I'm back.......and I've finished something! Yay!

Sorry for the radio silence around here lately - its been an extremely busy time recently and I've been struggling to keep up with making, blogging and checking other people's blogs. If I normally visit your blog and comment then I apologise for not popping round as much as I would normally this last month - I've got a lot to catch up on!!

The busy period culminated last weekend when I was volunteering at the Stitch and Craft Exhibition at Olympia. I spent a couple of days (Friday and Sunday) there teaching people how to crochet - mainly butterflies and flowers. The picture below is just some of the many little things I made over the course of the weekend - I think I could crochet that butterfly in my sleep now!! (If anyone is interested the butterfly pattern is from Issue 3 of Mollie Makes).


I've never taught anyone anything crafty before so teaching at Stitch and Craft was a real eye opener! It was tiring and at times hectic but in general very rewarding and fun.

Amongst all the chaos I also managed to finish a project for a change! This is a picture of my finished doily rug that I mentioned in my last post.


I'm really pleased with how this has turned out. It was really fun to do something different too and it came together so quickly as it is worked in three strands of chunky yarn with a large hook (I used a 17mm). The pattern is by Dainty Loops and is available in her etsy shop or on ravelry. It is also perfect for the space I had in mind, this is what it looks like in situ in my bedroom:

Hopefully finishing this project will spur me on to finish some others on the go! Although not before I spend the evening catching up on all the blog posts backed up in my reader.....

xxx

On the go at the mo!

I haven't finished anything much recently as I seem to be working on some bigger projects at the moment so I thought I'd show you some glimpses of those so you can see what I've got on the go!

Firstly I'm still working on my quilt. I'm hand quilting this so its pretty time consuming but when I actually get down to doing it I am really enjoying it. I am bit worried about getting to the binding stage though!


I also always like to have some cross stitch or a tapestry on the go for those evenings when I want to do some craft but my brain doesn't feel up to concentrating too hard! At the moment I am working on "Think Happy Thoughts" by Emily Peacock. I've pretty much done it all apart from the border - I've left it because it is supposed to be brown but I'm thinking of doing it another colour and I can't decide! I'm thinking maybe grey...


I also always seem to have a crochet project on the go! I've been planning to make this doily rug for ages but only started this week - its taken me a while to get round to ordering the chunky yarn! I got the pattern from here but it is also available on ravelry. It is done using three strands of yarn at once and a big hook (the pattern recommends 15.75mm but I am using 17mm) so it comes together really quickly - very satisfying! I suspect this will be the next project I finish:


Just before Christmas I learned to knit so I also have a knitting project on the go. I am working my way through the Knitty Gritty book and this is the first project in there. It is a very simple scarf and probably doesn't look very impressive to all of you knitters out there but I am actually extremely proud of it - I never thought I was going to crack knitting so this is quite exciting for me! I'm looking forward to finishing this and moving on to some more complicated projects!


Hopefully I'll actually have something finished to blog about soon! What bigger projects are you working on at the moment?

More lovely swap goodies!

It all seems to be swaps and giveaways at the moment - normal service will resume shortly! BUT before it does I had to show you the amazing swap goodies that Wendy sent me. I've been reading Wendy's blog The Crafter's Apprentice for a while and loving all the different crafts she tries so I was very excited about this swap. And with good reason, look at all the lovely things she sent me! First up some gorgeous granny bunting:


I haven't decided where to put it - probably in my bedroom as I think it will look fab hanging above my bed.

Next, a gorgeous owl softie. Wendy knew how much I loved her bunnies in a similar style but if its possible I think I love the owls even more.


If you love them as much as me then you could head over her shop and snap one up yourself!

If that wasn't enough look at all the other goodies I got too:


Wendy sent me a lovely lavender filled heart (the package smelt amazing), a gorgeous pouch which I have already started using:


A really cute card with a mini quilt on:


And finally this beautiful bracelet:


Hehee - I am a lucky girl! Thanks so much Wendy - I love it all so much. Once again I feel that the package I sent is nowhere near as good as what I received!

Wendy told me she liked red and blue together and I think I went a bit mad on the theme. Here is what I sent:


One of my octomonsters! I never would have made one in these colours but I am really pleased with the results.


I know Wendy loves bunnies (she has FOUR!) so I included this cute little amigurumi rabbit.


And I put the two fused glass necklaces I was sending in this little pouch:


I've really enjoyed doing the two swaps I've done recently - what could be more exciting than receiving a package full or surprise goodies in the post? It is so fun! If anyone else fancies doing a swap then please feel free to get in touch (although I might need a little break to get on with all the other stuff I need to make!) and I'd love to arrange something :o)

Hope you all have a lovely week xx

PS. The bunny and pouch will be going up on ravelry soon so if you want to know where I got the patterns you should be able to find them on there!

Granny blanket update!

I've finally got some progress to report on my granny blanket! Yay! So I thought to celebrate I'd share some pictures with you.


After a lot of procrastination I eventually got round to attaching my 100 granny squares together and now it actually resembles a blanket!


After lots of thought and a few tests I decided to attach them using a slip stitch through the back loops (there is a fab tutorial here). I think it took a bit longer that stitching the squares together would have done but I like the effect so I think it was worth it.

Unfortunately, when I was finished attaching I laid it out on the floor to take a look and I wasn't happy at all! It was all lumpy and wouldn't lay flat. Very disappointing. I think a combination of my tension changing over the period I made the squares (as I was still learning) and crocheting the squares together too tightly combined to give this effect.


Oh dear! I was just hopeful that blocking would help and thankfully it did. Some water and over 100 pins later I had turned the wonky blanket above into this:

Phew! I am much happier with it now. After a few days blocking the blanket was much flatter and squarer (as in the first two pics). And in future I will block more frequently - maybe not every square but definitely smaller sections of squares.

I haven't decided whether to add any more squares to this blanket or not. My original intention was to make quite a large blanket but that was before I realised quite how much yarn making the blanket would take and the subsequent effect on my bank balance! Unfortunately due to my inexperience I chose a bit of an expensive yarn. At the moment I am planning to leave it for a bit and work on some other projects and see how I feel at a later date. I've already got lots of ideas for other things I want to make....!

Amigurumi Fried Egg

I've been doing loads of crochet recently and as well as working on my blanket I've had a go at some smaller amigurumi projects. I've also started using ravelry properly (oooh - so addictive!) which has given me access to loads more patterns. Which is probably how I found myself at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning (after a night out!) trying to finish crocheting a fried egg for no reason at all! Here is the result:


The pattern is on ravelry here. Unfortunately it is in Japanese and I don't know about you but my Japanese isn't up to much!! Luckily there is also a charted pattern here and some speedy googling led me to a conversion chart so I could work out what the symbols meant. Once that was done the pattern came together very quickly - the only frustrating bit was adding the safety eyes (does everyone else find them an absolute pain to put on?! they drive me mad!). The pattern didn't call for a face but I do love a spot of anthropomorphism. And who couldn't love an egg with a smiley face :o)

Having sent the photo to a few people telling them they were a good egg (aaaah I love a lame pun!) I decided to make another one, this time with a sad face:


Apparently the egg is actually supposed to be a tawashi which is a traditional Japanese scrubbing brush. I won't be using mine as a scrubbing brush though (I'm not sure I could with the safety eyes in there!). I will be giving one away and keeping one to add to my collection of cute but ultimately pointless things (item #713).


(Sorry - I couldn't resist a pic of the eggs together in a frying pan!)

I'll post some of the other things I have been working on soon. In the meantime if anyone wants to find me on ravelry I am here with the username thedottyone. Although I have been on ravelry for a while I have only just started using it properly and I will be putting up my pictures and completed projects soon. Please free to add me as a friend if you are on there too - I'd love to see what you are up to and don't have many friends at the moment!! :o(

Happy crafting xx

Granny Christmas Stars

Over the last few days I've become slightly addicted to making these crochet granny stars. Since I discovered the pattern on Jelly Wares blog (via this post on Paisley Jade) I've been crocheting them every spare moment!


They are really quick and satisfying to make and I am planning to hang them on the tree once I have blocked them with some PVA glue. I might even add some glitter if I'm feeling particularly festive!!

I made the smaller stars by missing out the last round of the pattern and in the second round replacing the half double crochet with a single (this will make sense if you look at the pattern).

My original plan was to make crochet snowflakes for the tree. I even bought these books for that purpose. Unfortunately it turns out I don't have the patience for the snowflakes - they take FOREVER! I don't mind all the fiddly bits on the first or even second branch of the snowflake but by the third and fourth I get grumpy!! I've started about five snowflakes and haven't managed to finish one yet! If you want to see some beautiful crochet snowflakes from the book then check out these posts from someone who has a lot more patience than me!

Maybe I'll have enough patience to attempt snowflakes next year but for the moment I'm pretty happy with my cute little granny stars!

100 grannies!

HURRAH! 100 granny squares with all the ends sewn in. Now for the next challenge - making them into something resembling a blanket! I'm very excited :o)

Crochet Cowl Workshop

There's not been nearly enough time for crafting in the DottyHouse recently - I am taking a psychology course and my first essay is due on Thursday (eeek!) so a lot of my spare time has been concentrated on that. I love the course but I haven't written an essay for years so its taken me a while to get my head round the whole thing! However I did manage to fit in a bit of crochet on a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago.

My local craft studio, the Create Place was running an afternoon course to learn how to make a crochet cowl so I thought I'd pop along. Lisa (our teacher), the other student and I had a lovely afternoon chatting away and learning how to make Lisa's crochet cowl design (hopefully coming to a bookshop near you fairly soon!). I'm not sure there's a better way to spend an afternoon! We were using chunky wool and so the design came together pretty fast - a few hours in the class and a couple more at home and I was left with this beast:

Its HUGE and really snuggly.I really like the way it can be worn in so many ways - long like a scarf, across the shoulders, one end tucked inside the other or doubled round to keep my neck super warm. I'm a bit disappointed it hasn't been cold enough to wear it since I finished making it!!

I really like working with the chunky yarn and larger hook size (it was a size 10). It meant that the cowl came together really fast so there was a real sense of achievement plus it didn't hurt my hand and turn it into a claw like some of the smaller hooks can do!

I'm not sure if you can see from the picture but the yarn is an interesting mix of colours - from a distance it looks grey but close up there are hints of pink, turquoise and green. You might be able to see it on this picture better even though its a little blurry:

I wasn't sure about the yarn to start with but it has really grown on me. It is Wendy Serenity Super Chunky which is 10% wool, 20% alpaca and 70% acrylic. I think the colour is called thistle. I've bought another ball to make the matching wrist warmers. Which I am looking forward to starting on as soon as I finish that bloomin' essay!!

Hope you have a lovely week xx

Crochet Toadstool

I've been getting overwhelmed by the size of my crochet blanket project so I decided to work on a couple of smaller crochet projects that I could finish quickly - sometimes you need to bask in the satisfied glow of a finished piece! First up, a crochet toadstool! I found this pattern on the lovely Annaboo's house blog and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to make it!

This is my first attempt at amigurumi and it wasn't as tricky as I expected! Apart from a short break because I ran out of red yarn it all went pretty smoothly. I think I lost count of my stitches a couple of times but the pattern was pretty forgiving and it all seemed to work out OK in the end!


As you can see here I used crocheted circles the spots for the toadstool top. The pattern uses beads and crochet to decorate the stem of the toadstool which looks gorgeous however I decided to put a classic amigurimi face on mine instead as I have been waiting to use the eyes I bought for ages! The smile is a bit wonky but I think my toadstool looks pretty cute! I am really pleased with him and am enjoying having him smiling down on me from the mantelpiece!

I think I must have a bit of a thing about mushrooms and toadstools. As soon as I saw the crochet toadstool pattern I knew I wanted to make it and looking round my house I have been drawn to mushrooms in the past. There were the felt mushrooms I posted about way back in 2009:

These were one of the first things I made when I started crafting again.


And then, earlier this year I decided to mosaic some mushrooms for my garden (I say garden - its more of a step!)

These were some cheap ceramic garden ornaments which I thought would be greatly improved by covering them in mirror and turning them into disco mushrooms! They haven't actually ever made it out onto the step (apart from for the photo shoot!) and are still languishing in my fireplace.

So, I think we can conclude from this that I have a slight mushroom obsession! There must be more mushroom crafts out there..... Oooooh - a quick google search suggests that yes, indeed there are....I shall have to get to work!

Happy Sunday xxxx

Granny Blanket Progress

I was finally reunited with my granny squares on Friday! WOOHOO! (Is it sad I was so excited by this? Probably! I don't care!) I had to leave them in France with my parents three weeks ago when I had to severely pare down my luggage to a small rucksack which was manageable with crutches. I'd been looking forward to getting them all back with their buddies at home and seeing what they all looked like together. And here they are:

I couldn't remember how many I had but I thought it was either 80 or 100 altogether so I was a bit disappointed when I gathered them together and found out it was only 60! Still, they are pretty big squares so I thought I must have the makings of a blanket by now. But actually when I lay them all out it still looks quite small!

The squares are roughly 10cm square so arranged like this they give a blanket of 60cm by 100cm. I think I'd like it to be at least double this size if not triple so I've got a lot more work to do!! I wish I'd chosen a cheaper yarn - this is going to be the most expensive blanket ever!

I've got another 40 squares on the go at the moment but have decided to join these ones together first to save having to do it all at the end and get some sense of how it will look. I've not done this before so I have done some samples of different ways of joining the squares to work out which I like best. Any opinions would be much appreciated!!

Method 1: Whipstitch together through both loops



Method 2: Whipstitch through the front loop only



Method 3: Weave through the back loops



Method 4: Single Crochet (or UK double)



Method 5: Slip stitch


Phew - that's a lot of photos! Sorry about that. I thought it might be useful to put them all here for future reference!

What do you think? Any thoughts? I think I am erring towards methods 3 or 5 at the moment. I like the fact that they are almost invisible so don't take away from the squares themselves. I am definitely not going to go for single crochet - I don't think I want a ridge between all my squares.

I'm looking forward to getting on with this soon....although maybe not today! Its hotter in London today than is California so sitting with wool on my lap might be a bit much!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

xxx

Packing the Essentials

I'm off on holiday for a few days tomorrow and obviously have to take some kind of portable craft project with me. I think I may have a problem - the idea of going somewhere without something to sew or crochet makes me a bit panicky!! And I actually can't even remember the last time I watched TV without something crafty in my hands! So for the last few days I have been working frantically to turn these:

into these:

I've got a few more to do tonight before I go tomorrow. I'm only taking a small hand luggage case so the idea was that if I took a load of centres I would only need to take the creamy-white yarn to do the outsides. A few balls of cream yarn and 40 centres are still taking up quite a lot of room but hey, who needs a toothbrush and suncream?!

Hopefully when I get back I'll have another 40 squares to add to my original 20. And then I can start doing some joining! I haven't decided how big I'm going to make it yet - I would like to make it huge but I seem to be already getting crochet RSI!


(The one above is my favourite square so far!)

Because of all the crocheting I haven't had much time for other crafting this week but I have managed to make a card for the family friend we are going to see in France:

Its all embroidered on card and I'm quite pleased with it but I wish I hadn't done the wording in black - it looks a bit dark to me. If I make another one I think I might try in a grey....

Hope you are all having a good weekend and have a good week - I'll hopefully be back with some pics and a case full of granny squares next weekend!

Dotty xx