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