My Creative Space

In my last MCS post, I showed you this crochet square in progress. It is now finished.



I made another one and am partway through my third. I've joined the first two together to see how it would look with a heavily contrasting yarn.



This is the Double Treble Burst Square by Amelia Beebe. The free pattern plus 150 projects made by Ravelry members can be found here.

My target is 12 squares which I think would make a reasonably sized blanket for me. There is the beginnings of another leather journal lurking about on my desk too.

Find out what's happening in other creative spaces here this week.

Have a creative day, friends.

Crocodile stitch neckwarmer version 2 finished

I meant to post about this finished project last week but just never got around to it. Sorry! Well, here it is. This is a neckwarmer done in the crocodile stitch - so named because of it's scale-like appearance and structure. I made this one using a gorgeous self-striping single ply yarn by Crystal Palace called Mini Mochi. This colourway is called Rainbow Trout. The dye length was so perfect for this project as I pretty much got one shade of colour per row of scales.



The reverse side of the stitch is incredibly tidy and almost holds its own as a pattern in itself with all those V stitches. I guess I can wear this one on either side really depending on what I fancy.



I didn't want to put a button on it so this will be worn and held closed with my lovely scarf pin.



The thing about the Mini Mochi yarn is that sometimes if you're lucky, you'll get through a whole ball of yarn without finding any joining knots in it. This was the case with my first ball of yarn. However, the second ball wasn't quite so easy. After I unwound down the second ball to find the matching shade to join to the end of my first ball, I discovered five rows along that there was a knot and the colour jumped from blue to pink, bypassing all the green shades in between! So it was a case of unwinding even more to find a matching bit to rejoin. Towards the end of the second ball of yarn, I had to juggle it a bit here and there, cutting and rejoining where necessary to make sure that I used up as much of the ball of yarn as possible. I got right to the end of the pink and it just ran out with no other pink sections to join to. So I used some blue to do the last row as there wasn't any of the brown shades left. This end is hidden under the other end anyway - so it'd not be very noticable.



I love the softness of this yarn and the colours are so wonderful.



Missy Moo has been eyeing this neckwarmer covetously and wondering out loud if she would ever get a "rainbow scarf" like this. She doesn't actually come right out and asks me to make her one ... she sighs rather dramatically and says things like "Don't you think it would be wonderful if I had a rainbow scarf like this?" or "I'd really look nice in a rainbow scarf, won't I, mummy?" or "Will I ever have a rainbow scarf?" Makes me smile. I'm just waiting for the right question to come along. Am I being mean?



Spring is well and truly here now and it's getting milder - not quite neckwarmer-wearing weather, I'm afraid. I shall stash this away in a safe place where it can lie in wait for next winter. I spent most of winter just gone waiting for milder and warmer weather and now it's here, I'm thinking about next winter when it will get cold enough for me to wear this lovely thing!

Have a great week ahead, friends.

My Creative Space

I've finished the crocodile stitch neckwarmer which I was showing you in my last creative space post. I've got to take a few photos first and I'll post it up hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's what's on the crafting table right now.



I was inspired to try this after I saw Fiona's wonderful square here.
This one is my attempt at the square.



There is a crochetalong group on Ravelry called 2012 Crochet Block-A-Month. The idea is that the group do two blocks a month from nominated patterns. March's filler square or block was the Double Treble Burst Square by Amelia Beebe. The free pattern plus 150 projects made by Ravelry members can be found here. This is the pattern I used for my square. I have too much going on to commit to a crochetalong right now but I hope to keep this in mind and join it next year from the beginning.

I'm having fun doing this square - it's so pretty and I am very happy with my colour choices. I'm working this using 5 different colours of Twilleys of Stamford's Freedom Sincere DK cotton yarn. I'm going to make as many of these blocks as my stash of Freedom Sincere yarn will allow and then join them together with a contrasting yarn. Hopefully I will have enough blocks to make a lap-blanket or something similar.

It's cold, wet and a little miserable here this morning. I hope it's better weather where you are, friends.

Linking up with other creative spaces here later on.

Have a creative day, friends.

Easter bunny ears headband

I've had the past week off work to spend with the kids. I had annual leave to use up and since the kids were off school for Easter, it seemed a great opportunity to spend some time with them. Despite Easter itself being over, Missy Moo is still very much in an Easter mood.

I saw this tutorial that Amy put up over on her blog and wanted to make some Easter bunny ears for Missy Moo. A quick rummage around the stash bag yielded some white felt, a scrap of Easter themed fabric and a bit of elastic. It was a pretty quick and easy make (thanks Amy!) and the girl was very pleased with the outcome.



I used a bit of elastic at the back, instead of ribbon. Missy Moo wouldn't have been able to tie the ribbon. With the elastic, she can put it on and pull it off as she pleased.



Yep, she is very pleased with her Easter bunny ears. We're off to my godson's birthday party this afternoon and she's decided she will be wearing her bunny ears.



Here's a gratuitous action shot.



I hope you are enjoying your weekend, friends.

My Creative Space

I've just finished off another journal. I'm not entirely convinced by the closure so it's still somewhat work in progress. What do you think?



This is a handbound leather journal with a grey grained leather cover.



For the closure, I've used a long leather lace cut from the same leather. I've added a flower shape cut from leftover cerise suede from a previous project and a celtic patterned concho. The leather lace winds around the book a couple of times and is then wound around the concho to secure.



I'm using 140gsm cartridge paper again and have added some cerise coloured art-paper of the same weight. In total this journal has 264 sides of paper to draw, scribble or write on.



In keeping with the flower shape I used on the cover, I've glued a couple of botanical inspired print postcards into the inside front and back cover. The leather is not very stiff so the postcards will provide a little bit of extra support.



Here's the exposed long-stitch spine.



I've now had a go at bookbinding with each of the leather pieces I have in my stash. I want to try to learn how to do a link stitch - there are so many cool journals on Etsy with a fantastic long stitch/link stitch combination. I just need to find a good tutorial on it!

Find inspiration from other creative spaces here.

Have a creative day, friends.

Pardon the unintentional rudeness

It's just Missy Moo telling us that this is the second time this Easter bonnet is making an appearance. She is not giving you the Longbowman Salute. Honest!

The bonnet first made its debut appearance here.

Yep. It is that time of the year again when infant schools and kindies send letters home with the kids to request - nay, demand - that the kids be sent to school on a particular day with an Easter bonnet. If I'm lucky, the letter will arrive just before the weekend, thereby giving me sufficient time to rush out to purchase the necessary supplies to make a suitably festive bonnet. If I am not lucky, it'll arrive on a Monday or Tuesday and will tell me that the bonnet must be presented during Friday's assembly. Panic will then ensue (since I work fulltime and can't get to the craft shop). Is not having a bonnet going to be an issue?



Yep - I thought as much.

This year's letter arrived on the Monday of the week it was needed. Luckily, I had saved last year's kindie bonnet and kept it in the wardrobe. I told Missy Moo that since this was her first year at school and no-one had seen her lovely bonnet before, she could wear it to school for this year's Easter bonnet parade. Fortunately, she agreed that it was a fabulous idea and my panic attack was nicely averted. Whew!

Do you think I'm going to be able to get away with reusing it again next year?