Easter weekend: crochet and cleaning
I have mentioned it before, and I'll say it again: I love crochet. Recently I've been knitting lots of squares for Knit A Square using an assortment of left over yarn given to me by a friend, but I've been feeling the need to crochet something! I could crochet squares, but I wanted to do something different.
Our flat really doesn't need any more crochet items...there are several blankets, a few decorations, and a growing menagerie of amigurumi. So to justify purchasing new yarn, I need to have a specific project in mind, and ideally it needs to be for someone else!
The fabulous Lucy over at Attic24 recently made this cushion. I admired it straight away, but didn't feel I could justify more yarn and I don't really need another cushion. But then I realised my great aunt is going to be 80 this summer, and I'm sure she'd appreciate a cushion as she loved the blanket I made her for Christmas. Then Lucy posted that Wool Warehouse would be selling packs made up of the yarn, buttons, and cushion pad needed for this cushion, and so it seemed serendipitous. The yarn in one pack is enough to make two cushions and so I bought another cushion pad and another set of buttons (well, one more cushion for the sofa won't hurt...). Add in some sock wool as a friend has requested some socks for Christmas and that pushed me over the threshold for free delivery. Result!
The package arrived at the weekend, eight balls of Stylecraft Special Chunky, two packs of rainbow coloured buttons and two cushion pads. Excellent!
Another item I received in the post this weekend was the Bergere de France Creations 2013/14 catalogue. It's full of pages giving information about their different products, with little yarn samples on the side. Very tactile and beautifully laid out. There are also accessories listed and suggested patterns. I spent a very enjoyable time flicking through it, and stroking the yarn samples. It's such a clever way of looking through all the yarn and wool available, and all the colours. Sometimes colours on a screen look very different from the real thing!
I soon started on the cushion cover. It's a simple stitch to learn, and very easy to memorise, so before too long I was doing it in front of a film (we've got a month's free trial of Sky Movies, so we've been watching a lot of films over the past few weeks!). Being chunky yarn, it grows very quickly, and is very satisfying. Isn't it lovely?
There are quite a lot of ends to sew in, as the colour changes every two rows, but I don't think it will be too arduous as long as I sew them in as I go!
For Easter, Ben made these lovely lovely lovely crochet hooks for me. They're plain boring metal crochet hooks decorated with Fimo. The top two were his first two attempts when he was getting the hang of it (and patiently working on my (constructive) comments) and his third attempt at the bottom is the best. It's the perfect size for me and fits my hand just the way I'd like a crochet hook to fit. I absolutely love them, and can't wait to start on another project which uses one of these sizes! (top is a 5mm, middle is 4mm and bottom is 3.5mm). The Attic24 cushion is made using 6mm, and unfortunately the only 6mm hook I have is plastic so can't be turned into one of these gorgeous creations as the Fimo needs to be cooked. I love them so much, I want to display them somewhere rather than put them back in the hook case where they lived before their glamorous make-over!
Our flat has recently been sold, and the new owners wish to move in, despite us hoping they'd want to rent it to us. So we have a couple of months (thankfully!) to find somewhere else. That shouldn't be a problem, it's just the hassle of moving! So we're beginning to look at our possessions - do I really need this? Is it really worth packing up and moving it? Is this a box I haven't even opened since we moved in nearly twoyears ago? As I've been trying to do Less 365 this year (getting rid of (recycling, chucking, selling, donating to charity etc) one item per day) I am more motivated now. On with the clearing and tidying! So, things I've got rid of recently, to various destinations:
lots of Guiding paperwork that is no longer needed (I did check this!), two dresses I'm not going to wear again, some books I'm not going to read any time soon, a kitchen timer which doesn't time accurately (think it got dropped one too many times!), some tshirts of Ben's he never wears, some tshirts which Ben never wears because they have holes in (why were they kept for this long?!), lots of takeaway menus, a pile of magazines I've finally read my way through, a duvet cover set I no longer like (and I have enough anyway) and lots of Brownie stuff has gone to the unit cupboard in the Guide hall (it can live there, rather than cluttering my spare room!).
So a lovely Easter weekend was enjoyed. I'm off to finish my cushion, and then make something with my lovely revamped hooks!
Our flat really doesn't need any more crochet items...there are several blankets, a few decorations, and a growing menagerie of amigurumi. So to justify purchasing new yarn, I need to have a specific project in mind, and ideally it needs to be for someone else!
The fabulous Lucy over at Attic24 recently made this cushion. I admired it straight away, but didn't feel I could justify more yarn and I don't really need another cushion. But then I realised my great aunt is going to be 80 this summer, and I'm sure she'd appreciate a cushion as she loved the blanket I made her for Christmas. Then Lucy posted that Wool Warehouse would be selling packs made up of the yarn, buttons, and cushion pad needed for this cushion, and so it seemed serendipitous. The yarn in one pack is enough to make two cushions and so I bought another cushion pad and another set of buttons (well, one more cushion for the sofa won't hurt...). Add in some sock wool as a friend has requested some socks for Christmas and that pushed me over the threshold for free delivery. Result!
The package arrived at the weekend, eight balls of Stylecraft Special Chunky, two packs of rainbow coloured buttons and two cushion pads. Excellent!I soon started on the cushion cover. It's a simple stitch to learn, and very easy to memorise, so before too long I was doing it in front of a film (we've got a month's free trial of Sky Movies, so we've been watching a lot of films over the past few weeks!). Being chunky yarn, it grows very quickly, and is very satisfying. Isn't it lovely?
There are quite a lot of ends to sew in, as the colour changes every two rows, but I don't think it will be too arduous as long as I sew them in as I go!
For Easter, Ben made these lovely lovely lovely crochet hooks for me. They're plain boring metal crochet hooks decorated with Fimo. The top two were his first two attempts when he was getting the hang of it (and patiently working on my (constructive) comments) and his third attempt at the bottom is the best. It's the perfect size for me and fits my hand just the way I'd like a crochet hook to fit. I absolutely love them, and can't wait to start on another project which uses one of these sizes! (top is a 5mm, middle is 4mm and bottom is 3.5mm). The Attic24 cushion is made using 6mm, and unfortunately the only 6mm hook I have is plastic so can't be turned into one of these gorgeous creations as the Fimo needs to be cooked. I love them so much, I want to display them somewhere rather than put them back in the hook case where they lived before their glamorous make-over!
Our flat has recently been sold, and the new owners wish to move in, despite us hoping they'd want to rent it to us. So we have a couple of months (thankfully!) to find somewhere else. That shouldn't be a problem, it's just the hassle of moving! So we're beginning to look at our possessions - do I really need this? Is it really worth packing up and moving it? Is this a box I haven't even opened since we moved in nearly twoyears ago? As I've been trying to do Less 365 this year (getting rid of (recycling, chucking, selling, donating to charity etc) one item per day) I am more motivated now. On with the clearing and tidying! So, things I've got rid of recently, to various destinations:
lots of Guiding paperwork that is no longer needed (I did check this!), two dresses I'm not going to wear again, some books I'm not going to read any time soon, a kitchen timer which doesn't time accurately (think it got dropped one too many times!), some tshirts of Ben's he never wears, some tshirts which Ben never wears because they have holes in (why were they kept for this long?!), lots of takeaway menus, a pile of magazines I've finally read my way through, a duvet cover set I no longer like (and I have enough anyway) and lots of Brownie stuff has gone to the unit cupboard in the Guide hall (it can live there, rather than cluttering my spare room!).
So a lovely Easter weekend was enjoyed. I'm off to finish my cushion, and then make something with my lovely revamped hooks!
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