Sampler Afghans

My latest pinboard is sampler afghans.
For those who don't know, an afghan is a large throw, either knitted or crocheted.
These are all samplers, so mixed stitches/motifs combined.
I'm going to make one for each of the girls, plus a large one for Ian and my bed, as well as a throw for the back of the lounge.

Pinterest...

I sometimes get slightly obsessive. As in, I find something, and I fixate on it.
For months, I've been fixated on designs for a home I don't even own. I've been obsessively pinning colour schemes, furniture, furnishings and fixtures for rooms, all labelled accordingly.
Check out some of my Pinterest boards for details.
Except, in the past couple of weeks, I've embraced the fact I live in a village in the country. I've been pinning clothes for me and for Ian (Country girl at heart and Save a horse, ride a cowboy respectively) as well as boards for quilts, stairs, country home decor, etc.

Meanwhile, I'll be posting highlights of boards over the next few weeks - a board a week should do it, right?

And yet another crochet project...

So, I can't do just one crochet project. I get bored. And bored me makes everyone around me nuts.
And because of this, I have in the last few weeks crocheted some granny squares, continued on a scarf (those two will be sewn together for a scarf-hoodie for a friends daughter who is also a daughters friend), made some lovely four lobed motifs into squares (not enough of them to make even a lap blanket, but they will become Margaret's blanket), made some more hexagons (they were going to be for Isabella's blanket, but my beautiful and talented friend BG already made her one), designed, made and listed a coffee cozy for sale on Etsy, and started on a lovely velveteen beret in charcoal grey for myself.

Meanwhile, I'm n planning stages for a blanket for Katharine (she's slightly obsessed with stars and astronomy, and I just happen to have found some squares named after various stellar bodies (Mars, Jupiter, Earth, Orion, Betelgeuse, Mercury, Moon, North Star and amongst others). I may make a few (they're all 15cm squares) and arrange them in a checkerboard pattern with some solid squares in coordinating colours.

Now, what's the bet I never get it done? :P

A blanket for Margaret...

These squares have been adapted from a hot pad pattern. You make 5 of the motifs, sew them together, and you have a hot pad. But... I don't do that sort of thing. I decided I'd make a cushion cover. Then I kind of got carried away with the centres. So now, it's going to be a blanket - probably for Margaret.
Again, the instructions are in UK/AU terms.


You will need

a 4.5mm hook
2 colours of yarn (don't use wool. This is a kids blanket, you want to be able to throw it into the washing machine!) in 8ply.


Using first colour, ch5, slst to form ring.
Ch3, treb 3 times. (this is your first treb by 4)
*ch 6, treb 5 times*
Repeat * to * 3 times
ch 6, slst to top of first treb (the ch3).
Leave a small tail, and cut off.

Using second colour, ch3 into one of the lobes, treb 11 times into the same lobe (this forms 12 treb).
Treb 12 times into each of the other lobes, making sure you crochet in the tail you have left.
slst to top of ch (1st treb)
Leave a small tail and cut off.

Using colour 1, single stitch around the top of the motif.

To form into a square
Using colour 2, treb around the top of the single stitch, adding an extra treble into two of the corner stitches (totalling 4 trebles). You now have squares with rounded corners. I fix this by single stitching again in the second colour, adding in a ch2 at the corners.

1 hour toddler slippers

I crocheted these in one hour one night for my youngest girl. I'm yet to work out how to make them the right size for the other girls or for myself.
You will need to know how to crochet a bobble stitch or treble two together, which will be notated as treb2tog in this pattern. Treb2tog is creates by starting a treble stitch, but then doing a treble half way through. That is, yarn over, insert hook in to stitch, yarn over, pull through 2 loops, yarn over, insert into stitch, yarn over, pull through 2 stitches, yarn over, pull through three loops. Pictoral instructions are available here.


Using 8ply yarn and a 5.0mm hook, chain 4. Slst into first chain.

Child size

Chain 3, double stitch into circle formed – this creates the first treb2tog. Treb2tog a further 11 times.
Chain 3, double stitch into first gap, treb2tog into same gap.
Treb2tog twice into each gap.
*Ch3, treb into each stitch**. You should have 24 treble stitches.
Turn. Repeat from * to ** once.
#Ch3, treb into 16 stitches ##
Turn. Repeat from # to ## at least 5 times, until slipper is required length.
+Treb into 3rd stitch, then treb into each st until 3 from the end. Slst into final stitch++. This creates the heel of the slipper.
Repeat + to ++ until the top of the heel is even with the edge of the sides of the slipper.
Tie off neatly.

Repeat the whole thing for the second slipper.

I was looking through some Facebook photos...

You know, I'm always after innovative ideas for design. And as a former food and beverage attendant (that is, waitress ;) ) in fine dining and function premises, I find name cards/place holders a design opportunity that often gets neglected and/or ignored.
But this photo ticks all the boxes. Seasonally appropriate, innovative, and very original.

Thank you to my friend Viv of Ish and Chi fame for the photo.

A simple infinity scarf

So, on Tuesday, Isabella brought home a lovely invitation - castles, rainbows, unicorns, and the birthday party is the Saturday. Yeah, it didn't leave me with much time.
I rang to RSVP (please note, I do that because it's manners. Not replying to an invitation is one helluva good and quick way to piss off a parent >.<) and asked the mum what the birthday girl would like. Turns out she's a very girly girl, and constantly loses her hair elastics (quelle surprise. Mine do the same), so the suggestion was some hair elastics from the $2 shop. I though about this for a minute or ten, then figured that instead of buying her some elastics/clips, etc I may as well make her a scarf. But scarves are boring, unless they're decorative. And I can't be bothered making a scoodie in 3 days (I could, I just don't want to). So, I decided to think for a minute. An infinity scarf is great for kids, because they don't end up with it tangled up, and it's easy to use.

I'll update with the birthday girl wearing her scarf after the weekend, but in the meanwhile, here's the pattern (written in UK terminology).



Using 8ply yarn and a 5.5mm hook, chain 19
*Treb into 4th stitch, and 1 treb into each stitch.**
Repeat * to ** for approximately 50 rows (or to length).
Twist scarf once, and single stitch both ends together.
Voila! You are done!