Monday, 23 June 2014

Done! The Snowflake Scarf



And the Snowflake Scarf is finished!




(I promise it is not glow-in-the-dark green...but Blogger insists on uploading my perfectly normal aqua-teal-tiffany blue scarf  with these greenish highlights).





The idea was to make up a scarf with different types of snowflakes, to resemble MG as the "snowflake disease", that is - each and every person would differ in the presentation of their symptoms.  I ended up using  three snowflakes patterns, after realising that I just do not have the patience to figure out how to make all these different motifs fit together in a cowl.  So I hooked three separate strands, one per pattern, where I joined the snowflakes as I went along, and then I threw my hands in the air as I could not decided what to do next.  

(Okay, Blogger is going crazy)

I took it along to our Crochet-in Public event where I hoped to get good advice
(which, of course, I did).





A very good idea was to pre-join all the motifs with stitch markers, and I literally strung it around this cushion to keep everything in its place, with no twisting of the strands.  I positioned the snowflakes so that each loose point of the middle row flakes could join with two joined "arms" of the snowflake below or above.  Then starting from a random point, I literally hooked a chain, linking up and down between the nearest points, trying to balance it as equally as possible. 

(This is the absolute nearest to freefrom that I will ever get)




And then it worked!




I'm thinking of giving this one away at a MG group, and do another one, this time in a brilliant bamboo by One of a Kind yarns, in the same lovely colour.  Might make four or three strands then, but for now, I'm happy :-)

(Isn't it bloody difficult to take a selfie when you need to 'model' something? Eeeek, akward.)




Patterns used:

Lucy Croft's Frosted Flurry - Simply Crochet vol 13
Tuula Maaria's 2-row snowflake
Red Heart's Snowflake Ornament (with a slight change in the 2nd row)

Do you have a medical issue and has crochet helped you in any way?





Friday, 20 June 2014

Crochet with a View


Now and then you'll see a photo that makes wish you took it.

As when Ons Hekel-member Wendy Erasmus-Koutlis posted this:
(have a look at her website)

How to offset bright colours against a glorious landscape


She lives in the eastern Free State, with some of the most spectacular scenery in the country.
She hooks beautiful blankets. 


How to show off a blanket


Even directed away from the mountains, the Free State farmscape is stunning. 


How to glam up an old barb-wire fence


Suburban Pretoria, with only the tiniest hint of the Magaliesberg outside my bedroom window just doesn't compare. 

All I could do was to hook a hastily-done beanie to an equally rusted fence during our hunting trip last weekend...with a smile and a wink to Wendy ;-)

Uhm...at least it's picking up the green :-)

Love your outdoor photos, Wendy.  Keep on hooking, keep them coming!