By Helen

last month's flower of the month...continued...

Gosh, isn’t it cold?  No snow here yet: but it meant to be on its way.  For now the Snowdrops remain the only flecks of white on the ground…

I guess that this is very appropriate, given that we are in the midst of the very old festival of Imbolc heralding the start of Spring.

So where had we got to?  I was starting the making up of the Snowdrop…

I was quite surprised to discover that using wool gave a better finish to the petal’s, than using cotton.  If you had asked me before I started this my money would have been on the cotton finish…

The petals were joined together, to form the inner and outer parts of the flower (will try and learn the proper terms for parts of the plant) and a stem was attached. 

I feel a ta-dah moment coming…

I am pleased with now this has turned out:  though need to work on the finishing.  I think that if I showed someone the flower they would say that looks like a Snowdrop…

Or I hope that they would..?

flower of the month...

Welcome to my brand new blog category: flower of the month.  Reading back through my previous posts, I realised just how neglected my garden category had become.  This is partly seasonal, I have to confess that my garden it looking somewhat sorry for itself: due to Winter neglect on my part.  This will be rectified as the world turns toward Spring. 

I decided that each month, in my blog, there will be a flower of the month: something seasonal which will inspire my crochet.  Here’s January’s…

The Snowdrop is one of the first flowers to bravely show itself from the cold Winter soil and remind us that Spring is on its way…

After taking the images of the Snowdrops in a local church yard: I looked to magazines and books for further inspiration…

I gathered together white and green yarns in various textures…

I settled down with my crochet hook in hand ready to put my inspiration into reality.  The aim is not to reproduce the Snowdrop.  This would be an impossible task with endless frustrations (especially as Mother Nature does it so well): but to make something, which might make someone say that looks like a Snowdrop.

You will have to wait until next time, to see how this one turns out, I have to go and figure out what I am going to do next..!

a quick crochet project...

Yesterday I was in the mood for a really quick crochet project, one that I could start and finish in the afternoon and that looked really great at the end of it.  After a delightful couple of hours browsing through my crochet books and magazines I decided to make up a pattern by the very talented Helda Panagary, which was featured in the January addition of Inside Crochet.  You might remember Helda's designs from the scarf I made a while ago.  This time the pattern was for a wonderful cowl...

I have to confess that I did make one change to Helda's pattern.  I hope she doesn't mind?  In the pattern you work with double yarn.  I decided to just work with a single yarn, so that the cowl was not overly chunky.  I want to be able to wear the cowl into spring: and just felt making it from double yarn, might make it a little too warm to be able to do this.  I am one of those strange people who prefers to be cold rather than too warm.

The pattern was really well written and very easy to follow.  I can't wait to start wearing it...

more brooches...

I love to crochet brooches.  They are just the perfect thing to make: they can be started and finished in just one afternoon and at the end of it you have something lovely to wear, to give away, or if you are lucky to sell. 

I think, to date, this has to be one of my favourites...

The pattern was adapted from one by the very talented Nicki Trench's book Cute and Easy Crochet.  In the book's pattern you are told to use wool, so that the brooch can be felted.  I didn't have any to hand, so made the leaves from wool and the cherries from cotton.  I love how the different textures of the yarn work together. 

I will give felting a try at some-point but, for now, I am really happy with how these turned out.

crochet brooches...

So here are some more of the finished crochet projects that I gave you a sneaky peek of...

They were inspired by a pattern, for an Irish Rose, in one of my favourite crochet books, although as ever, I did adapt the pattern.

The brooches show one of the things I love most about crochet: the diversity you can achieve.  Both of the brooches are crocheted to the same pattern, but by using different yarn that finish is completely different.  I love the shimmer of the Lang Lanalux yarn, used on the darker brooch: the image doesn't do the shimmer justice!

Hope you like them..?

crochet purse...

Some of you might member that before Christmas I gave you a sneaky peek at some of the crochet projects that I was working on.  Over the next few posts I will be showing you the finished projects. 

Here's the first...

It is based on the pattern for a floral purse that appears the book, by the very talented Nicki Trench, Cute and Easy Crochet.  I adapted the pattern, choosing to embellish the purse with my own design of flowers, rather than the ones which Nicki suggests.  Hope she doesn't mind?

Ps - many apologies for the blurriness of the image.  If I had know what it looked like, I would have retaken the image but I gave the crochet purse as a Christmas gift to a friend!  Sorry x

 

happy new year...

Happy New Year!  Hope that 2012 brings all that you wish for.  My friend gave me this, painted glass, for Christmas...

I think that the message live, love, laugh is just perfect for the start of the New Year.

I don't make New Year resolutions, but I am making a crochet resolution...

• I will write down what I do: that way I can recreate some of the crochet projects that I make and that way I can share them with you...

So here's to a New Year, here's to 2012, here's to writing down what you do and here's to living, loving and laughing!

X

quick crochet...

I managed to squeeze in a few moments of hooky time, over the festive period.  Here is what I made...

It is crocheted using Debbie Bliss Paloma yarn, that I picked up at the knitting and stitching show in Harrogate.  I used a range of different hooks, and followed the same patterns for each layer...

Each layer was then stacked and stiched together to form the Christmas tree.  The tree was then decorated with a long beaded chain crochet.

Just a short posting: back to the festivities...

ta-dah moment...

The ta-dah moment are coming thick and fast at the moment as more and more Christmas presents are finished.  Most of the ta-dah moments will have to wait until after Christmas: it is only fair! 

Though here is one that I don't mind sharing with you...

Remember my last post on blocking?  Well these are the results: starflakes which I have turned into my beloved Christmas cards...

I am really pleased with how they have turned out and I am sure that the people who get them will be just as chuffed..?

Yuletide Greeting, for the Soltice...

xxxx

blocking crochet...

Over the past few weeks I have crocheted lots of things which need blocking.  I have never blocked anything before.  Blocking, or pressing or making-up, is a brilliant finishing technique where you dampen and press out you crochet, pulling it into shape with pins and leave it to dry, so that the shape and pattern of your crochet is enhanced...

Sometimes this process can involve starch.  I decided to follow Lesley Stanfield's tip, in75 birds, butterflies and beautiful beasties to knit and crochet,and use PVA glue to give my starflakes more strenght and extra shine...

I also decided to add glitter into the PVA, for extra sparkle!  You dilute the PVA with water and mix in your glitter. 

Soak your crochet for about ten minutes.  Squeeze out the excess water and then pin out your crochet on a pin board.  Make sure that the pins you are using are rust-proof and make sure your pin board is covered with cling-film, otherwise you will have a big mess and will never be able to take your crochet off the board...

Wait for twenty-four hours, or until your crochet is completely dry, and then carefully take the pins out and ta-dah - your crochet should look even more brilliant than it did before...

Will show you how mine turned out on my next post: though hopefully some of you might already know...