I Won a Prize for my Flippie!

Do you remember "The Flippie Headband"?

I made it for the May Challenge over in the Designers Challenge Group on Ravelry...

To qualify for the challenge, you had to make a head accessory... which incorporated chevrons and beads. There were some fascinating entries, and if you're a member over at Ravelry you will be able to view them all here. It was a fabulous surprise to have my entry voted as the winner!

My prize came in the mail today...

~ Yummy Scrummy Yarn ~

2 x Cascade Yarns - Alpaca Lana D'oro 100g

50% Alpaca, 50% Wool

2 x Louisa Harding Yarns - Ianthe 50g

50% Extra Fine Merino, 50% Cotton

Now to decide what to make with it... Any ideas?

(you'll have to excuse the In Progress jigsaw puzzle - SCHOOL HOLIDAYS!)

Inspired or Insane?

On Friday morning, I caught up with a couple of the girls I used to work with - and we had ourselves  a little craft morning. It felt like forever since I had spent any time with them, though in reality, it's a little over a year since I finished up work. Somehow it feels like a lifetime ago!

Anyhow.

Jo-Jo needed help to "cast on" for a crochet tea towel topper, and Tam needed to finish off her Giant Granny Blanket. Somehow she had worked her blanket into a never-ending spiral... and she didn't know how to get off the Merry-Go-Round!

So, once we had taken care of the "business" end of things we got to chatting...

Tam was telling me the most fabulous story

about a woman who was recycling her tea bag strings into yarn...

Yes.

You heard correctly.

Tea bag strings INTO yarn!

She was even WEARING her string scarf at the time... and a little string rosette, too...

How awesome is that????

 

Well - You know what I'm doing now, don't you?

So far I only have TWO... but I am saving my teabag strings...

I'll knot them as I collect, then skein them up and wash them before use.

Not sure how long it will take me to save a useful amount - But Hey - I'm not going anywhere...

And ALL donations would be gratefully accepted!

So what do you think? Inspired or Insane?
Vote in the poll... it's in the right hand margin... below the Pintest Pin and above Polly the Spotty-Tailed Platypus

And tell me - how do you recycle your old tea bags?

Rejuvenation Project

Have you met my friend Tora?

Over on Ravelry she calls herself Gypsy Dancer... and she is the artist behind The Art of Notions. Tora makes the most exquisite ceramic yarn bowls. She's taking a little break from it at the moment, but here's some photos of her work which has sold on Etsy.

Anyway, in addition to all of that... Tora is one of my fabulous moderators over at the Laughing Purple Goldfish Designs group on Ravelry. 

At the moment, Tora is hosting the July Rejuvenation Project. The idea is that you take an item of clothing from your 'fix-it' pile, and transform it using either knitting or crochet - into a new wearable piece.

So the first thing on my pile was a pair of bootleg pants belonging to Miss Katie. Check out the left hand side, just above the knee:

Nothing fancy... as you can see...

And here's the problem:

So I've taken a scrap of leather:

And marked out a heart shape, with a crayon of course:

Snip, snip:

Now I wanted to pre-drill some holes, so I could crochet around the edge. I tried it without thread in my sewing machine... but I couldn't see the holes in the dark leather! So I've stitched around the edge, and will remove the thread as I work" 

The plan was to crochet directly into these holes... but I bent my fine hook in the process, so I'm working a blanket stitch around the edge - then I will crochet into that.

Working some single crochet around the edge:

And a few picots, too:

Of course, as soon as this patch was stitched in place.. .I discovered two holes in the other leg!

So I worked up a few motifs:

Plus this:

And we're done!

Now what will YOU rejuvenate this month???

No.

Just NO.

The Ugly Stepsister

Remember I was talking last week about making the slippers with the Granny Square top on them?

Well, I've made a pretty good start on them...



I've chosen the yarn. If the colours are looking a bit familiar to you, it's because you read my post yesterday about the Flaming Lamborghini bag. The mustard and the orange are both 100% Wool, leftover from the bag. The reds are a bit thin, so I'm going to work the two of them together as one strand - one is a Cotton and the other is a Crepe, so I'm hoping that together they will add some durability to the base. All of the yarns are from my Recycled Stash.



The base of the slippers is a simple rectangle. What I love about it though, is that it is worked in Half Double Crochet stitch through the Back Loops Only.



It creates the most wonderful thick squishy fabric... kind of hard to represent through photos, but this next one gives you an idea:

(and this pattern uses a DOUBLE sole... so there are two of these pieces underfoot when you are wearing the slippers - squishy, squishy, SQUISHY!)



Sounds heavenly, right?

But here's my first problem.

Look at the size of this thing... 13 cm.




I've just measured the shoes I'm wearing right now - and they are 27.5cm long. Good Old Dunlop Volleys. But that's besides the point...

The base of these slippers is less than half the length of my shoes - this is NOT GOOD.

But do I stop there and check my gauge/tension?


NO.


Why not?


Because I am the Eternal Optimist when it comes to these things, and I just KNOW it will work out in the end.


Plus I'm lazy and I hate to SWATCH. Ugh.


So I keep going.



As you can see, the slipper has gained a little length as I continued with the pattern.

A whole 4cm.




Really not enough. But I've read the project notes on Ravelry from other people who have used the pattern, and many of them say that the slippers seemed small at first, but stretched beautifully to fit their foot...



So I'm hopeful.

But I don't want to try them on just yet...



I'll weave the ends in first, and then see how we go.

Though I'm expecting to feel a little like an Ugly Stepsister trying on the Glass Slipper...

July Challenge.

Hello July!

I know that I'm a few days late, but it's time for My July Challenge. And would you believe that it's not a toy this time? Instead it's a bag. This fabulous, bright, chunky knit bag - which looks just a little like a Jester's Hat gone wrong...

Come and join us in my Ravelry group if you are interested.

Debbie was the winner of Our Dragon Challenge and so she had the fun of choosing the design for this month - an Olympic Inspired Bag...

I had to tiptoe around this theme a bit. You just have to be so careful with registered trademarks and the likes. So there could be no coloured rings, or logos, or anything which would clearly identify the piece with the Olympics.... Aaaargh!

So I started thinking along the lines of vaguer Olympic references... 

like the torch... and began to feel a little flame inspired instead...

Now are you wondering about the name?

Well, I was just starting out on the bag when I received some photos via email from my Dad. They were snapshots from his recent Malaysian holiday. Harmless enough, one would think!

But NO... here he is in a local bar drinking a Flaming Lamborghini. The entire length of the bar is in flames. And there he is, calming sipping his drink through the straw - as the flames dance up and down the bar. Who are you and what have you done with my real Dad???? 

It was all VERY bizarre!

So I've gone with a theme of fire and flames, and thrown it all together in this little bag,

which kind of has a bit of a jester thing going on too!



And if all else fails - you can always wear it as a hat!

Come and join in the fun.

You never know, YOU could be the one choosing the next challenge.

   

Winner Announced

I am blown away by all these FABULOUS entries for Our Platypus Challenge...

It was impossible to choose a winner,

 so I chose my Favourite Four - and then randomly selected one!

Congratulations to Kreidawh...

Now you get to choose a project for me to design for the next Crochet Challenge...

And the runners up:

 

Dawn:

Daphne:

and Wendy:

So tell me... which one would you have chosen, and why?

Ooooohhhh... and the PDF Crochet Pattern is now available for sale!

The downloaded pattern can be yours immediately for AU$4.50