A profound sense of loss

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Mielie!

Goeiemore, Good morning, Bonjour, Assalamu Alaikum, Hej, Hei, Dumela, Selamat Pagi, Namaste! 

The Afrikaans word for mealie/corn/maize is mielie. "Mielie" is the brainchild of Adri Schutz who established the design project in 2002 and involve underprivileged township women to create the designs. Mielie handbags are made employing the time consuming but sturdy hooked rug technique using cotton off cut strips, a by product from local cotton mills. These strips are woven in such a way that the surface looks like a "mielie"!

My latest bag - a Mielie bag designed by:

                                                                                         Photo courtesy of Mielie.com

You definitely want to browse the web for "Mielie Crochet" to take a look at the other handcrafted items the women produce too.  The Mielie website itself is not mobile or tablet friendly, but fire up your laptop if you want to read more about the Mielie Family and confirm whether the products are available from stockists in your country. 

Drooling over my bag, I immediately decided to hook a scarf to go with my bag during the winter months! 

I created my own mealie like edging by once again using the fabulous Bobble Border by Dover and Madden. Thank you again Vicki!

Don't you just love my bag and scarf?  I used various Vinnis Nikkim scraps for the circles and Vinnis Bambi (150 gr in colourway Cloud) to square the circles.  The pattern is by Little Woollie and one that I used for a scarf before. I used a hook size 4 although Bambi is better suited to at least a 5mm hook.  Have a nice week, I am busy hooking a few ornaments for the Baobab Christmas Tree. The cat can also not leave the tree alone and steals an ornament whenever I am not looking at him!

A busy week!

Hello!  I recently found two treasures on Pinterest, the first one was the Elize Shawl made by Liz from Crochet in Colour and the second was a drawing of a scarf by Sukha Amsterdam. I am a member of a Dutch Crochet Group on Facebook and always enjoy the shawls (omslagdoeke) hooked by the Dutch. Since we love travelling and seeing the world, I decided to hook my own shawl to take along on trips, inspired by the pictures I found on Pinterest!  The original design is by Evan Plevinski and can be find on Ravelry.

Elize Shawl hooked over three days in hand dyed, 100% cotton.  I used another day to block the scarf and take my hat off for Liz who said that she hooked her shawl in one day! 

 The Teen meanwhile got hold of her hook and covered a garish neon bangle in linen stitch, one of her favourite stitches to work with. She favours single crochet stitches (I do too, it is just a tad time consuming).

 

Last weekend I asked the husband to pick up a Christmas Tree for us, he came home with a baobab made out of wire by a group of Zimbabwean dudes who set up "shop" on a nearby street corner! We promptly decided to decorate the tree in a fusion of Scandinavian and African designs in black and white and I immediately stocked up on spray paint, polystyrene balls, paper, felt, sequins and more and hope to show you a version of the decorated tree soon. Interesting trees made out of wire, wood and other materials have been quite the rage in South Africa for close to 2 decades now.  It is fun given that this is the Southern Hemisphere and winter does not factor into our Festive Season! 

Lastly, our Tuna cat belonging to the Dude Tween went into labour when I was out shopping and safely delivered no less than 7!!!! kittens with the help and encouragement of the Teen and Tween. I am hoping that our Main Coon is daddy of at least the black ones, but of course the ginger ones belong to Garfield who lives across the road from us. This is the litter, no more than 48 hours old!

 Enjoy your week!

Oh yes, and before I forget, I informed New Stitch a Day of the Acrobatic Stitch dilemma as per previous posting and they immediately rectified the mistake. Thank you for excellent customer service!

 xxxxx

My crochet bag frustrations

Hello! Last week I found these gorgeous bags on Pinterest and immediately decided to hook my own bag consisting of a crochet outer, linen inner and leather straps. Don't you just love these bags?!

Cotton/Canvas/Leather Bag

Cotton Crochet Shopping Bag

Hand Crochet Linen Bag

On searching the internet for inspiration, Google led me to the most beautiful filet crochet design. In short: I made a complete mess of the design and decided to leave it for another day, another yarn.  That day will come soon though, I love this pattern!

I then hooked up three samples of the pretty Juliet Motif by Amanda Perkins but quickly realised when I joined the motifs that her designs are most suited to soft, drapey natural yarn.  A single motif in the raw cotton looks very pretty; when joined the lovely snowflake-like corners simply disappear and the effect of the motif is lost. Another idea  c a n n e d ! !  

Searching yet again, I came across the Acrobatic Stitch published by New Stitch a Day. Hmmm apart from the fact that it hooks up a crescent moon pattern in stead of the expected square, please note that the video tutorial does not correspond with the written instructions. These are two different patterns and it was the video tutorial that resulted in the crescent moon. Aaaaaaaargh!

H e l l   N o ! ! !   All I wanted to do was to settle on the couch and enjoy a bit of rhythmic hooky time, but I found myself trawling the Net once again.  I finally found THE pattern. You will find 10 photos on this link, I used the pattern as per photo nr. 4, the sample was hooked in what appears to be green paper.

The Bag!

I now need to buy linen and leather before I can assemble the bag. I cannot wait!  The piece of crochet for the bag measures 100 cm x 45 cm before folded in half.  It is a great size and since I love wearing clothes in the below styles and colours, I think my bag will look quite stylish, what do you think?

Cheers!

cxxxxx

Checkerboard Baby Blanket

Checkerboard Baby Blanket

Hook Size: 4mm

Yarn: Vinnis Nikkim 100% cotton, hand dyed

Colours: Pacific blue to join and edge the blanket, Midnight and Natural with small squares in a variety of scraps

Hello!  Two days after I started this baby blanket last week, Jenn from Color 'n Cream blogged about the final version of her Pastel Color  Bomb Blanket and once again I realised that the granny square is simply one of the most beautiful and versatile of designs.  I love Jenn's version, oh my goodness the colours are scrumptious and her edge is to die for! I also discovered the blogs Dada's Place, Small City Gallery (galeryjka za miastem) and Yarning if you would like to explore more amazing work.

Here at the Pigtails Palace The Cat helped as much as he could to finish the throw . . .

 

. . . and together we decided to edge the blanket in a design by Lucy from Attic24

The Cat then said that the Teen should cover her moods in a collection of our throws (I think he is just jealous as she is a delight and he keeps on occupying her couch):

Little Karoo Throw blogged here

Babette Style throw blogged here

Raw Rustic Throw blogged here

Bollywood Throw blogged here

Checkerboard Baby Blanket

Until next time, cheers!

xxxxxx