Three Small Things - blanket, beanie, curly worm

<<< I bought 2m of this warm brown fleece last winter from Lincraft, thinking I could make myself a skirt or wrap dress which I didn't end up doing. So the other day I cut it in half, and then one half was cut in half again to make a 80x80cm square. I then edged it with blanket stitch in a contrasting blue cotton. I didn't do so well when I needed to sew in more thread. I'm sure there is a trick to it, I just don't know it. This is like the material the blankets are made of, and the nurses hospital are using these not crochet rugs which have been donated. But I don't think I'll edge the next one with hand-stitching, I might use my trusty sewing machine instead!

>>> I made up this beanie using the cream yarn from Wangaratta Mill, which is part of the Australian Country Spinners. If I ever sell anything I make, I would prefer to be using locally made yarn, much like this. I used a 4mm hook and the pattern has the ridges at the increases for the 1st 5 rounds. This one has a turned up brim of 3 extra rounds. I call it a "junior fisherman's hat" because the look of it reminds me of the beanies fishermen wear on their boats on cold, early mornings.

<<< This curly worm I made for a mobile I'm working on. Its a common pattern, I found one at Art of Crochet by Teresa. You just make a chain, then trb 4 times in ea ch. For a contrasting colour, I did a second round in red with 2 dc in ea trbl. You can make these into bookmarks, Christmas decorations, cats' toys or anything else you can think of. For this one, I used a 4.5mm hook and it just took me a few minutes, so it's a fun little project to do.

To catch a dream (three small things)

The last two weeks have been surreal to say the least, like a walking dream or day-mare. Some thoughtful soul gave this special beanie to David to give to me, it's what Thomas was wearing in the photo that was taken on his first day. Someone even printed up the photo so I could have it in my room. I didn't see Tom until the second day as I left the ICU to go to the maternity ward. I clung to this special little yellow beanie during my stay while I was away from my baby, I even imagined it smelled like him! I give thanks to the person who made and donated the beanie, and to the person who took the photos of Thomas wearing it, and also to the person who thought I might like to keep it when our baby went into the humidicrib and no longer needed to wear a beanie.

While we were in the maternity ward, on the meal tray was a paddle pop stick. We guessed they were meant to be for stirring tea and coffee, which we thought was a waste of wood. Imagine throwing all those not needed paddle pops away? What a waste of trees! So I collected a few and made some into dream catchers to pass the time. When we left the maternity ward and David went home to sleep, I told him to take the brown dream catcher to place above his bed. It is meant to be for good luck in catching your dreams so they can come true. I learnt how to make these from school, you just weave wool in and out, around the sticks.

Summer Drinks "Frangipani" Coasters

This is the last coaster set I'll do for now. I guess if anyone else wants one, I'll just get some more cotton and make more! But next time I buy cotton, I'll get some red, pink and purple so I can get different colour combinations. Below is a photo of the colours I used for this gift giving season.

It's fun to think of a name, a scene or season to match the colours and vice versa. I have done this last set because these three colours to me say 'frangipani' and I had enough of these colours left over. When I lived in Darwin there were a lot of frangipani trees about. They would loose all their leaves in the dry season, which is the north Australian equivalent of winter, but it really doesn't get very cold at all. Then as the wet season approaches, the trees would become full of flowers and the smell was gorgeous. Most of them were the yellow and white variety, some had a light blush of pink. And very rarely, there was a deep red variety which didn't seem to grow as thick but had the rich fragrance of a rose and was very special. The blue in this set represents the clear blue skies of the Darwin dry season.

I do not recommended this coaster set for red wine drinkers, as it's mostly white and yellow. If you spill red wine on these, soak in cool water immediately. Here are some more tips on how to remove red wine stains from cotton.

Next, to make some Christmas decorations and practice baking some home-made treats to share as gifts!

Seasonal Drinks "Summer" & "Autumn" Coasters

These are the first two sets of my Seasonal Drinks coasters!

For these ones, I picked seasonal colours for 'traditional' seasons, just due to the ease of what to call them and the colours to choose. Both of these coaster sets have the added bonus of bringing good luck and prosperity to the home due to the circular golden motifs, which represents money and coins.

The colours in my summer set of coasters represent the cool blue of swimming pools, backyard green lawns and lots of orange juice! I found inspiration on google images for Summer colours.

Autumn also had to have some orange, with a little bit of golden and green. Again, I found inspiration on google images, this time for Autumn colours. As often found in collections of Autumn colours, these represent the turning of the leaves from green to golden, to then dull and fall upon the ground, loosing the bright colour as winter approaches ...

Coming next - Seasonal Coasters "Winter" & "Spring"

Summer Drinks "Sandy Beach" & "River Boat" Coasters

Here are the second and third sets I've made for this Summer Drinks coaster collection, I call these colour combos "Sandy Beach" & "River Boat".

Sandy Beach is mostly light blue, for the shallow ocean. Sand is the second colour for the beach and white is for the waves. Or maybe it is white for the seagulls and shells?

A simple thing is choosing 3 colours to make a set of coasters, but these have an extra thought and meaning, to help transport the imagination on those hot summer days!

Navy and white are common sailor stripe colours and is the theme of the upholstery on our "River Boat", and of course it has timber decking!

Washing instructions are ‘Hand wash, do not bleach, dry flat in shade’. Choose the darker coloured coasters when drinking red wine.

Enjoy!

Winter Hat Collection 2010

Here is a gallery of all the hats and beanies I've finished so far!

I'm hoping to give some of these to family as gifts, I just don't know which ones they would like so I hope they can tell me! <3 <3 <3

I have already written on my blog about some of these hats, but I'll be posting more in future, explaining how I made them, the pattern and washing instructions for the wool.

[gallery columns="5"]

Simple Brown Handbag

I've quickly made up another chocolate-coloured handbag in case my sister doesn't like the other brown bag I made for her. This is my post for Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage. The materials transformed for this was about 50g of yarn and three buttons. Using a 3.5mm crochet hook it didn't take long at all, maybe one afternoon.

I was speaking to Jen last week and she mentioned she needed a little handbag just big enough to hold a couple of things so I've made another bag a little bigger than the last with a longer handle. This bag has a handle long enough that when on the shoulder the bag will hang down by the waist. I used a simple stitch, instead of the shell stitch I used in the first brown bag which made it a little wonky, so this was quicker to make.

By the way, I found out at the craft group I went to last week that the stitch I've been calling 'double crochet' is American for the UK stitch called 'treble crochet', which is the stitch I used mostly here. I'm thinking I will need to learn both crochet languages so I know the two names for each stitch. There are so many free patterns on the internet that are in American crochet, but my mother and the local craft group use British crochet, so it's best I know both!

Here's to hoping my sister likes at least one of these bags!

So MANY Fantastic Ideas at this weeks party, some day I'd really like to try these ones...

• recyled baby clothes made into a child's quilt @ Mother Lode


• recycled wine corks notice board @ I Can Find The Time


• recycled spice rack craft organiser @ Real Housewife in Minnesota


• child's number beanbags @ Lemon Tree Creations


• baby wrap if anyone in my life might have a need for that @ Canadian Rhapsody


• recycled old makeup child's toy @ Simply Designing

Simple Brown Beanie

On the way to my appointment in the city I whipped up this simple beanie on the train. It's 30 minutes there, another 30 back, plus waiting time, so all up it took less than 2 hours.

When I asked my S.I.L. what colours she'd like the beanies for her children to be she said 'dark colours' so I found this nice chocolate colour in my stash and decided to use that for one of them. Washing instructions for the wool is 'drip dry, non-shrink, colourfast, wash in warm water', it's 100% acrylic. For my beanies I start by making 4 to 7 rounds, each round increasing in size, with the 2nd round being 2 for every one, after that every round increases one less stitch than the previous round. Who I'm making it for will decide how many increasing rounds I do. Then I will stop increasing and make rounds the same size until I get to a length recommended by the beanie size chart.

So yes, for those interested in the update, I did catch the train to the city on my own for the first time in a couple of years. Poor David will have to find some other excuse to get time off work now! Yay for me :P

Cute, Small Brown Handbag

I'm really quite proud of how this turned out in the end, if I do say so myself!

At first I was worried how wonky it was, marrying up the edges evenly was a challenge. But because it was off-centre I was able to place the button enough to the side to appear intentional, and  I think the result is rather cute. I had several cute buttons to choose from as usual, all would match nicely, but I settled on the pearly tan coloured one.

When I told my sister Jenny that I could crochet simple handbags, she said she'd like one in 'earthy brown colours', hence why I chose this wool and button. I really hope she likes it because I made it with love and care, although I know it's highly likely the first thing she'll say will be to point out an imperfection. But you know sisters can be like that, hey? I used the shell stitch described in my Shell Crochet Pouch post, I just made it larger and added a handle, which was rather easy and fun!

Last Night's Cooking Adventures

After my failed attempt at making a crochet shrug yesterday, last night I was ready for the day to have some success. Nigella Lawson's instant chocolate mouse seemed really simple and I had all the ingredients ready. I was also going to give making a spinach and cheese filo pie a try, too. Surely the recipe on the packet would be one with a high success rate. They want me to buy their product again, right? Something was bound to succeed.

I just love the sight of the marshmellows melting with the chocolate and butter. Gorgeous, that's art right thar! And it was yummy, too. Teena was in charge of whipping up the cream, as we don't have an electric gadget for that. After finding a suitable bowl, the cream frothed up nice and goodly, this was bound to work out right. It was when we folded the chocolate into the cream that things went south. Down it flopped! The mixture was very runny, and after reading the written version of the recipe at Nigella's website, we worked out we should have waited a lot longer for the chocolate mixture to cool. But we had only watched the utube video, when the whole thing took just a few minutes, and she told us that it would. Anyway, now we have several ramekins full of a very yummy, very rich chocolate mixture that almost resembles mousse that we need to consume in the next day or two. And we are supposed to be on a diet! Making this was fun, but I don't think we'll be doing it again in a hurry. I have a feeling its going to make me put on 10 kg, just like that yummy baked cheesecake David made for my birthday 18 months ago. But I just Love Nigella Lawson, so much so that I think I can forgive her for not telling us more clearly that we needed to let the chocolate cool!

At least the spinach pie looked appetising enough when it came out of the oven. Admittedly, I did a real rush job on the pastry. It was all falling apart from being folded, so I put whole wads of it in, and didn't seperate the pieces properly by spraying each one. The filling turned out nice, just some of the pastry wasn't great due to my hurriedness. With the spinach, I just got a packet of baby spinach and wilted it in some boiling water from the kettle. No need to cook spinach, imho. Hopefully next time I make this, we'll be able to use the homegrown greens from our garden. We've been able to eat a few leaves of rocket on our lunches for the last couple of days, and they are very tasty! Recipes and fillo pastry hints below.

recipe summary - Nigella Lawson instant chocolate mouse
150g mini marshmellows
50g soft unsalted butter
250g chocolate buttons
4 tblspn hot water
280ml whisked cream with 1 tspn vanilla
fold COOLED chocolate mixture into the cream

Spinach Pie (based on Pampas packet recipe with slight variations)
fillo pastry
a bunch of spinach, chopped
a finely chopped onion
a handful of mint (fresh from our garden)
a handful of parsley (fresh from our garden)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 eggs
250g ricotta cheese
60g cheese (parmesan and/or grated tasty)
black pepper
olive oil spray

1. Wilt and drain the spinach, add all ingredients except pastry.
2. cut filo in half, spray 10 sheets to make a stack to cover bottom and sides of oven tray
3. spoon in the filling, cover with more sprayed and layered pastry stacks
4. bake in 180c for 40 minutes.

For my future reference, here's an excerpt of how to prepare fillo pastry properly so I have more success next time, from the Pampas website.
Fillo Pastry

• Always consult your recipe. The temperature will be approximately 190◦C conventional oven. The temperature and time for baking will vary depending on the recipe and your oven’s performance. Fillo Pastry is not suitable for microwaves

• For best results, line tray with baking paper, or lightly oil the baking tray

• Allow Pampas frozen Fillo Pastry to completely thaw in the plastic bag, in or out of the box at room temperature for approximately 2 hours

• Alternatively, for best results, allow Fillo to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and one (1) hour at room temperature. Do not apply heat to accelerate thawing. Pastry should not be thawed in a microwave oven

• Carefully remove the number of sheets required for your recipe

• Immediately re-wrap the unused pastry in the film and place in a freezer bag and seal for future use

• Return to the freezer or, alternatively store in the refrigerator. Do not re-freeze Fillo more than once

• While re-wrapping the unused Fillo pastry sheets, wrap in 6-8 sheet lots for convenience when reusing

• Fillo pastry is very thin and delicate and at room temperature can lose some moisture unless it is treated with care. Pampas suggest that during the preparation of your recipes, the Fillo sheets are covered completely with clear plastic food wrap or with a clean damp tea towel

• For a golden appearance on a finished recipe, brush the surface lightly with milk

• Tips or edges of fillo pastry can be sprayed or brushed with a little water before cooking to prevent over-browning

• When using Fillo, it is preferable each sheet be lightly brushed with melted margarine, oil or butter and layered one on top of each other

• It is important for best results that you work quickly when layering Fillo as drying may occur

• For waist watchers, brush every 2nd sheet of Fillo pastry with margarine or polyunsaturated oil. Use 2 teaspoons of polyunsaturated oil, instead of the required amount stated in the recipe

Lucky Love Charms for the Home

So much of what we do in our cultures is to reassure and lift the spirit. We place flowers about the home to celebrate life (although in some cultures, dead flowers mean death, so they prefer plastic ones). Symbols of a happy sun and golden round images for wealth are also popular. Fen Shui is a set of rules to decorate the home to create a feeling of peace and balance by reducing clutter and placing good luck charms in certain places.

David and I recently decided we would like to decorate our home with lucky love charms, or what we cheekily describe as 'lovey-doveyness'. There is nothing profound about good luck charms. For me, it's merely a symbol placed about and for good luck, it should be meaningful. This symbol reminds us how very important it is to have love in our lives, to have a home filled with love. To always speak to each other with a tone of love, to always save the best of ourselves for those who are dearest to us.

Getting out of the house is a bit of a big deal, but hunting and gathering for lucky charms for our home makes it more fun than intimidating.  I especially like the Russian Dolls who are perfectly sized to be a practical set of measuring cups, and they also have some lovey-dovey designs on their dresses! Only hassle is hand washing is recommended, but I think I can risk popping them in the top shelf of the dishwasher, maybe on a light cycle. The love-heart shaped measuring cups and spoons, dish and love heart coffee mugs were the booty from a trip to Indoorpilly Shopping Centre with David's mum a month or two ago.  We also picked up the love-heart beach towel, which is actually a kid's towel! Three cute little love-heart magnets go well on our fridge as a daily lovey-dovey reminder!

I really like the love heart shaped white Maxwell and Williams dishes, quite an impulsive buy which is unlike me, but they are particularly nice so I just had to have them. I did think they might be impractical but they do get used. At the moment one has drying rose petals from David's mum's house, another has our home grown tomatoes. Yes, the tomatoes are tiny. Good for homemade chilli relish or homemade pizza! I picked up the love-heart candle holder quite a few months ago when I went for a walk to the newsagent across the road to buy a gift card for someone. Can't remember who it was, otherwise I'd remember when it was. Now it has some homegrown sprigs of lavendar in it. Well, that was good of me to walk across the road, wasn't it? I should try it again sometime!

One of the best things we've nabbed is a love-heart shaped ice-cube tray from BigW. It's plastic is pliable so it's easy to remove the ice cubes and we use them all the time. What better way to remind yourself of the lovey-doveyness in your life than sipping on a cocktail with your love while sucking on love heart shaped ice cubes?! Interesting how the four love hearts look like a four-leaf clover, that's luck right thar!

I nearly forgot to mention the lucky love charm hanging on our front door! I think this was meant to be a Christmas decoration, but now it hangs on our front door all the time! Beware - you are about the enter the House of Lovey-doveyness!!