Teddy's Busy Day (+ yarn review!)

Hi everyone!

It has been a truly epic summer here in Australia, and I must admit I'm glad to be tumbling into February. Both Kiah and I ended up in hospital for several before Christmas with unrelated illnesses, the heat and humidity has been oppressive, the country has burned down and now there's floods. I think it's nearly time for a break!

So today I've put together something a bit fun for you, to show off Stylecraft's gorgeous new Regatta yarn. It's 74% cotton plus polyamide and elastane, which makes the yarn super bouncy. It still doesn't stretch lengthways like acrylic, but springs out sideways. I don't usually like making toys with cotton because the yarn gets "stringy" and the holes in the fabric get bigger and bigger, but with this yarn the sideways spring makes it look amazing. Check out the stitch definition, and these gorgeous colours! 

I used the Crew colourway, and Anne's adorable Cross Your Heart Teddy pattern. Allie has already claimed it, and loves cuddling Teddy and tucking him into bed . 

Stylecraft sent me this yarn to try out, but the opinions in this blogpost are my own and I am under no obligation to say nice things. 

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TEDDY'S BUSY DAY

*BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP*

Teddy rolled over and cracked open his eyes - it was 6am, time to start another day. He stumbled to the shower to wake himself up a bit. 

The shower wasn't quite enough, so he had to have a really strong coffee as well.

After coffee he felt a bit better, and so before work he had a play on the slide.

At work, Teddy had LOTS of drawing to do.

He also had to do reading, but that was ok - Teddy likes reading. 

Fortunately, then it was time for lunch!

After lunch, Teddy had to go to lots of meetings. Luckily there was cake at one of them, otherwise he didn't know how he would have coped.

Finally it was time to go home. On his way, Teddy stopped off at the gym to do his exercises. He was a bit optimistic about the weights but is very squishy so it wasn't a big problem.

Once he got home, Teddy popped out to the garden for a quick game of hide and seek (and to pull out the weeds of course).

Teddy had such a busy day! It was time for him to go to bed. Night night Teddy! 

See you in the morning!

BAWJ2019 - Weeks 15, 16 and 17!

Hi everyone!

It's been a rollercoaster couple of weeks here at Casa del Westlund - we had a week's holiday at Lake Macquarie over Easter, I've been crocheting up a storm of cardigans for Allie since it seems like we might actually have winter this year (yay!) and she has decided all of a sudden that three naps in a day is for chumps, and breastfeeding is super slow and irritating and could we please just already have bottles!? Argh! 

Before we get to the BAWJ squares from the last few weeks, here's a photo of Allie's favourite holiday activity: DUCKS.

Ducks go KAK KAK KAK, and you feed them and pat them and even crunch on a bit of their seed. Now all birds are greeted with KAK KAK KAK, duck or not 😂

I'll tell you all about the cardigan collection next week hopefully - it depends when Allie feels like stretching her modelling and cooperation muscles. Cross your fingers for me! She is a very determined and independent little miss. 

On to the BAWJ2019! All three of these squares were very well written patterns!

If you want to join in on BAWJ2019, check out Julie's Facebookgroup, blog and Ravelry Board for more information.

WEEK 15 - LEMON ZINGER SQUARE by MARY BETH TEMPLE

Pattern: https://hookedforlifepublishing.com/2019/04/lemon-zinger-square/ 


Yarn colours: Pistachio, Coral, Silver, Graphite

It was interesting starting with a five pointed star in the middle - I'm not a huge fan of how wonky the circle is to get it back to a square, but the central flower is just so cute.

I also got to learn how to do a different kind of surface crochet! The wibbliness appeals to me :P 

WEEK 16 - FINDING BALANCE by RHONDDA MOL

Pattern: https://oombawkadesigncrochet.com/2019/04/finding-balance-afghan-square-pattern.html 

Yarn colours: Pistachio, Heather, Raspberry, Sage and Bismuth 

So much texture! I learned a new stitch, and was very grateful that there were photos of each round as after a bit I found the pattern very wordy and somewhat challenging to keep track of where I was up to. 

So bumpy and petally and deliciously squishy. A cushion cover in this stitch would be so lovely. 

Even the back looks really cool, with the spiked trebles down behind the petals!

WEEK 17 - FANTASTIC! AFGHAN SQUARE by JULIE YEAGER

Pattern: http://julieyeagerdesigns.com/fantastic-afghan-square-clue-7/

Yarn colours: Iron, Cream

You might recall - I've made this square before! It was Julie Yeager's Mystery CAL Afghan Square from 2015, which I made in rainbow colours of Special DK. It was fun to follow Julie's lead and make this version in only two colours - Iron Elements and Cream. 

Again, doesn't it have lovely texture? Those front post stitches... 

Phew, that brings me all up to date! Back soon with cardigan photos.. oh, here's a sneak peek ;) Don't forget to cross your fingers that we can get her to hold still for photos! 

Heartwood Cardi - Winner!

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for your lovely comments and support of the Heartwood Cardi - I hope you also took the opportunity to have a squiz at the lovely Stylecraft Cabaret colourways ;) 

I ran the random number generator and the winner of 8 balls of Cabaret in the colour of her choice is...

Michelle West (@mitchymushu on Ravelry)

An email is heading your way asking for your address and which colour you'd like :) 

Thank you to everyone who has bought the pattern already - I can't wait to see your Heartwoods!

A long time in the making... Frida's Flowers Blanket

Hi there!

At some point I thought I would never be able to write this blogpost. That is a post where I share my finished Frida's Flowers blanket. In the end, it took me close to two years to finish it. As you might guess, it sat in the naughty corner looking reproachful at me for quite some time. 

How did it come to this? Well, as some of you might recall, I translated the Frida's Flowers CAL into German and boy, that was some work. I also managed the German Facebook group, wrote the German pattern errata list and so on. At some point I was just over the blanket. That I had no idea what to actually do with the blanket once it was done. So... after finishing part 1-3 while I was on holidays in Denmark in 2016, the blanket kit moved into the WIP/UFO corner. 

But whenever I walked past it, it looked at me and I felt pretty bad. What to do with the already finished pieces and what to do with the left over yarn? I couldn't get myself to repurpose the yarn and well, sometime last year, I "bite into the sour apple" (German phrase) and started working on it again. And guess what? I actually enjoyed it (not the ends but that is another story)! I was going to finish it for Christmas but as usual life had other plans. So, I finished it in January/February instead and will ship it off to it's new owner (who doesn't know she will get it, so I won't name her here) soon. Pheww! 

The pattern is very well written and along with Michelle's helpful tips from two years ago, the crochet process wasn't too hard. The crocheting together? Not my favorite part but that is not the blanket's fault as I don't like putting crochet pieces together in any case. I used the recommend Stylecraft Classique Cotton and fell in love with it. Finally a cotton yarn which doesn't split all the time! I will certainly use it again in the future - when the right projects comes up. I adore cotton yarn but it makes blankets so heavy and amigurumi a bit hard (if crocheted tight). 

I can't even express how relieved I am that this project is FINALLY done. There are tons of projects which moved into the naughty corner (and stayed there) in the past, tons of projects   frogged or thrown out but this one... this one needed to be finished. And now that it is, well, we will see where it takes me!

Project details

Pattern: Frida's Flowers Blanket by Jane Crowfoot 

Yarn: Stylecraft Classique Cotton DK

Hooks: Clover Amour 4-5 mm

Duration: March 2016 - February 2018

Take care 

Anne

P.S. It is the middle of winter here in Germany... The weather is ... um... not good for photos.  Thus no outside picture of the blanket as it would get wet and soggy within seconds!

Stylecraft Blogstar Meetup 2018

Hi everyone!

Hard to believe it is February already! Didn't 2018 just begin yesterday?! Sometimes I wish time was flying by less fast and unless someone invents the time turner Hermione used in Harry Potter, we will just have to make most of the moments we have and actually notice them!

Something very notice-worthy was the first Stylecraft Blogstar meet up of the year last weekend! Stylecraft invited its blogstars to a meet up twice a year and while we couldn't attend in person (again, no one has invented apparition for us muggles yet...), we joined the others via Skype on Saturday! The lovely people from Stylecraft installed a table microphone this time and thus is was so much easier to hear everyone at the table! 

Over the course of the morning we got plenty of exciting news and background information, talked about social media annnddd got to see the new yarns which will be released this spring! A big box with samples of all these new yarns arrived in Germany and Australia weeks back and after days of just looking at the box, we were finally allowed to dive into it! You see, there was a big sign on it, telling us not to open it before the meeting! Oh the anticipation! Some of the new yarns are released already (have a look here), some others aren't yet and thus we can't tell you about them (except that is is worth waiting for them!). Michelle really loved the new Bambino yarn, while Anne is rather excited about one of the still super-secret yarns. 

(The picture above is from Stylecraft because ... well obviously we weren't there to take the picture ourselves).

There are some really exciting projects coming up over the next year which we Blogstars plan to do together but... it is all a secret for now! Cross your fingers that everything will work up as dreamt up. :) We certainly can't wait for the next meet up in July!

On a side note: Helen from Josiekitten has a bit of fundraising going on at the moment. She is raising funds for the British Heart Foundation in memory of her late husband. When you donate just two pounds, you will get the change to win amazing yarn-y prizes! Have a look at her page, drool about the prizes (there are over 70!) and donate to this worthy cause! 

We can't wait for the next meet up and really hope we can join the others in person one day...

Take care

Michelle & Anne

July Stylecraft Blogstars Meetup!

Hey everyone!

It was a freezing cold July evening for me, and a lovely sunny Saturday morning for Anne, when we skyped in to our very first Stylecraft Blogstars meeting!! Some of the photos in this post were taken by us, and some by Stylecraft :)

I live just down the road from another Blogstar, Angela from Get Knotted Yarn Craft, so we decided this was too good an opportunity to miss - hanging out together squishing wool, crocheting and chattering! The Captain even came along for the fun; he just can't miss a party, even if it's just two of us drinking tea in the kitchen :P 

There were 5 bloggers joining in from outside the UK - us and Angela (of course), plus Polly Plum from Every Trick on the Hook, and Zelna from Zooty Owl. After the usual technical difficulties (fortunately there was a handsome young man available to assist at Stylecraft!) we got underway! 

It was incredibly awesome to put voices to faces to names of some bloggers that we really love reading! Plus, who can have too many crochet friends? Attending the meetup in person were Lucia from Lucia's Fig Tree, Sandra from Cherry Heart, Julia from Hand Knitted Things, Helen from Josiekitten, Phil from The Twisted Yarn, Sarah from Annaboo's House, Catherine from Catherine's Crochet Corner, Kathryn from Crafternoon Treats, Heather from The Patchwork Heart and Emma Varnam. Sadly Lucy from Attic24 and Jane Crowfoot weren't able to come along - next time, ladies!

Next was what we were waiting for - a preview of the next season's yarn releases, both new yarns and new colours of existing yarns! There's not a lot we can talk about yet, but watch this space.

Annabelle and Emma took us around on the laptop to tour the room that was set up as the showroom for the day - so many pretties!!! Lucia brought a whole bunch of her blankets which were just glorious to see "in person" (rather than still photos) and there are some amazing upcoming designs to look forward to!

The last part (for us overseas people) was an awesome opportunity to play in piles of yarn. We were so glad to have all the little squares of Special DK colours as this made it so much easier to come up with colour combinations for a super secret upcoming thing! Even the Captain got in on the action :P

Overall we had a good time, mostly meeting the other wonderful Blogstars, and after disconnecting from Stylecraft (it was lunchtime in the UK, and the none of us felt up to learning tatting by teleconference!) we overseas bunch decided we would get together on Skype more regularly, as it was just so lovely to catch up, chat and crochet together! 

I think I've used up my entire monthly allowance of exclamation marks (!!) in this post!! :D 

Next Week - we're publishing our first pattern designed with our Blogstars yarn from Stylecraft, the intriguing Mystique yarn!

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? 

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