(A Lot) More Crochet in Lisbon and A Little Giveaway

Happy New Year To You and Your Loved Ones! To live up to my resolution of blogging more often, it seemed a positive start to be posting on the very first day of the year.

Let me now first explain this Granny Galore to you... I didn't make this vibrant blanket myself. (I wished!) However, when I was in Lisbon I stayed part of my time there in a lovely apartment. One where I had stayed before. It's an old, very spacious and airy apartment, flooded in light, lovingly restored by owner Joana, who is an architect and who also acts as a host together with her mother Martha. Both are the most welcoming people you can imagine. If you're planning a visit to Lisbon I can really recommend this place, you can book here via Airbnb. But I haven't told you the reason I chose this apartment. Well, in one of the pictures I saw a beautiful vintage granny square blanket, so that was that, choice made! ;-) It was this blanket...

And a great choice it was! When Martha heard I was into crochet she gifted me two lovely doilies. I still treasure them on the board above my desk. She also showed me this vintage pink popcorn blanket. It's just a quick snapshot with my phone, but isn't it a beauty...?

When I returned recently, a good 1.5 year later, she not only remembered my love for crochet, but she had a huge stack of doilies waiting for me to admire and two other beautiful blankets. What's more, she insisted I took some doilies and a blanket of my choice home with me. The kindness! I was seriously tempted to accept this generous offer, but travelling light as always, I had not enough room in my suitcase for a blanket. ;-) These are those blankets... (Pictures, again, taken with my phone.)

Aren't they amazing? Imagine the many, many hours that it must have taken to make these...

Below a compilation of the doilies, photographed against a concrete background.

You'd think that's enough crochet to make my heart sing. And it was. But even so, my crochet luck didn't end there... In one of the retrosaria's (haberdashery and yarn shops) I discovered a wobbly pile of old crochet mags, tucked away in a dark, dusty corner. I bought two. (Which I will show another time here - still have to make some decent pictures of them.) I might go back next time to buy the rest of the pile. ;-)

Which reminds me that, from a previous visit to Lisbon, I still have another magazine waiting for a little giveaway that somehow never happened. It's the one below, with classic patterns for filet crochet. You could of course tweak the patterns a bit, and give them a modern twist by using a sturdier yarn and other colours. It contains 62 patterns, mainly doilies, but also other items, like curtains. Since every pattern has a chart, you don't have to know any Portuguese.

Interested? Leave behind a comment before January 6th and I will pick a winner.

I'd like to end this post with my favourite sunset - ever. Lisbon. In pastels. Of course.

Many thanks for your kind visit and I hope we'll have many more online encounters in this new year.
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Pastels do Lisboa

Not sure if this title is correct Portuguese... [Update: I'm informed it's not. ;-) It should have been Tons pastel de Lisboa. Thanks for pointing me to the correct wording!] I very recently came back (again!) from a stay in Lisbon and was (again!) totally inspired by the amazing light and the gorgeous colours everywhere. Pastels mainly!

I did my usual tour of retrosaria's (yarn & haberdashery shops). I bought this organic cotton yarn called For Nature (from the Portuguese brand Rosários4) and a piece of this most lovely flowered cotton (here in the background), in matching colours.

When I was there I crocheted this doily. The pattern is not mine but from a Japanese crochet book. (I'm sorry, I don't have the title.)

This is where I got my inspiration from colourwise... (I did not bring my camera, so here is a compilation of snapshots I took with my phone.)

I could certainly see this colours in my crochet. :-) What a lovely and inspiring city Lisbon is. Wonderful! I have another post lined up about it... (And I am planning to go back there for even more inspiration. Ha!)

♦♦♦ Many thanks for your kind visit... I wish you lovely, animal friendly, crafty and stress free days!♦♦♦

Travel Chitchat

Hello there, I hope you had a lovely (long) weekend. Although I'm back home again - picking up my daily routines and work - I still owe you some last yarny travel stories.

Let me start with my travel doilies, I made these with cotton I couldn't use for my Travel Blanket. (Picture made with my phone.)

I especially like to the pink one. Both patterns are taken from Japanese crochet books. Ah... those Japanese crochet books... That must have been one of the best surprises of Thailand - only yarnwise speaking of course! - the incredible choice of Japanese crochet books on sale. Most of them translated in Thai - which is fine because I speak neither Thai nor Japanese so I'm using the charts anyway. However, there are several Japanese bookstores which a huge selection of craftbooks. So I also bought a couple of them in the Japanese language. Have a look at my choice... Patterns for hats, bags, doilies, wraps, scarfs, blankets and lots of trims and edges - you name it!






















Pretty good, don't you think? ;-) I made a lovely pair of mittens from a pattern taken from one of these books, I'll show them here soon.

Also, while still travelling I started playing with my hemp yarn. It soon became clear that whatever I'm going to make with it, it will be very delicate. The yarn is at some points so thin it breaks just by looking at it. But the texture is rather nice I think. I'm using my 2.7 mm crochet hook - another of my travel souvenirs.

I especially liked the circles. However, after two circles a major drawback occurred: my fingers were indigo blue... And not a little bit either... So I guess that before continuing I have to do something about this, or the white soon will not be white anymore. Maybe rinsing the blue circles in cold water with vinegar? Mmm, not sure if I'll bother to do that any time soon...

Oh, and before I forget, there's one really good travel tip I'd like to share with all you fellow-crocheters. Take dental floss with you! For example on the plane where you're not allowed having scissors with you. It's ideal for cutting yarn. I used it for cutting cotton and acrylic - maybe it worked even better than my special craft scissors... Anyways, I can't recall where I read that tip for the first time (it wasn't my own idea), but I did make a small visual reminder. ;-)

Okay, I guess that's it for now. I'll have another post lined up already (how organised for once...), so I will be back soon! Thanks for visiting.
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Crochet Everywhere

Today I thought I'd share with you a few of the crochet works I came across. Below you see the crochet converted van of a yarn shop, something of a small chain here. They use it as their market stand.

I think it is safe to say that crafty Thailand is very crochet orientated, more so than knitting. (Contrary to what the sign on the picture above suggests.) When you go to a market, you'll often see - female - vendors crocheting behind their stand. A lot of shops sells crochet items. Sometimes really nice, but other times I feel like abandoning this beautiful craft.

One shop I have to share with you is Bantaktor. It is from a crochet cooperative of which about 60 women are part of. They had some cute knitted items but it was mainly about crochet. The lady working in the shop was very friendly and informative. She told me most of the participants work without patterns. Also they only use cotton of a good quality. Find them online here.

I really like these bags that are partly plastic netting and partly cotton.

Another favourite of mine is this traditional woven basket (you find them a lot around here). Here however with a crochet jacket. Love the brown-blue combination.

In a corner of the shop there was this little workspace. See how the kitchen whisks are used? Nice!

In another (small) shop I found these boho bags. The mother of the shop owner made them.

Thanks for travelling a while with me!
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Yarn!

Did I succeed in my quest for local cotton yarn amidst the abundance of acrylics?
But of course!

It wasn't easy, but - through sheer dedication for the cause. Ha! - I found a few places where gorgeous cotton was sold. Recently I'm quite smitten by greyish hues - especially after hooking my very pastel travel blanket I feel it's time for a change. So I bought mostly greys and earthy colours. Nevertheless, when I stumbled upon that gorgeous pink, I had to get it. I love the combination grey and pink.

Twentyfour Twentysix huge cakes of cotton yarn so far - and counting... So much for travelling light. :( The look and feel of this yarn reminds me a bit of Drops Paris, but it is slightly bulkier. I like that, because at home I find it hard to find cotton that is suitable for a plus 5mm hook. I'm guessing I could go as far as to use a 6,5 mm hook for this yarn. I hope so, because I feel a nice drapey blanket is coming up! Granny squares maybe? Starburst hectagons? Rectangulars?

Still, it's a pity that in country where bamboo is everywhere, there is no bamboo yarn - or hardly anyway, I didn't find any. The production of bamboo is more sustainable than that of cotton (the latter requires a lot of land and water), and the end product is very suitable for a tropical climate.

Having said that, I did stumble upon this really handspun nice hemp yarn. Not in a yarn store however, and they only had these varieties. It's nice to be able to buy something handspun for a change (because I don't use wool, that limits my options regarding handspun).

By the way, in addition to what I wrote about the local yarn stores in an earlier post, I have to add that I did come across a few that resemble the ones that are found in eg. Europe and the States. They mainly sell imported yarn. Pricewise: I could buy five of these fairly big cotton yarn cakes for less than the price of one ball of imported Katia cotton.

Apart from yarn I stocked up on my crochet hooks. Lots of small sizes that are not easy to get back home. Like 0.75 mm, 1.25 mm and 1,3 mm. The smallest one I bought is a 0,6 mm hook. It's tiny! How does one use it? With a lens? Since I took this picture, I've purchased quite a few more. (I've lost count, but I think it counts up to at least sixteen.) The hooks look very short on this picture but that because the needles are so huge...

Not only did I stock up on crochet hooks, but also on crochet books. But that's a different post altogether. ;-) Thanks for dropping by. I really appreciate your visit!
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Colours, Culture and Whatnot ~ Snapshots for Inspiration #2

Shortly after I wrote in my last post that I sometimes wonder if I can translate something I see into a crochet pattern, I came across this wall painting. Wow! I can easily see how I could translate this into a work of crochet... Actually, I might do just that sometime. This pattern has been on my to do list for quite a while and I really like these colours. It would be a perfect selfmade souvenir.

In Lampang these birds and flowers brighten up a temple wall. Simply love it.

Despite - our should I say due to? - its colourful attire this rabbit looks unhappy, don't you think?

I can see these tiles turning into an amazing crochet throw - colours, pattern, edging & all. What do you think?

The temples are so colourful...

 Love the colours of these noodles. Turmeric, I suppose.

Colourful lanterns are everywhere...

Gorgeous light in the early (well, not that early...) morning.



Thanks for your visit. Hopefully till soon!

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Colours, Culture and Whatnot ~ Snapshots for Inspiration #1

Thanks for the kind comments on my travel blanket! I haven't had the opportunity to give a reaction to the comment, but I will soon.

I use my phone and camera often to make a snapshot of what strikes or inspires me. Whether at home or while travelling. It can be anything really: a colour - or a combination of colours, forms, texture, an (often not intended) styling, light - or shadows, a book or even the pavement. The pictures in itself don't have any artistic pretention. ;-) Sometimes I wonder if can 'translate' something I like into a crochet pattern. Ha!

Today, and later this week, I will share just a few of these shots here.

Colours...

Shadows...

The print of my dress corresponded with the shadows in the gorgeous CM University Art Center. I tried to blend in. ;-)

Thanks for dropping by ~ see you soon!

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PS. Does anybody know what the name of that pink flowered tree is in the first collage? I'm quite smitten with it...)

Travel Blanket

Imagine... A sleepy provincial Thai town... An old wooden house, traditionally build with an elevated ground floor... The sun is about to set... Inside is breezy... But still it's hot... You hear the crickets chirping... Muffled voices from outside... The clattering of pans from the neighbouring house... In your simple teak room - lovingly decorated with local antiques - the swooshing of the fan ceiling...

Okay, got the picture? 'Cause this is the setting in which I present to you... My travel blanket!

Details
Yarn ~ Rio cotton from Lammy Yarns (which I usually use for my doilies, this was my first bigger project with it). The Rio includes one ball of blue/grey variegated cotton. I also used one colour from Hema (a Dutch shop) and one from Catania. Unfortunately I don't have the colour numbers available here...
Hooksize ~ 3.5 mm
Pattern ~ solid granny squares (if you google it you'll find many patterns for it), 64 in total (8x8 squares). I sewed them together front sides held together, then sewed the inner thread of the stitches together.
Edging ~ a simple picot edging in a shell-esque pattern. I like the result because it softens the austere character of the solid squares - without compromising on the overall squareness. ;-)
Blocking ~ I didn't, because I'm on the road!

I'm glad I was foreseeing to take quite some natural white yarn with me... I really needed it to complete the blanket! As you can see I still have some yarn left, which I didn't use because I wanted this blanket to be square. Also I wanted to use the bright pink to spice the blanket up, but I had too little of it to make it work. Travel doilies coming up, I guess...

As the sun was about to set the pictures are a bit dark. In the morning the colours are a bit brighter. Anyways... I hope you like it and I'll try to be back soon, because there are quite some yarny travel tales to share. Many thanks for visiting & take care!
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