Candy Scarf

Hello! Without further ado I hereby present to you the Candy Scarf. Plus the making details and pattern. Hope you like it!

Details
♦  I used three balls of MoYa yarn, one of each of the following colours: Bubblegum, Rose Quartz and Misty Rose.
♦  For the squares I used a 4.5 mm crochet hook (because it creates a nice, soft drape). But for the lacy joins I used a 3.5 mm hook to create slightly smaller chain stitches for an elegant touch. ;-)
♦  My scarf consists of 28 squares and measures 1.65 x 0.20 mtr.
♦  I blocked the individual squares pre-joining them and afterwards I blocked the entire scarf to stretch the lacy join.

And here is the chart! Please don't copy or share the chart elsewhere, but link to this page instead - thank you for linking with love! By the way: this pattern would work very well for a blanket. (Actually, I'd love to make a blanket like this some day.)

I loved working on this cute little project. And I'd love to see your pics if you make a #candyscarf yourself!

If you'd like to read more about the making of this scarf please click through to my previous post.

As always many thanks for your kind visit. Wishing you a most lovely week.
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Candy Scarf in the Making!

Recently Scaapi gifted me with three balls of the South African organic MoYa cotton. I had not worked with it before, but had seen pictures of it on the internet. Like this beautiful doily blanket in the making by the talented Maaike from Crejjtion.

I wanted to make something that would do justice to the look and feel of the yarn. MoYa has a sturdy rope-like look, but feels - surprisingly - soft. I wanted to create a fairly solid texture which would highlight both these qualities. I was in doubt whether to make placemats or a scarf, and in the end - after trying several patterns - decided on the latter.

Love the texture and colours! 

Blocking...

Tomorrow I'll publish the pictures of the finished scarf plus the pattern and other details. But - because it's such beautiful yarn - I thought I'd share some pictures of the work in progress here with you today.

Many thanks for your visit. I hope you are having a lovely week!

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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!
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Little Pink Flowers

Thanks for your kind comments on the necklaces from my previous post. Today I'd like to show you another one. I felt the pink flowers needed a little shiny accent, so I added the beads and, in the neck part, a short golden chain with clasp.

For this necklace I used a 0.7 mm hook and crochet thread from a brand named Julia. (I bought the yarn in a local yarn store, I tried to find this brand online, in case you're interested, but to no avail.)

I enjoyed making the necklaces and I'm full of ideas for other ones - so maybe there will follow more... What do you have on your hooks currently?

Many thanks for your lovely visit.
Wishing you a good week.
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Crocheted Necklaces

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my necklaces as work in progress and now it is time for the reveal!

This long flowery white one is perfect for spring! I didn't follow a specific pattern, but did dive into my pile of Japanese crochet books for inspiration. These were all made with a 1 mm hook.

 *plays nonchalantly with her new necklaces*  ;-)

I'm working on a couple of bigger projects which I can't show you yet and therefore I like these smaller in-between projects so I can still have a little tada-post every now and then. ;-)

In the next blog post I'll show how the work in progress below turned out. ;-)

Almost weekend in this part of the world... Hooray!
Wishing you a most lovely day.
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Pattern Breezy Summer Bag

As promised: The pattern for the Breezy Summer Bag! I made mine with JungleVine - read more here and here. Of course it would work with other yarn too.

Remarks beforehand
 ♦ I don't give one size for the bag. You can make it as big as you like by adding chains to the begin chain or by using a more voluminous fibre.
 ♦ The chart is therefore only schematic, it doesn't give a specific number of stitches - just the general pattern.

 ♦ I used JungleVine and a 2.7 mm crochet hook.

 ♦ In principle you don't have to cut your yarn, it's a 'in-one-go-pattern' as it were. This to make you bag as strong as possible. (Of course it depends on the yarn you use if you need to use more balls.)
♦ American crochet terminology.

Pattern

Bottom of the bag
♦ To start
make a chain (the lenght of this chain will be the length of your bag).

♦ Round 1
sc in third chain of your hook, continue dc'ing in every ch st.

♦ Round 2:

turn work, ch 1 and sc in each sc of previous round.

♦ Round 3 to round [x]:
- repeat round 2 until you have the bottom of your bag has the desired size.

- don't cut yarn

- single crochet along the four sides of the bottom, with 2 sc in each corner.

- don't cut yarn

Sides of the bag
 ♦ Round 1
- ch 2 as a first dc, dc in the backloops of every sc of the four sides of the bottom (backloops only because this creates a ridge. The following rounds you crochet through both loops as per usual)
- sl st in 2nd ch of the 2 chains that form the first dc

 ♦ Round 2
- don't turn turn work
- ch 1, 1 sc in every dc of the previous round
- sl st in 1st sc of this round

♦ Round 3
- ch 2 as a first dc, dc in every sc of the previous round
- sl st in 2nd ch of the 2 chains that form the first dc

♦ Round 4 to round [x]
continue alternating round 3 and 4 until your bag has the desired size.

Handle
- single crochet on one side of the bag till your handle as the desired width.

- continue in the same fashion of the rest of the bag, alternating sc and dc for every (short) row, 

- until your handle has the desired lenght, crochet the last round also through the other side of the bag to attach the handle on that side.

Decorative edge and button hole
- single crochet along the last round of your bag (with another colour)

- sl st in first sc, 

- don't turn work, 

- do a 2nd round of sc, but make chain the middle (instead of sc's) to make a button hole, like you see on the pic below:

And here is the chart, I hope it's clear, it was a bit difficult to draw... (Please keep in mind that it's schematic and I don't give a specific number of stitches because that really depends on the size bag you'd like to make and it doesn't matter for the basic pattern.)

Okay, that's it my crafty friends... If you are making this bag I'd love to see it.
Thanks for your visit and have a lovely day!
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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!

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

My New Crochet Bag and a Giveaway Winner

Yarn, twine, rope, thread or even plarn: they're all suitable for crochet. Although the results will be quite different. :-)

Personally I love experimenting with different kinds of fibre. So I was excited when I got the chance to crochet with the fibre of the kudzu plant, also know as JungleVine.  

This is the skein I received.

Beautiful, isn't it?
Let's do a closeup. ;-)

Beautiful as it may be, it's an understatement to say I was not looking forward to handwinding this into a ball. I'm notoriously bad at this and I always end up tangling the yarn beyond rescue with me somewhere stuck inbetween - desperately crying out for help. However, this time I was in for a pleasant surprise. the skein was divided in mini-skeins, like this:

There's even a a little loop (which you can see in the picture) between every mini to prevent any untimely unravelling. I have never seen this before and I think it is such a clever way of creating a skein. 

I'm really curious: is this a common way for making a skein? Seriously, I'd love to know! Because it was really, really, a piece of cake to handwind it into a ball. No tangling. So, I was happy and I ended up with this huge, squishy ball.

Then came the really fun part: crocheting. I decided to make a bag, similar to the Nature Bags. Also, I decided that I wanted to make it without having to cut the yarn. So that the bag would be as strong as possible. And I wanted it to be simple. So this is what I came up with - Meet the Breezy Bag:

I made a small, cream edging with cotton crochet yarn. 

Some facts... I used a 2.7 mm crochet hook. But I think you could use up to at least a 3.5 mm hook for this fibre. It's a bit 'harder work' than crocheting with a regular yarn (probably also because I used a relatively small hook) but definitely very doable. Plus I found it fun and interesting because it's just completely different than all other yarns I've worked with: although it's very sturdy, the surface is at the same time much smoother than, for instance, twine. And the result is very stretchable. So I would use it again. Which is good news, because I still have some left! Ha!

I will post the pattern for the Breezy Bag here next week.

A Winner!
And now... Thank you all so very much for participating in the Nature Bag Giveaway. But there can only be one winner and that is... Kotbury from the lovely Kotbury blog! Congratulations to you and please mail me your address and I'll send you the bag asap.

If you did not win but would still like to be a proud owner of such a cute fairtrade bag you can find them online here. If you'd like to work with the JungleVine yarn yourself: Nature Bag sells JungleVine skeins, although they're not listed in their webshop yet. If you are interested you can send an email to service@naturebag.org.

Thanks so much for your lovely visit. I wish you all a most happy day!
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