Project a Day: #12 Fillet Crochet Cowl

Wow, what a day! My Aunt Charmaine and her son Reynier are visiting with my parents from Pretoria for a few days, so I've been out and about with them. It's so wonderful to see them! They leave again on Sunday so our time together is very short.

This morning I had a few thing to do in town so of course I did my charity rounds. I found some lovely things which I will be sharing with you later. I also saw the first whale of the season! And tomorrow I'm going out on the Whale Charter with my family! Poor Dave has to be at work...I love having flexi hours! Only problem is, the last time I was on a deep sea boat I got sea-sick. I sure hope I'll be okay tomorrow, I would like to be able to enjoy it and take loads of photo's.

Okay... back to the project. Last year my aunt Leiro, gave me this awesome vintage crochet book. I've tried out a few of the patterns already. Then I found a lost skein of blue acrylic wool in a bag of thrifted goodies and thought to make a one-skein-project. Flipping through my vintage chrochet book, I came across a fillet crochet pattern chart. I started with it immediately and worked until the wool was finished. I added buttons and my cowl neck scarf was done. Easy as pie!

 -It looks quite interesting when it's on and it's such a soft acrylic too. Unfortunately, most thrifted wool don't have they're labels on anymore, so I don't know what it is if I wanted to get more-

 

 -What a lovely book this is. Above, you can see the chart I used was actually meant to be a bedspread. I only used a small section of the chart to make my scarf more appealing to the eye-

 

  -I love how it's casual and stylish at the same time. I added vintage wooden buttons which gives it a real nice touch. I hope that my shenanigans are at least a tiny bit inspiring to you and that you can see that things don't always have to be what someone said they should be-

Have a lovely Friday and then it's weekend!

xxx

Project a Day: #11 Quick and easy Collar Scarf

Ah! This was a quick one, I worked on this one over the weekend. It's as simple as buy two 5og skeins of Fancy wool, cast on 20 stitches on appropriate sized needles, knit garter stitch until you reach 62cm(24.5") and then cast off. Take a ribbon or lace of your choice measuring 2m(+/-2.5 yards), weave it through the knitted piece as shown below and Bob's your uncle.  

 -It came out quite lovelier than I'd imagined-

-It reminds me of those fur stoles the ladies of the 1920's used to wear, chic and warm too. would look fabulous with a black lace flapper dress-

xxx

Project a Day: Project #7 finished at last!

Hi friends, it's such a lovely Wednesday here in Hermanus. It's a bit nippy, but beautiful non the less! This month's Project a Day challenge didn't quite go the way I planned. Did you ever get so busy that you hit a complete blank? I have loads and loads of half finished projects just waiting be picked up but before I know it, I'm starting at least three NEW projects! 

Project #7  was started way back on the 7th of this month but it took much longer than I had initially thought. It must have something to do with the fact that each bobble stitch is a x4 repetition of "yarn over, pull-up yarn" this took quite some doing. I decided to keep this project close by. If ever there was a second to spare, I would crochet a few bobble stitches. So at long last it is finished and oh so cosy.  

 -what a wonderful feeling to have stuck it out and at last finished this snood-scarf-

-It so warm and funky and you can really play around with it. I must say, I'm quite in love with the snug-ness, hehe-

 

-In the top image, you can see that I made it quite broad and fairly long and then joined the ends to make it an infinity scarf. In the bottom image, I have wrapped it around my neck twice. This makes for a thick "wind-proof" snood. LOVE.love.LOVE-

xxx

Project a Day: #10 From Old Blanket to New Scarf

Welcome! If you're here for the first time, thank you for joining us. I'm currently busy with a "Project a Day" which was interrupted by good times and family visits but now I'm back and we continue to Project #10. In my previous post, I told you about the crochet blanket I found at a local charity shop and how damaged it was when I opened it up at home.As I was taking it apart, I got this idea to make an infinity scarf(I'm kinda addicted to those).

 -Ta-daaaa! This was quick and really fun to make. It's also one of the coziest scarves I've ever made-

 

-There was really nothing to it. I used squares from my damaged thrifted blanket, added rows where needed and crocheted them together in the round. To finish it off, I added three rows on either side and that's me finished-

-There is a scarf-project in our little town for the disabled children of the Camphill School in Hermanus. My gran knitted a right fluffy one while they were here and so I decided to donate this one to Camphill School. I hope that my scarf will keep someone snug this winter-

xxx

A lucky find and a challenge

Oh my goodness! I do so apologize for my complete absence. My grandparents were visiting from Pretoria and I ended up playing chaperone. So for the full week I didn't even get to switch on my Mac. My parents just took my grandparents to the train station in Cape Town, where they'll be taking the train back to Pretoria. It was lovely having them here, we had them for the long weekend. I took my gran for a walk in our lovely area, unfortunately my grandad got the flue during his stay so he couldn't walk with us. Also it was my mom's 50th last week, so we had quite a crazy past ten days. 

Now I'm back! I would like to share this find with you. I was in town on business and a few minutes to burn. Off course I quickly ran into one of my favourite charity shops to have a look at what's new and there I found this bag with a massive crochet granny square blanket in it. As I was pressed for time, I didn't open it up or inspect it in any way. When I got home and opened it up to put it in the wash, this is what I found.

 

 -The blanket was riddled with holes. It was a bit of a bummer but it had only cost me R15(+/- $1,50) so I saw this as a challenge-

-I started Frogging (unraveling) the blanket with the intent of fixing it up. As I continued, I found that there were way more smaller holes and that simply fixing it wasn't an option. I then decided to Frog everything with holes, use the wool for something else and the blocks without holes I'll used for quick projects. I've still got quite a bit of frogging to do-

Have a lovely Wednesday

xxx

Project a Day: #9 Pom-Pom Shoe Clips

And so the new week begins... to tell you guys the truth, I really didn't feel like blogging right now. It's so cold here, I just want to sit under a blanket with a hot cup of Chai Tea and watch a movie. But here I am, blogging, for you guys. Because I looooove you :))

After my Pom-Pom making post, I got stuck on making more and ended up making these really cute shoe clips.

What you need to make the Flower Pom clips:

-two small pom-poms

-four crochet leaves

-felt in your colour of choice

-two 'clip-on-earring' clips

 -a glue gun

How to: 

1. Gather your gear. Cut four small heart shapes out of your felt.
2. Sew two crochet leaves to one of the felt hearts, as indicated.
3. Cut a small slit in the middle of your second felt heart. Now take a clip, open it up and slide it through the slit just made. Just like I did on picture #3.
4. With your glue gun, put a glue-drop on the inside of the clip(that is between the clip and the felt), press the two together for the glue to set.
5. Glue your pom-pom on top of your felt heart with the sewn on leaves. Glue the felt heart with the clip attached, to the back of the felt heart with the pom-pom and leaves on it. As shone in picture #5. That's your Flower Pom done. (make two)

What you need to make the Blue Pom clips:

-two small pom-poms

-two 'clip-on-earring' clips

-a glue gun

How to:

6. Simply glue the clip to the pom-pom and you're set. (make two) 

 -enjoy this fun look, I did-

xxx

Project a Day: #8 Making Pom-Poms

Oh, what a lovely Sunday morning I had... My Grandparents arrived yesterday and are staying with my parent for the week and then we'll have them for the weekend coming! We went to greet them today. Ah, how lovely to see them again, it been about a year now. It's going to be a full and busy week, I can tell you that!

I visited my friend, Irma's little shop Matchbox again and came home with some awesome stuff! Like for instance, this Pom-Pom maker set. It's made in Britten and it's got instructions on how to make various pom-pom pets!

-as you can see in the photo above, there is a small and medium sized round pom-pom maker template. Then there is also an oval shaped template. What do you think of the packaging, neat, huh?-

So here's what you gotta do:

1. Gather your gear! Choose your wool and the size template you would like to use.
2. Holding a negative and a positive half together, start wrapping the yarn around the template until you feel you want to stop.
3. When both pairs are fully wrapped, match up the positive and negative ends and click them in place.
4. Placing the tip of the scissor in the small gap between the ends, start cutting the wrapped yarn right around...
5. This is what it will look like when you're done cutting.
6. Cut a piece of yarn about 20 cm(8") long, slip in between the templates as indicated, tie the yarn and pull as tight as you can. Make a knot.
7. You can now remove the template pieces.
8. Trim off any ends that might be sticking out and there you have your Pom-Pom!

All Done!

xxx

Project a Day: #7 Crochet Infinity Snood

It's weekend again! It's really getting cold here where we live and I thought to add a scarf to my winter collection. I bought an infinity scarf last year which is positively awesome! I wear it every other day. It's the same colour the sky was today, like a stormy, cloudy blue. It unfortunately doesn't go with everything so I decided to make a similar one in an emerald green(a colour I'm favouring this season). The day I decided to start the scarf I found a pattern I thought would be perfect but it wasn't. So I used the bobble stitch from that pattern and started my own. Click here for that pattern.

 -I've been working on this scarf half the day now, I didn't think it would take so long to finish. Maybe it's because I made it so broad. I had to though, for it to have that snug snood effect. I'll be working on it little by little everyday and will post the finished product soon, hopefully-

...Stay tuned :))

xxx

Project a Day: #6 Necklace Revamp and a New Idea

Hello friends, I can't believe it's Friday already! It is really starting to scare me how fast the time is passing! Today is my friend Adrienne's birthday and we couldn't even be there to celebrate with her :( Tomorrow, my Grandparents are visiting from Pretoria. We haven't seen them for about a year now. My Gran or Ouma Pollie as we call her, is my biggest fan! I can't wait to see them again! 

Getting down to business, on Thursday I visited my mom again and continued with revamping her jewellery. She had this really ugly little necklace with tinted shell beads(disks), which she loved so much. She wore this thing so many times that all the colour came off the shell beads. When I started on it, it was so gucky on account of the tint making everything sticky. So I took the whole thing apart!

 -I don't know if you can see how the tint has come off the shell beads on this photo. I really don't like this colour combo-

 -My mom has a few strings of beads that she likes wearing in the summer so I thought to make this one to match those in length and then she can wear them all together-

 -When taking apart that old gucky necklace, I got the idea to make a whole new necklace. Using the idea of a few strings of beads together using a bell-cap at the ends and the rest kind of evolved on it's own. It was quite difficult to work and take photo's with this one. I added two chains to the part with the beads and then I added charms to the bottom chain using my long-nose-pliers and tiny O-rings. Spacing them evenly, you can add as many as you like-

 

1.  Taking the second chain(which is the top of the two)...
2. Using beading pins, I usually pack them all and then decide in what order I will place them.
3. Now start by taking the pin with the beads on one by one, measure about the width of your index finger and...
4. Cut using a wire cutter or the clipping part at the back of your long-nose-pliers.
5. Now take your round-nose-pliers and roll the remaining part of the pin sticking out, into a nice little circle. Be sure to bend it closed at the bead.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 until all your beaded pins are done, attach to that second chain the same way  you did the charms...

...And Voila!

-There it is! I've still got one more necklace revamp to do and then my mom will have a whole new set of accessories to play with-

xxx

Project a Day: #5 My Little Capelet

Another week at it's halfway mark! I sometimes feel like someone has accidentally sat on life's remote and now we're stuck on Fast-Forward mode. I hope you're all enjoying your week so far, mine hasn't been great but it's getting better. Oh yes, I almost forgot! Project #5! This one was inspired when I was digging my old scarves out of my storage crates. I found my very first Mohair and Merino wool scarf. My Gran had given me a baggy full of bits and pieces of Mohair and Merino wool. Off-cuts of her last knitting project. It was a merry mess of a tangle and it took ages to get it sorted. I knotted every last piece together to make up a few balls of continuous yarn. This was my very first experience working with natural fibers of hand spun wool. As I wasn't very experienced in crochet back when I was still studying, my little scarf turned out quite stiff. I only new one stitch, the double crochet stitch and my tension was terribly tight. So, I decided to frog it! And make something new, this Capelet.

 -This to me about a day to make, I had to change the pattern a bit because it was very small around the neck. It's still a little tight, but it's okay. The Mohair and Merino wool make this a warm little capelet. It will be perfect for Spring-

 

 -Above you can see my old scarf and the frogging process-

 -This is a very cute pattern, if you would like to try it for yourself, click here to find the pattern on Ravelry-

xxx

Project a Day: #4 Re-vamping Old Jewellery

Hiya friends, I hope you had a lovely Tuesday! Our lovely winter rain is persisting and as the weather turns from cold to freezing, I find myself wanting to crochet the whole time. This presents a problem as I have work that needs to get done! Any-hooo... I was visiting with my mom today and she keeps telling me how she's got no accessories. They're all either old, faded or broken. I told her to gather up all the jewellery that she wants to throw out and give it to me. I laid them out on the table, brainstormed a while, fetched my beading gear and started off.

 -my mom bought this necklace a while ago and loved it so much that she couldn't stop wearing it. You can see in the detail cloud above that most all of the silver plaiting has been worn off and some of the beads have lost their colour-

-I simply removed all the useable beads from the old necklace and chucked what was left. Having measured the length of the old necklace, I cut a chain and attached a lobster clasp. I then measured the middle of the chain and started adding the old bead to the new chain working from the middle outward. Then I added charms I knew my mom would love and a hint of purple to give it a fresh new look. No surprise she loves this one too!

It's really fun to re-vamp old favourite accessories and it's kind to your environment to reduce, re-use, recycle!

xxx

Project a Day: #3 Winter Flower Brooch

Winter is here my friends! It's been raining quite a bit and today was freezing! As I was thinking of the cold, I realized that I've never made fabric flowers with winter wovens and chunky thick fabric before. This one was a bit of an experiment to see how these fabric would work technically. It is a bit difficult to sew by hand, as the fabric becomes thicker when scrunched together and even thicker the more layers you add. Not that practical as a product for selling because of the tedious sewing work. It was also very time consuming.

 -I used scraps of fabric (thrifted), bits and bobs to add accents and I ended up using different buttons than shown in the top image. The buttons I used are also thrifted and oh so vintage-

xxx

Project a Day: #2 Crochet Aviator's Hat

What a mission to find cute patterns for baby boys! I had to improvise with this one. It was quite difficult to find the right sizes for babies and as I hadn't met my cousin Christa's little boy, Lucian yet, this was no easy task. I came across this(puppy dog hat pattern) pattern but I wanted to make an Aviator's hat because his baby shower theme was Little Traveler and they themselves do a lot of traveling. So I used the base of this pattern and instead of adding the ears and face, I added a little flap and sewed it up with a couple of buttons.

 -these earthy tones suited my idea of a Little Traveler. Once again, I used a mix of acrylic yarns both from my stash and thrifted-

 

-For the added flap I literally just added sc rows until I was happy with the length. I then folded it up and sewed it in place with these cute boyish buttons. When I was just about finished, I thought "oh, crap! this looks way too small!" I told my Cousin she can always give it to Alandra to put on one of her dolls and then I'll make Lucian a bigger one. My parents thought this was hilarious, I didn't think it funny at all! It took quite some doing to make this little hat-

xxx

Project a Day: #1 Crochet Poncho

And here we go again! My new 30 Day Challenge is one filled with projects. Gifts made for friends and family, half finished projects to be completed, new stock to be made and so forth. In this challenge I will share patterns found on the web, patterns I wrote, quick DIY's and simply the things made a day.

This first project is a crochet poncho for my Cousin, Christa's little girl, Alandra. She turned three last week Thursday. When I found this pattern on Pinterest, I new I was going to be needing it soon. If you want to make this easy little poncho, just click on the links provided for the step-by-step tutorial. This project took me about six hours to complete which makes it perfect for a weekend project or even the long road. I found this pattern to be quite clear and easy to follow, no funny business.

 -These colours reminded me of Autumn back in Pretoria, such rich and warm colours. Perfect for winter in South Africa. I used a mix of acrylic yarns from my stash and the maroon yarn is thrifted. As these are of different thickness, I used the DK yarn according to the pattern, the thinner yarns I added a dc stitch(making it 3 dc stitches per chain space) and the maroon I held double throughout- 

 -Project #1 is done and dusted! I will try to get my Cousin to take a picture of Alandra wearing her lovely new poncho, so I can post it here for you guys to see how cute is looks on-

xxx

30 Days of Dresses: Dress #31

Hiya friends, it's weekend! And it's pouring, the winter is finally here. Dave is baking pancake tonight, I can't wait! I LOVE pancakes! So a few posts ago, I told you I was a challenged to make Dave wear a dress for my 30 Days of Dresses and that he accepted this challenge. Well, here it is! Dave in a dress and not just any dress. My Gran (Ouma Paulina) has been following this Dress Challenge from beginning to end and every time I posted a new dress she asked "when is the green one coming?". Here we have two flies with one swat! 

-hehehe! just look at that pose! thank you so much for all your help, my Lovey. for reminding me to take the dress photo when I forgot and for encouraging me when I didn't want to. I love you-

That concludes the 30 Days of Dresses challenge.

Thank you for joining me, the past 30 Days and for all your kindness.

xxx