Easter Crochet Doilies

after having seen this gorgeous little doily on numerous blogs and websites for quite a while, I was delighted to see the cover of this book Crochet Living by Nicki Trench recently. I must have been hiding under a stone not having found this earlier, and I ordered right away.

then the fun part started; selecting colours for my own Easter version of these doilies. I used my stash of left over Catania yarns, cotton instead of wool and a slightly lighter weight than the recommended Debbie Bliss baby cash merino yarn. adding yellow to the selection was new to me and I still have to get used to it haha, but Easter without yellow seemed odd to me.

I loved making them, playing with colours and the pattern is very well written and rather simple. they recommend to block the final doily, but I actually like those scallops popping up so I'll leave them like this. up next, maybe some matching egg cozies?

have you been thinking about decor for Easter lately? any crochet plans included?

Last Week

another week has gone by and unintentionally I didn't blog. days seem to pass by like hours… 

I am enjoying them greatly though, in good company and with lovely weather. a little bit of Spring cleaning and de-cluttering here and there feels good. fixing the sleeve Floyd chewed a bit was easier and quicker done than I thought. fun times exploring new places and spaces in Den Bosch, taking the blossoms all in, and crocheting up some Easter themed pastel doilies. the pattern is from the lovely book Crochet Living by Nicki Trench, one of my favourite designers. it's a book made with Debbie Bliss yarn and the doilies are named Dashing Doilies. the colour possibilities are endless, I love them.

I will try to arrange a blog post about the doilies and Den Bosch this week. 

But first I'll enjoy a latte in the sunny backyard. Life is good!

xo

Crochet Popcorn Flower Update

a little update on the popcorn flower squares. there are 8 now, exactly halfway the front of a little cushion cover for our newly upholstered midcentury chair. we choose a tweed fabric with grey, green and blue tones. I must say the popcorn flowers match perfectly. in the image above, the flower squares are positioned on the smallest cushion I have. although I think even that one is still too large for the 4x4 flower squares pattern. 5x5 is too large for sure and I don't plan to make a large of cushion for this little chair. I'll probably end up making the inner cushion a little smaller.

the flowers are coming together slowly but surely and I think joining them with the grey yarn will be very nice. the back will probably be made of fabric, but let's not get too much ahead of things.

the flowers are made with alterations to this pattern. my version of it:
* make 2 US UK chain in between the popcorns instead of 3. NL haak 2 losse tussen de popcorns in plaats van 3
* the edging is made of 3x 2 US half double crochet UK half treble crochet in between the last round of popcorns. NL de rand bestaat uit 3x 2 halve stokjes tussen de popcorns van de laatste ronde.
* in the corners: US half double crochet, double crochet, chain 2, double crochet, half double crochet. UK half treble crochet, treble crochet, chain 2, treble crochet, half treble crochet. NL in de hoeken haak je een half stokje, stokje, 2 losse, stokje, half stokje

by making the edging of half double crochet instead of double crochet, the flowers will come closer together when you join the squares. let's see how that works out in the coming weeks.

xo

Powder Coated

powder coated is what these coasters seem to me. especially with the little light we get from one window at the front of our house, it makes it so mysterious and calm. pretty too, I must add.

this was another quick finish project. well actually is was majorly delayed since I started a try out of these squares from Simply Haken months ago. they have been patiently waiting in a bin, forgotten and alone. until we accidentally broke one of our stone coasters. and since we tend to drink latte with water on the side, we were kind of fighting over the second coaster. I went upstairs to my craft room and found these two. 

the ends were woven in quickly and I decided on a simple, plain back colour for both with Catania cotton. the back squares are basically a regular square, with the last row made of clusters of 5 US triple crochet UK double treble crochet NL dubbele stokjes. attach them by adding a US UK slip stitch NL halve vaste in between the clusters of 5. in the corners I added 3 US UK chain stitches, NL losse, to give them a little extra touch. I tend to do that more often, apparently I like to mark corners when I crochet haha.

et voila, there you go. two extra coasters, and one WIP less. very quickly done, a win win situation, everybody happy. now that's the way I like it!

xo

Spring Doily and a Little Pattern

it's been a while since I shared my doily love here on the blog, but no worries, it's still there. 

this doily is a pattern from the Simply Haken magazine, I showed it to you in this post. last week I finally managed to weave in the ends and block it.

so I guess this is a mini tadaa. I quite like the shape of the doily and for a change I have had it on my table since it was blocked. this is the first doily I made and actually use. I have my coffee or tea on it beside my computer and it makes me smile. it must be the Spring colours. the final edging in white was not in the pattern, so I wrote it out for you in the image above. I used scraps of regular Catania cotton together with hook size 3 mm, resulting in a rather large doily with a diameter of 23 cm, 9 inches.

doesn't it almost look edible? like candy?

talking about patterns, I shared some news on Instagram and Facebook today you might want to check out…

Crochet Hearts Tutorial

the heart garland is finished and very much to my liking I must add. thank you all for thinking along, suggesting good ideas and supporting me.

it was not the typical start-and-there-you-go project. it was more the this-might-not-work-out-at-all project. which makes me extra happy it did work out. 

I ended up combining three different types of yarn ~ Scheepjeswol soft fun, Einband and Léttlopi yarns, and two different techniques ~ crochet around wire and felting. the how-to details of each heart are written in the image below and the crochet pattern in both English and Nederlands for the felt hearts can be found at the bottom of this post. 

the hearts are joined with a needle and some thread, just 2 stitches per joint somewhere in the top half of the sides, I didn't count the stitches for this. just eye ball it and it will work out perfectly.

the felt hearts may seem a little long at first, however when you hang the garland they will be stretched. if they stretch too much to your liking, you can always add a little wire at the back. I alternated wire and felt hearts for more stability and it seems to work.

the wire hearts are done on a very thin and flexible iron wire. crochet single crochet or half double crochet stitches around the wire until the length is enough to make a heart shape. join the wire ends, shape into a heart (or something else of course) and weave in the ends.

well, I am ready for Valentine! I hope you'll enjoy the patterns.

Happy Valentine to you xo

the poster is from a fashion magazine, probably 2 years old. most likely the adjacent page gave information of the artist/ author, but I didn't keep it. unfortunately I can't give you more information on that.

pattern medium heart:

1 ~ chain 60, close with slip stitch in first chain. make sure the chain does not turn!

2 ~ chain 1, single crochet (replace single crochet with half double crochet in this pattern if you'd like a thicker texture) in the next 20 stitches

3 ~ 2 single crochet stitches in the next 3 stitches

4 ~ single crochet in the next 4 stitches 

5 ~ crochet the next 2 stitches together (insert hook in stitch, yarn over and pull through, insert hook in next stitches, yarn over and pull through, yarn over and pull through all loops on hook)

6 ~ skip 2 stitches

7 ~ chain next 2 stitches together. you have now created the centre of the heart. the pattern will repeat in reverse:

8 ~ single crochet in the next 4 stitches

9 ~ 2 single crochet stitches in the next 3 stitches  

10 ~ single crochet in the next 20 stitches, close with slip stitch in first single crochet. weave in ends, machine wash on 40 C on a short cycle. repeat cycle if you like it to felt more. note: don't wash the heart by itself in the machine, always add a towel or two. hold the heart in a little laundry bag like you use for bra's and stockings.

pattern large heart:

1 ~ chain 80, close with slip stitch in first chain. make sure the chain does not turn!
2 ~ chain 1, single crochet (replace single crochet with half double crochet in this pattern if you'd like a thicker texture) in the next 25 stitches
3 ~ 2 single crochet stitches in the next 4 stitches
4 ~ single crochet in the next 8 stitches
5 ~ crochet the next 2 stitches together (insert hook in stitch, yarn over and pull through, insert hook in next stitches, yarn over and pull through, yarn over and pull through all loops on hook)
6 ~ skip 2 stitches
7 ~ chain next 2 stitches together. you have now created the centre of the heart. the pattern will repeat in reverse:
8 ~ single crochet in the next 8 stitches
9 ~ 2 single crochet stitches in the next 4 stitches
10 ~ single crochet in the next 25 stitches, close with slip stitch in first single crochet. weave in ends, machine wash on 40 C on a short cycle. repeat cycle if you like heart to felt more. note: don't wash the heart by itself in the machine, always add a towel or two. hold the heart in a little laundry bag like you use for bra's and stockings.

patroon medium hart:

1 ~ maak een ketting van 60 losse, sluit met een halve vaste in de eerste losse. zorg ervoor dat de ketting niet draait!

2 ~ 1 losse, een vaste (voor een dikker resultaat, vervang de vaste in dit patroon door halve stokjes) in de volgende 20 steken

3 ~ 2 vaste in de volgende 3 steken

4 ~ vaste in de volgende 4 steken

5 ~ haak de volgende twee steken samen (steek de naald in de steek, haal de draad om en terug door de steek, steek de naald in de volgende steek, haal de draad om en terug door de steek, haal de draad om en door alle lussen op de naald)

6 ~ sla de volgende 2 steken over

7 ~ haak de volgende 2 steken samen. je hebt nu het centrum van het hart gemaakt, hierna vervolgt het patroon van stap 1-4 in omgekeerde volgorde:

8 ~ vaste in de volgende 4 steken

9 ~ 2 vaste in de volgende 3 steken

10 ~ vaste in de volgende 20 steken. sluit met een halve vaste in de eerste vaste. werk de draadjes weg, was het hart in de machine op 40 graden op een kort programma. herhaal het programma als je wilt dat het hart verder vervilt. let op: was het hart nooit alleen in de machine, doe er altijd een handdoek of twee bij. was het hartje in een waszakje zoals je ook gebruikt voor bh's of panty's.

patroon groot hart:

1 ~ maak een ketting van 80 losse, sluit met een halve vaste in de eerste losse. zorg ervoor dat de ketting niet draait!
2 ~ 1 losse, een vaste (voor een dikker resultaat, vervang de vaste in dit patroon door halve stokjes) in de volgende 25 steken
3 ~ 2 vaste in de volgende 4 steken
4 ~ vaste in de volgende 8 steken
5 ~ haak de volgende twee steken samen (steek de naald in de steek, haal de draad om en terug door de steek, steek de naald in de volgende steek, haal de draad om en terug door de steek, haal de draad om en door alle lussen op de naald)
6 ~ sla de volgende 2 steken over
7 ~ haak de volgende 2 steken samen. je hebt nu het centrum van het hart gemaakt, hierna vervolgt het patroon van stap 1-4 in omgekeerde volgorde:
8 ~ vaste in de volgende 8 steken
9 ~ 2 vaste in de volgende 4 steken
10 ~ vaste in de volgende 25 steken. sluit met een halve vaste in de eerste vaste. werk de draadjes weg, was het hart in de machine op 40 graden op een kort programma. herhaal het programma als je wilt dat het hart verder vervilt. let op: was het hart nooit alleen in de machine, doe er altijd een handdoek of twee bij. was het hartje in een waszakje zoals je ook gebruikt voor bh's of panty's.

Tadaa: Pompom Scallop Scarf

the pompom-scallop scarf is finished ~ yay!

and I must say I am very happy with it 

it's texture ~ warm and wooly yet not itchy

it's length ~ not too long and perfect to wear indoors

it's colours ~ they go very well with jeans, grey, black, dark blue, it goes with all tones I wear basically.

the pompoms worked out as a cute little touch, they make me smile.

details for you if you'd like the Pompom Scallop Scarf yourself:

this scarf is made of one ball (50 gr) of each of the following Bergère de France ~ Berlaine colours:

red ~ bisque 25298

pink ~ bouquet 29213

purple ~ violine 23624

brown ~ cafe 21622

blue ~ vert d'eau 24601

I used a crochet hook size 4.5 mm, that's larger than the suggested 3.5 mm. with this larger hook the shawl became more flexible, fluffy and wearable.

the scarf measures 21x150 cm which equals 8x60 inches

the scallop pattern is perfectly done by Sandra on her blog here. I wanted the scallops to hang with their points down on both ends of my neck, therefore I ended up making two half scarfs and joined them.

I made two half scallop parts, as long as I could alternate the colours in the pattern I choose. 23 scallops on each half part to be exact. with the left over yarn I made stripes, still working on the two halves. the stripes vary in colour but are the same size. in the middle I joined them by picking up the loops on one end and make single crochet stitches all along, in red on one side and blue on the other.

bottom edging: attach same coloured thread to the corner of your scarf. make sure you are facing the front of the bottom scallop when making this edging. repeat *slip stitch, single crochet, half double crochet, treble crochet, chain 2, slip stitch in top of treble, double crochet, half double crochet, single crochet*. 

pompoms: attach contrasting coloured yarn in chain 2 loop, chain 2, bobble stitch of 7 double crochet leaving last loop on hook, yarn over and pull through all 8 loops on hook in once. chain 1 and weave in ends. 

happy day to you!

xo