Isa {Knitting}

This has been a WIP for a long time. I started knitting the jumper when I was pregnant - and added a few stitches to take my growing belly into account. I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, and Mr MiH laughed at it - it was double my size. 

Back to the drawing board - I am making a less loose version than La Poule. After a lot of (probably bad) maths, I think I have the right number of stitches on my circular needles, and the ribbing is nearly finished - and then comes the confetti stitch! 

bookmark pattern here

 I am using exactly the same yarn as La Poule, it is the perfect sweater jumper yarn!

I am also wondering what to make with the leftover of Steel after Steel Snow...I am thinking making this necklace, a chunky version?

I am reading again! I got a few books back from France... so far the comic book is much more interesting... the book is proving a bit too romantic for a thriller.. 

Joining other WIPs at Tami's and Ginny'. You can find my quilting WIP here. 

Steel {DIY | Hand Dying}

Making the most of my stash... This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately - I need to de-stash 1) my future sewing room is going to be small, so I need to clear space and 2) I will then be able to buy more suited material. There was a time when I was buying quite a lot of yarn, fabric or whatever for projects that never materialised in the end. And bits were part of big projects - some elements got used and some did not. This is the case of this white yarn. I used some of it already for my vintage crochet cushion, but I still have a fair amount left. 

With a baby, white is not exactly practical... and then I saw that Libby managed to hand dye her yarn for Outfit 4 - FINALLY someone told me how I could do it and where to get the dye in the UK! I was ready to go.  

* Don't forget to enter my knitting pattern giveaway here*

First I had to make the ball into a skein and tie it so it would not knot. I think I could have made the skein larger to be honest, it would have been a bit easier. However as you will see later I made the ties too tight - don't! 

Then the dying process... I bought the dye from Tall Yarns 'n Tales. On the basis of Libby's colour, I wanted something a bit darker, so I bought two dye kits: Autumn Sky and Charcoal. I did test it on a very small portion of yarn - the proportions were around 3/4 blue and 1/4 charcoal and it was too light. As I have only one skein, I decided that was enough of a test (I thought I was very good to test it in the first place), and went for it: 2/3 blue and 1/3 charcoal - and hoped for the best... There was blue, there was charcoal, it could not go wrong! 

I had 140g of yarn left, I put 4.5l of water (you will see some guidelines in Libby's post) and quite a bit of dye - it is a bit like my cooking style, a bit of this, a bit of that... As you can imagine I don't have any notes on how much dye I actually used... Sorry. I used a stainless steel pot - that I don't use for cooking. And off we went. I kept the temperature under 80 °C. I bought a cooking thermometer to make sure of it.  

Et voila! I present my first (only) skein of Steel in merino silk! And I love the colour, so I am slightly annoyed I was not more precise, but to be honest I needed a more precise scale for small amounts and I did not have one handy. It is worth having! 

The white skein has been in my stash for a couple of years, Steel is already being used! You can see the white speck showing - that is where I tied the yarn too tightly - it is going to look handmade.. Well that is the look I am going for, isn't it!

Vintage Crochet Cushion {Free Pattern}

Happy Friday! Well today I am feeling quite smug. First, I have actually managed to replicate the House of Fraser cushion cover, secondly I took all the pictures of this post over last weekend and therefore the light is really nice compared to the greyness of today. I am never organised with my posts, smug face on right now!

The cushion cover is now sitting in Baby MiH's room. This is why you are only seeing one chair featuring in all my posts. I do have others (really, not many but I do), but this is the room I am 'working on' the most - as Mr MiH and I will probably spend of time there, so we may as well make it as snug as possible. 

Pattern: my own based on a cover available at House of Fraser (see below)

Yarn: White Merino Silk bought on Etsy (At Bullard Farm)

Crochet hook size: 5.5. mm

Dimensions: to fit a 40 cm x 40 cm cushion (but you can make it bigger)

So here we are.. the pattern.. It is made up of 4 kind of granny squares. So nothing scary or out of the ordinary. Instead of 3 US double crochet stitches in the middle sections you only need one double crochet stitch (so less yarn being used!); and I made it much tighter between the different bunches of stitches. 

Start a granny square. I tend to chain only 3 stitches to make the ring so it is quite small (but I am not very good at being 'tight' with my chain) - I leave up to you to assess what you like. Slip stitch to make a ring. 

Round 1: Then chain 3, 2 double crochet, chain 2, (3 double crochet, chain 2) 3 times, slip stitch to join to the 3rd chain stitch from foundation loop. 

Round 1

Round 2: Chain 3, 2 double crochet sttiches in space, chain 2 to form corner, 3 double crochet stiches in the same space, chain 2, (3 double crochet stitches in next space, chain 2 to form corner, 3 double crochet stitches in same space, chain 2) 3 times, slip stitch to join to the 3rd chain stitch you crocheted at the beginning of the round.

Round 2

Round 3:  Chain 3, 2 double crochet in space, chain 2 to form corner, 3 double crochet in same space, chain 1, (1 double crochet in next space, chain 1, 3 double crochet in next space, chain 2 to form corner, 3 double crochet in same space, chain 1) 3 times, 1 double crochet in next space, chain 1, slip stitch to join to the 3rd chain stitch you crocheted at the beginning of the round.

Round 3

Round 3 close up

Round 4 and more:  You can continue adding as many rounds as you want to your square (I had to do 10 rounds in total to get the exact measurement). Each subsequent round will follow the same basic procedures used in the preceding rounds. You'll start with 3 chain stitches substituting for the first double crochet. In the corners, you will work 2 sets of 3 double crochet stitches separated by 2 chain stitches. Otherwise, you will work 1 double crochet stitch in each space, separated by 1 chain stitches on either side.

Round 4

In starting round 9, you will have to decide whether you will sew the squares together or crochet them together - and which method you are going to use. I decided to crochet them together whilst making round 10.  

Round 9

Lucy at Attic24 has done a great tutorial on crochet granny squares together when they are finished. I used a different method inspired by Lucy's tutorial to make hexagon. You need to start at round 9. To begin, you make a single cluster as before (chain 3, then double crochet twice). Then instead of chaining 2 to make your corner spacing, chain ONE, then replace your second chain space with a slip stitch into the corner space of the adjoining square.Then working into the SAME chain-3 loop, double crochet three times to finish your corner cluster. Now you need to slip stitch into the last double crochet of the adjoining square  to secure the corners. Basically, you have to insert hook into the space, hook the yarn from the back and pull it through to the front. 

You continue to work your way round, forming the square by slip stitching in the double crochet of the existing square and making a double crochet addition to round 10 of the square in the making. I hope this is clear enough.. 

As I mentioned I went for a very tight design here, and this is why you end up with little mountains (the bottom square has already been blocked). So all you need to do is to block the panel now - and then tuck away all these loose ends . 

unblocked panel

It should be a wee bit smaller than your cushion cover, so that when you sew it (by hand) onto the cover, the cushion will also stretch it as well (to make these diagonals show off really). You sew only the 4 panel borders onto edge the cushion cover.  

So here we are, my first crochet pattern. Hope you enjoyed it enough to be inspired to make your own vintage cushion cover! If you need more explanation, don't hesitate to contact me. I will try my best to help out!

Magazine inspired {crochet}

Umaro and I are taking a break - at least now I have finished making the skeins into balls (took the whole episode of Homeland last Sunday!), and I can get on with it. Still I need something a bit quicker to finish .. and I also stumbled across this crochet cushion. Let's be honest, £40 for a cushion is a bit steep when it comes to a crochet project, and I have a similar yarn (actually it is nicer - some merino silk yummy fabric), and in theory I could do it. 

So here we are, I started a granny square, now realising that there is a bit more to the cushion than four granny squares, and I may need to will probably rip and start again - I really want to have the diagonals showing. So in the end it may not be as quick as I thought but I would love to be able to see a picture and replicate it - saving myself £40 in the process. 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Tamis'Amis.