Drink anyone ?

I participate in the coaster exchange on Australiacrochet and each month we are required to make two coasters to send to our partner for that month. My partner for the February round was Jenny F who said she 'got carried away' and ended up making me six coasters which happen to be very similar to my favourite pattern (scroll down a post or two for pics of mine) but the pattern for these little beauties is called the 1893 circle motif reworked by Sandi Marshall.



Aren't they cute ? The pattern was originally printed in the year 1893 in a publication called Fancy Work Manual. This is the centre portion of a pattern that was named Crocheted Wheel for Tidy in the 1893 book.

Thanks Jenny for these cuties which I'll add to my collection.

Mid Project Crisis

A few weeks ago I picked up some gorgeous yarn (lost the band but I think its wool) and started to make a Queen Anne's Lace scarf. It was looking pretty good but you wouldn't believe it, the other balls of this stuff went playing with the other yarn in my craft room and have got themselves lost !!! Stupid little b's. Soooo, after about half a minutes thought, I began to frog this lovely scarf and decided to turn it into a knitted hat which will fit about a one year old baby and will go to charity.



On the crochet side of things, I'm so proud of the Australiacrochet members. So far we have sent 358 squares to Sarah London for the Crochet-a-Rainbow project to be made into blankets for victims of the recent Queensland and Victorian floods. I know there are members continuing to make these little 5-round granny squares so this number will certainly increase in coming months.

I've been fiddling around again and in an effort to use up some size 10 (bedspread weight) cotton of which I have heaps, wondered how it would work up doubled. I'm not sure if I like how this coaster turned out - what do you think ? I used a 3.75mm hook and the coaster measures 5 inches - a bit bigger than what I prefer but it looks ok under a mug.



This afternoon I hope to finish a wash cloth from that new book I got the other day. Will show you a picture of it tomorrow .. maybe !

Its fun to stay at the .......

This really is such fun ....



And if that's not enough, just Beat It !!!! ..


How clever is that ?

Super Cute & Super Easy

Now here's a book packed full of really cute and easy patterns. I've been looking for something to show new crocheters at an event I'll be attending later this year and this book will be perfect. Many of the projects can be completed in a short time and are all very usable items which include bags, hook holder, hats, wash cloths, mug and coffee pot warmers, cushions, blankets, scarves, fingerless gloves, bibs, slippers, tea cosy and much more - even babushkas (Russian Dolls). There are a couple of projects described by the author Nicki Trench as 'confident crocheting' and these include teddy bears, a summer evening shawl and even a pavlova !! Hmm can't decide what to try first.

Sorry, but this was disappointing !!

This is a new Australian book which got me all excited when I saw it at the local library. My recent experimentation with colour (Crochet-a-Rainbow) and being involved with the Australiacrochet square exchange, made me really keen to get my hands on a copy, thinking it would be good inspiration. Not so ! The 64 'square' patterns are nothing more than a stitch dictionary (all in rows), most of which I've seen before. The pictures throughout the book all use the same 5 colours and are dull dull dull. All Bendigo Woolen Mills Classic 8-ply yarns - green, red, orange, purple and navy that would be lovely by themselves, but together they remind me of that camouflage colour. Glad I borrowed the book from the library.

Today's mail brightened my day when two lovely squares arrived from Shaz in the square exchange.




Shaz does beautiful work and I love these two squares. One day I'm going to join all the squares I've been given over the years and will have a beautiful blanket.

I've been playing around with double ended hook crochet (Crochetknit or Crochet on the Double) and came up with this tea cosy ..



Shhhh .. don't tell anybody but the cosy isn't actually on that teapot. They say you learn by your mistakes and next time I make a cosy I'm going to leave the bit under the spout open and perhaps put a button and loop there to accommodate fat teapots.

I've been commissioned by make another baby blanket for one of DD's pregnant work colleagues. She has requested Baby Lustre 8ply in white which may be a bit of a challenge for me to find as I think its been discontinued. Anybody know where I might get some?

Want to be inspired ?

This lady is blind - have a look at this and I'm sure you'll agree she really is the amazing quilter.

TVKim- Watching: Kim's Picks- The amazing quilter

The next lot

Its been a busy and somewhat stressful week. I've been working on more squares for Crochet-a-Rainbow and have sent my 36 off to Sarah this morning. I now need a break from them for awhile to do some other things. Here's my second lot of squares and then a pic of the whole lot.




I needed a second 7" square for the Australiacrochet group's exchange, so I whipped up this cutie which was designed by Jane.


Jane designed this square for charity so if you visit her blog and get the pattern, please consider making a few for charity. If you're looking for a worthy cause, you'll find heaps of suggestions at Knit4Charities.

Going around in circles for awhile instead of squares seemed like a good idea so I made a couple of coasters which I'll put away for something later in the year. I love this coaster pattern which I've had for many years so I can't give you a link to it I'm afraid. You can probably just work it out by looking at it if you're interested.


The other half of my bookdepository order arrived this week - whoopeee


Its just a stitch dictionary but I think I'm going to enjoy learning a few more of the double-ended hook stitches. At the moment I'm trying to decide between a tea cosy and a baby's blanket. Maybe the cosy will win out as its smaller and I like instant gratification. I find crochetnit quite relaxing and very interesting.

My real downer for the week was that one of our darling little Japanese Chins went to doggy heaven yesterday. RIP Willoughby 1 May 1998 - 31 January 2011

A grand champion right to the end.