All posts in category Crochet

Playtime!

Hi everyone,

I’ve got the day off today, Yippee! That means playtime for me. You may remember that my friend Lin sent me a parcel for Christmas which contained a novel type of weaving loom. At last I’ve had time to play with it this morning.

It came with very clear photo instructions with written details in many languages. The idea is to wind the yarn around and around the pegs and then use the bendy needle to make some special double knots at the crossover positions.

Once everything is secured, the weaving can be removed from the loom, and after some simple crochet around the edge, the Granny style square is done.

The winding took less than five minutes to do, the stitching probably about ten minutes and the crochet took me forever because I wasn’t too sure where to crochet. Anyway, as you can see, I managed in the end and future squares will be a lot quicker to make. I used scrap wool for this trial square and I think, next time, I’ll use more chunky yarn to plump it up a bit. I can feel a new scarf coming on. The position of the pegs can be changed to make larger designs. My square is about 5 inches across.

Thank you for providing me with something new to learn and play with Lin. That was fun 🙂

I hope you are all getting time to craft this week.

16 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on February 3, 2016 • Permalink

Posted in Crochet

Tagged craft, crochet, embellishment, handmade, interior design, loom, motif, wool, yarn

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on February 3, 2016

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/playtime/

Happy Dancing!

Good evening everyone,

Do you remember this blanket that I started to crochet using a load of brightly coloured left over yarn from a previous project?

This is me snuggling underneath it while I crocheted more and more and more. Thank goodness it’s been a cool summer so far.

Well this is what it looks like now. It’s finished 🙂

I promise you it is a perfect rectangle in real life and it didn’t need to be blocked either. I had to climb to the very top of the step ladders and hold the camera against the ceiling to take this photo. I still couldn’t fit it all in properly. With the side of my face pinned to the ceiling, it took a few clicks to get this photo. I couldn’t really see what I was taking and this one is the best of a bad bunch!

I finished the edges with black, then turquoise, then black again and I’m happy with the way it turned out.

The finished size of this blanket is 52 x 56 inches and I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn. It’s 100% acrylic and won’t last a lifetime but this blanket has been made to be used. It’s already kept me warm during a chilly June 🙂

Now, credit where credit is due. The free pattern is from Not Your Average Crochet. It’s called the As-We-Go Stripey Blanket. I used the pdf version with the photos. I’m in no way an expert at crochet and the photos plus a couple of Youtube videos helped a lot. I’m so grateful to Hannah for sharing her pattern for free and I’ve learned lots of new stitches from her along the way.

If you want to see more versions of this blanket in different colour ways (I appreciate that my ever so bright colour choice won’t suit everyone), you’ll find lots to inspire you in Google images. Go on, have a go at making one of your own.

Avis x

25 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on July 8, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in 2015, Crochet, Finished!, Stripey blanket

Tagged craft, crochet, handmade, interior design, Stylecraft Special DK, wool, yarn

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on July 8, 2015

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/happy-dancing-3/

Back to crochet…

Good morning everyone,

We have wonderful blue skies and bright sunshine here today. However, yesterday was dull, wet and windy and not the kind of day to spend outdoors. In fact, it was so dark in the house, I needed something to brighten my spirits. You may remember, way back in January, that I started to use up all of the scraps I had left over from this Double Vision blanket.

The original design is by Woolly Thoughts and you can find the free pattern on Ravelry here, though I didn’t stick to it rigidly.

Anyway, there was a lot of lovely scraps left from this project and, you know me, I don’t like having scraps cluttering up my drawers. I much prefer to use them up before buying more crafting supplies. The As-We-Go Stripey Blanket from Not Your Average Crochet caught my eye. It’s the perfect scrappy project.

This is where I got up to in January…..

…..and here it is now.

Hopefully, that brightened your day 😉

How big is it, I hear you ask. So far, it’s a huge shawl size. I’ve completed about 50 of the 131 rows on the pattern. If my scraps run out, I’ll stop. If they don’t, I can feel a jazzy border coming on (as if it needs one LOL). To give you a better idea of the size, here it is in all of it’s dazzling brightness, much better than giving the measurements 🙂

I’m so pleased I’ve picked this one up to finish. It was all spurred on by a moment of retail therapy (madness) last week. I love looking at yarn and I’ve been missing my knitting. A friend recently told me that she is knitting loads of 6 inch squares with a group of other ladies. They will all be joined together to make a huge scarf which will be wrapped around a local hall as part of a fundraising event. It made me want to knit so I’ve bought 14 balls of this wool from Deramores in the watercolours shade and it’s on its way to me now. At the moment, I have a plan of what I want to make with it but I’ll keep it close to my chest as the plan could well change by the time I get around to it. The crochet blanket has to be finished before I start any other woolly project. Now, there’s an incentive to finish if ever there was one 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful day today. It’s a Bank Holiday Monday here so I can play all day if I want to!

Avis x

24 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on May 4, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in Crochet, Stripey blanket

Tagged As We Go Stripey Blanket, blanket, craft, crochet, Double Vision, handmade, interior design, knitting, knitting needles, knitting pins, pattern, wool, yarn

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on May 4, 2015

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/back-to-crochet/

You call those scraps?

Hi everyone,

I thought you might like to see the start of my new project. You may recall the knitted blanket I finished recently, the brightly coloured squares one. Well, would you believe I could make an even brighter blanket?

I had quite a lot of scraps of all the different colours from the knitted blanket as you can see here. My other half exclaimed “You call those scraps?”. Well, any bits and bobs that are left over from previous projects and not bought specifically for a particular item are “scraps” in my eyes. There’s about 1200g of Double Knit yarn here.

I did add a couple of balls from my old scrap bag to make up the weight that I needed to make this lovely free pattern from the Not your Average Crochet blog. The pattern was originally run as a Crochet Along but I missed that opportunity ages ago. It has loads of close up photographs and is a dream to follow. I have never done many of these stitches before so I’m learning a lot Smile .

Some of my photos were taken in poor electric light and are just provided to give you an idea of my progress. I’ve just taken the final photo in daylight which gives a much better idea of the colours but it still isn’t as brightly coloured as in real life.

Have you got your sunglasses ready? Be warned.

It was easy to begin with. Just make sure the starting chain has the correct number of stitches.

Those Catherine Wheel stitches were challenging for me but I managed in the end Smile . Easy bits to follow…

More easy bits including the star stitches in pale blue. This photo has gone very blue on its own!

Here is where I’m up to now.

It’ll be about 52 inches long and I’ll keep going adding more rows until I run out of scraps. I’m already looking for the next woolly project but won’t start anything else until this one is done. It could take a while Smile .

Happy hooking!

Avis x

32 Comments

by Sewing Beside the Sea on January 12, 2015 • Permalink

Posted in Crochet, Stripey blanket

Tagged blanket, craft, crochet, handmade, interior design, pattern, Scraps, wool, yarn

Posted by Sewing Beside the Sea on January 12, 2015

https://sewingbesidethesea.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/you-call-those-scraps/