Nesting: Part 1

Hey everyone!

Oh man I have been so bad at blogging and crocheting so far this year - my output is way down and my crojo has spent a lot of time AWOL. I've just been extra tired, what with growing a whole new human being! Kiah and I are having our first child, due in mid-May. So far pregnancy has not been enjoyable at all between the very hot summer, my chronic fatigue and all the usual "perfectly normal" things that go along with the whole process, so thank goodness there's only 9 weeks to go! We're not going to find out whether it's a boy or a girl until it arrives :) 

I have managed to make a few things though, and it's super exciting to be making baby things for me for once :P 

We have some big things coming along this year - continuing our work with Stylecraft and the Blogstars, a new collaboration with an Australian yarn retailer, and hopefully working with a mindfulness magazine called Breathe later in the year on another meditation CAL. Plus, there's a bunch of new designs at  various stages of production that I really should get moving on before all my time is devoted to a tiny screaming person! 

But, while that is all in progress, I thought I'd share with you the things that I've been working on over the last few months :) 

Neat Ripple Blanket

Pattern: Attic24 Neat Ripple

Yarn: Bella Baby Bambini Print, 50% Acrylic 50% Nylon

I started this blanket ages ago - the yarn is so soft and silky, and worked up so beautifully in Lucy's neat ripple pattern. When my crojo first disappeared in January it was really nice to pick up again and just do something relatively mindless and repetitive, and I'm so happy with how it came out!  

Rainbow Cloud Wrap

Pattern: Virus Blanket / Scallop Border for Virus Shawl

Yarn: Wolltraum My Melodyy 4ply in Mamma Mia (500g cake)

I made one of these for the Sydney Easter Show last year, and sold that one very soon after. I still had the other 500g cake which was wound with the colours in the opposite direction with dreams of making another one someday... Then, I was looking for a project I could take with me to sit in the extremely boring waiting room of the antenatal clinic, and picked up the second cake to give it a go! 

The pattern was so easy to remember after a few rounds, and it was a lovely project to just sit in front of the tv through this hot Sydney summer, no need to change colours or weave in ends... The texture is absolutely wonderful - warm but breathable - and I can't wait to wrap our baby in it! It's also machine washable (and goes in the dryer on low) so I don't have to be afraid to use it in case it gets dirty! 

For the edging, I found an edging pattern for the virus shawl and it was pretty easy to adapt to the square blanket. It finishes it off beautifully! 

Rainbow Happypotamus

Pattern: Happypotamus 

Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4ply in Rum Paradise 

I have been drooling over this yarn forever - such bright rainbow colours... But, I am not too excited about making more socks (knitting is just so slow!?) and as it's a wool/nylon blend, what else is it really good for? 

It's good for happypotami. The outcome is just so pretty, but the texture of the yarn is a bit scratchy from the wool so maybe this will be a toy for looking at on the shelf rather than playing with :P 

I only ended up cutting the yarn to start in a different place once, for the nose piece - otherwise every piece just continues on from the previous one, and it worked out really well!

I absolutely adore the colours! 

What's next? 

Anne and I are working on a project with the other Blogstars using Polly Plum's Stardust Melodies patterns and the new Bambino Yarn - but we'll tell you all about that next time! 

Hugs,
Michelle

Ta-dah! My First African Flower Kitty!

I absolutely love the African Flower animals, and expanding my repertoire - and this week I got to make my first African Flower Kitty!

There was no HeidiBears cat pattern available (sadly), but Jo's Crocheteria helped me out with Luna the African Flower Cat. 

My talented mother dyed this stunning purple yarn - it almost glows! I am happy with the way it came out, although there are always things to do better next time :P 

The pattern was quite challenging to decipher, especially without any photos of what the body looked like without the hind legs attached. So, if you want to make this kitty for yourself, here's a legless picture to help you out! 

I ended up having to talk through the instructions with my mum who is much more spatially talented than me, but we got there in the end!

I made a few little changes - I added a mini African Flower triangle nose, some whiskers (just black cotton knotted on each side of the nose) and did something different for the eyes. Rather than the closed eyelashes specified in the pattern, I used Repeat Crafter Me's Black Cat Hat eye pattern! I do like an awake kitty better than a sleeping one ;)

It's now off to its new home, and I already have another order lined up! The rest of this week is going to be sanding down the WIP list - and next weekend we are off to Yass for a baby shower. I'm so excited!!! 

To finish, this is the most common cat angle we get to see around our house... :P

Ta-dah! Plod the Triceratops!

Hi everyone!

I'm zipping through the new Heidi Bears patterns at the moment - managed to get Plod the Triceratops done over the weekend!

He is so small - he can comfortably stand on my hand. A friend on instagram dubbed him the Tricera-tot! I might need to go up a hook size for the next one, as clearly my tension is getting out of hand...


But look at that tail! So cute!! 

The only thing I would change is to make the face in the african flower pieces and the frill in the plain colour (instead of the other way around), and possibly make the horns a little wider at the base. 

But I still can't get enough of this little guy, he is just adorable :D Plod is visiting my parents in the country at the moment, both for the fresh air and his acupuncture treatment (also known as planning out a candy colour scheme for this design). 

IN OTHER NEWS...

Anne and I are working on a super secret project with a big yarn company at the moment - there will be a giveaway soon, so watch this space!! 

Finally Finished... Tuesday?

It's been a wet few days in Sydney! We are just never happy here - either it buckets down with rain and we complain about the wet, or it doesn't rain for days on end and we complain about everything being too dry :P

I know it's only Tuesday, but I have been trying to clear up my WIP (works in progress) pile and fiiiiiiinally have a stack of things to show off :)

My dragon is finished! Isn't he adorable??

Plus, I managed to finish my Stained Glass Afghan last night! I used JulieAnny's Stained Glass Afghan Square pattern for the pieces, joined them with double crochet in aqua (single crochet for any American readers), and then edged it with a dc row of aqua and then back-loop-only trebles in black, to make the aqua row stand out. I'm really happy with how it came out! Plus it is so thick and warm :) 

The sun came out for just a few minutes today, especially for me to take photos for you!

All my scarf orders are up to date (so if you want to order one, now is the time). I am also experimenting with more colour options, including this one called Jewel Mix:

Isn't it dramatic?

Bits and bobs

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry it's been so long between drinks - we had our holiday to Vanuatu where the internet access was very limited, and since our return I have been either too tired to do anything, or madly organising a dinner event for work. Phew! 

There is a post on its way about Captain Poprocks' adventures in Vanuatu, but I am still going through all the photos to make sure I put the best ones up here ;) He is still in hibernation anyway - possibly recovering from his kava experiences...

Here are a few projects I've had on the go for the last few weeks:

1. In Vanuatu, I decided I needed a macro-crochet project - something made on a hook bigger than 1.5mm! I fell in love with a stained glass afghan square pattern by JulieAnny (pattern can be found here), and it worked up so so nicely using some 8 ply variegated yarn left over from another afghan. So far I have done all of the "stained glass" pieces; now to just finish the colour frame and put them all together!

However, the finishing off has been put in the "to do" basket for now because...

2. I just could not resist the amazing HeidiBears' new DRAGON (!!) pattern! I wanted to do something a bit different with the colours, and was inspired by a CanToo star giraffe my mother is making. The pieces are exactly the same as the usual African Flower, but with the colours in a different sequence, so they make stars:

He's coming along pretty well - just needs his spines (which are almost all crocheted) and wings (which will take a bit longer). The dragon will be on sale with Wrapped with Love shortly, but he will be $100 rather than $60 as he has three times the pieces of the other animals, and has taken me a solid week so far! 

I'll probably get the spines on before Smaug goes into the "to do" basket as well, because...

3. I have absolutely fallen in love with Zooty Owl's Road Trip Scarf. I have seen so many beautiful pictures over the last few weeks! Isn't it just gorgeous!

When I got my Spotlight catalogue and found that the Moda Vera Fayette (a lovely variegated wool/acrylic blend) was half price, I knew it was meant to be. While it's possible I went slightly overboard on the purchasing, I got $160 worth of beautiful yarn and stuffing etc for $110, which is a pretty good deal! Here's my loot with my trusty rainbow bargello bag :) 

So, hopefully over the next few weeks I'll be able to get at least one of these projects finished :) I do also have some orders coming up for Wrapped with Love, but it isn't too busy at the moment if you want to get in early for Christmas/birthday orders for your little ones (or big ones!). 

On a final note, at the fancy work dinner on Thursday we had the most gorgeous table arrangements of Australian native flowers, and I got to bring one home. I am so lucky to have these beautiful flowers decorating my living room this weekend :)  

 

Coming soon - The Adventures of Captain Poprocks: Melanesian Magic!

Stegosaurus!

Just a quick post to show off my new Stegosaurus! It's a brand new pattern from the amazing Heidi Bears.

Isn't he adorable??

Also, at the crack of sparrow's on Friday morning we are off for our annual Melbourne Comedy Festival Escapade! I'm taking my little candy hippo with me, but he needs a name!!

What do you think his name is?

Candy Giraffe!

Hello! 

I have been so busy the last few weeks making African Flower pieces for the next batch of ordered animals :) 

I had an order for a "non-gendered, colourful" giraffe, and had to think of a way to make such a thing! I decided on using four main colours - pink, blue, yellow and green - and the dark and light version of each colour. How though to work out where to put what colour, and what pieces I needed to make? 

Fortunately, I had just finished a giraffe for another order, so I cut up some paper into little squares and coloured them in with each colour. Then, with some glee, I stuck pins in the pink giraffe!

I had to add a 5th colour - plain purple - to fill in some spots where I just couldn't avoid having two pieces of the same colour together.

Here is the work so far! I am totally loving the colour combination. What do you think I should call it? Suggestions so far are "Candy Mix" or "Sherbet Bomb" :)

I'll make sure to post a picture when he's finished!

UPDATED TO ADD:

Here's the finished Candyman :)

Randomising Colours

I often have trouble choosing colours for a crochet project. I don't trust myself much with "out there" colour combinations, and the safe stuff just gets oh so boring after a while.  Usually my clever, colour-talented sister helps me choose colours for my orders (if the client hasn't chosen the colours themselves) and they always, always come out beautifully! Even (and sometimes particularly) the ones that I think surely will not work well together...

I did a multicoloured Happypotamus for an order back in December, and tore my hair out trying to get the colour combinations adequately random.  I eventually got my brother to do it for me mathematically, which gave me an idea!

 

An order came in a few weeks ago for another multicoloured hippo, using the amazing Heidi Bears Happypotamus pattern (which I talked about in this post).  I needed to figure out how to randomise the colours in a way that 

(a) didn't end up with the same colours together by accident (which is of course how random happens sometimes!)
(b) didn't look too "planned"

I had a look around the internet and found some great sites with methods for randomising colour patterns for stripes and granny square afghans. Wonderful systems, but I was looking for something that didn't rely on my colour perception and expectations!

First was to choose the colours. I didn't want to use my whole supply, but I did want a good variety of colours.  As the Happypotamus has 44 pieces, I thought that 9 colours would end up with a relatively even distribution.  These are the 9 that I ended up choosing (with the grey to join the african flower pieces together):

I then completely ignored the colours and came up with a randomising system using numbers in Excel.  I wrote (or rather copied) out the list of pieces for the Happypotamus and then set up columns for Colour A and Colour B.  My aim was to end up with no two pieces the same. This I achieved by inserting 1-9 over and over again in the Colour A column, and then offsetting the numbers by 1 for each iteration of 1-9 in the Colour B column.  It came out something like this:

You'll notice that there are two hexagons the same - that was on purpose as I wanted the ears to be the same, as well as the two squares (not on that picture).  


I then did a find/replace and made myself a printed list of what pieces I needed to do, using the colours chosen above. I did end up manually changing one of the heptagons to make sure those two pieces were completely different. Excuse the coffee stains!

I'm sure there is a fancy Excel way to do this, but I am not very Excel-savvy, plus in doing it manually I was sure that each colour was used approximately the same amount of times and each piece was different. I think this method could be useful for other crocheters and knitters who are not confident with colours!

Overall I am thrilled with how the pieces came out.  This Happypotamus will definitely be one of a kind, and I can use the randomising spreadsheet to create a unique colour combination every time just by allocating each number to a different colour!

I'll make sure to post a photo here of the finished beast :)