Christmas is coming

That won't mean holidays for me until mid January but that's life!

I've been busily shopping for the offspring and crocheting when I am not working, doing house work or preparing.  The decorations have yet to appear, that will be this weeks days off.

On the right is a blanket I made for myself, to watch tv and snuggle with on top of my bed in the chilly days to come.  I got it finished before the crazy Auckland humidity hit thank goodness.  It's so stuffy here at the moment.

Since it warmed up I've been making smaller and cooler things like bun covers for the wee girl for next year at Intermediate school when she will have to wear her hair neatly put up and a uniform.  I will post a pic when I put her hair up, we did an experiment and they work really well.

I've also been experimenting with booties.


These wrist warmers are made from sock wool aka fingering weight and will keep me warm next winter.

I'm working on some patterns which I hope to get finished next week and display for the bun covers.  Right now I am seeing if I can make one with beads....

Hotwater bottle covers and other things...

One of the best things about winter is snuggling under a blankie with a hottie to keep you cosy while you watch tv.   It's cheaper than electric heating and it's fun on a cold, damp day.

But it's not so much fun snuggling with a rubber hot water bottle, it feels wrong.

I just got some new full sized hotties for the grand price of $4.50 so they needed some dressing up.  There's a pattern in "The Art of Crochet" issue 14 so I decided to try it.  Apparently UK hot water bottles are bigger than those in NZ or 8ply was too thick, because it was far too wide.  So I turned it sideways and improvised.

<~~~~~~~~ Tah Daaaaah

Not the best pic I know, I'm currently temporarily at dial up speed because my broadband allowance "somehow" got exceeded.  Even a cellphone pic takes ages to upload.  I went grocery shopping while this one was uploading if that gives you any idea!

I am currently making a second version, with horizontal stripes, keeping a note of what I am doing so I can share the pattern with you.  I'm loving the textured stitch which consists of 1 tr and 1 sc (UK) it crochets up nicely.

I am quite please with my result, so is the Wee Girl because she's not over keen on naked hotties.  She's a snuggle on the sofa gal from way back.

I've also made a cloche style hat and some pacifier clips for my friends stall.  I've had a busy week.

Home Sick

I awoke this morning to the pitter patter of feet, well not so much a pitter patter as a stamp stomp, the wee girl has elephant feet.  I usually wake around 8:30 - 9 ish on my days off.  My darling hubs gets the kids up and off, so awaking to the sound of footsteps in the house was a little odd.

It transpired that the WG had been allowed to remain home as she was "sick" with the unlikely combination of sore throat and  sore tummy.  The hubs made a call and left her home for observation.  Her colour was good, she didn't have a temperature, no sign of a cough or even a sneeze.  I was and remain a little skeptical.  A little bit of chit chat and I discovered that the WG's bff is moving away which may explain why she felt off and a day at home with Mum isn't going to hurt.

I had intended to go out and get some more yarn for the Zig Zag Granny rug and wander Spotlight looking for some monkey hat wool and a colour scheme for my next project.  The zig zag granny isn't going to take a long time because it's not going to be that big.

I have some work to do perfecting the granny zig zag foundation as well.  I started this one using a pattern on Ravelry by Birdlebee, it has a multiple of 18 but the ends are a lot longer than the actual zig zags.  I think I can work that out for the next one.  I'm liking the granny ripple!

Back at work

Sadly my holiday is over.  I can no longer devote hour upon hour to crochet.  I was just getting used to the whole idea of being a stay at home mother.  I've had a good month so I can't really complain and I still have lots of leave to take later in the year.  Meantime taking the month off has meant that I am within the target of less than 40 days of leave....just.

I made two more hats for my friends children.  The pink bowler style hat was my own adaptation of a beanie, I created the brim by doing an increase row and then two more straight rows of trebles.

The monkey helmet is an earflap hat with two circles sewn on afterward for ears.  I now have requests from a couple of different friends to make monkey hats for their little boys.  So I will be making hats for a while longer.  They are very quick so I am happy to do it.

I've also made a couple of pairs of wrist warmers for the wee girl and myself.  For those cold winter morning hockey games.

I'm also making a zigzag (ripple) granny throw for my grandmother's 100th birthday next month.  It's not going to be huge, just something she can use to sit with to keep her legs warm. She doesn't get around too much these days, so even in the warm rest home, she feels chilled.  She can walk and does, but she has cataracts which mean that she doesn't see too well.  While she's happy to trot out to the dining room for meals, she doesn't like to be in unfamiliar places and fair enough.

It's difficult to get something for her, living in a rest home means that she can't have a lot of "things" and because she can't see, photographs while appreciated are fairly meaningless because she can't enjoy them.  Which is why I decided to make her the rug.  She may not be able to see the colours but she will be able to feel the stitches and appreciate the warmth it gives her.

Because clothing and bedding is washed in the rest home laundry, I have chosen to use acrylic yarn, so that nobody can accidentally shrink her rug.

I've chosen a brown, sage green, soft muted pink and cream as colours and I am using mode vera marvel 8 ply (DK).  The ripple in granny clusters is growing quickly and as soon as I have a respectable number of rows, I shall post a picture.

Scarfs and other Winter things

I'm like a squirrel storing nuts for winter.  I finished the WG's hat, then a v stitch scarf in raspberry with pale pink fringe to match the hat.  Then I decided a ruffled brights scarf was in order, I mean everyone should have choices right?

The WG will be going to intermediate school next year and that means uniform.  This is the last year that I get to dress her, kind of.  Make no mistake, she chooses her own clothes every day but I still get input to the larger wardrobe.  The boho crochet beanies I made her last year are the envy of many a little girl at her school, as is her pencil case.  These are one of a kind things that nobody else has, that make her a little exclusive.  So she's keen for more.

Ruffled scarves are easy peasy, but look somewhat complicated and they use quite a bit of yarn.  It's simply a matter of crocheting a foundation stitch to your desired length, then adding 3 for the first treble.  Then you crochet two trebles into every stitch till it's spirally and ruffly as you want it to be.  I used the Moda Vera Willowy from Spotlight (it's on special for $3.99 a ball) and a 3.75mm hook. 5 balls though is a lot of yarn for a scarf.  Still it's exactly what I wanted it to be, it reminds me of a carnival and I'm sure it will brighten the greyest winter day.

I'm making another in black and silver.

Meantime I've had some adventures with the girls.  Western Springs was sadly missed, they (the girls) decided they just had to go to the movies.  I wanted to go so badly on the off chance I would meet up with Aunty Mum who was up visiting Auckland from Tauranga.  Unfortunately you have to learn to pick your battles with teens and tweens without letting them know there is a battle of wills.

I made the argument that it was a waste of a lovely day to spend it in the dark in a movie theatre, that rain was coming in the next few days but they held firm and pooh poohed my forecast of rain in coming days.  Deciding it wasn't a hill I wanted to die on, I dropped them at the mall and came home to do some housework in relative peace for a couple of hours.

The Man Child has no interest in being seen at the mall in the company of his 10 yr old sister (and up until her second year at school she was dead set she would marry him, cried her eyes out when he went off to intermediate and left her at school by herself and would love her friends to see her with him!) despite the enhancement being seen with a somewhat comely 16 yr old female cousin would afford, stayed home to help his dear old Mum.  He really can be very good.  He mowed the lawn and cleaned the deck while I vacuumed and dusted.

This afternoon (apparently sleeping until midday is de rigeur for school holiday teens although the tween is usually up by 9am) we are heading down to Save Mart to see what we can find amongst the racks.

Then I expect there will be a fashion show.

Diversions

Happy Good Friday!

The fruits of yesterdays labours, an Easter bunny to go with my eggs.  The Wee Girl loves the egg cozy I made her and when she sees her new egg cup she's going to be in heaven.

I got the bunny from ravelry kind of.  When I say kind of, I adapted it.  The pattern does the bunny in two parts, but I was on a roll, so I carried on just like Kate does with the Easter eggs, I increased another row and then decreased to the bottom.

He's a cutie for sure and the WG is going to love him.  My first stuffed toy.

I'm dead chuffed with myself.

Hopefully the Wee Girl will be in a better mood in the morning.  She was fearfully grumpy with her father tonight, she's usually a total Daddy's Girl but tonight she and her Daddy were at odds and I became the somewhat unwilling recipient of her attentions.

She wouldn't talk to her Dad, she sat on the arm of my chair and gave all her attention to me.

Nice as it was to have all the cuddles and kisses, the foot massage was to die for and she was so into me that she actually considered learning to crochet for a nano second. Unfortunately it made me feel as if I was in the middle of her argument and I had to tell her it isn't nice to use people that way.  She denied it, but I saw the understanding and the flash of guilt so it's a lesson well learned for her.

So now I totally need to get my butt to bed so that I can get up and make hot cross buns and do all the family things.

If it's not Good Friday quite yet for you, have a wonderful day when it arrives.

Autumn Storms

That's the shade cloth over the deck.  Not a lot of use for it the past two days with the crazy wet weather we've had.  At least it's not cold, but that isn't stopping Cassie Cat from fighting for space on my lap as I try to crochet.  She's determined that she must come inside all wet, with nasty cold paws and dry off on me.

My African Flower scarf is all but completed, but I'm taking a break from it briefly to make a basket to take up to Kaitaia next week when the family gathers to celebrate my father's 70th birthday.  I first saw it on Pintrest, the Ombre Basket by Crochet in Colour.  Mine is monochromatic, inspired by Aunty Mum's blanket.  Black, grey and white.  It's coming together quickly with a size 7mm hook and two strands of 8 ply crocheted together.

Here's hoping these weather systems will pass before we head North.  We're lucky in that the last major flooding where my parents live on the Hokianga happened during Cyclone Bola in 87, the rest of Northland hasn't fared so well this week with everything North of Whangarei being isolated by slips, downed trees and flooding.  There's always a chance of getting stuck up there when weather like this happens.

Pranks and the no sew wallet

Where I work, we are often busy and the work is mentally taxing.  As a consequence we make our fun where and as we can.

One of my colleagues has been away at Police College on his Sgts course and we discovered he'd left his drawer unlocked.  Last year we got hold of his diary and covered it in pictures of the "Thunderbirds", you'd think he'd have learned!  So now his diary is covered in pictures of Justin Bieber.  We sealed it with clear contact and I crocheted a pretty "cosy" for his diary, in pink, complete with a large pink flower.  He's back at work tonight and we cannot wait!

Now my contribution to our little prank was literally dreamed up, literally and crocheted in the space of a couple of hours.  It's basically a wallet for his diary.  I crocheted a chain of 50, then single crocheted all the way around the chain to end up with a rectangle. Moved into granny stitch and within a few hours I had produced the A4 diary cosy!

When I got home from work I started again with my leftover gelato cotton to make something smaller. To reproduce it but this time taking a bit more notice of what I was doing.

See the bottom?  By crocheting around the entire chain I made a base.  I then switched to tr and crocheted two into a single stitch at the corners.  Effectively crocheting in the round.  Then I switched to grannies.  The key was having the base chain in a multiple of 3.  This little wallet began life as a foundation ch of 28, with one being used as the first sc when I began to crochet into the foundation chain.

In various sizes this would make an awesome Ipad or Kindle cover, cellphone sock, laptop sleeve, coin purse, make up bag or even a large messenger type bag.  The possibilities are endless and I plan to explore them.

You could use any type of stitch you want, I just decided granny stitch is one of my quickest to do and it grows so quickly.  I'd like to try all sorts of different things and once I have the method for creating the bottom perfected I will post a tutorial.

This one is going to be a make up bag to carry my seldom used lipstick and mascara about in.  I'm not big on make up so a tiny bag like this will do nicely.

I will make a liner and sew it in.  If nothing else my rudimentary sewing skills are getting a good work out lately.

The edging along the top is crab stitch, something I have never done before as an edging but am liking a lot.  It would look amazing on a headband.

It took me some time and patience to figure it out, there are instructions in my book the A to Z of crochet but I have seen instructions on line as well.