Ta-Dah! Carousel CAL!

Ta-dah! Our Carousels come to an end! 

You can download the final Part Six of the Carousel Crochet-Along, designed by Sue Pinner and hosted by Stylecraft Yarns from the Stylecraft website NOW, in English (US and UK), German and Dutch.

Only one tip this week - you'll need about 40g/110m of yarn for the last row, so consider starting a new ball if you have less than that available in the ball you've already started. Enjoy finishing your masterpieces! 

I took lots of photos of my Batik DK and Special DK Carousels - I am so happy with the end product!

  

  

For the Special DK Carousel, I finished with a round of crab stitch (or reverse sc) instead of the edging pattern. 

And then I had some fun with my HeidiBears animals - it's Circus Time!

Thank you all so much for coming with us on this journey :) We hope we've helped smooth the way on your Carousel, and you enjoyed it as much as we did! 

Announcement and Giveaway: Carousel CAL!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER, CLARE BRADSHAW

And thanks to everyone for entering!! 

Hi everyone! 

You've probably already seen the news on Facebook but... 

We are so excited to be working with Stylecraft again on the new CAL designed by Sue Pinner, the Carousel CAL!!!!! 

Anne will be doing the German translation, and Michelle will be checking and testing the US translation. The CAL will start on 13 September 2016. It has been designed in both Special DK and Stylecraft's new yarn range, Batik. 

We will also be posting our tips and tricks for each part of the pattern, so check back here if you are stuck or need help. 

To thank us for helping them out with the CAL, Stylecraft are offering a Special DK kit as a giveaway to our readers! The kit contains the following yarns:

 

Entries will close at 11:59pm on Tuesday, 16 August 2016 (European Summer Time). The winner will be drawn by Rafflecopter, and we will announce the winner here as well as contacting them directly!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Captain Poprocks goes to Canberra!

It's been quite a while since Captain Poprocks has been on an adventure! 

We were so lucky to have a wonderful family from Switzerland come to visit us in Sydney over the last two weeks. Our new Norwegian exchange student also arrived, and so it was a great opportunity for a road trip - to Australia's national capital, Canberra! 

If you follow us on Instagram, you might have already seen a few of these photos already! 

My mum had the great idea of hiring a 12 seater bus so we didn't have to worry about keeping two cars together. It also meant the 8 of us had plenty of space, with our luggage and the wheelchair as well :) 

I always forget that we are just not set up for winter here in Australia. We paused briefly at a rest area on the way down the Hume Highway, and the Captain was very relieved that he had remembered to pack his Drops Cotton Merino poncho. 

We stopped in Goulburn for a delicious bakery lunch, and visited the Big Merino on the way out of town! Goulburn was Australia's first inland town and became very rich off the farming of Australian merino wool. 

On our way into Canberra we went up to the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. It was bloody freezing! But, a great view over the city and a good introduction to the capital.

Thursday's first stop was the National Capital Exhibition. This is a small museum, just one room, about the history and founding of the city of Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory.

As well as the interactive exhibits, there were also busts of the two designers of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Lucy Mahony. The Captain, being a hopeless selfie-taker, had to get some photos with these two great architects.

Next was Australian Parliament House. Fortunately the politicians were all away on their winter holidays, so it was nice and quiet, and Kiah didn't have to throw any tomatoes. 

The Tapestry in the Great Hall amazes me every time I see it - it looks like a painting! There is such incredible skill in the fibre arts on display.

The Captain had some fun in the House of Representatives Chamber imagining he was in the visitor's gallery during a boisterous Question Time.

Boy did Canberra put on some great weather for us! Despite the chill, the skies were that incredible Australian blue. The sun's meagre warmth was much appreciated when we went up to the roof of the parliament to look at the view and spot the landmarks and features we learned about at the National Capital Exhibition.

One place was definitely on my list to visit - the cafe at the National Museum of Australia. Such good food, and very reasonable prices! The Captain made a pig of himself as usual.

I was flagging a bit at this point, so Mum and I sent our visitors, Kiah and the Captain off into the museum and we had a peaceful cup of tea in the cafe. When Kiah came back with the Captain after a bit, he made some new friends and I got to give out some business cares. He certainly is a great conversation starter despite being quite... well seasoned (dirty) by now.

Kiah found these terrifying looking sheep shears - apparently Captain Poprocks thought he'd be quite good at that job, if only we could get some shears in his size! Personally, I don't think he has the back strength to manage. Do lambs get shorn as well?

After a busy day, we had a relaxing burger dinner at the Canberra Centre with some of our local friends - it's always nice to catch up with people as well as tourist around :) 

Friday started early: at Questacon! The boys' eyes lit up at the idea of exploring this amazing, hands on science and technology centre. Plus, one of our friends (Victor) works there, and came in on his day off to show us around and introduce us to one of the more interesting residents - an Australian green leaf insect! It looked just exactly like a bunch of leaves... 

We also met another resident of the Spiders exhibition...

And the Captain had his photo taken with one of the Excited Particles who put on a great show about collisions! 

Friday afternoon we had a rest and shopping break, before heading out to Yass in the evening to have dinner with our wonderful friends Samantha and Andrew. After a great Aussie BBQ (the first one for our Swiss visitors, despite having been in the country for 3 weeks!), we played a hilarious game called Camel Cup. If you've never heard of the game, I can thoroughly recommend it - lots of fun!

After packing up on a grey and dismal Saturday morning, we stopped in at the Australian War Memorial. There were some new memorials since we visited last, for Australian soldiers who have served and are serving in Afghanistan.

There is a beautifully made statue of Simpson and his donkey (read more about his story here) in the sculpture garden leading up to the entrance of the memorial, and it was covered in red poppies. The 100th anniversary remembrances of the First World War are going on at the moment.

There were even more poppies wedged into the memorial plaques inside the building, which list all the Australian soldiers lost in wars. It is always a very sobering feeling, seeing so many names out of such a small country. 

If you've been to Canberra, you'll know that the city is designed around a triangle. There is a direct line of sight from Parliament to the War Memorial, so that politicians always remember the cost of entering into wars in the future. 

After a long drive, we finally arrived back home. It was a very interesting and informative trip (although, more places could have had information in German available!), and we were blessed with stunning clear weather! 

I wonder where the Captain will travel to next?

Frida's Flowers CAL - Block 7 - Frida's Bouquet

The Seventh Instalment of the Frida's Flowers Blanket Crochet-Along, designed by Jane Crowfoot and hosted by Stylecraft Yarns has just been posted, and is available to download NOW from the Stylecraft website, in English (US and UK), German and Dutch.

The Ravelry pattern page can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fridas-flowers-blanket 

We are working the CAL along with you all (in the Classique Cotton, provided by the wonderful Stylecraft team), and will post our tips and tricks for each part at the same time as the pattern is published over at the Stylecraft website. If you have any questions or need help, there are Facebook groups (English: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1555519964767343/ , German: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1039765272753087/ and Dutch:https://www.facebook.com/groups/145851979128898/ ),
and you are always welcome to leave a comment here or ask us on Facebook. 

As you know, Anne is doing the German translations for the CAL, so ask away in German too!

So, Block 7 - Frida's Bouquet:

Front

Back

You'll need to make 5 hexagons.

Yarn usage:
22g Sunflower (41m)
7g Plum (13m)
11g Poppy (20m)
9g Shrimp (17m)
14g Teal (26m)
22g Leaf (41m)
29g Ivory (53m)
40g Black (74m)
2g Greek Blue (4m)

Remember: We are using the Classique Cotton, so use the meterage above if you are making Frida in another DK yarn.

Here's a little spreadsheet tool that Michelle is using to track yarn usage - just enter your start and finish weights for your yarns, and then the weight and meterage used will be automatically calculated! 



A little note on yarn usage - for the border, you will need almost a full ball of Black, half a ball of Poppy and half a ball of Shrimp. If you haven't joined your hexagons yet, keep in mind that you can use other colours to join and create a gorgeous design on the back of your Frida as well! 

Our Top Tips for the Frida's Bouquet block:

1. In Row 5, when you need to work 1sc, 5ch, 1sc into the turning chain at the tip of the leaf, just work into the front loop! It's much easier, and looks the same in the end.

2. In Row 6, the central sc of the 3sc group that you need to work into is the one between the leaves.

3. Bullion stitches again! I wrapped the yarn around my hook 4 times instead of 5 for these smaller bullions that are closer together. 

See last week's photo tutorial if you need a bit of help with these stitches! 

http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com/2016/06/fridas-flowers-cal-block-6-ring-of-roses.html

You should be able to hide the ends fairly neatly underneath Row 1 :)  

For our tips from previous weeks, visit:

Block 1: http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/fridas-flowers-cal-block-1-white-cosmos.html

Block 2: http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/fridas-flowers-cal-block-2-dahlia-bud.html

Block 3: http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/fridas-flowers-cal-block-3-bird-of.html

Block 4: http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com/2016/05/fridas-flowers-cal-block-4-rosa.html

Block 5: http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/fridas-flowers-cal-block-5-heart-rose.html 

Block 6: http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com/2016/06/fridas-flowers-cal-block-6-ring-of-roses.html

We're nearly there! Next time we will be finishing any joining not done yet (I left mine until the very end), and then the gorgeously simple border.  

Happy hooking! Don't hesitate to comment, visit a Facebook group or ask Anne or Michelle on Facebook if you need any help :D

Frida's Flowers CAL - Block 2 - Dahlia Bud

The Second Instalment of the Frida's Flowers Blanket Crochet-Along, designed by Jane Crowfoot and hosted by Stylecraft Yarns has just been posted, and is available to download NOW from the Stylecraft website, in English (US and UK), German and Dutch.

If you haven't set up a Ravelry project yet, the pattern page can be found here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fridas-flowers-blanket
I'll be working the CAL along with you all (in the Classique Cotton, provided by the wonderful Stylecraft team), and I'll post my tips and tricks for each part at the same time as the pattern is published over at the Stylecraft website. If you have any questions or need help, there are Facebook groups (English: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1555519964767343/ , German: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1039765272753087/ and Dutch: https://www.facebook.com/groups/145851979128898/ ),

and you are always welcome to leave a comment here or ask us on Facebook. As you know, Anne is doing the German translations for the CAL, so ask away in German too!

So, Block 2 - the Dahlia Bud.

You'll need to make 4 hexagons and 4 half hexagons, the same as Part 1 :)

Yarn usage:
129g Nocturne (238m)
4g Sunflower (8m)
14g Ivory (26m)

Remember: I'm using the Classique Cotton, so use the meterage above if you are making Frida in another DK yarn.

Here's a little spreadsheet tool that I am using to track yarn usage - just enter your start and finish weights for your yarns, and then the weight and meterage used will be automatically calculated! 

My top tips for the Dahlia Bud block:

1. When joining Round 1 (Ivory), slip stitch to the first dc, which is now hiding around the back in the middle of the popcorn.

2. Do all your Dahlia flowers at the same time, and then weave in ends before continuing!

Once I filled in behind the flower, it got much harder to manoeuvre around and get the ends securely stitched in.

3. Use the stacked standing dc instead of ch3 to start a round - this will give you neater edges, more even stitches, and the stacked dc is much easier to work into on the next round!

Stacked Standing Double Crochet - sc into target stitch. Insert hook under two leftmost strands of sc, yarn over hook to do a second sc.

NB: When you do a stacked standing dc instead of 3 ch, you can make a "true" dc2tog to start a row - just work the second dc of dc2tog after you've pulled through the loop to do the second sc (i.e. stop after picture 3 above), and then pull through all three loops to finish!

4. When the pattern asks you to start with 2ch pretending to be an hdc, do the 2ch THEN the correct number of stitches. If you have to join into that stitch when you come back around, skip the 2ch and join direct to the first hdc, and don't work into the 2ch if you're going back and forth.

I find real hdcs much nicer to work into and the extra few chain is barely noticeable.

5. On the last round, the 3sc goes into the third hdc of previous round - the top of the stitch sits to the right of the post for hdc.
I had a little argument with the pattern, because it seemed to be asking me to do the 3sc into the second hdc of the previous round, which looked wonky. Make sure your 3sc group goes into the third hdc, and you have 17 single sc on each side, and all will be hunky dory.

I hope you are having a fantastic time with this gorgeous CAL, and don't hesitate to comment, visit a Facebook group or ask us on Facebook if you need any help :D