miss marie's miscellany

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Crochet Christmas countdown - day 1.

What better way to count down to Christmas than with some crochet loveliness? Over the next few days, I'm going to post about all kinds of crochet, things i've made this year and am currently making, links to projects, patterns presents, and as much crochet and craft related things that I can find to talk about.

To start, I thought this cushion cover I made at the start of 2011 deserved a revisit. It is much admired ar Ravelry and it sits in my lounge looking great as we speak. Quite festive colours too methinks!

It's made from African flowers, I just made enough to cover a cushion pad and used the points of the hexagons to act as button loops. A few shiny green buttons later and there you have it.

I love how it turned out:-)

Here's a link to lots more African flower crochet...... it's a real feast for the eyes, enjoy!

 

 

November and making stuff

I thought these photos will be a good way to summarise my November, because there's been a LOT of crcoheting going on this month.

I've made loads of there flower brooches recently; I sold a lot at one craft fair, sold not very many at another and quite a few have gone to good homes through Etsy and with my colleagues too. I thought I should take a photo of them all before they all disappear, and share  these lovely vibrant colours with you!

 

Poppies and roses too :-)

 

There are lots more makings to show you but I'll save them for tomorrow.

Happy Saturday!

Still here, just busy

Hello, it's ages since I popped my head round the door. Time seems to be flying by so fast this year, and I'm busy at work, with not much time for blogging at the moment unfortunately. There's been quite a lot of crochet going on......

Most of these are en route to a craft fair this week, or have already found homes with some lovely customers. It's been great to start selling a few more things - I make them because i like doing so, but it's even better when someone likes and wants to buy my creations. Very heartening!

Anyway, the house is a mess, the garden is covered in leaves and I have 101 things to do! I really should get on...see you soon!

Snapshots from the week that's been

A bit of garden colour -this rose is called 'Rhapsody in Blue'

Something newly made (and now in my Etsy shop)

A lovely gift

I think I have a lodger

The calendulas still look good, both outside

and in

I made this cover for my mobile phone

and some digging in the garden produced this little lot

That's all I had time for!

Flowery laptop case

Remember those bright yellow/orange/pink African flowers I was crocheting a few weeks ago? They have turned into something I'd not thought of making before, but the end product is really lovely and useful too!

I was sitting with my laptop next to the growing pile of these flowers and I had one of those eureka moments. A laptop sleeve is not what I'd had in mind when I started making them in this particular vibrant colour scheme, but once I'd had the idea, it came together really quickly and I think it looks just peachy. I used 21 hexagons and 3 half hexagons to make this cover for my 13 inch MacBook; the 2 corners are full hexagons folded in half to re-inforce the corners and give a little more padding. The buttons were requisitioned from an old cardigan which was headed for the charity shop. I thought they would echo the colour scheme and give it a retro feel.

Here's the back view

Just goes to show, computer accessories don't have to be drab and purely functional, they can be pretty and colourful too!!

 

 

August 2011

Sorry this is a bit late; busy, busy, busy! For August's photo, I've chosen this beautiful calendula flower.....I'm having a bit of a love affair with the colour orange just now, so I couldn't resist this!

Cool and cooler

More African flowers on the go lately, I like this pattern a lot as the possibilities of colour combinations are endless and delightful. I usually favour what I'd call cool colours ie not too bright, but I thought I should get out of my comfort zone and spice it up

I bought these vividly coloured yarns when I visited Liverpool in this fantastic Aladdin's cave of a shop, well worth visiting if you are in Merseyside or North Wales, or you can order online too. I really couldn't decide if they worked or if I was completely mad to try pink, yellow and orange together. but I'm glad now that I went against my instinct. It is bright and summery and the black edging brings it all together IMO.

Just for a cooler contrast, I made some in a different colour mood; there is a bright pink along with pale pink, turquoise/green and white, again edged with black.

Although the green and bright pink are pretty vivid on their own, the combination with the 2 paler shades gives a more spring like palette.

I like them both, the first is very uplifting on a wet cold windy day like it is here in Glasgow today, and the second is soothing on a hot sunny day like it was on Tuesday in Glasgow........yep, it's the good old British Summer, feels like Autumn today and a couple of days ago I was roasting myself in the garden!!

 

Flower power

Much flowery hooking going on in these parts of late, I've been making lots of the ones I showed you in my last post. They just kept on multiplying till I had quite a stack of them. Enough for some floral decorating.........

Voila!

I used some of my stash of Scottish lambs wool in fuchsia pink and scarlet and used 2 different sizes of hook,  3.5 and 4,  just to give a small variety in the flowers; it's hardly noticeable, but I like the non-uniformity of size, much as you would get in a real garden.

i initially was going to make a long crocheted chain to join them together but it just didn't look right and the flowers were decidedly droopy........not good! So I threaded them onto some white cord and it's worked a treat; the flowers have their heads held high and they can be moved along the cord to wherever looks good and they stay put.....result.

I've put it in my Etsy and Foksy shop; please feel free to pop over there and take a look!

I really like this flower pattern, and wondered how it would look in some different colours?

I think they're all lovely, and the possibilities to use them in different projects are many..........so, yes, there will be lots more flowery items being made. Perfect for summer!

 

 

 

What's hooking?

A lovely lazy week spent pottering at home has been just the tonic for me, with the bonus of some hot and sunny weather to top it off nicely. I've done a lot of hooking, playing around with some ideas and patterns.

Some old favourites in a pink, purple and white colour scheme

These are going to end up as a blanket, finishing soon, I hope.

Something for Christmas maybe, just thinking ahead!

I have to block these as the ends of the points are not behaving, but I think they'll look great, a long garland of these in different colours would be very festive!

And last but not least, something pretty, in summery pinks and red

and raspberry and turquoise

I really love these flowers (pattern in Erika Knight's book Crochet Stitch motifs). It's an easy pattern to follow and they don't take long to make. As the weather is a bit changeable today, I'm staying put and will carry on making my pile of flowers grow a bit bigger!

Happy weekend!