Great~Aunt Meg's Antimacassars

Antimacassars were little cloths, fashionable in the 19th and early 20th centuries, that were placed on the back of chairs to protect them from hair oil...and, in the 1930s, my great~ aunt crocheted a set for for her sister, my grandmother. I've inherited them, along with the lounge suite they were made for, and here is one of them:

Wasn't she clever? Family legend has it that Aunt Meg could turn the heel of a sock in the darkness of a movie theatre (which also illustrates how keen she was!) I remember her as a little, white haired lady who had sparkling eyes and made delicious chocolate puddings. Fond memories...

A Wild Iris and a Green Shawl

Here are some pictures of a wild iris that is blooming in my back garden, and progress shots of a shawl I've been crocheting. I don't normally wear shawls but, after seeing lots of beautiful examples on the internet, I wanted to give it a try. (I think the Victorian romances I've been immersed in of late, with their elegantly attired heroines, have got something to do with my wanting one too!)






The pattern's simple but clever. It's crocheted so that the width of the shawl increases incrementally with each row, meaning that you can try it on as you go and stop when the shawl reaches the desired length. I think I'm going to finish it off with a simple picot edging. I've crocheted it in a wool/silk blend called Cleckheaton Country Silk. It's a DK yarn but I decided to use a 7.00 mm hook hoping that this would help the shawl drape nicely. It does ~ hooray!

Copper Wire Ring with Pearls

This is a little ring I made a while ago, but have just got around to photographing.

I knitted it up (I can knit a little) with copper wire and then wove fresh water pearls into it. It was very quick to put together. ( I actually made it just after I'd broken my finger playing a scratch match of Aussie Rules football in the carpark at work. Nothing stops a determined craftster!) The construction was simple, although the wire had no give and was quite hard to knit with. I've since bought some sterling silver wire and plan on making another one with it.

Eight Random Facts About Moi

I've been tagged, by snapdragons, to complete an Eight Random Facts meme, so here goes...

1. I live ten minutes away from the CBD but I wish I lived in the bush. I grew up on the edge of national forest in the Darling Ranges and I miss being close to nature. I am a tree hugger at heart.

2. Long, long ago I used to be a goth girl. I spent a short but significant period of time in my early twenties trying to look like Morticia from The Addams Family (except for when I was dying my hair pink.)

3. I don't like my middle name and, no, I won't tell you what it is.

4. I work with little children. They are delightful and loving and full of reward...and laden with germs. I recently caught a heavy, horrible cold from them and it has lasted for over a month. Bleugh.

5. I sing...in choirs and such. In fact, I used to be a cabaret singer around about the same time I was trying to look like Morticia. I am singing in this photo, which was taken in February:



Can you guess which one is me?

6. My darling grandfather, who I loved to bits, used to illustrate for Enid Blyton. Here is one of his illustrations. I know the Enid Blyton Society would like to know more about the illustrators of her books so I am trying to convince my mother, who doesn't do anything on computers, to get onto the internet and tell them about him.

7. I am scared of knitting. I am frightened by the whole drop~stitches~and~have~to~frog~your~entire~garment scenario. I will overcome this fear. I will.

8. I love the BBC adaption of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South...and I am smitten by the male lead. The story is like Pride and Predjudice, only darker. It is fabulous to crochet along to and highly recommended.

OK. That was fun! I am now tagging picklesticks and createcraft, and anyone else who'd like to join in!

Scallop Wrap

Over the past two days I have been working on a shawl made from this pattern. Here's a progress shot:




Sadly, it looks a lot nicer on the bed than it does on me. It doesn't drape very well (the ends are all ripply) and the lace pattern gets lost when it's wrapped.
Ho hum.
Edited to add: Does anybody have a pattern for a crochet stole, wrap or shawl that they love and would like to share?

Progress Shots and Pattern Sales

Progress on my daisy granny blanket has been slow but enjoyable. I've decided that the centre panel of daisy squares will be small so I am only putting together nine squares before I start the giant granny border. I've used a different colour for each daisy square.

My next step is to block them.

I've also just bought this pattern from a site called Hass Design. There's some beautiful thread crochet available and they're having a sale!

Red Roses

It's been cold, wet and too overcast in the mornings to take photos. The weather's getting finer though so, hopefully, I'll be able to get some good pictures of the progress I've made on the Daisy Granny blanket this weekend. For now, I'm posting some photos that I took in my backgarden in the summer (and a favourite quote.)

With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy. Lope de Vega

Gum Blossoms and Flying Girls

This is a quick, smudgy little sketch I made of some gum blossoms:

Here's another example of my artwork.
I don't draw or paint much these days, but I'd like to get back into the habit.

Speaking of artwork, Flying Girl has some gorgeous, quirky, dream~like drawings and paintings. I've signed up to be part of her guerilla marketing campaign. It looks like fun!

On the crochet front, I don't have anything to show. I've nearly finished a scarf for a dear friend's birthday, but I won't post any pictures until I've given it to her...and my other crochet projects are going slowly because I've been doing loads of paperwork for my job. *sigh* The good news is ~ I finished off a whole heap of reports today so tomorrow I can watch DVDs and crochet! =P

So, seeing as I have no crafty work to share, I'll finish this post off with a picture of the Coolgardie gum that's blossoming in my back garden. This beautiful tree brings me so much joy...

Crafting for Charity

I've been involved, in a small way, in two projects over the past year or so.

One is KrochetKrystal's Daisy Square Afghans for Charity. Krystal has created a gorgeous pattern and will send the pattern to you in exchange for a square. She crochets the squares into blankets and sends them to local children's hospitals. Krystal's blog, with lots of pretty pictures, and contact details for the pattern, can be found here.

This is my humble effort:

I've also been part of the Uthando Doll Project, making dolls for children from the Kwa Zulu Natal Province in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. Here's a clutch of dolls I made with my baby sister. My sister, the Queen of Quick, made the three on the left and I made the one on the right.

If anyone reading this is interested in contributing to the Doll Project please have a look at the details on the link I've included above, or leave me a comment and I'll put you in contact with one of the Project Organisers. Thanks. =]

Easy Daisy Granny Squares

I've been playing around with ideas for a really quick granny blanket. I'm plugging away at the granny square afghan I started at the beginning of June, but I'd really like something relatively effortless, and soothing, to make...so I thought I'd crochet a smallish panel of fancy squares and then border the blanket by adding rows of three dcs, making it a giant granny square. I've found a good square for the job, the Easy Daisy Granny:

It really is easy and it has a granny square background so adding the border shouldn't be a problem. You can find the pattern at the Warming Families site.


Here are three more squares I made this weekend:













I'm going to join them and border them with white yarn. Then I'm going to crochet the border in rows of the colours I've used for the Easy Granny backgrounds...at least that's the idea so far!

Roses in Winter

I have noticed, as I've been writing in this blog, that I use flowers in my work an awful lot ~ I love flowers. I like to create with them ... and I also like to grow them... so here's a picture of an iceberg rose taken in my back garden:

Isn't it glorious? This rose was the first bloom of Spring. It's Winter now in Australia, but it's still flowering and, in the coldness of the mornings, the buds have started to turn the softest, prettiest pink. Watching these roses unfurl is like witnessing a quiet miracle.

Thrifted Teacozy

Look at what I found at the local Save The Children Fund op shop:


Aren't those little crocheted flowers sweet?! It only cost me $2.00 and it's a perfect fit for the teapot I brew my green tea in. =P

Molly in the Morning Sunshine

Meet Molly, my funny, fiesty, much loved cat

...and please note the fabulous crocheted rag rug she's lying on!

I bought the rug, for a song, from an art market last year. It's made out of t~shirts and plastic bread bags, and was crocheted by a good woman who's devoted to recycling and gives all her proceeds to animal welfare. I don't know her name (it was sold to me by a friend of hers) but I'm really grateful to her nonetheless.

Here's a picture of the complete rug:

...and here's a detail:

I'd love to make one of these too:

in pinks,

for my bedroom

...to go with the granny blanket. =]

Chinese Charm Bag

Here are some photos of a bag I knitted from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'N Bitch book. I made it about a year and a half ago. I haven't knitted since ~ I've sort of been swept away by crocheting...but one of these days, when I have time to focus, I'm going to teach myself to knit well and make something like this.

Anyhow, here are the pictures:

(It's not really wonky on the right hand side. It's just how I photographed it.)

I knitted the body of the bag with a chunky Italian cotton. I made the flowers out of Jo Sharp and Rowan DK cotton using a pattern from Knitty.

Grannying Along

I just posted this at the Granny-Along blogspot.
I'm making a granny square blanket.
This is my inspiration:

It's a lapghan I bought, before I knew how to crochet. It was made, for charity, by a very old lady named Grace, and I love the cheerful daisies she's included, as well as the way she's unified the look of the blanket by using white for the flowers and white for the joins. I just wish it was bigger so I could nap under it, but now I've taught myself to crochet I'm ready to stitch one of my own.

After digging around in my stash I've come up with a colour combination that will go with the colours in my bedroom:

...and last night I crocheted my first square:

It's lacier than the original but I'm happy with it, and really looking forward to making some more.