Doily Delights and Potholder Pastels

Just so to say a quick hello and hit the publish button for a short post... Lately I've been digging deeper in my boxes with - mainly older - pieces of crochet. It was fun to look back at what I've made.

Many thanks for your visit, happy day to you!
♦♦♦

Crochet Extravagance

Last week I have been rummaging through my boxes with crochet. The smaller pieces, that is. And - since I had something of a doily-and-potholder-phase - there are quite a few of those smaller pieces... Anyway... I thought I'd share some my finds here with you too. Introducing... 'Haafner - The Early Works'. ;-)

Now, this potholder has an - for me - unusual colour combination... ;-) 

Have a lovely week - craft on!

♦♦♦

PS. Still working on the pattern for the bag of my last post. Will post it later this week.

Colour me Bright & Happy

As much as I love naturals, I do enjoy a good pop of colour. Today feels like it could do with a little colour injection. So here it is!

Nothing can sheer a dull day up like a colourful pile of crocheted blankets. Agree?

Although confetti is a good second best...

And here's more confetti... ;-)

By the way, patterns for a similar potholder can be found on Ravelry. Search for a daisy potholder. Oh, and in case you're wondering: sure, I always carry a bunch of crochet hooks in my hair. ;-) 

Have a good week!

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

A quiet afternoon...

... Or so it would have been yesterday, if it wasn't for the fact that I was quite maniacally making pictures to document the quietness... *ahem*

I wanted to give this post a touch of Less Is More aesthetics. But I guess I'm failing big time because of the number of pics alone. Ah well!

This placemat and potholder are supposed to have an air of Japanese minimalism. Just so you know. ;-)

The placemat is made of simple double crochets - white with irregular intervals of colour.

The potholder is one big granny square, folded round a cotton potholder...

... I whipstitched together the corners at the backside - which is the side I like best.



Don't you just love the bunny? ;-) It's a souvenir from my recent travels.

BTW, what do you think of this ball of bamboo? I bought it ages ago.

It took me at least an hour to wind it from this skein. (As per usual messed up and got it completely tangled.) I love the colours and even the fact that it's variegated, because it's done so subtile... I have a lovely plan for it! To be continued...

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little record of quietness. Did you have a good weekend? Hope so!

I wonder what this week will bring. I personally have not very high hopes for this one. Luckily I can flee in my pastels. ;-)

Full speed ahead, I guess...
♦♦♦

Flabbergasted! (And some unusual wips)

A warm welcome new & old readers,

Flabbergasted, yes, that sort of describes my reaction this morning when I saw the visitor statistics of this little blog had exploded over the last day. The cause: an amazing - amazingly sweet - blog post of one of my crochet & blog heros, the very talented Vanessa from Coco Rose Dairies. So much kindness, it leaves me speechless... (And to think I'm such a complete amateur compared to her gorgeous work and beautifully written blog.) So from the bottom of my heart:
♦♦♦ Thank you Vanessa! ♦♦♦

It also made me realise it really is time for a new post...
However, it has been very busy around here. I don't get much crocheting done. (And I'm seriously behind visiting all your lovely blogs out there, but I will pop around to say hello soon!)
Although work-work takes up most of my time, I did manage over the last weeks to start (but not finish, nope) some new projects. Which have one thing in common: an unusual (as in: unusual for me) colour combination.

This is supposed to become a giant granny square throw with a vintage vibe... I'm struggling a bit with the colours because there so different from my usual palette. Mmm, we'll see how & if that works out. At least a big granny square is a guarantee for relaxing crocheting, perfect after a long & tiring day at work.






















Then there's also this winter project (scarf, hat and mittens). Even more unusual colours, but I fell for the very soft yarn. (Which only came in these colours, haha.)

And the last wip: this potholder sample. It should become the first of a new range of potholders... (And okay, this is made with colours that are more customary for me.)






















Sorry, the pics are not the best (made in a bit of a rush) - I'm slightly worried you will be disappointed about the quality after reading Coco Rose's sweet words. ;-)

♦♦♦ Thanks for dropping by & have a lovely day. ♦♦♦

Clocking out for a couple of days

I'll be abroad for the weekend,
and I'm having high hopes of returning with some lovely yarns.

Take care!

xxx

Wabi Sabi or The Art of the Missing Potholder

Well yes, obviously, while pinning them to the wall,
It did feel more logical if I had crocheted one more of these potholders.
But there you are. The art of imperfection.
Slightly enhanced by the fact that I didn't block them.

I immediately fell for the pattern when I came across it online.
You can find it on this lovely blog: What you sow.
Recommended!

In case you'd like to give it a go, I slightly adapted the pattern.
American terminology:
Instead of making 2 clusters of 3 dc each
(to make the corners of the flower square),
I made 2 clusters of 3 trebles (tr) each.
(For me this worked better because it gives a sharper corner.)
Also I single crocheted (sc) along the two ends of the rows
before I half doubled crocheted (hdc) the coloured edge.
I mainly used Rico Creative Cotton and a 4 mm hook.






















It's an easy and very satifying pattern.
Before you know it, you've got a stack of these cuties.
So off you go to What you sow!

♦♦♦Enjoy your weekend.♦♦♦
(During which I hope to finally make the pictures of my finished blanket...)

Dots

This teapot was a present - many years ago - from a dear friend,
when she came to visit me from England.
Yesterday I felt it urgently needed a matching hot pad.
(Does that kind of urge sound familiar to you at all,
or should I better consult my doctor?)

I applied the dots after crocheting the white circle.
Each dot is a bobble stitch made of six dc (American terminology).

•••Wishing you a lovely day•••

Bobbles & Pastels

Wow... It has been a long time...
Too long.
No time for crocheting or blogging.
And I'm way behind answering emails...























Just before this very hectic period started
I whipped up this granny square potholder.
Pastel colours & bobbles on the front, plain white on the back.
























Although I wasn't present online during the last weeks,
there were a couple of very sweet mentions of this little blog:

♦ Anna from Bashmachok's World made this lovely tulip scarf.
♦ Heather from Vintage Grey made this gorgeous Peaches & Cream potholder.
♦ Solvi from En Stovel og en sko made this beautiful doily.
Do check out these lovely blogs from these very talented bloggers!

It's wonderful to be a small part of the international blogging community,
to be inspired by all those talented people out there.
Thank you!

Have lovely day!

Pink meets Hemp

Last weekend I made this potholder.
(Yes, another one...)
The front is made of organic hemp yarn,
the back & edging of cotton.
I quite like the combination of the rough & soft textures.

If you're interested in the pattern, it's as simple as it looks. :-)
The front is a granny square of nine rows.
The back is a solid square, also of nine rounds.
I used a 3 mm hook.
The pattern for the back is as follows (American terminology):

♦ Chain 6 and slipstitch to form a ring.
♦ Round 1:
20 double crochet (dc) in the ring. Join with a slipstitch.
♦ Round 2:
[in 1 dc of the previous round: 2 dc, chain 2, 2 dc. Then 1 dc in each of the next 4 stitches.] 4x.
Join with a slipstitch.
♦ Round 3
[in the corner space: 2dc, chain 2, 2 dc. Then dc in each of the next stitches till the next corner space.] 4x
Join with a slipstitch. 
♦ Rounds 4-9: repeat round 3. (The number of stitches between the corners will increase.)

For the loop you can use a key chain as a base, then single crochet on it.
You can sew or crochet it to your potholder (I did a bit of both.)
I then single crocheted the back and front together, using the cotton (one round).
To make an edging I used the crab stitch, which is fun doing.
It's a backward single crochet; on YouTube you'll find lots of great tutorials.

Okay, that's quite enough about one potholder.
I hope you haven't falling asleep. :-)
Thanks for visiting! Wishing you all a very fine day.

♦♦♦

Breakfast on a gloomy day

It was dark this morning,
but at least my new potholder perked up the breakfast table.






















I decided on a dark brown backside and edging.
It makes the light blue really pop out,
- plus this colour combination has a certain nostalgic feel.






















The Japanese crochet book had a photo of this potholder
- with a nice border,
but unfortunately the matching pattern lacked the border.
So I improvised something similar.

I think this pattern would work great for bags, cushions or small plaids too.

Have a non-gloomy day!
♥

Potholders to be & a new button...

Just a quick post,
to show you something that isn't even finished yet.
But I'm so glad with this pattern
(from a Japanese crochet book I received earlier this week)
that I can't wait...
- Even though the light is too gloomy to make a decent picture.
I simply love how the bobble stitch in this pattern works out.

Unfortunately the book didn't give a pattern for the back,
I will make something simple for that.
Hope to show you the result tomorrow soon, after I blocked them.

Oh, yes, before I forget:
I finally added a followers button (on the right, below).
So feel welcome to press it... :-)

Time to crochet

Couldn't resist to make another crocheted potholder. 

I'll work out the pattern soon.
(If I can remember it...)

Fluttering Thoughts

Of course - I know it's kitsch.
But for 50 cents I couldn't resist this sweet little bird at the thriftshop...

It's nice enough to give a little kitsch bird a new home,
but real birds are the ones that really need our protection.
Today the Dutch queen wore a hat made of feathers...
Many birds died for that silly hat.

More Snapshots

While new posts are in the making, here are some more snapshots...

One lucky find

I never was one for pastel colours,
but recently, I started to appreciate them.

I found the little triangular table some time back
- in Amsterdam -
while walking in the morning from the station to my office.
Somebody had thrown it away,
between a pile of garbage bags.
Lucky find indeed! (Apart from the garbage part of the story.)

The workmen restoring a house there,
thought it was really funny to see me crawling over the rubbish,
(Okay, I'm exaggerating here, I didn't actually have to crawl.)
 - but I thought it to be a perfect start of my day.