Christmas in March

Christmas in March happens when you get this gift of Moya yarns:

Six colours in my basket!  What shall I do with it?

The very next day the new Ideas magazine hit the shelves, with a shawl pattern that had a very interesting motif...mmm, I didn't want a shawl, but I could do something with that Alek Arabesque...

...this is the wrong size hook.  Nr 3.  Don't go there.

Yes, it is also a very pretty star!

This was such a beautiful evening, I just didn't want to come in from my stoep.
 Even better by candle light. 

The stars accompanied me for a view days, all the way to school,

 - waiting outside music class - 

...and on a quick overnight trip to a nearby beach. 

I was sitting outside with MIL, when two ladies walked pasted and stopped to see what we were doing - but then they became more interested in my grip! When learning to crochet, I tried out both ways - The Knife and the Pencil - and first gained control using The Knife :-)  But it looks like I might have a funny way of guiding the yarn with my left index finger - this baffled them.

A demo of The Knife 

The  pattern hooks up really quickly.  It actually turned out a bit larger than I thought it would, so I meddled a bit with the first round, trying out doubles instead of trebles, but in the end stuck with the trebles.  I used JAYG to join the starts directly.

Four little stars, waiting for some more.

And then I had a tiny little pile.

All done and ready to be hung somewhere.

Now where shall I hang it come Christmastime?

There are some antlers in the kitchen and outside on the stoep...

Or maybe in a window?

Moya Yarn is a DK, but on the thinner end of the spectrum.  The recommended hook size is a 3.5-4.  I used a 3, because I wanted a smaller, tighter star - but this was very difficult to work with.  I also didn't use a good quality hook; the point was too sharp and the process was slow and tedious.
(For the St Patrick's bunting I used a 3.5 Prym, which was an absolute pleasure.  I'll be trying out the nr 4 on project nr 3, and 4.5 on the one after that. 

Moya Yarn is available from:
Moya Yarn
Yarn in a Barn

Scaapi

The Alek Arabesque pattern was published in Afrikaans and English in Ideas Magazine.

Also see here and here for original IG posts by Magda (rawrustic), and here for another beautiful interpretation by Anneke (crochetinpaternoster).

This post is also linked to Natural Suburbia's Creative Friday

A Christmas Star

Last year I hooked smallish stars to hang outside on the tree, and used the cheapest acrylic available in the country - R4 /50g

This year, I'm getting all grown up and and will be using Vinnis Nikkim - big difference!

First Christmas stars

The pattern is the Jelly Christmas Star, very easy to hook.  There are also a few new ones floating around on Pinterest, and I will at least try this one as well.

One-a-Day 12...Stars and rounds

One-a-Day turned out to be almost Three-a-Day :-) 

I finished 23 of these stars and round and also a few strands to be turned into loops (have to hide the beads away from my boy, who wants to thread them all).  It goes nice and quick, perfect for waiting outside the school, or during swimming lessons. 

I hope to be able to post throughout the holiday, going to try out Blogger's email-to-the-blog thingey, or otherwise the long route of MMSing to FIL's email, downloading and uplaoding from there...computer access not the easiest thing.  Hopefully this time next week I can share a tree full of stars :-D

Thanks to Carole who hosts the One-A-Day posts, it is a great idea and motivator to get on with some hooking. 

Wishing all my fellow hookers and bloggers indeed a very blessed Christmas, warmth for the northeners, sunshine and a relaxed summer holiday for the southerners.  Enjoy!

One-A-Day 11...Practising.

Time to report back on One-a-Day!

I set the Ripple aside and got going with various smaller projects.  I'm busy figuring out a sun hat for a little girl, doing hanger covers and such.

These little motifs below were done with yarn that I actually wanted to do rainbow hanger covers with.  But it hooks horribly (being the absolute cheapest you can find in SA, @ R2/50g). So I abandoned ship, but, not wanting to waste this little heap of yarn, decided to practise some circles, stars, flowers etc, and then use the lot to yarn bomb the tree in front of my FIL's house over Christmas ;-). 

It certainly is bright enough :-D

So I hooked one of these per day and will continue until the little balls of yarn are gone.

Will also practise starching the lot!

I'm looking forward to see what else happened in One-a-Day land, over at Carole's blog. 

(And I quietly envy all the lovely Christmas preparations up north!  A hot, summery Christmas is great, but there is just something about the cold, the candles, the darkness, the snow...).