Block #71: Tiny Textures

How 'bout this: starting off the new year with a new block :)

From Jan Eaton's "200 Crochet Blocks..." Block #2: Tiny Textures.

I kind of feel like I want to work this up again, in a plain cream yarn. I love this yarn. It's the same one I did my other block last week in: the 100% variegated cotton from Morris & Sons. But because it's beautifully variegated, you almost can't see the texture of the block. Almost.

Should be a good dishcloth!!

New Year Resolutions & a free pattern for a jar cover!

New Year Resolutions. I think it might be fair to say that we all make them. Whether it's the resolution you make when you wake up after a BIG NYE party ("I'm never drinking again!"), or you look inside your fridge at the remnants of the silly season ("Time to shape up!"),  or something like I did last year ("I'm blogging something new Every Day!"), we all state something around this time of the year.

Last year's got me right on my blogging track again, and even though I didn't end up blogging Something New Every Day, I did manage to keep it right into August, which is a pretty good result. I'm happy with that :)

This year it's a little more reasonable. I'm going to have a schedule! Shock! Horror! Expect a blog post every (and I mean EVERY) Monday & Thursday. So this week, we've already seen that! Today is Thursday, here's the post, and we had my 2012 round up on Monday. I want to maintain that schedule all year, and if I want to post something extra, then I will do. Perhaps a weekend project? Or a link-heavy post mid week. I'm also eager to keep working on Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks.. book, which a few of us over on the Krista Crochet Group on FB have stated intention of doing. Good for us :) 

Personally, I decided to improve my fitness (the best of intentions, and one that is hardly ever kept, but we all mean it in early January), keep trying new recipes, and keeping a money jar.

A money jar? Like a piggy bank, but not something gross and plasticy from some branch of a bank, but simply a jar with a hole in the top, that I can put a dollar a day into, or when I'm feeling wealthier, all my change :) But look at it - it looks so ugly. So, I decided to make it prettier :)

I made a cover for it :) 

It was easy enough, although getting it to curve around the base AND the curve at the top was a little tricker. See how it curves around the base?

Here you can see how it's bell shaped. Just a little, just enough that it bulges slightly around the middle and comes in at the top and the bottom. I also decided to try out the idea of putting a line of white in-between the changing colours, since it seems a little popular and gosh darn it I LIKE it. It does indeed make each colour individually pop. I originally started off with the four colours, and after the line of green thought I could add an extra one, or two. But I ended up unravelling the extra colour and sticking with my original idea, and it worked a treat. 

So, how did I make it? Well, I had to measure out my jar to see how round it was. The way I did that was simply crocheting up a chain row first, and wrapping it around the jar. Then, when I decided to use a tr stitch to work up the colours in (the white rows are a simple dc), I had to figure in the fact that trebles tend to be a bit stretchier when made up that double crochet's. I ended up with a row of 43trs. 

So first of all, get a nice clean jar (I used an old mayo jar I'd used up over xmas). Work up a chain and wrap it around your jar. If you pull it tight around the biggest part of the jar and it just meets, that should work well. Even better if it's just a little too small, because you'll be working your increases in during your third row. My pattern is just a GUIDE because your jar will be a different size from mine, so this is a good exercise in adjusting a pattern to fit as you go. The other thing I must note is that I worked my entire cover from the SAME SIDE. So from left to right (end of the ch being left) for every row. I never turned it. It was an experiment, feel free to turn each side if you like, but I wanted the white dc row to look like it does, and not in reverse. 

Base row: chain 46 (43 + turn of 3ch)

Row 1: Work a tr into the 3rd chain back, and tr into every chain. (I ended up with 43.) Fasten off if you're changing colours.

Row 2: Grab your white yarn and join into the first tr: ch, dc into same space, then dc along your whole row of tr. Fasten off.

Row 3: Time to change colour. Grab your next bright colour, and join into that first dc. ch3 (creates first tr.), 3tr. (time to increase) Work two tr's into the next stitch, 4tr, 2tr into next stitch. (As you can see, I increased at every 5th stitch). Continue until you approach the end of your row. (My last increase finished 3dc before the end of my row.) Fasten off.

Row 4: White yarn, join, ch, 1dc into same space, dc along the row. fasten off.

Row 5: New colour, join, 3ch (first tr) & tr into each dc. fasten off.

Continue this way until, holding your work up to your jar, you can see that the top is approaching where it curves in again. If your jar is more straight up and down, just keep going. If it's more bevelled like mine, I ended up decreasing for two rows. 

I did the top orange row with a decrease every 5th tr, and I didn't decrease in my white rows. To Decrease, you 2trtog (2 tr together, into the same stitch). Start to work a tr, but instead of pulling the yarn through the second time to finish the stitch, leave the two loops on, and start another tr in the next stitch. You end up with four loops on, and then yarn over, pull the loop through all four loops. Work a plain dc row in white next, and then for your final row, I decreased at every 10th stitch. This just helps to bring in the cover at the top of the jar.

I joined my two pieces together on the inside using a slip stitch, and when I approached that top orange row, I slid the cover onto the jar and joined on the outside. I don't recommend you do that - I was an idiot. *laugh* Just join it together, turn it inside out and slip it onto the jar. It might be a bit of a pull & tug, but it should fit :) 

 

PATTERN (please adapt the size for your jar!):

For a jar that is 26.5cm around it's widest point and 11cm from bottom to just-under-lid,

Foundation Chain: Using yarn A, ch 46
Row 1: 1tr into 3rd ch from hook, 1tr into each ch to end. Fasten off.
Row 2: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of the previous row. Fasten off.
Row 3: Join Yarn B. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into next 3dc, 2tr into next dc. 1tr into next 4dc, 2tr into next dc. Continue until you reach the end of the row. Fasten off. (inc into every 5th dc)
Row 4: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 5: Join Yarn C. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into each dc of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 6: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 7: Join Yarn D. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into each dc of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 8: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 9: Join Yarn A. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into each dc of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 10: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 11: Join Yarn B. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into each dc of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 12: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 13: Join Yarn C. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into next 3dc, tr2tog (decrease), 1tr into next 4dc, tr2tog. Continue until you reach the end of the row. Fasten off. (Decrease every 5th tr.)
Row 14: Join white. 1ch, 1dc into each tr of previous row. Fasten off.
Row 15: Join Yarn D. 3ch into first dc. 1tr into next 8dc, tr2tog (decrease), 1tr into next 9dc, tr2tog. Continue until you reach the end of the row. Fasten off. (Decrease every 10th tr.)

Join edges together, keeping watch that the rows match up. Slide onto your jar. Put a dollar into the jar every day :)

Round Up on 2012

Well, here we are: 31 December 2012. It was exactly a year ago that I decided to embark on the blogging madness of this year. It's not that I haven't blogged before: in fact I've been blogging on and off for 10 years now. But this year was the year I was aiming to:

+ Blog Every Single Day, and
+ Work up every block in Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks book, and
+ Learn to Finish Projects.

Nuts. Both of the first two are nuts! Well they are if you're also working full time & studying part time!!

This will be my 230th blog post on this blog for the year, which out of 366 days isn't too shabby. I really gave up the ghost once I'd admitted I wasn't going to be able to keep up the every day posting sometime in mid-August, and that's also when my course really took off. However, I did end up having my work hours pared back, so I could have gotten back on the horse. But I didn't. I am however really super happy with my blogging efforts this year.

And LOOK at what I made!!

I am even MORE happy with my crafting efforts! I managed to finish projects!  Just look at all those completed items up there!! It's such a happy collage :)  I am SO HAPPY to say that! I finished my friends' Celebration Blanket, which was one of the aims that I listed on the first blog post ever.

Isn't it beautiful! The recipient was VeryHappy with it, and I think her beautiful daughter loves it even more :) (Last I saw it was being used as not only a rug, but as a cape! Excellent Work Eve! Because it could be a MAGICAL cape!)

I also learned how to make Amigurumi! I started off with cute little monsters!

And my big project was a beautiful Bunny for my nephew. George The Bunny is Much Much loved, and as I hoped it would be, he is carried around by his ears :)

2012 has been a terrific year of growth in my craft. I have learned many new things and thanks to the Krista Crochet-Along project, I've made new friends.

My big end-of-year surprise was beginning my own business! LizzieBee: Handmade (over on Facebook too) is a quiet little enterprise I started up making home-made furnishings. At the moment it is only tea towels, but I am venturing into dishcloths, coasters, pot holders & napkins in the new year. It's exciting and scary and I had a induction by fire with xmas orders. I'm hoping to keep quietly at it in 2013. Watch that space!

And you, the people who have visited my blog this year. You have come here over 10,000 times, which had made me the Happiest Person! Thank you SO MUCH for visiting me this year, and please continue to visit :) I am hoping to continue making all the blocks from Jan Eaton's book, make more amigurumi's, and keep finishing projects, one square at a time.

Lizzie

Block #70: Lemon Peel

So.. it's December 30th and there's only 1 more day in the year, so I think I can comfortably say that this is the last block for the year. And it's only #70. Still!

Block #70!
From Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks, # 52: Lemon Peel.

Ta da! It's worked up in Morris & Sons Avalon 4ply Pima cotton in "Granite". Which was BEAUTIFUL to work in. (So it should be at $8 pop! Available here through the Morris & Sons website  where it's currently on sale till tomorrow!)

It really is lovely to work in, which is why I bought a bit for an xmas gift to myself a few weeks ago.

The Lemon Peel pattern (simply a repeat of dc, tr, dr, tr) is actually really soothing to make up, and it works up very quickly.

Xmas stash!

Got some stash for xmas!

Got two - TWO!! - Crazy Zauberball's from my Aunt Lorraine, and at the same time I got myself the two balls of Morris & Sons variegated cotton, the stitch markers (with soft pointed ends, good for using in close work) and the measuring tape. (We had all met down in Melbourne, so yay!) Bought my grandma a ball of the Luxury wool yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills, and it was such a good price I got myself one as well! And look at those BEAUTIFUL scissors!! My partner got me those :) So excited!!

I love the measuring tape. It's got the little hold button in the middle so whilst it's all kept neat and tidy in the little container, you can pull it out, push the button and the tape is held out of the container as far as you've kept it. I love it! I've had an old one for years now and the button doesn't work anymore. Is very frustrating, since I love the way it's a neat-and-tidy measuring tape, so I'm thrilled to have a new one :)

I have NO IDEA what to use the Crazy Zauberballs for though! They're magical as sock yarn, but I don't make socks!! I'm thinking a matching hat & scarf, to be honest. At least with one of them :) Any suggestions?

And how was YOUR Christmas?

Stitches

When you think of crochet, you think of the simple stitches: the double (or single) crochet, the treble crochet, a slip stitch. But working with these stitches, and around these stitches, can produce beautiful different stitches.

I found this via a Facebook group today:

"Pattern of Lush Bars" (in Russian)

As the link says, this page is actually in Russian, but Google Translate gave me the title that I've used, so hopefully that's accurate!

How BEAUTIFUL is this stitch?!?!

(picture from above website, copyright them.)

It seems pretty straight forward, but that little fan is created by using a spike stitch, then carrying the stitches forward and leaving them on the hook, which creates the little fan.  Can't wait to give it a go! Of course, I'm not particularly fantastic at working new stitches, so don't expect to see any results until I'm pretty happy with them!!

Hmmmm yarn at it's source...

So... I live in a small country town, near one edge. Beyond the school oval which lies at the end of our street, there is grazing land for cows. Which I can hear when I'm suffering from insomnia in the middle of the night, having a conversation. Or at least one's going "Where the smokes are the rest of you guys!!" by yelling "MooooooOOooooo" a lot. Although we're relatively close to a paddock or two, we're still in a medium-density area. We're not on acre blocks or anything.

Meet our new neighbour:

Yep. A sheep.

Awww it's so CUTE! you might say. How ADORABLE! you might croon.

It's not adorable when it's been brought straight off the farm, and is missing it's flock. Nooooo then it's bleating from 6am to midnight and I'm not joking with those times!!!

It's not particularly young, that fleece is a bit old, not creamy white like the little lambs that are frolicking around farms in our area. If I lived on a farm and actually raised sheep, I may hear some bleating from time to time. But it would be quite a distance away, not 5 meters from my back windows.

All I can think of is "mmmmm lamb chops" and "I wonder if I could get it shorn and spin some yarn out of that fleece...."

At at 6:20am this morning, you can bet your bottom dollar I was thinking of lamb chops.

Do you live in a rural area? Or do your neighbours have random livestock on their property, grazing on their lawn?