The Knitting Catch Up - Barcelona Alpaca Jumpers, Soft Merino Cowl, and the rebirth of the Ombre Shawl

Hello Dear Blog Friends,

A quick preview of my first finished project (finished on 1st January 2016): More in a moment!

The knitting catch up

I mentioned in one of my recent posts that I have done some new knitting, finally here is my chance to tell you in more detail about it.



Two Alpaca Jumpers called Barcelona

First of all, this time I am following a pattern for a jumper from this lovely book: Jules & Julie by Julia Jaeken featuring 35 patterns for the entire family! It is photographed beautifully and features members of Julie's family!

She is the owner of Julija's Shop here in Antwerpen.
I love her shop, she stocks some of my favourite yarns!
This is already her second book, her first one is full of delightful knits for small children!

Jules & Julie

Unfortunately it is only available in Dutch so far. I guess if you wanted to, you could mail Julie whether you could purchase the pattern in English, might be worth a try...

You find Julie's website, blog and shop here!


So I am currently knitting an Alpaca jumper for one of my daughters. The thing is, before I could get the light grey) wool for hers, I bought a different shade (dark grey) and got started - this will be a jumper for myself. So in fact I am actually knitting 2 jumpers at the same time, in different sizes, but from the same pattern. (Barcelona).

Here you can see what Barcelona looks like (both adult and child sizes)

Here you can see work in progress on the two jumpers that I am making:
Not only am I making 2 jumpers, I am also working on front and back together!!! I am using the same wool as Julie in her book - Drops Alpaca Boucle which I bought in her shop. I already worked with this super soft yarn last year!

 

I am making progress, slowly.... (well because I have also been doing crochet of course!)


My first finished project - a knitted cowl

Then in mid December I started on a large Merino loop shawl which is a present for a good friend!

I finished it on the first day of January, what a good start into the New Year!

Measurements: 188 cm all round, knitted in the round, 21 cm wide. This is large enough to wrap around the neck 3x. I love this yarn, it is unbelievably soft and squishy, yet warm! I knitted quite loosely, so it is very elastic and stretchy! The colour is 174 (Olive Green). I used moss stitch.
I've already made quite a few of these super long loops!

 

My Alpaca Ombre Shawl

I also decided to frog the ombre shawl I had been knitting and to re-work it because I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Luckily I am knitting on large needles (9mm). This is from the oh-so-soft Alpaca Silk yarn from Drops.

Well, that's it for now on the knitting front, we'll talk about crochet soon!!! ;))

Again, I am looking forward to hearing from you, please leave me a comment or two! See, that even rhymes! Looks like we're off on a good start for 2016!

Hello December! Two granny square blankets, a chunky wrap and progress on the Fortune's Shawlette

Hello all,


Wow, December is finally here... no snow yet, at least none that stayed! When the weather is turning cold and windy, then it's ideal to spend the dark evenings with some nice crochet at home.

Thanks for your lovely comments on my last makes, it always touches my heart to hear from you. Meanwhile I have started working on some new projects, more about that later.

I hope my American friends enjoyed their holiday season!



My finished granny square blanket for a boy

Here I got some photos for you to show off the finished blanket that I talked about in my last post.

As soon as the above blanket was finished, I got started on another granny square blanket! This one is for the boy's baby sister!



A granny square blanket for a baby girl

I started with 6 colours in warm shades, ranging from yellow to lilac. The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK, as before with the other blanket. Each ball of yarn is 100 g.

I kept working away, my goal was to crochet 6x squares every day.  Soon I had about 11 squares for each colour.

I decided to mix things up a bit, making squares with 4 different colours in each!

First, I went through all the different permutations which resulted in 25 mini squares!

Playing with my squares on the floor!

 

 

I began to turn those mini squares into full size ones!

This was what it looked like yesterday!!!

Today I have started my assembly, attaching the squares row for row! I will let you know when it is finished, still lots more work to do for now!!!



A chunky crochet wrap or lap blanket

I also made this wrap to keep my shoulders warm, I used 3x 100g  Auraucania Budi with an 8mm crochet hook!!

It was done pretty quickly, I used a simple V-stitch pattern! (15x Vs in a row). The hand dyed yarn colours vary between a deep to a light rose pink, and black to pale grey.

The finished size is 36cm x 104 cm. It's lovely warm!

Here you can see one of the skeins and one already rolled up into a yarn cake!

 

My Fortune's Shawlette

Here is the progress on my not so small Shawlette, I took it with me on the train to Gent last week when I went to visit my daughter there! I draped it over the chair on the train to get a picture!

That's it for now.... more to come in the following days!

If you want to leave me a comment, please do! Have you been making any Christmas gifts for your loved ones? Do tell..... ;)

A colourful Granny Square Crochet Bag, some nice New Yarn, a Sunday walk and Ombre knitting

Hello all,

Thanks for your kind responses to my latest projects. I know you are curious to see what I made out of all those granny squares I was busy with!

I can show you now - I made a new bag and it is finished!

A colourful Granny Square Crochet Bag

Side A of the Granny Square Crochet Bag

Side B of the Granny Square Crochet Bag

How to make this bag:

Here you can see a few of the steps that shows how I made the bag. First I worked out that I needed a total of 28 squares. I had seen instructions for making a small bag out of 17 squares, but I wanted mine to be a bit bigger.

Crocheting some squares while enjoying my cup of tea!

Squares of various sizes

I used Scheepjeswol Stone Washed and a 3mm hook. I crocheted 5 rounds with different colours for each squares. (In theory you could make the squares any size!)

Before I started attaching the squares to each other, I laid out all the squares on the table how I liked them best.

Squares laid out in the shape of the bag

I tried to balance colours on both sides of the bag similarly.

Using purple for crocheting the squares together.

Crocheting the squares together

The bottom of the bag

The bag from above, opened up

The handles were sewn to the sides

Initially my plan was to crochet some straps, but then I found a suitable strap at Wolle Roedel, a wool shop in Germany on our visit this past weekend.

I have already used my new bag, but I'm considering lining it with fabric still.


Some nice New Yarn

I also found  some pretty Linnen yarn in Germany, here is a photo of my purchases. You can see the bag handles underneath the Knit-Pro tips.

In a bookshop I got a new hobby book on making Stampers and Printing!

Here in Belgium  I bought some more Rowan colourscape Chunky wool which I will use to sort out an old WIP.

Rowan Colourscape Chunky and Scheepjeswol Stone Washed

And yesterday I discovered some new shaeds of Fenna yarn!!!! I'm currently trying out a new crochet stitch.

Hello new FENNA!

Ombre knitting

Meanwhile I started on another knitting project. I'm trying to mix yarns to create an ombre effect. The yarn is Drops Alpaca Silk Brushed. It feels incredibly soft. Here are the first two colours.

A Sunday walk


On Sunday we went for a nice little walk around a public park domein called Vrijbroek near Mechelen. It was still quite cold outside, so we wrapped up warm!

The Road less travelled (it was closed due to safety concerns!)

Fishing lake

Impressive clouds

Walking along water

Rhododendron with flower buds

The Rose Garden

My Harlequion Blanket

Recently I took my blanket to school to talk about it and my hobby! It made me realize that I haven't worked on it for over 2 months, I really should get back to it and get it finished!!!

My big Harlequin Blanket in my first crochet Granny Square Bag

My Harlequin Blanket draped on the stairs

The problem, as always, is time! I have so many plans and ideas and I come across interesting patterns and stitches every day! I keep making lists and notes to try and hold on to it all so I won't forget! Do you feel the same?

Nevertheless, every so often, something new comes along unexpectedly and I tend to drop everything and start on yet another WIP. The above Crochet Bag took me a week and is an ideal project to do whenever you get time to make a few squares. Unlike a blanket, it is finished so much quicker!!!

Thank you all for your patience and loyalty! I hope you enjoyed reading this post and I hope to see you back soon again!

I would love hearing from you, so please leave me some comments, I love reading them!