila and Ben etsy shop is pretty sweet. And they have great customer service too!

More wedding bells (and a sneaky granny)

I managed to drag myself away from the grannies for long enough to paint a new portrait for a new family in the making. This came together quite quickly, but I am not sure about it. I never like anything I have painted for at least a few weeks afterwards. 

On it's completion I popped outside and sat in the sun for a simple granny fix. I am pretty sure I am not changing colours properly so I need to look into that. I also made a mistake in this one. And I wasn't even watching TV. My intention is to have enough (maybe by the end of winter!) to put together a throw rug, so mistakes shouldn't be all that obvious in the long run!

Grannies

On Monday...

On Tuesday...

On Wednesday...

Hmmm. You were all right. So addictive. I can now do them with no instructions (with more mistakes) in front of the TV (with even more mistakes). So I am well on my way to more grannies. I have already gone off my colour choices though. I have such a short attention span.

In other news, Chris is home. We are all so pleased.

Eye Spy...a WIP

This never would have happened if I didn't do the blog thing.

I have started to teach myself to crochet. 

A bit of help from here, and a bit of help from here, a rummage in my granny's knitting bag that has been loaned to me (could only find 12 ply and a 4.5 hook, but I figured I was only practicing), and as of last night I have mastered the slip stitch and the chain stitch and am making progress with the double and triple stitches. When I have the latter two sorted I will embark on a granny square. I was quite inspired by Pip's A Granny a Day, but really for me, A Granny in May is possibly a more realistic ambition.

I am so excited that while doing the groceries this morning, I bought a 5.5 hook and some pretty 8 ply, as recommended in the book. I have a lot of housework to do today, so I am telling myself, as I tell my children from time to time: Do you work, then you can play.

Thanks to Michelle of Hugo and Elsa for the theme and visit Cindy to see who else is playing along this week.