Crocheted i-cord

I belong to a group on Facebook called Creative Crochet Crew and I find lots of interesting tips and patterns on there. My latest find was a link to a YouTube video on how to make a crocheted i-cord. It is so easy. Amazing! Here it is:

 Crochet an i-cord

It is by a lady called Clare of BobWilson123 and there is also an interesting crochet blog which you can find here:

 BobWilson123 blog

Gift cards for Christmas - presenting them well

I know this is a crochet blog, but I also like to do a little knitting on and off. One of my free patterns on Craftsy that seems to go well is this knitted Gift Card Holder. Giving gift cards can sometimes seem a little impersonal. So why not make yours stand out with this hand-knitted gift card holder?

Topped off with a button, it can be used as a store card holder after the gift is bought. The yarn I used for this project was James C Brett 'Aztec' which is 90% acrylic and 10% alpaca. Lovely and soft!

Well I never did! It's a cat!

This is the oddest thing. I am just designing a new crochet applique pattern called Fat Cat and this afternoon what walked into my house but a black and white cat. He/she is very friendly and cared for but was obviously extremely hungry. I've (foolishly) given it some meat and now it is going fast asleep on a towel on my sofa. It's only been in for an hour!!

Now what would you do? I have put his photo on Facebook and am hoping somone will claim him. I suppose he makes a good model for my pattern!

Look what has just arrived!

Lovely jubbly! Lots of Tunisian crochet hooks to experiment with.

For my first project with Tunisian crochet I am making myself a pair of fingerless mitts Couldn't be easier, you are thinking? Well, I've completed one of them and made three obvious mistakes already. But I'm learning fast and that's the whole point of this exercise.

Once I speed up with this technique, I think I shall enjoy this method of creating fabric. It certainly has a different texture and 'hang' to it than either knitted or crocheted fabric - perhaps somewhere in between.

I have always held my crochet hook like a pencil but with Tunisian crochet hooks I have had to change to holding it like a knife. That's a new development in itself and it will be interesting to see if I make the switch when I go back to some 'ordinary' crochet projects.

In the meantime, here are a few links that this novice has found helpful:

Tunisian Crochet Simple Stitch

Fingerless gloves
Fingerless mitts

Totally Loopy Flower

Here is my latest flower applique design - the Totally Loopy Flower! I was away for a few days break and in my spare time was playing around with this till it came out looking OK. It would be great sewn onto a girl's hat or bag, particularly if a face were embroidered on it.

My WIPs (works in progress) are mounting up as I keep getting waylaid with small projects like this instead of assembling the two bags I have crocheted but not finished off. Does anyone else suffer from this ailment?

This pattern is also available on Craftsy.

Totally Loopy Flower

UK terms

Materials

Double knit yarn in three colours of your choice

4mm crochet hook

Size

3 ¾ inches diameter

Instructions

4mm crochet hook. DK yarn

Make a magic circle.

Row 1: With Colour A:
10 tr in magic circle. Close circle by pulling on yarn tail. Join with slip stitch in Colour B. Pull yarn tail tightly.

Row 2:  With Colour B:
1 ch. 2 dc in each stitch. Join with slip stitch in Colour C. (20 stitches)

Row 3:  With Colour C:
(9 ch. 1 dc in same stitch. Slip stitch into next stitch)*.  Repeat * around the flower to last stitch.
9 ch. 1 dc in same stitch. Slip stitch into base of first loop.

Finish off and weave in ends.

NB. When changing colour and starting a new row, ensure you pull the new colour through on the very last pull-through of the previous row to prevent the previous colour bleeding into the new row.

I hope you enjoy this pattern. If you find any mistakes in it, please let me know. Thank you.

Kath

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Am I allowed to talk about Christmas in September? I keep finding patterns for small Christmas tokens, tree hangings etc. that I want to try out. I've decided to experiment a little on some of them.

Here is a picture of some Santa heads I am currently busy on as tree decorations. It is a custom order from a friend for 27 of these. Yes, you read that correctly. That's twenty-seven!

The pattern is a slight modification of one I found on someon's blog but, although I copied the pattern to a Word document, I clean forgot to add the website. My apologies go to whoever designed the original and if anyone knows who it was then please let me know and I will change this post to credit them.

I'm not at all happy with the face yet. Any ideas?

Work in Progress

My WIP at the moment (well, one of them if I'm honest) is a simple granny square bag.  I am crocheting with Sirdar Montana yarn with a 4 mm hook and it is coming out beautifully.  Quite zany, really! I'll post a picture of the finished bag soon.

It's great to be doing something that does not require too much thought and I can just rattle through. A lovely rest from trying to design a new pattern. I'm planning to line it in dark brown so have photographed it on a brown cushion to show the effect.

What are you working on at the moment?

A new crocheted dahlia flower to try

I have just developed this pattern for a large dahlia type of flower. It is a straightforward pattern which involves starting with foundation stitches, rather than chains, and then making a second row of stitches ranging from slip stitch up to double treble (UK). The third and final row uses shells to form the petals.

If the thought of using foundation stitches is off-putting, then please read my post about foundation stitches here - the entry contains a link to a very useful and easy to follow video.

Assembling the flower then involves winding and stitching the petals which I found to be much easier with foundation stitches than if the first row were chains.

If you were to attach a brooch pin at the back, then it would make a lovely join for the two edges of an edge-to-edge cardigan or it would be great on a wide knitted or crocheted headband or wristband.

Materials

One ball of DK yarn of your choice

Tapestry needle.

4 mm crochet hook

Size/Gauge

Gauge is not critical for this project, but choose a suitable hook for the weight of yarn you use. Using the yarn and hook above the finished flower measured three and a half inches across and one and a quarter inches deep.

The pattern can be found on Craftsy here


or on Etsy here

 

Warm and cosy for winter

I've just completed this chunky, colourful hat in Sirdar Squiggle yarn, colour Fushcia. The yarn is lovely to feel and delightful to crochet with - but I wouldn't expect anything less from Sirdar. It's 51% wool so cosy and warm and washes at 40 degrees in a machine. I can certainly recommend it and here is another great colourway.

It's a very easy pattern from Twenty To Make Taster Projects which came free with a Crafts Beautiful magazine I recently purchased. Although Crafts Beautiful covers all crafts and so has a limited number of crochet patterns in each issue, it nevertheless is great for ideas and to spark your imagination on possibilities.

The hat itself is on my Folksy shop. It can be worn either in slouchy or in Russian style. Turning the brim down completely makes it super-slouchy (not shown in photographs). It is very kindly modelled here by my friend and neighbour Elsie and the photographs don't really do justice to the colour.

I particularly like the edging on this pattern. It is called Rope Edging and involves working double crochet (US single crochet) backwards from left to right - most peculiar but a lovely effect. Why not try it on the next hat you make?

Foundation Stitches - got it!

I am still learning my craft and I have tried on a few occasions to follow video tutorials which aim to teach me  how to make foundation stitches instead of starting with chains. I have failed abysmally until today when I found these easy to follow videos on the Crochet for Cancer site. So I am feeling very pleased with myself for mastering these techniques:

• Foundation double crochet (sc in US)
• Foundation half treble (half dc in US)
• Foundation treble (dc in US) 

 In particular, I liked the fact that the presenter took her time and also some of the tutorials were in slow motion for slow learners like me. Great!

Foundation stitches give a stretchier edge to the beginning of a piece of work than working with a simple chain stitch, so are useful when you want some 'give' along the starting edge of a garment.

You can also follow Crochet for Cancer on Facebook. The flower in this post is their emblem.

Do any of you out there crochet for any charities?

Finished at last!

Ah-ha! I've finished the bag I was crocheting for a friend's birthday with two days to spare. Here's a picture of it...

I'm pleased with the result, especially as it is my own design both for the bag and flower. I have posted the pattern on Ravelry and Craftsy.

Now to move onto something else. Mm.mm.mm.mm... but what?

I was wondering whether to keep this for myself...

 A few nights ago I crocheted a grey wrist cuff - quite simply in trebles (double crochet in US terms) and attached a large rich red flower to it. Two red buttons to match and it was complete.

I was pondering on whether to put it on my Folksy shop or keep it for myself - and veering towards the latter - when a friend called round. 'Ooh, I like that,' she said. Now I was definitely pleased by her words until she asked how much I was selling it for. Well, what could I do? She's a friend! So off she went with it on her wrist. Free, with the proviso that if anyone admires it she must tell them I'll make one for them for a fiver!

I might just have to make another one for myself now - or even two then one can go on Folksy, after all.

Side-tracked again!

I really must try not to get side-tracked. The tale of my string bag is becoming quite boring because it is dragging on for so long. But I keep seeing wonderful things on Facebook and want to try them. Does anyone else suffer from this disease?

Here are a couple of the goodies I found today...


Hyperbolic Crochet:

http://craftsy.me/1l43csp

Baby Hats:
http://www.mooglyblog.com/baby-hats-annastasia-cruz-review-giveaway/ 

I love the first of these - very vintage and modern!

Picot-Picot Flower

It's bucketing down with rain outside, so I need no further excuse to get out the hook and yarn. Onward and upward with the string bag!

Yesterday I posted a pattern of my Picot-Picot Flower on Craftsy. It is made up of loads of picots - some of them picots on top of picots - and it also involves some crocheting around posts if you want to try your hand at that. I got a little bored with the string bag chains and took some time off to design this so that I can stitch it to the bag when it is complete.

Source: Picot-Picot Flower via Kath Williamson on Craftsy

String bags, string bags, string bags...

I'm currently on my fourth string bag! The first was a knitted string bag to a pattern by Hannah Ingalls which she named an Ilene Bag.
I sometimes wonder who Ilene is/was.

I love the shape of this bag but as the body of the bag is knit in the round with a lace stitch, it did take a while to complete. I am not a fast knitter! So I decided to try my hand at designing a bag with a similar shape but using crochet.

My first attempt was a rather lovely coral coloured bag but of the wrong shape. However, I had learned a lot. So I tried again and this time was more successful. Below is a picture of the first successful bag I made to this pattern - it is a birthday gift for a friend. I'm rather pleased with it and am now making another one for yet another friend's birthday.

At the same time as working on the fourth bag I am also writing up the pattern and will publish it when finished.

So who am I? And why By Hook or By Crook?

I'm a retired IT consultant who has gone back to my first love of knitting and crochet - well, mostly crochet, really. And that's what this blog is about. Crochet, and how I'm growing with it and it's growing with me.

The crook bit? Ah, now, that's something different. As well as being a retired IT consultant I am also a retired clergywoman in the Church of England. So it seemed appropriate. You know, shepherds and sheep and all that!

Playing about with yarn

What am I working on at the moment? Well, I'm currently experimenting with different yarns and hooks but also, at the same time, I'm in the process of crocheting a string bag for a friend's birthday.  Not just any string bag, of course! A purple string bag in a boat shape. I'll be writing the pattern up as I go and posting it later on the three places I frequent - Ravelry, Folksy and Craftsy. Oh, and here now, of course.

So back to the experimenting...