Christmas Turkey and Peppermint sweets.

Gobble gobble.... here is the turkey that belongs to the set I posted a few days ago. A bit silly really! The only time we ever have turkey here is at Christmas. I cooked it a few years back and the boys really liked it so it is now become the norm. Besides now I have 3 teenage boy appetites to fill the humble chooky dinner doesn't go far.



And here are the peppermint swirls. I just love Christmas mints in red and green. Such an effective pattern. I am planning on giving one of these to each of my work colleagues this Christmas.

The pattern is in my head, but I am happy I have mastered it to get a perfect circle. I think they pretty effective.


I also came up with a basic star potholder. The flip side is green.

Now all I have to do is start multiplying this little group to be ready by Christmas. I have had a few distractions late. A new job, Spring cleaning and trying to finish off a few rugs before the Summer hits.

Thanks for looking!

Crazy Christmas Crochet

This is a Christmas Series I have been working on for a while now. I had the idea if I started now in September, I would have a nice little collection by Christmas. The plan is to have a heap of little presents for the Secret Santas and gift gifting.

My usual style is to race arround at the last minute. This year I plan to be organised.

So based on my Crazy Casserole Topper Collection, I present the Crazy Christmas Crochet Collection.

I started with Santa. I mean what is Christmas table without Santa ?

I gave him a nice fluffy beard, and stuck to the traditional red and white theme.

It did occur to me to try some different colours but I thought I would stay with tradition. I guess he might still look like Santa in blue or purple as I notice from time to time in the shops they change his colour scheme.
Now of course Santa needs an Elf or two, so I designed the Elf in green. He has the pixie ears, and I added bells to his top. The photo doesn't do him justice as he looks quite cute sitting on top of the casserole pot.

Next came an Angel. My son says she looks like a Crazy angel... and I said yep that was the goal! I mean why should an Angel look like Miss Prissy all the time! This one has partied hard and has a bit of Christmas jolly in her.

This is Santas Reindeer. Imagine this on your Venison Stew! We dont get much venison here. I did enjoy a nice piece a few years back when I was in New Zealand.

If you look at the group photo there is also a turkey. I will post him up later as blogger doesnt seem to want to let him join the others in this post.

I also have a few other Christmas pretties in the series.
I am in the process of writing up the patterns. This does take me a bit of time. The writing, the testing, the checking and finally the translation of terminology from Australian to American.

Thanks for looking.

Please respect my copyright. These images and ideas came from my grey matter and I post them for you to enjoy.

Retro Rugs (Afghans)

These are some of my retro rugs that I made when the kids were little. This one is the traditional snowflake pattern. It is made in 5 ply wool. Way back then this was all I would use. It was quite expensive but had a lovely texture. To make a whole afghan in any thing heavier than 5ply, eg 8 ply would make the completed rug too heavy. There also wasnt much about in a synthetic so the options were limited.

I have always liked the bright colours. This one would be about 23 years old now and is pretty much as good as new. I did notice one little moth nibble which I need to fix when I laid it out.
I recall snuggling my daughter up with this one when she was little.

This one I made round about 1985. I started it while we were on a trip in England. Again it is 5 ply. I made this for my son when he was little. He will turn 21 this December. He has always liked greens and browns, and still does. I entered this one in the Gold Coast Show in about 87 and won second prize. I remember the judge telling me my front posts were too tight. I guess she was right! I do like how they form a criss cross pattern on the rug.

This is another one in 5ply pure wool that I made for the boys when they were little. This one is about circa 1990. I remember buying the wool at a Myers Sale at Pacific Fair here on the Gold Coast. I ran out of the teal colour and had to make shift with the black. It has felted over the years, but I have always liked the masculine colours in this one.

Sorry I don't know why the pictures are portrait. I guess you will just have to lay on your side to view this one!

I am gradually photographing my works of the past. My daughter and Mum in Law have a few which I must capture on a jpeg when I am next at their homes. Despite the age of these, the patterns are as effective now as then. I was never one to use baby colours for my kids afghans when they were small. This has paid off as these rugs look just as good today at the end of the bed, as what they did when the children were small. While some folk might think that crochet is daggy, I just love the home made feeling it gives a room.

Thanks for looking!

Drews Monet Afghan

This is a project I completed last night. The pattern is from the crochet dude, http://thecrochetdude.biz/_wsn/page2.html

I liked it because of the texture in the blocks, and the fact I only had to make 12 of them. The other incentive was that I am a great hoarder of variegated yarns and this seemed like a good way to use some of the balls of yarn that had been breeding in my cupboards.

True confessions of a fibre junkie!

After having made eight of the squares I was having second thoughts about my wisdom to use a different colour for each block. The only person who seemed to like it at this stage was Billie our cat. The colours looked a bit yuck, but it was warm and comfy! Whenever I lay out my blocks on the floor she always comes and squats on them.

They started to look better once I added the cream border. I was still pondering whether to quit at 9 or go for the 12 as in the pattern.

Mates at the ville encouraged me to keep on going. The cream did seem to separate the colours rather nicely.

So I kept crocheting away until I had completed the 12. I tried to stick to blues and purpley reds although there is one block of black white greys, and another with some flecks of brown.

I did stuff up on the edging as I did too many loops by not reading the pattern correctly. I didn't pick this up till late last night when I was on the second round of the final border which was starting to frill. I guess this is where a number count on a pattern helps, as it looked fine until the very end.

I managed to adjust for my error to get the edge to sit flat.

So it is now complete and I think it has turned out ok. The most annoying thing of the pattern was the final round of DC down the long side of the blocks, and fixing up my mistake with the cream lattice.

I do like the lattice join as I have never used this before.

Any hows it is finished and my plan is to give it to Grandma (mil) at Christmas. She has always liked my crochet and now she is getting on a bit, this one is a nice size as a lapghan.

My hub likes it as he says the hotch potch of colours is more like the traditional afghans which were made from odds and ends of scraps.

Thanks to Drew for the free pattern.

Thanks for looking!

Vale Crocodile Hunter

Today is the day that Steve Irwin died.

He was known as the crocodile hunter.

This is indeed a sad day. I find it ironic that in "save the koala month", our crocodile man gets killed by a sting ray off our Great Barrier Reef.

All such great icons.

Whether you liked the man or not, this is a tragedy particularly for his family.

It is hard to know what to say.

All I can think of is "crikey".

Crochet Rugs (Afghans)

My Yoga

Here is a gallery of some of my crochet rugs or afghans as some people call them.
I enjoy these as I can do them square by square as I travel or watch the kids play sport. They are my way of relaxing, my yoga without the funny positions.

This one is from the 200 Blocks book. I did it in Australian sunset and bush colours and I like how it turned out. I finished this one this year and have started a second one in plain black and white. I am finding the plain black and white hard yacka.

This one was a labour of love over several years and I dragged it out earlier this year determined to finish the thing. I wanted a light coloured cheery rug for our bed. The pattern is out of a book called Scrap Afghans. I really like this motif and had fun mixing the colours.

This one I made a few years back out of scraps of 5 ply bluebell wool. It is quite heavy and I added to it as I found balls of the wool on sale. This is a pure wool and quite expensive so I just worked on it over a period of time. Hence it is a bit of a hotch potch of colour. I cant remember where I got the motif from. Out of an very old crochet book I think? While the hexagon shape is effective, I hate the little suckers as you never get a straight edge unless you do a series of half ones.

And this one is my ridiculously bright rug. My kids reckon I was drunk or manic or both when I started this. I found the motif in an Australian handcraft magazine and it was done in bright colours for a baby pram. I liked the motif so much I went to town and made a whole blanket! I finished this one about 3 years ago. I started it for my daughter who refused to take it as she said she needed sunglasses to have it in her college room.

I currently have 3 more on the go. Drews Monet, another 200 block job and a 63 square project.

They are addictive and a bit like yoga. I am planning another one after I finish the current three. My thoughts were something in neutral tones ala beige, cream, camel and brown. It is now spring and yarns are getting cheap as the stores have their end of winter clearances. My plan is to try and pick up some suitable colours.

Rugs are a great time waster, and this is a sample of what I have done over the years. I have found them a good way to learn new stitches and experiment with colour. Thanks for looking.