Blogweek

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 22-28 April 2013

Will you be participating this year?

See Eskimimi Makes for more information pertaining to this great annual blogging event.  She mentions simplicity and ideas as core themes this year - mmmm sounds right up my alley as I think I might do visual stories without text as my contribution this year.  Do you have any plans or ideas yet?

These were my contributions last year, just click on the day and the link will take you to the posting:

Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Grrr glad to see I toned down on the colours and the volume of text to be observed in some of those postings LOL.
Cheers!

Finds

Pinterest Hooky Finds

Crochet Dress as seen on ZsaZsa Bellagio; Silver Waves by Izy; Crochet Art Scarf by Kanokwalee; Cardigan by Moschino

Cow Clock for the Kitchen

A green perspex clock from a creative community, the Karoo Lifestyle Centre. Our house interior is painted in a soft silver grey and this clock simply pops on the kitchen wall - is also the exact same colour as the tablecloth on the prep table. The kitchen appliances are black and the cupboards white. It is reflection that you see on the clock, blame the photographer!

The house we now live in belonged to two Swedish bachelor brothers who lived here for 60 long years!  When they relocated to a retirement village (they are in their late 80's and early 90's), they were so kind as to make a few items available for sale. Apart from a fabulous Swedish fold up table that they brought over from Stockholm, I bought the below butter maker, enamel goodies, tray and coasters and wooden spoons from them. I am not a collector of old kitchen goodies under normal circumstances, but these somehow suited the character of the house very well. I blend this with white porcelain, white ceramics and raw wooden bowls to create an eclectic table.

Now I am going to enjoy coffee and shortbread decorated with a hooky flower.  Whoever made this shortbread clearly understands the need of a hooker! Cheers!

On the hook!

I have a throw on the hook once again!  It is going oh so fast, the pattern is simple and I am using a big hook for some texture.  

I am definitely in love, oh yeah it is looking scrummy! I am passionate about simple, almost minimalist decor and design. My interests include both Scandinavian design principles as well as Japanese Wabi-sabi.  I really enjoy the slick, simple and perfect as well as the raw, natural and imperfection. 

It is not easy to hook in monochrome as I yearn for the burst of colour and the creativity of complex pattern in my hands, but I am sticking to my guns this time  - This throw is for ME.

Hook size:  Unknown but I will let you know.  It is a bamboo hook, part of a set I picked up in Penang, but the sizes were printed on in ink and wore off pretty quickly.  It is probably a 6mm but I will buy a gadget to measure the thickness of the hook's neck size next week.  Recommended hook size for this yarn is about a 4mm.

The Yarn
The Yarn is the Vinnis Nikkim Colours as written about in the previous posting.  I will also be using Vinnis Serina.

Pattern:
Center Ring: Ch5, close with ss.
Row 1: Ch2 to form first stitch and then another 15hdc. Close round with ss.
Row 2: Ch2 to form first stitch and then 1hdc, 1ch, 2hdc (this is the first corner). Rest of the 3 corners 2hdc, 1ch, 2hdc. For the rest of the stitches between the corners: 1hdc in each.
Repeat until there are 5 rounds in total.

It is a public holiday - Human Rights Day - here in South Africa.  I am spending the day hooking up a storm. Cheers!

New Yarn!

Vinnis, Oh my dear Vinnis. 

Hello!  I am on my way to the yarn shop to buy something that I haven't hooked in before, but I have looked at it, drooled over it, hugged it, snuggled my face in it - and just stopped short from giving it a lick as it looks that good!  It is a 100% bamboo, hand dyed yarn described as a "luxurious yarn with a rich shiny lustre" - Vinnis Serina.  It is so soft and the colours are amazing. I am mixing the Bamboo with Vinnis Nikkim 100% cotton in a hoooky project even still unknown to myself, but most probably something modern and simple so that the texture and colours will speak for itself. I have already bought the cotton earlier this week after I was inspired by the colours in a scarf I love to wear. And then I looked at pieces of my own jewelry and knew what colours I was most definitely keen on wearing - muted shades of grey, green, charcoal and duck egg blue (apart from the obligatory white and black with a splash of orange just for fun in my accessories).

This is the scarf

My recycled Coke bottle glass beads from Ghana!

A neck piece made from bead finds in Singapore by a talented British Expat friend

And lastly but not least a lovely necklace I picked up just yesterday from a shop in South Africa.  It is hooked, beaded and sewed.

I will let my mind wonder and will come up with a plan soon - the wondering will of course take place whilst hooking and finishing the throw inspired by my colourful beaded bangles and designed on the Ipad. I almost never stock up on yarn, but I couldn't ignore the urge this time. Have a great weekend!  

Cheers!

Roly Poly and African Flower Bag

Hello!  I just realised that I still owe you a picture of the Roly Poly Pillow Seat I hooked for the Teen.  Here we go:

The yarn is Vinnis Nikkim Colours in 100% cotton, hooked in size 3,75 with hdc's.  They now have their own webpage, take a look at the various yarns on the Vinnis Colours website.

 Oh, I have to confess that on the photography and creativity front I am inspired by sensory rich surrounds and societies that function on chaos, where the energy is palpable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It is the multi-sensory ambiances of every day urban life that keeps me going; these sensuous experiences that bare complex accounts of social formation. In short, I miss vibrant Asian living whether it be in the Middle East or South East Asia. 

In my current setting, I see people experiencing a daily sociological numbness, deafness and general anesthesia in the absence of any street culture; in the presence of horrific crime. The spectacle of real life is a threatened one here, the society aggressive on one hand and completely desensitized on the other.  

Bare with me until I find a new source of inspiration that will nudge me towards picking up my camera again so that I can once again produce interesting pics. Meanwhile I snap my photos with my mobile phone on the Vignette for Android app.  

I am hooking up a storm to complete the Babette-like throw so that I can move on with a new project.  I bought shades of grey to aqua to green but am still awaiting inspiration for what exactly I will be making! 

This is what African Flower handbag nr 2 looks like, hooked from the left over Roly Poly Yarn:

Below is the layout of the two sides before they are first joined at the bottom, then folded and joined at the sides.  

There is a teeny little corner that looks like a "step" at the bottom of the bag once all sides is joined too, that I simply push in with my pinky to create a smooth, rounded bottom corner.  The image to the left also shows the reverse side of the African Flower after I worked away all the yarn.  Neat huh?

Have a great week!  Cheers!

xxxxx 

African Flower Tutorial

Handbag - still without lining and handles

Yarn: Elle Premier 100% cotton, DK, Hook size 3

The African Flower: Pattern

1. Chain 5 and close circle

2. Chain 3 (first dc), 1 dc, ch1, 2dc, ch1, 2dc and repeat until 6 clusters of 2dc each with ch1 between each cluster. Close with ss

3. Join new colour, ch3 to the right of the join (first dc). 1dc in same space as ch3. Ch1, 2dc in same space

4. Into next ch1 space from previous round: 2dc, ch1, 2dc. Repeat (6 sets) and close with ss. Don't join a new colour as this round and the next one will create the flower petal - unless of course you prefer it slightly different to this

5. Slip into space created by ch and ch3 (first dc)
6. 6dc into same space (cluster of 7)
7. 7dc into each space and close
8. Join new colour and insert hook into first ch space

9. Sc into each dc of previous round (7) and then 1dc.  This dc will appear long but will be creating the petal shape
10. Repeat until whole flower has a border of 7sc, 1dc
11. Join new colour, 4sc and then ch1 and 1sc in same space (you are in the middle of the petal and the sc, ch1, sc will create on of the corners of the hexagon). This round is originally hooked with dc but I prefer the look of the sc.
12. Continue sc until you reach the middle of the next petal once again and sc, ch1, sc.  Repeat and close.

The completed African flower (above) and when stitched together (below)

For a more detailed tutorial, head over to Heidi Bears. Cheers!