CAL with Rachel*, squares #5, #6 and #2 (repeat)

Squares #5 and #6 = fabulous patterns. I’m very pleased with my efforts here, and will definitely use the stitch in #5 in other projects. (I feel a lampshade coming up….)

Then I looked at my square #2 again, and thought I’d done it badly enough that I should rip out and redo it. So, that’s the third one in this pic.

I’d decided that square #7 was yucky and that I’d give it a miss, but I’ve looked at it more closely and realise that the built-in corner thingie could be pretty damn useful in a blanket. Plus, what puts me off the most is that emerald green – maybe I’ll like it more in my own colour combo. #8 and #9 look wonderful, but I’ll have to pace myself – got orders to finish over the next couple of days (not complaining, mind you!)

* Link to Rachel’s blog here.

To be continued…

Framed

I’m the first to admit that this idea still needs work, but I’d got it into my head that I wanted to crochet a frame cover for Maryanne’s Made-It Challenge. So here it is:

The photo is of Alex when she was 8 — and she will kill me if she ever reads this blog! (But she was gorgeous even then, despite one or two missing teeth…)

I’m happy with the stitches I used and the way the cover holds down at the edges, but I need to work another couple of rows of dc on the inside edges. I’ll also probably put a little dab of glue on the corners, just to make sure it stays in place. A flower in one corner might also be nice…or stripes…or a couple of buttons…anyway, you get the idea.

To be continued…

Foxy Loxy Lara

My friend Lara has some sort of special and obviously weird party to attend this week.  She asked me if I could make her a pair of pink mohair fingerless gloves to complete her outfit.  I said No, sorry,  I can’t work with mohair, can’t even look at it, brings me out in the itchies.  But maybe I can come up with something better? And I also told her that I do not wish to know what the rest of her outfit consists of,  because it’s obviously something kinky and I don’t need TMI about the private lives of my friends.

I used Elle Fauxy by Saprotex in raspberry pink and mixed it with an acrylic no-name double knit to give it substance.

I looked for a pattern for fingerless gloves on the internet and found this on a lovely blog called I am what I knit: Handwarmers. I adjusted the pattern for the bulky yarn I was working with and used very fat needles, and so the result is nothing at all like the original!

This is how they turned out:

But Lara loves them! I was out and about in Rondebosch yesterday so I met her outside her office at Middle Campus to drop them off, and she seems genuinely thrilled with her furry fluffy raspberry warmers.

PS. Please note the beautiful blue sky behind her – this is how our winter is currently looking! It’s cold alright, but that clear sharp blue is enough to lift anyone’s spirits.

To be continued…

Hello, Olly

For various reasons (the details of which I will not bore you with), my mind today has been in a state of chaos and anxiety.  I feel like I am not in control of anything right now.  I know that I won’t always feel like this and, in fact things might improve within the next hour or two (one never knows!),  but writing this blog helps.  And all through this difficult morning, of all absurd things, I couldn’t get the idea of pipe cleaner dolls out of my mind.  I found out about them from Maryanne’s Woolhogs blog, right here: Rainbow kids

And so I sat myself down a few minutes ago with the required materials in front of me.  And now we have…Olly.

Olly is unicolour rather than rainbow, and he has a bit of a hair problem, but he was indeed quick and easy to make.  And if making Olly is the only thing I manage to accomplish today, then so be it.  I’ll just have to go with the flow.

To be continued…

 

Still on about stools

Whaddaya know, it’s a two-blog day.

In response to a suggestion that I make a cover for the stool for added comfort    (although my own posterior is plenty well-padded and certainly needs nothing further), I shall show you these: for weeks I have been playing around with variations on crocheted covers for footstools, and, as it happens, the first one (knitted) was unsuccessful. It is, however, PERFECT for the stool.

And here are the crocheted covers. As much as I like the shell edge, I find it’s better to do a border that tightens up because it sits better on the foam.  Can’t show you any actual footstools… they are in the wings awaiting paint.

Incidentally, it was through Tamara that I found a tutorial for a granny rectangle.  Thanks again for that :-)

To be continued…