all the colours

When Rose was a baby i didn't do as much knitting for her as i imagined i would as a mother (in fact i knitted her nothing after she was born, and really only this little one while i was pregnant) I did however get a rather magnificent collection of hand knits for her from charity shops, and i am in denial a little bit because some of them were so great, but am beginning to accept that mostly they are all too small now. So i felt that it really was time to fulfill my knitter mummy duty and make her a new cardigan.



I had in mind this lovely diary scarf (an idea i really like) my friend Debbie made a little while back, although i didn't use the diary idea, i really like the design of it and thought something like this would be a perfect use for all my odd balls of wool. I found a basic raglan cardigan pattern (i like a raglan with stripes, i think it works so well) in my extensive library (handed down from nanny) and started with the back to set the pattern.  Although i wasn't doing a colour a day like Debbie did,  i really enjoyed the  process of deciding how much of each colour and how to order them.

I finished this project just in time for Rose's birthday and she was very pleased to wear it at last. I was just relieved it fitted her! And just in time for this cold spell too.



perfect scamp-wear!

Crocheting Beads

I found a nice little project this week - crocheting beads (not to be confused with bead crocheting which is something completely different - but something I might have to give a go...)

I really love the trend for painted wooden beaded necklaces - they are so bright and cheery, and just so cool! I found the idea for crocheting beads from a baby teething toy, which is probably not really so cool, but I really wanted to have a go at it.



I bought a few wooden beads in different sizes, but the ones which worked best for me were the big 25mm ones.

Here is how I crocheted my beads:

I used:

4 x 25mm wooden beads

a 3mm crochet hook

DK yarns in off white, bright orange, mustard and turquoise


My abbreviations:

SC = single crochet (in American terminology. This is a double crochet in UK terminology)

2SC = working 2 single crochet stitches into the same space

SC2TOG = single crochet decrease - single crocheting the next two stitches together.

(you might need to experiment to get the right tension - I found some of my DK yarn was slightly thinner and this made quite a big difference so if your yarn is thin you might need a slightly bigger hook)



Row 0:  6 single crochets into a magic ring.
Row 1 - 2sc into every previous row sc. (12sts)
Row 2 - working into the previous row, **1 sc into the next space, 2sc into the following space**
repeat ** to ** to end of row (18sts)

Work 5 rows straight.
If you want to make a half and half coloured bead, change colour after the third row. I have found a neat way of changing colour is to do the final yarn over and pull through of the last single crochet stitch with the new colour, rather than changing colour in a new stitch (hope that makes sense) 

Row 8 -  **sc2tog, sc1 into the next space** .Repeat ** to ** to the end of the row (12 stitches)
Row 9, sc2tog the entire way around the row (6 stitches).
Finish by breaking your thread and threading through the final row to draw it in and neaten it up.

and ta-dah!

I really enjoyed this project also because it was so quick. My necklace just took me an evening. And it's just to bright and lovely. One of my winter wardrobe staples are black thermal vest style tops, and this little accessory is just the ticket to brighten that up a bit on a gloomy day.
I would love to see if you have a go.