more fishy business

The fish hats are proving very popular. I originally blogged about the Stinky Fish pattern here, and the pattern originally came from Catrina Usher, found here. She also has a great facebook page, here.

  

  

I’ve adapted the original pattern, as one does – working from the brim to the tail instead of the other way round, making different size fins, and lining the tail with felt (I find this gives a nice ‘hang’, and allows for a flatter look).  I also work different stitches as the mood takes me, and as the yarn allows me.

Having said all that, I don’t feel right calling my hats Stinky any more – as much as I’d like to! It’s a name dreamed up by the original designer for a differently made hat and, while I’ve sent her links to my blog and, as far as I know, haven’t trod on any toes, it doesn’t feel right to keep the name.  I’ve tried to come up with something as catchy and different, and at this stage all I’ve come up with is Happy Fish.

Is that lame? If you come up with something better, I’d be very pleased to hear it.

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the stinky fish hat

I can’t remember what or who started the internet trail that led to me finding this pattern, but here we are. This is designed by Catrina Usher, who I think came up with a really brilliant idea with her Stinky Fish hat. It’s a free pattern on Ravelry.

Here is my version:

It’s a bit tight on Carol because it’s toddler size, but it’ll be dead easy to make bigger sizes.  I fiddled with the pattern a bit (didn’t do all the fancy stitches, used buttons for eyes, and left off the top fin) but I love it! It’s really versatile, as you’ll see from the photos on Ravelry that people have sent in.

Stinky Fish will come with me to the Somerset West market on Saturday, let’s see if anyone wants to buy it!

Back soon x

red and read

I dug out my glue gun yesterday afternoon and made an impromptu ‘moomflower’ to take to a friends’ party.

The flowers are mostly red but I did six in different colours to represent my two friends and the four children they have between them.

Then I got carried away and painted my nails red. Rob calls them “harlot tips”.

Today, Sunday, was a day of extreme sloth.  Mostly I read: The Shining Girls by South African writer Lauren Beukes. If you like good horror fiction, you’ll love this.  I think I’ll stop reading when it gets dark.

Also, fantastically and wonderfully, the weather seems to have changed since Friday and temperatures have returned to levels at which human beings can function properly.

And for those of you who don’t know Cape Town, here’s a link to 52 Places to Go in 2014 from The New York Times – we’re numero uno! Thinking of visiting? I’ll happily volunteer to take you on a shop crawl of all the good craft and wool places :-)

Back soon x

autumn rainbow

Hello. I’m missing my wordpress time and have loads of things I want to tell and show you, but it has to be a short one tonight due to other more “pressing” demands on my time. (Why why why do I always bite off more than I can chew??? Why am I incapable of learning from past mistakes???)

This lady,

who is also this lady (you may remember I’ve shown you her beautiful embellished denim jacket before)

asked me to make her an earflap beanie in any mixture of colours that I felt like using.  I used Vinni’s dk cotton and Repeat Crafter Me‘s basic beanie pattern.  I ended up with this, which I think of as a kind of autumn rainbow:

Pam put it on as soon as I handed it over, and looked gorgeous in it.  But I forgot to take a picture!

and from now on, this hat will be known as….

BonBon! 

(Refer to last post).

Thanks to all of you who made suggestions, every single one had potential.

And the winner is…..

Craftlyn, you will have a BonBon made just for you in a colour of your choice. Please mail me at jamtartssa@gmail.com and we’ll discuss options. Thanks for your lovely (and sweet) suggestion.

Back soon x