postcards from around the world

I was tired of only seeing bills in my mailbox
so a little while ago I signed up to a cool site called
Postcrossing.
Here's how it works.
You are given the name and address of
someone from around the world and 
you then send them
a postcard.
Once they receive it your name and address is sent
to a totally different person who will send
you a card from their corner of the world.


It's a wonderful surprise to receive them.
I've gotten 4 so far...
from Germany, Slovenia, Belgium and Seattle.
All have written a little about themselves
and their area.


I have sent cards to Kenya, Taiwan, China,
The Netherlands and Wyoming.
The chipmunk card on the right is going 
to a little 3 year old from Germany.
I hope she likes it.

Flower burst bag

First Christmas present done.
(Not the best picture as it is raining here).

I really like how this turned out.

It's the perfect size for a little girl to hold

all her treasures in.
It's 6 inches tall by 7 inches wide.

I made this one with Bernat Satin and used this 

great free pattern by Yasmin Gamal.

It only took 3/4 of a skein so it cost

 about $3 to make.

I've bought some green organic yarn

to make one for another niece
so I'm curious how different it will look
(other than one is pink and one is green :0)

Wip: a little bag for a little girl

I'm starting on my Christmas presents earlier this year.

This way when I change my mind a million and

a half times it won't actually be late December 

by the time I finish it.

I started off with a very simple but pretty bag for 

my 2 1/2 year old niece.

She is a girly girl and I never know what she

will like. Also her mum really isn't a fan

of handmade things.

So I picked something that doesn't take a long

time to make.

So far I'm loving this bag!

The pattern is for an adult so I shrunk it down by

using a 4.5mm hook and crocheted really tightly 

(hard on the hands).

You make the flowers first, joining them as you go.

Then you make the bottom part and

attach it to the flowers.

Then all you have left is to make the top.

Easy peasy!

Tea lover's roundup

Most people know that although I love coffee,

I am a bit obsessed with tea.

So I was excited to learn that Ms. Muffin

over at the wonderful blog Muffins and More

is celebrating the month of September by 

featuring tea related posts...cool eh!

I'm looking forward to pouring myself a cuppa

each morning (sorry coffee) and

seeing what goodies Ms. Muffin discovers.

And it's not too late to submit a tea related

project of your own.

So pop on over

(click on her cute button in the sidebar)

And what would a post be without a picture.

scrappy stool cover

I've been looking for a small stool that was just

the right size for my husband to put his feet on.

I found one on the curb that was

 a bit torn but was the perfect height.

 I originally planned to sew a cover for it

but I've been looking for ways to

use up my stash yarn so that is when

I decided to crochet this cover.

The centre part is the free pattern

called Sunburst granny by Priscilla Hewitt.

Ravelry link here.

I continued working double crochet in rounds,
adjusting the fit as I went which was sometimes
difficult because my cat pounced on top of it
each time I tested to see if it fit.

I made 2 rows of each colour and when I reached
the edge I continued making double crochet but
with no increases.
I also worked the first row that went over the edge
into the back loops only so it would fold over nicely.

Here is a picture showing a peek at the stool
and also to show how it is removable so
that it can be washed.

stool wip

stool wip
Originally uploaded by sukigirl74

Playing around with colours...not sure if the last blue will
work but it will be easy enough to rip out if not.
More details when finished.

Crocheting using a knitting pattern

 I borrowed Susan Anderson's cute book

Itty-Bitty Nursery from the library

and fell in love with her cute

pacifier clips.

I knew that there was no way that I could knit

them but I wondered if I could crochet them

using the pattern as a guide.
I chose the elephant because it's cute but
also because it is made up of simple shapes.
This is how it turned out.

I started by substituting a single crochet 
for the knit stitches.
This worked well and even the gauge
came out the same.
Then I tried a couple of ways to handle the
increases/decreases, none worked.
Each resulted in incorrect stitch counts.

So what I did instead was

I looked at the stitch count at the end of each row.

and made the number of increases/decreases

necessary to get the right number of stitches.

I then spread out the increases and decreases 

as evenly as possible in each row. 


Obviously if you are comfortable with 
knitting a small toy on DPNs then that's
the way to go.
But I'm not so I'm glad that,
at least as far as this pattern is concerned,
I was able to produce a decent crocheted clone!

Getting back into crochet

I haven't crocheted since March for a few reasons.....

vacation, family get togethers, hot, humid weather, gardening, 

and I've gotten back into reading every day.

(I just finished The Girl who played with Fire).

Great book! 

I'm looking forward to reading the 3rd one which, 

unfortunately, is also the last.

So I decided to start small by making these booties.

 I changed them up a bit by slanting

the strap to the side.

I'm fairly happy with them although 

the pattern has a mistake in it

and it took quite a while to get the correction.

I hope Sebastian likes them.

Cooking...... old school

We made the most delicious pizza on this 

lovely wooden oven.

It took us a little time to get

the temperature just right .
Once we nailed that down we were 
in pizza heaven!

Of course it also helped that we used some of 

the most delicious local ingredients.

View of Positano, Italy from our terrace

Such a lovely place

A spring teacosy called Rosey

Spring-like weather has finally arrived

so it's only fitting that flowers

should adorn my newest teacosy.

Crocheted red roses sit on top of

a knitted grassy green body.

The next time friends visit I'll spread out

one of my vintage cloths,

pop some peppermint leaves into

Rosey and set out a few of my Gramma's 

lovely teacups and saucers.

And of course there will be 

some cranberry scones.

The lovely free pattern can be found here.

Good bye February

Positives from this month.

-I finally tried 2 new projects

(embroidery and stamp carving)

and I'm dying to do more.

-I set myself a challenge and completed it

even on those days 

that I didn't feel like it.

-I made some projects that have been

on my to-do list for a long time.

-I used up a LOT of scrap supplies.

-I came up with a couple patterns

plus loads of ideas.

-I've always seen my 'slowness' of

completing a craft as a negative.

I now realize that it gives me

time to change the pattern around if I want 

or to redo a part that I'm not happy with.

I'd like to do this again next
year but I would change a 
few things to make it a

little easier on myself.
The most important would be
to line up all the project ideas
(plus a few extras)
and their supplies
well ahead of time.
 This would help if the
unexpected happened...
like when my sewing machine
broke down or when
I underestimated how 
amazing the Olympics would be!


Also I would start one day early
so that I could take project 
pictures during the sunny hours 
so that at least some of the
colours would be true.


So I would highly recommend
this to anyone who's considering it.
Next year I'd like to sign up for
the official Thing-a-day.

And thanks to my cheering section!!!

Last Day of the Month!!!! ...Matryoshka

I was going to add some pink

cheeks but I haven't got 

any felt in that colour.

And the felt that I do have tends

to pull apart when you 

try to sew with it,

since it's the cheap acrylic kind.

I think that I really need to 

order wool felt online 

or make my own. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Final tally

This project..no new supplies

Total month $21.38 and

the majority of that was on

two projects that were 

new to me 

(making stamps and embroidery).

Day 27: owl

Today I'm off to see the Beatles,
  actually I'm seeing a cover band, 
a very good cover band called Rain.

So I picked this small knitted

owl as today's project.

It was very easy even for 
a non-knitter like me .

I didn't have any owly yarn

so I mixed plain beige

merino with some leftover

dark brown kid mohair.
Free pattern here

Day 26: green chicken potholder

I was really hoping this would be a

quick project but then realized it had 2

sides to be crocheted plus I decided to

watch the Olympics

while I was making it.

I was going to make some

green eggs to go along with it.

Oh well. 

Day 25: Egg cosy

When I sew on the blue door later

tonight it will officially be 

a gnome house egg cosy.

Day 24: scrap happy teacosy

I came up with this pattern while

 watching the men's Olympic hockey

games today.

I wanted it to hug my teapot 

and also to leave the knob 

on the lid naked.

It was nice to use up a lot of scrap yarn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No new supplies

Day 23: 1951 Betsy doll and The Big Bang

These are Betsy McCall paper dolls 

that were introduced in the 

McCall magazine in 1951.

One Pearl Button 

came up with a tutorial to

turn them into magnetic 

paper dolls.

Since I had been gifted with part of

 a magnetic sheet, I set out to make a set 

to give to my niece when

she is a little older.

Problem is ..the magnetic clothes don't

actually stay on the magnetic doll.

At first I thought I had done 

something wrong and then

I noticed one of the comments

that said that the same thing

happened to her.

Brilliant idea but unfortunately

a bit of a glitch in the execution.

They will however work 

if both the doll and clothes 

are stuck onto a fridge 

since the clothes tend to be a 

bit wider than the doll.

I'll have to revisit this and

see if I can work around this 

problem since I think this

project is worth it.

While I had the magnetic sheet out

I thought I'd make up some

magnets for myself of my

favourite characters on tv.

Actually while I was working

on this I came up with another

project involving 

Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, and Howard

but it can't be completed

within a day so it 

will have to wait.

Day 22: Gold medal

Every morning my husband 

makes me a delicious 

cappuccino and for that he

definitely deserves 

the gold medal.

I really had to make this

one on the fly but 

thankfully hubby was still

happy with it.

Free pattern here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No new supplies today.

Total $21.38

Day 21: crochet Tawashi

Tawashi is a traditional scrubbing brush

but the modern equivalent includes

anything from sponges to yarn
(crochet or knitted) 
scrubbers like this one.

This free pattern

is in symbol form and the

written instructions are

in Japanese but, if you

are patient, it is not difficult

to figure out.

The trickiest part is figuring

how to put the 4 rings together.

I made this one with cotton yarn

with a 3.5mm hook so that

the fabric would be course enough

to wash dishes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still $21.38 spent this month