Blanket WIP

This week I have been working on my (Japanese) flower garden blanket, it started out as a shawl, but I decided that it would make an awesome blanket.  It took me ages to work out the pattern as there are several variations of it on the web; in the end I used Lucy of Attic24’s photo.  I was a bit concerned that my petals were too full, and tried a smaller hook, as I am a loose crocheter.  However it still puckered!  Curious I tried different wool and it worked out flat.

(The light colours are really pale greens and lilac, I had to use a flash as the light is bad today.)

So it is the type of wool.  I prefer the raised 3D effect as it gives the blanket texture.   The wool is King Cole Riot Double Knitting, there is an amazing range and so far I am using 4 colour ways.  I might do some blue and teal and purple colours on the outer edges.  Leaves floating along in a stream!

It is such fun to make and very fast as I don’t have to decide what colours and so on for each motif.  Being a ‘join as you go’ project there has to be some thought to placement, but that’s not hard.

The colours make me think of the colours of autumn/winter and I found some photos of my garden I took a few weeks back.

Along the boundary, they really are next door’s trees, don’t you love borrowed landscapes!

Under the plum tree, I think I will have to move the cotoneaster as it will take over if given half a chance.

I also did some doilies this week but will leave that for another post.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful week everyone.

WIP an d Part 2 of Liebster Award

It has been a busy week, catching up on chores and such like.  But two things I have been working on is a bag made with some squares that I was going to use for a cotton blanket.  I changed my mind about that project for the time being as I don’t think I have enough of the ecru vintage cotton and the ivory is very expensive.  So here’s what I am going to do with the squares I have made. 

 I am trying to decide whether to have a gusset in ecru and have the strap carry on from it.  I am going to line it with the linen and back the strap with it as well.

The other two are traditional doilies for the door curtain I talked about last week.

Now for the second part of the Liebster Award.  Thank you Amanda of

http://amjaylou.blogspot.co.nz

Amanda’s 11 question:-
1. How many WIP's do you have at the moment?

Er……I started to list them but stopped when I needed a new page!!!

2. What are they?

I admit to 2 baby blankets, a mood blanket and a flower garden blanket.  2 scarfs, 1 shawl, 2 bags, numerous doilies, 3 mandalas, a hexagon quilt (I admit some haven’t been touched for months, I have a scatterbrain mind, I see something and want to do it and then abandon the project I am working on, especially the big ones.)  They will get done, as I made myself a new rule, not to start anything new until I have finished a project. Says she who just started a new doily this morning!!!

3. Regarding days out what would be your idea of heaven?

Going to Castlepoint beach on a blustery day and watching the waves, drinking tea from a Thermos (or soup if it is winter.)  I love waves crashing in.  Also the idea, that the sea links all the continents, and I wonder if it has touched a place where I have loved ones.

4. What would be your idea of hell?

Not being able to garden

5. What book are you reading at the moment?

The Secret Life of Bees  by Sue Monk Kidd (rereading)

6. What is your favourite tipple? ( can include non-alcoholic!)

In summer a ice cold freshly squeezed Lemon drink, winter, a Jarrah coffee (Vienna flavour)

7. What's been the best holiday you've been on so far?

A Summer Holiday in Switzerland a few years back, 3 weeks of walking in the mountains in and around Davos.

8. What is your dream destination?

Home, I had 20 years of travelling and I am happy to stay at home now, in fact I would be miserable away from it.

9. What would you put into Room 101?

Room 101? Amanda tells me it’s from George Orwell's 1984 and there is a program where celebrities take what they hate into it.  I would put people who criticize needlessly and gossip.  They could have fun together!!!

10. Do you have a favourite TV chef?

Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater, we don’t really have celebrity chefs here in NZ. Although, we do have our own version of Masterchef.

11. What is your all-time favourite cake?

Any cake that has apples in it, or I could be retro and say a decent Black Forest Cake preferably from Tubingen (Germany).

Now I should nominate some blogs, however I am going to break the rules here; as I did that with the award I received a couple of months back.  So, if any of my followers want to do the award I nominate you!!!  I know it is a lot of work, but feel free.  However I am going to point you in the direction of some lovely blogs that I have bookmarked and love to gaze on their goodies, there are some enormously talented people out there.

http://crocheterie.blogspot.co.nz/   - crochet free patterns that are different from the norm.

http://de-la-maison-au-jardin.over-blog.com/ doilies and suchlike, even though it is in French, she gives charts of her designs.

http://mijardinderetales.blogspot.co.nz/  she has some amazing crochet and a recipe or two.

http://crochet-plaisir.over-blog.com/  some amazing crochet patterns

http://thelittletreasures.blogspot.co.nz/ dressmaking, crochet and crafts

http://olavas.blogspot.co.nz  lots of lovely crochet embellishments

http://marie-lostbirdstudio.b logspot.de/ amazing vintage craft made with lace doilies and the suchlike

http://vintagegreyhandmade.blogspot.co.nz/ quilting with vintage feel.

http://nasturelul-fermecat.blogspot.co.nz/ toys and other crafts

http://crochetmillan.bloggplatsen.se/  crochet generous with patterns even though it is in Swedish she produces charts.

http://www.maidoll-melodie.blogspot.co.uk/  knitted art dolls

I will leave you with a few pictures of my garden.

One of the vegetable beds, that’s purple sprouting broccoli in front and Tuscan kale at the back, and I think there are some cabbages.

I am really proud of my fennel this winter it is bulbing up nicely.

The primulas are putting on a nice display.

The jonquils are out, a promise of the spring!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a great week.

Random Things

I haven’t done much crochet this week as I have visitors from Aussie.  However in the odd quiet moment I have been playing around with the op shop cottons I have brought over the past few weeks.

I have become quite keen on the traditional doilies.  While I was roaming through Pinterest, I have discovered some cool ways of using them.  Two I want to try, lampshades and curtains.  This morning I pinned some doilies I had to the net curtain at the front door, Wow!

The big doilies were my great aunts the small ones are mine.

Doilies here I come, i like the idea of doing them myself, rather than buying vintage ones then I can use colours to suit me.

I have received a Liebster Award from Amy of Amjayloublogspot.co.uk.  I received one a few months back, but still decided to take part as it was an opportunity to share a few things about me a in the second part share some blogs that I love.

We are to share 11 random things about ourselves (today) and answer 11 questions set by the giver, nominate 11 blogs to receive the award  and set them 11 questions.  I like the idea of spreading it over 2 posts, doesn't seem so much work!

Here goes - 11 random things about me

1.    I like to  see what is on the other side of the hill

2.   I collect seashells, stones, cacti, vintage china, art materials………

Shells on my bathroom windowsill

3.   George Clooney makes me sigh…..

4.   I love to photograph close ups of flowers.

My favourite rose its a climber, don't know its name it runs alongside the drive and is awesome in early summer.

5.   I am a children’s illustrator by trade and a wannabe children’s writer, (tired of illustrating other peoples stories)

Design for a card

6.   I grew up on a dairy farm in Taranaki.

7.   I spent 20 years overseas mainly Britain and France.  Been back in NZ just over 10 years.  (A rather long OE!!!)

8.   I love to paint flowers from my garden.  I did the below yesterday in gouache (a type of watercolour paint) for my sister to take back to Aussie as she loves Daphne and cant grow it, my bush is scenting the house and garden out.

 9.   Gardening is a passion along with crochet, and my art.  These are photos from last summer (January 2014)

My back garden looking at the house from the start of the veggie patch.

The veggie patch, my quiet spot under the plum tree

10.  I adore then sea, but live an hour’s drive away from the nearest beach.

Riversdale Beach, my favourite local beach.

  

11.   I give thanks every day to God for the blessings in my life.

Well that's it for today, I will post the rest next week.  I  leave this thought for you from a page in my art journal.

Reach out for the stars, our imagination is real!

Have  a good week and thanks for your visit.

Mandala Love - in the pink!

Woohoo, I have created a mandala entirely of my own design.  I have been toying with the idea of making a mandala wall-hanging and thought that a sculptural effect would be great.

So I leaved through a book on classical motifs and thought I would try one, I made a mess of it as I didn't really understand the instructions. 

However I thought I would go with it and decided to make the petals stand out.

I used the idea of the African flower and made a short chain between the spokes I had to do the chain in front of the petal and then push it through so that the chain was at the back.

That worked so then I used the chain to do 2 rounds of trebles.

At this stage I toyed with turning it into a square but in the end decided to carry on.  So I did a row of double V's and a cluster in the V.  Then I did a scalloped round and gave it the treatment used for the African flower.

However it was getting very full and I needed to undo and do less stitches, but being lazy I learnt the lesson of the central flower and decided to try and tighten the last few rounds by using a chain to pull it all together.

Yay It worked.

I think I might do a few more rounds and turn it in to a cushion cover as I have some lovely textured linen.  I don’t really want a lot of pink in my wall-hanging.  I have a few areas where it needs refining which I will do for one in the wall hanging.  Maybe I will post my first tutorial!!!

This week I have been playing a lot with circles and have made heaps of coasters in different cottons.

This one is my favourite so far.

The weather this week has been dry but windy and grey, but we had a bit of sun and Ambrose took advantage to watch me mow the lawns.

It has been very mild this winter and usually all lawn mowing has stopped some of the trees still have their leaves, such as this tree I saw on a walk earlier in the week.

Beautiful!

Well that’s it for now have a wonderful week every body and thank you for visiting.

Linking to Annemaries Link Your Stuff

A Legacy

I have been brooding over what I said in my last post about my great aunts, I called them ‘batty’, it has been bothering me and I want to redress the situation, I should have used the word eccentric.  I have decided to dedicate a post to them as I am beginning to realize that I owe them a lot.

Berta and Magda emigrated to NZ from Germany/Poland with their parents in the late 1890’s; they were the youngest of 13 children.  They helped their parents’ clear bush to create the family farm in Taranaki.   They looked after them when they were elderly as they never married.  They were allocated some land when their parents died and had a cottage and about 2 acres of land on which they had a house cow, pigs, chooks (hens), goats and a couple of sheep.  They lived to great age Berta 103 and Magda 102!

I first met them when I was 9.  My Grandparents decided that my brother and I were to be taken on a tiki tour around the family.  I still remember going down a mossy path to a little house with trees crowded around and being sternly by my grandfather to behave and not fidget.  I thought that they were the oldest people I had ever seen, I realize now that they must have been in their late 70s.

We were told to sit down on a hard sofa and they bustled about getting tea and cake.  The cups were of fine china and the cake was apple cake. I was petrified about breaking the cups they were so thin.  The room was crowded with furniture and knickknacks. After the tea the aunts told my brother he could be excused and look at the animals.  However, I was to stay and was cross examined about my life, then they smiled and offered me a jar with chunks of white stuff, it was foul.  I learnt later that it was nougat; to this day I can’t eat it!

The round crystal jar was the same one that the nougat came in.

I met them again when I was 12 when my sister and I were summoned to spend the summer holidays with them.  I didn’t want to go, but they were the most magical weeks of my childhood.  I learnt to milk the house cow, about herbs and vegetable growing, roses, they taught my sister and me to crochet and do needlework.  I see now that how they lived set a standard for me to follow.  I don’t know if it is genes or personality, but I find myself now living like they lived.  Being self-reliant, industrious, and eccentric!  I did marry but was not blessed with children and now that I am on my own, even though I am nowhere near their age, I am wondering if my nieces and nephews consider me batty!

When I married the crystal and silver bowl were wedding presents.  The doilies I was sent on my 21^st birthday.  All these years I have kept them, they have travelled the world with me.  Even though I never crocheted again after that holiday, I think that what they taught me stayed with me and that is why I was able to start with ease when I took it up again after 40 or so years.

To celebrate their legacy to me I have started a centre piece for my dining table in n. 20 cotton that I found in an op shop.

I was going to try my hand at a table cloth, but thought it was too ambitious for my first attempt at this fine work.  I found the motif in a book on classic blocks I got out of the library.

Berta and Magda Buhr I salute you, you rocked.  You now live on in cyber land.

P.S If you are interested in the recipe for the apple cake I have posted it on my new cooking blog, Zana’s Kitchen.   I have decided to have my cooking separate as I want the recipes all together as my sister and I want to compile a book on family recipes and self-publish so that future generations don’t miss out on our heritage.  I will make a button for my sidebar and have the latest recipe listed for those who are interested.

A Girl Needs a Bit of Bling!

It has been a bitty itty kind of week.  Lots of fiddly things, finishing off projects and playing with some yummy blingy wool. 

This is what my work table aka dining table has looked like this week.

It started with my dear sister, she is coming for a visit next month, and as she lives in WA she will notice the cold, so I decided to crochet her a warm scarf and hand warmers.  This is how our telephone conversation went:

Me: Do you want me to crochet you a scarf?

Sis: Crochet?

Me: Yeah I have taken up crochet; I am a bit obsessed with it!

Sis: Oh ……… What do you make?

Me: All sorts, blankets, doilies, bags toys anything!

Sis: Oh…..

Me: Well do you want a scarf?

Sis: Ohaayyy…

Me:  What colour?

Sis: Khaki.

Me:  Oh….

I knew what she was thinking, granny blankets in awful colours and beige doilies, our adored great aunts adorned their house with such things.

So up town I go and look for some khaki wool, I didn't have any in my stash, now I know why.  I hate it with a passion.  I have been struggling with this scarf for weeks; normally I can whistle one up in a day or two.  So back to the wool shop to see if I can find something more to my liking that will fit with khaki.  The shop owner said she can’t work with pink, and one of the ladies in her knitting group can work with green, she cuts out any green in the variegated sock wool she uses! 

Is there a colour you can’t work with?

The answer to my problem some soft white wool with matching white wool with sequins! See above

I did the hand warmers first and they are lovely, the sequins don’t itch or scratch at all!

I had some of the sequin wool left so decided to make a classy brooch to show my dear sister that crochet is not just for batty old aunts, but can be sophisticated as well!

I think I am going to make quite a few of these brooches for my Christmas craft fair table at the end of the year.

I still had a bit of the wool left so I decided to use it in the dress of the bear I have had on the go for a while.

The pink wool also has some sparkle.  While I was at it I decided to crochet her a poncho and a few accessories.

At the moment I am trying to decide whether she needs an ankle adornment  or some pink tulle under her skirt to balance the top, maybe both after all she is going out on the town!!

I so loved working with the sequin wool, I just might buy some for me….a vest a clutch bag ummm….. 

YES, a girl does need some sparkle in her life!

Thanks for visiting and may you have a wonderful week.