crocheted north winds & african flowers

Posted on February 20, 2015 by bear loves dove

Happy Friday! Have you been zenning out on top of the Mountain? Neither have I! I’ve spotted Mount Zen in the distance but not managed a visit longer than a nanosecond this week. Ah yes, best of intentions and all…. I had a busy week at work and am now feeling oh so grateful that Friday is here. Thought I’d squeeze in a quickie update to share a couple of finished projects that I haven’t had a chance to show you.

North Winds Shawl
50% Silk / 50% Wool – main colour. 100% Silk – duck egg blue.

I finished this a little while ago and really enjoyed crocheting it. The pattern is called Eve’s Shawl and it’s a freebie and it’s super easy! That’s a double winner in my books. I’m yet to wear it but when I tried it on it felt like a big feather! So light and soft yet I could feel its gentle warmth immediately. I’m thinking a mild Autumn evening might encourage its first outing.

A colourful little bookmark that I made up as I went. I originally wanted to make a pansie flower but the pattern I started ended up looking really weird and lopsided so I gave up and just played around until this little sweetie emerged.

The flower itself is layered and worked in quite a few rounds. It’s mostly made from cotton with a cotton blend and a bamboo yarn for the green.

My first pincushion! I’ve seen so many different crocheted pincushions on pinterest! But this one using the African Flower on Sandra’s Cherry Heart blog really caught my eye. Sandra has also written a great little tutorial that’s easy to follow and makes life easier for a reluctant pattern follower like myself.

I deviated from the pattern only slightly in that I changed colours more often as I wanted this pincushion to have a really strong pop of colour. I love the combination of these bright colours together and find myself branching out into new combinations and shades more often these days. And let’s face it, when isn’t Aqua appropriate? Exactly!

I must say what a lovely change it was to make a few little projects rather than the blankies. I do so love to make blankies and they will always be my favourite thing to make, but a couple of faster projects in between were thoroughly enjoyable. Having said that, I am so looking forward to getting back to crocheting my Milky Way Dreams Blankie, it’s like I’ve missed the comfort of an old friend. Do you feel like that when you haven’t worked on your crafty project for a while? Or is that just me? Am sure there’s a help group out there for me… somewhere…

Must dash and do what I’m supposed to be doing now, I think I’ve procrastinated long enough… productive procrastination though, so totally excusable… wouldn’t you say?

Wishing you the comfort of old friends and days filled with pretty flowers.

citrus blossom icing

Posted on April 18, 2014 by bear loves dove

It sounds delicious doesn’t? But it’s not food for the body… it’s nourishing… but in a different way… Meet Citrus Blossom…

Citrus Blossom Blanket.
100% Pure Cotton, Crochet.

It’s fresh and full of citrus colours… it looks cheery and happy… much of this blanket was crocheted either on the way to, on way back from or in New Zealand. I think it has the light carefree vibe that our holiday had.

I love the three dimensional aspect of these flowers. I was originally going to have more of them… but it didn’t quite work… now I’m glad it didn’t. I think nine flowers is perfect. Besides, it works with my OCD about numbers… nine is a great number in numerology and it’s one of my faves.

I wrote about the patterns I’ve used in this blanket here. And I found a lovely subtle little edge pattern on pinterest here. I love the fresh burst of sunshine I feel with this blanket, it will be going into the shop soon to join a heap of others… all with their own vibe and personality.

I have such a stash blankets that I’ve made… sometimes I wonder if I will ever sell them all… sometimes I wonder if it’s wise I put so much of my time, love and energy into making stuff… but then, out of the blue, I’ll get an email that makes me realise something very important. I am doing exactly what I am meant to be doing.

I was thrilled to receive this lovely photo of one my blankets with it’s gorgeous new owner. This dear sweet little baby girl has had a tough start to life, but is finding a smidge of comfort in her blankie. Her mum and dad cuddle her during the day in this blanket, and keep the blanket with them during the day so it has their scent, then when bubs is tucked in at night, she’s wrapped in the blanket to comfort her.
I love to craft for so many reasons, but this… this is the very sweet heartwarming icing on the nourishing cake. I feel like in my own little way, I am putting out a teeny tiny incy wincy bit of goodness in the world. I know it’s only a crocheted baby blanket, but I am humbled and honoured by this story. Humbled to be a teeny part of it, and honoured to have had this story shared with me. How can this not warm your heart? How could you ever want to stop crafting babies blankets after hearing this? So I shall continue to follow my heart and craft, not just because I love it so much that I couldn’t stop if I tried, but because somehow, somewhere deep down, I really believe I am meant to.

Sending healing thoughts out to all little bubs that need it.

May goodness find you on this cloudy but very good Good Friday.

I’ve been doing a bit of this lately…

Posted on March 14, 2014 by bear loves dove

Crocheting this… and it hasn’t been all straight forward.

There was a bit of this involved… it included scissors! Doesn’t that just feel wrong to have unpick something with scissors?

It was my own fault, I thought I was being a smartypants darning my ends in as I went. But that only works if you are totally sure you love what you are making… I thought I did. It was probably the first and last time I’ll darn as I go… Darn it! (sorry, lame puns are my specialty)

This is take two. I’m going with the granny stitch in the granny stripe pattern… obviously without the stripes. You can find the granny stripe pattern here in amongst some other lovely crochet and colourful goodness by Lucy at Attic 24. You can find the Puffy Flower Granny Square pattern here, and there’s a very easy tutorial on youtube here by the lovely Clare Sullivan of Bobwilson 123.

I’ve been doing my bestest to move to the slow, and this crochet in the park session was a big leap in that direction. It was only for half an hour or so but geez it was heaven.

Remember I showed you a picture of hubbys new natural hide? Ha ha… just made myself laugh at that sentence… for first time readers I should probably include the word leather hey? Leather hide that is. Kangaroo leather to be specific. Anyway, I’ve had these ombre fimo beads for a while now, I made them back here. They’ve been strung on a single piece of leather, waiting for hubby to plait me one of his signature necklaces.

I really love how the natural colour doesn’t detract from the pop of colour in the beads. And I love that you can adjust the length of the necklaces to suit your outfit. And just look at how fine that plaiting is! He’s a smartypants isn’t he? I think you might see more of these. I’ll just add it to my ever growing crafty to do list.

My overflowing craft basket, with its two bags of yarny goodness had a clean out recently, motivated by the recently gifted new basket. How cute is it? I absolutely adore the birdies on the handle.

And lately my inner-nanna has stepped aside for my inner-rockchick. Well maybe not rock, more like country-folk-chick. The Stray Sisters are the two sisters from The Waifs and boy are they amazing. And boy can they hold a tune. And lets face it, who doesn’t love a gal who can rock out the harmonica? It was a two coffee morning this morning thanks to this gig last night. It was great, a fab night out with some very special peeps but I’m feeling a little worse for wear this morning, possibly due to getting to bed at 1 a.m. and maybe thanks to a Mojito too many.

I also managed to catch the incredible Neko Case recently. Wow wow wow! You can’t walk out of a Neko gig without being blown away by her majestic voice and tight as band. There were goosebumps during the acapella song! So so good. Neko is probably one of my all time favourite artists and this was the second time I’ve seen her… It won’t be the last.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. How about you? Doing any ugly unpicking? Getting to any gigs? Crafted in a park lately?
I’m going to leave you with a couple of links to some songs by the The Waifs and Neko Case… happy listening and happy days to you!

this one

i heart spring

Posted on September 7, 2013 by bear loves dove

I really do! So much so that I made a little homage to spring with the pretty little flowers that are blooming in my garden right now. Do you like it? Do you heart spring too? Anyone who knows me would know that Autumn is my favourite season, but spring is nipping at its tail. It’s a very close 2nd… mostly due to the flowers. Oh the pretty flowers.

I’m so inspired by spring I’ve even crocheted a little butterfly! Isn’t a cutie? I found a free pattern and great tutorial via pinterest. Big thanks to Marie for the great step by step guide that makes whipping up a butterfly such a pleasure.

I did see some other butterfly designs but I love the three dimensional aspect of this one. I think they would make ace little hair pin additions, and even sweet little brooches. But I have other plans for my little flutterby, as my sweet niece Gracie girl used to call them when she was little. This was my first one so just practice go in thicker yarn. But I’ve got another one on the go in much finer yarn and have special plans for it. I’ll let you what they are if it works!

And Spring Meadow… Boy oh boy this little blankie really did try my patience. I had to unravel it… twice! Remember I mentioned something about heart shape clouds last post? Silly idea! Who thought of that? This is what caused the second unpicking session. Needless to say there will be no heart shape clouds…. no…. none. Having said that I’m pretty glad I did unravel it as I don’t think the heart clouds worked anyway. It was a bit much. It’s looking really sweet now and unashamedly girly! Delicate pastel colours inspired by spring, in a gorgeous chunky soft cotton. Just a few finishing touches to go like sewing in the ends, and a wash and block session and it’s done.

Are you enjoying springs flower bounty too? Or are you enjoying my all time favourite season of crisp mornings, sunny afternoon and gorgeous autumnal colours like red, yellow and orange? Either way, it’s a beautiful time of the year.

Wishing you armfuls of sweet spring flowers (or gorgeous autumn foliage) and delightful sunny days.

peach blossom and sea breeze

Posted on May 26, 2013 by bear loves dove

Just a quick little post to show you a couple of finished projects…

Peach Blossom Blanket.
100% Cotton, Crochet.

Who knew it would take me 14 crocheted flowers before I found one I liked? I won’t tell you how long it took me to decide on the arrangement of them either! But I’m pleased that I fluffed about with them so long as I think the finished blanket looks quite sweet… and it could have easily gone the other way. There’s just the one bunch of flowers on this blanket in the corner. The body of the blanket is blanket stitch and I took the edge out with a couple of rows of a lacey type chain stitch then a few rows of single crochet, finished with a delicate little picot.

Sea Breeze Blanket.
100% Cotton, Crochet.

I’m totally in love with this colour combination. The grey acts like a neutral colour against a pop of blue green colours. It looks so fresh and colourful, yet not too bright and in your face. If a refreshing sea breeze had colours, I reckon they’d be like these. Of course you can’t go wrong with the classic granny stitch either. I love a basic stitch like this to show off the colours and stripes in this blanket. There’s a border at the top and the bottom of colours, plus at the top there’s a row of single crochet in each colour to finish it.

Wow… 2 projects down, it’s been a busy week in the crochet department! These blankets are both for an order that I’m super excited about. Now I can start some new projects I’ve been itching to get to, and I just love that feeling. Time to go ponder over some potential yarn colours and ideas…

Hope your days are filled with refreshing sea breezes, pretty peach blossoms and plenty of time to ponder your next crafty project.