Cushioney Things

For a while now I have been fed up with our sofa cushions, I am tired of looking at them. We bought them years and years ago in Woolworths, that gives you an idea of how old they are and that was before Woolworths had even thought of a closing down sale! I have to say the covers are the same but I have periodically changed the inserts. So the obvious solution would be to crochet some new ones, right? Now I have heard of how crocheting a cushion is a short satisfying project, now while I enjoyed it it did seem to take for-ever.  As I have mentioned I am not the most patient person in the world, but still. The crochet part was straightforward but then the construction part meant a lot of a part project hanging about, totally my doing.

I was inspired by this fabulous cushion from Attic24 I loved the wooly back with the buttons. I decided to make the front using a treble crochet (uk) ripple stripe.

I then used a red cashmere cardigan that had long shrunk too small, to make the back. The cashmere makes a gorgeous soft back, as you can imagine.

I forgot to take a photo of the construction, but I followed the tutorial linked to above. Here is the back with some random buttons that were literally the only buttons I had that were the right size for this project

Here is the finished cushion on my sofa, and I love it! I am already planning my next one.

x

:: Quick Update ::

Just thought I would do a quick Babette update. I have now finished panel nine and working on panel ten.  I love the way the blanket is built up in panels but it does mean that each subsequent panel is significantly larger than the previous one, which can sometimes feel like a mountain to climb for impatient bods like me!  I am always slow at getting the panels started and speedy at the end when I can see the end is in sight.

 

 

:: Hello And Zingy! ::

The other night our current favourite advert came on the TV (is is bad to have a favourite advert?) it is the EDF Feel Good energy advert, it is our favourite because it stars no other than Zingy! He is very cute, very very cute.

 

So we decided we must have a Zingy of our own, but of course we couldn't as he was created for the advert. A bit of googling found he is a custom made My Keepon but with all due respect to the little yellow guy, he just isn't as cute is he?

So that evening I was chatting a on a social network and mentioned how cute and unavailable Zingy was and the wonderful Charlotte from Studio Delirium offered to write me a crochet pattern, I couldn't say no could I? So within half an hour I had a pattern and started stitching and by the morning we had ourselves a Zingy! Ok so he is the wrong colour (it was all I could lay my hands on late at night!) and his face is a little dodgy but I was so pleased how he turned out. 

There are more adverts coming soon, and I am sure EDF will be producing a Zingy toy soon enough!

x

:: WIP's ::

A while ago I was feeling overwhelmed by my crochet WIP (work in progress)  which is silly really as I only had myself to blame! So I decided to just work through them and not add to them. At all.  Easier said than done.  I soon realised that some of them, in my head, were WIP when in fact they only exisited on a to do list. So I scrapped the list and brought my load down further. I have been very good and managed to finish almost everything off so far. As I sit here I only have my Art of Crochet blanket, which is only ten squares away from being finished, I am currently up to date with all the squares so far, and my Babette blanket.

Due to so many other things needing finished my Babette has been hibernating for the best part of a year, yikes! I have picked it up again and I am pleased to report I can show you another update photo. I am just sewing together section seven and will start crocheting section eight very soon.

x

Oh and I might have bought a new pattern to crochet a Dragon, but shhh I won't tell anyone if you don't!

::The Art Of Crochet Third Quarter::

I have recently finished sewing together the third quarter of the Art Of Crochet partwork.  I have surprised my self that I have been able to keep up with all this crochet lark.  Although the crochet itself has got easier it has also become less interesting as a result.  The complete blanket is made up of 120 squares (from 120 issues) and there are many  many repeats of the pattrens, but they are good for practice and to be able to compare squares and see progress. When I started square one I hadn't actually managed to crochet yet and here I am now whizzing up squares and thinking they are boring!

Here are a couple of photos of the new section.  I haven't sewn it together yet as we use the first half of the blanket and I don't want to turn it into an unwieldy 'L' shape. So now we have one big blanket and one small blanket kicking around on the back of the sofa! Next stop one huge blanket wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

x

Percival

I have been wanting to make a pin cushion for ages so I finally got around to making this wee guy:

 He was supposed to be stuffed with only polyfill but as he was to be a pin cushion I put a cardboard circle in first to give him a flat base to sit on and I filled him half full with poly beads to weigh him down, finally finishing with polyfill. I think he turned out quite good!

 

x

Amineko!

A while back when I was wandering around the web I came across a lovely crocheted cat called Amineko. He stars in his own book 'Hello my Name is Amineko' and, how generous, the creator of the pattern - Nekoyama shares the pattern on Ravelry - for free!

Well, I just had to have a go at making one, and here he is!

The thing that makes him/them supercute is the fact they are slightly weighted in the bum area, and in the arms and legs so they can pose. Although he seems to enjoy sleeping. A lot. Cats eh?

x

The Art Of Crochet So Far ..

Wow I knew I hadn't blogged for ages but hadn't realised it had been this long!

Just thought I would share with you some photos of my blanket so far that I have been making with 'The Art Of Crochet' partworks magazine. If you are not aware of the magazine, every week you get a ball of yarn and instructions to crochet a square, eventually each square is sewn together into a large vintage style blanket. There are also loads of other patterns in the magazine as well.

I have really been enjoying the magazine because not only did it teach me to crochet in the first place, it has taught me stitches and techniques that I would probably never have attempted ( and a couple I never want to attempt again!!) because I am determined to get my blanket finished.

This is only the second time that the magazine has published the making up instructions, it does get a bit frustrationing waiting on the instructions when I have had a huge pile of squares waiting patiently, but now I have a whole half blanket!

I am pleased with my progress so far :)










I will try and not leave it so long until I blog again!!

X

Flower Garland

Thought I would share a wee flower garland that I crocheted for my hall.

Our hall is a rather boring apricot colour, apart from laying laminate flooring we haven't touched the hall since moving in seven years ago. I really want to do something with it just not sure what.

We added a huge mirror a couple of years ago to enlarge the space and I though a crocheted garland would be just the thing to give it a lift. I was able to use some vintage buttons that my mum had given to me a long time ago.

Oh and please excuse the blank canvases on the walls. hubby hung them there a while ago as a minimilist joke and we have never got round to taking them down! I sometimes think people that come to the door must think we are mad (they would be right, of course ;) )

I am quite pleased how it turned out.

Hope you like it :) x

Spring!

Well how nice it is to see some sunshine around. My garden has burst into life over the past couple of weeks. I feel as if winter had just gone on and on, this year.

The sunshine meant the host of daffodils I have in my front garden burst into life. I do love daffodils, the way they always open with their fantastic yellow blooms just when you think there will never be any more colour outside. Unfortunately for my daffodils just when they had revealed all their lovely colour we had strong winds and heavy rain and oh dear he daffs did not like that weather one bit! So I had to go out and save lots of my poor battered blooms, so many were broken (but lots survived - yay!) . I put them in an old jam jar and then set about making the jar a wee jacket! And lo and behold this is what they became.





So simple, yet so pleasing :)

If you want to make your own the pattern is from Lucy at the fantastic Attic 24 blog.

Hope you are out and enjoying the spring sunshine.

x

Babette Update

I thought it was time for a babette update. Sadly I am about as rubbish as getting on with the babette as I am at remembering to blog, so a bit of an advancement but not much.

I haven't actually been able to do any work on this blanket for a few weeks due to life stuff. I find it takes a lot of concentration, working out the size of square, the colourways and the tedious (for me) colour changes! So I am hoping this little update will spur me along a bit :)

A gratuitous yarn photo

In other news, yesterday I made another batch of fairy doors. Here are some of them drying out

Not as colourful as the last three pictures!

Finished Fairy doors always available in my Folksy shop here (well, you can't blame a girl for a little self promotion ;) )

Take care

x

So far, So Good

Thought I would pop in and update you on my Babette progress! I have been trying hard to finish my pile of WIP that I seem to have accumulated. I thought I actually had a huge pile of crochet projects to finish off but it turned out that some of them were just 'to dos' written on a list so I was able to ignore them for the time being. :)

So far I have made just two squares. They are turning out ok. I have changed the way I join in the yarn however. The instructions call for you to join the yarn on the side of the squares this however seems to leave an unsightly gappy bit all the way through, maybe better crocheters won't have this or maybe if I was using a more fuzzy yarn it wouldn't be so obvious but I think I have to change the way I make the squares. I made the big square as per instructions and made the smaller square by joining the yarn at the corners instead (and using a 'magic circle' to start to eliminate the centre hole) I am much happier with the result so will continue to do this. I might redo the larger square at some point but I will see. It probably looks worse to me than anyone else!

Hello!

Well I didn't expect to be missing from blogland for so long. Sorry about that. My absence has been mainly due to working in my 'proper' job (Stage Management) Christmas - yay! illness - boo! and a complete lack of anything to blog about!!

I want to look forward now, not backward.

I got some money for Christmas, so decided to splurge on some yarn! Buying loads of yarn is something I have resisted because I hate the way it takes over my life! We have no storage so I end up putting piles of yarn and magazines and books and all other crochet related paraphernalia in different piles in different rooms so it looks less. Part of the problem is I have dabbled in so many crafts in my life I have loads of piles of unused things that I really need to rationalise, but hey, that is another day.

Here is my pile of new yarn,


it is just acrylic as I don't have that much money. I am going to make a babette blanket with it. I have wanted to make this blanket for ages and if all goes well and in the future I have more cash i will make a 'proper' blanket in lovely real wool, at the moment I am making a washable everyday version. :)

Hopefully I will be able to keep you updated on my progress.

Take care x

Crochet Mittens and September Stars!

Last week Lidl were selling yarn so I decided to buy some sock yarn as I have never used it before and at £2.99 for 200g I couldn't really go wrong, could I? For ages I have been meaning to make myself some mittens, I have poor circulation in my hands and have been told that mittens are better than gloves for warmth, even with the thickest gloves on my hands are usually ice cold all winter :-( I found a mittens pattern that uses sock yarn so here is my work so far:



I have adjusted the pattern slightly, making the cuff longer for example and now just need to do the thumb and I will have one finished! I do worry that I won't get round to making the other one and might have to spend the whole winter with one mittened hand and one hand in my pocket.

I am still participating in September Stars on Folksy the other day I listed a fairy doormat!



a perfect accessories for my fairy doors ;-)

Here are a few other September Stars :)

An iPad case from pipdesigns


Bracelet from Jesselu


Cute envelopes from Swirlyarts


x

Peas Please!

I have just finished my latest crochet project - some peas! This is such a cute pattern from the book Amigurumi Two! by Ana Paula Rimoli. I forgot to put something in the photos for scale but each pea is roughly tennis ball size.

I was really pleased how they turned out and my sons enjoy throwing them about, they are after all just three balls but when they are not flying through the air they get to sit in their pod looking cute :-)

More Books

This is another book I bought, the fantastic 'Creepy Cute' full of vampires, monsters and zombies!



Here is a Ninja I made earlier :-)



x

Birthday Books

It was my birthday recently and i therefore took the opportunity to buy myself some amigurumi books :-) These are the first two:







I don't have much time for bloging just now as I am doing a craft fair on Saturday, I haven't done a craft fair for six months so I have lots of stock to make and signage to sort out!

Take care x

He's Finished!!

I finally finished my wee bear that I made from a pattern in my new crochet book I am really pleased with him. He turned out better than I expected even though I think his arms and legs are a bit flailing! I didn't have a plastic bear nose to give him so he had to settle for a felt one instead, I also give him a wee belly button. My youngest son has taken him so he can go and live on his bed with the eleventy million small bears that already live there. He doesn't have a name. (the bear, not my son!)

x

New Book

I am on a roll with crochet books just now! I just bought this book:

It has some really cute Amigurumi patterns in it and it uses UK crochet terms which is great for me as I am easily confused! I have started to make a bear from this book only because I don't have much yarn and the one colour that I had (nearly) a whole ball of was a beige/brown which I think suits a bear, of course he is MY bear and I could have made him any colour but I am being traditional today. I hope he turns out ok, this is the very first pattern I have followed aside from the blocks in the Art Of Crochet magazine.

x

Busy Busy

Today is Wednesday but it feels like it has should be Friday. Why? I have been busy! Yes me. Not only the usual cooking and cleaning that is just perpetual in my life. I have spent a fair bit of time sorting out made by val things.

I have had a few sales recently through my online shops which has been great and given me a bit of a boost and recharged my get up and go. I hadn't sold anything for a wee while and when I checked my emails and saw the first sale I actually got a bit of a fright!

So I have sorted out all my receipts just need to square up my bank accounts and then I can do my tax return ::joy::

I have sorted out all the financial bits and bobs from the shop I sell to.

I am trying to spread out all the stock I had made for craft fairs between my various outlets although something makes me nervous about not having a craft fair stock sitting here even although I have no current intentions to do any more fairs so that is all a bit daft. I do however still have a large stock of cards that I need to sell, so I might have to concentrate on photographing and listing them.

I have also been introduced to Stumbleupon through the Folksy Forums. I have signed up, you can find me here Stumble Folksy and here Stumble Misi I appreciate all 'likes' hint hint.

Phew what else? Oh yes I bought myself a book and it arrived today - yay!



I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but I am excited hee hee.

Off to busy myself again.

Take care x