25-26.9.12 Little Button Loafers #2 by Sylvia Schuchardt

There are some crocheters that I admire, like Sylvia Schuchardt (Silver designs / hook candy) who can make such pretty designs so perfectly crocheted!

To fit a 5.2”L on 2”W foot (Eshchar’s actual feet size), which is about the 6.5 American size, I used a doubled thread with a 4 mm hook following size 3 (9M) of the instructions and working IN THE ROUND (!). The notes from my last project were quiet helpful but not sufficient. 

This time as well, in order to make the shoe center well adjusted, I had to make some adaptations as follow: 

Round 3 - skip the 4 sc in the beginning of round and crochet 8 sc at the end. 

Round 4 - instead of 20 hdc at beginning of round, crochet 16 hdc and then 14 instead of 10 in the end of the round.

For the soles sl-st loop part, I used the 5 mm hook.

Each shoe took me about 2 to 2.5 hrs.

Other helpful notes, can be found here, such as the tip to crochet all the 4 soles at once.

22.9.12 Super Easy Cloche Hat by Tara Murray (Mamachee)

For the adult size of this beautiful cloche hat, I used a doubled thread of Malaga yarn, 8mm hook for Rnd 1-7, 10mm hook for Rnd 8 till the end. Rnd 15-17 was crocheted with Berroco comfort chunky doubled thread. Then I skipped to last Rnds with the smallest brim.

I am not happy with my main color choice. It makes me look pale. Will need to find a lucky new owner. Maybe my small sis.

12-20.9.12 Trim Brim Beanie by Amanda Tipton

 

Normally, one afternoon would be enough to make this adorable hat, but since I had 6 failure trials at least, it took much more. Not to say that even when I thought I had it right, the last rows were too tight for Eshchar’s head, so I had to unpick the brim and make it over with a 10mm hook instead of a 8mm hook. 

Thanks to the kind and speedy response of Amanda, I could overcome most of the troubles I had. 

My two main mistakes in the beginning were the gauge and hooks size which came out too small with the yarn I have used. I gradually used a bigger hook and doubled the thread, till I finally arrived to 8mm and 10mm size hooks! 

Another mistake is that in Row 3, there is apparently an error in the instructions, saying “in next ch2 space” (instead of “in the same ch2 space). This is why I didn’t get any increase for so many trials. 

Finally, with the yarn I used, for a 2-4Y size (maybe it is even 24M), I did as follow: 

8mm hook with 11 sts in rows 1-2. 

10mm hook with 22 sts in rows 4-8, 44 sts in row 9, 12sts in row 10 up to row 13. Then sl-st all the rest of the hat, excluding the brim.

28.11-3.12.11 Russian Hat for Beni's 60th Birthday

The project was done following  Eshchar's Blue Monkey Hat by Tara Murray with Double thread of Elza Yarn and Quadruple thread of Yasmin Yarn.

My brother in law suggested we offer my father in law a Russian hat for this birthday. That was a great idea and I warmly adopted it.

Here are the instructions in order to follow the version of the Russian hat I made, based on the Monkey hat pattern:

Rnd 9 – Ch 2, (hdc in next 7, 2hdc in next) around, join (72) 

Rnd 10 through Rnd 21 – Ch 2, hdc in each st around, join. (72)

Start on first earflap: 

Row 1 – Ch 2, hdc in next 18 (18) 

Row 2 – Ch 2, and turn, hdc2tog, hdc in next 14, hdc2tog. (16) 

etc… 

Row 7 – Ch 2 and turn, hdc2tog, hdc, ch2, hdc, hdc2tog. (6) This row will create the button hole. 

Row 8 – Ch 2 and turn, hdc2tog, hdc, hdc, hdc2tog. (4) 

Row 9 – Ch 2 and turn, hdc2tog twice. (2)

Fasten off and repeat earflap instructions for second earflap. The space across forehead 

should be 26 st’s wide.

Join in the back of hat and work sc’s evenly around the whole hat. 

In the front, between earflaps, work 9 rows of 26 hdc each. For the button holes, in the 7th row: hdc, hdc, ch2, keep working hdc till last 4 hdc of row. ch2 and work last two hdcs.

Omer modeling the hat

My father in law was happy to receive for his 60th birthday a set of binoculars, a comprehensive book on birds and this warm hat.

20-22.11.11 Eshchar's Blue Monkey Hat by Tara Murray

For the 6-12m size free Monkey hat pattern, I used a double thread of Berroco Comfort DK yarn and a 5 mm hook size up to round 12. I then switched to a 6 mm hook size from round 13 to 15 and started the first earflap row with 6mm, finishing the rest with 5mm only. 

For the ears, I just omitted the last round.

I love this smile!

31.7-12.8.11 Crochet Cables and Lace Broomstick Hat by Kristin Omdahl

Wouuuaaaou…. One Cotton thread skein was exactly sufficient for the hat (125m/50gr). 

This project is a truly charming and challenging design. 

I regret only one thing: the thread color I chose that makes me look so pale :-( 

I have learned so many things in this project. I managed after many trials to understand how to make the cable lace and it makes me feel really good about it. In order not to forget and also help others with the same difficulty, I have taken a short movie on how to do a module of the cable part from row 3 to 6.

In Row 9-120 I repeated row 3-6 15 times instead of 13, so to fit my head circumferences with the thinner thread I used as compared to the recommendation. It made this part 126 rows instead of 120. 

In the bottom edging I mistakenly worked on the WS, but it still looks fine. 

In rnd 1 of the hat body, I used a 20mm hook, which was an idea I took from MsCooper Ravelry member. 

I also skipped Rnd 4, since I had the feeling it would come out too high if I keep this rnd. 

Finally, after fastening off and pulling tightly with a yarn needle through the last row, the closure looked quiet ugly and not circular, but rather fluffy. Therefore, I added another rnd,just picking a loop in between each bundle of 4 threads, using 3 crochet hooks ( as if doing dp needle knitting) and then went through all with the tail remaining and pulling tight. This way, it looks much better.

Finally, the loop technique that was also new to me, together with the adaptations and the crochet cable technique that I’ve learned, gave me great satisfaction.

20-26.7.11 Brigham One Skein Hat by Lisa Gentry

The Brigham One Skein Hat design by Lisa Gentry can be found for free in the following link.

This is a cute hat, but the yarn I chose (Courtelle Hand Knitting Yarn - Maxi) is not very pleasant to the skin.

10-11.7.11 Four Layered Irish Lace Flower

Instructions appears in the book "Crocheting School: a complete course", I added to the Four Layered Irish Lace Flower one more rnd on the same principle (ch-5 arches) and in the next rnd, sc, ch1, dc, dc, tr, dc, dc, ch1, sc into each ch5 sp.

26.6-4.7.11 Crocheted Dodecahedron for Eshchar

Eshchar at 2.5 months

The modules were done following the Crocheted Dodecahedron by Marleen Hartog.

However, the assembly instructions of the ”Dodecahedron Thingymabob” by Amy Thornton can be very helpful. There is also the ”Celestine Crochet” instructions by Betsy Myles, but Amy’s version to it going  from the inwards towards the outwards is much more right to my opinion, giving a neater final result.

It took me 4 days to accomplish the 12 modules, about 1hr each and 2 more days to assemble all the parts. The rattle toy contains a small round bell that Omer gave me from his fishing stuff. I put in in one of the German bead boxes I found in Passau.

9-12.6.11 Narcissus Hair-Clip for Nomnom

The "Daffodil and Narcissus" flower appears on pp.51-52 in "Crochet Bouquet" book by Suzann Thompson. It is also shared for free here. Can you imagine I learnt to crochet thanks to this book?

Nomnom chose the colors and I had the pleasure to crochet it for her during the recent breastfeedings. Eshchar is a precious gift!

2.6.11 Wild Rose Hair-clip for Nomnom's 26th birthday

Wild Rose by Lesley Stanfield from the book "100 flowers to knit and crochet", p.81.

The 4 stamens are French knots (7 yarn over each).

5-10.2.11 Ehud Booties

These booties were knitted based on the “Page 81 Booties” instructions by Susan B. Anderson in her book “Itty-Bitty Hats”, embellished with crocheted Plain Pansy Flowers, designed by Suzann Thompson and published in her book “Crochet Bouquet” on pp. 63-64.

I used for the booties a doubled thread of Teddy’s wool yarn, long tail cast on of 19 sts for the 3-6 month size and 2 squares for each booty as for Rom booties, but this time, one pair in light blue and the other pair in Capri Blue. The flowers were crocheted with a 2mm size hook size and cotton thread (50gr/125m).

While knitting this project, I was really nervous. I started with 21 COs which turned out to be too much and had to start all over again with only 19 COs. The final result, after the sewing part (grrrr....) and thread hiding (too many of them!) before adding the flowers, came out a bit distorted and uneven, even if I did my best to have exactly 4 identical squares. Though the knitting is simple and the shape is cute, I wasn’t happy with the time spent via the “unperfect” result due to the sewing part (which I really tried to do the best I could :-().

24.1-5.2.11 Chipopo Monkey - based on Chimu Hamada's Monkey & Betsi Brunson's Banana

Daffi's brother had 3 monkey dolls. One day, when he grew up and had to leave the country, he gave to Daffi one of them to take care of. Daffi keeps the monkey in her car and one day when she picked me up I saw this adorable monkey. I also wanted a monkey for poupik, so I started burrowing Ravelry and above is the result of the very fun project it became. Omer just loves Chipopo!

I added the banana, based on the free instructions of the ”Amigurumi Monkey with Banana”.

The V shape on the front head was done by 11sc on the first brown round of the Monkey head and then decreasing to 9st, 7st, 5st, 3st, 3st, 2st and 1st. The decreases where done in the beginning and end of the rows (2sc dec). It came out a kind of hanging triangle that I attached through the last sc st, by sl-st and then sl-st the 2 triangle edges that were lying on the face.

The legs, the arms and the tail were all stuffed during the work and some parts also contain some French Franc coins :-)

In the legs part, at Round2, I replaced the 3rd st with a 4 trebble bobble st.

In order to make symmetric legs, when I made the Right leg, I crocheted Round 5 as follow: 10sc, (2sc dec)x4 and Round 6: 6sc, (2sc dec)X4.

Got inspired by the beautiful monkey done by Kala’s Valentine’s Monkey.

Real cool project!

28-30.12.10 Little Button Loafers by Sylvia Schuchardt

Aren't they so cute?

I hope they won't be too small for poupik when he decides to come out.

I used a hook of 3.5 mm size.

When stitching the soles together, I used a hook of 4.5 mm and loose stitches in order to ease the beginning row of the shoe body. An important lesson I had, is that the work of the body is done CLOCKWISE, a critical information that I mistakenly ignored on my first 2 trials and I couldn't understand why the 2 booties where coming out so distorted??! I used a double cotton yarn to reach the proper gauge. For the strap, I added a one thread round with 2 mm hook of sl-st in the circumference, as I've seen several did in the finished Ravelry projects gallery.

For additional helpful information, check this link. One more lesson to take for the next booties is that I may need to try what roofth had said with regard to the shoe body , starting probably at the 5th or 6th stitch from the right instead of the 4th, in order to get the DCtog better aligned at the center of the booty for size number #1.

Finally, I find the result just adorable. Great design!

4.9.10 Starbust hotpad by Loretta Schepp

Many thanks to Loretta Schepp for sharing this beautiful crochet pattern for free. Click here for additional variations on Ravelry.

4.9.10 Columbines Brooches for Liliane and Claire

2 more "crochet bouquet" columbine flowers (1st, 2nd, 3rd)...

22.3-13.4.10, 6.8.10 Sunflower Brooch for Neora and Sunshine award from Andrea

Finally, I finished Nicky Epstein's Sunflower from the "Crocheted Flowers" Book, pp.17-19.
Here it is next to the sunflower from the "crochet bouquet" book:

I took this opportunity to publish a prize I have kindly received from Andrea's Bead Fancywork and ashamed it took me so many months to react to (Sorry Andrea :-( ).
So first, thank you so much Andrea for thinking about me and bringing me this award!
and now it's my turn to pass it on...

19 Feb 2010

The prize is the Sunshine award and here are the rules for accepting it:

• put the logo on your blog or within your post
• pass the award onto six bloggers
• link the nominees within your post
• let the nominees know, they have received this award by commenting on their blog
• share the love and link to the person, from whom you received this award

One of the reason it took me so long to react to this award is that I have a giant mess with links of blogs that I didn't find the time to update in my blog list.
Unfortunately, I still haven't find the time for it, so as to be able to visit them all again and see who are my actual favorites.
Therefore, in order to react to this award when I am still alive, I will add some blogs that pop in my mind which I encountered recently. These are beautiful and inspiring blogs, while I do not forget there are many other favorites blogs/sites and artists that I love.

Ta da... so in this round, the six fortunate bloggers that I do not expect to necessary forward this ward if it become a neck-pain
are...

1. "Vezsuzsi Gyongyei" - Zsuzsi V. - for her endless creativity, originality, productivity, young mind, color choice, beads choice and for her various crafts & arts talent.
2. "Les perles de Phylomene"/"Bravigou" - for her royal, original, inspiring, out of the box stunning beaded creations and poetry talent.
   
3. "Le Gioie di Happyland" - Claudia, for being a gorgeous person, a generous talented artist, beading original, creative, neat, impressing, luxurious and cute designs - productively!
4. "Perlenfieber "- you are dismissed from forwarding the award ;-), I know you hate this. For her originality, charming fruits and floral designs, such as the pumpkins, the squash and lilacs necklace.
   
5. "Creations Laure"- for her beautiful and impressing designs, majestic color choice and generosity.
6. "Flymouche" - for her beautiful, happy, colorful and original designs and creations.
   
7. "Katyperles"- for her beautiful, colorful and original creations with her special twist.
   
8. "Krisz design"- for her beautiful color palette that renders each jewel stunning even when simple.
   

Congratulations all!