Red Moments

Crochet Cowl

Motif: Erica by Amanda Perkins from her book 

Desirable Crochet Motifs, Volume 1, 2008 to 2010 available on Ravelry

Yarn: Elle Pure Gold in Ruby 

Hook Size: 5.5mm

I think Elle Gold is a fantastic yarn for those who enjoy hooking with high quality acrylics. Acrylic yarn however, are no longer suitable to the type of work I prefer to do. Back it is to Vinnis Nikkim 100% cotton (hand dyed)  for my latest baby blanket then!  

It is an absolute joy to have fun once again with the traditional granny square.  Yay, this is like getting into a classic car and taking it for a leisurely Sunday drive. I am not revealing yet whether this will have a romantic, traditional or contemporary feel, what do you think - am I testing new waters?

I was also the October Made it Challenge winner on the blog of the "super funny with a great sense of humour" Maryanne.  It is always a great feeling to be winning something, who doesn't like a reward!  I promised a prize from my hooks for one of the challenges on her blog, but you will need to watch her space to see what I made for the challenge. Please visit her blog and enter the November challenge.  Thank you Maryanne! 

Have a most enjoyable week!

xxxxx

Tutorial: Hiding Chain Stitches on Granny Squares between the rows

Hello, Hi, Hiya, Bonjour, Dumela, Asalaama Alaikum, Hej, Namaste and more! When I decided to forego my beloved pentagon and hexagon patterns in favour of hooking the "Little Karoo" throw in a basic square a month ago, I simply couldn't remember at what stitch to start and end a Granny Square. In hindsight I am glad since the majority of squares start and end each row in such a way that the chain stitches that form the first US dc are highly noticeable throughout the project.  Below are a few photos detailing the way I start my squares which also happen to hide the joins 100% - a pattern that emerged out of not knowing how others do it. Anyway, it might also be that this method is well known but I haven't surfed the tinternet yet to verify, so this is the Pigtails join for the time being. 

You will also notice that I do not put a chain stitch between my clusters in order to keep the squares tight and uniform.  I also only chain 2 instead of 3 stitches in order to create a US dc. I demonstrate by joining a new colour but the method remains the same irrespective of colour changes.

 In corner, ch 4. These will form one US dc and the 2 ch to create the corner.

Now create a cluster by hooking 3 dc. The corner will thus consist of 4 chains and the next set of clusters. 

Hook clusters all around.  I create my 4 corners by hooking ch 2 between clusters and not ch 3 as some do.

Once you have hooked a row around the square, simply hook another 2 US dc in the corner. You will cover the base of the first 4 chains you started with somewhat [it might feel wrong] which is exactly what you wanted. No-one will be able to detect where you started and ended your rows.

 Slip stitch into chain to close round - as seen above and below.

Now simply ch 4 again in order to start the next round. 

I hope my tutorial makes sense, I am not exactly the best tutorial writer where hooking is concerned. Have a great day - the sun is shining here and the weather is pleasant for a change. I am off for more tea-garden hooking and another fabulous Lemon Meringue South African style as seen below. Cheers!

Viva Africa! Vinnis Nikkim and the Little Karoo

The inspiring Vinni Nielsen, a Danish woman living in Cape Town, established a yarn company producing cotton and bamboo yarns to die for. According to the label hugging the 100% Cotton Yarn, the yarn is hand dyed by women from an economically depressed rural area of South Africa.  I picked out 10 colours without having the foggiest idea of what on earth I was going to hook with the yarn. I took one look at a few succulents in the area where we are currently vacationing and decided to hook a throw that reminds me of the Little Karoo.

The Little Karoo is a fertile valley in the Western Cape Region of South Africa, bounded on the North by the Swartberg and on the South by the Langeberg and Outeniqua Mountains. I love the character and the charm of this area and cannot wait to see the end result of the the project. I've hooked 20 granny squares thus far, each consisting of 3 rounds of one colour and another 5 rounds of a different colour. The squares measure 170mm x 170mm each. I have just picked up another 10 skeins of yarn and hope to show you some more pictures soon!

Tweens and Grannies

The Tween in the skirt I hooked a while ago as per her request - colour combinations for every granny chosen by her. You can see a photo of all the grannies - 32 in total - here

Lovely metal necklace from a Sri Lankan shop I bought her last year. You can find a similar one here

The Tween is growing up fast now. Last month I took her to select her first mascara and I insisted that it be something from the Estee Lauder counter. A women has to have her own car, her own bank-account [never shared], wear the best make-up possible and should never settle for anything less than French perfume ;-)

This weekend I took her shopping for a pair of wedges, I do suspect though that she will rock her skirt with either her converse or her brogues when hanging out. 

Lucky Tailors lined the skirt and created a waistband for a grand total of 3USD

I pay 1.40 USD per alteration on our clothing here. Penang society is interestingly a saving society opposed to a consumer society, people repair rather than replace, for every ATM, there are at least 2-3 deposit machines etc. It is refreshing after the insane amounts of money that was thrown around in the consumer society we lived in during our years spent in the Middle East.  

 

Hip to be Square - 3KCBWDAY5

3KCBWDAY5

Colour for Others, Mono for Me - 3KCBWDAY1 for Blogweek

We live in Penang, a Tropical Island located in South East Asia. The Tropics is not a colour shy environment and suits the topic "Colour Lovers" like a glove. I am participating in the wonderful Blogweek hosted by Eskimimi and will be posting something surrounding a specific topic daily over the next 7 days.  I hope you will enjoy this journey with me and welcome to my blog! I am looking forward to meeting a whole new group of bloggers, to be reading their entries and to be sharing their blogging, knitting and crocheting journeys. For me this week is all about the different perspectives as put forward by hookers and knitters from all over the world!

The colours I choose for numerous crochet projects are invariably influenced by my immediate surrounds, current colour trends, my own personal likes and dislikes, the personality and preferences of the person I am hooking for and lastly - but in my case most importantly - by the choice of colours actually available in Penang. If I was spoilt for yarn choice, I would also add texture into this mixed bag of influences. However, there is only one shop on the Island selling yarn; the shop furthermore stocks only one type of yarn namely a soft acrylic produced in Japan. In these parts of the world Amigurumi dominates the crochet scene and acrylics are most suitable to making these Japanese anthropomorphic creatures. 

We live in the middle of Malaysian tropical rainforest where the trees are dense and plants such as ferns, creepers, palm-like cycads and pitcher plants grow in abundance. Shafts of light penetrating the forest canopy create a spectacular stained glass effect on the wings of butterflies as they flit around. The jungle is full of surprises and I am always keen to explore an environment that rocks the plant kingdom. In tropical rainforests the atmosphere ranges from moody and quiet just before a rainstorm to noisy when birds squawk, trees rustle, insects crawl and monkeys babble in the aftermath of a downpour. It is warm and humid all year round with frequent downpours. Colours in tropical rainforests are not shy; it is vivid and vibrant, brilliant and flamboyant. 

Granny Square Handbag for The Tween

The colours I chose for this bag was influenced by Chinese Shophouse Exteriors and Interiors, tones of the Penang Ocean and current colourblocking trends in fashion and design

 

The vivid colours I hook various projects in, instantly connect the eye with the splendour of the tropical forest. Living and hooking in Penang is not a subdued affair but an uninhibited multi-sensory experience. The experience is also contradictory as my senses are always on high alert which leaves me feeling energized but at the same time the heat and humidity leaves me feeling slightly lethargic. The burst of colour under my fingers however always propels me to a level of pure joy. Then there are the smells too - odours of spice, fruit and fermentation, earth, organic matter and rain permeate the senses. I would love the opportunity to select yarns in colours reflecting these smells.

Selection of colours for a project is a multi-sensory experience; it is about embracing the richness of the social lives and worlds of both crochet artist and the person the item is crafted for. This is the reason why I am not taking to the trusty Internet, press the buttons and order numerous skeins of fabulous yarns. I cannot feel those yarns, I cannot see them, I cannot smell them, I cannot react to them, I cannot experience them. Mind you I won’t say “no” to being surprised with some lushness wrapped in a parcel to be collected from the post office of course :-) 

It is clear that I hook in Colour for Others, in Mono for Me. My wardrobe is all about texture and tones, greys and stones, silvers and charcoals as is reflected in the last picture of this posting. I rarely hook in these colours though as it simply requires a luxurious yarn, not the cheap acrylics available in Penang.

 The colours of the bag also reflects the personality of The Tween. She is right on trend with her acid clock necklace and owl jewelry 

My work tells stories, they are visual narratives.  The beads from which I made the handles of the bag was purchased at a market in the wonderful town HoiAn, Vietnam a few years ago. Great was my surprise when I stumbled upon the very same beads at a market in Bangkok last year. These destinations are significant to us since we straddled living in Penang and Hanoi, Vietnam for a year and then Bangkok, Thailand and Penang recently. We carry bits and pieces of all these places in our hearts and it is wonderful being able to reflect the experiences in something such as a handbag. I promptly bought a few bracelets from the stall owner in Bangkok who herself is a hooker!  This is her busy crocheting a beany:

Mono for Me

3KCBWDAY1

Hexagon & Granny's Soccer Ball Cushion and Handbag

The Tween's room is mostly a blank canvas of white which is spruced up with a few interesting objects among others "paintings" on raw wood that she purchases every alternate month or so from the quint Amelie Cafe in Armenian street, a favourite space of ours. Various bloggers have documented Amelie and to get an idea of this cafe where everything is recycled by the artist owners take a look here and here. 

As soon as I came across the beautiful African Flower pattern designed by two South Africans, I decided to give it a go and fell in love with the satisfaction of hooking these Grannies. The Tween and I selected the colours at random from our stash of yarn (yes, she is hooked on hooking too!) and it was great fun to see the flowers evolve. I hooked the borders of the hexagons in green and the pentagons in blue, a combination that popped all the colours beautifully and created harmony between other objects hooked in the same tropical colours. After 8 years of desert living in the Middle East we love the vibrancy that comes with living on a Tropical Island.

The "soccer ball" cushion is assembled with 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons and unfolded looks like this [you might also want to head over to Crochetbug for a tutorial on how to assemble the ball]: 

You might also want to head over to Imaging Maths to see it unfolded in a different way:

Or use this one:

The pattern for the beautiful Summer Garden Granny Squares can be found on the lovely Attic24 blog.  44 Squares were used to create the bag.

The pattern for the African Flower is illustrated and described step for step on the fabulous blog Heidibearscreative