Craftapalooza

the game

A perfect Friday afternoon treat. Come on you flickr heads, play...

not so alpaca weaves

More crochet. Very quick and great stash busting project. I've had quite a bit of Marta's slubby sitting here and not really any idea for a project. The slubby in the top picture below was a gift from Di over 2-3 years ago!

Pattern, Alapaca Weaves Scarf. Link. I made 3 in one evening of crap TV watching.

Instead of 4 strands weaving through, I just used the remainder of the slubby cake. I like the way they've turned out.

The blue one, using some Handpainted Yarn's yarn that I've had for eons, is up for grabs. First to comment "weave me baby" gets it. I'll post it anywhere in the world. Details, ravel it.

cowlicious

Seems cowls are the new scarf of the knitting world. They're appealing for numerous reasons. Often only taking one skein of yarn, quick, no flapping loose ends and oh so stylish.

A couple of WIP's. Beech Wood, though I've made a mistake in the pattern and am still undecided whether to frog back. Knit using The Knittery's cashmere mix sock yarn, oh soft and squishy.

The "Manos Cowl", no Manos here, I'm using Noro Taiyo a yummy cotton mix, again very soft and squishy. Lovely pattern.

And this one's my own quick pattern. It's crochet since this seems to be my fiber craft of choice at the moment. Next time I'd make it wider and possibly longer so that I could pin it and play a little. The details:

Cowlicious

EDIT 13/6 - Pattern follows or download the pdf.

Crochet using a 4.5mm hook and Zara by Filatura di Crosa, but really guage is no issue as long as you can get it around your neck!

I chained 108 sts (any number of stitches less one for foundation chain). Join in the round with a slip stitch in the first chain and don't twist the chain.

Round 1: chain 3 (stands as first treble), then 1 treble into first chain made and then continue to 1 treble in each chain in the round, then skip the slip stitch join and 1 slip stitch in third chain of 3 chain at the beginning of the round.

Round 2: 3 chain, 1 treble in first treble of previous round and continue....1 treble in each treble to end, skip slip stitch and then 1 slip stitch in third chain of 3 chain at the beginning of this round...continue round 2 until you've reached the desired length.

Reference: "The Crochet Stitch Bible", Betty Barnden.

For those Ravelry users that want more detail, ravel it.

Links to some cowl patterns not mentioned above:
Cashmere cowl - Purl Bee,
Gloria - Orinda5,
Feather and Fan - Stay Fancy Free,
Dolores Park - Six One Seven,
Quickie Cowl - f.pea.

Cowl groups on Flickr and Ravelry.

Happy crafting!

Yarn fever

It's been a while since I've had Yarn Fever.....you know the "I must have it..." type of feeling. This week whilst I was playing in Ravelry I found this scarf, link to blog post for those that aren't fortunate enough to have Ravelry membership :0). And I was all oooh lovely scarf, what's that yarn, looks like Noro, and it IS. A new Noro, Taiyo, a cotton/wool/silk mix bulky yarn. YUMMMMY.  Also helps that I'm on a crochet kick at the moment.

Picture fleeced from: Fire Brunette Knitting.

Useful little link over at Knitpicker, Etsy Yarn and Supplies shops....Dangerous!

Mother of all vase covers

Yeah I was struggling to come up with a title for this little ripper. As you can guess this is a Mother's Day gift (BTW happy MD this Sunday to all my bloggie and real world motherly friend types). After The Son saw it, she said "I want that one".... and I said why *#$%  didn't you say that a week ago. So I still have another to make for my other mother.*

The pattern is from Amy Butler's "Sew-it Kit". I pretty much followed the pattern aside from the bit where I ran out of fabric for the strap and had to improvise with twill tape. Fabric: Lotta Jansdotter from the lovely Leslie (no I'm not pimping fabric for her, I just love buying from her). I ended up buying a vase to use with the cover, I think the intention is to use a jar. The "flowers" are knitting needles, not having any flowers available a quick improvise was needed.

Quite a nice little project, though as with a lot of Amy's patterns, they look simple and clean but there are lots of little details in them! Deceptively detailed.

Song for the week? Goin' vintage on you with Chaka Khan "I feel for you", holy crap a hit from 1984!

* An aside that cracks me up....When speaking to Ted I often say "where's your brother from another mother" ie the cat. Funny? No? Well it makes me chuckle.

quilted footrest #2

Hey ya'll! Not much to say other than, here's Al's finished footrest. This time I used quite a few mid weight fabrics which changed the shape a little. Most of the fabrics are Japanese imports from Superbuzzy, Reprodepot and Leslie.

My photography assistant...

More pics over at flickr.

Oh and Fran turned 40 yesterday, Happy Belated 40 bloody birthday wishes Fran. hugs!

And, Twitter rocks, if you're a dooce fan she updates regularly and keeps me chuckling during the day.