Crochet Hook Roll

Finally got round to making the matching crochet hook roll that i have been meaning to make for ages.

Found a lovely tutorial ... http://www.joleo.co.uk/todayweare/?p=176 to give me guidance.

I had enough material left to make this one so now i have a matching crochet hook roll and circular kneedle roll.

This time, i added bondaweb between the interlining - and also added vilene interfacing between the pocket material to give this more substance.

What a difference it makes, this one is so much stiffer.

Here are the pics....

Hols

So this is where i was when i was knitting....

Well no, i wasnt literaly knitting at the time.

I had a really good time, I was much better at snowboarding than the first time I went. But It was hard work on the old lower leg muscles.


We had really good snow conditions and even managed to get up to the glacier at 3250m! Thank god for lifts because i dont think i could have walked it.

This was the shot at the top of the glacier and the snow was just un groomed fresh powder. It was a great feeling to ride on, but just dont stop or you sink up to your knees and cant get up!!

The last shot .. Mont Blanc from the plane home!!

Cuffs

Just came back from Snowboarding and this is what i made on the aeroplane on the way out.

- I just wanted to take something small and non offensive to the aeroplane people so i just took a crochet hook and a small ball of left over yarn.

I didnt really intend on making anything, it was more about playing with stitches, but found myself making the cuff.

I put it on then and barely took it off the whole time. It is a little bit worn and fluffy now from getting wet and battered about.

I have worn it in the office a bit too - it helps me cope with the air conditioning!! Seriously - I do get quite cold hands and feet - Bad circulation. So it has been helping a little to keep them toasty.

This morning, after finishing off the darning of ends on the Aphrodite Jumper, I used the odds and ends to make this cuff. With insporation from - http://www.moonarts.com/blog/free_patterns/pages/crochet-bracelet-print.htm I made this cuff using double crochet - half trebles and treble crochet. (or sc hdc and dc in the US pattern)

Aphrodite Jumper - Gone Wrong

Since learning to knit and crochet, I have been looking forward to making something that i could wear that wasn't an accessory. Also with the cold weather at the moment, and the over efficient air conditioning in our office, I wanted to make a jumper or cardigan.

As i was looking through patterns on the net, i found this pattern that i loved the look of.

http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/aphrodite/aphrodite.html

I knew i wouldn't buy the yarn that it suggested- if i could get it in the UK it would cost over £45 for the amount the suggested. Also being my first time and knowing my past efforts at sewing, i thought that i might screw it up and be a big waste of money.

So i thought i would just give it a try in some cheap acrylic wool i found. - This stuff was £1 per 100g from Buyology - James C Brett - Top Value Double Knitting. Actually, its the best quality cheap yarn i have found to date. It feels quite soft and was much nicer to work with than the other cheap yarns i have bought. I bought it to make more hats and stuff, but I thought i would give it a try for this project.

I followed the pattern, and made up both sides and seamed them together as instructed.

Here is one side -

It looks quite nice - but once the two sides were seamed together, the ruffly bottom was so large - It just looked wrong.

I didn't really know what to do, as the ruffly bit was at the bottom and i had knitted so much after this - i thought i was going to have to undo it all or throw it in the bin.

Thankfully, i decided to undo where i had joined to the center band, and one by one undo the stitches and put the center band on to circular needles.

I then decided that this wasn't the wool for something so fancy, and it didn't really work. I'm sure the yarn they suggested would have hung better and therefore looked better, but this yarn was not suited. So i thought i would just go plain - i knitted from the bust down to the waist on circulars and switching to a rib in the contrasting colour to finish off.

All in all a learning project really for me. I probably wont have the guts to wear it, but i learned loads about reading patterns and what things work and don't with this yarn.

In the end I used less than 100g of the Turquoise and i think just over 100g of the lime. I had spare wool left over after ripping out the bottom of the jumper.

With some of the bits of yarn left over i made a crochet cuff as you can see in one of the photos.

Circular needle roll

I have wanted to make something to keep all my tools in since my sister made me my bagsket.

I got her to go to the place she got the material from and get me some more so that they would match. She also sent me some lining and some curtain interlining. What a lovely sister i have.

I thought I would start with a circular needle roll as they are the biggest pain and the biggest challenge in making the roll.

My sis pointed out this blog to look at, and low and behold this lady had made one of her own. It was just as I wanted. So I copied it.

The one on chocolateachuva’s blog has 12 pockets – 6 rows.

I currently have the following circs –



Even though what I have would fit in the 12 pockets – I wanted to leave some space just in case I got some more to fill in the gaps. So my pattern was for 7 columns - 14 pockets.




I decided that a pocket of 8cm wide and 13cm deep was enough to hold them.

This is the template I followed


I actually didn’t follow this exact template – I allowed less of a seem allowance, but found it difficult at times, especially as my cutting out wasn’t great – so I have added a bigger seam allowance to the above template to be sure.

I stuck lots of pieces of A4 together and cut out the above templates. If you are lazy like me – start with the biggest and you can keep cutting it down.

After cutting out all my pieces, I started by making the hems on the pockets.

For both pockets – I folded 1cm over and iron flat, then folded another cm over and iron flat – on the long edge.

This has now made the pocket 14cm x 58cm – the pocket will be 13 cm in total – the left over 1cm is for the bottom seem allowance.

I pinned this down and then sewed it down with a straight stitch.

After doing this for both pockets, I went on to pin the 3 main layers of the roll together. The outer , then the inner curtain interlining and finally the lining. The interlining and the lining are the same size and I started by pinning these flush together. Then I laid this on top of the outer layer and left a 2cm margin on all sides.









My sister suggested to use webbing to stick all these pieces together to avoid movement when sewing. I didn’t do this as I didn’t really want to wait more days and go to the shops. When I have something in my head, I just have to do it. But in hindsight, this would be a good plan, as this would keep it nice and flat and together when doing the rest of the stitching.

Next I took out the tape measure and marked the lining with the following measurements – on both sides.
– 1cm for hem
– 8cm for beginning of hem for 2nd row
– 9cm for beginning of 2nd row of pockets
– 14 cm for top of first pocket
– 22cm for top of 2nd pocket
I marked mine in pen as this was hidden later in the hem.

Next I pinned the middle pocket so that the top hemmed edge meets the mark I made at 22cm. I pinned it down entirely and make a straight stitch straight across at the 9cm mark - this leaves a 1cm hem below.

Next I layered the next pocket on- this sits flush with the bottom edge of the lining – and pinned it down.

Then I got the tape measure out again and made vertical pins at 8cm intervals (minus the 1cm each side for the seam. This showed me where to sew the pockets.

I re measured at several intervals to make sure that my pinned lines were straight and even from top to bottom and from left to right.

Then I sewed down these lines. From the top of the middle pocket down to the bottom edge. I left either side of the pockets and sewed these up later.

Next – I folded down 1cm of the outer material and ironed flat, and then folded over again for 1 cm and ironed that flat. This takes the outer material over the inner material by 1 cm making a nice seam – I sewed this all down with a machined straight stitch.

The only things left now are for the buttons to close it up – I tore my hair out for about 5 minutes thinking of what I could use to do this. Was thinking about plaiting some wool or something – but then I remembered I had bought some new hair bands and they were brown. So I used them. I measured out where they would need to go before sewing down the left hand seam. I placed them inside the seam (with the metal bit of the hair band inside the seam) and sewed them in.

Then for the next 10 minutes I was hunting around the house for 2 matching and somewhat related buttons to add on. Thankfully I had some spare off a coat that looked ok and I sewed them on.

It didn’t take to long to do – couple of hours. It took just as much time I think to sort out all the needles and put them in.

It’s not perfect – my machine sewing technique has never been the neatest. But it wasn’t a bad effort for me. :)



Thank you carol for being my material shopper and general question answerer. :)

Vicky's birthday present

Since I didnt know what to get my sis for her birthday, i thought i would make her something. I thought i better not make her something that she would have to wear in public, so i decided to make her some slippers.

I was going to follow the following pattern - http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=98&d_id=25&lang=en

But after about 2 rows I went off on my own.

I had 2 balls of the same wool - one in pink and one in brown, so i thought i would use this. I knew that i woulnt have enough to make a pair in the same colour, so i made the soles in the dark colour, and the rest in the pink colour.

I just spoke to my sister who was pleased with them, more as a comedy item than slippers really. Some of her describing words were - foot mittens, oven socks, adult baby booties, and just weird!! :)

So it was a good job i didnt make her anything that she would have to wear in public.

Gloves to Match

Its been so cold this winter, or maybe its me being a wuss. I decided to make some gloves out of the same yarn as i used for the baseball hat. They are fingerless gloves - with a mitt.

I think my sister vicky had some of these when we were kids but they had multicoloured fingers!!

I followed this pattern - http://www.crochetandknitting.com/mittglov.htm but really only roughly. I used a different hook size so i knew i was going to have to scale them up a bit. I just followed it for the gist of the pattern.

Note To Self - things i realised during and after making the second glove

- if you make changes to the pattern, write it down, as you have to then try and make the second one the same!!

- dont pick up extra crochet stitches between the fingers - they can get too bulky.

Baseball Hat

I have been wanting one of these for ages, but havent ever bought one. So now that i am making hats i thought i would have a go making one. There is no stiffener in the rim, but i dont think it needs it.

I found the pattern here - http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=107&d_id=37&lang=en

The pink thread running through was my round marker, but i actually quite like it, so i have left it in. I might take it out later, or maybe add to it.

Another Hat for Tony

My sister sent me some yarn that she saw going cheap and Tony liked the colour of one of tha balls so he wanted a new hat made from that. I crocheted this one in rounds rather than spirals.

Its Treble Crochet.

He wanted it to have ears, but i didnt want it to be too girly so i made it in to a sort of helmet shape.

The Snowboard Hat Take 2 - To match my jacket

So, after the original hat getting a bit wet in the snow in France, and subsequent washing, the hat grew a bit and the holes in the crochet were a bit larger than i hoped for. Also after trialing my new hat with my new glasses/goggles combination, the arms of my glasses were raising up the earflaps. So with this experience i realised i needed some longer ear flaps to keep out the cold when wearing my sunglasses. Also going up in the chair lift was a little cold so felt like i wanted something to wrap me up. So i decided to remake the hat with 2 things in mind. Bigger ear flaps, and a smaller crochet hook.

This is what i got...














I am fairly pleased with it. But i ran out of the brown wool just before the earflaps, i wanted the body of the earflap to be in the brown with a pink edging, but i guess it doesnt really detract from it.

As i was making the earflaps, i decided to put a button on it so i could do it up under my chin. I might look a fool, but i will be a warm fool!!

Also the crochet is quite tight, maybe a bit too tight, so on the first wash, maybe this will settle to be what i was hoping for.

One more thing - i want to introduce Fred the Head, my recent ebay purchase. He has been great when making the hats as he is a touch smaller than my head, so what ever fits on him will be snug on me, which is good as you need a bit of stretch to keep the hat on. The other thing is that it is great to be able to see the hat on at different points to see the shape and how it is going, eg for increasing or decreasing.



So now that im sorted, my big sis can have the first one i made!! :)