Craftgawker

I was recently directed to a Craftgawker, a gallery where anyone can showcase their art, crafting and photography skills. It's a great place to discover new artists and handmade goods to inspire your own creations. The submission requirements are quite specific and they only accept "beautiful, well balanced, craft related photographs". They have to link to a blog (not just a shop).

So I was absolutely over the moon when my ladybird bootees were accepted. They're now on the front page. If you take a look - perhaps you could favourite me (click on the heart on the photo). The more hearts the better, just click here then click the heart on the photo.

The bootees link to my other blog at http://lynnespatternparlour.blogspot.com/.

Here's a clip of the front page

Destash#2 - Rowan Cotton Rope

The instructions for the first part of my preemie baby blanket are here. Now for the second part. Because my blanket isn't big enough (only 33cm square) I need to edge it with a complimentary chunky yarn. I've chosen some white Cotton Rope from my stash, as I have just over two 50g balls.

Rowan Cotton Rope is a softly twisted rope like yarn, which knits up quickly. It's a combination of cotton (55%) and acrylic (45%).

Good points: Nice and soft - lovely to crochet with. Firm texture.

Bad points: None that I can find.

Edging instructions:
Take a 5.5 or 6mm crochet hook and make a sl st onto your hook. Join with a double crochet (dc) to any side of the blanket. Working around the blanket, dc into the space between every row. When you get to a corner make 3dc into the corner space. Work around all 4 sides and join to the first dc with a sl st.

Next row: Make 3ch (counts as first treble crochet (tr)). Work 1 tr into every st of the previous round. When you get to a corner, work 5 tr into the middle st of the 3 corner sts. Join to 3rd ch of first tr.

Repeat this row until you are happy with the size of your blanket (don't forget to work 5 tr in the middle st of every corner group of 5 sts). Cut yarn and pull through st on hook. Darn all yarn ends into the blanket and trim.

Here's my finished blanket. I'm not overjoyed with it. The creamy white colour in the sirdar spree just looks like dirty white and the knitted middle is very loose. I hope it's OK as a preemie blanket. The good thing is that it's nice and soft and the cotton mix should be great for delicate skin.

Destash #1 - Sirdar Spree Chunky

My first destash project uses Sirdar Spree Chunky, a cotton mix of candy colours (60% cotton 40% acrylic).  I have made a preemie baby blanket.

Here's my review of the yarn, after knitting with it for the first time:
Good points: Lovely and soft when knitted up. Colours look pretty too when knitted up, nicer than I expected, although he creamy white colour just looks a little like a dirty white.  Cheap (69p)
Bad points: Splits like crazy. It's a little heavy and loose when knitted up - I wouldn't like to make a jumper in it, I imagine it would hang pretty badly and fall out of shape. I'm dreading washing my little blanket in case it loses it's shape.

Initially, I wasn't sure what to make with this. I searched Ravelry for pattern ideas, but absolutely nothing grabbed me. So, I decided to knit a preemie blanket. 100g isn't quite enough I don't think, so I will have to edge it to make it bigger, maybe with some white yarn from my stash (two balls in one project can't be bad eh?).

First, I started to crochet the blanket, but it splits terribly and I got really frustrated. So I frogged it and started to knit instead. It still splits with knitting, but not as much. I decided to knit a blanket starting at one corner and increasing on every alternate row and until I'd used approx half the ball (I kept weighing it until there were 50g left). Then I decreased on every alternate row. Here's the instructions for anyone who wants to knit a really quick and simple preemie blanket. It took me about 3 hours, and because it using only garter st, I was able to watch TV too.

Using the needle size recommended on your ball band.Cast on 2 sts.

Row 1: kfb in each st

Row 2: sl 1, k to end

Row 3: sl 1, kfb, kfb, k1

Row 4: sl 1, k to end

Row 5: sl 1, kfb, k to last 2 sts, kfb, k1

Row 6: sl 1, k to end

Repeat Rows 5 and 6 until half the yarn has been used (use scales to weigh your ball of yarn) finishing on a Row 6

Next Row: sl 1, k2tog, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1

Next Row: s1 1, k to end

Repeat last two Rows until 4 sts remain

Next Row: k2tog, k2tog, pass 1st st over 2nd st. Pull yarn end though the st and tie off.

With this 100g ball of chunky yarn, I made a square of approx 33cm, which isn't big enough for a preemie blanket. So in my next blog post I will show you how to crochet an edge around the blanket to make it bigger. Here's a photo of this first stage, with a crocheted double crochet border - to be explained in my next post.

Bunnies and Bootees

I've blogged about my latest crochet pattern already, but I've just made another cutie from the pattern and added a little bag and a carrot, so I thought I'd share the piccys with you.  I made the bunny for a creature shop, organised by  Giraffe Craft on Folksy. I hope the little bunny doesn't eat the creme egg en-route!!  I also hope my creature swap recipient likes my bunny.  The cute little chicken isn't my work - I'm recycling it from a previous swap.

I've also made a pretty little pair of bootees for my mum-in-law for a friend who is having a baby. I looked everywhere for a nice free pattern for bootees but wasn't over-excited by any of them, so I have created my own. This is another of my patterns that I'm just about to release - I'm just working on a matching beanie hat.

I really must get my patterns written up and published soon, but I just don't seem to be able to fit everything in these days. There's just so much to do all the time.

For example, today we simply bought 8 shallow bowls for our Denby collection (they were a real bargain at £3.99 each so we coudn't resist). However, when we got home, we had to sort the kitchen cupboard out to fit them in. This resulted in all cupboards being sorted. It's amazing how many cups and plates you can amass over time. We've had a massive clearout and now got a huge bag full of mugs, glasses and other bits and bobs to take to the charity shop. Now everything doesn't just fall out of cupboards all the time. I'm really pleased to have a nice clean and tidy kitchen again.

But I digress - here are my latest fibre works of art.