New Project: Colour Planning Made Easy!

Hi everyone! 

The busy time is starting to finally tail off around here - I ended up leaving the Law Society job because it was too much for the fatigue monster to manage, then got a sizeable crochet order finished, and now the Carousel CAL has settled into a nice sedate rhythm (can't wait until we get to play with pentagons next week!). 

So, I've had a bit of a chance to pull out some long-considered ideas about how to make things easier for myself to plan out colours for crochet project. 

How many of us have done this before to work out a rainbow, or grades of colour for a project?

It's messy, takes up a lot of space, and gets yarn ends all tangled up (or at least it does for me). I've seen Lucy's gorgeous peg system, and a few other similar ideas (yarn wrapped on embroidery thread cards, paddlepop sticks, etc etc) but I don't think those would suit me. I need really secure, solid colour samples, that pack up really small and light, and to avoid using my terrible handwriting on anything! 

I do have the Stylecraft Special DK shade card (now somewhat out of date)...

...but it's not great for seeing how different colours look together. 

The solution? Two inch, two-row solid granny squares in each colour, with the colour name and number stapled on the back! I started with the new Stylecraft Batik range to see if it would work (only 16 colours at the moment).

Ta-dah! The staples are really secure, but barely show on the front of the square. I made a little chain string for them out of scrap yarn and a button, and now they are hanging on one of my drawer handles, ready to pick colours! 

Next stop: the Special DK, which currently has 74 colours (gulp).

In anticipation of getting around to doing this, I've been making a solid granny square out of each colour as I pick them up to work something. There's... 30 so far. A long way to go, but once it's done it should be far far easier to choose colours for a project! My husband is tracking down a large hinged plastic or metal ring that I can string the squares onto, so it's easier to just open the ring at the colour you want rather than having to pull them all off. 

EDIT: Giant Hinged Rings are called Jailer's Keyrings! Thanks craftymummy! 

Now, I am spoiled by mostly working in my fave Stylecraft yarns, but if you have a range of brands in your stash, you could mix up all the colours of the same weight (just add the brand and "model" to the paper tag) and put them all on one ring! 

Do you have a colour sample collection like this? Would it be useful to your project planning? 

Ta-Dah! The Lily Pond!

Hello everyone!

Last week just got completely away from me - between Kiah's birthday, multiple movie outings, the fatigue (justifiably) getting cranky with all the fun things I was doing, going to the lake for the weekend AND still arguing with PayPal and Ravelry about our new patterns... I didn't blog!

But I did get my Lily Pond Afghan all finished, washed, and blocked, so I do have something to share with you today :D 

The Lily Pond, designed by Jane Crowfoot, was a Crochet-A-Long held in conjunction with Stylecraft Yarns. The event doesn't officially finish until next week, but I have been helping Stylecraft with a few secret projects, and had access to the final few patterns through that. 

Jane Crowfoot is a super famous crochet designer, and I love Stylecraft Special DK, so what could possibly go wrong!? It turns out, quite a lot - the Facebook group/s had a rocky start, the patterns were sometimes very hard to decipher, information was missing, and the translation between UK and US terms didn't go very well. I did not get the same great joy of working through this CAL as I did with Sophie's Universe, but that is a very very high bar! 

I didn't choose to go with the recommended yarn colours - it was a bit dark and dreary for me, especially the blues and greens. For a full list of the yarns I used, see my Ravelry Project page :) 

After all the dramas, I do actually love the outcome! The blocking was lots of fun - we ended up using about 300 pins to get all the flower petals to sit nicely!! I am so lucky to have a husband who supports my crazy crafty endeavours, although I think he was starting to doubt this after his third trip down to the junk shop to buy more pins... 

This afternoon, Kiah, Lily and I took a relaxing stroll around Anderson Park (the other side of the bay at Meadowbank from our apartment), taking photos of Lily with the river, the lovely sandstone and quite a lot of enthusiastic clover.

The colours and pattern almost danced in the dappled sunlight - it really does look like a real lily pond! 

Then, just as we were getting in the car to leave, Kiah said "Look! Under that tree with the undergrowth looks almost like a pond! One last photo?" 

One last photo :) 

Ta-dah! Sophie's Universe!

It's been nearly 18 weeks now since I started on the Sophie's Universe CAL, and I cannot believe how much I've learned in that time. Sophie has made me a much better and more confident crocheter - what a girl! 

Before we get to the photos, a HUGE thank you to the incredible Dedri Uys from www.lookatwhatimade.net, the designer of this stunning project. 

Now, isn't she beautiful? 

Ta-dah! Overlay Crochet Mandala No.1!

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a good week :) 

Anne and I have not had such a good week - we have both been hit really hard by the fatigue monster. Stupid monster. When Anne comes to visit me in December we are going to crochet ourselves a Fatigue Monster so we can stick pins in it and hit it with a hammer!!! 

To cheer ourselves up we are having a little giveaway on Instagram, to celebrate reaching 500 followers! If you are on Instagram and haven't found us yet, we are @crochetbetweenworlds :) Go find us and enter the giveaway!! 

You might remember that last week, on a rainy and cold day here in Sydney, I posted about my crochet wishlist. This week I really needed some bright colour and quick satisfaction, so I decided to have a go at CAROcreated's Crochet Overlay Mandala No.1. Here are lots of photos of it, because I love it so much :D

Even the back is pretty!

Have you made mandalas before? 

What are your favourite mandala patterns? 

PATTERN: Zig Zag Tote Bag

Thanks everybody! The Crochet Between Worlds Instagram account has reached 400 followers! 

As a special thank you to all our readers, followers and likers, we have a special offer for you on Michelle's brand new pattern - the Zig Zag Tote Bag!

Head over to the pattern page on Ravelry, hit "Buy it Now" and enter the coupon code for a 50% discount:

CBW400

We'd love it if you could give the pattern a bit of love by adding it to your favourites (it's easiest to do this before you buy it!). 

Thank you all so much again, here's to many more posts, patterns, ideas, designs and friends!  

Granny Star Blanket - Love it!

Hello you all!

Thanks for all your lovely comments on our last blog posts! It's always a joy to read them!

I am starting to feel better but the exhausting of the cold is still there. But I finally have the feeling I am getting my life back on track. Phew. About time as we are already in the middle of February!

I also got my cro-jo back. In January I mostly worked on the blue ripple blanket and I really missed the colours. After I finished the poncho last week, I longed for more granny stitch magic and for colours... As I have several pregnant friends, I decided to make a baby blanket.

The pattern is the Granny Star Blanket from Lulu Loves Crochet. The pattern is really easy to follow and it felt sooo good to use the granny stitch again. It's very relaxing and comforting at the same time. It's so good in fact that I am currently on the 2nd blanket. Same colours just in reverse direction. 

The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK and I used 7 colours. So far it looks like I can finish two baby blankets with 7 balls of 100 gram DK yarn. Pretty good in my opinion.

What are you working on at the moment?

I wish you a wonderful weekend with lots of time with your loved ones and of course crochet or any craft of your addiction!

Sophie's Universe CAL - Update!

Hello lovely readers! Welcome to those of you who are visiting for the first time - we'd love to hear from you in the comments, on our Facebook page or on Instagram :) 

Some exciting news this week - my entry pack for the 2015 Sydney Royal Easter Show arrived!!! Now that I actually have the little barcodes and entry passes, it's a little more real... must get working on my scarf and hippo entries!

It's now week 5, Part 6 of the Sophie's Universe CAL hosted by Dedri Uys at lookatwhatimade.net :D 

I've done two parts since I last blogged about this project, because I was saving Part 5 to do at our Crafternoons gathering on Sunday! 

Here is Part 5! I particularly love the little yellow tulips - so cute!

And Part 6!

Sophie did nearly go over the balcony a few times last night - I discovered at the end of Row 53 that I'd missed one (ONE!) stitch at the end of Row 51 :'( After some cursing and icecream, I decided I really did need to fix it, so undid all of Rows 53 and 52, and fixed up the end of Row 51 and then redid 52 and 53. It seemed heartbreaking at the time but I know I'll be happier with it in the end, especially when I don't know what stitches will be needed later in the work! 

Because I made her wait until Sunday to do Part 5, Kathryn has not had time to do Part 6 yet. I love her colour choices though - it's like the garden at nighttime, whereas mine is the garden in full sunshine! Her blue tulip row is gorgeous :D 

We've also convinced our mother to join the CAL, and ordered her some lovely squishy Stylecraft yarn to do it in! Hopefully it will arrive soon, but knowing how fast Mum crochets it won't take her long to catch up...

I'm doing pretty well with my list of things to do this week - posted the crocodile stitch booties to their new owners (will hopefully get some cute pictures to share with you soon), posted a hippo to a brand new baby, got my Sophie up to date, and I've done two scarves so far. Phew, and it's only Wednesday!

How is your week going?

These boots are made for... snuggling!

Hello everyone! Sorry I'm a bit late this week - I was hoping to blog last night but me and Sophie were NOT getting along, and I wanted to show you all how this week's part of the CAL looks :) 

First up though, I have been having loads of fun recently making Crocodile Stitch Booties! Using this fabulous set of patterns from Bonita Designs, I've made baby ones in Stylecraft Special DK Citron:

Child ones with a Stylecraft Special DK Lavender sole and Moda Vera Fayette Jewel Mix tops:

And adult ones with a Moda Vera Marvel Green sole and Moda Vera Fayette Frenzy tops!

It is a fantastic pattern - very easy to follow and well explained for uneducated people like me who have never done crocodile stitch or rib stitch before - I highly recommend it. And, so cute!

I particularly had fun at Mum's house on Sunday, shopping in her button collection :) Do you think these were good choices?

The baby ones don't have buttons yet. I need to either figure out how to crochet buttons that are the right size and work well, or maybe get some velcro? What do you think?

And here is my Sophie's Universe progress! It took me much longer than it should have to do the last 10 rows, but I kept reading the pattern wrong and miscounting and discovering mistakes in previous rows... Sophie didn't quite go over the balcony, but it was a near thing a few times. I love the colours though!!

Here's hoping I have better luck with next week's part 5 :) 

EDITED TO ADD: Here is my sister's start on the Sophie's Universe CAL - I love how the different colour scheme gives a totally different effect!! She was inspired by the Attic24 Cottage pack in choosing her colours.