Just a touch of heart

I was just trying a new way of knitting a pattern (the upperside of this hat) when I decided it was nice to make a hat for the little girl-statue on the Goilberdingendijk (see also an earlier post). So I increased the stitches (and started knitting in more comfortable ways), and the finished it off with a heart pattern.

It is really easy to knit, you need a manyfold of 8 stitches. I carried the yarn on the backside, which might not be a good solution for a small children's hat, but this little girl won't mind.

0 0 x 0 0 0 x 0
0 x x x 0 x x x
0 x x x x x x x
0 0 x x x x x 0
0 0 0 x x x 0 0
0 0 0 0 x 0 0 0

where 0 stands for a white stitch and x for a red one, knit or purl depending on the needle you're knitting.
The finish is first a alteration of white and red stitched, then I took a crochethook and made a single crochet in each red stitch and alternating two and 3 single crochet in a white stitch. Then with white I made a deep single crochet stitch into the white knitting stitches and two intermediate chain stitches around the red.

And here you see the statue with a nice hat. Happy Valentine!

February: pink and hearts

Well, by doing two challenges at once it is not always as simple as this month: I wanted to pay attention to pink and the art every day challenge's topic is hearts.
So I arranged my pink stash... into a heart.

Now is the next question what to make, although I've a couple of hints in my Dutch newsletter on pink. I also gathered some alternatives (both knit and crochet) on my pinterest board roze/ pink and already started on two petit baby socks (intended for a card, not for a real baby).Yesterday there was abeautiful double rainbow outside my window, it is a pity that it is so difficult to make a real good picture, but I tried.

Green leaves, past present and future

I am excited about the Creative Every Day theme for January: Past, Present and Future . Since I also started a new round of Denise Linn's Soul Coaching in which you also focus on what is, what was and what you want in the future it is right up my alley. But it also involves a lot of cleaning and writing, and crochet is not always top priority.
But weighing both themes I came up with this crochet leave, with the future (in lighter green) and the past (in brown) still having to be made.
I found the pattern in a Dutch magazine Haken, but also faced something unexpected in the pattern, the small numbers 3 have to be made, but nowhere is explained how to do it (any advice is welcome! since there are two more leaves to make).

I used 3 chain stitches for the transition of the rim to the main part, and 1 chain for the others, so this is how my leave turned out. It is now about 16 cm long, but I really like it to be bigger, so perhaps I will have another go at this.

January focus on Dark green

I decided to focus eacht month not only on the Art Every Day theme but also on a color. That gives me also the opportunity to view my stash in a whole new way because you take color as the leading principle and not the yarn itself (whether it is cotton or mohair is not the dividing principle for now).
This being the focus I also want to make something in crochet and in knitting, and it would be nice if I inspire a few others... I made a newsletter to explain. For example through the Pinterest board Dark green (I will translate the Dutch bits, cannot guarantee that I succeed in all languages).

If you want to join... please keep this blog in mind, subscribe to my newsletter or follow the Dark green pinterest board (although I will switch to another color in February).

Ready for Christmas

Made two Christmas owls from felt. Seems time to adjust the name of my blog although I promise that the next blog will be about Crochet.

I made these two for my son's teachers as a Christmas present. They are both owl-crazy and in the new year we will try to make owls with the children. My inspiration came from Hey Mickey.

More snowflakes and CD's

Celebrating Christmas and at the same time creating a colorful idea for 2014. I'm working on a series of CD's as Christmascards for the Christmas fair next Saturday, and decided to write down one of the patterns (there is a multitude of variations) for my December crochet newsletter.

I found some nice CD stickers to attach to the backside and decorated them with some bells and golden ink.

November 29, Crochet snowflake and baby piano

Today I made a crochet snowflake to fit on a used CD. I'm not sure whether to use them as Christmascards (and decorate the back side) of to fit two CD's together and make a snowflake on the other side as well. This one is with hook 3, I might use other yarn to make it more dainty. (I have some time left before sending my Christmas cards and before the Christmas fair in about 2 weeks to try some more).

While I was putting this together my son finished his piano for the Sinterklaas celebrating next week. Here is the keyboard with small presents hidden underneath the keys.

 

And there is a larger present hidden in the piano itself. And the accompanying poem (which is really a national sport to make) is in the envelop on top.

I'm very proud he did not wait till the last moment to finish it (so unlike his mother!)