Tag: crochet

Broomstick lace

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EDIT

Hello, did you come here via a google search for Broomstick lace? If so, thanks for coming, it’s lovely to meet you. I have a feeling you might be looking for a tutorial video, in which case, I used this one, and found it very good. I must confess, I’ve only watched part one, as it was all I needed to get going. Few other things that are useful to know:

• Its very easy and looks complicated
• I find less ‘fluffy’ yarns are best, to make the most of the pattern. (Better stitch definition)
• After every row of broomstick lace I do a row of double crochet – you don’t have to, but I quite like the stripes it creates. Also it gives it a bit more structure, which is good for an ‘every day’ scarf.
• I also crochet around the edges of the whole thing at the end, because it stops me worrying about the edges snagging on something when its worn. I usually add a picot every 4 or 5 stitches too, just to liven it up a bit.
• I used a very fat knitting needle as my ‘broomstick’, but I’ve seen other people use a ruler.

And that’s it really. The rest of this page has my original post, but I thought the above might help you get the information you wanted a bit quicker. Enjoy your crochet!

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So, I’ve been seeing odd pieces of broomstick lace cropping up for a while now. It’s not really lace as such, but crochet, made over a ‘broomstick’:

broomstick lace

I spotted a lovely scarf over on Ravelry (you’ll need to be logged in) recently, and thought I’d have a go. Can’t be impossible, right? Actually it’s not. It’s a bit fiddly, but easy to pick up – although I might take that back when I’ve finished it and it all turns out to be a disaster!

broomstick needle

Look! My first knitting needles! I had to get them yesterday, as I didn’t have anything else appropriate. From what I’ve seen, these scarves look better in a yarn with a slight sheen – you know, less wooly. Being pretty limited by the local shop, and the urge to start NOW I went with the best option I could find which is Sidar ‘Baby Bamboo’. It splits a bit, but it’s really soft actually. The softness of it makes it quite nice to work with.

loopy

At the end of each row, you slide all the loops off the broomstick. The you work double stitches over groups of 4, and it magically just all works out. It’s pretty clever, really. If you’d like to try, but don’t have a book to hand, there’s a bunch of tutorials on YouTube. I just went with the first one I could find, which is a… well, it’s a three parter, but I haven’t got past the beginning of the second one, as I don’t need to increase or decrease for this. If you *do*, I’d suggest watching the rest!

If I never mention this again, it’s because I’ve messed it up, or got bored! Hopefully neither though. We’ll see.

Edit: part 2  |  scarf 2

Finished elephant!

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Ever get that feeling that you’re always rushing about but never seem to get anywhere? That’s me I think, at the moment. Just posting this now, as this wee lady will be with her new owner before the day is out.

Elephant profile

The photo’s aren’t great (I really hate taking photos), but I should really be wrapping her up and heading off, so they’re better than nothing! I was very pleased with the way she turned out actually, even if I do say so myself. I used a bigger hook (3mm) and the stitches are much more even than ones I’ve made before. Despite the rush she came together really well – even sewing on her head wasn’t *too* painful for either of us.

finished elephant

I really hope she’s well received… I read this great post the other day which mentions the fact that after making a gift for someone, you get so excited at the thought of giving it to them, you’re kind of unprepared for the massively underwhelmed response. I know that feeling. It’s very sad. So all you can do is make the very best thing you can, put all the love into it you can, and know that you’ve done your best job. There’s no accounting for other people sometimes…

Which actually sounds like I’m expecting total disaster – I’m not at all, but y’know. I am pleased with how nicely she’s come out though. Makes me want to make another one!

Have a great weekend.

UPDATE: she got the best response *ever*. In fact, I’m still smiling now 🙂

Elephant racing

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Things are still pretty busy on the work front, and so I’ve been getting into work earlier. This means standing with your head in someone’s armpit on the overground and the underground as they’re packed in the mornings – and this in turn means it’s not the ideal tatting scenario. (I can tatt like this – but look what happened last time!) Also I’m itching to make a few new things – and that means I need room to read a pattern, which is tricky. So, I’ve been reading where possible, or studying the finer points of other people’s ear hair. You know how it is. (Or if you’re lucky, maybe you don’t.)

An elephant's head

Ages ago I promised someone I’d make them an elephant for their birthday. They’re birthday is *next weekend* and so today I thought I really should get a move on. There’s a lot going on this week and I’ll never have time to finish it in the evenings. Why didn’t I start it ages ago? Silly me.

Anyway, I’ve made a head, arms and legs. I actually started with the arms and legs first as they’re the least exciting bit and it’s good to get them done. Also, as I’m so bad at sewing, I like to do as much as I can as I go along, to tuck the ends inside. I made the ears before I started the head too, so I could sew them as I went.

Deflated elephant

Poor wee thing. I’ll start on her body next – I might just get this done – if not sewn up – tonight. I think I’m using a different hook to last time. I have a feeling last time I used a 2.5mm and this is a 3mm – its a bit odd, as the stitches look completely different. Anyway. It’s all neat and tidy, which is a good thing, as I really worry that I’ll give things to people and they’ll be really embarrassed about how rubbish it is.

I think if i make another one, I might modify the pattern ever so slightly. I think I made a mistake on the first one – which resulted in the trunk having the tiniest upturn at the end, and it looks really nice. It would be easy to do, just need to add in maybe one decrease a couple of rows in. Having said that, I need to finish this one first, which I shall go and do now…

Tatting in two colours

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After getting my new thread haul the othe week, I’ve been itching to try tatting in two colours. Nothing dramatic, but I just thought slight tonal variations would be good. The downside of buying online is that you can never be *that* sure of the colours you’re buying, but I think the ones I got are working together ok…Blue and green options

The blues are very close to eachother – but in a nice way actually. When you see them in real life, they’re really delicate. The greens are a bit further apart, but they still seem ok – and as you can see, I’ve had yet *another* go at the Mary Konior pattern. I had a longer uninterrupted train journey this week, so it was a chance to try it out again. I’m back to onion rings again and I think it does look neater.

Onion ring

Also, I think the pic at the top shows the back, rather than the front. As it happens, this was just a test to see how it went, so I didn’t wind on much thread. I’ll start again on a real one soon. I keep thinking the second ring could use a few picots to keep itself in place actually. I’m really tempted to try again and add some in… or is that just getting ridiculous?

In the meantime, I’ve been trying out an afghan pattern. I’ve been looking for one to make for ages, and I must admit, there’s something really lovely about this pattern – or is it the colours? The colours are really lovely.

I tried out one square with colours I had knocking about – you’ll recognise the grey from the elephants, maybe.

Crochet & tatting

It’s so weird to work with such chunky wool after the size 80 thread. But the square is so cute in real life! I should think it makes one hell of a warm blanket – it’s really chunky, but so soft and puffy! It’s like a crochet marshmallow. I have a vague feeling I might be 90 by the time I start and finish it as an afghan, but I am tempted… Time to go yarn shopping? Maybe.

Oh! And talking of elephants, one of them has err… flown the nest (you know how well elephants fly!) and reached her destination…


Happy Elephant

(I mentioned to the recipients mum that I’m on hand for repairs when needed ;o)

Finished

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I finished this wee lady earlier this week. Or at least I finished sewing her together. Today I’ve just been hunting for scarf ribbon in the collection I seem to’ve acquired over the past few years. I was going to make a shawl, but I don’t really have any yarn the right colour – lots of colours gets lost in the grey of the skin or overpowered by the colour of the dress. I went through my ribbon stash, was about to opt for something else and then remembered this. It’s not perfect, but it should be ok. (sorry for the not very well styled photo).

Here she is with her older sister too. Not sure how she ended up with a slightly thicker trunk… You might be able to spot that I did the front loop /back loop stitches this time – as per the pattern. I like it. Makes the arms and legs look more defined.

Not been  the best of weekends. Problems with my neck and shoulder again. I feel bad for not writing up the poor new elephant as nicely as she deserves, but I think it’s better to quite while I’m ahead.

WIP

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In a rush! (About to go out), and very tired. I stayed up far too late working on this. It’s for a friend’s daughter – actually, he asked for a Little ‘un but his daughter is very young, and the small ones are a bit fragile – I wasn’t sure she’d last that long. This one is wool and cotton – that Rowan Siena cotton is really vibrant, and I thought the colours might be more interesting than the more muted version for a little girl.

Little ‘un

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So, after the complete joy of finishing elephant number one (who, weirdly, is much loved but still nameless) I decided I should make another one. You know, just to see if the first one was a fluke, and to indulge my odd habit of making the same thing in different thread for no apparent reason.
I only really have one other thread for this kind of thing, and that’s some crochet cotton I bought online. I’ve got three colours, beige, white and dusty pink – and thus elephant number two had no choice, she was to be made those colours, or nothing.
I’ve used this thread before – I made a monkey with it, but what I found amazing this time is that if I’d made her any smaller, the backs of the safety eyes wouldn’t fit in her head. Poor wee thing. She really is quite small.
As I’ve mentioned before, the pattern for this is really nice. I made the head in super quick time – you know when you’re on a roll and just want to get things made?
I dawdled a bit with the rest, mainly as I’m still having a few neck/shoulder issues and I’m trying not to do stuff for too long. I was going to add two buttons to her dress – hence the slightly odd positioning of the one you can see, but even though that button is weeny, there still wasn’t much room for another.
I spent a silly amount of time choosing ribbon for her scarf. She was really rooting for bright red with white dots, but could I find that style ribbon thin enough? No, I could not – thanks for asking. She quite likes this daisy pattern though, and so we’re sticking with it for now.
I actually went ribbon shopping in Liberty (as well as John Lewis), and an assistant came over and squealed a bit when she saw her. As she very kindly helped me look, she asked if I would be selling her. I was bowled over with flattery, but I did say that she’d be about £300 at the rate I crochet and I wasn’t sure anyone had quite that much money to spend on… Well…
What exactly *is* she? Well. Half way through making her, I’d decided she should be called Atish, which I know is a boys name, but sounded like a good name for a shrew. (Atish Shrew! Bless you, etc). But she’s a kind of babyelephantyshrewymousey kind of thing, of course! I’m rather offended you couldn’t tell.

Some things are so hard to photograph

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Like this wee lady for example:

Honestly! If she wasn’t snuffling at the camera, the camera was misbehaving in low light. I swear I’d post a lot more if I could just get a decent photo of some of the things I’d been doing. Anyway – a baby mousiephant. More when I’ve got a better shot!

Knitted Amigurumi

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I have a few things to blog about, by no daylight time to take any pictures! I’ve been making a few tiny tiny things which will make more sense with photos, but in the meantime I stumbled across Dangercrafts. They sell fantastic patterns for knitted toys, like this:

and this

I can’t actually knit (more of a crochet girl), but they’re so nice, I thought I should share, just incase you can. (Because, y’know, you probably *should*)

In the meantime, I’m trying to think of a bigger crochet project to make. Like an afghan or a blanket – but… I dunno. Not a hexagon one or a ripple one, because as nice as they are, they wont really go with our house. (Not that I know what would, actually…) Also I made a hexagon the other day and managed to make it with one side too many, which was rather impressive…

I was thinking about making this though – because it is beautiful:

This is made by Yarn Theory, on Flickr. She did a fantastic job – and its actually much nicer than the one shown in the pattern. So we shall see. If you have any suggestion dear lone reader, let me know. Thanks!

Tatting for giants

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Just for the hell of it, I thought I’d try tatting with some cotton I originally bought to crochet with. It’s very smooth and looked like it would slide easily enough (something you need for tatting), so seemed worth a little experiment. I’ve always liked the idea of tatting with other threads – in the past I’ve tatted with different types of sock yarn, but the picots can end up looking a bit messy as the strands of thread come apart.

This is 4 ply Rowan cotton, and actually it tats up pretty well. In this photo you can see a full motif in fine Finca thread, which I made some time ago, and half of the same motif in cotton. So far, the half motif has taken up two shuttles, and I stopped as I needed to wind on a third. (For the non-tatters out there, the smaller motif was created with the thread from one shuttle).

It’s a Mary Konior pattern, which I really like, and part of the experiment was to see if it would be suitable to make into a scarf. The answer…? Well, sort of. It’s actually a little big – if you hold it up to your neck, it’ll reach from your collar bone to your chin. It’s a bit too large, really – and is quite thick so I’m not sure how comfortable it would be to wear, it wouldn’t drape that well. More than that though – the THIRD SHUTTLE and it’s only part way through! It’s great practise for joining in new threads, but just as you think you’re getting somewhere, you’ve run out of thread again.

I don’t think I’ll finish it, which I feel a bit bad about, but it’s such nice thread I don’t really want to waste it. It was worth the experiment though. Maybe I’ll look around for a smaller motif…