Friday, 11 October 2013

The nose on my face

Thank you all for helping with my colour conundrum in my last post – the result was a dead heat between the pale green and the aqua. So I whipped up a hexie in each colour


And the solution was obvious – use both!

Really, I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. I suppose I was so enchanted by the picture of the hexagon throw in Cute & Easy Crochet with Flowers that I wanted to copy it as closely as I could. The flowers in that blanket use the same colour patterns throughout.

But now I’m thinking outside the box – thanks to all of you who commented with ideas! – and I’m going to treat these hexie blooms like granny squares, and just use whatever patterns strike my fancy. I tell ya, I’m living on the edge! I’m a bit of a wild child like that...

Tomorrow I’m off to the Knitting & Stitching show in London – yippee! I can’t wait to get there...I’ll give a full report for Stitching Sunday!

Have a lovely weekend!
Chrissie x


Thursday, 10 October 2013

CAL colour conundrum

Welcome to this week’s Bloomin’ Crochet-A-Long post!

My intention was to do one hexie a day from the kickoff of the CAL last Thursday...


So for all intents and purposes, today is Tuesday and I haven’t yet done my hexie. Hmmm.

But I hit a little wall, you see, and I need your help to get over it and get on with this project. Take a good look at the picture of those five hexies. I’m not crazy about the yellow one in the corner. It just doesn’t seem to fit right with the others, at least in my opinion. I’m just not happy with the deep teal centre. I want a softer colour there.

What to do? I couldn’t decide which shade would suit the yellow hexie, so I’m going to show you some options and ask you to vote for your favourite combination!

First, the line-up with pale green


Number two, the light aqua


And three, the pink one


What do you think? Obviously, I could whip up a hexie with each choice, but that takes up three days’ worth of hexie making, and I’m still stuck at Tuesday!

While I’m waffling about with colours, please visit the links below to see what others are hooking this week!

Thank you for your input, and happy crafting!

Chrissie x



Monday, 7 October 2013

Granny Square Bookmark

Peek-a-boo! What is peeping out of this book?


It’s a bookmark made of itty bitty granny squares!


I created this bookmark for someone who doesn’t crochet, whose favourite colour is green, and who is a librarian...and this person sent me the loveliest package of goodies in the post a few days ago...


Thank you so much, dear Suzanne! She knows I love my birdies, and I was very touched indeed to receive such pretties from Mrs. Bramble at Tales from My Craft Room! I will treasure these indeed.

Of course, I could just send a nice thank-you note, but I really wanted to send a little treat as well. So I chose to make her something that she most likely won’t have but hopefully will enjoy!

Would you like to make one? I enjoyed crocheting this with delicate DMC cotton thread and a 2mm hook, and I think I’ll buy some more colours and make some more for the book lovers in my life! Perfect stocking stuffers, or treats for teachers...

Granny Square Bookmark
You need:
DMC Petra Crochet Cotton Perle No. 5 (I used pale mint green and white, bought here)
2mm crochet hook


Method (written in UK terminology):

Using your first colour, ch 4, sl st to form a ring.

Round 1: ch 2 (counts as 1 tr), 2 tr, *ch 2, 3 tr. Repeat from * two more times (four clusters and four corners), sl st to top of ch 2 st. Fasten off.

Round 2: Join in next colour in corner, ch 2 (counts as 1 tr), (2 tr, ch 2, 3 tr) in corner space, *3 tr, ch 2, 3 tr in corner space. Repeat from * in remaining two corner spaces, sl st to top of ch 2 st. Fasten off.

Round 3: Join in next colour in corner, ch 2 (counts as 1 tr), (2 tr, ch 2, 3 tr) in corner space, 3 tr in side space, *(3 tr, ch 2, 3 tr) in corner space, 3 tr in side space*, repeat from * to * twice more, sl st to top of ch 2 st. Fasten off and weave in ends.

This pattern makes one granny square. I made four small squares for this bookmark, with the join-as-you-go (JAYG) method. JAYG is easy once you get the hang of it – you are basically slip stitching the squares together at adjacent stitches. Here is how you do the remaining squares:

Crochet the first two rounds of the next square.

Round 3: Join in next colour in corner, ch 2 (counts as 1 tr), (2 tr, ch 1, sl st to the bottom right corner space in previous square {see photo below} ch 1, 3 tr) in corner space.


Next step: sl st to previous square in the stitch to the right of the side space {see photo below}, 3 tr in side space,


sl st to previous square in the stitch to the left of the side space {see photo below}


(3 tr, ch 1, sl st to the bottom left corner space in the previous square {yep, you guessed it, see photo below} ch 1, 3 tr) in corner space,


3 tr in side space, *(3 tr, ch 2, 3 tr) in corner space, 3 tr in side space, repeat from * on remaining two sides, sl st to ch 2 st.

You should have happy squares joined together!

Edging: Join colour anywhere along one of the long sides of the bookmark, ch 1, *1 dc in each st along the side, 2 dc in corner space (I found that 3 dc in this Cotton Perle made my corners ruffle and fan out, so I changed to 2 dc, but if this causes your bookmark to curl, try 3 dc in the corner and chill out a bit, you’re tension is tight! ;-} ). Repeat from * until you meet back where you joined in your thread, sl st to join. Fasten off and weave in ends. Ta-dah!

Please do get in touch if you try this pattern, show me how it turns out, or if something goes wrong or you're muddled...

Happy crafting!
Chrissie x