let's get it together

Alrighty then...

I feel like I've sickened myself of this afghan.

It's been a Work In Progress (WIP) for such a long time... and I must have written a bazillion blog posts about it!

So...

If you're as sick of it as I am, then you might as well stop reading right now.

Just walk away.

I won't take it personally!!!

Honest.

It's okay.

Go and make yourself a nice strong coffee... or fix yourself a lemon lime and vodka... or maybe a big baileys on the rocks (depending on the time of day, of course)

For those of you who are still reading - HERE IS MY PLAN...

I will finish this damn blanket.... THIS MONTH.

Absolutely.

Completely.

Entirely.

I mean, the squares are all done...

Do you remember when I went away on the crochet retreat? I had intended to join the blanket while I was gone, but discovered that I had left one square at home???

Well... it didn't ever show up...

I'm starting to have doubts about whether I actually made it at all!

Sad.

But true.

So I had to make YET ANOTHER square, which I don't have the pattern details on hand for... so I'll the blog the details of it another time.

Once all the squares were EVENTUALLY done, I needed to work a border of single crochet around each one... a job which I finally finished at a crochet meet yesterday.

Here they are...

All laid out and ready to start joining...

peacock swap...

It feels like such a long time since I was last involved in a swap... so this was lots of fun!

The theme was PEACOCK colours...

The idea was to crochet an item, and team it with a few surprises for your swap partner.

This time I was really stumped for ideas.

Sometimes I just get inspired and know EXACTLY what I want to make for my partner - it might be weird... or impractical... or just damn crazy.... but I KNOW what I want to create.

Not this time.

Zilch

Nada

Nothing

No inspiration whatsoever...

So, what I've come up with feels a bit boring, and pedestrian... although I believe it will be appreciated, and it's definitely a practical gift which will get a lot of use.

It's just missing the FUN FACTOR...

So here it is...

My partner enjoys quilting, so I've made her a pin cushion... and teamed it with some fat quarters in peacock colours, and some glass headed quilting pins.



The pin cushion is crocheted using embroidery scraps. In fact, I used these scraps which Bec sent to me a month or two back.

Only thing though... because I was looking for a neat finish (rather than my usual scrappy style) there were loads and loads of ends to weave in. Ahhhh... one of the joys of working with scrap lengths, I suppose.

But it's all done now... and posted... and received.

Forgot to mention that I used two squares of denim (old jeans) for the cushion part. Just cut them out using a pair of pinking shears, and zig zagged around three sides (about 50mm in from the edge) Then I popped some stuffing in, and zig zagged the cushion closed. After that, it was just a matter of sewing the crochet granny square in place on the top. The granny square itself was crocheted using a 1.25mm hook.

Oh, and two wooden buttons... stitched through centre top and bottom... just to give it some shape.

Think that's it...

But if I've forgotten anything, just ask!

freeform is finished

My freeform CAL is finished.

Well, almost finished... I think...

What I mean to say, is that I have finished with the instructions.

You might recall that we were give one instruction each day for the entire month of March. I started out well, but once I missed a day... then that suddenly became two days... which then snowballed into a blur of days.

Stop rolling your eyes at me.

You know EXACTLY what I mean, because we have ALL been there!!!

And even if you are an absolute freak of nature, who has NEVER let things get away from you... tell me that you have.... just so that I can feel quite normal here.

So - the instructions are here on Ravelry for anyone who wants to take a look at them.

And there is a gallery here of everyone else's work.

Did you look?

Go and do it now... PLEASE!

There is some magnificent work there. Can you believe that most of us had never attempted any kind of freeform work before???

And all the pieces look so different, don't they?

It's hard to believe that we were all following the same set of instructions.



Anyway.

As I was saying, I have completed the instructions... that was the easy part.

Now to decide what to do with it...



I was just going to hang it in my studio as a piece of art, and reflect on it from time to time.

Not that I have a studio yet, but one day I will.



The thing is, that I love the way my freeform sounds when it moves.

It jingles so melodically... as the keys, and bells, and other trinkets all chime against one another.

The kind of sound that a beautiful wind chime would make.

But it doesn't really look like a wind chime now, does it???



So I'm thinking about a bag.

I know, I've done load of bags already... but this would be a magnificent curio, wouldn't it?

And everyone would hear me coming, too!

Ooooh...

One quick question before I go...

What is this???





I think it's golf related...and I want to say it's from a golf shoe of sorts, but I don't really know.

Any idea?

shabby hat - free pattern

Pattern is available as promised!

As it is a free pattern, it has not yet been tested or proofed.

If you happen to find any errors, please let me know... and as always, feel free to ask if you have any concerns about the pattern.

There are four sizes included: toddler, child, teen and adult.

US terminology used throughout.

click here to download free pattern now



click here to download free pattern now



click here to download free pattern now



click here to download free pattern now

new hats

I so wish that I had taken some photos of these hats ON an actual head... but they were sold before I had the chance.





Super easy pattern.

Require very little yarn.

Fabulous use of scraps or crazy yarn





But where is the pattern???

Relax...

Check back here tomorrow...

There will be a free pattern here on this blog, including simple hints (and step-by-step photos) showing how to make your own embellishments.

not for chewing...

I have a bad habit of holding pins in my mouth when I am working with them.

It's not like I don't have a pin cushion... it's just so much easier to pop them between my lips.

Which is all well and good until the pearly coating starts to come away from the plastic head. Yeuwck!!!

The other thing which I do to mistreat these pins, is to iron over them when I am blocking my work - they don't like that kind of heat at all.

So, since I know that I won't be changing any of those habits in the near future... I decided to invest in some glass headed pins...

I'm loving these babies:

(and yes... I realise how sad it is that I've just dedicated an entire blog post to pins... even if I am delighted with them)

thinking is NOT blogging

I've thought a lot about blogging lately...

There's so many things for me to post about...

But I have really bad timing

Like, I'll be driving along the freeway... and my mind starts buzzing with a multitude of thoughts and ideas to share with you guys...

I start thinking about exactly what I'll write... which photos I'll add for interest... and by the time that I get to where I'm going, my brain is convinced that I've actually written a post!!!

Am I the only one who does this?

I often do it with emails too...

I read the email. Think about how to respond. And then my brain thinks that the job is done.

It's madness!!!

Imagine if we could blog by ESP. Just by thinking about them, the posts would appear...

Actually, that would probably be dangerous. You guy would defininitely be getting TOO MUCH INFORMATION if all my thoughts were transposed onto my blog!!!

Anyway...

Something I did want to share, is the result from the VIDEO CASSETTE CHALLENGE over at the laughing purple goldfish designs group on Ravelry.

Now... this IS NOT MY WORK...

This is the winning entry, created by Loren aka twisted1

Take a close look at these photos, and watch the progression from junk to fabulous royal penguin... who would have thought???

You can read Loren's comments about how she made the little guy here