Angels

This one my preschooler made for a Christmas contest.
It took him two evenings to stick, glue and pin parts of an angel. I helped with sewing the dress and curling hair :)
I was surprised how precisiously he drew the face

We've used tones of paper to learn how to hold the scissors to make them work as WE want to ;)

This one is mine.
It's called "Julia" - to commemorate a little girl ...

This beautiful wooden button and translucent paper I've bought at KolorowaKokardka

A satin sheet can be very helpful

As I told lately - I had some difficulties with placing the traycloth to be able to take few good enough pictures. One morning, making my bed, I had a brainwave - I can use this cobalt satin sheet!!!
Well, I had to find and iron it firstly :)

But it is not the first time when the best ideas come in the morning. For sure a robe and a mug of coffee is prerequisite...

The pattern you can find in Sabrina Robótki 6/2012.
I used four 30g/200m balls of Kaja floss.
Hook size 1.25

The project size is 97 cm in diameter.

Oryginally, the pattern says the finished project is about 56 cm in diameter but it is a mistake for sure. Well, it's getting typical with this publisher. Annoying.

Anyway - this is my Advent Traycloth :

Remember those tricky treble crochet? 

This is the convex effect you can get with them :

And with the Advent Wreath my mom made :)

Bad Piggies Beanie

Again Himalaya yarn ;)

But when I saw this tonation of green the idea of knitting Bad Piggies beanie for my son appeared immediatelly.

Firstly I thought I'll prepare a surprice beanie, The King.
But knowing Mr My-Own-Opinion I decided to ask him which one he likes the most.
To my surprice he has chosen the one I would never guess...since I dislike the mustache a lot.

Here's the Bad Mustache Piggies Beanie 

Sorry for the quality of picture - it doesn't show the real green shade - but for a long while the weather perfectly fits the Edward Cullen's needs.

 ( of course the traycloth still awaits for it's picture but since lack of good light and lack of enough room to expose it rightly...need to figure out sth)

Treble, double crochet, słupek...

I've finished the Advent crochet project I've mentioned lately. And said it's a work of uncountable number of trebles.
Actually of double trebles / treble crochet, and some kind of it called in Polish "podwójny słupek reliefowy". I couldn't find an appropriate  name nor in British neither in American English so I would be grateful if you share.

Well, the traycloth is being blocked at the moment and hopefully tommorow I'll be able to take good pictures.

Meanwhile, I'm going to show this less popular double treble ;)

double treble

"the tricky one" ;)

right version

 left version

And the way to lead the hook

 The right version : you lead the hook conversely to typical treble (from back of the stitch instead of front) but before you grab the floss - you need to put the hook through the next stitch in regular way, from the front.

As a result you get the sunken treble.

 

The left version : you lead the hook similiar to typical treble, but before you grab the floss you need to "come back" through the next stitch.

As a result you get the convex treble. 

Cable shrug - the second life of a beanie, turtle neck and a tippet

Acrylic "Kotek" has been bought quite by chance more than a year ago.
I was determined to learn  to knit cables and had no yarn so I went to shop, grab this one and started to play with.

Firstly I've knitted a cable tippet but one ball wasn't enough. The knitwear was to tight even as for me :) so after some time I've bought another one ball and enlarged the tipped.This time it was too loose so I've used it few times as a neck warmer for my kids (after half a year lying on the bottom of my drawer).
I've spent the rest of yarn for a beanie for me ( but wasn't satisfied as well) and for kind of turtle neck for my son as he wasn't able to operate with shawl.
He didn't liked the garment so for another few months all those things lied down unused...till last week.

I've unravelled the beanie and the rest saving the main corps of a tippet and started knitting...
The Right Thing :)

This time I think I'll wear it pretty often since I like it a lot.
It's acrylic so it's crispy while knitting. Has no gloss which I like . It's absolutely matt. But is warm what you cannot overrate at this time of a year. It's cheap as well as it isn't of high quality.

To knit it I've used two 100g/300m balls

Edit:

Good light today so I took a few pictures of another Himalaya neck warmer.
I would never look at this mix of colors but needed sth to my winter jacket. I liked others sets of colors but when I tried them on - they were absolutely unconsortable.
The one I've chosen eventually, looked really dull. But the jacket tonation let it show the true appeal.

I'm still working over some Advent crochet project...will present it soon but beeing bored of ucountable stitches needed a breake ;)

Hot coffee set

There are days when hot coffee is a must.
But also there are days when having enough time to drink a coffee, while it's warm, is almost impossible.

Two coughing and sneezing kids is a good way to drive a man crazy


Needles size 4.5 and one additional needle to keep three stitches aside

20 stitches
the lenght depends on the mug

1row : edge stitch, 1 knit, 2 purls, 12 knits, 2 purls, 1 knit, edge stitch
2row: edge stitch, 1 purl, 2 knits, 12 purls, 2 knits, 1 purl, edge stitch
3row: as 1row
4row: as 2row
5 row: edge stitch, 1 knit, *2 purls, 3knits put aside on additional needle to the front, 3knits from the basal needle, 3 knits from the additional needle, 3 knits put aside on additional needle to the back, 3 knits from the basal needle, 3 knits from the additional needle, 2 purls*, 1 knit, edge stitch
rows 6, 7, 8,9,10,11 as rows  2, 3, 4 ...
row 12 as row 2
...
row 15 as row 5

 The pattern I've found in Teresa Pięcek "Moj debiut w dziewiarstwie ręcznym".

Himalaya Padisah Lover ;)

This is third neck warmer knitted with Himalaya Padisah.
It is a mix of 30% wool and 70% poliacrylic.

I'm big fan of that yarn for such projects.
It's not enough soft to wear close to my skin but having it around top of my neck and partly the face -it's good .

The projects are warm, the pattern is noticeable, the knitwear beautifuly falls into the place. It is pliable, doesn't creak while knitting and the colors quaintly blend together.

For a neck warmer I've used two 100g/180m balls.
Needles size 6.

This set of colors is a 2013 novelty.

While knitting you can find the pink of raspberry, the orange of summer sunset, the green of Granny Smith Apple, the yellow of mustard  and the violet of sweet plum.Even the blue has two tonations - the blue of forget-me-not and cornflower.

Simply...awesome.

PS
I've waited about a week for a good light to take those pictures but day by day clouds were covering the sky. Today I've moved all the phalenopsises from the window, put the curtains aside, moved other furniture in the room to get the manequin close to natural light.
Hope it was worth it :)

New Arrivals

Lots of  "to do" ahead of me. Still have some projects open and new ones need to be done by the end of this month.
Watching the craft blogs I got the idea for a surprice for my son.

I need neon green yarn and having nice experience with colorful Himalaya Everyday Anty-Pilling I've decided to use it this time as well. Especially, when the green is the perfect tonation I need. And when my son says :"Mom, this neck warmer is my favourite garment"  :))))

 Then some cotton yarn from Yarn Art Jeans - these are for Christmas project.

 

And another Himalaya product - Padisah. They have new mix of colors. Breathtaking ;) 

 

Autumn shawl

Almost all leaves has fallen down.Two days of rain and you have no doubts - November is on.
My new autmn shawl will hopefully remind me beautiful moments of sun rays running through vibrating gold and red leaves.

To crochet it I needed almost two 100g (530m) balls of NAKO Angora Granit Sim. 
Hook size 2

This concluded with shawl size 55 cm x 135 cm.

It is long enough to wrap it over shoulders pinning together two ends on one side, as for person size XS/S

This mix of acrylic premium, mohair and metallic polyester is to be worn only on top - it irritates my skin (well, as most of yarns ;)

The border I've chosen is a border #4 from Eddie Eckman Around the Corner Crochet Borders. 

It's a kind of maple leaves garland ;)

 

This yarn is one of those which made you follow the chosen pattern from the first stich to the very last one. Because the floss has a lot of frustrating flocks and knots there is no way back if you wish to change someting ;)

Since I like the sets a lot I decided to have a flower sundry I could pin to my Next beanie. 

The chrysanthemum is an autumn flower so it fits perfectly to the season.

The pattern you can find in Lesley Stanfield 100 flowers To Knit And Crochet

Need to iron the petals

Then prepare the pin and small squares of felt

Then stick together using hot glue

And the brooch is set