Finished Projects: Weekend in Stockholm Blanket

What seems like a lifetime ago, I started this blanket. While it has been finished for a few weeks, it always takes a long time to go from finished object to on the blog! In reality I started in mid-January this year, and finished at the beginning of June. It's definitely a project I've done while making other things, picked up and put down again. I have made a few pairs of booties and other bits and pieces in between! (Which you may have already seen if you're following me on Instagram or Facebook ;) )

I like the overall finished blanket but I do find myself questioning the colours. Some days I like the orange, some days I think it's too much. I wonder if I may have liked it better if I chose I light grey instead of the orange?? Well it's too late now and even if I don't like the colours as much as I thought I would, it's certainly a warm and snuggly blanket. My cat especially loved to sleep on it! 

So here are photos of the finished blanket. I have to preface these pictures by saying it is quite difficult to photograph a blanket, it always looks crooked and wrinkly. It is more or less a square shape. Also the colours are tricky to get right too. I took these pictures in some late afternoon Winter sunshine, so they are possibly not exactly true to life. One day I might master my DSLR and work it so it picks up what I see!

It's also interesting how different the colours look in daylight and sunshine. The sunlight makes the orange a lot more muted and more orange. Inside the orange takes on more red pigments. When I was arranging the squares to join them altogether, I found it tricky to arrange in such a way that there wasn't too much orange all bunched up together. A friend told me to take a photo in black and white and then see if it looks right. This was actually a really good tip as I could see areas that contrasted too much. The overall layout is completely random however!

I do really like the pattern of each of the individual granny block squares. It looks quite intricate yet simple at the same time. I'd be interested to see how it looks in other colours, but I'm not quite keen enough to do another one just yet!

If you would like to make this blanket, you can find the original FREE pattern here.

Happy Making!

Baby Bear Boots

So lately with the weather being a bit cooler and wetter I've felt like getting out my knitting needles. That and having a lot of friends having babies or due to have babies in the next few months. Is there anything cuter than a newborn all snuggled up in hand knits?? 

You may remember (if you've been reading my blog for a little while) that I made a LOT of stuff for the Thorndon Fair which was almost a complete disaster. Anyway, you live and learn...One of the things I really loved making which did get snaffled up by a dear friend was these ridiculously cute Baby Bear Boots. You might remember seeing these as I have previously posted about them. I had another pair half finished in my project bag, the intention was two have more than one pair to sell at the fair. A week or so ago after feeling a bit over my Weekend in Stockholm Blanket, I got the unfinished boots out and finished them off. I had forgotten how quick and easy these boots are to make up. I posted a pic on my Facebook page and within a couple of hours I had sold them, plus requests for 2 more! This kind of confirms the fact that they are totally a genius idea! 

I'm happy to share the idea for the bear face, but as I am not the designer of the pattern you will need to source your own copy here or here. I think the pattern is around $5USD, which is totally affordable and honestly the best pattern I have used. I'm sure if you google baby boots pattern you'd be able to find a free pattern, but this is the one I have used, so I know it works. The best guide for size is a measurement of the baby's foot, the pattern supplies Newborn, 3 month and 6 month size. I have quite tight tension but use a bigger size needle than suggested. 

Baby Bear Boots

You will need 3 colours of yarn (I generally use 8ply wool or acrylic)

- The main boot colour;

- The face and ears colour &;

- A small amount for eyes and mouth (note I would not recommend using beads for eyes due to choking hazard)

-4.5mm crochet hook

-4mm knitting needles 

Face

Following the original pattern, when you are up to the instep part which requires you to knit on the 10 centre stitches, join the face colour and knit the rows in this colour. Once you have done this, switch back to the main boot colour. Continue with the boot as per the pattern until the end, leave the final stitches on the needle until the ears and eyes and mouth are done. 

Ears

Once the boot is finished, and Using the same colour of yarn as the face colour, make a magic circle, chain 3 and make 8 double crochet into the circle. Tighten circle and slip stitch into the ch3 to make a circular ear shape. Leave a longish tail to attach to ears. Make 2 ears. To sew the ears onto the face and working on the right side, thread both tail ends from the ears to the wrong side. Secure the ears firmly by sewing through a couple of the loops at the bottom of the ear circle. Weave in yarn tails on the wrong side of your work. 

Eyes and Mouth

Using the third colour, sew eyes onto the face and a small 'X' shape for a mouth. Be careful not to leave big loops of yarn at the back which little toes could get caught on!

Now you are ready to finish of your boot. There are several ways to cast off the stitches, but I like to use a three needle cast off as its very neat, or a weaving style. There is a very good tutorial on casting off here, along with the one linked above. 

I would so love to see if anyone makes these, so please tag me on Facebook or Instagram (@itsmariemade) or post a link to your blog in the comments! 

Happy Making :D

Work In Progress: Weekend in Stockholm Blanket Throw

Hello all blog readers! Happy New Year! I hope you've enjoyed your holidays and managed to have a bit of a break. I was lucky enough to have nearly 4 weeks off work! We holidayed at home, went away for around 10 days and did a lot of spring cleaning and tidying up. I'm ready to tackle the New Year and have lots of ideas for the blog this year. 

Although I having been writing blog posts, I've still been keeping up to date with what's happening via Instagram and posting there too. (Find me @itsmariemade). One super-crafty and talented fellow blogger (One Crafty Mumma) posted about a new crochet blanket pattern she was starting, which has turned into a sort of crochet-along a lot of other people are doing the same blanket. I liked the pattern so much I was inspired to start my own one too. The pattern is Weekend in Stockholm and is available free. It looks complicated but actually once I got going I didn't have too many problems. I do admit I found the pattern instructions a little confusing so I just interpreted it the best I could from pictures of other people's squares. I also found a couple of helpful videos on YouTube that someone else had uploaded. I did a test square to see if I actually liked it, then I went out to pick my colours. 

Baby Boots Parade!

I have written before about how much I love this Baby Bootie pattern, but seeing as I am making so many for the Thorndon Fair, I thought I would do a post showing all the different combinations I have knitted to date.  

If you want this pattern you will need to buy it here. Buying the pattern gives you permission to sell your finished items, provided you credit the pattern designer, Judy Nemish of Double Diamond Knits. The pattern is called "Oh Baby! Baby Boots".

Chocolate Pink Crochet Granny Blanket

As you know if you've been reading along for a little bit, I'm currently trying to make a few things to sell at the Thorndon Fair. So far I've made a few hats, several pairs of booties and a blanket. I really wanted to do another blanket and was pretty set on doing a ripple blanket. I had a few goes at the pattern over at Attic24 blog (brilliant tutorial worth checking out if you want to do a ripple blanket!), but I didn't really have enough of the right yarn to get the hang of the zigzag ripple pattern. The yarn I was using is (I think) a cotton blend, which seems to crochet up quite loosely. This made making the ripples quite tricky... 

Finished Projects: Square Circle Granny Blanket

I shared a sneak peek of this blanket a while ago here. I meant to do an update but I thought I would rather just do a proper post once it was all completed. You might notice that the original squares changed! I dropped out the purple squares as I didn't like the way they looked once I was arranging them altogether. So this is the new and updated version!

Finished Projects: Stripes and Bows

Another quick check in to show off a couple things I finished off this past week. These were meant to be part of my Just Create June challenge, but I couldn't quite get them done before the end of the month!

Firstly a neat stripy hat off to a friend in Auckland. She sent me a picture of him wearing it yesterday, and the colours are just perfect on him. It's so lovely to see someone using and wearing something you've made isn't it?!

How to Make a Ruffle Scarf with Mesh Yarn

If you are a regular reader of my blog (I'm hoping there's one or two of you!) or you follow me on Instagram (@itsmariemade) or Facebook, you may have seen the huge bucket of wool I won at a competition at Spotlight. 

There were lots of weird and wonderful yarns in that bucket and I've given myself an unofficial challenge of trying to create something with each of them. Some things I knew as soon as I saw the yarn what I would be able to make. Others, like this ridiculous furry yarn and these mesh and eyelash yarns, I was at a bit of a stalemate. From extensive Google research, it seems as though the only thing people make out of these are either scarves or teddy bears!

For this particular project, I decided to use the mesh yarn, Moda Vera "Catalina" and knit up a scarf. There is pattern on the back of the ball band, but after a few tries, I realised it's actually not that obvious how to knit with this type of yarn, so I thought I would do a photo tutorial showing you. I call these scarves "Ruffle Scarf" because I can't think of any other name for them! I hope you find this useful. 

Something Finished....Peachy Baby Boots & Hat

Just dropping in to show off a hat and bootie set I made as a gift for a baby shower this weekend. It's lovely to make something in girl colours for a change! I'm totally in love with the pastel shades of this wool. It's girly but not overwhelmingly pink!

(Incidentally, this is the yarn I bought when I entered the wool competition! I guess it was a worthwhile trip!)

Just Create June: What I've Been Making

I have been a bit absent from this space for the last few weeks! I have been doing quite a bit of making, and my "To Do" list seems to be growing daily! I am the classic procrastinator where by I always find something new today instead of finishing what I started and seeing it through to completion.

At the end of last month I read this post on Sugar Crumbs blog, which was a bit of a challenge to create as much as you can during the month of June. For me, I decided I would like to crochet and knit through  my "To Do" list. 

Stripey Crochet Granny Monkey Blanket + Pattern and Border Tutorial

As soon as I found out my brother-in-law and his wife were having a baby, I knew I wanted to make a blanket for the new addition. I was already working on the Crochet Baby Granny Blanket and also the Granny Square Scrap Blanket but I had a few ideas floating around in my head. I really liked the way that the Baby Granny Blanket turned out in the random stripes, so I was thinking about something along those lines but different colours. 

Granny Scrap Blanket: Part Two- Joining Up

Hopefully you will have seen the previous post here in which I showed you how I started making a granny square blanket from a whole bunch of scrap yarn I had lying around. The next thing to do once you have all your squares, is to join them up!

I had in my mind, an idea of how I might like to join them. I didn't want to just sew them directly together for two reasons 1- because they looked too bright right next to each other; and 2- I am not a great sewer, and my poor skills would have been exposed in this type of project. What I was thinking about was some kind of border that linked all the squares but also created a border around the whole thing while being flat, even and uniform. 

Finished Projects: Neutrals Crochet Baby Granny Blanket

I thought I would share with you a blanket I made as a gift for a friend who is having a baby. 

Granny Square Scrap Blanket: Part One- The Squares

After finishing my Granny Stripe Crochet Blanket I am totally hooked (excuse the pun) on crochet, and in particular, the granny stitch. I can't believe how easy it is (once you know how). I had heard this before but I wasn't sure until I decided to have a go at making granny squares myself. I found it a bit tricky to find instructions that were confusing until I came across this tutorial with PHOTOS (Hallelujah- you know how much I LOVE photo tutorials!) by Little Tin Bird. It was so straight forward and simple, before you know it I had knocked out four granny squares just like *that* (bearing in mind I had to read the instructions three times and redo my first square three times because I didn't follow the pattern correctly the first time!). I used a few scrap yarns I had lying around from last years hat and bootie projects (check out here, here and here). I am notoriously bad at buying one ball of yarn for a small project, and so I had quite a build up of bits and pieces. Then I remembered these stupid kits I had lying around. 

Completed Project: Granny Stripe Crochet Blanket

I am so proud of myself for persevering with this blanket and finishing it off (See previous post here about my failed attempts!) While it may not be perfect, it's still very usable and (I think) looks pretty great!

If you would like to have a go at this blanket, visit Maybe Matilda and check out the pattern here. The very BEST thing about this pattern is that there are step by step photos.  I don't know how many times I had to go back and refer to the pictures to see if I was doing it right. So helpful. I really don't think I would have attempted it without the pictures (so Rachel if you read this, here is one very grateful fan!)

Work in Progress: Granny Stripe Crochet Blanket

You might know they I have just started to teach myself crochet. I had my heart set on making a really cool crochet basket with this HUGE amount of t-shirt yarn (nearly did a bad yet apt typo then! ;) ) that I have had lying around (see here) but after literally a million tries, with several different patterns, I've put it on the back burner for now!
A blog I have started following for a while now, Maybe Matilda, posted a tutorial for this gorgeous baby blanket. And not only that, this tutorial has PHOTOS! The thing I can't quite get my head around yet is reading crochet patterns, so anything with photos or video, I am really into! 

However, even with this super easy tutorial, I am still foiled by crochet! I'm onto my third attempt now, having failed spectacularly with the first go:

I bought some smaller hooks for this attempt, but still failed...!

Although you can't really see, the edges were really going uneven and I couldn't continue with it being so crazy! 

This is where I'm currently at:

And already I'm a bit off track! I have no idea how one end it straight and the other seems to become uneven! (Actually I *think* it's because I made one mistake at the end of a row, I didn't think it would be a big deal, but turns out it is!) 

Hopefully as I go on I'll get the hang of it and end up with a nice even edge! I can't bear the thought of unpicking it a THIRD time when I like this version the best so far! 
Any tips??

How to: Make a T-Shirt Yarn Necklace

In my last post, I showed you a picture of a giant ball of stripy yarn. Just to refresh your memory, look below:

Would you believe I have TWO of these?? Each skein is approximately 200 metres! It's a stretchy type of fabric known as t-shirt yarn or "tarn". (You can google how to make t-shirt yarn and there are lots of intructionals about how to make it from old t-shirts. I'm more of a ready-made kind of girl!) 

I've been wanting to make SOMETHING with it for ages, but the only patterns and projects I've seen have been for crochet. So I decided to bite the bullet and teach myself to crochet, I didn't think it would be too hard, given I more or less taught myself to knit. I found this pattern for a fabulous chunky knit basket which I thought would be perfect for this type of yarn. Also, it is fairly large so I figured a I would use up most of the yarn. 

Knitting Madness: Hats, Boots and Headbands

This past week I've been inspired to get back into a bit of knitting. I haven't done any the past couple of months mainly because it's been too hot for wearing wool, and we've had nice weather so I'd rather be outdoors!

It started because I wanted a gift to give a friend who is pregnant & was feeding our cat for a few days while we were away. I've got a pattern booklet from the Australian Women's Weekly (Great Winter Knits circa 2012- I bought at our local hospice shop) and a lot of the colour ways are grey with a bright contrasting colour. As I have a whole bunch of grey wool scraps, I thought I could do "something" and just get a couple new colours of wool. At Spotlight they didn't have a light, buttery yellow that I was imagining, so I settled for bright Orange and Turquoise blue. 

The pattern I always use for my hats is from Ravelry and available for free here. I just adapt it to whatever colour or size I want. Most of my wool is DK 8ply so I use 4.0mm or 4.5mm straight needles. 

Finished projects....August: Hats

Thought I would update with some of those things that I started in August , and have now completed. I already posted about the baby booties, so have made just the 2 pairs of those. I have bought some gorgeous multi-coloured wool to use but now I love doing the hats so much I might use it for that instead!

Easy Baby Booties Pattern

After mastering the scarf (see here and here), I decided to branch out and try something else. I went to my local Spotlight store with every intention of getting the materials to try crochet, when I came across this pattern for One Piece Baby Booties. It was labelled "easy" so I thought I would give them a go.