It's Voting Time Again!

Now that the first theme-party is over, it's time to start the poll for the next link-party in September.

Of course the Granny Squares aren't on board this time, and I've also taken out the topics "Amigurumi" and "Covered", because they had only one vote each in the last poll. If you want them back, just let me know.

Instead I've added "Animals" (a suggestion by littleorphanskein): Crocheted animals (like toys), items with animals in them (like blankets with a design), or crocheted items FOR animals. 

You can read more details about the other topics in a previous post. As usual: new ideas are always welcome, just leave a comment! :)

You've got about two weeks time to vote, I'm thinking about Friday the 16th of September for the party.

Unfortunately, I've got nothing new to show you :( I'm still working a lot and last week-end I had to catch up with things left undone during the week. The upcoming week-end should look better, I think. I hope I can make some progress with the wiggly cushion (thanks for all your wonderful comments!) and start the tutorial. I hope you can wait a little longer :)

However, I don't want to leave you without any pictures at all, so I searched for something I've made some time ago and haven't showed you yet:

I've found this wonderful pattern for the "Pop Heart" on MyGurumi (it's the same site where I've found the pattern for my fish).

From K-town, with Love :)

Barbara

WWIP - Wiggly Work in Progress

Wow, I really enjoy this link-party, don’t you? You’ve added so many wonderful pictures already, and the party is still going on until Sunday! I’d like to ask you again to link to the specific post: It can be a little bit frustrating, when you’d like to see more of the lovely project and it’s hidden somewhere in the archive, don’t you think?

Now to my current project: recently I remembered a pattern I just loved when I was a teenager:

My parents used to have a cushion with the front part made this style (by my grandma, of course). I figured out how she did it and made some cushions myself. Unfortunately my parents don’t have their cushion anymore and I’ve found only one extraordinary ugly cushion that I’ve made years ago and that I’m too ashamed to post here.

Until last weekend I didn’t even know the name of this technique, so I searched a little and learned that this technique is called wiggly crochet or ruffling technique.

The basic idea is to crochet a foundation mesh and then work double crochet stitches around the bars of the mesh. I don’t know how others do this, but I’m using a slightly thinner yarn for the mesh, because this way the pattern looks denser and… just better, I think :)

I also start the mesh in the middle and work in rounds: this saves a lot of time I would need for calculating the right size of the mesh, and it’s also not so boring – after a few mesh rounds, I can add some colored ruffles, then continue a little with the mesh again, and so on until I’ve got the right size. Here's a picture of the back side:

As far as I’ve read, this technique is mainly used for rugs or hot pads, but I think I just make another cushion :)

I hope those of you who live at the East-Coast of the USA are okay after the earthquake (I’ve read about it in some blogs and it’s also in the News in Germany). Thankfully we’re safe from earthquakes here, but look at this picture I’ve taken 30 minutes ago:

It might look like a romantic sundown, but in fact it’s been a bad storm approaching k-town. I think it’s passed us now, but it might cause some damage somewhere else.

I wish you all a happy and safe evening, see you soon right here!

P.S: I can't believe I broke 100 followers, thank you all for reading this blog!! :)

Theme Party # 1: Granny Squares

Welcome to my first Theme Party here in K-town! You had two weeks time to vote for your favorite topic, and the winner is the Granny Square, hooray! :) Show us, what you've made with the Grannies - Blankets? Bags? Cushions? A single square? Maybe the Giant Granny Square you're working on?

Some things you should keep in mind:

What you see is what you get: please link to the specific post where your chosen project can be found (not just your main blog address), and make sure that your post is about crochet and matches the given theme! No shops! Please understand that I might remove links that ignore these points.

Feel free to post as many links as you like - you should really search in the depths of your archives to retrieve your forgotten treasures, this is your chance to bring them back to the surface! :)

When this collection is closed, you'll have the chance to vote for the topic of the next theme party in September! If you've got suggestions for more topics, please post them here :)

This collection can be found at The Crochet Boulevard now!

 

Bavarian Popcorn Flower Pattern

Pattern: Made in K-Town by Barbara

Please respect my rights as designer: do not sell, share, translate, or publish any parts of this pattern (including pictures) online or elsewhere without my permission. Do not claim this pattern as your own. Feel free to sell the finished items you’ve made from my pattern! If you do, a link-back to my blog www.made-in-k-town.blogspot.de would be great.
Thank you! 

Material:

As usual, I used small amounts of Catania by Schachenmayer and a 2.5mm hook. My flowers measure 7cm (2.8 inches) but the size will vary depending on the yarn you use.

Some general notes:

For this pattern I use US crochet terms. We’ll need the following stitches: chain stitch (ch), slip stitch (sl st), single crochet (sc), double crochet (dc), and popcorn stitch.

I did NOT write down the chains at the beginning of each round: for the first stitch in every round, work chains (e.g. 3 chains for the first dc) OR start with a “standing stitch” i.e. join the new color with a slip knot or a simple loop ON YOUR HOOK and just work the first sc or dc as usual. Join rounds with a sl st.

Ready? Here we go:

1st Round: Start with a sliding loop (or “magic ring”) and work (1 dc, ch1) 10x inside the loop, fasten off.

2nd Round (new color): work (1 sc, ch2) in every ch1-space, fasten off.

3rd Round (new color): work (1 popcorn, ch4) in every ch2-space, fasten off. For the popcorn, make 4 dc in the ch2-space, drop loop from hook and insert hook from front to back through top of the first dc, then into dropped loop, yarn over and pull through both loops on hook.

4th Round (new color): work (1 sl st, ch2, 6 dc, ch2, 1 sl st) in every ch4-space, fasten off and weave in all the ends.

Tadaah - the Bavarian Popcorn Flower is finished!

 Hmmmm, I think there’s something missing… - ah, of course!

Aaaah, much better... :)

(Visit my previous post for more pictures of the Bavarian Popcorn Flower)

I hope you'll enjoy making these flowers as much as I do, but be warned: once you start making them, you just can't stop! :)

Bavarian Popcorn Flowers

Tadaah! Yesterday I managed to weave in all the ends of my flowers (22 x 8 = 176 threads... wow!) and here's the whole collection:

There are already so many lovely flowers out there, I'm just thinking about the Japanese or the African Flower. So I needed a name for my flowers and first I thought about calling them "German Flowers" - sounds boring, don't you think?

Then I thought, well, I'm from Bavaria, and I used the Popcorn Stitch, so why not call it "Bavarian Popcorn Flower"?

Of course I couldn't resist to embellish some of them with buttons...

and here you see a little basket with one of the flowers sewed on:

I hope I'll manage to write down the pattern tonight, so I can post it tomorrow. Thanks for your lovely comments, I'm glad you like the Bavarian Popcorn Flower and hope you've enjoyed today's pictures!

edit: here's the pattern

FIP - Flowers in Progress

What is it about crocheted flowers, that you just can't stop making them, once you've finished the first one?

On friday evening I've found the "perfect" pattern at last, and spent the whole week-end making flowers. By the way: it was an absolutely amazing week-end!! On saturday afternoon, John and me spontaneously packed our suitcase and joined some friends on a week-end trip to Kufstein, Austria. They've got a deal in a Poker Club down there, that when you're playing more than four hours, you'll get the hotel room and the breakfast for free. So I was sitting at the Poker table the whole night, waiting for good cards and making little flowers :) I always need some kind of distraction when I'm playing Poker, because this prevents me from playing bad hands just because I'm bored. The plan worked out very well, John and me both have won (even though John didn't make any flowers!) :)

Despite a very short night, we got up early on Sunday and walked to the castle in Kufstein. The weather was lovely and it was just a perfect day! In the afternoon John went back to the room to sleep a little, and I stayed outside in the sun, drinking coffee and making even more flowers. I was soon joined by a little girl from Italy who kept asking me questions about the flowers - unfortunately I didn't understand a word, and she didn't understand that I didn't understand, so we had a nice little conversation :) Her mother told me (in English) that the girl just wanted to watch and learn, so I let her watch, cut the thread after each round, and then I gave her the finished flower. I hope that helped :)

Later in the evening we went back to the Poker Club, waiting for more good hands to play and making even more flowers - it was a very productive week-end in every way :)

I've forgot to bring a needle to Austria, so I haven't weaved in the ends yet. I hope I can show you the finished flowers and the pattern later this week, so please come back if you'd like to see more. I've seen dozens of different flowers out there in blogland, but I can't remember seeing exactly this one. If you've seen this flower before, please let me know!

Wow, a long blog post today! Just another quick note before I forget about it: You can still vote for the theme of the upcoming link-party! The poll will close on thursday night, and it still looks very good for the grannies! I'm thinking about friday or saturday for the link-party, so please make sure you don't miss the fun :)

Have a wonderful week everybody!

Ruby Tuesday

Remember, when I said I'd put the Magic Blanket aside because I've got so many other ideas that I'd like to do for a while? It seems I always come back to stones :)

How do you like my "Ruby Tuesday"?

The pattern is again from a doily magazine, in fact it's from the same magazine that I used before for the white stone.

I think right now I'm so much drawn to these kinds of stones, because they are so rewarding (usually finished in one evening) and so relaxing and easy to make (just following the pattern until the right size is reached, and then decreasing until the stone is closed).

Actually there's something else I'd really like to try... have you seen Annaboo's Korknisse? Sooooo cute! It's such a pity that no one I know is drinking wine, so I've got no corks to make the Korknisse. I think I have to buy new corks, but I have no idea where...

I think that's all for today. Thank you all who have voted so far, if you haven't placed your vote, you should do that right now :) And if you have absolutely no idea what I am talking about: There'll be a link-party on this site and you (yes, you!) can vote for the theme of this party! In my previous posts you can read more about the idea and the topics we've chosen. It's never to late to suggest a new topic, I'll keep it in mind for the next link-party (thanks, little orphanskein - your suggestion is on my list!)

bye for today, I wish you all a relaxing evening!

Barbara

It's Voting Time!

When you look to the right, you’ll see that you can already vote for your favorite topic of the upcoming theme party! You’ve made wonderful suggestions, and so we’ve got a list of ten different topics to vote for.

While I present them to you, I thought I could add some pictures of little crochet items I’ve made some months ago and haven’t showed you yet. Like this Mandala for example (german pattern by glueckskreativ):

Now let’s start with the topics, these were my suggestions (please read my previous post for further information):

Granny Squares (single grannies, blankets, cushions, bags, etc.)

Flowers (single flowers, garlands, scarves, blankets, etc.)

Blankets (striped, rippled, baby blankets, granny square blankets, etc.)

Amigurumi (I’ve picked this topic instead of “Baby Crochet”, because everything else for babies will be covered by our other topics)

By the way, here’s a Hello Kitty amigurumi. This was indeed the first amigurumi I’ve ever made.

There used to be an english pattern on K and J Dolls, but due to some copyright issues the pattern is only available in Dutch and Portuguese now. I used both versions simultaneously (neither speaking Dutch nor Portuguese) and with a little bit of guessing it worked perfectly :)

Back to our list, I’d also be happy with

Pretty in Pink (easy: crochet projects in all shades of pink)

A little later, Debi and me thought about

Kitchen (potholders, hot-pads, dishcloths, etc.)

and Debi also came up with

Bags and Purses (I think the popular i-pad/pod/phone cozies would fit here also)

San thought about

Covered (e.g. covered stones, jars, soap, vases, cup cozies, etc.)

Here’s a covered vase I’ve made some weeks ago. Actually it’s an empty lime juice bottle, but I think it’s quite cute and makes a perfect little vase:

Barbina suggested

Clothing (scarves, socks, hats, dresses, baby clothes, etc.)

and

Colorful (blankets, cushions, flowers, potholders, ... the possibilities are endless!)

If the google translator hasn’t lied (sorry, my Spanish is not so good), Susanna came up with Christmas crochet (which will definitely be on the december-list) and covers for glass jars (which fits perfectly to the Covered topic).

It's quite a long list, isn't it? But don't worry, you can vote for several topics if you can't make up your mind which one you like best :)

Thank you all for your suggestions, I can't wait to see your wonderful entries! If you've got even more ideas for topics, please feel free to post them - I'm so excited about this party already, that there'll be definitely another one soon :)

And now Happy Voting everyone!

Party Time!

Welcome back to k-town!

I’m so happy that you all keep visiting my little blog and leaving your nice comments, so I thought we all could have a big party together, shall we? There are so many amazing link-parties out there, like i-crochet, the crochet way, annemarie's breiblog or our creative spaces, just to mention a few. (You’ll find more party links on my right side bar).

What I was thinking: Wouldn’t it be interesting to celebrate a big theme party? Let’s say, we settle on the topic granny squares, which is quite popular. You could either link to a single granny square you’ve made/designed or to a project involving granny squares, like blankets, cushions, bags or whatever you’ve made from the squares.

What about flowers? I’m sure we all have made lovely crochet flowers, and maybe even a bigger project? A garland, a scarf or even a blanket of crochet flowers? Maybe a granny square with a flower in the middle? 

Not every crochet blanket is made of granny squares, there are also lots of wonderful striped or rippled blankets out there, you could link to them if we settle on the topic blankets.

Baby crochet: Everything, that makes a little baby happy: Clothes, shoes, hats, blankets or toys (this is the chance to post your favorite amigurumi!)

And why not just pick a color? Pretty in Pink might be a topic, where everyone can add her creation!

(Everyone but me, it seems... *lol*)

It would be wonderful, if you’d all join this party and search in the depths of your blog archives for a post that matches the given topic. I’m following so many blogs (and they’re getting more and more) and it’s such a pity, that I don’t have the time to read every blog from the beginning. I bet you’ve all got so many treasures you’ve made many months or even years ago and I’d really like to see them!!

My suggestions for topics so far are the ones mentioned above: granny squares, flowers, blankets, baby crochet and Pretty in Pink. If you’ve got ideas, please post them! It should be quite specific, but on the other hand general enough so that everyone can take part.

In a week or so, I’ll start a poll where you can vote for one of the topics we’ve collected until then. And when we’ve settled on a theme, it’s party-time! :)

What do you say? Can I count on you? If you like my idea, please spread the word on your blog! And if you like the idea even more, we could repeat it now and then :)

I wish you all a wonderful week-end, please come back to make your suggestions!

A Single Beauty

A happy and sunny good evening everybody! Isn't it strange how a little sunshine can affect your mood? At least it works for me! :)

As I announced it in my last post, I've put away my Magic Blanket and looked for something else to crochet. So last night I've made another stone, here it is:

I wanted to keep it simple, without further embellishments, similar to the blue one in one of my previous posts.

 

Again, I consulted a doily-magazine for the pattern, I'm becoming quite a fan of this way of working :)

I hope you like this single and simple beauty, too, and I really love reading all your wonderful comments about my stones, thank you all so much!

Have a nice week everyone!