HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!!!

Hello!!

It's been a long time since I last posted.... I hope you are doing ok?!!

Since it is New Year's Eve here, I thought how much I would like to wish you all the very best for the coming year!!!

Here is a gallery of some of my favourite makes - they are all from November and December! I made a lot of Xmas presents myself, so it has been a busy time!

And here is a gallery of 'selfies' from the last few months, together with me wearing some of my makes!

So, for now all that remains to say is:

HAPPY NEW YEAR - Wishing you all the best!!!

Quick knit - totally triangular scarf

Welcome back!


Just a very quick post to show how I managed to finish my knitted triangular scarf! I already wore it!!!

If you missed my initial post about this project, don't worry, you can find it here! It also contains the pattern link

I decided to add some matching beads to my scarf

Finished! With beads added!

Selfie time with my youngest daughter 

Hope you enjoyed this short post, maybe you fancy knitting a similar triangular shawl, it is not difficult to make (garter stitch, increase and decrease stitches).

Of course you could also make a crochet version!!??

What do you think?

As always, I enjoy reading your comments , thanks for those you left on my last post! Feel free to comment below... :)

Return to crochet - Rowan Denim Granny Stitch Shawl, Tahiti Bubblegum Shawl, a book, Granny Square Day 2016

Hello my lovely blog friends,


Thanks so much for your kind comments and patience! And welcome to my latest followers!


I can tell you that my plaster cast came off last Tuesday and that I got a wrist brace now so that is a great help. I'm also doing physiotherapy and I still got a long way to go to regain full movement and strength in both my wrist and elbow.

Still, the good news is that I started back with doing crochet, hooray!!


Return to crochet

The day before I broke my arm, I had actually started a new project - a granny stitch shawl.

Last week I picked up where I left off and I have been working on it since.


My Rowan Denim granny stitch shawl


Can you believe it that I never made an actual granny stitch shawl before? I had some wonderful Rowan Denim yarn (made from cotton) that will fade when washed, just like actual denim fabric.



Starting my Denim Granny stitch shawl on 15.07.16

back to work on 23.08.16



3 different shades of Denim yarn



Crocheting on the balcony with Jasper last night

It is such an easy and soothing pattern to follow. As you can see from the photos, I had started with the slightly darker shade of Denim (6 balls), then I had only 1 ball that was called original Denim which was a tiny shade lighter and now I got some even lighter Denim, all from Rowan. I love that it gives an ombre effect! I'm using a 4mm hook.



A second Bubblegum Shawl - Tahiti Bubblegum Shawl

Does this surprise you that I also had to start a new Bubblegum shawl ? The pattern by Katia Loeffler (see Ravelry) is brilliant, and I knew that I wanted to make another.

Here you can see the new beginnings:

3 different shades of Tahiti yarn by Schachenmayr

Yarn cakes!



Started 28.08.16

What else has been going on? Well, I ordered some crochet and knitting books. This one deserves a mention:

Agnieszka Strycharska - Crochet Blocks (60 east to make motifs and 15 stunning projects)

As you can see from the cover image, Agnieszka also loves colour and is a crochetgirl after my own heart. The photography in this book is beautiful, each motif is given a large colour photo with written and graph pattern! As I prefer graphs, I can skip straight to them and get started.

The yarn she uses is Natura cotton which is a lovely yarn to work with.

On Saturday morning I just picked a motif and tried it out!

In the third photo you can see some of the book, and the two blocks that I made with the cotton I had at hand! It shows how versatile these motifs are, they look great in different colours!

I want to play about with more of these motifs!


Oh, and something else happened - International Granny Square Day!!!


As before, on instagram crocheters all over the world could contribute by photographing one or more of their granny squares under the tag #grannysquareday2016.


Foolishly, I didn't want to miss out despite my painful broken wrist/arm/elbow and so I made just one square! For me it was a real achievement at the time.

My granny square made on 15.08.16

Here is a collage made just from a small number of all the contributions, isn't it amazing?

You can find more images here on instagram under #grannysquareday2016







Ok, I can see you starting to look a bit tired over there, 4 subjects are quite enough for one blog post!!!

Don't worry, there is still more to come and you can look forward to some interesting posts! I'm hoping to write up a pattern tutorial and I am thinking about doing a give away!

Meanwhile, take good care of yourselves and your loved ones, enjoy the little things wherever they find you and love life!

I hope you found a tiny bit of inspiration and would love it if you manage to leave me a comment, I enjoy reading them all. And hopefully I can manage to type some comments to leave on your pages now that my arm is slowly healing.

Rhododendron flowering in August!!

Summer greetings - broken arm news, new creative outlets

Hello dear blog friends,



Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and wishes which were much appreciated. I find it truly touching how people from the online community have responded to my news. I'm so blessed to have your support.



An update on my broken arm

My arm is healing slowly. A few days ago I had another appointment for a check-up. My (blue) plaster cast was taken off and the many metal staples were removed thankfully. The operation wound is healing up ok.

Then I was fitted with a new (purple) plaster cast which still supports both my broken wrist and also my broken elbow. Having your arm in this fixed position is not much fun as you can imagine. Basically my right arm needs to rest.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far, even though the weather is continually up and down.

Last weekend we had a joint barbecue with our neighbours and it was a great success!

At the BBQ

As you can see I was wearing my funky fairisle knitted dress I made the previous summer. On my chair is the Rainbow Bubblegum Shawl I crocheted recently.

I found wearing some of the things that I had made cheered me up whilst I'm feeling frustrated about not being able to crochet currently.

Wearing my Flight of Fancy Shawl

For those of you who have been following my instagram feed you already know what I have been up to lately....



(Left handed) Adult Colouring In


I already started whilst I was still in hospital and I have been continuing since - doing colouring in using only my left hand. I am improving and learning new skills!

Here are some examples.

Mandala

new colouring in magazine - meer dan kleur

my favourite : colouring in page by Flora Chang

Made with mandala colouring app on my phone

My latest obsession is the new Prisma app!


I love making art using my own photos and transforming them into exciting new images!

Here are some of my works...

My artwork + layout app + Prisma app

 

  

using my photo + Prisma app

photo of my yarn + layout app + Prisma app

Jasper

Cleo

Well, there are more things I got to tell you about, but I will save that for the next time!!!


Until then, why don't you tell me what you have been up to and take care!!!




funkycrochet xx



Out of hospital

Dear blog friends,


This will be a hard blog post for me to write. Not just because of the subject matter itself, but also due to the fact that I can only use my left hand and I am naturally right handed.

Well I will do my best. What happened is this: last Saturday I fell down the entire staircase. With the result of breaking my right arm in 2 places - the wrist and the elbow.

I was admitted to hospital and received treatment. My arm had to be operated upon and a plate and pins inserted. The wound is fastened with over 20 metal staples and my arm to be kept immobile.

I was allowed to leave hospital on Wednesday.

Next week I will receive a plaster cast. There is still a lot of swelling. My right side of the body took the impact so there is a lot of bruising still.

My partner has taken over my care.

For me it means lots of rest and coping with the pain.

I'm pretty much devastated that this has happened now, but of course there is never a good time. I was so full of new ideas and projects. I only started a new crochet shawl the day before my accident.

I know that it was only right to tell you about it, so you would understand that the next weeks will be very different. I cannot use my right hand.



Thank you all for your support - sorry if I cannot acknowledge each comment individually.

Purple and Knitting - Totally Triangular Scarf

Hello dear blog friends,


Hope you had a nice weekend? Here the weather has been very good*, so we visited my youngest daughter and went for a nice long walk in Gentbrugge, but outside the city, walking in the country side.


Thanks again for all your kind comments about my latest project, I enjoyed reading them.

After concentrating so hard on my recent Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl, I did little bits here and there on my other crochet wips, but nothing really grabbed me.

It was a recent comment by Jodie from the blog https://lupeyloops.blogspot.be  that sparked off something new in me. I had been reading how she was making crochet scarves from mohair yarn. I have got some wonderful Rowan Kid silk Haze mohair which I treasure! It's as soft as a feather!

Then I happened to come across this designer : Leah Michelle of leahmichelledesigns.com. You can find her also on Ravelry under http://www.ravelry.com/designers/michelle-krause . I think I found the ideal garter stitch scarf!!!


The scarf/shawl that I have started to knit is called:



Totally Triangular Scarf

You can find a direct link to the free pattern page here. In total there are 5 simple knitting patterns that you can find on her website for free : 3x shawls, 1x hat, 1x Cowl.

These are very easy patterns, great for beginners! :) I highly recommend that you take a look!


I only have got a single 25g ball of Rowan Kidslik Haze Eclipse in a lovely purple colour. I wanted to make one of these garter stitch scarves/shawls where you get to use the entire ball by weighing your yarn during the project, you keep increasing until you used half the yarn, then you start to decrease! No more guess work!!

Whilst the pattern is easy, I find it takes concentration to keep track of which row you are in, for example when you get interrupted etc. So I am writing this down. I also got a nifty row counter thing!

I learnt something new: the scarf is made in garter stitch (Knit every row), but the last stitch (edge) is purled, not knitted. Then the first stitch of the new row needs to be slipped onto the needle. This makes a wonderful edge, I really like it.

I don't have much to show yet, here are a couple of photos, the first one shows the first 62 rows (which I did last night), the second one my progress since (up to row 109 today). It's about 46 cm long x 24 cm wide. Due to the slow increases the scarf will be narrow and long in shape.

I am using the mohair yarn double with large 6mm needles. I knit nice and loosely, it makes for a good flexible fabric! What is more, this yarn has got a little bit of a glitter thread and it has a wonderful fuzzy 'halo'.



Row 62

Row 109

I love how this yarn goes so well with the pattern - purple perfection!!!

And, coincidence or not, I finally got a pretty purple Lupin flower which I only photographed yesterday in the light of the evening sun!




My purple Lupin flower

Hope you enjoyed reading this, perhaps it has given you some new ideas? You might want to do a crochet version perhaps? (I know there are quite a few to be found on Ravelry!

* Since starting to write this, we just had 3 hefty rain showers here, so I'm off now to start singing 'Purple Rain, Purple Rain...'

Leave me a little note below, and thank you so much for visiting!

My finished Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl

Welcome back, old friends and new,*


After 10 busy days doing the Crochet Along for the Bubble Gum Shawl, I finished it last night!

I am really pleased with it, and due to the many colours I have renamed it:


My Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl


Here are some photos to show it to you!

It looks equally good worn at the front or the back

10.07.16 My finished Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl

 

 

Nearly finished all the yarn!

Side Edge detail with the smaller 'bubbles'

my growing shawl - curling inner edge

 

Splicing the yarn colours

One side edge with spikes

You will have to excuse me not blocking my shawl, but I just couldn't wait to start wearing it already... It might possibly be my most favourite shawl that I made so far, but on the other hand that is a difficult statement - I made so many lovely shawls and I love them all!

If you want to see some of my shawls, check out this blog post here if you haven't read it before.

For more information on this project, read my previous blog post here and also here.

For those of you on Ravelry, you can see my completed project (again) on this page. You will also find the original pattern link there. Please note that this pattern is no longer free, as the CAL 2016 is finished. I do hope you managed to download this pattern for free like I did!!! Even so, it is a wonderful pattern and well written out, row by row, so for a small charge it can be yours! The designer is called Katia Loeffler.

I found this pattern easy to follow, you will soon get into the rhythm of it. Instead of the 16 spikes in the pattern, I worked 20 spikes as I wanted to carry on until the yarn ran out more or less.

The side edge has a similar pattern with smaller bubbles which adds interest.

In order to achieve my rainbow of colours, I just looked at the yarn and decided to splice it by starting a different ball of yarn in similar colours that carried on to a different range of colours. If you look very, very closely at the photos, you might see the yarn ends which I left so you could see where I started a different colour way. Now they are all sewn up, you cannot guess where they were!


* and as for 'old' and 'new' friends, I wasn't referring to age, but more to longstanding followers and to the amazing influx of new followers I have - wow, thanks for signing up! Hello also to my lovely followers on instagram and your unwavering support there as well! I'm just so happy to have found so many like minded people!

My little instagram page is here!


I hope this has provided you with fresh inspiration! Thanks for your visit, please write a little note in my visitor's book below, I love reading your comments!