Quick knits - Moebius Cowl Scarf and here is my pattern for it

Hello dear Blog friends,


Today I finished another project which I only started a few days ago. This is really a quick project and an easy one as well!

You might recall this earlier post when I had previously made such a twisted cowl, and in fact I followed my own previous pattern again!



This is my funkycrochet pattern for it: Quick Knit Moebius Cowl

This works best for yarn/wool that has got some flexibility and drape.

Cast on 40 stitches, then knit every row. This means that you will get a rib pattern. Knit very loosely so that the finished scarf or cowl will be nice and stretchy. Aim for around 70 cm when making a single cowl, or about 140-150cm when making a cowl that will fit double around the neck.

(Cotton will shrink, so err slightly on the cautious side when calculating the length!)

Remember to cast off in a loose manner as well so that the shape will remain rectangular throughout.
When making a Moebius Cowl, remember to sew the ends together in a (once) twisted way.

Notes: it often helps to make a proof square so you know how many stitches there are to each 10cm. Check the yarn label for guidance, and depending on your own tension, adjust the number of stitches.

The secret here is to use a larger needle size than suggested. When joining new yarn, do so at the beginning of a new row, it is less obvious.

This pattern is suitable for beginners.


Crochet alternative pattern:

For those of you who want to make a similar cowl in crochet, you could start by chaining as many stitches as you need to reach the required width, then start working a row of (UK) trebles, followed by a row of (UK) double crochet into the back loops, then repeat *row of trebles, row of double crochet* until required length.

Alternatively, you could also work entirely with trebles, however, remember to work every row into the back loops to get a similar effect to the knitted scarf/cowl.



Some notes:

I used the discontinued yarn Rico Design Fashion Tasai, an Aran weight yarn with 135m to 50 g. Instead of the usual 5mm needles I used 7mm. It is a wool/acrylic mix which is easy to care for.

I needed a total of 3 x 50g.

The finished size of the scarf (before sewing into a cowl): 30 cm x 150 cm long.

Here you can see the colours which range from different shades of blue, brown, rust, gold to lilac and purple. The colour changes of each ball of yarn are not identical!

This was the scarf as soon as it was off the knitting needles!

Laid out in a straight line - 150cm long

I took these pictures outside just now, hoping that the daylight might show off the colours better (they look pretty realistic above).

Here the colours look different again!

What do you think? Do you like cowls or do you prefer scarves instead?

Feel free to leave me your comments below!

A crafty corner makeover, more knitted hats, a bit of colour and an amazing find

Hello my dear blogfriends!

Thanks for your patience, it's been a bit longer between posts this time. Firstly, my daughter came to stay for a second time! So we've been out and about a fair bit and generally things have been rather busy. In addition to that, I'm still suffering from a horrible cold that refuses to go away, this morning I woke up with a nasty sore throat that feels like I swallowed a cheese grater!!!

Let me say another thanks and welcome to all my new followers, it is lovely to have you all here!
Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post!

A crafty corner makeover

This time I want to show you the result of my tidying, clearing up and re-organising my little crafty corner. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the towering inferno that was piling up on top of my craft cabinet, so I can only show you the 'after' photos. Let me assure you that this is a huge improvement and it pleases me much more to look at it now! It took me an entire afternoon, so be warned if you start something like this! But of course, you could sort out just a small corner to start with! I know I got a lot more to do!

My craft cabinet after the makeover!

Displaying some favourite little things

My vintage Spool holder

More treasures!

I love buttons!!!

My various drawers that I painted about 2 years ago

A couple of summers ago, I was really into painting my various wooden drawers, some of which I had for years, plus I managed to find some more here in charity shops! Finally I can access these drawers better! And now they house lots of crafty bits and pieces! When ordering your materials, you can be totally creative - lots of glass jars, liquid washing tabs containers, even food containers, biscuits tins etc can all be used. I find it works best for me when I can see the contents such as the buttons in the jars, but other things are best out of sight (in drawers or trays).

The printers tray, and the children's sewing box were also charity shop finds previously!

Do you have any useful storage ideas that work well for you?


Some finished projects

The following 2 projects have been finished meanwhile the week before. Here are some in progress pictures.

This is my second Alpaca Shawl - meanwhile finished!

21.01.15 Finished this hat for a friend

More knitted hats

When my daughter came back, I knitted her a headband and another hat, plus a new hat for myself, all within 2 days!!!

The knitted headband before it was sewn together

Left hat for me, Right hat and headband for my daughter

And here once more, all my recent knits made from Rico yarn

A bit of colour

Well, by now you probably come to expect quite a bit of colour when you come to visit this blog, right? This is a little bit different! Yes, I'm doing colouring in for adults and it is great fun. I tend to buy a weekly notebook/magazine called flow weekly which I use for making notes, drawing charts and more! This is a page that was for colouring in! But I also bought a big colouring in book! Have any of you tried it? I'd be interested to find out!

An amazing find!

Look at this! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it! A handknitted tunic in Autumn colours (sorry, the colours do not come out so well in this picture which I took in the charity shop when I saw it!)

I tried it on and it fitted me fine, so I had to have it! My daughter agreed that it suits me! In fact, I am wearing it today. What is more, I totally appreciate that someone has handmade it (I can imagine how much hard work went into it, not to mention the amount of colourful yarn and how much it must have cost!) Needless to say I only paid a snip for it! Plus I found a lovely grey jumper with mohair and silk (not handmade), that also gives me a favourite comfy jumper feel!

However, all this has not put me off wanting to knit my own jumpers!

I want to wish you all a happy weekend, what are your plans? Have you scheduled in some crochet or knitting time?

As always, I love reading your comments, so feel free to leave me yours!

A knitted hat, cowl and fingerless gloves plus a walk along the river Dijle

Hello my friends,

Hope you had a good week? I've been very busy, my oldest daughter is still visiting and we are often out and about!

I also like to welcome my latest readers, thanks for joining and following my blog, I hope you like it here! :)

First some new makes. My daughter asked me for some handmade winter woollies to keep her warm. I was only too happy to oblige!

My latest knits (all made with Rico yarns): a fitted hat, a cosy cowl and some wristwarmers/fingerless gloves!

Fingerless gloves/Wristwarmers - finished late December 2014
 

09.01.15 Finished Knitted hat!

Knitted hat from above

The cowl before sewing together

11.01.15 The finished Cowl

A long family walk

On Sunday we went for a very long walk along the river Dijle which meanders and is also surrounded by wetlands. There are some very small villages and farms. The initial plan was to walk 8.5km, however we probably did about 10km since one of the planned paths was flooded! There was no way we could have passed through on foot. As it was, the ground was very soggy and muddy in the majority of our route, so we ended up with very muddy shoes and trousers!

Here are some highlights from our long walk!

Wrapped up warm against the cold!

 Forest Trees against the sky

Coming out of the woods we walked along country paths

I was surprised to see some young lambs in January!

Sheep grazing at an organic fruit farm

We walked along the road past some farms

Sun breaking through the clouds

This cute little farm cat was very friendly

Nature Reserve Doode Bemde

River Dijle meandering across the land

We walked through this waterlogged and muddy field!!

Our path was meant to go right through there!!!

Waterlogged land

Dramatic clouds

It was impossible to walk ON the path, we had to cling to the edges!

Another little castle

A lucky escape

After our long walk we were glad to return to the car once more! We drove to the next village and went to have some food in a small inn. I had some salad with my main meal and suddenly I was choking on my food! It was the most terrifying thing that happened to me in a long time, some of the salad leaves got stuck in my throat and cut off my airpipe! Luckily my youngest daughter patted me on the back, quite a few times, before the food got dislogded again and I could breathe! I spent the whole next day thinking how much I was glad to be alive! I was pretty shaken up by this!

Well, this is all for now. I hope you enjoyed the photos and got a bit of inspiration from my latest knits! Perhaps you feel like making some fingerless gloves or a hat? Of course you can crochet those as well! Let me know if you do!!

Feel free to leave your comments, I look forward to reading them!

Merry Christmas to you all! (A crochet wreath tutorial, an Alpaca Shawl and another hat or two!)

Hello my friends,

Finally I get a chance for another post! Enjoy the photos, there are plenty! I've been rather busy lately! But then I'm sure, all of you have as well. Isn't there just so much to do, no matter how you much you plan ahead?

How to make a Christmas Mini Wreath Decoration - Quick Tutorial

You will need a small wooden craft ring, I used one about 7cm and one of 5cm. But any kind of ring could be used (think curtain or shower curtain rings, rings from broken jewellery etc) The ring needs to be big enough so that you are able to crochet around it!

I used Scheepjeswol Stone Washed for the first example, but you could use any yarn you like, plus a matching crochet hook.

You start with leaving a long enough tail (10-15 cm), this will be used for a hanging loop later. Crochet once all around the ring, making sure you cover it tightly and completely, keep pushing the stitches so they are very close next to each other, but not overlapping. (In my case there were about 95 stitches for the larger ring).

Close the ring with a slip stitch, chain 3 (counts as first stitch) and begin the second round: *crochet (always) a total of 5 trebles into the first stitch, then a double crochet into the next stitch, then skip 3 stitches*. (Repeat from *to*)

You might find it a bit tight to crochet 5 stitches, you could also make this less, and depending on the size of your circle and number of total stitches, you could leave more stitches inbetween the trebles.

This is what it will look like:

Once you have crocheted this ruffly shell stitch all around the ring, close with a slip stitch. Cut your yarn, but leave a long enough tail. Knot the two yarn tails with each other a couple of times to secure.

Now you will need the contrasting yarn (if using) and a large wool needle to make large stitches around the outer row of shell stitch. See below:

Now we are adding a small bow. I crocheted a small number of chain stitches (here in red yarn) that would be enough to form a bow, then cut the end and pulled the yarn through the last stitch to secure.I had some nice bright Neon thread with which I sewed the shaped bow to the wreath at the bottom (opposite the 2 tail ends which are used as a hanging loop).

This is the second wreath I made. Here I used a different yarn (Veritas Laura which contains wool) and a smaller wooden ring. I needed to use a larger hook for the yarn, therefore the stitches looked much bigger in relation to the size of ring! I also needed less stitches in total. The number of stitches is not that important, obviously it helps if you can divide it by the number of stitches in a repeat (in my case above it was that the pattern repeats every 5 stitches).

Here I wanted to add some tiny crochet balls which I made by chaining 5, then closing into a ring with a slip stitch, cut the yarn and leave long ends, see photo. I used 3 different colours for the 'balls' and red for the bow.

Here you can see what it looks like at the back. All I did was to thread the 2 yarn ends through the shell stitch row in regular intervals, then knotting the yarn ends twice and then cutting them off (taking care not to cut into the knots obviously!) I also attached the bow with a small length of yarn, which I threaded through to the back and then knotted and cut.

Last step: Knot the 2 (green) yarn ends together and trim, this will be your hanging loop so you can hang the ornament

This is what the finished wreath looks like from the front.

And here you can see both wreaths together. Using different sizes, different yarns or colours can give different results. You can vary it according to your own taste. I thought it might also look nice if you got some pretty beads which you could sew on or even incorporate into your crocheting.
Use your own imagination! I would be very interested to see your own version if you try this out, just leave a link in the comments below!

Here are the finished Mini Wreaths

Cleo and my Maybelle Flower Bunting

Maurice Knits in Antwerpen

Recently I made a visit to a new Knit Cafe in Antwerp called Maurice Knits. It's in a temporary location in a bank building. They even got the caravan parked outside!

To find out more about Maurice knits, visit their website: http://www.mauriceknitwear.com/

The cafe inside is quite large and roomy with plenty of seats. When I went there there were lots of students working with their laptops! The coffee is tasty and the tart I sampled was yummy! Some of the furniture there is vintage and also for sale! There were quite a number of knitted items for sale, such as chunky winter jumpers and woolly hats! They also had a small amount of wool for sale! (Hooray for some nice Rowan yarns!) I had a nice time sitting there and crocheting some of my Christmas stars!

11.12.14 Maurice Knits, Antwerpen

A Christmas Market in Germany



Last Saturday we went to Hanau, Germany for a quick day trip to visit my family. After a meal, we went for a stroll across the Christmas market. In the first photo you can see some people dressed up in animal costumes which probably had something to do with the Brothers Grimm. (Hanau is the birth town of the Brothers Grimm, you can see their statue just behind the booth on the left side).

13.12.14 Christmas Market in Hanau, Germany

Little houses and tree ornaments

Lots of Red and White Christmas ornaments!

From the bottom of my heart I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!!

Colourful wooden toys

New and finished projects

Here a quick mention of some other crochet and knitted makes....

I made this crochet sample after a pattern I found here: http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0435.html?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Crochet%20Lacy%20Scarf&utm_content=12%20Popular%20Thick%20%2026%20Quick%20Patterns%20to%20Knit%20and%20Crochet&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Stitch%2011012014

I used Fenna yarn again and I like the effect of the pattern. The idea is to transform this rectangular sample into a bag later.

13.12.14 Crochet Stitch Sample

Stitch Close up

The following is my absolute favourite make of recent times! I made a large, soft Alpaca Shawl, knitted from Drops Alpaca Boucle which can be a bit tricky to knit with thanks to the Boucle loops, but it is oh, so soft!!! It measures around 1.50m wide by about 60cm high. It is my own pattern. The effect is that the stitches create a sort of double layered pattern, thus trapping the warmth inbetween. This shawl is absolutely wonderful to wear, either with the triangle tip at the front or at the back.
I can highly recommend this yarn!!!

(I first mentioned this shawl here: http://myfunkycrochet.blogspot.be/2014/11/blue-shells-cowl-hart-labeur-in.html )

12.12.14 Finished Black Alpaca Shawl

Alpaca Shawl Stitch Detail close up

And I also knitted another hat with the great Rico Tasai yarn, this one is a Birthday gift and has already been posted! Again, I love the range of colours!!!

17.12.14 Knitted Hat (5)

Here is my current WIP that I am concentrating on and that soon will be finished: I'm knitting a cape, again from Drops Alpaca Boucle, this time in a mauve pink. I've just binge watched the Outlander series which plays in Scotland in 1743 (more about the series here!!!)

I'm totally in love with the costumes in the series, especially all the shawls, capes, neckscarves etc that the main character Claire is wearing. Oh, and also you can find these original costume designs here on etsy! I already got my mind on the fabulous Sassenach Capelet! I mean, how difficult can it be???

However, my cape here is more inspired by this.  But the pattern is different, it is my own. I'm using different sized needles, starting with 8mm and currently I am down to a size 5mm.

Below you can see a new crochet hat that I also started at the same time!

15.12.14 Crochet Hat

19.12.14 Crochet Hat

I close with these cute little Christmas ornaments/garland that I made for last year's Christmas. Each decoration was completely handsewn. It took me quite a long time, I recall, but I loved making them!

My handsewn Xmas Garland from 2013

Well, that's all for now! I do hope you enjoyed reading this. Maybe you got a tiny bit of inspiration out of one or another picture, I do hope so! I want to thank you all for your kind support and loyalty, thank you for following my blog and visiting from time to time! I warmly welcome all new followers! Thanks again for all your great comments, which I enjoy reading, so please leave a little note below!

Last, not least: Here is wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!!!!