A Tale of Five Blankets - Chapter 3

Hello World!

I hope you've enjoyed your week-end and found some time for crocheting or enjoyed the weather - which btw has been exceptionally nice in k-town on Saturday! I've been crocheting a lot in the past few weeks, too, but before I show you my new stuff, there are still some more chapters in my Tale of Five Blankets.

Usually I have two or three go-to patterns when I start a new blanket, but this one is different. I've found the pattern on Pinterest, it's the "Juicy Fruit Afghan Crochet Pattern" and it's available for free on favecrafts.

The finished blanket (it's a baby blanket again) measures 90 x 70 cm and of course I've worked with Stylecraft Special DK again. The colors are Cream, Clematis, Sherbet and Saffron.

What I really liked about this pattern is the border: It starts with shells right away, so there's no need to work into the side of the stitches when you're making the side border. I've never been good at that, so this edging really did me a favor here :)

All in all it's a fun and easy pattern, and I've really enjoyed making it. Maybe I'll be using it again one day :)

Coming up next: one more Granny Square Blanket :)

Wishing you all a great start into the new week,

Bookmark this!

Today I’ve got something for those of you, who like quick and easy patterns with a great result. It takes about 20 minutes to make this nice bookmark or rather book thong and it’s perfect if you need a last-minute gift:

The author of this pattern is Donna Hulka and I’ve found her wonderful Tutorial on CrochetMe. With the many pictures and step-by-step instructions it’s also great for beginners. I’m quite addicted to making those bookmarks and the following pictures show just a part of my fast growing collection:

There are also a few other things I want to talk about today:

First, Elisabeth kindly told me that it was not possible to post a comment here without a google/wordpress/whatever-account. I’ve changed the setting, so anyone can write a comment now. Thanks for the hint!

Second, today I’ve discovered how hard it can be in Germany if you want to learn a certain new crochet technique. I’m talking about Double-Ended Crochet, also known as Crochenit. I found a wonderful pattern in a book (more about it when I get there) and wanted to buy some double-ended long hooks today – not possible. I haven’t found them in the department store, and on Ebay the German sellers don’t have them either. In the end I ordered from a shop in UK, that means I have to wait a little for my parcel to arrive. Just like my yarn (no news). And I haven’t even told you about my order from China yet…

Third, we were talking about my grandma yesterday, and I can tell you: she was really a master crocheteresse (I think I’ve just made up this word), and I’ve probably got the passion for Crochet in my genes. Anyway, my mom told me that I had a wonderful crocheted dress (made by my grandma) when I was little, and I searched for a picture of me wearing that dress. I haven’t found the dress, but I’ve discovered that I had quite a huge crocheted shoe collection (one pair for every day it seems). Here are two of them, sorry for the poor quality, I’ve made photographs of the original pictures because I was not in the mood to find out how our scanner works :)

Recently I’ve found out that my aunt has still got lots of stuff my grandma made (she died in 1994), and now I’m eager to visit my aunt and take some pictures of the doilies, cushions, blankets and god knows what else has survived. Hope you all gonna join me on this little trip to the past :)

I think that's all for today, have a good week everyone!

Fishing for Compliments

It’s time to show you my first steps into crocheting amigurumis. To tell you the truth – sometimes I think “enemy-gurumis” would be a better name for those little toys. I just can’t relax while crocheting amigurumis with all those tiny little legs and arms and feet and ears and tails and what not. And after that comes the worst part: Sewing all the pieces together. Now you might ask why I keep crocheting those enemy-gurumis when I actually don’t enjoy it? Because some of them are just too cute to resist and in the end the finished item is worth the effort! Just take a look at this little guy:

I’ve found this wonderful free pattern for the chubby fish on mygurumi. No teeny weeny arms and legs and tails but just a few fins. I also replaced the crocheted eyes from the original pattern with plastic eyes and it was so easy (almost relaxing) to make, that I’ve already made two of them, a boy and a girl :)

Maybe I’ll make some more fish for some guys in my poker round (those of you who are interested in poker know perhaps that a bad player is called a fish, and this is always a nice way to tease someone at the table).

To round up this topic for today, here’s a picture of John’s favorite kind of fish, that is to say the “real” fish:

Fishing is his passion (although he’d never reject a big poker fish either), and this week-end he’ll be out with his guys and hopefully get a bite or two. That means for me: A whole week-end home alone, time for myself and maybe some more enemy-gurumis :)

Love is in the Air (Hearts Part 1)

First, I’d like to thank you all for your lovely comments on my first post. I was so excited when I discovered that I’ve even got some followers! When I started my blog I was a little bit afraid, that nobody would visit my site, and so I’m really happy that there are indeed some people who are interested in what I’m doing here in k-town. Thank you so very much!!

A few days ago, I had a little photo-shooting with all the stuff I’ve made in the last few weeks. When I flipped through the pictures, I’ve discovered that there are several different types of hearts I made so far, so today I want to show you two of them.

The first one I made for my Mom for mother’s day. I’ve found the pattern on MYpicot and immediately liked the patchwork-style. My Mom also liked it, but actually she loves everything I crochet, but that’s what makes a mother a Mom, I guess :)

For the second heart I made two flat hearts (visit Bella Dia for the pattern), crocheted them together, filled it with batting and added button, ribbon and some beads. I made it the day after my cat died. Her name was Mucki and she died a week before her 19^th birthday. Somehow I wanted to make something that reminds me of her and so I made this heart and hung it on my bedroom’s dresser.

Other K-town News: Last night we watched a doe falling into a carp pond. No joke!! Indeed it was the pond you can see on the picture in my first post. Don’t panic, the doe survived – she could swim and got out of the water all by herself, so John didn’t have to jump down the balcony and into the pond to rescue her. And this is probably the most exciting story you’ll ever hear from K-town… :)

I wish you all a wonderful week,

Barbara