When you meet Anneke from Crochet in Paternoster .....

.... well, it has happened (almost a couple of weeks ago, in Cape Town!) ...

... you can have a lovely afternoon of nice talking and laughing : for me was magical to meet her, after knowing each other for a while through Crochet in Paternoster and Ons Hekel (a crochet closed group, founded by Stel from Haak-en-stekie ).

As you can see from the above picture, Anneke and I exchanged some gifts (crochet related!!!), and in my beautiful basket (crocheted by Anneke!) I found the followings ....

It was like Christmas for me!!! I was so happy to receive some precious South African cottons (from Moya and Nurturing Fibres ) and 3 balls of t-shirt yarns + a 12mm wooden hook !!!!
When back in Maputo, I had to start something with the t-shirt yarn, as I never used it before : very very curious !!!

The first idea I came up with was : a bag!!!  So, I started to browse in various Japanese crochet books until I found the right pattern for my purpose and I started my new adventure ...

I like many things about t-shirt yarn :
- its elasticity
- its sheen
- because of its thickness, the project grows quickly

The only thing that left me down, I think because I'm a real beginner with this kind of fiber, it was that my fingers were "soring" after a while I was crocheting.... you have to see me how I was "stubbing" the stitches when inserting the hook .... I was laughing (and sweating!) a lot, believe me!!!!
The original pattern was calling for two spikes forming an upside-down "V", but I opted for a single spike, instead, because of the thickness of the yarn and I simply preferred the "brick effect" given ...

Even Margot liked to play with these yarns ....

Little by little, the bag was growing and my excitement was so high ...

.... and a couple of days ago, the bag came alive ....

So big, bold, chunky : madly in love with this gorgeous bag!!!!
It measures 46cm (base) x 37cm
I'm curious to know even the weight ..... !!!!!! ;oD


The last pictures ....

Thank you Anneke, I really appreciated the t-shirt yarn and the challenge to crochet something with that !!!
I still have some leftovers and some royal blue to try .... !!!!! ;oD

xxxx Alessandra

House Week : my crafts !!!

Nice to come back with simple crafts and tasks!!!

So, houses.....

front...

....and back!

....YAP!!!! I did choose to use felt (again!) for my crafts !!!!
I traced just one house because I didn't need more for....

....Well, I have a new little crocheted bag.... Do you remember this ONE ??? The newest version of that one is in green...

....and I wanted to add a nice key ring/bag charm to personalise it a little more....

My LINK !!!!

xxxx Alessandra

...My last touch on the granny triangles !!!

Yesterday  I've shown you my granny triangles that I made for Yarndale Bunting, promoted by Lucy of Attic24 (pattern available here)....remember?

Today I'm going to show you the embellishments I've added to them as my personal signature!
Ready?
We can start showing each triangle one by one..

...as you can see, it's only some fringes and scallops (no pompoms this time!!!!! ;oD)....

I didn't put anything on the top of the triangles, because I don't know how Lucy will join the triangles to form the longest bunting ever!!!!

Some pictures with the triangles paired...

Details of the fringes and the scallops....

I've added a "monochromatic" new entry to this collection....

....in the centre one of my tiny butterflies !!!!!

To complete this photographic post, some more pics with the triangles displayed on my little table in front of my favourite window for the afternoon/cloudy day light...

...hope you liked them!!!

Now I have to prepare the parcel to send them to their destination!!!!! Really hard to do.....;oD !!!!

xxxx Alessandra

Today links : busy fingers showing off link party #3, Creative Friday and i ♥ fridays link party !!!! See you there!!! ;oD