Saturday 22 June 2013

R and R

A lovely low-key Saturday afternoon, spending a couple of hours in Birmingham. 

My lunch - a skinny cappuccino and cinnamon swirl at the Starbucks in the back of Selfridges, with the most fantastic view -
St Martin's in the Bullring. 

I love a bit of downtime. :-)

Saturday 15 June 2013

Etsy!

I've been meaning to open an Etsy shop for a while, to go with the Folksy one, and I've finally got around to it.  There are a few items on there - a selection of my favourites from Little Lovely Stuff.  I'll gradually add to it, so that both shops carry the same range.  The idea is hopefully that Etsy reaches a wider audience.

So, find Dizzy Duckling here - Dizzy Duckling.


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Friday 14 June 2013

Domestic bliss...

Well, maybe not totally yet, but getting there! As much as you can expect two unrelated female cats to live in domestic bliss. And it's only taken a couple of months. 
The bureau's not normally in the kitchen - its place in the living room is currently occupied by Penny's pen. 

Admittedly, there was a mad chase up and down the stairs after this, but even Hattie's starting to enjoy that. Six of one, half a dozen of the other...  *rolls eyes and jumps out of the way* 

Monday 10 June 2013

New Stuff

Some new items on my shop today.

A pretty little pincushion.

Some bunting.  These colours remind me of seventies shades.

A little handbag, decorated with crochet flowers and beads, with ribbon threaded through the handles.

 And some relistings - colourful hearts decorated with ribbons, buttons and sequins.


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Monday 3 June 2013

Flower Power

I got a book out of the library recently about crochet blocks.  Who doesn't like crochet blocks?  Trouble was, everything I tried needed altering one way or another because the patterns just didn't work.  Whether that was down to me getting something wrong, or the pattern being written wrong, I don't know.  However, I made my alterations and wrote the pattern down the way it worked for me.

Both of these blocks are lovely flower patterns, and really versatile.  Decorations on a top, bag or skirt?  Tick.  Coaster?  Tick.  Flower garlands?  Tick!  The eight-petalled flower could even be joined together as a  throw or shawl.  I've worked them in Paton's 100% Cotton 4 ply with a 3.00 mm hook, and it works perfectly.

Patterns here!  I hope they work.  Any problems, let me know.

Granny flower

  • Ch 5, join with sl st to form ring
  • Ch 2 (counts as tr), 2trtog (1st cluster worked), ch 2, (1 tr cl into next ch sp, 2 ch) 7 times to end, join with sl st to top of Ch 2
  • Sl st into 1st ch sp, ch 3, 2 tr into same sp, ch 1, (3 tr, 1 ch) into each ch sp to end, join with sl st to top of Ch 3
  • Sl st into next 3 sts and ch sp, ch 3 (counts as tr), 2tr, ch 1, 3 tr into same ch sp, (3 tr, 1 ch, 3 tr) into each ch sp to end, join with sl st to top of Ch 3
  • (7 tr in next ch sp, sk 3 tr, sl st between sts) in each ch sp to end, join with sl st to last sl st of previous round
  • Fasten off.

Lacy Flower

* Ch 3, join with sl st to form ring
* Ch 3 (counts as tr), 10 tr into ring, join with sl st into ch3 - 11 st
* Ch 3 (counts as tr), 1 tr into same st, 2 tr into each st to end - 22 st
* Ch 4 (counts as tr & ch), tr into next st, 1 ch, (tr into next st, 1 ch) to end, join with sl st - 44 st
* Ch 3 (counts as tr), 2 tr into next ch sp, 1 tr into next st, (2 tr into next ch sp, 1 tr into next st) to end BUT lose 2 st on round by only working 1 tr instead of 2 in 2 ch sp - 64 st
* Sk 3, (7 tr into next st, sk 3, sl st into next st) to end, join with sl st
* Fasten off.

Here are some flower garlands I made with these patterns.


All these will be going on my Folksy shop later on, when I've got them measured up.

I've also started a new cushion cover, in  my ongoing bid to brighten up our living room.  I made a cover for the chair in the extension, from a pattern in Inside Crochet Issue 36.
It worked really well with that Rowan Lenpur Linen yarn I had, and the colours match the scheme there really well.  I had an idea, though, that if I took the central two squares and used them as blocks, then I could build an interesting fabric from that, so here's the start of that project.

One block...

Five blocks...

Each block seems to be a little less than 10 cm, so 16 blocks and an edging should make one side of a 40 cm cushion cover.  That's the current plan, anyway.  We'll see how it works out.

On to measuring bunting!

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