A Crocheted Make Up Case

Hello! How is everyone? Today, I am catching up on blogging about a recently completed project, which became a birthday gift for a friend. A crocheted make up case:

It was crocheted in rounds in a variegated mercerised cotton (Katia Jaipur) on a 2mm crochet hook.

I then lined it with felt and added a zip:

And that was it! I slipped a bottle of funky nail polish in it and gifted it to the birthday girl, who's a big fan of purple.

I had good fun making it and would definitely make more with the same yarn or even a different one.

Thanks for reading, folks, and see you soon! :)

New Squares For A New Project

Hello! The title says it all, really :) Solid granny squares in Rico Superba Poems (unique ball of variegated yarn) with a 3mm hook

This way for more grannies!

More Bridal Motifs

Hello! It's been quite the week, I'm telling you, and although no alcohol was involved at any point, I kind of feel a little hungover. Not in a bad way! Just big things happening. I will of course keep you posted :)

But in the meantime, let's see what motifs I've been crocheting this week. I am still trying various patterns found online, without being sure of which colours I want to use, and here's the result for today:

I found the patterns for these motifs here and here. The latter is part of an amazing collection of video tutorials that I strongly recommend if you want to expand your crochet knowledge.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget Jijihook's challenge!

Noro Granny Square Handbag - Sneaky Peek

Hello! Well, I've been crocheting like crazy this week, and some of it was dedicated to the Noro Handbag I've been blogging on about for the past few weeks. Last weekend, I decided it was high time to get a move on with this project, and started connecting up the squares. It wasn't easy and I had to make a few structural changes as well as start again a couple of times. As a consequence, I am not done :-(

However, the bulk of the work is pretty much behind me, which means I have the pleasure of sharing a few sneak peeks with you tonight. Oooh, don't we just love a bit of suspense, eh?

So, here goes:

Side A...

Side B...

Base...

Even if the construction has been a bit of a pain, I do love how it's coming together, especially that mix of super rich colours, and the contrast with the black yarn.

For more Granny Love, as always, head over to Jijihook's.

Thanks for reading, folks!

Another Bridal Motif

Hello, today, a little update on my bridal project. I've made another motif, which I winged completely, so I'm afraid there's no pattern available, sorry! My inspiration came from the key words "crochet paisley" in Pinterest. I am still experimenting and I'm not sure if this particular motif will be part of the finished project. Let me know what you think! :)

Once again, I'll be cheeky and will link this to Jijihook's Granny Love Challenge. I hope it's ok! :)

Thanks for reading, folks!

A Project Close To My Heart

Hello! I have just embarked on a massive project which I sincerely hope will turn out amazing. It so happens that Mr Little Crochet and I are getting married next year. Soooo, I kind of have decided to crochet my wedding dress. Yep, I know, what am I thinking, eh? But the decision is made, and the first few rows have already been started. I have already gone through a mild panic when I had a very hard time finding more yarn online.

The dress itself is from a vintage pattern I have found during hours of Pinterest surfing. But I also thought I could embellish it with crochet appliqués of some form, and so, I have made a few motifs from various Pinterest locations, mostly Irish/freeform crochet inspired. So far, I am just experimenting with stuff, and the idea is to make quite a few different motifs to choose from, and in various colours, too. Worst-case scenario, if they don't look that great on the dress, they can always be used as table centrepieces on the day, that's the way I see it!

Anyway, here are some of the motifs I have made so far:

The first two are adapted from here and here, though by a sort of happy accident, the first one didn't keep its shape. The third one was made exactly as presented here.

And here they are all put together:

Don't they just look precious? Can't wait to make some more!

Thanks for reading, folks.

Oh, and I know these are not granny squares per se, but since they are motifs that use similar stitches, I'll be cheeky and link them to Jijihook's Granny Love Challenge! ;)

Granny Close-Ups

Hello! There hasn't been much granny square action around my part of the world since last week, so I thought I'd share a few close-ups of some of the granny squares for my future Noro bag.

Noro colours are simply breath-taking, and I can't get enough of them! :)

Don't forget your weekly granny fix at Jijihook's ;)

Sewn Make Up Pouch

Hello! Today I'd like to share with you a little make I came up with a couple of weeks ago, and which I am quite happy with. If you're a regular follower of my blog, you may remember Le Bunny, a cuddly toy I made for a baby last year. This is what it looked like:

Well, said baby's mummy had her birthday recently, and I thought it might be fun to make something for her in matching fabric.

The only problem was that I hadn't yet unpacked my craft supplies then, and so had to blindly fish out the relevant fabric at the very bottom of a huge cardboard box, right beneath my complete yarn collection. No mean feat.

Anyway, when all materials had been unearthed - cotton fabric, felt, zip, green button -, I proceeded to make a little make-up pouch - or a nail polish pouch, rather -, following this excellent tutorial on Craftsy. And here was the result:

I adapted the pattern, using no interfacing as the felt seemed thick enough to provide the desired bulk, and adding the decorative flower before after I'd cut my cotton fabric. I made the flower by cutting a bit of felt in the rough shape of a flower, and sewed a green button in its centre with contrasting thread. The whole thing is far from perfect: the fabric stretched a little as I topstitched it around the zip, and the felt bunched up at the bottom when I sewed the final gap shut. But considering I only had two hours to make it the evening before it needed to be gifted to my friend, I'd say I am pretty thrilled with the result.

Here are a few more pictures:

I can't wait until my craft room is properly organised to make more of these. They're the perfect gift!

Thanks for reading :)

Back!

Well, hellooo, has it been a while! After a very stressful move and a few equally stressful weeks settling down or trying to (it's a bit of a shock to leave the hustle and bustle of London for the rural quiet of Buckinghamshire), I finally find myself with some time to dedicate to blogging/crochet.

That being said, my 'crojo' is still suffering from a few things, such as the fact that although I now have a craft room all to myself, I still lack the adequate furniture to organise my supplies. Therefore, the yarn is piled up on shelving that is way too small - meaning that if you try to retrieve a specific ball, the whole arrangement comes tumbling down on the floor - and my fabrics, notions, books and other craft-related bits and pieces have nowhere to go but various plastic or cardboard boxes that you can't touch without the room promptly looking like a hurricane has just been through it...

Anyway, today I decided I really needed to scratch my crochet itch, and grabbing two minute balls of cotton thread, I made a granny square. It was hugely satisfying to see it come to life, especially after a pretty awful day.

So here it is, from a French cheapy book - title: 60 Points réalisés au crochet - on crochet blocks with graphs, I give you the pentagon from page 108, in cotton thread 8 on a 2mm crochet hook:

I like the dainty look of the resulting piece, though I do think it a bit of blocking would do no harm. I don't think I had worked with such fine yarn before, and I could definitely feel the strain in my hands!

Anyway, not sure what I'll do with this one, as it was just a way to get back into crafty mode :)

Thanks for popping by, and hopefully see you again before long!

And this way for more grannies!

Mandala Bag - Update

Hello! It seems all I'm making these days are bags. Actually, this is not entirely true, I have other projects that are not bags, would you believe it, but I have failed to blog about them recently. This will have to be remedied soon.

However, for now, let's take a look at the progression on my Mandala Bag, shall we? I have now joined both panels, and am now in the process of making two straps, which will be supported by four wooden rings and attached to the body of the bag with four connectors, crocheted in the same way as the straps. Not sure if this makes sense...

The straps are made of 8 long rows of dcs in the yellow, with a blue border made of of 1 row of dcs, and 1 row of crabstitch. The connecters, which are not pictured above - as they hadn't yet been made! - will be much shorter versions of the straps. The ends of the straps will be wrapped and secured around the wooden rings, while the connecters will be folded in half around the rings with both ends secured onto the body of the bag. I promise to post pictures soon to make all this look crystal-clear!

In the meantime, go check other hooksters' work at Jijihook's for the Granny Love Challenge.

Thanks for reading! :)

Noro Granny Square Bag - Another Update

Hello! Oh my word, it has been ages! Three weeks! And actually the last post was scheduled, so for me it has really been four weeks since I actually wrote something on this blog. The main reason is I was on holiday for the first two weeks of September, and since coming back I have mainly focused on finding a place to move to. The move is set to happen early October and though a place has now been found, the move needs to be organised, which means less time for crafty stuff, unfortunately.

Anyway, enough of boring life facts. On to more interesting things like crochet. I crocheted a lot on holiday. None of it involved granny squares, which is why I haven't been taking part in the latest Granny Square challenges over at Jijihook's. But today I have found time to take pics of my recent granny square progress, more specifically on the Noro bag I blogged about last time.

And here we go:

Top of the picture above, you can see the collection of grannies I presented you three weeks ago. The design of my bag also requires triangles, as well as black pieces both square and triangular. At this stage I still need one more colour triangle and four other black ones. I haven't yet decided whether I'll join them with a contrasting row of dcs.

Here's a closer look at one of the triangles:

Let me tell you, though, that it wasn't easy to take the above pictures...

Someone has been extremely clingy since I came back from holiday, and keeping him out of the frame, which he's usually never that bothered with, was a real challenge! Bless his little white cotton socks...

Thanks for reading, guys, and see you soon! :)

Noro Granny Square Bag - An Update

Hello, everyone! Just a quick one today, as I'm on holiday and feeling very lazy indeed! :D I've carried on with the Noro granny squares from last week, using three different balls of Noro Silk Garden, and here's what I have so far:

And a few close-ups...

That's it for this week, folks. Don't forget Jijihook's Granny Love Challenge!

Thanks for reading! :)

New Granny Square Project!

Hello everyone! It's been longer than usual since I last blogged, due to a few days' trip in lovely Dorset, preparation for a holiday in France, and building up towards a move out of London. That said, I haven't been idle craftwise, doing lots of crochet and sewing, and I can't wait to show you what I've been up to.

For today, since it's Granny Square Wednesday at Jijihook's, and since I recently managed to complete one of my WIPs, I am very pleased to share with you... what else... a new WIP!

This one will be another bag (is it me, or am I slowly specialising into the bag branch?), and a luxury one at that, since it will be made with Noro Silk Garden. I absolutely adore Noro yarns, but they can be very expensive, so I will always think twice before I embark on a project with them. However, my local yarn store recently had massive sales, and after rummaging a bit, I was very pleased to come across quite a few balls of Noro Silk Garden at a less eye-watering price.

With some of them, I decided to make a boho granny square bag, very much inspired by the sorely missed Wink's Noro Boho Bag.

The squares were going to be made out of three different balls of Noro Silk Garden, with highly contrasting colourways, but this was exactly what I sought. The more colours the better. Here are the three balls or yarn:

Amazing colours, aren't they? They're so delicious! Anyway, here's what the first six squares out of the reddish ball looked like:

Can you believe these come from the same ball? I find this absolutely fascinating. If you look closely at the centers, you can spot the continuation of the colour from the previous square. The progression starts from the top right corner towards the left.

And here's a closer look at one of the squares, a firm favourite of mine:

So vibrant! A true visual feast.

I shall be back next week with more squares, I am pretty sure :)

Thanks for reading!

Sewing Classes, Part 1 - A Cushion Cover

Hello! As I'm sure I have mentioned somewhere in the blog - although I can't remember where - I attended sewing classes throughout June. This was after I tried my hand at more serious sewing, and even though that particular attempt didn't go too badly, the sewing classes made me realise what I did wrong and what I could improve. They were absolutely invaluable, not to mention thoroughly enjoyable, which is why I immediately signed up for more at the end of the course. But more on this later.

Right now, I would like to share with you the first project we made in our first sewing class, an envelope cushion cover, using this fabric:

And here is the finished result, sitting proudly on my Blanket...

...and on the sofa, next to another cushion cover I made last year when I first bought my sewing machine:

A very simple project, which helped strengthen the basics I (thought) I already knew. The next project was an A-line skirt, which I still need to take decent pictures of. I'm telling you, that one was an eye-opener...

If you're based in or near South West London, here's the link for the sewing classes. They're excellent, and the atmosphere is great!

See you soon with more!