Mission Baby Blanket: 17 Squares to go!

When I came home from work on Thursday, it almost felt like Christmas in June: there were three parcels waiting for me on the stairs! One of them contained my yarn I needed for the baby blanket, and it came as no surprise, because the day before I had received an e-mail that it had been shipped. Thankfully it was the right shade of green this time, so I could finally go on with my baby blanket. Here you can see the progress so far:

The final array will look different of course, but I don’t want to give away too much today. The finished blanket will be made of 64 squares and I’ve completed 47 so far, so I only need another 17 – yippee! 

Now back to the parcels on my stairs: the second one was a little surprise for me, because it contained the double-ended long hooks I ordered from an UK-Seller on Ebay. I paid on Tuesday and received the hooks on Thursday, now that’s something, isn’t it? I had my first go at Crochenit on Friday night, and I was thrilled! Thrilled because I learned a new crochet technique, thrilled because it was so easy, and thrilled because I see so many new possibilities with that technique! Now all I need is an idea for a project where I can use Crochenit and then I’ll share my experience here.

The third parcel almost swept me off my feet: It was my order from China and I had actually given this one up, because it had been at the German customs office since May 3rd, and nobody could tell me why they kept it so long or if I’d ever receive it at all. The Chinese seller (from Ebay) had already prepared another shipment, because he didn’t count on the first one either. Here’s what I’ve ordered:

I already told you that I love buttons, and these are heart-shaped wooden buttons with painted flowers on it. I’ll use it as embellishments for my stones and pincushions and hopefully many other things.

Here you can see a whole bunch of beads that will be perfect for my bookmarks (or just to put on my leather necklace):

I’ve also ordered more buttons and beads, but the pictures didn’t turn out well, so you’ll have to wait until they show up in one of my next projects :)

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful sunny Sunday everyone!

The colorful world of pincushions

When I started searching the web for crochet inspiration a few months ago, I quickly became a huge fan of Rachel from Clever Cheshire Cats. Have you checked out her blog yet? Everything she crochets is simply beautiful! My favorites are her little pin cushions and I wanted to make one of them when I first saw them. So, inspired by Rachel and with my own ideas for a round pattern and some decorative embellishment (damn, I love buttons), this is what I've made:

For the stuffing I sew a little cushion and fill it with batting. This is the part I don’t like, because I’m not good at sewing, but this way I know the stuffing won’t pop out through the holes. I work the two sides of the pincushion separately, then I crochet them together (half way through I slip the little sewn cushion in) and in the end I add the petals.

If you take a closer look at the pictures, you’ll see that the pattern vary a little, but I think by now I’ve settled on the pattern I like best.

I also played around with different sizes and shapes, like squares or even a hexagon, but the big round ones are definitely my favorites.

They are so quick and easy to make, and I love working with the colorful Catania yarn. By the way: today I've received an e-mail that my yarn is finally shipped! While waiting for the yarn I’ve already weaved in the ends from the finished squares, so with a clear conscience I can start the next stage of “Mission Baby Blanket”, soon. Hooray!

Looking forward to your next visit here in K-town,

Barbara

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!

A wonderful surprise

Good morning!

Can you believe this? Debi from Crochet, Crafts & Gardening has given me this Award:

Thank you so much, Debi! I’m really proud and happy that my little blog (still in its baby shoes) has won an award! Maybe this is a good occasion to say thanks to all those visitors from all over the world who stop by my blog. Most of them don’t leave a comment, but that’s okay – just come back if you’ve enjoyed this site. But of course any nice comment makes my day :)

I wasn’t sure what to do now with this award but Debi kindly helped me. First of all I have to tell you a few things about me, so here we go:

1. With all the crochet and hanging around in Blogland, I’ve recently neglected another creative baby of mine: I’m writing a novel, the working title is „Saintsville“, and it’s all about love, choices and challenges, poker and lots of good music :)

2. Talking about music: I love Country Music, and mainly the classics like Johnny Cash, Bill Monroe, Elvis Presley and Gram Parsons

3. Talking about Country Music: It’s always been a big dream of mine to visit Nashville – and last year this dream came true! It was awesome!

4. Talking about awesome: “Lord of the Ring” is awesome! I’ve seen the movies more than twenty times at the cinema and every year, usually around Christmas, my girlfriends and me arrange the long “Lord of the Rings Day” and watch the three films in extended versions

5. Talking about “Lord of the Rings”: Although I love the movies, the book bores me to death. My favorite book is “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams – in this case, the movie bores me to death

6. Talking about bored: I’m bored at work. I’ve made my diploma in Psychology but it’s hard to find a job in this field in Germany, so I’m working in a warehouse and this is not very challenging for the brain

7. Talking about my job: It was probably destiny to work there, because that’s where I met John eight years ago. He was – and still is – my boss (but only at work :))

And now I have to (and of course want to) pass this award on to some of my favorite blogs. Maybe some of the girls don’t take part in this game, but nevertheless I want to recommend their blogs here:

1. Rachel from CleverCheshireCats. Always a great source of inspiration – I'll tell you more about that in another post

2. Margaret from Resurrection Fern. I can never stop looking at the wonderful pictures of her amazing work

3. Lucy from Attic24. I think we’ve all been to a visit in Lucy’s wonderful attic, haven’t we?

4. Ljiljana from Colorful Senses. Her blog is like the name: colorful. Damn, I love this covered chair!

5. Elisabeth from Elisabeth Andrée. Just beautiful.

6. Alexandra from Lola Nova. Wonderful pictures and great tutorials, I only wish I could sew!

7. Marion from Marions bunte Handarbeitswelt. My favorite German blog about crochet, I adore every single piece of her work!

I think this is it, now I’ll let the girls know that here’s something for them to pick up. If I’ve forgotten to do anything else please let me know!

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back soon!

Barbara

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 :)