Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 October 2017

Happy 4th Birthday, Crochet Between Worlds!

Hey everyone!

Happy birthday to us! Today is Crochet Between World's 4th Birthday, and we have come such a long way since our first introductory posts in October 2013. 



On the numbers, in the last 4 years we have achieved ...


271 Published Posts 
2505 Comments
2069 Facebook Likes
8752 Instagram Followers 
23 Free Patterns
7 Paid Patterns
7 Tutorials
3 Pattern Translations

... not too bad for two busy girls on opposite sides of the world! This year is also a bit special for us, as it is 15 years since we met for the first time!


Michelle & Anne in 2002
Anne & Michelle in 2017


There have also been some really exciting moments in the last year:


- We finally got to see each other again in February when Anne and Alex visited Australia! It was amazing to sit and crochet together, play with colour swatches and catch up on allll the talking that is hard to do over messenger, email or skype

- Being chosen to join the Stylecraft Blogstars team! This group of bloggers is so inspiring and we are still pinching ourselves a bit to be included!

- Selling 500 copies of one pattern, the Bargello Wave Baby Blanket! 


So, to thank you all for your support, comments, pattern purchases, projects, and general cheering, we have TWO gifts for you:

1. A SALE on all our paid patterns! Get 30% off to celebrate our 30 collective years of knowing each other on any pattern in our Ravelry Store with the code BIRTHDAY https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/michelle-westlunds-ravelry-store 



2. A GIVEAWAY! The Winner will receive a Cross your Heart Teddy in Stylecraft Batik plus another ball of Batik to make your own! These little dudes are totally adorable and huggable, and just beg to be carried around by little ones. 

You can enter in lots of different ways, so maximise your chances!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
The give-away and the pattern sale end on the 12 October 2017, 11:59pm German time. 
 

Friday, 9 October 2015

PATTERN: Tumbling Blocks Baby Afghan

What a great blog birthday week we have had so far!! 

The giveaway is still open for another 24 hours or so, so head over there to enter (don't forget, you can enter every day!) -  http://gvwy.io/tk8e0cz or http://crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/happy-2nd-birthday-crochet-between.html  

My special announcement for this week is my brand new pattern :D 


The Tumbling Blocks Baby Afghan is now available for purchase on Ravelry! It's an adaption of the well-known quilt pattern, Tumbling Blocks, but made with Diagonal Half Solid Granny Squares (only 4 ends per square!) and the Join-As-You-Go technique. So, no mountains of squares or diamonds to sew together at the end! This was definitely my favourite part.


The 3D effect comes from the colour placement. By putting the light shade of one colour on the left "face" of the block, and the dark shade on the right "face" of the block, it looks like the blocks (with white tops) are sitting on top of each other in a pyramid.  


For the next week, we have a special offer for blog readers - 
50% off with the code JAYGTUMBLE !!

You can also use this super fancy direct link: 


If the idea of a whole baby afghan is too much for you, it also makes a pretty excellent cushion cover :) Just do fewer squares to get the size that you want!

I have absolutely loved putting this pattern together, and I hope you enjoy making it. 

Thank you again for helping us celebrate our second blog birthday - and here's to many more years to come! 

Friday, 31 July 2015

Welcome back, Crojo!

Hello!

Eh, I am not good with blogging these days. Why? Eh, I forget. Oops. Shall try to be better!

Last week I thought I lost my Crojo. Gasp! I had several projects on my hook(s) but I couldn't get myself to actually work on them. A very weird feeling indeed.

Since this was obviously not normal, I decided that it must be because of the projects I was working on. The solution? Start another one of course!


So I spent some time looking for something to crochet and the Leaping Stripes Blanket from Moogly got me interested. And I even had just the right yarn for it! I bought this aran/bulky yarn about three years ago in Münster but never found the right project for it. Until last weekend! Hurray!

My brain wasn't working too well, so it took me some time to work out how to do it. Such a simple pattern and my brain... oh, well, I won't go into detail. Once I got the hang of it, it was incredible easy! I did start with a sc foundation chain instead of a normal chain though. Hurray for foundation chains - I wonder how I ever lived without them?!


***

Guess what! I finally, finally dared to open my Dawanda Shop! You can find it here!



:) Oh and I even sold two owls already! Hopefully I will sell the other ones too. I am incredibly delighted I finally found the courage to do so. After all I had the plan since 2012... 

Do you have wonderful things planned for the weekend? 

I am looking forward to some quiet time and probably some crochet in the sun.

Take care
Anne

Friday, 20 March 2015

NEWS: Blog upgrade! CAL Updates! A Question for You!

Hello everyone!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on Anne's story about Mr AlienBunny and Ms Long-Ear! I love all the photos, and I hope they get to live happily ever after!

If you can't wait for our twice-weekly blog posts, you can also find us on Facebook and Instagram where we post pretty often with WIP updates and pretty things that pass by during the day :)

NEW BLOG URL

You might have noticed that we have a brand new blog url!! Our new home is 



The old URL (crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com) still works of course, but we found that some people trying to find the blog, and us sometimes, forgot that although our blog name is Crochet Between Worlds, the old URL said Crochet Between TWO Worlds! Hopefully now it will be easier for people to find us :)

NEW PATTERN - COMING SOON

In other news, we have been doing some pattern designing and testing this week - what do you think? 



I made a little coin purse with this pattern, and Anne is working on a pattern for a flaming beanie! 

JULIE YEAGER'S MYSTERY CAL AFGHAN SQUARE

I've now finished my rainbow version of Julie Yeager's Mystery CAL Afghan Square! The full pattern is now available on Julie's website at http://julieyeagerdesigns.com/?p=277. This is the best kind of CAL for me - only a few rows a day, and one square at the finish line! Now I'm trying to decide what to do with it - do I make more squares but change the colour order? Expand it further to make a bigger square? Turn it into a cardigan back? Do you have any more ideas? 





SOPHIE'S UNIVERSE CAL UPDATE

Phew, we are now halfway through the Sophie's Universe CAL! There were so many single crochet stitches in this week's pattern - 520 alone in the last row! 

Michelle's:





Nicole's (she's up to Part 6, but catching up quick, especially since she only picked up a hook for the first time 2.5 months ago!):





and Kathryn's:







I love them all!

A QUESTION FOR YOU

Anne and I want to do a Christmas Market towards the end of the year - we've looked at real life markets around Sydney for when she comes to visit me in Australia, and also markets around her area, and such things are just going to be too difficult, being in two different countries.

BUT THEN

We thought maybe a Facebook Christmas Market including all our wonderful blog friends might be fun! It would probably be in late November to allow for postage times, and can include all sorts of arts and crafts that people can buy for decorations, Christmas presents or even just for themselves ;) 

Would you be interested in putting some of your items up for sale at the Crochet Between Worlds Christmas Market? If so, send us a message on our Facebook page at Crochet Between Worlds

We look forward to hearing from you!

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

2014 - A Blog Year in Review

Hello all!

I hope you celebrate a wonderful last day of 2014 whereever on this world you are! May 2015 be a wonderful year for you!

This post is a lil' round up of our blog year 2014! We love our blog and adore every of your comments! Looking forward to see where our blog journey will take us 2015 :)

 


See you 2015!

Friday, 26 December 2014

Peace and Harmony Award

Merry Christmas to you all! We hope you had and are still having wonderful days with lots of love from your family and friends. We most certainly are!

Some days ago, our little blog got awarded the Peace and Harmony Award. Wow! Michelle and I agreed that Christmas would be the best time to blog about this award. After all, Christmas should be a time of peace and joy! 

We got the award from Jodi from Lupey Loops (she talkes about the award here)  and we feel very humble to be in included in her list of blogs which foster peace and harmony. Had we been awarded first, Jodi would certainly have been in our list. Like Michelle and me, Jodi battles with chronic autoimmune illness. Her blog is a great resource for people with chronic illness and she has such a positive view on life which shows in and between the lines she writes. :)

The Harmony & Peace Award is an invention of Barbara Mattio (IdealisticRebel). The award aims to "celebrate all those who promote Harmony & Peace, and who add Love & Beauty to the world through their Blogs and through their lives.  Their Positivity makes the world a better place for all of us."


Jodi included a very kind description of our blog: "The story of friendship between Michelle and Anne who live on opposite sides of the globe (Australia & Germany). They describe their friendship here and invite their readers to become a part of their friendship circle as they blog about craft, cooking and good company. Anne and Michelle prove that living in different hemispheres is no barrier to cultivating friendships." Thanks Jodi!! :)

We decided to honor the award by telling you about our Christmases in Germany and Australia. That way we can show you that Christmas on different sides of the world can be very different and same in spirit at once!

Anne

Christmas is a very special time of the year for me. It's the meaning and the whole atmosphere which I hold very close to my heart and every year I can't wait for the first advent; that is, for the start of the christmas season. 

We always have a real Christmas tree. The one at my parents' house is always up to the roof of the room and I remember the Christmas mornings when I woke up and raced down to see the decorated tree (my parents put the decorations up at night). Nowadays, I celebrate Christmas Eve with my boyfriend at home in Dortmund. Our tree is not as big as my parent's tree but still not small (1,65 m this year). We decorate on Christmas Eve and the tree holds a lot of memories as we put up glass globes we brought home from places we visited all over the world. This year the tree included globes from London, Paris, Groningen, Vienna, Sydney, Vancouver and Stockholm!


Christmas Eve (the day Germans celebrate) we go to church. It wouldn't be Christmas without the song "Oh du Fröhliche"! Afterwards we take time to cook and enjoy a good glass of wine. This year we had duck. Yumm! Lucky me - the boyfriend cooked it. He is so much better at cooking than me!

At night, we always take a walk. I love this outside time! It is very quite and peaceful and the windows of the houses are alight. One can see the sparkling Christmas trees and happy faces. What a wonderful and special time!

On the first day of Christmas, we drive up to the boyfriend's family. On the second day of Christmas, we celebrate with my family. Four generations! And the boys are certainly in the lower number: 8 female and 4 male! There has been only girls on this side of the family for a couple of generations!

I love giving gifts! I am usually much more excited about giving gifts than reciving some (I still love them though!). This year, I made sure to include our neighbours. We live in a house with 10 families. The boyfriend and I made chocolate on a stick which can be put in hot chocolate. We made three different kinds: Dark Chocolate with Red Pepper, White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate with Vanilla. I hope the liked their gifts! There were also some picture books for the small kids (I couldn't resist!). :) A lot of my gifts were handmade this year. My work ladies got little glasses with Christmas Milk Rice for example and my Granny got the blanket I showed you some weeks ago. I love giving handmade gifts as I hope it shows my love! 

Michelle

Christmas in our house has changed a lot since I was little. Then, all our celebration was on Christmas Day, and we would race down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought us. We weren't allowed to open any presents until after church - lucky there was a 7:30am service! My parents put a lot of effort into making us believe in Santa: chewed carrots and grass in the water bucket we put out for the reindeer, and Santa always polished off the milk and cookies we left out for him! After church, we had a lovely breakfast and opened presents. The big celebration was for lunch, and we always ate very very well.

One thing that hasn't changed about Christmas is that we have our extended family parties beforehand - sometimes in November! This meant that we (and everyone else) didn't have to rush around on Christmas to see everyone. Now we visit Kiah's family a few days after Christmas for a delicious lunch :)

Since we had the house at Lake Macquarie, we have come up here for the two weeks including Christmas and New Years. We have also started celebrating on Christmas Eve with a big dinner with friends and our immediate family. 




Then on Christmas Day we go to church up here, and then usually everyone has a nap! For lunch we have slow roasted pork belly with apple jam and lots of vegies. In the afternoon everyone relaxes and maybe has more naps!


Our family doesn't get very excited about Christmas decorations. We have a plastic tree which lights up itself, and a few things hanging around the house that Mum has made. Maybe when we have little ones again we will get more into decorations :)


The Harmony & Peace Award Rules are:
  1. Give this award to seven bloggers who have added Harmony & Peace, Love & Beauty and Positivity to the world you live in.
  2. Let them know that you nominated them.
  3. Acknowledge the blogger from whom you received this award.
  4. Display your award on your blog, because  you have earned it!
  5. Continue to live in Harmony & Peace.
Phew, it is pretty hard to choose seven blogs only! I love reading every blog on my reading list because the tales from all over the world brighten my day and make me smile! So in our hearts all of them are nominated!

Anyway, here are our 7 nominees:

1. Funky Crochet: Ingrid is originally from Germany, used to live in the UK and now lives in Belgium. She is a great example how one can become part of a new world no matter where one originally comes from! She is a very kind lady and this year both Michelle and I received handmade Christmas cards from her! Thanks Ingrid for making our Christmas more colourful!

2. Mias Landliv: Mia blogs about her life in Norway and always includes wonderful and peaceful pictures. Whenever I read her blog, I feel at peace. It is as if her photos carry one to a different world!

3. Wool and Cats: Géraldine makes the world a better place though her amazing pictures. Every Friday she posts a weekend still and the pic is always amazing and full of harmony. She reminds one how important it is to notice the small things in life and the beauty of nature.  

4. The Little Bee: Alia's page isn't exactly a blog but she collects wonderful things on Instagram. Her Sunday Shawl is a wonderful example how a crochet pattern can bring together people from all different kind of cultures and countries. People from all over the world have crocheted the shawl and each one is loved. Crochet is such a wonderful and harmonious way to bring people together!

5. Vacuuming on Holidays: Bernie's blog is very new but holds a wonderful idea. Bernie says about herself that she is on her way to happiness and she documents her way on the blog. Each week she blogs about the things which made her smile. What a great idea! It is so important for all of us that peace and harmony can be all around is and a smile is the best way to show it! Smiling makes the world a better place (which is why I try to make sure to smile at as many people as possible!).

6. Woollybluebells: Helen is a wanderer between worlds like us. She blogs about special things from the UK and Germany - cultures she holds very dear in her heart. In German there is a word for her: Weltbürger. This means "world citizen". If there were more Weltbürger on the world, that is people who don't care about borders and enjoy different cultures instead, the world would be a way more peaceful place! Thanks Helen for being a Weltbürger!

7. Jet Georgette: Our lovely friend Alex from Perth blogs about clothes, fashion and style. The tagline for her blog is "self-esteem isn't a size tag", which pretty much sums up her philosophy! I love reading through her blog to get ideas for fashion and style for those of us who aren't a perfect size 8 :) What a great message to the world! We should all learn to be so accepting and at peace with our own bodies. 


Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Liebster Blog Award

Hello!

First of all: Welcome to our new followers! Good to see you here!

This week something really exciting happened.

1. What is the name of your blog? And what does the name mean?

Crochet Between Worlds - crochetbetweenworlds.blogspot.com.au

This blog is shared by us, that is Michelle and Anne. The name is meant to reflect this and also the fact that we are connected through crochet even though we live on different continents.


2. How much time per week do you spend on your blog?

Michelle - about 4 hours all up, depending on what kind of post I'm doing. If it's a pattern with lots of photos, it takes longer!

Anne - About 4-5 hours too. As Michelle said: It really depends on the kind of post. I like to take my time with the pictures and edit them (most of the time) before I put them on the blog. That is fun but it also takes quite some time. Plus it takes more time if I do layout changes and such.

3. What is your favourite colour?

Michelle - If it's not related to crochet, I love teal and indigo. For crochet, I adore rainbows and variegated yarns - hard to pick just one favourite colour!


Anne - Red. Navy Blue is a close second though. If you ask for yarn colours though: Pomegranate  from Stylecraft Special DK. I could spent hours drooling over this colour.
 
4. What is your favourite craft activity?

Michelle - I think crochet is my favourite, but I also love doing cross-stitch and patchwork.
Anne - Without any doubt: Crochet! I like to work with paper too though (be prepared to see some of my current paper projects on the blog soonish!)

5. How many blogs do you follow?

Michelle - I'm not sure! There are about 20 that I read semi-regularly, but I am terrible at keeping up :P


Anne - Uh, good question? I follow between 40 and 50 regularly and quite a few more semi-regularly. Woah. That is quite a huge number. I didn't realize it were thhhatt many. Still, every single one is worth the reading time!

6. Have you a creative soul?

Michelle - Until recently I would have said no, but I think I do! I love to make things that are useful, practical, and above all, actually used!


Anne - I mused about that topic a couple of weeks ago in this post. I do indeed consider myself a creative being but it took some time to realize that.

7. Do you have a specific material that you like to work with?

Michelle - I usually stick to acrylic yarns as I get terribly itchy when working with pure wool. For my animals, I particularly like an acrylic/nylon blend (lovely and smooth), but for scarves and slippers, 100% acrylic or 50/50 wool acrylic blend is my favourite :)


Anne - I adore Merino Blend yarns. Like Cotton Merino or Acrylic/Merino. I really like the feel of Merino yarn (and also the sound of the word... I am such a word-lady).

8. Yarn and you ....

Michelle - It's accumulating at an alarming rate, along with my dream project list. I'm going to have to live a very long time!
Anne - ... are in love! Other women buy shoes, I buy yarn!

9. At what age did you learn to crochet or knit?

Michelle - I learned to crochet at 4 or 5 years old, and had to learn to knit for school when I was 8. However, I never really enjoyed knitting - it took too long to get anything done and crochet is much faster.
Anne - I learned to crochet in primary school, so I must have been around 7-8 years old. I only got back into it when I was 23. As for knitting, I was taught when I was 24 but never really got into it.

10. Who taught you?

Michelle - my Nan taught me how to do most crafts - she was a dressmaker and always had a houseful of projects and fabric and yarn and ideas!


Anne - my mum. Apparently she was really into crochet when she was a teenager. She doesn't crochet anymore though (which is sad)

11. What are your future projects?

Michelle - In the short term, I have a whole zoo-ful of animals to finish for Christmas. After that, I am hoping to have time to build up some stock for my market stall next June! 


Anne - Well, I need to finish  a whole basket of crochet fruit and veggies til christmas. Plus there is a beanie on my hook. I would also like to make some christmas decorations. Oh and I need more time... My head is full of ideas and I could easily crochet every day for about two years and wouldn't be finished. 

Now, on with the nominations!

Lucie from Vivre au Crochet
 Alison from Farmhouse Traditions
Angela from Get Knotted
Andrea from Kokopelli Design
Helen from Woollybluebells
Ingrid from FunkyCrochet
Jodi from Lupey Loops
Darrah from Button Buffalo


And we would love to have the following questions answered...

1. What is the name of your blog? And what does the name mean?
2. How many blogs do you follow?
3. Do you have a creative soul? 
4. At what age did you learn to crochet or knit?
5. What are your future projects?
6. Why do you blog?
7. What will your Christmas look like this year?
8. What are your plans for 2015?
9. If you could travel anywhere, which 3 places would you visit and why? 
10.What made you smile today?
11. What do you do on a rainy Sunday?

Looking forward to read your answers!
Take care! 

P.S. Pictures were taken at the Zeche Zollern (Old Coal Mining Plant)