Granny Squares for charity

Last week I found a nice project for the charity "Helfen mit Herz und Händen" ("Helping with heart and hands"). This charity is meant to help poor children in Berlin and the purpose is to knit, crochet or sew clothing or toys for these children. Jasmin from the web page veilchenschoen.de has been taking part in that charity and within that also developed her own little "variation project". She thought it would be good if she could get as many of her readers and customers (she owns a yarn store) to help crochet granny squares in order to make one or more baby blanket(s) for the charity mentioned above. Unfortunately, I only learned about that project last week and the dead line is already on Monday (25th). So I lost no time and got my 3,0 mm crochet hook and started crocheting three colorful granny squares. I used some cotton yarn that I still had left over from cocheting all the kids' sun hats in spring. Then I quickly went to the post office on Thursday and sent the granny squares off to Germany. And now I hope that the post is not slow and that Jasmin will get my squares in time to use them for the blankie!!! 

Here are the granny squares I sent: 

I crocheted them using a pattern from Lucy from Attic 24. She designed the square called "Summer Garden Granny Square" and the pattern can be seen HERE. 

It was so much fun to crochet these little squares in between and to send them off on a big journey in a safe and comfy bubble wrap envelope. The thought of them maybe helping to warm a child or baby in need is very exciting and I am so glad I took part in the project after all :-)

PS: Sorry that many of the links I gave in this post are in German...

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Another crochet hat...

The other day I just wanted to crochet something that would be finished straight away since I love that instant feeling of success! So I looked through my stack of wool and yarn and found a grey ball that was not so scratchy and I made a new hat for Little T:

And this is what it looks like on the head:

The pattern is from HERE (Pardon My Chaos).

It was completed really quickly, mostly because it almost only consists of triple crochets! With that you have the hat in your hands in no time :-)

Besides crocheting little new things I am currently part of a top secret surprise project for someone special, which is why there are quite a few new crocheted items on my desk but I cannot share them (yet)...

By the way, the blog from which I took the pattern for the hat is really great, I can only recommend to swing by and have a look:

pardonmychaos-amanda.blogspot.com

Also, I found another one that I really like:

mckinleyscloset.blogspot.com

There are loads of wonderful ideas for knit and crochet projects to be found! But the blogger seems to be quite busy at the moment which is why the last real post has been written in January. Oh well, I keep myself entertained with the archive then :-)

See you soon :-)

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Designing granny squares...

...is a whole lot of fun but also quite tricky! In the last post I already showed you my first self-designed granny square and here you can see it again in a more detailed shot:

And last night while watching the newest episode of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" I started crocheting a second granny square and just made it up while the yarn was literally jumping off my hook :-)

I really like it! I wanted to create something with leaves and that's also the part I like most (the green). But I think I will have to come up with a better center since the current one seems a little stiff or hard for the blossomy rest. Maybe a flower. 

And since I am already designing granny squares I can as well write instructions for them, too. So I think tonight I will sit down and write the instructions for these two grannies and maybe post them already tomorrow, we'll see.

Alongside creating granny squares I am working on two other "use-up-old-yarn crochet projects" at the moment (surprise, surprise...). First I am making a very colorful striped snake for the little one. It's supposed to be 1,50 m (4'11") and by now I have completed 40 cm (15,75"). So it's still quite a way... The project is very comfortable though since it doesn't have to be "perfect" and it's crocheted quite quickly.

Also I still have so much brown and beige yarn that I don't need (and also don't wanna use for either the snake or the grannies) and that's why I decided to make a pillow cover. It will suit our couch very well since that's brown. The cover will also be made of granny squares, but small ones that are crocheted very tightly, only consisting of single and half double crochets. There are no pictures yet but when I crocheted a little more I will sure document my progress :-)

And becaue of all the crocheting I neglect my zipper sweater project :-( But somehow I feel much more like crochting than knitting at the moment... :-)

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Using up leftover yarn

I would have never thought that crocheting granny squares would be something I'd like to do. That's why to date I have been neglecting the (actually very beautiful and amazing) granny square patterns and instruction videos from eliZZZa on nadelspiel.com. But now my stack of wool and yarn is just getting too big and with most of the stuff I don't really know what to do. That's why I came up with the idea of using it all to make granny squares and eventually a big patchwork blanket. I got inspired by blankets I saw on the page of the Nadelspiel Club and decided: I want to have a blanket like that, too!

For now I took 4 colors and made grannies and when I'm done with those colors I will take the next ones. Getting it too colorful and chaotic is too much, I think. By now I have completed 8 squares. 5 were crocheted after instructions by eliZZZa, 2 after instructions of members of the Nadelspiel community (Chikuchiku and Lila) and 1 I even created myself (the one in the upper right corner).

And I really have to admit, it is sooooooooooo much fun to crochet granny squares! It's an exciting way to try out new patterns and color combinations and in no time you have a finished object holding in your hands. Absolutely great, I am sooo thrilled!!!

My sweater is slowly growing also. It should be about 45 cm by now, so the "boring" part is almost over :-)

There are no pictures of it at the moment since it hasn't really changed that much from the last picture I posted. Hopefully I will soon have the time and heart to knit a whole evening in order to get more done than a few rows and to finally see some progress :-)

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A little project in between

I used up all of the dark grey wool for the sweater so I can't continue knitting that at the moment. The other day I was in the store and wanted to buy more, but unfortunately I had to discover that there are two kinds of dark grey. One is more brownish, the other more colder grey. One has No. 5, the other No. 52. Great, I thought, I have no idea which one I am using, so I didn't buy any of them, just not to risk getting the wrong one, that would be a shame.

At home I immediately got myself a new little project. When I was in Germany in May I bought a cute green crochet top on a flee market. There were a few spots that were falling apart so I took a crochet hook and fixed the top, which was easy since the thread was neatly tied to the top. Anyway, the top was fixed but somehow I found it a bit boring. But in Germany I also bought (for the first time) the amazing Catania Cotton yarn that everybody is so crazy about, and I decided to use the two colors I had, cherry red and light pink, and crochet an edging around the bottom seam of the top. And I liked that so much that I turned to the neckline and worked my way around there also. 

This is the result that I have by now:

And here are two detail pictures, first the neckline and second the bottom edging:

I like the result but somehow it's still missing the "special something"!

In the knitting club at nadelspiel.com I also posted this pictures and asked for advice and a great one already came saying that it would look cute if I would have a satin band in the center under the neckline and tie a bow. That indeed sounds very cute :-)

Well, I will think about it a little while longer!

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It's a slow progress...

Unfortunately, I haven't had so much time to knit recently, that's why it's only going very slowly with my sweater. Oh well, there will be times again with more time for the art of knitting ;-)

Until now I have already knitted 34 cm (13,4 inch) and am now increasing again after decreasing for the waist. After another 18 cm (7 inch) I will have completed the main unicolored part and I can knit the sleeves. And after that the most fun part at last: the tricolored pattern!

By the way, I decided what my third color is going to be and it is now neither of the ones I posted before. When I went to the store to look at the wool I liked a darker green most, well, it's more a petrol. And that's what I bought in the end!

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and in the evening we grabbed some ice cream and went to the place of our wedding ceremony, the crater Kerið just around the corner of our home. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze, so we sat down for a while and thought about our first year of marriage...

And on the way home I picked some lupina flowers which were also the flowers in our wedding. Seeing the purple blossoms on our kitchen table now reminds me of the beautiful party last year :-)

But today the weather is not great at all, so my plans of spending the afternoon outside with Little T are not going to be realizable :-( Well, plan b is to visit grandma next door. She will go to Greenland on Saturday and is already a bit upset to not being able to see her little grandson for quite a while (and of course the 23 others...).

Ans who knows, maybe I will find the time tonight to knit a little bit?

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My new project

Finally I am knitting something for myself!

And it's going to be a zip sweater made of Icelandic Létt Lopi. The instruction is from the magazine LOPI No. 26 and here you can see the original picture:

I will change it up a little bit:

First of all, as you can see, the sweater on the picture is not a zipper one, so that's obviously going to be my first change. Also, I don't want to have it as long. The cuffs and the bottom line of the sweater won't be as seen on the picture but I will knit them normally ribbed and without a color pattern.

And I will change the color:

The main color will be a very dark grey and I will keep the white as in the example:

But I can't quite make up my mind regarding the third color.....either a or b:

Oh well, I will decide that later!

Until now I have already knitted 15 cm of the main part and it's supposed to be 50 cm high before I can add the sleeves. So the knitting journey has actually just begun...

Hats, hats, hats

This spring I was crazy about crocheting hats! Every single one turned out to be absolutely cute and they all now have (hopefully) proud wearers! Here a collage of almost all the hats:

Crocheted hats 

Another sun hat I crocheted for Little T while we were in Germany:

Crocheted coasters and cell phone cases

When I visited my aunt recently I brought her a set of coasters that I crocheted. I love them and thought they were perfect as a little bring-along!

My first crocheted cell phone case turned out so nicely that I am now using it myself. As a decoration I added a key chain with a lava pearl that my mother-in-law gave me, but since I don't own any keys I haven't had a use for it yet. 

The blue cell phone case was for a 9-year-old boy who is in swimming, that's why the fish application :-)

Ready for Easter!

I am ready for Easter! Two days ago I decorated some eggs in the traditional wax technique from Sorbia. My friend Anita was teaching me that some years ago and it's great fun! Unfortunately I couldn't get egg color so I had to stick to colored wax to apply on white eggs. The colored eggs with white wax are from last year.

I also crocheted a Easter chick and a bunny, both instructions are from the Austrian knitting page nadelspiel.com and you can find it here (in German only).

The Easter bouquet is still a little sad. But maybe there will be some more leaves in the upcoming days!

HAPPY EASTER!

It's starting to look lie Easter...

Until now I haven't quite been in the Easter mood which is mainly caused by the crazy weather: storm, snow, rain, hail, you name it! But yesterday I crocheted a daffodil and put it to the real ones in the pot. The instruction is from Drops Design and you can find it here. I just changed the stem and added some leaves to it. The instruction was meant for a napkin ring but I intended to have a "real" flower :-)

Cap with sailing boat

Since I found out how to crochet a cap I have been busy making them. This one is for Little T (he is kind of my guinea pig in these things) and I decorated it with a sailing boat - of course with an Icelandic flag :-)

Cap, head size: about 48 cm/19 inch

Something nice for Easter

For Little T I knitted a vest the other day. And to make it suit perfectly for Easter, I applied some crocheted figures such as an Easter bunny, a biddy, some Easter eggs and grass. But since my little boy is growing so fast I am already worried if the vest will still fit on Easter...

Vest, designed by myself. Size: about 80 (12 months)