It’s nearly the end of the second week of the Mandala CAL so I thought I’d share some more pictures. I wish I’d taken a picture after every round as it looks so different after each one is added!
And this is it currently, after 19 rounds (out of 31). It measures 24.5cm across. You can see the little hearts now and the beginnings of the big hearts!
I’m having great fun making it 🙂
This month it’s been mainly about booties, lots and lots of them!
And I also took part in the Valentines charity crochet challenge from Sunset Crochet and made this hearts hat and boot set with hearts 🙂
It’s the end of the month already, and time for the February Crochet-Along link up!
This month we had a choice of three projects, all with a Valentines theme; an envelope, a Danish heart or a cupcake.
I chose to do the Danish heart which is made from a free pattern found here.
I think traditionally you make them in three different sizes, but I have just made the one.
It’s very interesting how starting from two oval shaped pieces you end up with the finished heart. When I was making each individual oval, since they have two slits/gaps in the middle for the weaving, they did look a little odd. It did look a little like I was making some dodgy crochet underwear, and when asked “What are you making?” the answer “It’s a Valentines thing!” did not help at all!!
Comparing my finished heart to the original in the pattern I think my weaving is a little wrong which makes it look like there is more white than red, but I finished it, and it’s something a bit different, and it looks OK 🙂
Tomorrow (or more likely Saturday because of the time difference) we find out what March’s crochet-along pattern is. Come and vote and join in on the Curious Pug blog.
I do like a crochet – along, and this one looks really interesting. The finished article (a mandala) is created using overlay crochet to create patterns.
Before we started we had to select our 4 ombre colours (yes, I did have to go look that word up in the dictionary!) and 2 complimentary colours. I wanted to use colours I already had, so went for cream, yellow, orange, brown as my 4 and green and blue as my 2 complimentary colours.
At the moment I am halfway through round 7 (out of 31). I have done some overlay and surface crochet before, but the needle join method it uses to join each round is something new. I like it, it doesn’t leave the obvious join that slip stitching into the first stitch does.
It’s looking pretty:
Because I’ve used 8-ply cotton with a 3.75mm hook it’s going to be pretty big once it’s done!
I shall post some more pictures once I get a bit further in the pattern 🙂
I’m a few days late as it’s already February! Whilst everyone else was linking up I was still not even half way, and then I got a little side-tracked sorting out my post for the Sew Fab Pattern Sale (which if you’ve just popped over from the crochet-along link up you should soo check out, even if it’s just to enter the givaway 🙂 ).
But finally, I’m done and have photos, so better late than never, here goes!
This month’s project was a pair of slippers and the project is from a blog called Goodknits.
I was tempted to go multi-coloured rainbow stripes like I did with my hat last month, but decided in the end that that would be a little OTT and to stick with the more traditional one colour with a contrasting trim.
They were actually a very quick make. From only having one foot half done when I should have been posting my finished slippers I managed to complete the rest in an evening.
I was also a bit hesitant to make footware, since I have quite wide feet that are apparently slightly larger than the average female, but after some time converting between international shoe sizes (it would be soo much easier if the world used one standard set of sizing for shoes, and clothes for that matter!) it seemed that the pattern ought to fit as it was written without me having to make any alterations to it.
So here they are, my finished slippers: 
The buttons I went out and bought especially as although I have a large tub of buttons, finding two the same that matched my slippers didn’t seem possible!
The only thing I would change would be to add some non-slip stuff to the bottom, but since I would probably only where them when I’m sat down in the evening these are fine as they are for now 🙂
They even got the ultimate seal of approval: “I like your shoes Mummy!”
I’m looking forward to February’s crochet-along – it has a bit of a Valentine’s theme!
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A free online class from Craftsy.com
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Graphic design by Andrea Panell.
Other stuff you ought to know:
In the three months from January to March the Dolly Drive is hoping to collect 1000 handmade soft toys to distribute to children’s hospitals around Australia.
These are my contribution to their collection. They are Mushroom Rattles, made from a Dolls and Daydreams pattern. They have two little bells in the head of the mushroom and three ribbon roots attached to the bottom.
It’s a lovely easy pattern and was a great way to use up the odds and ends of some pieces of fabric I had.
I hope they brighten the days of some poorly children 🙂
After making the tiny baby hats for the 12 Days of Christmas Challenge, I decided to carry on making crochet items for charity. These are the things I made in January:
There’s lots of little tiny hats and little tiny shoes/booties, cocoons, …
… a sewn NICU smock, mini minky ribbon comforters, more hats and booties, …
…a crochet koala, some little trousers and even more hats and booties!
I posted them all in a big box to the Australian Outback Baby Project on Wednesday 🙂
I cut out the pieces to make this bag last July, and they’ve been sitting on the ‘to do’ pile ever since!
Finally I got round to digging them out and finishing it off. It started off as a pile like this:
And after several days of working on it it ended up like this:
It is made from a pattern by Pattern Play. I used this blue monkey fabric with plain blue for the inside and straps.
The one adjustment I made was to add a drawstring at the top as I thought it would hold things in better than just a flap with vecro:
I used iron-on letters on white felt to add a name onto the top of the front pocket:
The straps on the back are adjustable using the metal rings:
After a bit of persuasion I managed to convince my little monkey to model his new monkey backpack for the camera:
He seems to like it! 🙂
New shorts for the new year!
I used a pair of shop-bought trousers to draw round to make the pattern pieces and finished these in an afternoon:
Perfect for our little Dr Who fan!
With a ribbon tag at the back so he can put them on the right way round himself:
With lots of Daleks and TARDISes (anyone know the plural of TARDIS?) on the back too:
We had to have an early morning trying on session:
Standing on the bed to admire them in the mirror!
They’re definitely a big hit – he wants trousers in this fabric too now! He appreciates his Mummy-made clothes 🙂
