Monday 30 June 2008

Pink Pineapple Cuff

I saw this pattern a little while ago, and thought it might make a nice cuff.

I am quite pleased how the central lace design has worked with the beads.

The length is a little bit too long mind, and if i make this again, i think i would take out a row or 2 from the beginning and end to try and shorten the motif.


Friday 27 June 2008

How my garden grows....

OMG, im so excited, i actually have 2 cucumber fruit and loads of tomatoes!!!! I found them this moring.




Unfortunately, i cant really say that my strawberry plant is doing so great!! With one solitary strawberry on it!!




Thankfully, Im seeing my mum later, who will have some strawberries from my dads garden, so I can have some of those!! :)

Wednesday 25 June 2008

The DNA Cuff

Tony named this one!! I followed a bookmark pattern i found on ravelry.

I have just been looking for stitch combinations really, and how to layer things up on each other, what goes well with what etc.

Having done these few projects, i have a few ideas in my head now. I think maybe a variation on the butterfly, with a different center. Not sure how this will unfold yet, will have to wait and see.

As for this peice , I wish i had layered my colour combinations differently. When i choose the colours they looked much better than now when i look at the peice. Also, i choose beads to go with it, but they are too subtle, and just fade away. They give a good glittery kinda look when its on, but from the photos you can hardly tell they are there.

Oh well, on to the next one.

Sunday 22 June 2008

I added beads....

Well 2 people told me it wasnt finished, so i went out on a shopping spree. I got loads of beads.


I finished it off with some beads ..

Butterfly Cuff

Well im on a crochet mission. My knitting has been put on hold and I am finally using my colourful Perle that i bought.

Its from Yarnstick and it was 70p a ball. I got 12 for under a tenner with postage. I thought that was quite good.

The pattern I found while searching Ravelry from freebies - here is the page.

As you can see I didnt make the little butterfly head, and i just went freefrom for the clasp. I used the pattern just for the wings.

Tony seems to think that this one isnt done yet. He thinks the central peice is missing something, maybe some beads ? But im not adding a little butterfly head and antena!!
















Blue Green and Red Beaded Crochet Cuff

Well I didnt intend on finishing this one so quickly.

It is made from Torcal Perle and I used up the last of my red beads. The beads cost me 99p at Hobby Craft - so that worked out at 33p of beads per cuff/bracelet.


I just did some free form and tried to keep it symetrical as i went.

Im quite pleased with it. Im suprised I have managed to be so productive with my stinking cold. :( boo hoo.

Saturday 21 June 2008

Garden Cam

Im busy setting up garden cam at the moment.

The image on the left is a live image from my web cam, between 9 - 5 Mon - Fri UTC.

The rest of the time this is a static image of the garden cam.

I thought best to knock the camera off over the weekend as the kids are about.

Camo Crochet Bracelet

Having made the bracelet for Carol the other week, I thought I should get on with it and make one for myself. It took me much longer to make this one, but I did only do about 1 motif a night.

I am quite pleased with it. I used some 3 ply camo coloured cotton I got from ebay.

Sunday 8 June 2008

Carols Beaded Crochet Cuff

I started this on Friday night, I was itching to finish it off, so on Saturday so when i woke up, I started straight away. I got to about a motif and a half before where I wanted to stop, and I ran out of my contrasting colour. Since i couldn't be bothered to go shopping again, I thought I would rip it back and just take out some of the stitches in the to make the yarn go further.

Having spent until lunch time re doing the night before's progress, I took a break for lunch. This is when i realised that it was a glorious day and was far too nice to be sat indoors.

Tony had got the new pool out, and we filled it up. It is huge - I even managed to fit my lilo in it.
Consequently, I spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday messing around in it.

Sunday was a really nice day, I spent the moring finishing off the cuff, then I prepared the food in the garden, and had a barbeque. :)

So to the cuff, here you are then. Like the previous one i made, I used the Queen Anne motif. I added beads to the st loops and went over with st highlight at the end. I managed to make the contrasting colour last for 11 motifs :) but not enought to finish the clasp I made, so as you can see, that is edged in the sliver colour.

I thought for a while about how to make a clasp for this. I didnt want to make one that you tie as I know how hard that is when you are trying to put it on by yourself. Also, I wanted to make it adjustable.

I found a clear button and attached it to one end. I thought of threading a length of cotton from the button end, through the first motif and then back to the button. I put a circular motif on the end of the thread, so that it didnt pull out when you put your hand through. My idea was, that when you put it on, you pull the thread and then wind it around the button. This worked ok, but having worn it for a couple of minutes, the thread started to unwind. Then I realised, that if I had made my circular motif a bit bigger in the middle, it would have fitted over the button. So i cut it off and re made it.

So now, the cuff is ajustable. You put it on, pull the cord, wind it to fit, and put the clasp over the button.

I was so pleased with my peice, I didnt really want to send it off to my sister!! I thought I would package it put right away otherwise I might conveniently forget. Tony posted it right away for me, on his way to the shops.

Finally, I have to say thank you again to Leslie for giving me the idea in the first place.

Saturday 7 June 2008

Crochet Cuff

When i made my last crochet cuffs, my sister asked me to make her one.

Well I didnt think that much of the ones I had made, I was more messing around than making something nice. Practicing stitches etc. The yarn i used was acrylic and not so great either.

Now summer is hear and weather is warmer, I dont think you would want the ones I have made on your wrist.

But, I havent given up..... I have been looking around the net and I manage to bump in to this lovely lady.... WoolMountain - I had saw her free form cuffs on Etsy previously. Leslie has given me loads of advice and i have been trying to take it all in. I thought i would start with what i liked in the first place - Queen Anne Lace design.


Here is what I did.















The actual peice is too big for my wrist. I miss judged it - and now cant be bothered to take one of the motifs out.

One of the reasons for me not bothering to do this was because I only had this yarn here and I knew it wasnt going to be suitable, but I was itching to give it a go.

I feel like a bit of a copy cat, trying to copy what Leslie has been doing, but I just love what she has done so much, I couldnt help wanting to give it a go myself.

I went shopping yesterday to try and find some nice crochet cotton, but there is a distinct lack of it around here. So I held off and am trying to find something online that might go better.

When i was shopping I did manage to pick up a bargain for my stash -

.99p each.





I can see something good coming from this later!





I also picked up some DMC thread - like you would use for cross stitch. I thought, with the lack of crochet cotton, i would just try with this for now. That way, i could try different thicknesses to see what i liked. Looking online I have been quite confused with the crochet cotton weights and just didnt know what they would be like to work with. Working with these DMC threads, Im starting to get an idea of the weight I want for my projects.


So back to what I was saying in the beginning - My sister wanted something - Well here is a sneek peak of what i picked up. Im half way through and Im not going to show you until I have finished. So when you read this carol, you will just have to wait and see!