Woodland Finds - Funky Toadstools and Crochet Stones plus Plummy Cake

Hello my blog friends!

It seems you all enjoyed coming along on the virtual version of my walk in the woods!
Thanks so much for all your lovely comments, it makes me happy to read them all!

Making Funky Toadstools when you can't get to sleep

Yesterday I spent a lot of my time travelling (thankfully the Harlequin Blanket and the Shrug both benefitted from it), but it also meant I was very tired late in the evening.

But for some reason I couldn't get to sleep, so after lying there for a while, I got up again and made myself comfortable at the table. I decided to let creativity take it's own course and have a go just playing with yarn! I was still thinking about my lovely walk and decided I would try to make my own toadstool - I ended up with 3 even! This is the result.

Funky Toadstools

Recently I had seen some knitted versions here on Lisanne's blog (which is always brimming with lots of cool ideas, I don't know how she does it!!!). Knitted Toadstools - the pattern is apparently in this book.

Whenever I stay up during the night like this, I make a point of not turning the computer on. This stops distracting me and I can just make something until my eyes feel tired again and I know I will get to sleep easily enough!

So I began crocheting 4 chains with white cotton yarn and started on the stem of the first toadstool, crocheting in the round and adding 2 extra stitches along the way, then I did some trebles representing the gills, doubling the stitches to 12. Attaching the dark red Cotton from Rico I continued in the round, increasing stitches regularly and then later decreasing. I had left a long tail of the white cotton and used this to add the white spots before closing up completely with red. Likewise, I added some stuffing during this process which helped with the shaping.  Finished size: 3.5cm tall with 2.8cm diameter! Tiny and cute!

My next toadstool was to become even more funky as I reversed the 2 colours and added a more pointy shape! Finished size: 5cm tall and 3cm diameter.

The last one took the longest, because it was also the biggest, measuring about 7cm tall and 6cm diameter.

This time I crocheted the white stem first with about 10 stitches in the round. Then I fashioned the top, beginning at the centre with a magic ring and 4 stitches, increasing more and more each round. As I approached the last 3-4 rows towards the edge, I deliberately increased and on occasion, decreased, in a more random fashion. This resulted in a much more organic shape which was not completely round!

Then I worked the underside with the gills, decreasing until I had also about 10 stitches left to match my stem. I added the white spots by sewing with a double strand of white cotton, added stuffing and sewed the stem to the top. I squeezed the toadstool into shape until I was happy with it! (If you wanted to be precise, you might insist on doing the gills in white, I did mine in red and call it artistic licence!!!)

If this inspires you, then why not have a go yourself? The toadstools do not need to look perfectly round and even, in fact the more unusual, the more original! A nice way to practice crocheting in the round, though it does get easier if you use more stitches or thicker yarn! Use your own imagination!!!

My fresh harvest!!!

This morning when I saw my Surprise Night Project it made me smile!

Crochet Pebbles

I had collected a handful of nice pebbles on my walk as well. To all my British readers I say this: it might be much easier to find perfect pebbles if you have access to a nice beach somewhere instead of looking for them on your woodland walks! :)

Pebbles from my walk

I always wanted to try to crochet around a pebble, so I used some extra fine Katia Jaipur cotton with a 2mm hook and did some granny stitches on one, and some simple loop or mesh stitches on the second pebble. It gets a bit tricky once you have to leave the pebble in place and continue crocheting. These pebbles only measure 3.5cm and 4cm each - they were the smallest ones from my collection.

This was a fun way of doodling with yarn, just seeing where it leads to!

My finished Crochet pebbles made with Katia Jaipur

Lovely effect of the yarn

Granny square stitch versus mesh stitch

Happy Harvest!

Here you can see the combined results of the two little projects plus an earlier little fine Granny Square Doily I had made with the same yarn, showing off the colour effect beautifully!

After that, all I wanted to do is bake a quick cake or tart! I used a few plums which I sliced and placed on top of a layer of Mascarpone cheese spread onto some ready made shortcrust pastry . Sprinkled with plenty of Cinnamon and some Vanilla flavouring! I didn't add sugar, because I like it that way! Baked in the oven as two halves (since we have a very small oven) and voila! Some yummy Plummy cake! (I sometimes vary this simple recipe by using puff pastry instead which also works well. You could use other fruit, too!) It tastes delicious! Of course you can make your own pastry (and some of you would say, grow your own plums even - and I applaud you certainly for that!), but for me this was a quick way to produce something fun and edible without worrying too much about the ins and the outs of things!

PS: Random Health Warning: Do not attempt to add Funky Toadstools and Crochet Stones to your own Plummy Cake - these projects are best enjoyed separately!!! ;D

Some quick Plummy Cake

Are you enjoying the simple things? I do hope so! Not everything has to be difficult or to take a long time to produce something you love doing and that makes you happy in the process!

Have a lovely weekend! I am looking forward to it very much since my family from Germany is coming to visit, so there will be less time for blogs! (I'm hoping to catch up afterwards and look forward to find out what everyone has been up to!)

What do you think of my little quirky makes? Did they make you smile a little? Please leave me a message, I love reading them!

Hobbybeurs Hasselt, a quick Flower Doily, a festival and my love of triangles

Hello my crochet friends!

It is time for another post! I got so much to show and tell you about, so please grab a cup of tea or coffee and make yourselves comfortable! I hope you all had a nice week including last weekend! Last week it was very hot here in Belgium, back to summer weather (27-30 degrees)!

Here is the Flower Power Dishcloth, a very quick make that I saw on Helda's Blog on Sunday morning (after a  great night out on Saturday, read more about that further down!) and just had to crochet for myself! I love these kind of challenges! You can find the original pattern on Ravelry. I recommend it to you, give it a go! Like Helda, I used Rico Cotton.

My very own Flower Power Dishcloth (or Doily)

After this happy make, it was time to go out, so Sunday afternoon we went to the Hobbybeurs in Hasselt (Belgium) which is more than an hours drive away. Unfortunately I missed going the year before (when it was held in Mechelen which is closer by to where I live). I was lucky that my partner agreed to take me there and his mother accompanied me, which was fun, as she also does a lot of different needle crafts! Whilst the men went for a nice long walk, we walked around the Hobbybeurs. We spent 3 hours there and the time went really quickly. There was such a lot to see!

Here is the catalogue and the back of the flyer which shows a variety of crafts.

At the entrance we were give a goodie bag containing an Embroidery magazine, a Papercraft Punch and some pretty wooden beads (all worth Euro 12, but the entrance fee was almost as high: Euro 11 (but we saved Euro 1.50 with a special voucher)

Goodie Bag containing 3 gifts: Magazine, Beads and a Punch

This is the very first thing that really got my interest - a beautiful floral quilt. My first reaction was to guess Amy Butler, but when I asked the ladies at the stand, they told me it was Kaffe Fassett! (He has got his very own website (of course!) here!) I've been a fan of his since the Eighties! He is such an inspiration, I love his celebration of colour!

A Kaffe Fassett Quilt Design

A little bit further I was mesmerized by these pretty things here!

Some hanging Crochet Mandala Ornaments

These ornaments below were smaller and featured yarn being wrapped around a wooden ring. They were sold in kit form.

Some smaller Crochet Ornaments

Later on we came across this amazing stall with handcrafted Teddy Bears - the husband made the bears and his wife crocheted (and sewed) some tiny clothes to fit them. I admired the clothes and she told me she used a 0.6mm hook! I was in awe! I can only imagine how difficult it must be to even see the stitches, never mind crocheting into them!

Handsewn Teddy Bears...

... and tiny crocheted clothes to fit them!

I am sorry that I did not take photos of more stalls, but in the end I put the camera into my bag and forgot about it more or less. There was so much to see and things were constantly tempting, so I needed my hands free to explore! I simply got carried away! There were not as many stalls with wool/yarn as I had anticipated, but then again, that might have been a good thing! We tried to look at everything, but it was nearly impossible. There were papercrafts, fabric, sewing machines, beads, felting, mosaics, decorating of wood and cardboard, together with tools, books and so much more. Many stalls also gave demonstrations or tiny taster sessions for people to have a go themselves! Luckily there was also a good cafe to enjoy a nice cup of coffee and sit down for 20 minutes!

Here is my 'loot' from the exhibition: 9 x balls of Stylecraft DK in additional colours for my Harlequin Blanket, and one very large Ball of Scheepjeswol Chunky yarn (probably to make a warm cowl). Isn't it funny how I ended up choosing more Autumn colours this time? (To clarify, I had ordered the previous selection online in the Spring!). I loved seeing all the different shades in person, so much better than looking at a computer screen. So now I can play with 30 colours for my blanket! :)

My yarn loot from the exhibition!

I discovered some fantastic fabric in amazing prints by Tim Holtz which is his new Ecletic Elements line. (Read more here!) I also noticed a lot of papercrafts in the same line, it really caught my eye! I only bought a tiny swatch as a souvenir, plus some cute ribbons I liked. I really like fabric with printed designs such as measuring tapes, clocks, etc.

My tiny sewing loot!

At the exit, a quick pose and photo opportunity in front of a most colourful quilt!

I love colour!!!!

Do we have a minute? Oh, go on, just one more!

Star Quilt

You may ask, what has been happening with my Harlequin Blanket? Well, here is a quick visual update, it is growing steadily. Though, due to the very hot temperatures last week I suddenly had a 3 day bout of suffering from terrible headaches which really impacted on my amount of crocheting, something that had not happened before. Luckily now the weather is cooler again, things are back to normal and I'm feeling ok.

Harlequin Blanket 22.09.14

Come a bit closer...

now measuring a good 30cm high

Going back to Friday, I made another trip into Antwerp, on a glorious day of sunshine, and went to another wool shop, Lena & Zasa. Unfortunately for us customers, this shop was open for the last day, because the owner is following a new career. There were some good reductions and I managed to scoop up some exotic finds, a number of Mohair yarns from British company Colinette and Japanese ITO and HABU. The colour combination of the 2 skeins from Colinette made me think of Rhubarb and Custard, yumm! Good enough to eat, haha!

Links for ITO Sensai, a silk mohair yarn - find out more here
HABU: more info. Plus of course, Colinette - click here!

As you might know, I am trying to follow so many blogs and I love reading all of them! (Yes, that includes yours!) However, since we went to England I have gotten behind, still trying to catch up as best as I can. Often I have to remind myself to keep crocheting, because I get so distracted (in a lovely way) by what I am reading! Does this ever happen to you, too?

I have got a lovely namesake in Holland who blogged about this: Triangles and mosquitos! (It's also one of my very first blogs I loved reading and it has helped with my Dutch, too! Thanks, Ingrid!) This was on Friday night, when I read it.

By Saturday it was decided, I was also going to crochet some nice triangles of my own! I grabbed my trusted Scheepjeswol Stone Washed and started.

In the afternoon I had to take it with me in the car, as my partner had told me about an exciting and free Open Air Festival called BAROEG happening in Rotterdam (NL), featuring Heavy Metal and Electronic music. We went there for the latter and had a fantastic time, a whole afternoon/evening of dancing to some of our favourite artists who played live there. The setting was great, it was in a large park, with tents for the events, plus plenty of stalls for food and drink, and other things such as clothing etc. I just read here that it was a great success with 7,500 people visiting and 170 voluntary workers!

Well, at least I had time to crochet on the journey! :)

Latest WIP - Crochet Triangles

So there you have it: Friday to the closing down sale in Antwerp, Saturday to Rotterdam Open Air Festival with crochet in the car, and Sunday a visit to the Hobbybeurs in Hasselt! Yesterday=Monday was spent doing  Spring Autumn cleaning in the kitchen and catching up on a lot of washing, as well as having a major yarn moment - spending a long time organizing my yarn into clear bags and boxes to be stored away, as we seem to have reached a peak limit in the living room! This was both tricky and rewarding in the end. Plus there was my Dutch class until late (coming home at 11pm). So, you can see why there haven't been any blog posts inbetween. At least you got a bumper edition for your kind patience! :)

I tried to do a bit of research for you and have included some links in the text if you want to do some further reading!

I hope you enjoyed reading this! Please leave me some comments, I love to hear from you all and find out what you think! And feel free to start following me via Bloglovin or Google+, that way you don't miss a post! (And thanks to all the people who already do, you're fantastic!!!)