November 4, small hats

Today I went to the hospital with someone and because I had a lot of waiting (and knew in advance) I took some scrap yarn with me and made these little hats.

They will be sold with Innocent smoothies, in the Big Knit Campaign (20 cents of every smoothie sold will be handed over to a Foundation for the Elderly). Last year's record (to which I also contributed...) was 104,387, now 39,458 hats have already been sent. And the deadline is December 1st. So I still have time to embellish some of these, and maybe crochet some more.

November 3, mandala crochet

Somewhat later because I like to start my lazy Sunday without computers... but do not succeed in the end. Since I have to teach a workshop on mandala crochet on Tuesday I tried some versions of it today, also because I still have to write out the patterns for intermediate and advanced.

I made this large spiralling one last June and it is in my window catching the morning sun (when it shines that is).
And because it is only 51 days to Christmas I thought to throw in this one as well (this is the one I actually made today)

November 2, Butterfly

I bought a felt pack to make a butterfly, called Kleine vos (Little fox) in Dutch and if I'm correct Little tortoiseshell in English. I really like butterflies, saw one just like it last week (which is amazing since the temperatures are dropping now, and we had a really big storm this week).
On my Dutch blog I post pictures of butterflies, and I also have a pinterest board with all kinds of butterflies (crochet, other art and now this one as well).







Here is one from the Summer before last in my garden.

Atelier Lindelicht has some more butterflies in store, although not my other favorite (Peacock). Funny that although this is a crochet blog I did not do any crochet these past days. But I will get there.
I made a pinterest board for Art Every Day as well, so that is another way of following me through this challenge.

November 1, rainbow colors

To start with my piece of art today:

For some reason it turns when putting it in this blog. The shawl was finished last week, I only put on the button I bought yesterday at the large fair as a finishing touch.
This shawl was made with one ball of Lang Jawoll magic. I experimented with crochet first (leaving this nice garland.. but I don't know what to do with it since it wasn't a fit border for this shawl)

And yesterday I bought another ball of this same yarn, since I like the Rainbow colors so much (bought all kind of other stuff as well...).

My work in progress place looked like this (since I misplaced my camera as well)

But now I sorted things out and cleaned, so I ready to start making art!

 

New inspiration... challenge ahead

Oops, did not post anything on this blog for a long time, but that is going to change. Today I signed in on the Creative everyday challenge which encourages me to post one piece of crochet every day for the month November. If you want to join please do!
I will try to post something every day, although there might be some pieces which were created somewhat earlier and did not make it to this blog yet (I have been more active on my Dutch blog recently, and pictures tell their own story even if you don't understand the Dutch tekst... and I'm happy to answer any questions).
For now, no picture of my very creative (and messy!!!) stash (since I cannot find my camera). I'm planning to sort things out for Thursday when I will be at a large creative hobby fair in Utrecht searching for new possibilities... In the meantime I have to turn in my manuscript for a novel on knitting I wrote.

Knooking away

This weekend I finally had the time to experiment with the knook. I have bought a wooden one, size 5, which puts me out of my comfort zone because I usually use finer yarn. Now I went for some feltable yarn, and made a multicolour basket.
This is what I did: On a basis of a chain of 9 I made 8 rows double crochet (this is the bottom-part). Then I went round the square and took all loops on the knook (this is so easy, whereas with knitting you should use 4 needles instead). I made 2 rows of knit stitches (which is in fact a chain crochet but then you go over to the next stitch) and then a row purl. Then two more rows of knit stitch and then I went on with crochet again. On each side of the square I made two rows of double crochet and one single crochet. When changing to another side I went down the side unto the base of the next side. When 4 sides were finished it looked like a folding figure. And that is the last step, fold the crochet sides to the inside and fasten it with a slip crochet along the purl row of the knitwork on the outside. I added a handle and now I'm ready to felt it! I will show the result tomorrow (along with the pattern for the handle).

A stitch a week 1: single crochet

Almost every piece of crochet starts with this: the single crochet. No need for a crochet needle either, you can do it with your fingers as well.
This is also the start of "A stitch a week"with a new crochet stitch every week (until I run out of possibilities, which with Pinterest nearby has become nearly impossible). The numeral is made in this stitch, I will try to keep that up, and otherwise indicate with these numbes which stitches are used in a particular piece of crochet.
But let's start. 

Using your fingers you start with a loop and pull a loop from the long end of your thread through. Pull it tight (not too tight) and keep the new loop open, now you continue with a new loop from the long end...
Using a crochet hook is even easier when to know how to do it (there are video's which show you how). You pull the loop with the little hook, and keep the loops tight by pulling the long end with your left hand (in righht-handed crochet) or right hand (with left-handed crochet). After a series of singele crochet you can either turn your work and start working from side to side (start at one of the stitches closest to the crochet hook) or work in rounds and start at the beginning of your series of single crochet.

Single crochet is the basis of almost every piece of crochet, just give it a try.

There are not many patterns using only this stitch, so please take a look at the other stitches as well. You might try to form numbers or the alphabet with single crochet, I started of with 1.