Crochet It's a Fairytale!

My kids grew up with me reading them all the old Fairytale stories. They each had their favourites.

Well the older two did. The youngest took great pleasure in making me read a book about combine harvesters, tractors and potato harvesting over and over and over........................ till the very thought of potatoes made me ill. That book was a gift from a friend. Needless to say we are no longer friends! Trying to sound enthusiastic about a conveyer belt full of pototoes is pretty darn hard!

But back to the fairytales! Life is sure not like a fairytale for most of us, but maybe it should be!

I got to thinking about how much better life would have been for these fairy tale characters if they had, the ability to crochet?

Think about all the things they could have achieved if they had this unique ability to hook along with the best of us.

The Ugly Duckling would have been strutting around in a lovely crochet sweater. Not so ugly any more!

Hansel and Gretel could have left a long Chain of crochet to help them find their way back home.

The Emperor in the Emperors new clothes would not have needed fine invisible clothes. He would have had a drawer full of granny square outfits to wear.

Little Red Riding Hood's cape would have really popped, having been made from a lovely red toned yarn and any wolf would have been sure to get the yarn stuck in his teeth, making the idea of eating her a lot less appealing!

Rupunzel could have whipped up a nice rope ladder scarf to make her escape with. With the ability to crochet her escape would have been swift and assured.

She could make her escape by dantily climbing down that beautifully crochet scarf, head to the nearest Spa and get herself cleaned up and begin her own life (just thinking of all those years locked away in a tower that didn't even appear to have a bathroom). She could open a little business selling handmade crochet scarves and certainly would not have needed someone to save her!

Think about Sleeping Beauty! With all this social distancing the Prince would have been really frowned upon, just turning up and planting a kiss on a damsel sound asleep. Now if Sleeping Beauty had been a crocheter it would have been a simple thing to wake her. The Prince could have kept his distance and yelled 'HALF PRICE YARN SALE'. Sleeping Beauty would have jumped up and made a dash to her nearest yarn store and again problem solved!

The mind boggles with what these characters could have been with their hobby of crochet. They most certainly would have been a lot more chill with this calming ability.

Too many crochet design ideas!

My car NOT!

So there I am, driving to the gym in my little 4wd bomb (note in the picture I wrote blue on it as mine is blue, mine also has a roof and if you need more detail I have a sticker on the back that says 'help zombies ate my stick family').

Don't trust Zombies!

I should be focusing on the road ahead and just getting to the gym, but no..... I have this light bulb flashing on and off in my head. Stupid thing won't go away. The little creatures living in my brain are saying 'Don't think about driving the car. We have this great idea for a crochet design. Trust us it will be IN-CRED-IBLE! You need to think about this'.

Inside my head!

It is a lucky thing I can multi-task and think about this design, while managing to stay on the road at the same time. By the time I got to the gym, I had pretty well planned this whole design. I had the whole thing sorted in my head as to how I would make it. Sure I need another design, it isn't as though I have about 15 sitting partly done as I keep thinking of things and getting started on them, then swapping over to another design.

What I really need to do is clone myself a few times. The clones can be then forced to work in sweat shop type conditions, producing my ideas. Of course I will feed them if they work hard enough. This could all backfire! Knowing me, all the clones would have crochet design ideas of their own and down crochet hooks to ponder on them. Then they would all start making their own ideas, getting another idea, repeat, repeat, repeat!!!! It could be a nightmare. Something to think about I guess!

6 (un)Helpful Crochet Hints That Could Save Your Project! Maybe!

Helpful crochet hints

1: How to find the yarn tail to pull from the centre of the ball:

This really depends upon whether the Pixie living inside the yarn ball is in a good mood or a bad mood.  They tend to like biscuits, honey and warm milk and so if you speak to them nicely and offer them at least a nice biscuit they may offer the end of the yarn up to you.  Whatever you do, do not annoy them. Get them annoyed and you will end up with a tangled mess and may never find the end of the yarn.  Good luck!

2: How to deal with finding a mistake in your project and the need to Frog (pull the project back to before the mistake).

Frog it!

There are several different methods that I have used/employed to deal with this situation.  I guess my all-time favourite is throwing the project into the open fire.  It solves the issue of having to Frog (see what that means above).  If you really cannot do this, I do recommend you throw the item across the room and call it names for several minutes.

3: How to deal with people who want you to make them items for nothing.

Perfect item to make certain you never get asked to make anything again!

This can be a really tough one as sometimes (just sometimes) you really don’t want to annoy your friends and family as you may need them at some stage,  so saying a firm ‘no’ may  not be the best answer.  The best thing you can do is make them the item and do a really, really bad job.  Make this the worst thing you have ever crocheted.  I can guarantee they will never again ask you to make something.

4: Those you live with are getting annoyed that you are using the dining table as a blocking board.

My Fishing for Luck Shawl Blocking. Pattern available on Ravelry, Etsy and Lovecrafts

Of course, you could just go and buy some blocking boards but really that is just money you could have spent on more yarn. Yes, I do know that most of us have a huge stash that could sink the Titanic but that is another issue altogether.  I suggest visiting a thrift store and buying those little trays that you can sit on your lap, or even a stable table (those things were a fad back in the day and nearly every mother and grandmother ended up with one, so thrift stores are full of the things). Train your family/room mates to eat with their meal on their lap.  Problem solved and everyone is happy.  I think!!!

5: You made your starting chain or foundation row for your exceptionally large blanket too tight.

Dogs have super powers

Yeah sure you could Frog the whole thing but who enjoys frogging. A tried and sure-fire method to fix this issue is to give your dog one end of the blanket and encourage a game of tug of war.  Dogs really do have super powers! Keep this up till your chain or foundation row has enough give in it.  If it has not worked then your blanket is probably ripped to bits by the dog anyway, so problem solved!

6:Your child or pet will not let you crochet and is insisting upon being on your lap!

Of course you could get rid of the offender but I know this is not an option for everyone. This is however a simple fix.  Go out and buy a large playpen.  Put your crochet chair inside the playpen and leave the child or pet outside of it.  If you also leave a set of textas with the child and perhaps a full bag of doggie food with the dog. Problem solved and a bit of peace to crochet. I cannot guarantee the condition of the house after several hours of free rein with textas and dog food (note: It is also not a good idea to get these two methods confused. Unless your dog is a budding artist). Crochet time is everything!!!

Disclaimer: No crochet items, children or pets where harmed in the writing of this post. If you took this seriously, then all I can say is 'Really!'

Frustrations of a Hooker!

What is frustration to a Hooker?

Some actually find being referred to as a hooker a major frustration! Not me that is just fine! Call me a hooker all you want!

Others cannot stand that mess of yarn barf and will actually throw it away or pay someone to untangle it.

Yarn Barf!

My frustration for the day is reaching for a design I have partly done and then looking for the 4mm hook needed to do some on it. Mr. 4mm is in my favourite colour purple and you would think I would know his where-a-bouts given that. But, no, he has left the building. Maybe he got a better offer. Better work conditions. Someone with nicely manicured hands to hold him. Someone who will pack him away nicely into a beautiful hook case with tender loving care, instead of leaving him laying around till he is needed. He didn't leave a note to say he was leaving! Nothing!

Then to add to the frustration, all the silly red 3.5mm hooks and 3mm hooks that I do use quite often and have slowly lost, turned up in my search.

Red hooks everywhere!

So I am now in a sea of red hooks and not a purple one in sight.

Footnote: Major alert! Call off the search!!!

I found him... He was hiding in amoungst a bag of purple and pink squares I have been designing. Now we are going to have to have a talk about hiding. He could have let me know with a yell or a 'Hey I am here'. Typical male. he knows how much I want him and he is playing hard to get. Well he won't be happy once I give him a few hours of hard labour hooking away!!!

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Crochet Design is Hard Work!

Just ask my computer!

I am apparently quite hard on my computers (according to my tech guy). The hours I spend writing up patterns and editing pictures drives most of my poor computers right over the edge, so to speak!

In the past 18 months I have gone through two computers. They both died a slow painful hinge death. Once the hinge goes, the case cracks and it is all downhill from there.

I know I should have learnt my lesson with the second computer hinge and taken it straight to the computer techs to fix it. But I am sure everyone knows how things tend to creep up on you. I told my tech guy that I had dabbed a little bit of WD40 onto the hinge and he was less than impressed. This is (according to him) almost like sudden death to a hinge. It attracts more dust etc to the troubled spot. The look on his face, when I told him of my handwork with the spray can, was quite priceless. He was trying to be diplomatic and tell me of my error, but I could see he really just wanted to jump the desk and slap me a time or two.

The tech guys updated my computer with one that has an almost industrial type casing. Bet they think I can't break that!

I think they are considering me for a job as a product tester. If any computer can stand up to the punishment, I put it through then it must be GOOD!

So today, here I am working away on a new crochet design that needs to get to the testers. This pattern has a heap of pictures. I am editing this picture and so what does my idiot computer go and do? It froze! It would not unfreeze. Begging it to do so had no affect at all! Selfish thing! So I had to close it down and reopen. All the while I am thinking, 'did I save my work?' Apparently not! Why would I do something that sensible?

I lost 2 hours of work on my crochet design! The selfish computer should have thought of that, but no it had to go and freeze. I am quite sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I had approx. 45 open pictures in editing, probably around 30 different pages also open on the computer and I was also watching an episode of the Good Doctor and had not shut that. Still if the computer can't cope with that and doesn't want to work hard enough and do a good job, then I doubt this one is going to last all that long either. I thought about throwing it on the floor and jumping on it, but I could just see my tech guys face when I tried to explain that one!

Ah well, back to pattern editing!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

What is an Afghan?

I was asked the other day, what is an Afghan?

Now, this question was asked in a facebook group dedicated to crochet, and I know what popped straight into my head, me being a self confessed Hooker.  But the word covers so much more and it very much depends upon who you ask, as to the answer you will get......

Afghan Dog!

If you ask a dog lover you will be told that an Afghan is a very tall, hairy dog with a pointed nose.  Yep, that is true!

A

AFGHANISTAN!

If you ask a person who paid attention at school, or maybe lives there,  they will tell you:  An Afghan is a person native to Afghanistan.   Again right!

If you bother to look the word up in the online Dictionary it states:

: a native or inhabitant of Afghanistan

A blanket or shawl of colored yarn knitted or crocheted in strips or squares. 

A  Turkoman carpet of large size and long pile woven in geometric designs.

Afghan Hound: A tall hunting dog of a breed with long silky hair.

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Afghan Blanket!

A Crochet Afghan

But getting back to what us Hookers know as the only RELEVANT meaning of the word, that being crochet blankets: Afghans come in a huge array of styles, shapes etc.

This gives me a very amusing visual of a person of Afghanistan origin, sitting on an Afghan carpet, with their Afghan dog, crocheting an Afghan. Who knows they could even be in Afghanistan doing this.

If you are going to be really fussy about what a Crochet Afghan is, then it specifically refers to a blanket made from Tunisian Crochet. Of course those who are not proficient in Tunisian Crochet will claim the word Afghan as being relevant for any crochet blanket. Right or wrong is anyones guess!!

It may well be that we all just prefer the word 'Afghan'. If someone claims 'Oh, what a beautiful blanket you are making', we can respond, 'Oh no, It is actually an Afghan!'. Certainly sounds just a little more special.

Afghans can be made in one solid piece (which is usually the case in Tunisian Crochet), motifs joined together, crochet squares and strips. How versatile is that! And the word 'Afghan' does sound so much more interesting than just a boring old blanket.

Must get back to making my latest Afghan Crochet!!! I need it to take on my trip to Afghanistan! May take my dog who would like to be an Afghan hound but isn't (Cocker Spaniel).

My prize winning AFGHAN BLANKET

What is Crochet1? →

I guess the answer to that is in the eye of the beholder!The Dictionary says this: 

Crochet is a handicraft in which yarn is made up into a textured fabric by means of a hooked needle. "a crochet hook".

Some who don't like or get Crochet may answer like this:

"Crochet is a complete waste of time and money".

But to those of us who know the true secret of Crochet and the wonder of creating it is much more.

You see, you get (or are maybe given) this magic wand (crochet hook).  You wave this wand and incredible things appear.  Well, that is what is meant to happen.  Sometimes there is a lot of frustration along the way.  A lot of Frogging and the occasional swear word all added into the mix.

We crochet because we enjoy creating something of beauty.  We crochet to help avoid stress.  To keep our minds active.  To create that item for our loved ones, that is unique and special.

And to those who don't get the need to Crochet I say "Full Speed Ahead and damn the torpedoes.  Hooks (or wands), Charge!!!"

poodles 1

Help! I'm addicted to W.I.P.S and Yarn!

If you were to fill a room with serious Knitters and Crocheters and ask those who do not have a HUGE stash to step forward, what do you think the outcome would be?

Sure there may be one, or two who step forward as their stash is small and controlled. But maybe they have only just stepped into the dark side of Crocheting/Knitting and are yet to succumb to the lure of those soft, squishy skeins of beauty!!!

The rest of the room would be either trying to avert their gaze, as they know they have more yarn than they can ever possibly use in one lifetime Or they would be standing tall and defiant as it's their yarn, and the world can go suck a big one if they think they are going to change their ways!

I have too much yarn. I do know this. But then how much is too much? Like really!! I have sorted through my skeins of beauty and considered downsizing. I even got rid of a few balls of really cheap acrylic that I was never going to use. It went to someone who does crochet for charity.

But as for the rest, I need them!! What happens if an idea jumps into my head, and I have to wait weeks for an order to arrive? That would just never do!

W.I.P.S, I have them everywhere. I really don't make things from other peoples patterns now. I have way too many ideas careering around in my head to even think about doing other peoples patterns.

If I am being honest I would have over 20 W.I.P.S at least. I do a bit, move on to another one and repeat. Sooner or later I finish most of them, but not always. There is that Ruana that I started well over a year ago, and I am just not feeling it any more.

I am very proud of myself at the moment though! I had an idea leap into my head yesterday and I was itching to place an order for some really lovely yarn I saw. It looks so NICE! It wanted me to buy it!!! I was so close to pressing that order BUTTON. It was begging me to press it!

Go on, you know you want to.

I looked at my stash and pondered it for a bit. Then I remember all that Stylecraft Batik Dk (here), that I had left over from my own Leadlight Afghan (here) and also from many years back where I made Sue Pinners beautiful Carousel Blanket. I had some lovely purples (my favourite) left from that one. This would work! It would look wonderful with what I had in mind. I dragged my hand away from that nasy order button. It was of course still begging me to press it. The order button did not get pressed, and I am using up my stash. Someone please give me a medal or two!!

Leadlight Afghan Made from Stylecraft Batik Dk.

What a superior feeling! I dug through my stash and found all those bits and pieces of Stylecraft Batik (which turned out to be quite a bit). I am just loving the colours and this is going to be really lovely. The stitches will be easy and very beginner friendly. It is the colours that will make this special. Excitement Plus!!!

Sneaky Peek of 'Just a Little Bit Batik Shawl'.

So stay tuned for my 'Just a Little Bit Batik Shawl'. Pattern coming soon!!! (That is if I don't decided to start another W.I.P. or even finish something I started ages ago, I really should do that). I can also feel a vest or jacket in this same style is going to be in order.

I may even gift this shawl to a very special relative of mine who loves to follow my crochet with EXTREME interest. I am sure they will love it!!!

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a yarn link on my page and purchase yarn, I get a small commission. This does not affect you in any way but helps me to keep my blog going.

When you forget to pack your crochet and life happens!

Most people have probably seen the ads for the American Express card in which the motto is, 'Don't leave home without it'.

Yes, a few of you are nodding as you know the ads I mean!

Well for us die-hard crochet maniacs, while a credit card is a very important thing to have on hand, say for if you need to duck into a yarn store or two. Michaels could be having a flash sale and then that card will be your best friend............but I think for most of us, the top of the list of what to take on leaving home, would be an emergency crochet WIP.

You know how it is! You are going about your day and the unexpected happens and you get stuck somewhere. I had one of those days this morning.

I was leaving the gym after a rather strenuous pump class and got to my car, my car must have been in a rather selfish mood as it had a flat tyre. Surely it knew I was actually a bit tired and would rather not have this delay. I did plead with it to not have a flat tyre, but it was refusing to listen. As I stated, SELFISH!

I looked at the tyre and thought about it for a bit. My dad ensured that I knew how to change a tyre and I am pretty darn good at it. Mind you I have told my long-suffering husband that we really need a better jack than what is in the car. It takes longer to get the car up on the jack, than it does to change the tyre. So with this in mind I considered just how much air was left in this tyre, how tired I was, and I made the sensible decision to drive the 200 metres to the tyre shop down the road.

Now they were great and got stuck into changing that tyre right away. But as I sat there, waiting I was also kicking myself. This was prime crochet time. Sitting there, hands idle, nothing to do. I had left all approximately 30 WIPS at home.

I thought about the Girl Guides we have in Australia (for anyone in the USA this is sort of like a Scout) and their Motto "Be Prepared". Well I was not! I guess I can excuse my lack of preparedness due to the fact that I was never a Girl Guide, although I was a Brownie, which is sort of an understudy to Girl Guides. Once initiated into this group you get put into a sub group, some of which were Pixies, Elfs, Leprechauns and I forget what else. As an added incentive to becoming a Brownie you get to wear a hideous poo brown pinafore. I wanted to be a Pixie, but of all the sections to be put in, I got Leprechaun. No wonder I hate green!

Well being a Brownie was obviously a waste of time. Don't think I paid a lot of attention to the Brownie code at all as none of it helped me today. I was not prepared!!

So lesson learnt. I won't make that mistake again! What a boring 15 MINUTES that was! Imagine how many rows I could have done in that time!

Time to pack the car with an emergency WIP!

SO, DON'T FORGET TO TAKE YOUR CROCHET WHEN YOU LEAVE HOME!!!

Crochet! Go big, or go home!

Sounds great in theory! And I always have grand ideas that seem to take forever from idea to completion.

Last huge idea I had took over two years to complete, and I think I am sizing myself up for a similar experience.

I bought yarn for a large size Afghan approximately a year ago. For this one I am using Stylecraft Aran with wool. (available here). These are fabulous for a larger project as they come in these huge 400g balls.

Then I spent many hours designing a graph for it. In my head the Afghan has two picture panels. These panels have cats on them.

Sounds easy doesn't it? I got as far as putting the cats on the crochet panel via cross stitch and found I was a stitch out somewhere.

Cross-stitch on crochet is not hard. At least it isn't till you make a boo, boo and have to frog back several hours work. These cats were staring at me with their yellow eyes in a mocking manner. Something wasn't right! The cats refused to tell me what the issue was, selfish things!!!

So this has been one of those projects that gets taken out of the naughty corner for a bit, stared at, glared at, and I even begged it to show me what I was doing wrong.

For ages this horrid thing refused to answer and lay despondent in the naughty corner, cats, half done and sulking.

I worked my way through several million WIPS that had been piling up and decided it was time to take another look. It was as if a light bulb went off and all of a sudden it was clear. Why didn't I see that ages ago? After all it is pretty darn obvious!!!

I am now happily working on my Cat Afghan again and while this is going to take a bit of time to complete, it is going to be A-MAZ-ING!!!

Cross-stitch cats.

Crochet Bags, bags and more bags!

Lately, I have been making bags!

I made the 'Billy Thunder' Tote and was pleased with that (and I got to play with beads, which is always a good thing.)!

Billy Thunder Tote

Next was my Re-mojonation purse/bag and I was super happy with that one.

Re-mojonation bag

Then I moved on to 'Field of Flowers' (which is a mess of flowers on a bag and a fantastic stash buster). I do love flowers! I also got to play with polymer clay with this one. Clay is fun to play with, as long as you remember to keep the oven to a slow temperature. Not a lot of fun if you forget. Toxic fumes are not fun!

Field of Flowers is at present in the hands of my long-suffering testers and will hopefully be listed early next month. I am forcing them to work day and night to get it done, so it should be good!

Field of Flowers Tote

I showed Field of Flowers to one of my non-crocheting friends (Yes, I do have one!). This friend is mad, crazy, obsessed with the colour 'RED'. Red is not a colour that I am totally drawn to. I prefer purples and oranges. Anything on the spectrum of those colours and I'm drawn like a moth to a flame.

If I was asked to get rid of a couple of colours in the world, never to be seen again. I would probably get rid of GREEN first, as I hate green. I told my red obsessed friend the other day that green should only ever be seen on a plant or grass. She did agree!

There I would be acting as colour designer to the world and banishing Red and Green. I can imagine them both sulking and refusing to leave! Begging me to let them stay. But I would be firm in my decision as they headed for the exit door offering excuses as to why they should stay! Although I guess Red Roses would be missed! Maybe I could be generous and make a dispensation for Valentines day!

I could make a proclamation: Here yee, here yee. I hereby declare that there may be Red (and I guess Green too) on Valentines Day! But only on Valentines Day!

The world could do without green for sure. Imagine a world full of Purple and orange trees and plants! Throw in a bit of pink and this is a world I could dance in! That would rock!

We could do without red! Couldn't we? My red obsessed friend would vehemently disagree with me and I do have to admit it would seem rather odd not seeing this person dressed in red and driving her red car.

And I guess it could be an issue, due to the fact that I am a redhead.

Yes, yes, this sounds like a contradiction as I love my hair colour, but red hair is totally different to the actual primary colour red, so don't start there! I guess if I ended up with purple hair it would not be the end of the world. Look at how many nannas rock the purple dyed look!

My father would have hated a world without red in it. Red was his favourite colour and he loved his red truck. But this is my imaginary world and RED has to go!!!

I wonder where my dislike of Green and Red comes from. Red is just such an, in your face colour and doesn't go with that many other colours all that well. And always having people suggest I should wear green, probably didn't help the colour green. 'It will go with your hair' they say. Yeah sure, if you want me to look like a potplant! Yes, I love flowers, but I don't want to look like a potplant! Every time I put on something green I just hated it.

But bags, back to the subject of bags! After showing off my Field of Flowers Tote, I decided (after talking to the red obsessed friend) that I did need to produce one with red flowers in purse size. I added a red lining inside so the red peeps through from the back, adding an extra touch to the design. This little beauty is in the capable hands of my testers!

Poppy Meadow Bag

I have two other bags in the works. One is part done, and the other is just stewing around as an idea in my head (and no, in my head it is not red or green in colour, but a lovely shade of lilacs and blues).

I have a ton of ideas for different crochet bags! And I have the stash to do them all (insert evil laugh here)!!! I will take over the world one crochet bag at a time!

Keep an eye out for my latest two coming soon to a ravelry/etsy/love crochet pattern store near you (well at least a computer click away).

Freeform Crochet! Where is that Pattern?

Freeform Crochet is about letting go and throwing all those rules and patterns out the window!If you are like me,  you only ever read instructions on anything (and I mean anything), if there is no other choice.In Freeform, there are no rules, no instructions. If I want to put that stitch there I just will.  So what, if I have 20 stitches this side and 22 on the other side. Who cares!  I did count them, but I know I didn't need to!I find sites that offer tutorials etc, on how to make a particular item using freeform amusing.  So you are offering me a guide, or maybe you can use the term 'pattern' on how to make a freeform piece?  And mine will come out the same as yours?  Sort of ruins the whole idea of it!Sure, look up suggested ideas, such as spirals or shells done using bullion stitch, surface slip stitch. Read up on Scrumbling (which in normal speak, just means making some odd motifs and joining them together). And get the lowdown on various  techniques used.  But once you are done researching, grab your hook and some yarn and get stuck into something.  Let your imagination go wild.Freeform offers you the chance to make something unique to you.  Each year a trend starts and pictures start popping up of the same crochet piece made over and over and over.   I know as a designer I would love to be the one who designed something that just everybody has to make.  BUT! After a while of seeing the same thing over and over I do get a little bored.  What is the answer?  Yep, FREEFORM!!!The picture for this post, is a coat I started over a year ago.  One day I may even finish it.  It's just a whole pile of flowers and a few spirals, stuck together in a random sort of way. The gaps are filled in with random stitches.  I love it!  It is going to be a rather thick coat when done and will sit just below the knees.I got sidetracked along the way and so it has been shoved in the WIP box.  I promise I will finish it, one day!Like most people who crochet or craft with yarn, I have a truck load of part balls of the stuff.  Freeform is the answer to this.Some Pluses for Freeform:Uses up a heap of leftover yarn.If you made a mistake, it never happened.You don't have to count your stitches, as it really doesn't matter.If you are a beginner at crochet. You can just call your work Freeform and dare anyone to say it isn't right.You end up with a piece of work that is totally original to you.If you run out of a colour of yarn, it doesn't matter.You don't have to check gauge.

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 Time to start saving those leftovers and putting them to use. There is no right or wrong way to do Freeform! Just give it a go!    

Nice Words For Sale! Going Cheap!

Maybe it is just me. Who knows! But being a Crochet Designer I wonder what a nice word or comment costs?Does it cost an arm and a leg?  Will people be punished and have their crochet hooks confiscated for a week, if they leave a nice comment and do they get bonus points if they find (or think,) they find an error and leave a comment about it (without bothering to send a message to see if they are right?) And are Ravelry and Etsy in on this.It does get a little disheartening to spend huge amounts of time creating, testing and publishing crochet patterns, for sale or for free and have quite a few downloaded only have the odd person comment that sees a full stop in the wrong place.So if you get a pattern for free, or if you buy one,  post a nice comment and make the designer feel they are doing a good job.  I promise it will not cost anything, and it will put a smile on their face.

Don't You Hate it When Snakes Stop You Crocheting!

What a day! Got home from the gym and intended to do the last two rounds of the third and final colour change on my Leadlight Blanket.  I have been working on this solid for ages trying to get this section done.  96 Bobbins on the go at once.  I could see the finish line ahead with such a small amount left to do and intended to spend the afternoon working on it.The world had other ideas!Got in the door and number 2 child spots a snake in the house.   Call the snake catcher, and he comes and cannot find it. $125 call out fee. About an hour later I spot the snake and so the snake catcher comes again. He still cannot find the snake.Number 2 child goes to the loo and as he is stepping through the doorway spots Mr Snake curled up at the back of the loo. So he slams the door shut. On the phone to the snake guy again who says he is 15 minutes away. I stand on the stairs to keep an eye on the loo door in case the snake tries to escape. About 10 minutes in Mr Snake popped his head and about a foot of his body out from under the door. So I start jumping on the stairs, as they hate the noise. He darts back inside the loo. Snake man phones to say he had to swing past another place to grab a brown snake that was in someones yard. So I spent the next 20 minutes tap dancing on the stairs till the snake guy arrived. He brought the brown snake with him for a sort of play date with my snake.  No not really that stayed in a bag, in the back of his car. Thankfully he was able to catch our snake. Another $125 and no crochet done today! I did get some dancing in, but was pretty put out with Mr Snake for spoiling my crochet time!!!!!

Clover Crochet Hooks and A Bit of Whirl!

I truly love my Clover Hooks.  They are easily my hook of choice.BUT... I do have one minor gripe about them.  Why don't they separate the colours just slightly better? I have lost count of the times I have had to frog a project, due to picking up the 3.5mm instead of the 3mm.They are both RED! Yes, different shades of Red, but still Red. It is so annoying!I am sure that they could mix it up a little. Put some Polka Dots on one. Or some Stripes.The cynic in me thinks they do it on purpose.  It's someones idea of a cruel joke. Whoever thought the colour choices up are probably a frustrated Hooker, cackling in glee that they made me frog another project.What I am currently working on, happens to be made from Scheepjes Whirl, in Lavenderlicious. Have you ever tried frogging that? To add to the disaster of it all, I always intend to rewind as I frog but often it doesn't happen. Tangled Whirl is a nightmare!As I was untangling my Whirl,  I had the thought, ' If I throw a Whirl, does it become a whirling, Whirl?'Just maybe Scheepjes and Clover got together and decided to make the hook sizes most used for this yarn the same colour.  It is their evil plan for world frogging domination! How sinister is that!But hey! My latest Design is going to be FAB-U-LOUS in my Lavenderlicious.  Two Squares done and a heap of them to go!Disclaimer;  This post may contain Affiliate links.

The Yarn Stash, Swallowed My Sunshine!

I have been in the process of a new design (aren't I always).    It started out simple enough as, a child hat pattern.  Then of course it grew.  Before I knew it I had done calculations for 5 sizes.I got the child size made and was working on an Adult version, when I ran out (or thought I had) of Stylecraft Special DK  in Sunshine.Getting towards that last little bit of yarn, I crossed my fingers, crochet twice as fast, made my work a little tighter, but all in vain.  I needed another ball!I looked through the Stash.  Nope! None to be seen!I glared at the hat.  I glared at the yarn stash, but it made no difference.  So, with huge haste and a pout on my face (which really is quite silly, as the pout won't help and  it still takes about 10 days to get a delivery no matter how fast I order) I ordered another ball.A couple of days passed and then I remembered.  That cushion I started and grouped the yarn for!  I am sure it had a ball of Sunshine in it!After a small search I had Sunshine in my hand ( and the room did seem to brighten a bit on my finding it).So I have a yarn order on the way I don't really need (and yes, of course I added more yarn to the order than, that one ball) and I have a hat to finish.Note to self:  I must downsize my stash, so it is manageable and I must organise my stash, so yarn cannot get eaten up by it.Wonder if anyone else's stash, eats their yarn? 

Crochet Metallic Flower

 I had a wedding to attend earlier this year and I was very excited at the prospect of attending.   I wanted to (hopefully) look nice.I am one of those people, who go and try on a dress and just cannot find anything I like. I also do not want to spend a million dollars on a dress (if I had a million dollars, I would not spend it on a dress anyway).  I have to also say that I do have my own style.  What I rather like, may not be something others would wear, but that's okay and I will own it!I had some ideas for a dress, swishing around in my head and so I took a trip to my local yarn store.  I walked away with a number of balls of Madame Tricot Metallic Gold yarn (full disclosure, I also grabbed a few other squishy lovelies that were calling my name.  We all know you can never have enough!).I set to and began making my dress.  I wanted a yoke with flowers around it.  After trying several different flowers and a lot of frogging,  I finally, settled on this design.The pattern for the flower is available for free on my RavelryGetting the yoke just right was a lot of trial and error.  In the end I was very pleased with the  result.Once the Yoke was done, the rest was smooth sailing. I placed another row of flowers at the waist and then again near the bottom of the dress.The day of the wedding was quite warm and my dress was just right for it.At times, I like to enter some of my crochet into the local shows and decided to enter the dress.  I was quite pleased that it won a prize. One day I may write the pattern for the dress up.  But at this stage there is only the pattern for the flower.

PATTERN PERMISSIONS

This is a FREE pattern (download is available on ravelry), and by using it, you’re agreeing to the following conditions.You’re welcome to sell what you make with it; for online listings, please link back to my blog using something like this:

Pattern byAuburncraftAuburncraftcrochet.comWhat is not allowed:

• Do not resell the pattern, altered or in its original form.
• Do not copy and paste the pattern onto your own blog, in a Facebook group, or anywhere else. Link to this page instead (or my ravelry). Doing anything else is copyright theft.
• Do not use any of my photos from this site (or any of my other sites) to promote yourself or your crochet business on your own blog, Facebook page, or anywhere else.
• Do not post a translation of the pattern anywhere – this is copyright theft. If you would like to help make a translation available, please contact me.
• Do not make a video tutorial of this pattern (or any of my patterns).

Introducing Mallory & A 'How To' Cover A Head in Fabric.

Find a person, with a head and wrap it in material.  There, done!No, not really, just kidding!INTRODUCING MALLORY!Mallory has recently signed on, to do some modelling for  Auburncraft Designs.I carried out some extensive interviews, as I am rather particular, as to who works for me. Mallory was the  successful applicant.  Now I know that we are not meant to discriminate and I did try hard not to.  But just quietly some of the other applicants were not all that attractive (ebay has a massive amount of different heads, with different shapes).  So I took my time and waited patiently till Mallory applied for the position.I am finding working with her a dream.  She is rather a bit on the quiet side, but she does exactly as I ask first time and is willing to work extended hours for nothing more than a warm, crochet hat, as payment.Nothing is too much trouble.  Turn that way!  Hold still!  Stay that way for an hour or so! And I hope you don't mind if I cover your head with Glue?Where else could I get such dedication!Now, if only she could do some of those pesky Math Calculations (that have been plaguing me lately) for my crochet.  I did ask her if she would, but she refused to answer!So if you are looking for a model for your Hats, Scarves etc.  And you don't want to pay an arm and a leg for one.  The 'how to' is below!

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HOW TO COVER YOUR OWN FOAM HEAD

• Get a Foam Head  (I bought my head on Ebay.  There were so many different shaped heads to choose from, but I liked this one.  They are only a few dollars).
• Modge Podge.  (This is a water based glue. I think the MATTE, would possibly give a better result, but I had some Gloss on hand so mine was done in that.  Most large craft places have it, or buy online)
• A paintbrush
• Scissors
• Some scrap material ( I had some batik material leftover from making the Hygge Shawl Cal last year)
• A bowl of water to dip your brush into

Step 1. Cut the material into approx 2 inch squares.Step 2. Using your paintbrush, cover an area on the head ready to attach the material.Step 3. Place a square of material onto the Head.Step 4. Dip your brush into the water and damp the material slightly.Step 5.  Add some more Modge Podge to cover the piece of material.Continue adding pieces of material till the head is covered.  Allow to dry.Give the Head a Name!

One W.I.P, Two W.I.P, Three W.I.P...Zombies!

I think that Crocheting is kind of addictive!You start one project and that is good.  Then you see another and just have to start that one.  Before you know it, you have a room, cupboard, shed, house full of W.I.P.SDesigning for me is pretty much the same!  If I stop to count how many W.I.P.S I have, it would take me all day to get a proper number.Two reasons for that.   First one is that math is not, my strongest point and second, I have way too many W.I.P.SDon't get me wrong.  Like many, who started school in the 60's, I can recite my times tables by rote and I can add and subtract basic percentages, in my head.Butttttttttt..... when you are talking about designing crochet, at times there is a ton of calculations.    If you happen to be designing something that has several sizes, then ooh, my goodness.Starting chains for each size and you have to take into account the first stitch makes two.Decreases and increases for each size.  Odd numbers and even number and numbers, numbers, numbers!  ARrGh!I get there in the end.  I often find myself going between the calculator, a sheet of paper and then I resort to drawing it out, to try and make certain I have it right.  My testers at times, find that I am not right and then I have to sit in the naughty corner, for a bit.Yesterday I was doing calculations for a new fun hat design.  My head was slowly turning to flummery.  I thought about sending out a life line, by phoning a friend.   I did message a designer friend and ask for her brain.  It's okay, I said I wanted it in a non Zombie like way.Yes,  back with the Zombies again!  I love shows like 'The Walking Dead'.  So Zombies are going to creep (or stagger) into the conversation sooner or later.At times when I am all tangled up in a Math haze, I ponder if the design is really worth it. I do have to say, I am pretty pleased with how this is turning out.   Hopefully it will be ready for the testers within the next week.I just have a few more CALCULATIONS to do!!!Stay Tuned for the Reveal SOOON!  Image at top of page is a sneak peek!This is made from Stylecraft Dk Yarn.  Available on Love Crochet