Positively Addictive!
Hi guys!
Oh this is just a little post to say “I’m still here!” Reading all your blogs & such. I’m just having a tough time at the moment. Today has just been horrible .. Then THIS arrived from my amazing Mum.
Oh my goodness!! My hippie astrum opened this morning!! I had no idea of its colour, my other one is blood red.. This is such a happy flower! Hippie’s have been 1 of my favourite flowers ever since I saw one. And as a young hippie myself back then simply the name and the flower embodied everything 60’s to me. Anyway, please enjoy the show from Tasmania where we are just entering summer. Roses are EVERYWBERE and grow very well here … Just so beautiful at the moment.
Cool :) I went to a school like that. It’s called the Australian international school. It was were kids who just WERE not surviving the institution based schools & could not or did not conform to rules about hair and dress. Basically the senior years were just punks .. And hippies all of us. It was the most wonderful time of my life. I don’t know if it did me much good, but I was in school and I finished. I learnt ALOT and grew a lot. Teachers were called by their first names and there was no roll call, you came because you wanted to be there. And we did sometimes ;) Art class CHECK! Mathis .. Under the class room smocking …Biology CHECK! Basically there were some classes we never missed and some we missed all. But anyway, it was good. And it’s we’re I met my girl friend for life. Hellen. God I love you girl! … God I miss you. I miss that school and it’s grounds (bush with caves and creeks, great for getting up to mischief) and the teachers. One day I MUST contact either my principal and or my bio teacher. Just so they know I made it and I’m ALIVE and well .. ish ;)
SUMMERHILL SCHOOL!!! ENGLAND!!!!
My teacher told me about this in high school. As humans we have a natural thirst for knowledge. While naturally kids did their own thing for the first few weeks they eventually started going to class. It teaches them to want to go to class. You’re not forced to learn and because of that you want to learn.
THAT’S BRILLIANT
(via youre-a-mundane)
this is Me today. Lol .. Family putting in LATE orders!! Arrghhh .. Will I get it all done .. No. But oh well. They’ll know next time that at this time of year we are crocheting so much for loved ones that there doesn’t leave time to take more orders! I don’t think I can make what I was going to make for M&D.. MAAAYBE I could fit in these beautiful recycled jars, and I have a pattern for a beautiful shell stitch cover to make them into Christmassy tea light ornaments?! Ill try anyway.… Isn’t this lil guy just the BEST!? Awww I wish I knew more about him & who made him. If anyone knows please be so kind & message me info please, thanks :)
I still have that post to do .. I’ve been a little caught up with new Xbox .. Assassins creed revelations .. So freaking amazing! I still love me wii though :)
Can I just say .. These things are really cool. Great stocking stuffer. They don’t cost a lot, but very handy .. And YES! It does work. I was so surprised how well it worked. I mean at home I would normally put on the surround/stereo or AirPlay to the Apple TV. But one day I was crocheting away & just wanted some music on,& my phone & & it were right next to me. I popped it in & sat it next to me & it was quite lovely :)
I just love the juxtaposition of it, obviously. Also I think the design is quite funky. Hehe I love gimmicky things that actually work ;)
I was all down with the mini plungers you could get to use as a stand for your iPhone but it never sucked for more than a few minutes .. So in its clear box on the shelf it sits.. Still cute though :)
I am working on my next blog post! Look out for some VERY cute baby Mary Janes!! I promise not to disappoint ;)
Have a great weekend everyone!
Enjoy!
Look at this vintage crochet jacket and hat!! If anyone wants the pattern .. Ask nice & ill email it to you :)
I’m going to be adding some fabulous people I see out & about to THIS blog now too .. Don’t worry it will stay hooky & crafty but my old blog had so many amazing personalities I decided I’m doing it again. Mainly because I believe in telling each other we look great or even fabulous .. Like Lauren in this photo! She came strutting down the street going into the super market. She looks very confident, but relaxed & chic in her hot pink accents, & oh so Bo-ho with that skirt & necklace. You go girl! .. She also had some fabby sandels on completing her boho style.
Thanks for posing Lauren.
This was in Launceston Tasmania.
I WANT her necklace so badly ;)
😜
Spring wreath turned Summer wreath story! .. Details & links within
ADDED: this looks terrible in dashboard mode .. so go to the page if you really want to see it in all its glory ;)
So i finally did it! The one of MANY projects I’ve had in my “To do but won’t for some reason” list ..
and I’m proud to say i FINALLY did it. I had SO much fun doing it, from go to whoa.
This pattern/piece is from 3 different patterns by Lucy at Attic24, i have mentioned and linked to her many times and will do at the bottom of this post ;)
I used Lucy’s pattern to make the ring, although i had to make mine wider cause i knew what i was putting on there would need to be a wider ring. Only by one row .. but of treble, so you get quite a bit more from just one row.
So i started out by making a HEAP of “May roses”. This was before i even knew what i was going to do with them .. then saw another crocheted wreath of hers and just went POP!
Here are HER may roses .. as i am to lazy to dig out photo’s of them BEFORE i sewed them onto my wreath ;) There is a link to the pattern there to make your own. I HIGHLY suggest it, because a lot of these type of flowers, made by curling up a long piece never look right. I find these ALWAYS turn out very rosy indeed. And her leaves are perfection .. just got to get the picot point to get the realistic look
Link to may roses pattern:
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/may-roses.html
So next was to make 2 rings, in any colour .. but I’m a beginner so i went safe & made a more realistic wreath. I now have a more modern idea with zany colours I’m going to do next. ;)
Here are the rings, which take like and hour to make 2 .. so quick. Its all trebles.
Then i played with the layout for AGES .. making decisions that were going to be committed and sewn on (you can always undo .. but I’m a perfectionist ) … here is me playing with the layout options.
none of which i ended up staying with lol!
So .. i was FAIRLY happy with that .. but i DID have this other green that kept nagging me saying “USE ME FOR A LEAF!” .. so i made 2 and put them up to the wreath and it all came together. I never would have thought this bluey-green would work. There is SO much to learn about colour in crochet. ;) A ball can look a certain way but then totally
different when stitched up .. or put next to other colours of course. I thought when i embarked on this hooky journey that i knew so much about colour & that would really help.
but I’m finding I’m at a loss sometimes .. and then I’ve done experiments where I’ve just THROWN some colours together to see what happens, sometimes its a total A-HA moment. LOVE IT.
So the sea green leaves are going in .. you’ll see.
I also um-d and ah-d over the yellow flower at the top .. i had a bright sun yellow flower and a pale yellow flower, i went with what i wouldn’t normally go with .. the pale lemon yellow. Not sure if i want to switch it now though .. all done now. It will nag me every time i look at it lol!
So, i was all ready to start sewing on thinking wow I’m gong to finished this today .. and i remembered for the “Happy flower” we PVA’d the leaves to stiffen them.
I instantly knew i should do this. But it DID mean waiting till the next day for the glue to totally dry … So i glued the leaves ..
You can see the sea green in there …
So on goes the glue! …
And when they are dry you cannot see the glue at all .. but it can be felt. So don’t do this if you can see or more to the point FEEL the back of your work ;) But otherwise it’s such a great way to make little things like leaves to stay stiff and last for years. Here they are DRY …
OK!!! NOW its time to decide whats going where and let the sewing BEGIN!! YAAAY! … on goes the big bertha of the may roses. I made a big one for the bottom and they get smaller and smaller as you get to the top of the wreath. Gives a very luscious heavy bountiful look…
Terrible photo .. i REALLY struggled with these photo’s cause its been SO dark and rainy ..
and on go all the rest of the leaves and flowers (I added the sea green leaves once my partner came home and i could get his opinion on them. He is a designer & we constantly help each other out. I trust his eye) So in these photo’s the sea green isn’t added till later ..
Now, to make something stiff to go inside. You could used very thick cardboard. I love to recycle, so i have all SORTS of stuff lying around and in boxes.
So in amounts all these things are these kinda polystyrene disc’s that come with a frozen pizza. I have quite a few of them, and I’m so glad cause they turned out to be
perfect for this! YAY!
So i placed one of the rings on the disc and used a pen , not to draw but to dig into as i drew around the crocheted circle. One for the outer circle and the inner circle too.
Then i was able to grab the scalpel and cut it out .. so fun :)
I ended up using 2 circles to get the thickness .. glued them together so they wouldn’t slide around once incased in their hooky home.
As i said i made 2 .. just traced the first one so they match perfectly.
So now its time to darn in all the ends and snip. Ive kept my snipped ends .. as i do, to put in my crochet journal for all the colours used .. looks pretty in the journal too.
I got SO excited as i darned in the LAST piece of yarn .. thinking REALLY?? REALLY? I’m going to be whip stitching this in a minute and it will be done … YAY .. but awww that its over.
Hopefully this will make me continuer to make a heap more in all different styles. As i said earlier, i have a modern one pictured, using outrageous colours and possibly using Mollie flowers for the flowers. Then there is a amigurumi fruit one i want to do … and of course Christmas wreaths! I have these miniature pine cones that would look great amongst other crocheted Chrismassy things :)
So as i said my partner really helped .. cause adding the sea green leaves and also he helped me decide where they looked best and it all came together after that. So THANKYOU baby!! x
These are not great photo’s .. i will take better ones this weekend .. when there is sun! :)
I love whip stitching … its so fun and is always SO NEAT when your whip stitching crochet cause there is a spot for each stitch. I love that.
Whip stitching the out side i thought would be so easy but it wasn’t quite. The flowers so heavy and what not. Once id whipped about 1/3 it was fine .. and FUN!
Doing the inner circle was bit tricky. And you CAN see the black ring a TEENY bit. But because it happened to be black you really don’t see it. but I think I’m going to do another
round of whip stitching to hopefully fill in the holes .. just to see if i can make the ring to ally invisible. This can make a real difference if you wan to sell your work. Not that i would just sell this
unless i got permission and or made a donation to Lucy ;)
the ONLY thing i would do different is use a thicker or more puffy yarn for the ring. I used a yarn which was a little bit thin when stitched. For the leaves it was fine and flowers, but just not the ring.
The yarn I’m referring to is Heirloom Easy care. Its a great yarn/wool. You get different looks with it. its the way its twisted, its very textured, which has its benifits.
So there is my little Summer wreath journey. Thanks for reading, i love doing these for you! :)
So here are all the links you need to get started on your own wreath journey:
Lucy at attic24. FABULOUS women .. she is basically famous in the crochet world at the moment. A massive influence for beginners like myself. Because she makes things anyone could make, well its that AND the way she wrote patterns. She puts SO much effort in. There is a photo for each instruction and its so easy to understand .. she basically reads your mind and tells you the things you always go .. offs!? WHY didn’t they tell me that BEFORE i did 10 rows! .. haha .. you won’t get that with Lucy ;)
Such and inspiring journal she keeps .. great reading. JUST GO THERE NOW! Free patterns are down the side on bottom left if you just want to see that. But have a look around ;)
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/
The may roses i used on my wreath:
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/may-roses.html
This is a blog post she did when she made May wreath. Great photo’s and reading and IDEA”S!!
THIS IS LUCY”S SPRINGTIME WREATH. Pattern below …
Her pattern for a spring wreath: It is different to mine, but shows you why a good pattern it is that you can do so much. Think outside the box! Winter,Autumn,SPring and summer for starters!
Perhaps do and animalia one or thanks giving/harvest with little crocheted corn and barley and strawberries and the like :) .. let alone Christmas with miniature pine cones! I happen to have been given a bag of TEENY pine cones so im definitely going to make a christmas wreath .. whether it gets done by Christmas is another story all together.
Spring wreath:
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/springtimewreath.html
and thats it for today!
Enjoy getting hooked!! x
Cute lil afternoon project! I wonder what other colours would look good? Maroon with green trimmings or dark green with maroon trimmings?? .. He’s cute and I’ll use buttons for eyes. I have not bought that bunch of saftey eyes yet. I’m putting in my “this weekend” list now :) I’ll get MASSIVE ones all the way down to this size :) … Then I can start designing my “Tarsia” amigurumi!! Using that MASSIVE saftey eyes :) Enjoy this pattern link :) Happy hookinOh my goodness this is so cute. Pattern can be found here!
And to cut the burn of my last post have an adorable stego.
(via craftyallo)
