Growing flowers, some unexpected gifts, a(nother) knitted hat, and Springflower Squares

Hello my dear blogfriends!

Thanks so much for all your kind comments on my last post! Seems there was something for everybody!

Welcome to my latest new followers, it's lovely to see you here!

Some of you have started following me on instagram which is fun!!!

Growing Flowers

No, not actual flowers, but those of a crochet nature! You may recall my recent post here. Well, on Sunday I finally had the chance to continue on this project. So far I had crocheted 21 tiny flowers, I continued until I had got a total of 40, plus a made a larger flower, too. The tiny flowers were meant to be Forget Me Nots (which I love), and often they came in slightly different shades, not just blue! I used Lang Mille Colori Baby and a tiny 1.5mm hook!

I love making Crochet Jewellery, I have made lots of it in the past before I started this blog!

I used 2 bronze coloured chains and matching findings. I connected each flower with the next with little jump rings, then added a lobster clasp closure.

The beauty of this necklace (apart from the tiny flowers) is how versatile it is, because it can be worn in different ways!

My Tiny Flower Necklace

The Pendant Flower which can be attched in different places

Detail of the lobster clasp closure

Version 1: double layered necklace with pendant flower

 

Version 2: Flower Necklace and Chain necklace together form one long necklace

Versions 3+4: Two seperate necklaces

The lovely colour run between the flowers

Pendant Flower is 3cm, the tiny flowers are 1.5cm

 

You could also clip the Pendant Flower at the back of the neck, this looks nice and eyecatching, especially if you wear your hair short!

I really love how this necklace has turned out, it is so delicate and pretty!


Some unexpected gifts

Both yesterday and today I had some wonderful surprises in the post!

A lovely craft book and a colourful planner

My brother and his wife send me the Dawanda Craft Book and an amazing Calendar with their own photos taken in Tenerife!

A good friend sent me a very colourful planner!!!

A wonderful Photo Calendar

A Knitting Compendium (in Dutch)

And I got the answer to all my knitting questions in the shape of a very thick and thorough book from the parents of my partner!


A(nother) knitted hat

Yes, I am knitting yet another hat, this one is a commission for a friend who recently asked me to make her one practically identical to mine in Red. (I recently blogged about it here). It will soon be finished!

A knitted hat in Red

New Springflower Squares

Well, I really should have finished the hat this morning, but fate intervened and I saw this free pattern online on the blog Made with loops!

So, what did I do? Yes, you guessed it, I started playing with yarn! I brought out my Scheepjeswol Stonewashed yarn and select 2 different colourschemes (total 6 colours).

Here you can see the results! I made 4 granny squares which measure about 9.5cm each. This is such a pleasant and fun pattern and not difficult (especially if you tried making traditional granny squares before). The flowers make it cheerful and funky! ;) Give it a go!!!

Trying out a new pattern!

My first Springflower Square (Pattern by Heike Gittins)

I quite like the flowers at the front with just 3 rows!

20.01.15 Ta-dah!! The 4 Springflower Squares I made today!

Right, after all this crochet diversion I really must be getting back to my hat knitting!!!

As always, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! I really love getting your comments and reading them, so please leave me a little note or two...

Finnish Granny Square Scarf, V-Stitch Cowl, Flower Necklace and more Autumn Crochet

Hi, nice to see you here again!

How was your week? Mine was very busy, but the good news is that I have got lots to show you here!

I'm starting with some flower power - read more about that further down!

My Little Crochet Flower Necklace

V-Stitch Cowl

On Monday and Tuesday I was busy making this V-Stitch Cowl with a 7mm hook (Veritas Laura yarn). It is both lightweight and warm! I found this stitch strangely soothing and the Cowl was finished pretty quickly. As usual, there were plenty of ends to sew in, but luckily I did some already in the first third or so.

Also at the beginning of the week I had another go at crocheting the same doily I made recently in colour. This one I made with very fine white Cotton and a 2.5mm hook, you can see it it slightly smaller than the first one (underneath). I gave it to my mother in Germany when we visited her on Wednesday and she was very happy with it!

White Doily

The crochet bracelet that I won from Marianne in the Netherlands!

On Thursday I received some post from the Netherlands - it came from Marianne. She organized a give away and I had won one of her hand crocheted bead bracelets, yay!!! I was so happy to receive this and immediately put it on! You can read more about it here.

I thought it such a brilliant idea! I've been reading her blog for a while and I'm loving her unique colourful style, what an inspiration! Please do check it out for yourself!

Modelling my new bracelet

Ok, back to the flowers! On Wednesday we left in the middle of the night to drive to Germany so we could get there during the morning. As usual at breakfast time, I went to read a few blogs and came across an inspiring post, so I quickly printed off the tutorial and took it with me (together with my Granny Square Bag full of yarn and hooks!) I tried to sleep in the car, but as soon as the sun had come up I got busy with my crochet hook, the tutorial and some of Scheepjeswol Stone Washed yarn.

And this is the result: I joined the flowers to make a necklace. I used all 16 available colours, luckily I had them all with me in a bag of small yarn balls.

Atty gives a fantastic tutorial how to make and also join up flowers here.

I've only found her blog relatively recently, but already have come across a number of interesting ideas with regard to joining modules (such as the flowers in this case).

My little crochet flower necklace

The Flowers close up, aren't they pretty?

On Thursday I managed to finish off the Finnish Granny Square Scarf, here it is!

The Finnish Granny Square Scarf

I joined the squares with a simple blanket stitch and did 2 rows of double crochet all around.

Close up detail of scarf

I even blocked the scarf!

I wanted some sort of tassels at the ends, but something different! I made triple treble clusters of 4, with 10 chains and let the ends hang loose!

My quirky Tassels! (reverse side here)

Thursday late evening after coming home from my Dutch class, I found this lovely pattern by Maaike from Crejjtion - Flower Square Cushion here. I immediately had a go to make a little square following her instructions. You can see the result here, next to one of the Maybelle flowers I made before (to get an idea of scale.

Crejjtion Flower Square and Maybelle Crochet Flower

Also on Thursday late afternoon, I took some new Fenna variegated yarn and some hooks with me and just started some granny crochet. That yarn works up nicely and the colours are like gems, rich and colourful. I've not yet decided what it will be made into, I got 3 balls of yarn, but I am making it quite wide (about 36cm - it would fit a cushion nicely! On the other hand, if I can still get some more, then it could be made into a scarf/shawl. This is what it looked like this morning:

Current Mystery WIP

I'm loving these deep colours!

Close up colourful stitches

So, there you have it, a summary of what has been happening in my crochet corner of the world! Apart from that, I started 2 different Dutch courses in the evening, went to a crochet/knitting meeting and been to Germany and back. This means I need to catch up on everyone else's blog which I'm hoping to do over the weekend!

Please don't be shy and write some comments in the space below, I'm pleased to hear from you and like to know what you think!

And last, not least, thank you again to Marianne, Atty and Maaike for their brilliant blog inspiration!
Please, go and visit their pages!

http://atty-s.blogspot.be/
http://crejjtion.com/
http://marrose-ccc.com/