Friday 14 December 2012

African Flowers

This week we crocheted the traditional South African flower pattern. I can't seem to find a pattern in UK terms so I've taken this pattern  and just changed the terms used. I hope we did it right from memory yesterday!


Pattern:
Starting Round – sl knot, ch 5, ss into first ch to make a ring.
Rounnd 1 – ch 3, 1 treble, ch1, *2 treble, ch1, * repeat until you have six spaces and six 2trebles. ss to the 3rd chain of the beginning round. fo
Round 2 – Change color: Start in a space. ch 5, 2 treble in same space, *ch1, 2 treble, ch2, 2 treble in next space – repeat * 5 times, 1 treble and ss into the 3rd ch of the beginning round.
Round 3 – ch3, treble6 in the 2-ch space, ch1, * treble7 in next 2-ch space, ch1, repeat * 5 times. ss the 3rd ch of the beginning round. fo.
Rnd 4 – New color: ch1, double crochet around and make a long treble stitch down in round 2 between each flower petal. End with ss. fo.
Rnd 5 – new colour: chain 3, treble around treble increase (2 treble) in corners to  keep hexagon shape


Thursday 29 November 2012

Snowflakes

Just a quick post with a link to Lucy of Attic 24's lovely snowflake pattern.

Make as many as you can for the craft fair at Nomnoms on the 8th.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/crochet-snowflake

You'll need to block them with starch and pin to a board at the points to get them looking really good.

See you all next week. x

Thursday 22 November 2012

Getting ready for Christmas - Hearts

I've found a few patterns for hearts on the net and kept messing them all up so made up my own pattern based on what I'd learned.

Hearts - the chain 1 at the end of each row does not count for anything and is just to keep it neat.

Chain 3, dc in to last chain from hook.  ch1 turn (2)

2dc into first st. 2dc into 2nd st. ch1 turn (4)

2dc into first st. dc, dc, 2dc into last st. ch1 turn (6)

2dc into first st, dc, dc, dc, dc, 2 dc into last st. Ch1 turn (8)

Skip first st, ss into 2nd st, 5tr into next st, ss, ss, 5tr into next st, ss, ss. Ch1 do not turn.

DC round the edge of the heart, make sure to do 3dc into the point and 2 dc into the top stitches of the heart's bumps. SS into the space between the two lumps. Voila! Simples eh? 



Granny Squares and Children in Need


Last weekend Creative Days were invited to run some workshops in the Victoria Hotel in St Anne's for Children In Need. A good friend of mine Mel was organising the event and asked us to run some of our origami, hand casting and crocheting workshops for the kids and to do some face painting. I decided to make some Pudsey Bear brooches to sell too, they worked out pretty well and I managed to sell about 15 of them making £15 for a good cause. I wish I'd written the pattern down now but maybe in the future I'll sit down and try again. Nicci came along and we did a bit of crocheting while we were there. She's made tons of the water droplets for our fracking awareness campaign and they're all starched and ready to go. All we need now is the information tags to go with them and to get them out there to the people of St Anne's. Good times!

This week I got an invite from a local knitting and crochet group based in Blackpool (the Knittaz with Attitude) to make granny squares for a community project she has in mind. It's all a little hush hush at the moment which only intrigues me more so I decided to show the girls how to crochet the very simple granny square traditional pattern so we can get involved. I'd love to go to the group myself but without a car it's pretty difficult to get there, besides, I'm usually working when it's on which doesn't help. 


There's something very satisfying about making granny squares, just watching the thing grow and grow and grow so quickly gives a great sense of achievement. One of the first things I ever made was a granny square, indeed my inspiration to learn crocheting was from admiring the beautiful crochet blanket my Great Aunty Nelly made me when I was born. I'd always wanted to make one, just going round and round in loads of colours. A hand made blanket is something to treasure, I'm lucky enough to have three from three different women in my family, when they have become warn I've lovingly fixed them and darned them, they've seen so much of my life. One was for when I was born, one when my daughter was born (which I'll give to her if she has a child) and one for my 21st, they're all totally different and beautiful. I hope to keep them til I can pass them onto another generation, hopefully with the skills to make one of their own.

The first blanket I made I didn't realise you had to block your squares before sewing them together so the whole thing is a bit wavy and warped. I finished it off with a treble crochet border in the main colours.



SIMPLE GRANNY SQUARE

Using DK and a 4.5mm hook. English Instructions

Abbreviations. 
ss = slip stitch
dc = double crochet (english - sc US)
tr = treble crochet (dc US)

If you are using multiple colours just slip stitch your new colour into any space between shells. All round are joined the top of the 3ch at the beginning of each round with a slip stitch.

To start off
Chain 4 join with a ss to make a ring.

Round 1
Chain 3 (this counts as first treble in each round) 2tr into ring ch1, *3tr into ring ch1* repeat another 2 times until you have 4 shells made of three trebles each.

Round 2
Chain 3, 2tr into space, ch1, 3tr into SAME Space (you're creating the corners here), *3tr ch1 3tr into next space* repeat around.

Round 3 join in the space before the corner
ch3, 2tr into space, ch1, *3tr ch1 3tr into corner, 3 tr into next space* repeat around.

You'll need 4 rounds to make a 5" square.

To continue just remember to do *3tr ch1 3tr* into each corner and 3tr into the spaces along the edges,

The size that the Knittaz With Attitude group have asked for are 5" square. They need as many brightly coloured squares as possible by the 3rd December. I'll contact Catherine to see how we can get them to her. 


Friday 16 November 2012

Water droplets for fracking awareness

This week's session found us crocheting water droplets in support of Residents Action on Fylde Fracking and Frack Free Fylde. Nicci had a great idea that we could raise awareness of Cuadrilla's proposal to begin fracking for shale gas very near to our home town and the effect it will have locally on the environment. I fully support their campaign and wish to help them in any way I can. Nicci suggested that we could 'yarn bomb' the town with information attached to our creations. One of the main concerns about fracking is its effect on the water table and our drinking water supplies so Nicci suggested that a water droplet be a good symbol to convey the message. 


During the week I got to making a pattern, I found one on Ravelry but didn't really like how it came out so adapted it. Sorry about the rubbish picture, in future I'll try harder. 




Water Droplet Pattern
 Using DK yarn and any hook between 3.5 and 5mm. Obviously the bigger the hook the bigger the droplet.  Chain 4Treble into last chain from hook turn (2) Chain 2, treble into same st , 2treble into next st turn (4) Chain 2, treble into same st, treble, treble , 2 treble into last st turn (6) Chain 2, treble into same st, treble into next 4 st, 2 treble into last st  turn (8) 

Ch 2, treble into same st, treble into next 6 st, 2 treble into last st turn (10) Ch 2 treble into same st, treble into next 8 st, 2 treble into last st tun (12) Ch 2, treble across . turn (12) Ch2, treble into next 8 st. treble dec, over last 2 st  turn(10) Ch 2, treble into next 8 st, treble dec over last 2 st.  turn (8) Double crochet evenly around  edge of water droplet. Make 3 double crochets into top to allow it to lay flat. 



Thursday 15 November 2012

Flowers

Just a short post as I realise I'm trying to catch up for the past 4 sessions to get up to date. :)

The second session we had we made flowers to decorate our hand warmers. These are simply made using but use a variety of stitches so are good for finding your way as a beginner. You could also make a leaf using the pattern from the Poppies if you wanted to add an extra flourish.

The pattern is by Teena Sutton Murphy from Flushed With Rosie Colour blog. Thanks for sharing Teena! 


These were made by Jacqueline, check out the cute rose buttons. Lovely. Not bad for two sessions eh?

Poppies for Remembrance

Last week's Hook Up was my birthday and it was lovely to share it creating and chatting over lunch with the group and a few of my friends. The wonderful folk at Washington's Tea Lounge brought me a plate full of muffins with a candle to blow out which was really sweet. I got some bamboo crochet hooks (yay).

The 11th of November is Rembrance Day so we chose to pay our respects by crocheting poppies this week. Neither of my Grandads or my step Grandad went to war, even though they were of age, their jobs kept them at home. They were a teacher, a miner and a shipbuilder. In fact to my knowledge non of my close family have ever fought at war. My only stories are from the home front, the bombing of Barrow-in-Furness and my Grandma's tales of working the switchboard for the emergency services. Naturally war horrifies and scares me and I am a pacifist, but even though I oppose war I still honour and respect not only those who lost their lives in the line of duty but the countless civilians who died too, and I take the time to remember them all on Remembrance Day.


Here's one Nicci made.

The pattern we used this week was found on Ravelry which is a great resource site for crocheters and knitters. There are loads of free patterns, techniques, designers and the opportunity to share photos and notes about your finished projects. The pattern was written by Bilgewater Davis who offers it freely and kindly for crocheters to make for Remembrance Day (donations of course to The British Legion). It's a very easy to follow pattern and for those of you who already have a Ravelry account here's the link.