kitchen string crochet bowl and placemat

When I completed my last crochet project - the huge grey blue yellow and green blanket for my older son - I wanted my next one to be something quick to finish. Not sure where I got the idea, but I decided to have a go at crocheting something round and about the same time I spotted some kitchen twine, it looked like a plain unbleached cotton to me, whilst trawling the local supermarket. After a quick search I went with the Attic24 tutorial for crocheting a flat circle and quickly knocked up a cute placemat type thing with the cotton,  doing the final two rounds in the leftover grey cotton (Jo Sharp - Fog) from the big blanket. Actually I had to alter the design a little as after 10 or so rounds it wouldn't sit flat anymore, so mine had 10 'segments' rather than 11. This may be due to a difference in yarn weight? The cotton string is a bit thinner than the usual 8-ply cotton I use, but denser, and I used a 3.5mm crochet hook. And as you can see the resulting shape isn't awfully round, more a decagon!

I wanted to see if I could finish the last round before the yarn ran out. Nope.

Part way through, loving this make things quickly approach, I decided a little bowl using the same materials and technique would soon follow. I figured if you just stop increasing after you'd made the size circle you wanted, you'd get a bowl. So off I went...

And really that's all there was to it! When it was first completed the bowl was much rounder at the bottom, the bottom edge wasn't a sharp corner, but over time it has settled and now has a much squarer profile. I think this heavy little collection of shells that mr.5 picked up one day helped!

The ultimate Lego table

Okay so maybe 'ultimate' is a big call, but this 'Ikea hack' Lego table certainly fits the bill for our needs. My son has a lot of Lego. I know we all say things like that, but really he does. Not adult collector lots, but lots for your average 5 year old kid. Partly this is because we have most of the Lego my father collected for my brother and I when we were kids. Kind of disappointing we don't have all of it, we are missing crucial bits, like the trains for the old train set, and the track for the space train. Frustrating! But as our family moved so much really it's lucky we have any left.

With a new baby joining the family it became important to find a way to store and play with Lego that got it off the ground and behind toddler-proof doors. It also had to be large enough to hold all of the Lego. I don't subscribe to the 'chuck it all in a plastic tub' school of thought, I'm too anal for that. We keep each model in it's own ziplock bag, with the instructions and spare parts. Otherwise what's the point of buying models? Okay let's not go into that here! Ziplock bags aren't ideal, especially as for now they all just get shoved into the cupboards under the table. Another little problem to solve one day. We do have a lot of loose Lego, all of it vintage though. Is it just me or does old Lego seem so much harder to pull apart? Anyway for the loose Lego we actually have vintage Lego storage trays, which slide nicely into the shelves inside the cupboards.

There was already storage units from the Besta range in my sons room, so it seemed a good idea to adapt some Besta units for the job. Later we could pull the table apart and make shelves, or a long low entertainment unit, all we'd need would be the glass tops you can get for the Besta range. It seemed at first it was going to be a breeze, screw the units back to back, screw the elevated table top on (so you can slip large lego plates under for storing), of course nothing is ever so simple is it? There aren't many spots where there is solid material for screwing securely into. Under the short ends of the table we used aluminium plates (amazing what you find in the garage), 5mm thick, about 100mm wide, and about 5mm short either end of the length of the short side of the table. The wheels were attached through the plates, they still screwed in fine. Set behind the middle set of wheels, spanning side to side, is a plank of 18mm plywood. If anyone is keen I can provide better details on just how it all went together.

My husband was a total champ, figuring out the nuts and bolts of it after I brought home all the bits with very vague instructions as to how I saw it all working out. We are still to fit the child-proof catches  and push-openers, but we have a few months before the little one is mobile! Once he is pulling himself up on the furniture we'll have another set of challenges, the big one is used to leaving Lego out for days, weeks, on end, and that won't work with a little toddler around.

An unexpected bonus to having this table is I'm loving the limewashed top as a finish in my jewellery photos!

The big blue green yellow and grey crochet blanket

I love finishing a project! Unless of course I really don't want to finish it, like that scarf. Anyway this one I really did want to finish, and so here it is, all done. It is intended for my 5 year old but I'm having trouble letting go of it, so it's still out on the sofa. 

I wish I'd kept track of how much yarn and time has gone into it, but it was a fairly organic process. I started out intending to use up some yarn from my stash but have ended up with more than I started with! I'd originally wanted it to be mostly shades of yellow which proved incredibly hard to get hold of in cotton. Instead lots of blue and green and just a little yellow was added. Grey (Jo Sharp cotton in Fog) ended up being the background colour.

It is a basic crochet blanket, 140 granny squares, join-as-you-go joining method, with two very simple rounds at the end to edge it - one row of single crochet, one row of half double crochet. It is big enough to decorate a single bed, the last photo shows my husband holding it up, he isn't that tall, maybe 5'7", but as you can see the blanket is bigger than he is.

flirty skirty

I had an urge and decided to run with it this morning. Lately I've been a bit mad about skirts, hunting skirts, dreaming up skirts, and desperately wanting to make a skirt. But I have no patience for patterns most of the time, and very limited sewing skills, so I decided to make a skirt using only what I had to hand. This satiny fabric has been sitting in my sewing box for years, I don't remember what I had originally intended it for.

The machine was already strung with some matching thread, and I had some thin black elastic, so voila! Five lines of sewing later and we have skirt! I won't pretend it is the most flattering item of clothing I have, but I had fun, and got the skirt urge off my back, for a while at least.

dandelions for the dining room

 

When I first looked at our new home I was left with the impression there was a window in this wall. I was so surprised there wasn't one when we actually moved in! So instead I had a wall crying out for something big. I would have loved to have put a huge mirror up there, it would have reflected the french doors in the living room and brought in sunlight and trees. But instead I have gone for something I can achieve quickly! Because I am impatient and it had to happen right now! So voila, fabric covered canvas. I took a little time to think about how to do the corners neatly, unlike my first canvas attempt, and thought I may as well document it. Just in case there is a next time. Can you see my dining chairs? Covered in fabulous patterned vinyl? They are on my To Do list. As is the maroony-dusty-dark-mushroom painted floor. Yuck!

one stylin' babe

A friend of mine has just had a baby girl, very exciting! On my way to the shops to do some girly (but not too girly) clothes shopping, I remembered seeing this blog post by Sophie of That Vintage, so I grabbed a mixed bag of coordinates to have a bit of fun with! I unwittingly drew the exact same birdy shape as Sophie, something I only realised putting this post together. As you can see from some of the close-ups, my sewing leaves a little room for improvement, but I had so much fun doing something new. I discovered that interfacing that is sticky both sides, wow - excellent stuff. And how hard it is to zig-zag around bendy lines. But definitely a crafty endeavour I would try again!