A bit of babble....

Hello!  How has your week been going?  Good, I hope.

We have been treated to a week of glorious weather here in Melbourne, it's been quite warm with clear watery blue skies and crisp nights, just lovely!  The sun has been streaming in our windows and onto my little work table, it's almost like Spring has arrived!  I am sure we will return to cold, wet days soon, but in the meantime I am making the most of the great days.  

The garden has been getting some attention, weeding and mulching has begun, and I am almost enthused enough to tackle the veggie patch.  Maybe next week.

I have decided to try and finish off a lot of 75% completed projects that I have squirrelled away in different places around the house.  I could probably stock 3 market stalls with all the unfinished things I have on the go! lol

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I rediscovered these stars that need sewing together. Tomorrow I am going to sew them up and hey presto I'll have 7 little stars to add to my flower tree on my stall! Yay! 

Next up will be edging for harlequin and cloud washcloths.  Hopefully I will have a nice pile of finished things to show you next week.

  

Tomorrow Gary is taking the boys to the snow for a day of skiing, so I will have the house to myself till late in the evening.  I wonder if it's a bad thing to stay in my pyjamas and crochet all day :)  I'm only joking, I'm sure I'll get dressed at some stage! lol. 

I probably should spend the day cleaning up our house, it seems I have completely lost control of the housework, we are living in a big mess and I just can't find the motivation to do a lot about it!  I think I'll try and wash the windows and floor.  One thing with all the sun at the moment is that I can see how dirty our windows are!  You never know, I could wake up full of purpose and achieve heaps tomorrow, yes that is what I'll do!  

But then again, it might be another beautiful day and I might just spend the day soaking up the sun!

On a complete tangent, I have discovered the joys of Instagram!  I know I'm late to the party, I opened an account ages ago then didn't do anything with it, but recently I have learnt how to 'do' Instagram and wow all the crochet over there!!  

Like I need another screen thing to spend my time on!!  :) lol   

I am littlewoollie over there if you want to say hello, I have to edit my profile and write something but I will do that soon, I have found a few names I recognise, I think I'll just mooch around the edges till I find my feet.  Still figuring out all the hashtags and commenting and what not.......

Anyway, what do you have planned for tomorrow?  

Have you had nice weather where you are?  

Are you a good housekeeper, or more sporadic like me?  

Are you into Instagram too?

Sorry for the rambling post, I'm sure I'll have something more interesting to chat about soon! :)

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

making.....

I have to say, I am still loving making washcloths!  Quickish, easy and colour filled, what's not to love I guess!  Kate over at Just Pootling has put together a lovely post in honour of the humble washcloth, There are lots of lovely examples out there in blogland, I think I will be giving everyone I know a little bundle of washers this Christmas!   I am enjoying the combo of red, pink and white in this one, I am going to use the softer pink as a border, what do you think?

And in other exciting (!) news I have  finally finished putting my little crochet star kits together.  It took me longer than I had thought, I couldn't decide how to package them, and then I started having doubts about the whole thing, so they just sat there for a few days.  But I have decided to just put them out there and see what happens.

I ended up wrapping them in brown paper ( you know, a few of my favourite things and all that..) and adding a couple of washi tape stripes for a bit of colour.

Nice and simple and low tech, but still a bit pretty.

I have made up two different colour combos to start with, one a Christmas Star, and the other I call a Sunny Star, in some of my fav colours, a combo I seem to use a fair bit!  I have a few other combos to try, but I will see how these two go first.

If you'd like to have a look at them I have put them into my shop today, ready to go!

I'd love to hear what you think of them and any improvements you could suggest. :)

What have you been making today? 

I'm joining in with Christina for Made by Hand today too.

Kit making....

One thing I know about myself is that I love a new idea.  

It doesn't take that much effort to distract me onto a new path. 

 So I often have lots of things on the go at various stages of completion. 

I don't forget my older projects, I just love starting new things.  

The beginning of a project is one of my favourite creative stages, so much enthusiasm and enjoyment.  Sometimes things stall a bit after that, and progress slows down, and I start thinking about different things and then I am distracted again!  

I have stuck with crochet though, too much to love to be distracted onto a different craft! :)

Crochet has been good for me in that often projects are small and quick and 'finishable' in that first enthusiastic stage.  I have completed more crochet projects than any other crafty endeavour I have had a go at before.

So today I have been working on a slow burn type project, that I started in a burst of energy a couple of months ago, then had to wait for some pieces to fall into place and lost a bit of momentum.  

But I am back onto it now!

I have been putting together little 'star making' crochet kits from the crochet stars that I made earlier in the year; winding wool onto bobbin cards, printing off instructions, making labels, and so on. 

 I am going to have to find a nice brown paper bag tomorrow to package 

it in, as the ones I had lined up are too small. :(

I am planning a couple of different stars, I have been doing a Christmas one today, and I will do a nice colourful one tomorrow.  I think they would make an easy fun project for a crafty person.

I really want to get these together and in my shop as soon as I can!  I am definitely trying to follow through on this idea! No Distractions!!

I will show you the finished kits as soon as I can, can't wait to get these done.

What have you been up to today?

Joining in with Christina's Made by Hand linky thing.

Crochet Star Making - A Tutorial.

Hello. I have been making crochet stars this week.  For no good reason really, just because they're fun to make.  So I thought some of you might like to have a bit of crafty fun too.  

These stars use up tiny amounts of wool, so get your scraps box out!

I used a mixture of hot colours....

.....and a nice mix of cool colours.

You need to make 10 star 'points' or diamonds ( 5for the front and 5 for the back).  You can do them in solid colours or use a varigated yarn or you could stripe them like I did by changing colours every 2 rows.

You can make your stars bigger or smaller by varying the number of rows or by changing the yarn weight and hook size you use. Just make 10 of the same size and you'll be fine!

(leave a long tail at the beginning so you can use it to sew up later)

BASIC DIAMOND PATTERN

Ch 2

row 1: 2sc into 2nd ch from hook, turn.

row 2: Ch1(turning chain) 1sc into first st, 2sc into 2nd st, turn.

row 3: Ch1, 1sc into 1st st, 1sc into 2nd st, 2sc into last st, turn.

row 4: Ch1, 1sc into 1st st, 1sc into each st across until last st, 2sc into last st, turn.

Repeat row 4 until you have 11 stitches. ( or as many stitches as you like, more stitches means a bigger diamond and finished star , less a tiny diamond and finished star)

Start decreasing.

The decrease pattern is as follows:

Ch1, sk1st st, sc into next st and each st across, turn.  (reduces by 1 st in each row)

Continue doing this to each row until you have 1 st left and fasten off.

Make 10 diamond shapes for each star.

Next, sew the bottom half of one diamond to the next diamond, right sides facing each other.  I found that by matching up the 'bumps and troughs' along the edge, I could sew in and out of these and it gave a nice neat, even join. (see where I have put the needle and pin through in the above photo, the pin is through a trough, and the needle is through the bump!) 

Anyway, it should look something like this when 2 are joined together......

......and something like this when it all 5 are sewn together.  Make 2 star pieces like this.

Next, push all the extra hanging threads in the inside and pin the 2 pieces together, wrong sides facing. 

Sewing your star together : I decided to crochet around my star pieces to join them, as I like the outlined effect this gives.

Take a smaller hook than the one you used for the diamonds, and choose a nice contrast colour yarn

(or complementary, what ever you like) and join your yarn to the top of a point and start sc through both layers of the star, all the way around until you have one side left open (see photo above), gently fill your star with stuffing, (try and get a bit into the pointy bits)...........

.......then continue single crocheting along the edge to close the opening and join with a slip stitch at the top to finish off. 

(see photo above). 

And there you have it, one completed, slightly puffy star!

You could sew a button in the middle if you want to hide the centre joins, but I like mine plain.

I think these would look lovely dangling en masse in a window or as a mobile for a baby, and I plan to make a heap for the Christmas tree this year!

I hope this tutorial makes sense, I never can tell when I am trying to explain things.

Happy star making!

( If you don't crochet but knit, there is a similar star that you can knit here)