Some Inspiration

Goodbye summer, hello autumn! The perfect time to sit in the lounge on an evening in front of the fire and knit or crochet something...yes...something, anything...as long as I can wield a hook or some sticks and produce something useful and/or beautiful with those magic tools. I'm completely rubbish when it comes to following instructions for projects, especially when they're in English with lots of abbreviations, but I love knitting books with inspiring projects just like these:

1. The Spanish Rose Trellis Scarf

2. Fuji Feather Lace Wrap

3. Senorita's Floral Pullover

4. Winter Sun Capelet

Wouldn't the pattern for the capelet not make a lovely cushion cover? If you like these patterns and your knitting skills are advanced, then you might like other projects featured in the book:

Toodles..

Things to Do with Granny Squares: Arm Warmers

What to do with granny squares? Blankets, throws, table cloths, bags, scarves...whatever. When I recently tried out a new design, the size of it (13cm square) fitted perfectly around my arms, and a light bulb moment sparked off the granny square arm warmer.

Of course you can turn granny squares into gloves, mittens and gauntlets; it all depends on your imagination and skills. Granny square arm warmers are great stash busters, and the ones you can see here are all made of leftover yarn.

All you need to do is crochet two granny squares (any design that takes your fancy) to a size that fits around your arm. Then fold a granny square in half, sew together and add a crochet border to top and bottom in the desired length. And that's it - very easy!

If you love crocheting granny squares, then you will love making these. And once you've made your own granny square arm warmers, then please get in touch and post a link to your pics.

The Passionate Scarf

When I looked at the photos of my latest creation, I thought that there's a lot of red, pink and purple happening on this blog! But don't fret, if you're starting to find this boring; soon I'll be posting pics of some green and black creations moving towards a more gothic feel.

In the meantime, I did some crocheting for a change and learned the V-stitch pattern and a new type of flower.

The yarn is Sublime Kid Mohair in Rouge (shade 68), the softest Mohair I've felt for ages. One of my bargain buys at just £1.99 each 25g ball (I needed three balls to make this scarf) from The Black Sheep. I wanted to create a romantic piece, that brightens up dull winter days and perk the wearer up a little. In fact, I made it for a friend, who needs a bit of cheering up and will hopefully like it.

Fairytale Flower Bag

Here's yet another bag I made from the leftover wool of my psychedelic jumper.

This bag started off as a scarf, knitted all in one piece and then crocheted together at the seams.

The flower is the first I've ever crocheted, so I learned something new. The long handle was also added later.

It's a dreamy, whimsical bag that reminds me of fairies and fairy tale princesses, hence I call it the fairytale bag. It goes rather nicely with the Whimsical Tarot deck - the images of the cards are all based on fairy tales.

My yarn stash is growing, so more bags will follow, but before that I need to knit two beanies in time for Christmas.

Toodles!


PS: If you want to learn to knit and crochet flowers, I can recommend this book:

100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet - It's fantastic!