Crochet Cushion

For my Mother's birthday in April I had a go at making a crocheted cushion cover based on this pattern that I found on ravelry for dishcloths.


I used chunky machine washable 100% wool in a dark red and grey marl. The yarn was nice and soft to work with, not splitty, and the finished cushion is nice and snuggly thanks to the thick fabric that the chunky wool creates.


You can see here that the way the pattern is worked, you end up joining the seam across the middle of one side of the cushion.


But because I wasn't posting the cushion inner to New Zealand, I left it open and send some spare red yarn to Mum so she could sew it up herself.


All in all I think it was a success and a really easy pattern. I would like to try it in a finer yarn next time and maybe in single crochet instead of double, to see if it works in a thinner material etc.

Happy Birthday Mum!

Introducing Mr and Mrs...

When I was back in the homeland earlier this year, I attended the beautiful wind-blown, west coast wedding of some very good friends H & M. Here is a pic of the lovely couple...


For their gift I made some personalized pillowcases with their new names...


The pattern and pillowcases are both from Sublime Stitching.


Here they are installed on the marital bed. Quilt hand made by H's Granny :)


I think they were quite well received. Fewf.

Craft-a-presents

Hello! It's me! I'm back finally. Woo!
I've had a lot going on during the last few months that have kept me away from the bloggy (mostly holidays/vacations) but I am back in freezing New York so can show you all that I have still been crafting. Don't. Worry.

First up, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 2 months late is better than never, right? I hope everyone had a fantastic time and is still keeping to their NYs resolutions. I am not :/

I spent the holidays with my friend-family in London, England. What up, Bow? Many good times were had and lots of cute gifts exchanged.

Here is my contribution:

First up, many, many reusable crocheted cotton grocery bags!


I love this pattern, it is super quick and easy to do while commuting. Pattern here from Purl. I actually made more than are in the photo, but you get the idea.


I like that the straps are long so you can sling it over your shoulder. Particularly good in NY if you live more that a couple of blocks from the Supermarket. Like me.


I have one to send to NZ that I forgot to give while I was there, (sorry K!) and then I am going to experiment with some multi coloured ones for myself. All were made with machine washable cotton.

Next we have the cowls:

The first I made for myself as a test, as I didn't have a pattern but I thought I could visualize what I wanted. Made with one skein of Brown Sheep's Burly Spun in "Lemon Drop". Sorry about the blurry picture!


It is super warm and just what I wanted. Let me know if you want the pattern. I was inspired by this picture from (I think) The Sartorialist.


Since the yellow one turned out quite well, I made two more for gifts, out of Lamb's Pride Bulky from my stash. Colours, Emerald City and Mystic Blue.



Next we have a Gold trimmed lace scarf/wrap for someone I owed 2x Christmas presents AND a birthday present. Let's call her C.


To make this I got a yard/metre of lace from Mood Fabrics (Thank you, Mood!) and edged it in gold, with a couple of rows of single crochet, then a final round with loops to create a picot-ish edge.


And here is C modelling it! Yay!


Next is the Brighton Cowl for my Mother:


Pattern on Ravelry here.


I almost got this done with one skein of Cascade 220 Heathers in Mallard (2448), but I ran out with 3 motifs to go. An-noying.


My favourite part of lace scarfs is how pretty they look when blocking.


And last but not least is the Felt Cushion Cover I made for my bro.


It doesn't look it but its made of Navy Wool felt and I basically made up the stitch pattern in some different contrasting colours to make it more interesting.


Super easy if you try it yourself!

Ahhhhhh and that is it for now. I will be back more regularly I promise with some more pretty pictures later.

xxx

Mumma and Bubba

My good friend R had a gorgeous baby a few weeks ago named Lucia. This is super exciting as she is the first baby among my group of friends, and boy is she cute. Unfortunately I won't get to see her until I am home in New Zealand next January, so in lieu of actually attending the baby shower and visiting her in person I made and sent some custom swaddling cloths from some gorgeous fabrics I found at Purl Patchwork.



The pattern is actually from Purlbee.com (Purl Soho's blog). You can view it here.

I chose some soft double cotton gauze and shot cotton to make a matching set of three. All fabrics are Kokka I think.





The back fabrics were all double shot cotton, in complementing colours. And then I added a running stitch around the edge of each cloth to tie it all together.


They are super easy to make and feel nice and soft, perfect for babies born at the beginning of southern-hemisphere Summer, like Lucia.

If you are not familiar with swaddling (and I wasn't before I saw the pattern) here is a how to video:



Of course I was super late with R's birthday present as well (January) so I popped a blue scarf in the package as well.


A tried and true pattern at this point.



Yay babies!

Oh Dolly

Behold. My first embroidered portrait:


In case you can't tell (from the quite dark photo), it is the one and only Dolly Parton.

A friend, Z requested an embroidered bag for her birthday (which was in March!!), so as I was SO late I decided to capture her favourite diva in stitches.

Started with sewing a simple drawstring bag...


Decided on a portrait to copy


Traced the portrait with a pencil


Went over the pencil with a thin sharpie felt pen. Put the pen drawing inside the bag so I could trace it with disappearing fabric pen


And started stitching that pretty face


What do you think? Did I capture her likeness?


Here is is all finished and ready to be wrapped.


Further Dolly enjoyment below...

Printy

ONE more thing before happy hour.


I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn in the weekend and picked up this little beauty from Cherrybox Studios.

Hooray for art!

Say Hello...

... to my new background! What do you think? It's been a while huh, so time for a change. Possibly inspired by my new moves (new apartment and "cube" at work, not dance moves), it seems a switch was flipped in my head and I suddenly feel the need to be more mod-min(imal). I still heart the colours though so may just switch back. You never know, its a regular 'background mystery' around here!

Say hello to this little bugga too! Hurro!!
She is a new (very very very late) treat for my friend H for her birthday. And she might* be getting a pink play-date soon too. (*not might, WILL, I promise H).


And also this ipod/or something cover went in the parcel too. I heart pom-poms.


Some more craft has been going down in between some very very stressful weeks but I cant share just yet. Soon my pretties... mwuaaahahhhahahahaa.

Sorry I'm a little hyped up and bored.

Love yous xxxx

PS: Stand by for some pretty pictures I have found for your viewing pleasure.

2nd Washy

Another washcloth based on a pattern from 200 Blocks book, but extended to be the size of a washcloth.


Given to my friend Liz as a hostess gift on Saturday.


V easy and quick pattern, I love these small projects.


And it goes with my new favourite shoes! Yesssss.

Spring Scarfy

I finally finished my 2nd Queen Anne's Lace scarf for a workmate's combined Christmas and Birthday present.


I chose a bright-mustard for this one, a nice Cascase 220 1 skein project.


She loves it and I am inspired to try the pattern out in a few more yarn variations.


And since it is so lacy and light it is perfect for Spring, which is hopefully around the corner here in NY. The weekend forecast is for warm weather and also time to change the clocks, so fingers crossed!

PS: I know you are probably not supposed to block scarves in a curved manner, but my apartment really isn't big enough to stretch it all the way out lengthwise. No hallway!

Happy New Yeahhhhhh!!!

Hi there. And welcome back. I don't know about you but our holidays flew by and I can't believe I'm back at work already.

I hope you all had a great relaxing break and Santa was good to you. I got lots and lots of treats and was very spoilt by my visitors. Lucky! Hopefully Z and M had a good time being shown around NYC.

And yay the best thing about being back is I can now show you what I have been crafting over the last few months. Nothing compared to some of the amazing treats out there but I tried.

First up the Glow-in-the-dark Monogram ipod/camera/phone/whatever covers I sewed up on Odette, to slip in with some Xmas cards. Pity most of the cards were opened by the UK post and the pouches were either lost or shoved back in and taped back together. Ugh. Thanks for that.

I made them with some neon grosgrain ribbon and soft natural linen from Mood Fabrics, I'm soooo project runway.


And embroidered each recipients initial on in glow-in-the-dark thread from Sublime Stitching.


This is the closest I could get to glow in the dark :(


And this is one of the ones that got lost!! Ill make you another one soon C.


Next up is a matching scarf and hand-warmer set I made for my friend Z for Christmas.


The hand-warmers were an experiment and (even though I had to re-do one of the hands) I think they turned out good!


I also posted them on Ripple-Along here before Christmas and fellow rippler Jan has even made her own versions! Awesome! Let me know if anyone else is interested in the instructions and I can post them here as well. So exciting to think that someone can follow my instructions :)


Next is a Queen Anne's Lace scarf for my Mum. My first attempt at lace and once I got the hang of it (ripped and re-started 3 times...) it was actually really easy.


I am making a few more in this pattern and cant wait to experiment with brighter colours and also thicker wool.


Download the pattern (for a small fee) here.


And lastly 4 sets of hand-embroidered pillowcases for my parents, grandparents, aunt & uncle and poppa.


The pattern I kind of made up myself after being inspired by some stitches I found online.


The purple wasn't my first choice but time was running out and funds were running low. I think it looked ok once it was all done.

Other than that I actually made 2 scarves for my brother but accidentally forgot to take photos of either of them, durrr. They were both black so nothing to get too excited over ;)

Well after all that it doesn't look like I even made that much! Now I just have a few more things on my list of WIPs (tea-cosy, 3 bday presents, scarf for me etc) and maybe sometime this year I can start on my first afghan. Scary!

Hope you are all well and 2009 has been good to you so far.

xxxxx

PS: New years resolution, post on GC more often!