More crochet…..

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I’ve really got hooked (no pun intended, honest) on crochet.  It’s so much easier to transport about than knitting.  In particular I  love making granny squares.  It’s mad really as I make them and then don’t know what I’m going to make with them.  So I’ve found making the baby blankets quite a useful way of combining my love of granny squares and also then having something to make with them.

Over recent weeks I’ve been making two blankets, one for an order and another just for fun.

Close up of flower square

I’ve also trialled a frilly edge to the combined squares.

Blanket edge

I’m experimenting with treble crochet, to make the frill. I quite like the effect using 6 treble crochet in each space. I’ve also used a seven stitch ‘frill’ with 1 double crochet, 1 half-treble, 3 treble, 1 half-treble and 1 double crochet. I can’t make up my mind which I like best.

My next blanket is sat in a pile of blue and white squares at the moment, so I need to get sewing them together and then working on a edge. I might try the other frill edge this time.

Happy crafting
x

Bury Show 2014

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The 71st Bury Show is to be held on Sunday 29th June. So with less than two weeks to go, I thought I’d better start thinking about what I’m going to enter into the craft classes. I am hoping to do better than last years, two third places.

This year there are a couple of changes in the classes. I was thinking about making a granny square drawstring bag for the knitting and crochet section, however, the remit is now to make something for a baby or toddler. As I’m making a number of crochet blankets at the moment, I thought I might enter one of those, so it’s time to put all my squares together and finish off my blue and white blanket. I managed to make a small white flower in the car and I plan to put that in the centre of a square for the middle of the blanket. Hopefully I will have enough time to make a bag too and I could enter that into the ‘all other crafts’ section.

I will also aim to enter a handmade card as well. Learning from last years entries, parchment craft goes down well, so I shall be thinking about how I can add a different skill to my entry this year.

Happy Summer Crafting
x

Father’s Day

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A Happy Father’s Day for all the Dads out there.

I visited my Dad with his handmade card and a bottle of wine today. Something to drown his sorrows over the England World Cup result last night.

Golfing Card

We then went on a family day trip to the seaside, some good Daddy – daughter time for my little family.

Happy Father’s Day
x

Card Candi

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I’ve had a bag of Craftwork Cards, Card-candi for ages now and hardly used it at all. I think the only thing I’ve used it for is to add occasional details on the corners or edges of cards. It’s great for that, but I though I should maybe try something new with it.

Having seen a number of the shows on Create and Craft TV, I was inspired to try making some simple flowers from the card candi. As my daughter has a couple of school friend birthday parties coming up, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to use some pink and make some little flowers.

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This card candi is a really different product and comes in all sorts of colours and designs. I think I will be investing in more in the future. It’s great to use with the kids too as you can make all types of designs with it. My daughter likes making patterns and caterpillars with it. My next project is to do some experimenting and investigating you tube for more ideas.

What do you make with yours?

Happy crafting
x

A Fabulous Prize

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The other day I was browsing facebook when I happened across a message suggesting checking the ‘other’ box in the messages section.  It was from Craftseller magazine, as they had contacted the winners of some prizes and hadn’t heard from them.  So I thought, that’s worth checking as I hadn’t checked in a while…. and low and behold, I was one of the winners they were hoping to hear from!

Well the prize has now arived, and it is fabulous.

Satchel

Isn’t it lovely? Such a great size satchel.  It will come in very useful for transporting my crafting projects when I go on my travels! 

The moral of this story, is always check your e-mails (spam) and messages on social media.

Happy crafting
x

Shabby Chic?

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The shabby chic style seems set to continue as a trend in home decor and cardmaking. It hasn’t been a trend that I have taken too. Don’t get me wrong, I do like examples of it, however, it hasn’t been something I have been able to make successfully.

But since my lovely relaxed holiday I have been open to trying some new things and thought I’d have a go at making the shabby chic look fit in with my clean and simple style. I like to use fonts in my work, though I often don’t get the opportunity. This week I was asked to make a couple of wedding cards using the word ‘LOVE’ as the focus.

I found a lovely free font which I was able to resize to make it the main topper. I had seen some other cards with ripped pieces of papers used to mat and layer, so I thought I’d give it a try. This is what I came up with….

Wedding love card 2

Wedding Love card

It was great fun to go through all my papers and putting them together. A great way of using up some of the bits in my bit box. I love the kraft card, and I am going to experiment further with my paper crimper, to give some additional texture to the cards. I think the shabby look of the papers works well in contrast with the shaped card.

I’d love to hear what you do with shabby chic or what you think of my cards.

Happy crafting
x

New Favourite Magazine

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I think I’ve rambled before about my love of crafting magazines. I don’t think I’m alone in this and in that I have generally chosen the magazine based on the whether I want the free gift on the cover or not! Sometime last year I rediscovered my passion for knitting and wanted to find some new patterns, and it was this that lead me to the newsagents and a really good browse of the shelves. Here I found Let’s Get Crafting: Knitting and Crochet. What a great find. Appealing totally to my need to make something immediately, it comes with a pack of yarn, knitting needles and a crochet hook. And the magazine itself is packed with patterns, both knitting and crochet, to make with the free gift. There are also a few patterns to make with your own yarn too. There a loads of quick and simple ideas and some more involved makes, like items of clothing. What I also love is the guide at the back with diagrams and instructions on how to do some of the stitches used in the makes.

I think it is well worth the £8.99 price tag. I will have to look into a subscription!

I bought the latest issue to take on my holiday, but I was not allowed to take the knitting needles or crochet hook on the plane unfortunately. So I spent my journey reading through all the article, lovely patterns and deciding what to have a go at. I was also thrilled to see that I had been published on the letters page.

Hop and Chirp

My little ‘Hop and Chirp’ that I made for my daughter and nephew for Easter were made using patterns in the magazine, and it was a lovely surprise to see them in the magazine.

As a thank you for sending in my photo, they have sent me a gift of stitch makers and pattern bookmarks! A very nice touch.

It is definitely worth having a look at this magazine, whether you are new to knitting and crochet or an old hand. And if you do make something from their patterns, then send them a photo on their facebook page, you never know, you could be in the next issue too!

Happy crafting
x

Back Home

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Well I’m back from sunny Portugal and straight into half-term holidays for my daughter. So I’m now catching up with washing and cleaning, as well as trying to find interesting things to do for the next week or so, to keep her entertained!

But my batteries are well and truly recharged and it’s time to start on some of my orders, finishing off some partially made items and thinking about what to make and enter into the next Bury Show at the end of June.

I had a lovely surprise delivery whilst I was away. Well several actually. I had placed an order for some crochet cotton and a new adhesive pack from Create and Craft which arrived, but I also won some gifts from doCrafts in the May magazine giveaways.

GIveaway delivery

Now to get doing something with them all. I’m particularly intrigued by the icing roller.

Happy half term crafting
x

Crafting in the Sun

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Well, I’ve taken the plunge and had a weeks holiday in Portugal, leaving Hubby, daughter and the crafting at home!

It’s so lovely to completely chill out in the sunshine, without sneezing from hayfever.  I haven’t completely left all the crafting at home though.  I was hoping to be able to crochet on the plane, but I was told I couldn’t take a crochet hook in the my hand luggage.  So I had to make do with reading my latest issue of ‘LGC Knitting and Crochet’ instead.

Anyway,  I have been doing some crochet practice and have made a couple of small items using new stitches.  So here’s my first doily.

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It was lovely to use some new techniques and to practice changing yarns.

Next is my first little bowl, with a lacy base! My daughter has now claimed this for her bedroom.

Crochet bowl

It’s been such a lovely relaxing break and I have really recharged my batteries, ready for Half term when I get home!

Happy crafting
x

New crochet blanket

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I’m working on another crochet blanket, blue this time.  I posted a snap of the first part a week or so ago and I thought I’d show a bit more.

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I have eight completed squares with the white rows at different points in each square.  I plan to do 2 of each square and then sew them all together with a white border.

I shall post more pictures as I progress.

Happy crafting
x