Window Shopping

Hey there!

It's been a while since my last blog-post (thank you all so much for your comments on my Starlight Baby Blanket, I'm glad you all like the pattern!). Today I thought I'd show you a round-up of things I've made recently to fill the shelves of my new DaWanda-Shop. But don't worry - this is not an attempt to lure you into my shop :) I know that the readers of my blog are more interested in making than buying, so I've included some pattern-links for you!

Although I'm really not a fan of amigurumi (there's far too much attention and concentration required for my taste *gg*) I sometimes stumble upon a pattern that's just too cute to resist, like this clown here:

It's a paid pattern by Mari-Liis Lille from Lilleliis, and I can tell you it's really worth the money! She's got a whole bunch of lovely patterns, so I've also made these cute Cuddly Babies:

Since both these dolls and my baby-blankets take some time to make, I also wanted to offer some smaller, quicker-to-make items in my shop, and so I've made a selection of baby teethers. Using wooden rings, I sealed them with coconut-oil and simply worked a few rows of single-crochet stitches around half the ring and added a little hanger (just because I thought it looked cute *gg*):

The idea for the other rings I've made is inspired by the Bunny Slope Teethers, a free pattern from Playin' Hooky Designs. To make the strap that is attached to the ring I didn't work in rows like the original pattern suggests, though, but made up a pattern myself that is worked in the round.

And of course, I've made some items that are based on my own patterns, like this set of spiral coasters...

... or some pincushions in different color-combinations.

And just because I've heard on Television that toilet paper covers are SO yesterday, I even made one of those using my latest mandala-pattern - just to prove a point :) Well, the cover still hasn't sold yet, but I'm not losing hope! :)

Last but not least, I felt like making some more crochet covered stones. If you've been following my blog from the start, you know that every once in a while I've made those stones as gifts, and I thought they'd be a nice addition to my shop.

Well, that was mostly it, I hope you've found some inspiration today :) 

Currently I'm working on yet another baby blanket, but it's taking me longer than expected. In the meantime, I thought I'd share with you the pattern (both graphic and written) for the c2c lion blanket I've made recently.

So stay tuned for the next blog post with the free pattern! :)

Have a great and sunny day,

Another Gift for Another Girl

Happy Sunday!

In my last post I've showed you the gifts I've made for John's Mom and his sister, and I've made another little gift this week-end:

One of our trainees, Simone, will finish her apprenticeship and leave the company while we're away, so I made her a little farewell-gift. This is a very small stone, embellished with a butterfly (you can find the pattern for the butterfly at marie's making). Simone knows that I'm making this stones, and last year she brought me some little rocks from her vacation, so I thought this would be a nice gift.

John also asked me to get a cup for her, because he broke the handle of Simone's coffee-cup just a few weeks ago. So yesterday I've bought a really cool one: it says "goodbye kitty" and it's got a hello-kitty-style comic-cat on it, wearing a dynamite belt. I especially love the drop of sweat on the cat's forehead :) Simone's got a cool sense of humor, so I think this is the perfect farewell-gift for her!

And after preparing those gifts the last days, I received another gift myself this week-end: Craftgirl78 has passed One Lovely Blog Award on to me. Thank you so much! I'm feeling really lucky and honored to be on your list!

Since I've already blogged about the Sunshine Awards last week-end, answered the questions and passed the award on to some other great blogs, please allow me to skip this part for now - I'll come back to this when I'm back from vacation!

Have a great day everyone,

 

Gifts for the Girls

Thank God it's Friday!! :)

Another working week has gone by, Germany has won the quarter-final match against Greece just a few minutes ago, and is now in the semi-finals of the Euro Cup. Our next match will either be against England or Italy, so in any case it'll be a tough battle. The match will be on Thursday night, which is really a pity, because right then we'll be sitting in the plane from Amsterdam to Detroit, and I don't think that they have live television on board. Maybe I'll wear my fanshirt during the flight, that's the least I can do for our boys :)

It's really not long until our vacations now, but don't worry, this isn't the farewell-post yet. What I wanted to show you today are the gifts I've made for John's Mom and his sister:

Some weeks ago, I've asked for your opinion whether I should make little crochet gifts for them or not, and most of you said I should. I think/hope that they'll appreciate the handmade gift, even if they're not much into crochet (which I'm not sure about, maybe they'll love it?)

So, here's what I made for John's Mom:

I've made two of those little potholder dresses that I had already made for my Mom on Mother's Day. Here are a few more pictures (I've discovered a new software, PhotoScape, and I love making those gorgeous mosaics with just a few clicks):

The crucial thing about these dresses is to pick the right button :)

For John's sister I've made a crochet covered stone:

I don't think that she's the type to collect handmade potholders or dishcloths, so I've picked this decorative item. I still think that crochet stones are quite unusual and unique, and you don't have to be a crochet maniac to love those stones.

I wanted this stone to be one of my best stones ever and so I've put a lot of time and effort in it, doing and re-doing the closing net lots of time until I liked the result. For the center motif I've used the starburst hotpad pattern, which I had already used for one of my stones before. It takes some time to make it and to weave in all those ends (it's made of five separate pieces that have to be joined), but I think it's worth the effort. I've attached the tiniest little flower button to the middle and really love how it turned out!

I'll let you know how the girls liked the gifts!

There are still a few more motifs for the Challenge that I want to post before I leave, and maybe some of you would like to join us on our vacation, so I will post the link to our travel diary next time.

Have a great week-end everybody!

 

A Birthday Stone

It's really been a while since I've made or posted a new crochet stone, right? But now that I've finished the super-secret project (yes, that's right, I did it!!), I've got time for some new things apart from the "Beyond the Square" motifs I'm still posting. By the way: thanks for all the lovely comments you're leaving, you always find something nice to say, nevermind how simple the motif - thank you!!

Now back to the stone. I still enjoy playing around with colors, patterns and the different shapes of the stones to make each one unique. However, I've already got so many of them lying around here, so I started to make stones only to give them away for special occasions instead of keeping and hoarding them at home :)

Yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday, and I gave her this new creation:

Recently, my sister-in-law and my brother re-decorated their living-room with shades of brown and creme, that's why I've picked those colors for the stone. The center of the pattern is once again from a doily-magazine, the rest is improvisation.

 

This was the first one of four brand-new stones I've made last week. I'm looking forward to showing you the other ones and of course there's still the super-secret project to reveal very, very soon...

Take care and please come back if you've enjoyed your visit here today :)

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

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!

Two Patchwork Stones

Hi there, how are you all doing on this rainy day in july?

Tomorrow, John and I will be going to Austria for a few days and I thought I'd leave you with some impressions of my latest covered stones. If you enter "crochet stones" or "covered stones" in google, you'll get lots of fabulous pictures. Lately, there are also more and more stones covered with little fabric patches - and again, Margie Oomen's stones are simply outstanding (here's an example in her etsy shop).

Of course I wanted to try this version as well and combine it with my own ideas by adding crocheted flowers and the obligatory buttons. This was my first try:

I picked a really huge stone for this, because I thought I needed a bigger surface for this project.

On the picture above you see the little details, like the flower, the fabric butterfly and the buttons.

I'm really quite happy with my first try, although there are some details I'd like to improve for the next stones.

For my second stone I wanted to use fabric patches in different shades of green:

I think the patches look nice in combination with the green crocheted flower.

I'm really looking forward to making the next one! Sometimes my brain is overfloating with ideas, if only there was more time...

Have a nice week-end everyone, I'll be back in a few days!

My First Giveaway

Those of you who have followed the comments on my last post may have read, that I was thinking about making a giveaway when I reach 50 followers. I'm at 49 today, but tonight I've got enough time, so I thought let's just make it NOW :)

This is a good opportunity to say thanks to you all for visiting and following this blog and leaving those wonderful comments. I love reading them and they really make my day! I’d also like to thank Debi from Crochet, Crafts & Gardening for picking made-in-k-town as featured blog on her last blogday, Kathryn from Crochet Concupiscence who also mentioned my site in her recommendations, and all of you who put my link on your bloglist!

And this is my giveaway for you, made during the week especially for this occasion:

I hope you understand that I picked a very small stone this time – sending a huge and heavy rock to America or Australia would probably be too expensive, and I'd really like to ship this stone to any place the happy winner-to-be lives :)

I think I’ve found the perfect way for a fair decision about the winner of this stone. I’ve got a question, and there’s only one correct answer. Whoever posts the right answer first wins. Easy, isn’t it?

So here’s the question:

If you don’t recognize it at once (I wouldn’t, because I had never seen such thing before), this is my Mom’s digital kitchen scale. What do you think is the weight of this stone?

Here are some rules:

1. To take part in this competition, I ask you to be or become a follower of this blog.

2. Please enter your result in grams (g). If you're more accustomed to ounces, just use this easy ounces-to-grams-calculator

3. Please enter your result (and only one result per participant please) until next friday, July 8th, 5 p.m. (German time). If someone's got the correct answer, the competition is over on friday and we'll have a lucky winner.

4. If the correct answer has not been entered until then, I might give a little hint and you'll get a second chance to post another result until sunday, July 10th, 5 p.m. - and both results (old and new) will count!

5. If nobody has entered the correct result until then, the one who's closest to the real weight of the stone wins.

6. Finally, I'd like to give a little advantage to those who have already followed this blog before this competition: Those 49 followers will get a tolerance of +/- 2 grams. Example: If an "early" follower enters 987g as a result, he's also in with any weight between 985g and 989g.

Remember: the first correct (or almost correct) answer wins, so be quick and enter your guess!

Good luck! :)

Covered Stones - The Second Collection

Now that the United Colors Baby Blanket is finished, I've already got some ideas for the next big project in mind. I'm still trying a few things with colors and patterns, but as soon as the idea takes shape, I'll share my plans with you :)

Meanwhile I'd like to show you my second collection of covered stones (for pictures of the first collection look here and there).

Let's start with a small and cute one:

It's the smallest and most simple one I've made so far, I just crocheted a net with dcs and chs and added a fabric butterfly from a table decoration set :)

For the next one, I started with a Japanese Flower (as seen on Lucy's attic24) and, again, finished the stone with a simple net-pattern. And of course I had to add a button :)

Take a look at the next one, do you recognize the pattern?

It's the quite popular Starburst Hotpad pattern. I've seen a wonderful version of the Hotpad on Marions bunte Handarbeitswelt and followed her link to the original pattern. A flower is a flower is a flower - and why not use it on a stone?

I think most of you know Edie Eckman's fabulous book Beyond the Square, don't you? It's a great source of inspiration for motifs and I used it for the next stone:

This is motif #17 from the book. It's quite an elaborate pattern with many ends to weave in, but I think it was worth it. I've made the motif with white and then continued with a light green and made up a pattern as I went on.

The only thing that bothered me a little about that stone, was that there's no real contrast between the stone and the yarn. Most of the stones I've got are light grey or light brown, so for the next one I've decided to work with black yarn:

 

The motif in the middle is a very easy flower (visit The Yvestown Blog). 

For today's last stone I've changed the strategy: Usually I start with a motif in the middle and the rest is just a simple pattern to close the stone. For the next one, I've focused on the pattern itself, so there's no flower, button or other eyecatcher in the middle:

I've got the pattern from a german crochet magazine. Those magazines are usually full of doilies - I've never made a doily in my life, but it seemed the perfect pattern for what I had in mind :)

That's all for today. I've made two other stones, but the style is completely different from the ones I've showed you today, so they'll be part of another post soon. I hope you like today's pictures and maybe this post (with the links and ideas) is helpful to you, if you'd like to crochet around a stone and don't really know how or where to start :)

Have a nice sunday everyone!