Childs Final Superheroic Wish Is The Greatest Thing You'll Read Today

Childs Final Superheroic Wish Is The Greatest Thing Youll Read Today - Superheroes - io9 - StumbleUpon

If you only read one thing today, let it be this. A heart warming Superhero Story.

Freeform Crochet and Knitting Fun & Frivolity

This last week saw the start to 2 new crochet and knit freeform extravaganzas that I'm proud to take part in for the year.

Both of these freeform projects are for 52 weeks and are hosted by two very grand and lovely ladies over at Ravelry.

The First freeform is Freeform crochet Fun and Frivolity by Cro-kween's intrepid Knights of the Freeformed Table and her freeform is all about crochet. (GypsyDancer is our leader for this freeform as well as the knitting one below.)

We have been tasked to make "something" this time. I've chosen to either have my project grow into a bag or a cushion cover. My heart seems to be leaning towards the cover but we'll see how it goes.

So far we've had one instruction (one a week) and here is my work so far.

We had to go outside and find a flower. This wasn't so easy for me so I chose to look on the internet for my fave flower. I really love the Stargazer lily so this was the basis for my instruction. 

Count the number of petals on your flower and multiply this by the number of letters in the flowers name.

This for me was 6 x 13.

The number of rows was 4 for the Month of April.

I chose to use Sirdar click dk with wool for the yarn choice and the hook was 3mm.

We had a choice of stitches we could use too. DC, TC, or DTC. We could use a more experieced stitch if we wanted too. Its our freeform afterall.

I ended up doing a who host of different stitches. single crochet, half dc, linked dc, linked tc, etc. 

I started with the magic ring and did 4 sc in the ring. I then chained 20 and did 18 dc back down the chain (4 x). I continued with varying stitches to give the peice a flower look. Each "petal" opening out from the center.

Here is a close up of one of the petals.

 

For the second freeform its all about knitting.

GypsyDancer's Freeform Frolic, hosted by GypsyDancer.

She has a fabulous Etsy Shop selling yarn bowls and pots. Beautiful and elegant, a real must see (and possible buy). 

This first instruction starts with us multipling our teaspoons with sharp knives to give us our starting stitches. This for me is 66.

Then to think of our favourite vegetable. A family fave in our house is brocolli. The number of rows is dictated by the number of letters in the word.

Needle size is 3mm and colour is inspired by the vegetable. I've chosen to use a yarn that reflected the needle choice, so its a 4 ply grey yarn for me.

We had 3 choices of stitch we could use.

Chinese Wave, Moss Stitch and Simple Slip.

I've chosen Moss Stitch as I know this one. I'm still very new to knitting so progress was slow. It took me a day to do the 8 rows but I think they've come out really lovely.

If you'd like to join either of these projects, just join Ravelry and head over the the Groups. We are a merry group of madhatters and look forward to meeting and chatting about anything and everything.

If your already on Ravelry, just click on the project icons on this page and it will take you to the work in progress project page.

 

There are changes afoot!

You may have noticed something different, well...I've changed! Well the blog has anyway.
I really wanted to change my template to 3 columns but that meant I had to change everything!! These things never take 5 minutes, in fact it probably took me 3 hours!! Good Grief! Changing stuff takes FOREVER!!!

 After fiddling around with this and that, codes and other stuff I've not a clue about, I've finally finished, well, sort off....

You may have noticed that my lovely header has gone and is now a pretty butterfly. I do like butterflies but I loved my header even more. I tried sorting it out in the normal fashion, but to no avail. I was wondering if anyone could help me with this??  If you have any ideas, please leave me a comment and I'll try your ideas out.

Now that, that's all done, I'm going to make a daffodil for the Spring Cal I'm taking part in.

Peaceful Harmony Throw, Finally completed.

I've been working on this blanket since 21st October 2009 and its finally completed, washed, dried and given to my lovely SMum and Dad as a housewarming present.

It was supposed to be much larger than this, but after 66 rows, I'd had enough. After making that decision I felt happier in myself. I've added the border in the same green, which ties all the colours nicely together. All the yarn I've used are dk weight and acrylic.

My parents think its wonderful, which is the main thing. I hope it keeps them warm when the weathers cold for many years to come.

Jelibe's Peaceful Harmony throw Ravelry Page 

Ellifants and the 100th post giveaway

Elliefants is having a giveaway! Hooray! Lets Party! woo hoo! I do love a giveaway.

This is a very special giveaway as its her 100th blog post and there's a lot of goodies up for grabs to one lucky random winner. 

The more to tweet, blog, comment on her blog the more entries you get in the hat (see her blog for details) and that's why I'm doing this! 

You may have recently saw the stitch markers I bought from her in a recent post. Well...there's some in the giveaway too. Some little ladybugs this time and they are CUTE!!! 

I'm going to tweet my blog and blog my tweet and comment on her blog about my tweeting and blogging and both together. Don't let me put you off entering though, as she's using a random generator your chance is as good as mine and with these yummy prizes, why not give it a punt!

Cals a go go!

After my success with my first freeform cal, I've taken the plunge and signed up to a couple more cals (crochet alongs), I saw a couple, more like many!!! What have I let myself in for. I hope I can cope! I'm happy to be taking part in an ongoing crochet/knit along called knit a square, where each 8" square made goes to South Africa and sewn together to make warm blankets for orphans. If you'd like to find out more just click on the link, a contribution, no matter how small is grateful. If you can't knit or crochet you can donate. This helps the running costs and wages for the people who sew these squares together, thus helping the community as a whole.

I've also signed up to take part in another freeform cal on Ravelry and a tiny whale/daffodile cal. I really loved making my first freeform and didn't want the party to end so in starting a new freeform cal, I'm keeping in touch with the friends I've made and the laughter can continue. Anyways... I think they might miss me :D

I've made one of PlanetJune's Tiny Whales already but I really love them and the more the merrier as they say. You can't just make one.

Handmade Shopping Spree

I love shopping, I especially love it when its craft related and I went on a little spree this week on the net and bought a few things on the net.

I've wanted to get some wooden crochet hooks for a while now but as also I wanted to get a good bargain. I did just that. I got 3 (9,10 and 12mm) hooks from Scandinavian Knitting Design . They were only around £3.50 each and the postage was very reasonable. I was really impressed. Mr Postman delivered them in no time at all and I love using them :D They are really light and the yarn slides nicely on them.

 I was searching on Ebay the other day when I came across this beautiful specimen. This is a hand turned and carved wooden crochet hook. This is the description:   

I made this Crochet Hook out of African Gabon Ebony, Thuya burl and Black Ash Burl. The Thuya burl has a nice medium brown color with darker cluster burl eyes. The cream colored Box Elder Burl is a nice contrast between the Ebony and Thuya Burl. The segments of wood are bonded on a 45-degree angle. This crochet hook is a size “L” 7.0mm and is seven and one eighth inch long. 

This beautiful hook cost just $18.20 (£12.00) with $5.00 Postage. I think this is my most treasure possession and I'll treasure it forever (I may use it occasionally too).

 

I've always been fasinated with Etsy, but I've not had the courage til now to purchase anything from them. These gorgeous stitch markers got me to sign up and count my pennies.

If your ever on Etsy or like me, an Etsy virgin! You should definitely got over and see Ellifants shop over there and pick up some loveliness. These little markers are for me but I'm going to be checking other handmade buys for birthday and Christmas gifts in the future.