Ta-Dah! JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

It's done! It's finished! And I absolutely love it :D We took advantage of the glorious spring sunshine and went downstairs to our apartment courtyard to get some photos :)

I've been having such a wonderful time with JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL - it's my first big project using 100% cotton yarn, and the Moda Vera Portsea Cotton from Spotlight has worked up excellently! The finished afghan is quite light weight, and I can see it being just perfect for when the breeze comes up on the balcony at the lake on summer evenings. 

I joined the pieces using slip stitch in the back loops, from the reverse side. This made nice even joined with the little front loop ridges on the front, and only low ridges on the back (as opposed to chunky single crochet ridges, which I don't like the feel of). It came together pretty quickly!

I chose to leave the corner pieces off - they were "optional" in the pattern, and I quite like the octagonal shape without them :) The border took a little bit of adaptation, but really it was very simple and straightforward.

And, it really does look like a tiled mosaic! Such a talented designer - if you haven't checked out Julie Yeager's designs on Ravelry yet, I thoroughly recommend her work :) 

Have you made any of Julie Yeager's patterns before? Link to your photos/blog/Ravelry project page in the comments and we can all have a look!!

Summer Mosaic & Around the Bases CALs - Update #4

Hello everyone! 

What a week! Both of us have been dealing with some bad health stuff this week - Anne's dad is unwell again, and Kiah and I have been up at the Lake helping out our next door neighbour who has brain cancer :(  

However, I did manage to get up to date on my CALs last week, so let's see how they're going at the moment :) 

Around the Bases CAL by ChiChi Allen

Week 3 was a block stitch, and I chose to use tropical colours for the blocks and cream/white for the chain stitches in between. 

Week 4 was star stitch - a new one to me! It took a bit to get the hang of it, but I got there in the end! I have no idea if my stitch count is correct, I guess we'll find out next week :P

JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

Clue 4 was growing the circles even bigger! I think I got the post stitches in the right place... 

Clue 5 was making 6 triangles :) So many ends! I know logically there weren't any more ends than making the squares, but (1) there were six of them, not two and (2) they hung down like a giant fringe from the long edge, which was just miserable to look at. I did get them all stitched in eventually though, but my poor index finger was sore typing at work the next day from pushing the needle through!

The pile is growing now :) This week we will be making the circles into octagons (with millions of popcorns) - my prediction was correct!  

Summer Mosaic & Around the Bases CALs - Update #3

Hello everyone! 

It's that time of the week again - see how my CALs are going at the moment :) 

Around the Bases CAL by ChiChi Allen

This week was popcorn week! ChiChi suggested doing the popcorns in a different colour to the rest of that row/section, and who am I to refuse to learn a new skill. Since I'm doing this CAL as a stashbuster, the popcorns were a great opportunity to use up some smaller scraps. 

Lots of popcorn colours! Green, three different purples, and blue :) 

I really love how this afghan is coming out so far - bring on next week!! 

JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

This week we paused work on the large circle motifs to make some squares! I did have to make one little change to the pattern - in Row 5 I had to change the long stitches in the corners to dtr, otherwise there was no way the poor thing was going to sit flat.

I haven't done any blocking yet - I will just do that at the end when the blanket is all put together (or not, it might even out nicely by itself!). 

I suspect at this point that the circular motifs will become octagonal, and then the squares will be in the centre two positions. We shall see if I'm right over the next 4 weeks! 

And the rest

I've put aside the CALs and the order pile for the moment to try and get a prototype baby blanket done! Cross your fingers for me that I can work fast enough, and also get the instructions written in an understandable way ;) Photos soon!

What projects have captured your attention this week?

New Patterns! Bonfire Beanie and Moroccan Doorways Mini Clutch

Hello everyone!


We finally ironed out our problems with Paypal and Ravelry and that means... our new patterns are on sale! We've used small variations on the same overlay crochet pattern to make these two very different items - what do you think?

Make sure you read all the way through before clicking through to Ravelry, as there is a special offer right at the end ;) 

Bonfire Beanie

Pattern available from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bonfire-beanie 

Keep warm and toasty around the campfire with this Bonfire Beanie! The band is made using overlay crochet techniques to create the flame motif.

Opening Weekend Sale - 10% off with code OVERLAYSALE

Moroccan Doorways Overlay Crochet Mini-Clutch

The design reminds me photos I have seen of colourful markets and souks in North Africa, enticing buyers in with rich colours. Make sure you use lovely bright colours to bring this little clutch alive with the colours of the market!

Pattern available from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/moroccan-doorways-overlay-crochet-mini-clutch

Opening Weekend Sale - 10% off with code OVERLAYSALE

SPECIAL OFFER!!!

If you want to buy both patterns, add both to your cart and use the code DOUBLEFIRE to get 30% off the total!!

(Important: Make sure you Add to Cart, not Buy Now, 

to take advantage of this double offer!)