Wednesday 28 September 2011

Hartjies vir 'n Krulliekop / A string of hearts for a Curly Girl

Ek het hierdie week bietjie vasgehaak met my Ripple, en toe uitkomkans gekry in die vorm van 'n impulsiewe aanbod om hartjies aan 'n string te hekel vir vriendin Anner Stel se dogtertjie se kamer.

Makliker gesê as gedaan, kom ek toe agter toe ek begin patrone kyk...daar is swetterjoele patrone beskikbaar vir hartjies!

Ek het toe eers begin met Lucy's Teeny Tiny Hearts (oeps, skies nou die Brits). Dis 'n baie mooi hartjie, maar ek kon net nie die puntjie so mooi kry nie.  Ek sal dit nog weer probeer en regkry!  Toe kom ek af op
Julie Khundi's tiny crochet hearts, wat 'n baie mooi klein, vet hartjie maak.  Jip, daarmee begin. 



Maar ek het ook Julia Crossland's tiny hearts probeer, wat 'n bietjie groter kom, en dis net so mooi. 

Ek het klein aanpassings by albei patrone gemaak, wat ek hieronder in Engels sal gee (eh...moet nog Afrikaanse hekelterme net heeltemal onder die knie kry...).

Yeay, dit hekel so vinnig dat ek sommer vinnig genoeg gehad het (die wolle 'n mengsel van Ruby, Lavender en Ivory Pure Gold, en dan ook pienkerige wol wat hier rondgelê het).



Ek moes dit net toets om te kyk of dit reg lyk, sommer teen die rak in my kombuis (skies weer, laataand-selfoonfoto...)


Ek is tevrede, hoop die Krulliekop hou ook daarvan.

I struggled a bit with my Ripple this week, and grabbed the opportunity to make someting else - a hearts garland/bunting for my friend Other Stel's little girl's room.  Easier said than done (me, the beginner), but luckily there are heaps of patterns hanging around on the Net.
I started with Lucy's Teeny Tiny Hearts , a very pretty little heart, but just couldn't get the pointy bit done.  Will try again, though! Second to try was Julie Khundi's tiny crochet hearts, a very pretty little fat heart.  Yip, started with that one.  I also worked Julia Crossland's tiny hearts, a little bit bigger, and had a nice combination going then.
 In the end I made small adaptions to both patterns (as my hearts looked a liiiiittle bit like apples...), and I will give those below. The yarn was 'n mixture of  Ruby, Lavender and Ivory Pure Gold, and some unknown pinkish wool from way back in a corner.The Pure Gold DK is ever so slightly thicker than other DK's, and coupled with my 4.5 hook, might have made the hearts a bit...fatter.

Yeay, it went so fast that I quickly had enough. Had to test it!  Put it up against the shelf in my kitchen (sorry, low quality light night cell phone shot...).
I'm happy. 
 I hope Curly Girl likes it too.


My small changes to Julie Khundi's tiny crochet hearts, in blue.

Make a magic ring.
R1: Ch 1, SC into loop x7, pull loop closed, join with Sl to Ch1
R2: Sl into 1st st, 5HDC into 2nd st, 1 DC in next 2 st, 1 HDC ch 1 HDC in bottom st, 1 DC in next two st, 5 HDC into next st, Sl in original st.
Give the tail and bottom a little tug to help shape, tie knots and weave ends.

My small changes to  Julia Crossland's tiny hearts Teeny Tiny Crochet Heart Bunting

R1: Make a ch with 4 st and join.  SC 10x into the middle of the ring.
R2: Make 5 DC into the 1st st.  Make 1 SC into each of the next 3 st. Make 1 TR*, again 1 SC into the next 3 st, and 5 DC. There should be 1 st space left, SL into this.
R3: Join the 2nd colour. Make 1 ch into the last SL of the previous round.  1 SC into the next st. 2 SC into each of the next 3 st. 1 SC into each of the next 4 st. 1 SC 1 HDC 1 SC or 1 SC 1 DC 1 SC  into the following stitch (this is the tip of the heart), 1 SC into the next 4 st, 2 SC into each of the next 3 st, 1 SC into the next, SL and tie with a knot.

Thanks to these ladies for their lovely patterns, I'll be sure to try them with a smaller hook!

Tuesday 27 September 2011

(N)One-A-Day (4)



I didn't do anything with my Ripple this week. 

We needed some time apart. 

There's something happening there and I couldn't yet sit still long enough to figure it out.

So I spent some time making tiny hearts, to be strung into a garland/bunting for best friend and namesake's Other Stel's little Curly Girl's room.



(I did take time to catch a movie, rare at this time in my life...went to see "One Day" and loved it, loved the book as well).

Tuesday 20 September 2011

One-A-Day (3)


Hello there, good people!

All seems to be going well with my Ripple's valleys and peaks :-)  I am tweaking it a bit here and there, but seems like it's under control now.  I'm using mainly Elle Pure Gold yarn, with one or two others and some frustration is creeping in there...DK is not necessarily DK...I've had to frog a row or two already. But I'm actually very happy with my progress (mint green, lime green and light blue at the top are not Pure Gold).


The Ripple is at 15 rows now and I wil use 16 or so colours - one set almost done!  This one I alternated cool and warm colours, the next one I might do brigth and muted, and maybe a rainbow, so on.

Love this blankie!


Now that I've figure out the African Flower, it's going quickly.  I'm hooking the centres whenever I'm busy with the yellow, orange of red from the Ripple, and I try to do a handful at a time.  That goes into another bag (which is now becoming the 'travlling' bag, as the Ripple is getting to big to lug along) and from that bag and stash, I complete the flowers. Discarding the Elle Marco has made such a huge difference, my AF's actually look pretty now!  Spotted one or two mistakes now, but that be rectified quickly.


I'm enjoying both these patterns, and it's nice to see the quick progress. Might go a bit sower from here, as I promised to help knit/hook 10x10 cm squares for an old age home in Bloemfontein - I might even report on that as well.

But now, I first want to look at all your posts!

Later...to get the small "One a Day" pictures - I got it on Ravelry from Gingerbread Girl.  Then just "saved as" and uploaded here as photos.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

One-A-Day (2)


Hello all the One-A-Day people!

This past week went a bit slow - the preschool having had a huge Family Day, also had to finish knitting my little Bull Calf's 'monster'...but, managed to get a few rows done:


The colour looks a bit dull now in the photo, but brighter things are coming!

Also startes with my 2nd project (my sis, me and aunty collaborating on an African Flower blanket for aunty) and I nearly started pulling my hair out.  My AF just didn't look right! Things improved when I made R3 and 4 the same colour, but still - the holes looked to big, R2 didn't feel right...


...so I 'll change the 2DC in R2 to 2DB a la Attic 24's Summer Garden, And I'll get rid of the Elle Marco stash that I'm actually trying to finish...doesn't work very well.  Hope to have more joy by next week with these flowers!

(This One-A-Day is veeeery good for one's productivity :-)

Later: Just look at the difference a differet yarn makes...
out with the Elle Marco, in with the Elle Pure Gold!



(This was a quick upload from Facebook, hence the small photo, still residing on my mobile)

Thursday 8 September 2011

'n Kombers met 9 lewens (vervolg en slot) (Hopelik)

Onthou die Kombers-Met-9-Lewens?

Wat die lewe begin het as 'n poging tot 'n Vintage Stripe?  Waarmee ek begin het om te LEER hekel?

Hy's nou in sy 4e lewe.  Die wrap dingetjie het nie vir my gewerk nie. 

Maar toe plaas Natasja hierdie link, vir 'n patroon wat sy in die hande wil kry, en ek dag...wag, wag, dit lyk dan amper bekend, as ek nou die wrappie weer lostrek hier, en op die punte vaswerk...nee, trek los, gee een twist en ryg gou weer... JA dit werk!

My kombers was amper 'n kussingoortreksel was kortsondig 'n sjaal en toe 'n wrap, maar is nou...'n...COWL WRAP!

Kan om die nek/oor skouers gaan as dit net normaal koud is.  Kan laer aftrek oor arms en lyf as die koud koud is.  Die dubbele vou oor bors maak lekker warm.    Roll on winter!

So lyk dit (Natasja se gesoekte patroon links)...TAH DAAH!!  (Eerste en laaste keer wat ek daardie term gebruik, belowe ;-)...



(Ek wou nog bietjie meer kleurgekoördineerd aantrek, maar wat! Die bewerige, dowwe fotografie my 7e jarige Mannetjie s'n).

Tuesday 6 September 2011

One-A-Day

There was a Ripple Blanket to be made.

But I just came out of a Giant Granny Square Blanket, so I was a bit lazy, and also looking forward to starting with a million other small projects that I wanted to do...when I chanced upon Carole's One-A-Day Project, which involves tackling a large project 1 square, 1 flower, 1 row a day.

So of course I was going to do it! 

Out came the Elle Pure Gold DK yarn, bought especially for this one in mind (plus a few other acrylics, 'cause I couldnt find certain colours in Pure Gold):



I sat myself down with Lucy's (great) tutorial and off I went. The little practice run was easy. Getting past the real thing's foundation chain was hell. But all things good come to those who get past the first two rows and it started to look like a Ripple! Yeeeha!



I'm this far now:




Must confess that not all my mountains and valleys are quite aligned (don't know how that happened), but by doing 5 stitches here and 3 there, I WILL herd them back to 4's 4's4's again.  Almost there.

I love working on this pattern, it really isn't difficult, up and down, up and down, and it grows quickly. I might just be tempted to do more than 1 row a day :-)