Some experiments

It has been a quiet sunny Monday, just me my hook and an urge to try some new things.

I bought this book recently, along with a few others and I have been itching to try some of the patterns in it.

Alas, I have nothing that actually needs a pretty frilly border at the moment but I wasn't going to let that stop me. So I set about hooking some foundation rows together so I would have a base to start from. 

With over a hundred patterns to choose from I literally flicked through with my eyes closed and stopped in a random place and that was my first one to try.

Well that was fun! So next.

 

I really like this one, perhaps could have done with some better blocking, I just gave it a light steam and tweaked the picot points a bit.

 

 And number three.

I do like days like today where I can make things that aren't of any use, just fun to create and pretty to look at. 

 

It seems a shame to chuck these away so I might frill-up some flower pots or button jars.

Time to decide what to make next :)

Circle-square cushion!

I've spent the best part of today finishing this in fact I think I may have gone a bit cross-eyed (must remember to look up occasionally). I think it was worth it though, I knew that if I didn't put some effort in I would not finish it and it would go the way of so many projects where you set out and don't have a clear plan, end up in the bottom of a bag and forgotten about.
I decided on a plain stripy square for the back, nice and simple and a good way to use up the left overs - the whole idea behind this cushion being to do some stash busting.

It's a bit crumpled in this picture but I really wanted to take a photo of it while there was still some daylight, the colours really are lovely and bright and today has got very dark and murky quite early on.

So the finished cushion, not quite in all it's glory (it's a bit dark)

I am so pleased with it! Not bad for a completely made-up, off the cuff cushion using up some old yarn that I had kicking about.
I had a spare 18" feather cushion insert which was the perfect size (more out of happy-chance than planning) and just enough of the blue left to do a nice waffle finish between the squares and to give it a neat row of double crochet to join the front to the back.

It is all ready now to sit on my sofa and no doubt get claimed by the cat, I hope you like this as much as he does :)


Edit: Day light! So here is a better picture x

The flaw in my plan

The stash busting is coming along nicely and despite my usual lack of interest in making squares (be they granny or otherwise) I have really enjoyed hooking these up. It might have something to do with the colours or how quickly the circles are made and then how nicely they become squares, or it might be because with each one I know I have been using up stuff that has been sat on my shelves for too long. Yes, coming along nicely.

So what is the flaw in my plan? Well having started with pretty much a full 100g ball of each colour, thinking 'that will be plenty', this is what I have left of my main blue colour...

 

This. This poxy little scrap that would barely go around two circles and I've only made one side of the cushion so far. Going out and buying more - although tempting -  would really defeat my stash busting ideas. So time for plan B, whatever that is.

Stash busting

I looked at my yarn shelves and despaired this morning. Such a mess of stuff. I had tried to organise it by yarn weights then brands but everything seems to have turned into a 'miscellaneous' mess.
Amongst the chaos I've found a collection of cheap DK acrylics. I have no idea why I bought them, probably because I liked the colours and it's always handy to have cheap acrylic for random bits of amigurumi. So I'm attempting to turn them into a cushion. I say attempting because I have lots of unfinished cushions that started off like this, little squares or hexagons or a stripy thing I wanted to try. This time I am really going to make an effort to finish it.

  

When I'm buying yarn it's usually a case of going into the shop and 'ahhhhh pretty!' with no plan of what I am going to use it for, then I will get dozen ideas but oh wait, got to finish the project I'm on first. So the yarn gets shelved and I get sidetracked by more 'ahhhhh pretty!' and repeat. of course there are the times when i see a pattern or picture first and go out to get the yarn to make it and that really is the best way of doing it. I have finished every project where I have bought the yarn specifically for it. So have I learnt my lesson? Of course not :)

Hoop Posy

Total attack of the craftys this afternoon. I had some flowers, I had an embroidery hoop, dug out some old flowery fabric from the bottom of my fabric stash and hey presto, a Hoop Posy!

In my opinion, everything looks better with a bit of gingham on it :)

I know it is a bit twee but it looks really pretty in my kitchen. I am full of ideas for more - perhaps funkier - hoops with buttons and ric-rac or little pom-poms and lettering for presents. Sweet x

It's not just about chocolate

As it is nearly March I have started to think of all things Easter. I've been looking through some pictures of things I made last year and among my favourites are these little Easter baskets. Well I say little, they were big enough to hold several chocolate bunnies, eggs and sweets

Actually that little bunny has been sat on a shelf since last year, I didn't want to pack him away in a box somewhere, there's something about when you give a toy a face, it makes it harder to shove it out of the way.

This was made for a friend but she looks so good on my fireplace I might have to make one for myself, it will go well with the floppy bunny I am making (just trying to sort out the ears).
Happy hooking :) x

Tweet tweet

Just to show I don't just make blankets, here is my blue-birdy. It is one of Heidi Bears patterns, i have a couple of happypotomuses too and this was just to try out the pattern, I grabbed some yarn and went for it! tweet tweet.