Picture Problems

Well you might notice that I've changed the look of the blog - not through choice really, it's an attempt to sort out the awful picture quality issues I was having.  As you can imagine, I've wasted hours of my life on Google trying to figure out the problem, but I think it's because the old style blog layout didn't let me enlarge the pictures. I won't bore you with the details, but fingers crossed now we shall have some nice crisp photos.  And they're LARGE - HURRAH!!!!

 

So - here's my ripple cushion completed! This was really a test for the ripple blanket which I've just started (with the fabulous Stylecraft bag of goodness!).  I used this to gauge how big to do the blanked, by measuring the size of the ripple.

Here's how it's coming on - talk about bright and cheerful!  I guess the colours are so bright because it's Acrylic yarn.  Hopefully this means they won't fade with washing (or time).  You would never know that this is a synthetic fibre - okay, it's not got the feel of real wool, but it's very soft and tactile to work with and I don't think it looks particularly synthetic - apart from the colours!

(Hopefully, these are better pictures?)  Just to check, here is a re-posted picture of that yarn I got ...

The old picture (from my last post) was atrocious.  Phew!  Problem sorted :-)))

OMG!!!!!

 

Oh My Goodness - what is this?  Could it be a very large bag of yarn?  Ordered one (very late) night in a fit of yarny lust?

By Jove, it is!!!  17 balls of the most glorious colours you ever did see.  It is my shiny new, very first ever pack of Stylecraft Special DK, one in every colour - a pack put together by Attic24 and available from Deramores for an utter bargain price of less than £30 AND they are 100g balls!!  How about that for value?  The only downside here is that it is 100% Acrylic yarn - something I have always avoided like the plague, but spurred on my the praise heaped upon it by Lucy, and also wanting to attempt my very first blanket and not want to spend loads on expensive yarn, I decided to give it a go.

It's a shame that these pictures do not do it justice - again, I don't know why it looks like it's a bobbly yarn - it isn't, in fact it's lovely and soft and smooth.  Hopefully, you'll get an idea of the lovely colours though.

My only problem now is deciding on what combination of colours to choose to turn them into a gorgeous ripple blanket.  I sense a totally wasted afternoon looming ;-)

This idea helps - at least to keep a tab on what's what.  Obviously, the colours are readable, not blurred like these pictures (grrrrrrrr!).

AWFUL picture quality - I don't know why (I have a very expensive Olympus camera!!!).  Anyways.  Breathe.  Focus. 

Wooooooo-hooooooooo!!!!!!

Ripple Effect

Aaah, here I am, back after half term (week late in Wales), and I'm still on my cushion mission.  Actually, I'm working myself up to a crochet blanket but I decided to take Lucy's advice and try a 'test' piece for the ripple pattern which she so brilliantly (as always) describes how to construct on her blog.

I did once try this before but ended up with very wonky edges - probably because I didn't read the pattern properly.  This time, however, I got very nice straight edges (the sides, that is). Obviously, you get a wavy edge on the top and bottom, so I used this tutorial to make them straight again.  It isn't perfect (mine, that is) but I'm going to now work a border all the way round of probably triple crochet, perhaps twice, so that it's nice and straight and will fit my cushion pad, which is about a 20".

In fact, it's bigger than I wanted it and won't now be right for the lounge, but I think I'll give it to my son, who already has this, which I made for him a few years ago

This is a cushion made from knitted squares, stitched together. 

Looking at it, I even worked a grey and yellow border (sometimes I surprise myself), and then I backed it with a bit of red fleece blanket - you know those really cheap ones you can get in supermarkets? They are great for chopping up and using like this.  I think I'll use the same idea for the back of the ripple cushion, so they match. 

Then I'll put it in his bedroom and see if he even notices ;-)

Cushion Mission

You might remember my last instalment on the subject of cushions - I was going to use my new cotton tape yarn to attempt a replica of a design I had seen in a magazine.  Well, that didn't work out.  No particular reason, just didn't look that good.  Such is the hit and miss nature of ideas!  However, it has started me on a bit of a cushion mission. 

Sometime last year I made these two crochet cushions - just a simple granny square - but instead of doing the right thing and making a cushion cover I could actually remove, for some (stupid) reason I decided to simply crochet a grey granny square for the back and basically sew the cushion pad into the cover!  Lordy knows why I did this because after only a few months they were in desperate need of a wash and it then became apparent that I would have to completely destroy the seams in order to do this.  Doh!

So this weekend I decided to put this right.  I started by removing the cover (I had to cut the last round of crochet to do this as it was nigh on impossible to unpick it!) and washing the (by now, filthy) crochet fronts. 

 

 I then had the cunning idea of using old pillowcases as a slip cover for the feather cushion pads (again, laziness had ensued last time and I hadn't bothered doing this, resulting in me picking feathers off the settee on a daily basis).  I just turned the pillowcase inside out,  stitched a line at 16 inches (the size of my cushions), zig-zagged the seam edge and turned it back through.  Simple!

 

 

However, making the backing for the crochet cover wasn't quite as simple.  I used Lucy's tutorial on the subject - I pretty  much followed it step by step, starting with acquiring an old jumper from a charity shop, which becomes the cushion back.  I managed to filch a man's jumper, so I had enough for my 2 cushions (hurrah, for £2.49!).  After washing, I cut out my backs

 I pretty much eyeballed this bit.  You can't be too accurate with stretchy knits anyway ;-)  For each cushion I needed basically a piece 2/3rds the size of my front and then another one 1/3rd the size, but with a good overlap PLUS a good inch all the way round EXCEPT on the rib of the jumper which you will use for the finished edge on the biggest panel (as above).

 

First, zig-zag around all the raw edges, and finish one long edge on the smaller panel by turning under a 1 inch hem.  This will be where the buttons will go.

 

Then you overlap your two jumper panels (with the rib on top) and pin together (right sides facing up)  Now place your crochet on top with right side facing DOWN (i.e. right sides together).  Pin all the way round and

using some matching wool, over sew the two together.

You can now use the enclosure to turn the cushion the right way round.  Next, Lucy advises to use a small crochet hook to work a line of single crochet into the ribbed edge.  Well, a) I didn't have a small hook, and b) my jumper was pretty fine knit, so I simply placed a line of blanket stitch along the edge, using a large sharp needle.  I then worked a line of single crochet into this.

When you get to the end, you will work another line back, this time placing button holes (I strongly recommend you see Lucy's tutorial if you want to know how to do this properly!!).  It does involve some mathematics, which is why mine are not evenly spaced (ahem).

Then just add some colourful buttons!

 

Hurrah, a proper, removable cushion cover!  Or 2, as it turned out.  This basically took me an entire weekend, I have to say (including the washing and drying), but I am really chuffed with myself for putting this right and now I can whip off the covers, no problem.

Next up I am going to attempt Lucy's ripple pattern for a cushion cover and if that goes okay, possibly progress to a blanket.  Nothing like a bit of ambition, eh?

P.S.  Don't forget the Sewing Bee tonight!  BBC2, 8pm.

Sewing B!

No doubt you were all glued to your seats last night for the first episode in the second series of The Great British Sewing Bee - I know I was.  The boys (and the dog) were under strict instructions to "Shhhhh!" as I didn't want to miss a minute of it ;-)  I just love the fact that sewing has, at last, made its way into a mainstream, primetime television slot - it's no longer a secretive, nerdy pastime, but something to be proud about!  I think it was Heather (on the show) that said she has been sewing for years but never used to tell anyone about it for fear of being labelled "homemade".  I am absolutely in this camp.  I have sewed all my life but for about the first 35 years would rather have poked my own eye out than admit something I was wearing was made by me.  Now, thanks to the new craft trend championed by the the likes of Kirsty Allsopp, sewing is not just cool but something to be admired and gasped over.  The power of television has elevated it from shame to fame!  At last we can be proud of the work we do and have the confidence to truly enjoy sewing and knitting and crochet and all those other fabulous creative hobbies.  Hurrah!

Phew, gosh, let me just get down from my soapbox a moment ...

And tell you about a little bit of inspiration I clocked yesterday.  It's unfortunate that the school walk takes us past some shops and it's unfortunate that those shops might just, sometimes, be purveyors of magazines.  Apart from yarn and fabric and anything connected with the two, I am totally unable to pass by a rack of magazines without purchasing one.  It's an affliction I've had all my life - from Jackie to Smash Hits, Marie Claire to She and now, sadly, Country Homes and Interiors, Good Housekeeping and the like (what, middle-aged, me?).  Occasionally I will fall for the pages of what I consider to be magazine "porn" such as Mollie Makes or Knitting but they are usually expensive and I can usually find all I want in this department by browsing the internet.

This is all a very long-winded way of saying that yesterday.  I bought a magazine.  Again.  This time it was the new issue of Country Homes and Interiors which I still love to buy even though I no longer live in the country and no longer have a country cottage.  Whatever, we're splitting hairs here.  The March issue has some particularly lovely houses, the sort that I drool over, but it was tucked away in a quiet corner that I spotted this:

Yes, it's a crochet cushion, nothing new there.  This, for example is my crocheted (granny square) cushion on my sofa: 

And this is my crocheted (granny square) blanket (bravely trying to cover up my hideous suite):

What you might notice is GRANNY SQUARE which, until now, I hadn't even thought beyond when it came to cushions.  Aha! I thought.  And then I thought about this again:

My cotton tape bargain from last week.  Surely the perfect thing to use for what appears to be a fairly straight forward crochet cushion made from straight rows of treble crochet!  Hee Hee!  So this is how inspiration works folks, you see an idea and you copy adapt it!  Ahh, the brain works in mysterious ways.

Bagging a Bargain!

I think I've mentioned that I go to a knitting group in my local wool shop.  I really love going along because we all just sit and knit and knatter, drink tea and eat biscuits!  What better way to spend the afternoon, especially amidst this horrendous wet weather.  We sit in the warmth, surrounded by knitted bunting with tempting colours and textures all around us and a growing pile of creativeness on the table.

As you may imagine, it's quite a hard job to stop myself from buying up all the wool I can possibly carry home, especially as the table is laden with pattern books and all sorts of fabulous ideas for future projects.  I have to keep reminding myself - one at a time - because otherwise I will, and have been known to, start a hole host of new things and then never quite get round to finishing them.  Ahem.  It's a common problem with knitters and sewers and probably any creative pursuits.

However.  When somebody comes along and dangles this in front of your nose and whispers "it's a pound a skein for knitting group members" - well - it's simply not possible to resist.  Not possible, I tell you!  This is in fact a cotton tape and the skeins were 100g each and as you can see, the colours are just gorgeous.  Goodness knows what you could knit with this yarn, but as quick as a flash, I was thinking crochet.  Just last week I was browsing through a knitting and crochet magazine in the supermarket (before I spotted the outrageous price!) and there was a crocheted circular table mat which was beautiful but was made up in some sort of very thick string-like yarn which probably cost a lot of money.

I also realised that in fact it was just a flat circle, the pattern for which is available on Lucy's fabulous blog - for free (thank you Lucy). Well, within minutes my knitting needles were cast aside and the crochet hook was whipping up a storm!

I got 6 skeins of the green as I'm thinking a nice set of 6 for a Christmas present (plus matching fabric napkins, perhaps?).  I also got 2 pink and 2 of the purple to make little mats for the house, or perhaps little circles as coasters.  The mat above is 12 inches across and took about 2/3rds of the skein - about 70g.

So I got all of this fabulous goodness for the utter bargain price of £10. Simply. Not. Capable. Of.  Resisting.

P.S.  Sorry, did I just mention Christmas Present?!!