Some Crochet Gifts and Knitted Hats and a quick trip to England!

Welcome back, my dear Friends,

December Greetings to you all! Hasn't time gone quickly!!! Thanks for your kind responses to my last post!

Finally time for a quick update!

We went for a quick trip this weekend to England, leaving in the very early hours of Saturday, arriving there mid morning and arriving back here in Belgium last night! A very short trip indeed!


Knitted Hats

First of all, I want to share my latest little knits with you:

Here are 2 more knitted hats I made during the last 2 weeks, using 2 different stitch patterns. I knit all my hats in the round, casting on with 4mm needles for the rib and then 5.5mm needles for the body of the hat. For these two hats I used shaping to create a rounder shape, the previous 2 hats were knit in a cylindrical shape and then sewn together.

(I already gave the Grey-Green Hat to my best friend as an early Christmas gift when I visited her on Sunday morning. She put it on and loved it straight away!)

2 Cloche Style knitted hats

All 4 knitted hats that I made in the last month (Rico Tasai yarn)

Making Crochet Mini Baskets

Before leaving for England, I wanted to make some little crochet baskets for gifts. Here you can see what was going on Friday, 28.11.14:

Crochet Squares for making a Mini Basket

The finished Crochet Mini Basket (but without lining)!

Work in progress!

I found the pattern for these pretty baskets here: weblink - please check it out!

I had actually saved the link for a while, and it seemed a great opportunity to make some for Christmas! But of course, they would make great gifts all year round. They are pretty easy to make, and you could adapt the pattern in different ways.

For example, I made some versions where the side panels are different from each other, using 2 contrasting colours. Likewise, you could make them larger or smaller!

Apart from crochet, you will need some very basic sewing skills, and a sewing machine would come in very handy, especially if you want to make a whole batch of these! The lining was added to the basket and then handsewn inside. (Of course it would be possible to make the Mini Basket without lining!)

Inner Cotton lining made especially for the Crochet Baskets

29.11.14 Breakfast at Costa's in England! ;)

01.12.14  Here are 3 of the completed Mini Baskets together with the new Phone Cosy

  


A festive little Star Garland

On Saturday we went to visit one of my daughters. I made her a Star Garland in her favourite colours to match her colour scheme! She was very happy with it.

Purple White Star Garland I made for my Daughter

Stars in the Window

My Ombre Crochet Phone Cosy

I got a new mobile phone whilst in England (I had the previous one for a few years). So on the car journey back to Belgium I set about making a custom Phone Cosy for it, to protect the phone. I had never made one before, and I didn't have a pattern either, but this was a great occasion to use my own designing skills!

I decided I wanted a sort of colourful Ombre effect and I used some of the Scheepjeswol Stone Washed yarn that I had taken along to make the Crochet Baskets and also the Star Garland.

I crocheted this in the round in one go, then adding the envelope flap which I sewed to the sides. It fits quite snug without being too tight and is easy to slide in/out of the cosy, even using one hand only. The flap prevents the phone from falling out accidentally. I find it both functional and pretty!

Front

Back

My new Crochet Ombre Phone Cosy - easy to retrieve the Phone

My Harlequin Blanket

A quick glimpse on the current progress - the blanket is getting bigger and quite heavy by now:

29.11.14 Harlequin Blanket - latest progress!

And here is something that made me smile (I mentioned it in my last post) - this time I managed to grab the camera and take a quick photo of Jasper settling himself onto my Harlequin Blanket when I started to work on it! This seems to be his way of saying, thanks for making me such a squishy blanket!!! ;)

Jasper stakes his claim on the blanket!!!

About using Tags

For my latest followers here is a little tip: I add tags to each post. This means you will be able to search for a specific tag (there is a search box on the right hand side, together with a 'cloud' of tags (each tag name is 'clickable' and will come up with posts that mention that specific tag name). So for example, you can find more about the Star Garland in a previous post which includes a link to the pattern. Give it a try!

...and a question to you fellow bloggers:

I do want to learn more things all the time, so I'm currently wondering how I can add a widget that lets me add a 'Pin button' to each photo of mine here on my blog (so anybody could add it to their PINTEREST boards) and also a sort of general 'add this to Pinterest' button (i.e. a blog post). I am completely self taught when it comes to blogging and I am still learning as I go along! This is one feature that I would like to be able to use, but so far I have not quite figured it out how to do this!

I recently joined Pinterest just so I can save some visual ideas. I just thought it would be nice for my followers to add any of my images to their collection, if they wanted to.

I am using Blogger. If you have successfully managed to do this to your own blog, then please would you contact me by email (and do not fill up the comment box with complicated instructions below), that way I would be able to email you back if I got a further question, if that is ok with you?
Please kindly contact me here: scutagal (at) yahoo <dot> co <dot> uk


Well, I do hope you enjoyed reading this latest post! Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to add your comments below, I love hearing from you all. Let me know what you liked best!

Happy December!!!!

Colourful South Bay Shawlette, knitted Moebius Cowl, Queen Anne's Lace Scarf and much more!

Hello and welcome!

Thanks for your many enthusiastic responses about my last post, I loved reading your comments!

Today I have lots of things to share! Hope you are sitting in a nice warm and dry place and have a few moments for reading this!

First, my current WIP - The colourful South Bay Shawlette

I have been working on this every day, currently on my 5th 100g Ball of the colourful Fenna yarn. Here are some progress pictures:

Cleo checks out the Shawl!

27.10.14

29.10.14

I will keep working on it for a bit more! It is still slightly smaller than the SBS that I made with the Malabrigo Silky Merino yarn this summer.

As the rows are getting longer each time, it also takes longer to crochet along the outside. The (current) last row had about 540 stitches! I must have crocheted about 4 rows yesterday!

I probably would have done more, if only I had not started a new project yesterday mid day!


Queen Anne's Lace Scarf (new WIP)

This free pattern was saved in my favourites on ravelry for a long time! Basically it is a long skinny scarf with a curly motif on both sides that gets made in a continuous way, so no awkward joining up and sewing up of pesky ends!

I managed to find a good video which I followed and tested with some Scheepjeswol Stone Washed to see if I could master this pattern.

Here is another (written) pattern link in English.

As explained in the video, the pattern could be adapted with smaller/larger loops and different yarns/hook sizes. It works a treat with variegated yarns in my opinion, if you just look through the over 3000 projects featured on Ravelry!

Have any of you ever tried this out? What did you think?

Trying out the pattern first with Scheepjeswol (left) , then with Fenna (right)

Scarf detail - made with Fenna in a different colourway than the Shawl

29.10.14 Queen Anne's Lace Scarf

Such a lovely pattern!

Yesterday I managed to make 38 motifs which is about 106 cm long so far, I will probably aim to do about 60 motifs (150cm) and then it will be finished!


My finished knitted Moebius Cowl - Ta-Dah!

Moebius Cowl finished 27.10.14

Wearing my new cowl 28.10.14

Sometimes random comments spark interesting results... On Tuesday I went to the cinema to finally see 'Gone Girl' after having devoured the book in March 2014. (You can find out about the film here!)

Well, have you ever knitted in a cinema? (That is what the random remark was about). I can say now that I have! I must have knitted the last 25-30% of the above cowl in a dark cinema whilst watching the above film! It was a dare to myself and I'm happy to say no stitches were dropped (phew!) and the result was equal to my normal knitting standard! (it was also easy enough since it was all garter stitch = knit every row).  And yes, I enjoyed the movie! ;)

When I got home that evening I cast off the stitches and sewed the cowl together in a Moebius loop. (The rectangle scarf before sewing measured about 30cm wide x 100cm long). You can see me wearing it in the above photo, but in fact the cowl is stretchy enough to be worn double and is very warm.

The colours are lighter and darker Turquoise, with some brown and golden Ochre shades for contrast. I used 3x 50g balls of Rico Creative Design Melange Chunky (34) - the same yarn I used recently for my Red Shrug! It is very warm and cosy!

I have already cast on stitches with the same yarn in another colourway for a new cowl! (No photos yet)


'T Arm Schaap Knitting Group 28.10.14

Last night I went to this Knitting Group again and I got a couple of snapshots to show you:

Lots going on at the knitting group!

Crochet Mobile Phone Cover with Mini Granny Squares (by Christine)

My friend Christine (who is very active for this Knitting Group) made this adorable crochet mobile phone cover from Mini Granny Squares! (Thanks for letting me photograph it!)

You can spot Christine on the above photo (second lady on the left, wearing a striped Top). You might also spot my Harlequin blanket on the table towards the back! (Apologies for the bad quality of the 1st photo, lighting wasn't very good!)


Happy Cats!

Here are our 3 cats on the brand new Cat Seats with Scratching posts!

Cleo and Jasper demonstrating their new multistorey appartment!

Jasper in the Penthouse Pad upstairs!

Twinkle, the Invisible Cat (Jasper's brother)

Finally...

Today I received my parcel from Woolwarehouse in England! I placed the order on Friday, it was despatched on Monday and arrived here in Belgium on Wednesday morning! Fantastic service!!!

Hooray! More Stylecraft yarn for the Harlequin Blanket!

For those of you who are interested, I picked the Attic 24 pack with 17 shades, plus an additional ball of Teal. Hopefully I will have more than enough to complete my Harlequin Blanket! (Looks like I will have to wind a lot of yarn next!)

A few more things...

I also have more ideas buzzing around in my head, things I read on other blogs, that I can't wait to try out!

I was sad to read that some people have decided to take blog breaks for personal reasons, needless to say that their contributions will be missed and that I will be thinking of them! Hopefully they will return soon again.

The weather in Belgium has gotten wet and rainy, much colder now.
Having said this, it was about 20 degrees on Monday afternoon when I came out of the cinema!

Yesterday I discovered that some of my balcony plants have begon flowering anew!
I got some small pink blossoms on the Azalea and also on the Mini Chrysanthemums.
I got Cosmos and Sweetpeas flowering (from the seeds I got of the first flowers!).
Sorry, no photos for now!

Thanks for your patience in reading this! I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to post me your comments!
I am looking forward to find out what you got to say! 

My Granny Square Crochet Bag, plus: A lucky find

My Granny Square Crochet Bag

I wanted to tell you a bit more about how I made my bag. I began this project in June/July 2014 when I first managed to find Scheepjeswol Stone Washed at one of the local markets here in Antwerp. Initially only 8 colours were released (now there are 16). I chose the following colours:

RED - Red Jasper (807) *
BLUE - Blue Apatite (805)
YELLOW/SAND - Yellow Jasper (809) *
PINK - Corundum Ruby (808)
LIGHT GREEN - Canada Jasper (806)*

* I didn't choose them because they were named after one of our cats!!! (Of course, Jasper deserves to have yarn named after him!!)

I love using this yarn, it is great, no, actually my favourite, of this summer! Made of a white strand of Cotton (78%) and surrounded by a fine fuzzy outer coloured layer of Acrylic (22%). This is what creates the Stone Washed effect, it has great stitch definition! I have been using it with a 3mm hook.

My initial idea was to make a bag out of Granny Squares, possibly buying a set of handles for it. Then I discovered that there were people who used a jute bag and crocheted around it. I saw this on some Dutch blogs I was reading. By the time I came across this bag, I had already managed to crochet my 56 squares!
(Here is another lovely bag I like!) (These ladies have lovely blogs!)

As you were reading previously, this summer I was pretty busy making shawls, so this project took a little break. Meanwhile the idea of also using an inner bag took hold, but I could not find a suitable one, until a recent trip to England. (Thank you, Sainsbury's!!!) Thus equipped, I set to work and realized that by attaching the squares to each other (with the green yarn), they did not cover all the edges of the bag. So I added more green to the edges.

Laying out the granny squares in the right order

The front panel featuring 20 joined up squares

Then I ran out of green yarn, but I wanted to carry on! I started crocheting a base in black, since I reasoned that nobody would see the bottom of the bag and it might get dirty anyhow. I had made about 2/3 of it, and realized that did not make me happy. Well, I had to wait for the next market day and get some more green. Meanwhile I started again making more little squares. I worked out that I needed to make 10 more! However, I decided that they could be random squares.

Crocheting extra squares for the bottom of the bag

Finally all the pieces were finished.

Laying out the joined up panel pieces

Attaching the panels to one another

Once I had made my 'outer crochet shell', I tried it on! Then all I had to do was to sew it onto the bag using a tough and long darning needle which managed to get through all the layers! This took quite a while, but I persisted until it was complete! Ta-da!!!

The finished project! The panels had to be sewn to the bag

The happy bag posing on the sunny balcony!

Side Panel

Bottom panel

In the end I was glad that I made the bottom panel to match the rest of the bag and I felt extremely pleased. I love my new bag!!! You can fit a nice lot of yarn into it, that's for sure!

Initially I wanted to start my blog about my bag, but then I decided otherwise. You can see that my way of working is quite flexible and involves trial and error. I love to try things out and I tend to do them the way that seems best to me at that time. I do not plan every detail, but I let the project grow by itself! I did not google hundreds of images to decide what to make, I just followed my own calling!

A lucky find!

Today, we went to have a quick look at Het Kunstige Marktje in Borgerhout, Antwerpen. This was a yearly outdoor craft market. As we got there, the heavens opened and it started to rain quite heavily. Luckily I found a new friend at one of the very first stalls! What a happy purchase! He even has got a tiny badge saying 'made with love'! I had seen the pattern online (In Dutch here, and in English there!) and had saved it in my mountain of online patterns for the day when I would have the time to make it!

Henry the dachshund

Always support homemade crochet!

I love it that he has got 2 different coloured ears, so cute!

I regret that due to the weather we did not get to see everything at leisure, there were many handmade things, such as crocheted items, blankets even, sewn cushions, candles, jewellery, cards and much more. Some of the people had packed up their things as they didn't have some sort of cover. I would definitely love to go back there next time.

Later that day the rain cleared up again and we went for a nice family walk in the Kempen area of Belgium. Our walk took us across the countryside, along corn fields (I noticed how tall the plants were!), through woods, along heath, passing several small lakes. We saw 4 pheasants in an open field, dragonflies, horses grazing along a lake, so peaceful, and I discovered some frogs in standing water even! It was an enjoyable walk (and of course there was a spot of crocheting in the car!)

I hope you all had a relaxing weekend and that you have renewed energy for what the next week may bring!

Please feel free to leave me some comments, I love reading them!

A Summer Shawl's Tale

Hello again!

Remember I started this Summer Shawl on Thursday night? Well this is what it looked like after I spent quite a long time working on it during Friday. It didn't seem to grow much!!! I was using a fine yarn (Ezra) and my trusted 3mm hook.

Summer Shawl Version 1

Then I decided to try out a different yarn. I dug through my stash and came across this Flamingo Pink (!) Extra Soft Merino Cotton by SMC Select (70% Pure New Wool, 30% Cotton), recommended hook size: 3-4 mm. Ok, let's try this with a size 5mm hook! By Friday evening I had hooked up a similar size triangle with 4 pattern repeats (instead of 7).

Version 1 (Blue) vs Version 2 (Pink)

This close up shows the difference in stitch size better

And here's one I made earlier!

Well, I know, that is not a shawl! It is a WIP! I had started knitting a neckwarmer in Spring in 3 colours, but I lost interest due to the fact I got annoyed with winding the different colour yarn after each round. Well, I thanked my earlier self because this meant I could recover the 3 balls of yarn all in one long string, as it had not been cut! So I got busy with my wool winder...

Progress on Saturday morning

Saturday was busy. On our travels out we found the perfect little table for our balcony. Just big enough to put down a drink and my crochet. Purple and perfect!!

Sitting outside on the balcony enjoying the evening sunshine!

I also bought some bamboo sticks for my plants. My little sunflowers needed a bit of support! And Jasper is relaxing in his favourite spot!

Jasper loves sunflowers, too!

 Here are the bigger sunflowers, the front one had gotten bent and damaged, so I'm hoping now it might recover. Still waiting for them to start flowering. Nothing like a bit of (tiny) yarnbombing!

The larger sunflower plants - spot the yarn!

 This is what 2 x 50g yarn looks like!

Sunday morning Shawl

Meanwhile I am nearly finished with the 3rd ball of yarn. The pattern calls for a total of 4x50 g Crochet Cotton (1 of them for the contrast coloured border - you might just see this in the photo above with the book in the background). I have a feeling I will be using more. I am pondering the following questions: How large should I make this? How about using the Orange Mango coloured yarn for the top and the Blackcurrant one for the border? I only got one more ball of Pink left. It measures now 138 (of 155cm) wide and 85 of 95 cm measured on each side.

I showed you this to illustrate that sometimes, even if you are trying to follow a pattern, things do not always turn out as expected. And I am pleased with myself that I had the nerve to undo my knitting! There is no time like the present! (However, I can assure you, I still got plenty of WIP left) I don't regret it, the yarn I gained is really lovely, soft and squishy to the touch. Everything is a learning curve!