A Bright Summer Jumper Dress

Welcome back,

Shortly after my last post I finished my summer knitting project which I haven't showed you yet.

I know that it looks like summer is practically gone, but we still get some very hot days from time to time.

When I found this discontinued and colourful yarn I thought it would be nice to crochet a jumper, but after a few tries I decided that it might be great to do a knitted jumper instead.

Luckily I had enough yarn and so I ended up with more of a dress than jumper!!!

The yarn is Vero by Lana Grossa in their Linea Pura range. 60% cotton and 40% silk, a luxurious combination.


 Bright Summer Jumper Dress

This shows my working approach: I take some existing garments to decide on a design feature, in this case the cut of the arm holes. Underneath you can see both a T-shirt and a sleeveless top for comparison.

This shows the back panel being knitted. You can also see the stranded work of the fairisle which I deigned myself.

 My first attempt of the front panel was not very successful, it ended up too far cut out!

 

 

This is my recalculated version!

And here it is with the yellow colour accent rib.

 

 

 

 

Worn with a T-shirt underneath...

 

Some of my own observations and hints:


Knitting with a summer yarn is quite pleasant!
Knitting in the round makes this fun!!!
Stripes are easily done, but carry the other colours along inside, saving sewing up too many ends later!
Fairisle adds interest, make sure to calculate pattern repeats (I tend to draw coloured diagrams when I design) and vary the repeats.
Do not carry the second colour over more than three stitches.
I love geometric designs!!!


Have you made a summer jumper or did you do some knitting this summer?
Why not leave me a comment below?
Thanks for stopping by!!!

A colourful neckerchief, a textured facecloth and a new Scheepjes CAL plus a baby blanket

Welcome back, my dear blog friends,

Come on in, can I offer you a cool drink perhaps? I have plenty of things to show you again....

Well, isn't summer just flying past?! Each of my grown up children came to visit from England, one after another, so there hasn't been any time for blogging. I was very happy to have seen them and we had a great time together. We also visited my family in Germany.

I have some finished projects to share with you. I hope you will find some new inspiration here!


A granny-square Heart

I found this cute little pattern via pinterest. I would like to use it as a warm welcome to all my latest followers. I am truly touched that you come to visit my little virtual crochet corner!

You will find the actual pattern on this blog page.

Of course I had to try it out. What do you think, do you like it? It works up quickly. Wouldn't it look nice as a garland perhaps? Or use it on a special handmade card or as part of gift wrapping!



A colourful neckerchief

After my colourful Funky Crochet Top, I still had some of the same Lana Grossa yarn, but in another colourway. This one was a mix of vibrant colours, such as red, blue and yellow amongst others.

I only had to balls of this yarn (2x50g), so it wasn't enough to make a larger shawl. What I did was to crochet a sort of mini shawl with ties. It sits like a neckerchief around the neckline.

A funkycrochet pattern for a textured facecloth

This was something I crocheted up pretty quickly.

Here is my own simple pattern.
I used a pure cotton yarn with colour changes and a 3mm hook.
The finished size is a square of 18cm.
I worked with 40 stitches in a row. (obviously begin each row with corresponding chains)


First row = chains
Second row =double crochet into back of each stitch
Third row =double crochet into back of each stitch
Fourth row =treble crochet into back of each stitch

Then repeat rows 2-4 until desired size. Crochet around with double crochet once. Finished!!

You will notice the textured rib on the surface of each side of the cloth.
You can use any sort of cotton or bamboo yarn for this. Might also be a nice stash buster!

Feel free to give it a go, and let me know how you get on!

A new granny-square blanket

I still have quite a lot of Stylecraft acrylic yarn left from a previous project, so I decided to start a new blanket for my friend's little son. I chose three shades of blue and two of red. I am making 4round granny- squares.

I started this when my daughter and her best friend were here, we had a granny-square workshop. I showed them how to make them, step by step. We had a lot of fun!

This is a project that in work on from time to time.

The Scheepjes CAL 2015

When I found out about the new crochet along from Scheepjeswol, I was very interested. Especially since they released a new yarn called Linen Soft. My problem so far has been trying to get hold of it locally. I ordered some initial quantity from England, but it took a whole two weeks (after despatch) to arrive.

You can find all the necessary steps in 10x weekly instructions on the Scheepjeswol website.
They are available in several languages and apparently there are also videos.

For some internet images see here. So far I haven't found any images of a completed shawl as yet.

I only begun with this project recently, the reason will become apparent in my next post (where you will see what crochet project has really consumed me this summer....)

Which means that I can work on it more concentratedly now, especially since all the instructions are complete and I don't need to wait.

Here you can see my progress so far.

Well, this rounds up another lengthy blog post for today.
Hope you enjoyed reading it!

As always, feel free to leave me your comments, I love to read them!!!
Thanks for your time!
By the way, do you want another cool drink?

A FUNKY CROCHET Top and some more rusticlacesquares

Hello my friends and welcome back to another week!


Did you have a good weekend? The weather here wasn't so good but that gave me the opportunity to concentrate on watching some TV whilst indulging in a spot of crochet.

Today I want to show you a new crochet top I made over the last four days.

Here is my Funky Crochet Top

My Funky Crochet Top
 

I made it from Lana Grosse Allegro, a colour changing yarn (58 Viscose, 42 Cotton). I believe this yarn might be discontinued. I only managed to get 8 x50g , so I wasn't sure it would stretch to making a top, but I was giving it a go. I normally like my tops and jumpers loose fitting, but this one would be a close fitting one.

When I saw all the colours, I felt instantly transported back to the Seventies!!!

There are shades of purple, ochre/gold, brown, coral red and petrol blue. All colours I love!!! Especially when they are combined like this!

I started by crocheting a granny square and just kept going! I made it to 25 rounds.

the first square
 

Then I made a second square the same.

I test stitched them together with some scrap yarn to see if it would fit ok. It did. As I still had a bit of yarn left, I decided to add 3 extra side rows (on both sides of the front panel) and 2 extra rows at either side of the front neckline. That was as much as I could add. You can see it here on the left.

Luckily there was enough yarn to sew the halves together.

Cleo and Jasper wishing you all a colourful week!!!

Hope you all have a great week!!! I leave you with more colour...

My latest two rusticlacesquares
 

I hope you enjoyed visiting this blog where I share my adventures in crochet with you all. I love hearing from you, if you got a couple of minutes to leave me a little comment?
Thank you very much!!!

A colourful day - progress on #rusticlacesquare and a new summer jumper

Welcome back!

Hope you are all enjoying your summer so far?

Here in Belgium we have been having a heat wave, temperatures were over 30 degrees for most of the week. At one point the thermometer got as high as 41 degrees!!!

Luckily now the temperature has dropped a bit. I find this makes everything a bit easier, including doing crochet and knitting.

Yes, knitting!!! After completing my recent crochet top (read about it in my previous post), I thought I might start another... but some beautiful yarn crossed my plans! I tried to crochet with it, but then decided it was better suited for knitting. The yarn is called Vero by Lana Grossa and it's a mix of cotton (60) and silk (40). I love working with it!!!



A new summer jumper

I am using 7mm needles and it is growing fast. My design is.... I'm making it up as I go along.

First I used simple stripes, meanwhile a bit of fairisle has crept in! I got 3 main colours plus less yarn of the fourth colour (yellow).

 

 

 

Rusticlacesquare progress update

Whilst working on my jumper, I also try to crochet a rusticlacesquare when I can.

Here are some photos, yesterday I reached 35 squares. Each square is approx. 11cm.

#rusticlacesquare

Well, I hope this dose of colour has brightened your day?!!!

Do you use more colour now it's summer? What are you working on right now?


I leave you with some photos of the Grote Markt in Antwerp that I took only a few days ago in the heat. My second oldest daughter came to visit for a few days. She certainly picked a good time for her visit!


Postcards from Antwerp

Cheers from me!!!

Enjoy your summer! Make sure you keep cool! I look forward to reading your lovely comments!

 

 

My new Veritas Triangle Shawl

Hello my lovely blogfriends!

Thank you for your lovely comments about my latest post. And welcome to my latest followers, I hope you will enjoy reading this new post today!

I am slowly starting to realize that I really love making shawls in the Summer, because they are so versatile to wear and equally fun to make!

The following shawl was really quick to make! I got the pattern from a woolshop here in Belgium - at Veritas. They often have free leaflets called #how to create. I picked up one that was called 'Driehoekige sjaal met pailletjes' (Triangular shawl with Sequins).

Sadly I couldn't find a direct link to the pattern which is written in Dutch.

Here is my Veritas Triangle Shawl!

Here you can see how it came about

Recently I went to Breiboetiek Debby in Antwerp to get more of the Katia Jaipur for my Rustic Lace Squares.

There I found some random yarn at reduced prices. After a good rummage in the box, I came up with the following:

6 balls of 50g , Three in a pale Sea green/Putty colour, one in Cream, and one each of different natural coloured balls with hints of browns, blues, green and orange.

I had never made a shawl from odd balls of yarn before! I thought it would work because these were all natural shades that look good together.

The pattern didn't look too difficult, and with a 5.5mm hook the shawl started to grow fast!

I started on the 5th June, the weather was sunny and I enjoyed crocheting on our balcony.

I alternated the colours, using the Sea green/Putty colour as my main colour because I had the most of this one.

 

  

I love the subtle stripes and colours. When it was finished only 3 days later, I added some tassels from the remaining yarn.

The finished shawl!

08.06.15 Tadah! My finished Shawl

The finished shawl measures 136 cm wide x 60 cm long (without the tassels, they measure approx 14 cm).

I already have worn this shawl a lot, it is soft and great when you are sitting somewhere with the airconditioning, protecting you against a chill.

My Tahiti Shawl - an update

Meanwhile I am concentrating on my Tahiti Shawl to get it finished. I'm hoping to show it to you all soon, but there is still quite a bit to do! You can see my recent progress here:

My Tahiti Shawl

The reason this one is taking longer is the difference in yarn! It is very thin cotton and I am only using a 3 mm hook. Also the size is a lot bigger, the width is approx 177 cm! So it will end up bigger overall!

What is your favourite summer project? Have you made something recently that you are already wearing now?

I'd love to read your comments, please feel free to add them below! Thank you for taking the time!

Happy summer crocheting!!!