WIPs and A New Stitch 🤓

Hello my lovely friends 💕 I hope this finds you well and happy! 😊

Over here we’re experiencing ‘August in June’ 🌞🌞🌞 It’s hot…blazing hot! And to make matters worse, the humidity is at like 80%! Ugh 😑

So the last thing anyone wants to think about is…scarves! 😁

That was until a friend of mine got this awesome book called ‘Lacy Wraps’ *

It has some wonderful patterns inside. I picked 2, and got right to it.

Since it’s a paid pattern I’m fairly certain that I can’t share it here 😬 But… I learned a new stitch, and that I can tell you more about. 😉

In all my years of crocheting I’ve never even heard of the ‘Linked Double Crochet’ stitch (ldc). And it seems like I really missed out. It’s well on it’s way to become my favorite stitch! 😍 It creates a wonderful texture, with the height of a double crochet, but without the holes. And it’s pretty simple to stitch. Sounds awesome, right?! 😁

Let me show you…

You start with 3 chain.

Insert your hook into the 2nd chain (right to left – my arrow is backwards 🤦🏻‍♀️ Sorry)

Yarn over, pull through.

**Insert your hook into the vertical bar (marked in green) right to left, yarn over, pull through.

Now you’ve linked your stitch to the starting chain.

You have 3 loops on your hook. Yarn over, pull through 2 loops, yarn over, pull through the remaining 2 loops.

Repeat from ** to the end of the row.

You do want to see that line running through the middle of the stitch!

Isn’t it pretty? 🙂

Here is the first ‘Lacy Wrap’ – it incorporates the ldc stitch quite nicely

Next on the list is the wrap from the book’s title page. I absolutely love that one. I ordered the yarn in three different colorways… I can hardly wait to hold it! 😆

So while the yarn is ‘turtleing’ 🐢 it’s way here I’m keeping busy with an Owl Wallhanging – I don’t think I’ve shown you this one yet

I’m very happy with it…it just needs one more stabilizing bamboo rod on the right. I’m hoping it’ll keep it from getting longer and longer 😉 The mandala is already more like an oval than a circle. I better hurry!

When sitting under the Owl got too warm, I did a few rows on my ‘ Stashbuster Sweater’. That one is coming along…

The Grannies are going to be part of the sleeves. Another puzzle…that’s what I dooo 😋

I lost a few hours of my day after I glanced at my yarn basket

No, I didn’t pass out 😉 I decided I needed to detangle and put my winder to good use. See, I had just reached down for the next color, and never really paid attention to the thing by my feet. 😁

But it’s all nice and neat now…probably not for long…so I’ll enjoy it while I can. 🤓

That’s all for today. Keep your fingers crossed that my new yarn shows up today! It’s been in the are since Tuesday – so hopefully today’s the day! 😃

Until next time 💕 Take good care of yourself 😍

* I’m not affiliated with any companies/products mentioned here.

Advertisements

Yarn ~ Bomb Your Kitchen

Hello my lovely friends   💕 I don’t know about you, but with all the dreary weather outside my window, I’m in desperate need of something, anything, everything colorful inside! 🌷🌈💐

Let’s start in the kitchen!

~~~This Flower Power Valance makes looking out the window so much more pleasant

~~~Did someone say Cupcakes? 😁 These towels are adorable, and an absolutely guilt-free treat!

~~~More Cupcakes! Doing dishes will be a little more fun with these delicious Cupcake Dishcloths

~~~Or how about these Tunesian Circle Potholders/Dishcloths
I’ve made a few of these. They stitch up quick, and hold up very well – even with daily use 😊

~~~This ‘Granny-go-round Toaster Cover is so cute, it made it to the top of my ‘future projects’ list 😍

~~~Got tea? Well, than you definitely need a Teapot Cozy – preferably one sporting a cute Vintage Camper 🏕

~~~A Rag Rug  brightens up any room, and makes great use for otherwise ‘useless’ garments 😎

Now…watch out…smooth segue way ahead 😆

With all this awesome new stuff in your kitchen you wanna make something for yourself, right?!

Vintage Pattern Wiki recently released over 83.000 free vintage patterns. 😃

With just one click you can admire fashions dating back to the 1920s  😍 Even if you don’t sew, it’s worth a peek. It is a fascinating look at the history of fashion.

I hope you enjoyed this little collection! Now let’s wield the hook, and/or dust off the sewing machine. Have fun! 😘

Thanks for stopping in! 💕 Let me know you were here 😊

Once upon a time…

…there was a box that said ‘ Gingerbread Village’

…and a Tina thinking ‘Oh, that looks like fun’ 😜

Yesterday’s picture in your Advent Calendar reminded me of that day. 😊

Hello my lovely friends 💕 Let’s reminisce…

So I bought the kit, unpacked it at home

Instructions were easy enough

…and so it begins

The first one looks pretty good

Hubby doing Quality control 😜

After a lot of sighing, and (some) cussing strong words and I seem to remember that someone yelled ‘Timber’ to lighten the mood 😂 the village was standing

It’s kinda cute, but there is definitely no ‘Hogwarts Castle’ in my future! 😊

Did you ever built a Gingerbread House? What’s your experience? Never again! 😁 Or ‘Hogwarts’ next year?

Have a wonderful day! 💕

Oh, Christmas Tree 🎄🎶🎶 ~ Build Your Own Little Forest

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Do you still have a flat surface in your house that’s in need of some Christmas Deco? How about some fast & easy Christmas trees? 🎄🎄🎄

All you need is Styrofoam cones (I found mine at Walmart), yarn, and pins.

A little elf is not necessary…she just wants to say ‘Hi’ 😁

The type of yarn is not really important (it shouldn’t be too thin though). A medium weight yarn you want to work into a chain ⬆️ . Fuzzy yarn works great as is, and so does artisan-handspun wool.

You need appr. 9 feet of chain/yarn.

Start by wrapping your chain/yarn around the base of the cone (no glue necessary – the styrofoam does a nice job of ‘gripping’ the material).

So, wrap around, and -about every 2″ -secure the chain/yarn with the pins

You don’t need to secure it on each wrap. 3, r pins every few rows is sufficient. If you see a gap between the rows, just push them together before you add the pin.

Round and round you go…all the way to the top. One more pin…et voilá

Now you can decorate with ribbon, more pins, and a topper. For that I took the silver cap off a miniature ornament, and pushed it into the styrofoam.

Oh…with the artisan spun yarn (no need to crochet a chain 😁) it would look like this

That will be pretty, don’t you think? 😍

Here are a few more trees I made …

This would make a great Christmas craft for the kids! Maybe a nice gift for Grandma, Auntie, their Teacher… 😊

I hope you feel inspired, and will make your own little Forest. ☺️

Please let me know what you think, what you created! 💕

I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Pine Cone Arrangements ~ Bringing Autumn Gatherings Into Your Home 🍁

Hello my lovely friends  💕 A big part of this might sound familiar to some of you – I did post this idea last year – but a lot of you weren’t here then 😊 and if you were, you might like a little reminder  😊 

How would you like to combine a Nature Walk 

with a crafty activity afterwards? 😍
Sound good? Well then…keep reading 🤓

But first – this 

    She’s just so cute…you’ll probably see her a lot here 😊

Alright…let’s get walking and crafting 

I start with collecting pine cones on my morning walk  – these beauties are along the way, and greet me every day with a lovely scent 

So if you see two women crawling around under the pine trees…with 3 dogs watching…that’s my friend Carole and me collecting pine cones 😁

Once home I clean them in a water/vinegar mixture – gotta get rid of the bugs 😖

    

After their ‘bath’ you wanna bake them in the oven at 200 degrees…for about an hour to get rid of the bugs that learned to breathe under water 😋

  
While they bake you can gather the rest of the necessary things. Here’s what you need …

~a glass vase

 ~Potpourri

 ~decorative glass gems 

~1. Start by filling the vase with the gems – about 2″ high.

~2. Then add the pine cones and the Potpourri in layers.

I started with some Potpourri, set a pine cone on top – against the side of the vase, added more Potpourri, a cone on the other side, and so on.

~3. When you work your layers, make sure you have 2 or 3 pine cones left over – sticking out at the top they’ll give your arrangement the pretty ‘fall-y’ touch.

There…isn’t that pretty 😍

I’ve used the glass cylinders for a few different arrangements 

For hubby’s man-cave 🎱

This one sits in the powder room 🙂

My ‘Mickey Mouse’ cactus watches me create new patterns 😀

This one here is my favorite 😍

And of course…one more for the studio 💜

I hope I triggered your creativity….let me know which arrangement is your favorite/ you decided on making for yourself ☺️

Sending Love ❤️ Smiles 🙂 and Hugs 🤗 your way! 

Crochet ~ Along Part III

Hello my lovely friends 💕 Here it is – the (overdue) Part III of the ‘Wallhanging CAL’ 

Have you been waiting for it? I’m so sorry that it took me ’til now to tell you how to go on. 😕 Next time this happens (which I hope is never!) just yell holler at me. 😊

So let’s hop on the CAL train 🚂 ⬅️ Ha… how cute is this? 

Row 11 – The Tapestry Stitch 

This one is really easy. 😃 It’s a great way to use and showcase the beautiful (and valuable) handspun yarn in your stash without breaking the bank. 😍

Besides the handspun yarn I used some frizzy yarn (pick a thin yarn or you won’t be able to see the underlying one)

Now just work a row of double crochet stitches across, while guiding the spun yarn, and enclosing it in each dc.

Of course I forgot to take pictures…so I recreated the stitch on another piece (which has nothing to do with the CAL 🙂)

Make a loop in the first stitch, position the spun yarn across your piece. For the first dc make sure that the yarn you work with is behind the stationary yarn. Yo, insert hook into the next stitch, finish your dc as usual.

Work all stitches very loosely because 1. the yarn is very thin, and 2. you don’t wanna ‘choke’ your pretty handspun yarn. 🤓

Row 12 Dc in black 

Row 13 – 18 – The Star Stitch 

Each Star stitch row really consists of two rows, the ‘Star’ base and a row of hdc stitches. I used 3 different colors, but it’s also very beautiful in one color….that’s completely up to you of course 😁

I found a great photo tutorial at ‘The Spruce’. She’s doing such a great job explaining this stitch that I, instead of copying her, just give you the link to her page. If you’ve never done this stitch or need a refresher ‘course’, click here 😁 I hope you don’t mind! 😍

Row 19 Dc in black 

Row 20 Tapestry stitch – same colors as Row 11

Row 21 Dc in black 

Row 22 Change color to turquoise. Ch3, *skip 2 stitches, Dc 3 in next stitch. Repeat from * to the end of the row. 1 dc in last stitch. 

There…that’s it for Part III. You have my word that you’ll have the next part in front of you next week. 🤓

If you missed the beginning, here is 

Part I 

and 

Part II 

Have you started yet? Let me know how far along you are already. 😊 Or do you plan to but get constantly interrupted? 😋 What to do? 

She’s ⬇️ got it right 🤣

Thanks for visiting and reading 💕 

Ohhh…tomorrow is WIP Wednesday and I finally have something to show ya 😎

I hope you will be back to take a peek 💜

Small ~ Project ~ Sunday – A Yard Sale Find Extraordinaire

Hello my lovely friends 💕 How nice of you to make time for me on this wonderful weekend 😍

No crochet news today – but what I wanna show you instead is pretty nifty. 😁

On Saturday I spend a few hours thrifting. And at one yard sale I spotted an amazing vintage embroidery 💜 

Here are some details 

Beautiful, isn’t it?!

After I brought my treasure home I hunted for a frame…I always buy them at thrift stores – just in case. And yesterday was such a case 😆

It was already stretched on a piece of cardboard…and wouldn’t you know, I had a frame that fit perfectly! 😃 Happy Dance! 💃🏻

The frame is  was not very pretty, but is in great shape 

     Very ‘blah’ 😟
Time for some chalk paint and wax…ta-da 

I applied the paint, with a wide, flat brush, yesterday…let it dry overnight (even though it doesn’t take that long – an hour or two is plenty). Then I applied a thin layer of wax in a few spots (not all over ’cause all I had is a dark brown). Done!  🙆🏻

A few staples in the back – the frame didn’t have any of those metal bendy thingies. 🤓

And here she is 

I’m very happy with it 😍 It seems like it was meant to be….the perfect fit and the color paint I had is actually a color in the embroidery. 

Now I’m sitting here admiring my lovely ‘new’ wall art ☺️

Did you ever have a spontaneous project that worked out on the first try?  (Psst – doesn’t happen all that often around here 😆)

Thanks for dropping by and reading all the way down to here 🤗