Time Lost

No Idea what happened for the rest of 2010... Life..

2011 came and i prepared myself for my first semester of my last year at School.

Art Journals purchased from the Art Shed after they recovered from the Flood

That Flood was in January - half a year already gone

along with my first semester

Getting a head start during these mid-year holidays though - don't want to be rushing through the nights making heaps of things procrastinating as usual (i wasn't as bad as i usually am though, which is good, i am improving)

Have found that without a deadline it is a lot less exciting and interesting

I must live for the rush

maybe that's why i loved February Frenzy so much..heh

Was crocheting while i was sick at the beginning of my holidays - an intense 3-day session, but came to a halt when my left hand muscles were hurting too much to continue comfortably

the fruits of my labour:

only half cooked... and its yet another project, but i have 3 years to get it all done.. as well as my crochet squares afghan quilt thing from before.

+++

HEY.. forgot.. i also made another ipod pouch for JP, he seems to be thrilled with it since now he can press the play button through the pouch easily and not have to be pulling it out all the time

Old:

not as manly, but it grew on him over the months. Too thick to press through, but shockproof in case of clumsiness. small button and loop closure - not the best idea for the big man hands

New:

Manly and with loop to facilitate a quick grab and pull out of a pocket. Not as shockproof but as indicated by JP, can leave it on and press through yarn to play ipod

an explosion of crochet matter

First thing's first. The Baby Blocks block, the one that was too narrow, i made up an extra column and attached it to the main. i put it off, but it did get done

 its actually properly square now... 8 x 8
i dont understand how they got a square shape using only 8 x 7,

because all these blocks are meant to be 15 x 15 cm

1. Triangle Stripes
I actually started this block the first of all the blocks, but i abandoned it when i reached the stripes, i finally finished this one and am pleased with how it turned out. even if there are mistakes (i must have missed a few stitches or something, because theres less rows than there should be apparently) 

 13. Circle in a Square
i quite like it, i thought i wouldn't. the colours in the book are too gaudy for me, but the design is pretty nice once i made it myself


 16. Waterlily
I've made this block many times before, its been my experimento block, with lots of different yarns. i wish i could have used nicer colours for this one. i really like the orange they use in the book. but alas - no orange in my colour scheme (i'm starting to get bored of the colours - luckily im not doing the same colours and the same blocks or i'd be going mad and start looking for my next project)


 24. Italian Cross
I like how this one looks, fresh-like. i thought i would regret using so much white (i'm trying to limit white from now on, because i only have one ball of it) but no.. its a nice chang. Making the Puff stitches was fun


26. Snowflake
I thought i wasnt going to make this one because its so holey. but hey it looked like it wouldnt take me too long so i made it one afternoon. I didnt use white, i know its a snowflake.. but it can be dirty or dusty snow or something. 

28. Christmas Rose
The name put me off, i'll be honest. i didn't want to make it because it looks too christmassy in the book and i don't want anything like that in my blanket (the same goes for the american patriotic pages that i'll be reaching soon) but its the colours that fool you. they really do. but as well as these last two worked out. Doubt very much i'll be making number 25. Tannenbaum (the christmas tree one) can't see how colours will improve it... plus its a Rows Block and ive got a grudge against those already haha

 31. Primrose Square
Ah! this one i was looking forward to, and i made it while we were watching the news on the Chilean Miners being rescued. An eventful block after all.
Its stretchier than i thought, and its turned out to be bigger than the rest (the Snowflake and Italian Cross also have turned out bigger). But it's pretty and i love it, and i'll work something out in the end i suppose

 

 35. Tricolour Square
I made this one a couple of times before on ugly yarn as practise.. and lucky i did, because i spent enough time re-reading and thinking about the instructions as it was. Had to expect it from a Level 3 difficulty block.

 

My Current Pile o' Blocks


it keeps growing


Conclusions: decision to work on only Blocks done in Rounds has been fruitful. I appear to be able to tackle Level 3's in Rounds with minimul difficulty, compared to the massive amounts of frustration i go through when dealing with Level 1's and 2's in Rows

Crochet begins again

yesterday i finally decided i'd had enough of looking at my phone strap looking all bare

the result:

the back is kind of messy. The little flower insisted on growing there..

͏͏

I worked on the Bobble Diamonds square, after it being abandoned for a couple of weeks. I have been frustrated with the Rows and the Bobbles. I much prefer the sqaures that are done in rounds.

I had to undo heaps of rows a few times.

But today it worked out

now i have to decide which square to do next

Baby Blocks

So i have taken two weeks i think to get back to the blog -_-"


but here i am. and at least its 2 weeks, not 2 years eh?


I got stuck on number 10 in the 200 blocks crochet book. (the grey one in the pic below) i followed the instructions, it was all wonky. i undid it. i changed the instructions.. and i forgot to do an entire row .. had to undo it.. actually asked JP to do it because i didnt want to undo all the rows i had already done.

then finally started on it properly... but following the instructions still meant i'd have Really lumpy sides. so i added a dc in there somewhere but also had to work with it when doing the tr so as to not end up with it looking ugly/uglier.
now that its finished. i never want to do an "Openwork Square" ever again.
and it's only a level 1 worked in rows... so i wasn't keen on doing a level 2

so i tried doing another level 1 rows block.. number 12 Fine Lines... but i don't know if i'm reading these things wrong. and i dont understand whats going on or What.. because i kept ending up with not enough dc's in my rows.. so i undid it all (i hadnt done too much thankfully) and decidedn to do number 9 Arcadia, even if it's level 2, its a rounds block. and i can handle those

they are more fun anyway..

From Left to Right, here we have Block 9. Arcadia; Block 10. Openwork Square; and Block 11. Baby Blocks.

Arcadia is looking a bit ripply, but i won't worry about that for now. we can likely fix that in that blocking process i read/hear about..


I started on number 11(Baby Blocks) after finishing Arcadia.. i wasn't keen on doing it because its a Rows block.. and its a level 2.. and if i didnt handle doing two level 1 blocks.. then doing a level 2 block wouldnt be a good idea right?

but i went ahead with it anyway... i knew what colours i wanted to use with it, and mum said it would look nice.. i could always undo it all as long as i made up my mind only a few rows in, if i wanted to keep going with it or not.


i had to read up on how to read colour chart instructions, at the back of the book .. but it was alright in the end.. i'm finding this one easier than the level 1 blocks done in rows. which is crazy i'm sure.

only thing i'm finding as i'm nearly finished with it - its very solid and as such.. not very stretchy.. so i don't think this one's going to grow into the needed size.. the width is off by about 2.5 cm.. so i am thinking i might separately make a line of blocks and add it to the side..


it's my only solution as i can see it..either that or make a border.. but i dont think that would look nice. and the length will be fine. so it would end up looking weird and wrong.
I'm nearly finished the baby blocks.. and i also don't want to make this block again for a long time.. i think working in rows is boring. working in rounds is a lot more fun personally.
maybe its just because i'm only using these two colours and the pattern gets repeated a lot though...

will keep an open mind.



check out the back:
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
im not sure if that's what it's meant to look like.. you don't get to see many photos of the backs of crochet blocks. sometimes frustrating.. but hey i don't know.. only show the nice side of things i suppose or something.

 kind of like it. remind me of the name tags you get on clothes and what you see on the wrong side of them.

until we meet again...

more crochet

Updates updates

today was a great move forward in my progression so far. I finished Number 6 Textured Bluebells (on the right) which i really like. I chose it because it was the simplest looking one that was worked in rows - because until now i've only done stuff worked in rounds - and there were no colour changes.

it turned out well.

Next i finished off number 5 Twin Stripes (on the left). Initially i didn't want to do it because it looked so hideous in the book.. but then i thought it's just the colours. maybe my colour scheme can save it.

Not too bad i think.. i didn't use 4 colours, just 3.


after that i went to do my driving lesson.

when i came back the lighting wasn't worth taking a photo of the next one i was working on (which is now finished) so i'll take photos tomorrow. and i've already started on yet another one.

i'm quite pleased with my progress.. after the eternal slowness of day one and two, This change of pace is very nice

Moving on..

Moment of panicking and stress over little things - silly but very me.


realised why i was getting so confused when following the instructions and looking at how to do the stitches with the pictures at the back of the book.

It uses UK terms.

but i thought this was a US book? - look at those patriotic blocks, why else would they be there if it isn't a US-originated book? but this one uses UK spelling and was "conceived produced and designed in London"
must solve this mystery
Google time..

my search on amazon had conflicting answers. sellers saying it US terms, others saying it uses UK terms..

more google..

Turns out there are Two versions of this book published.. UK version and US version
geez. all my panicking over nothing.

So i have the book that uses UK terms., so now i'll have to get used to UK terms again... after being conditioned to US terms - it really does get old, and fast. I'd only been learning about crochet seriously for a couple of days when i learnt about the different crocheting terms and i started getting frustrated and annoyed.

Imperial measurements vs Metric
Spelling!!
and Crochet...

grrr

but anyway
Progress:

A New Beginning

after neglecting the blog horribly for many years. i'm wanting to come back (reading other blogs does that).

i'm going to leave my old entries here.. otherwise its like ripping pages out of an old diary.. might feel good when you do it, but later on you probably wish you hadn't..

First thing's first.
i like learning new things...
Crochet  -  i started wanting to learn it last month or two.. the urge built up more and more (helped by reading about it all the time online) until i rummaged around and found mums/grandmas old crochet hooks, and the giant bags of leftover wools/yarns

the majority of these were pink and other .. unusable colours. (orange, peach, a boring green).. me not being a girly girl means this is terrible news. I don't want to make everything in pink,
so we bought me some yarn..from Spotlight of course.. Brisbane doesnt seem to have any other places that sell yarns... (Lincaft has nearly disappeared)

and i put the Jan Eaton book "200 Crochet Blocks" on hold at the library

I've got it now.. and first thing in my mind was:  i thought it would be a much fatter book.

but its fine. its insides make up for its thinness.




First project - an "afghan" (why on earth they are called afghans i don't know) or more realistically a "blanket" made up of many of these blocks. all in the same colour scheme, but different designs.
i don't want it to take me 10 years
[maybe not] realistically i'm hoping for a few months for completion.


beginning is slow..

my first try at a block from the book was number 3 - Square Target

I don't have many crochet hooks available to me. so i'm using a size 3 mm.. but i think this yarn is meant to be used with a size 4 mm.
the band on the yarns says size 4 knitting needles.. but i didnt know if that was also same size in crochet hooks (So confusing)

I looked at a pattern spotlight has using this yarn, and they used a size 4 mm crochet hook.
so i was/am a bit stumped.
I have no size 4, only 2, 2.5 and 3

My first attempt at Square Target was kind of ripply ... so it got unravelled. and i'm trying again and i've gotten rid of one of the ch on the corners of the pattern..

so far so good.


hopefully I can just use what materials i have to complete this blanket/"afghan"