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

Something different : a water dispenser cover (or cosy?) !!!!

A friend of mine asked me to crochet her a cover for her terracotta water dispenser ....
I never did that before ....
I checked on Pinterest to find some inspiration ... almost nothing ...

I asked my friend to take some measures (circumference, diameter and height) and knowing that she loves the blue&green combo, I started to crochet a circle for the top ...

I've been using some turquoise yarn from my stash and a 4mm hook and my design involved some filet crochet !!!

As the subject was "water" (and because of the colour selection), I decided to consider some fish to crochet on the cover ...

The fish pattern was taken from Betty Barnden's FILET CROCHET and I adapted it (on a piece of paper with small squares) accordingly with my needs (number of stitches, groups and spaces) ...

... and after some rounds, I started to see the fish ...

The thing is that, because starting to crochet from the top to the bottom, you have to read the chart upside down !

To check properly the design, I put the cover on a lamp that I have on my computer desk, that is next an Egyptian panel with ... fish! ...

After the trio of fish was completed, I decided to add some waves (pattern taken from the same book as for the fish) ...

To break the sameness of the work, I began to decorate the top of the cover with some neon green and slip stitches ..

... and the waves were getting more and more ..

I like when you are approaching the end of your work and you realize "It makes sense!" ...

I added some extra designs to the cover (another kind of fish and some seaweed) and fringes to complete it

as you notice, at a certain point my turquoise yarn ended and I had to replace it with some other yarn... I was disappointed, but then I thought that the abyss are darker than the surface water, so .... it was not completely wrong and I patted my shoulder to cheer me up !!!

These are all the designs I used in the cover (the seaweed is mine!) ....

the cover in all its length .....

I gave the cover to my friend last Friday (she was so excited!) and later she sent a picture of her terracotta water dispenser all covered up for the occasion ...

.... and the picture arrived with a caption "Happy water filter" !!

She rolled it a bit (I think we had some problems with the conversion of the measures from inches to cm !!!!), but she loves it and she said the colours are fantastic!!!

I like to notice that in the back of the pic there is a cat bowl with fish on .... !!!!

I'm curious to know your opinion on it!!!!!

xxxx Alessandra

Absent, but "present" !!!!

Hi girls!!!!!
The time flies very quickly while busy in making a lot of gifts for family and friends in occasion of the coming Christmas ..... next week!!!!!
So I was absent from Blogland, but I had to in favour of the "present" commitment!!!! ;oD
I had taken a lot of pictures of all my works, but I'll show you just a few, ok ???

As you can remember (HERE), I was knitting a scarf with stripes (the Long Striped Scarf, from Fiona Goble's knitting book Scarves and Cowls, 36 quick and stylish knits) ....

.... and from the same book, in the meantime, I knitted even the Pompom Scarf, that is like the following ....

.... and I tell you, they are so different and so beautiful together ...

I crocheted a couple of necklaces, too !
The pattern is the same (my own design!), but I did use two different kind of yarns, so two different sizes of hooks ....

YOU CAN FOUND THESE BUTTONS HERE !!!!

... and I made another one with buttons and beads ....

... then a bunch of hats ....

.... there are more, but I'll show you the rest another time!!!!!
The pattern I followed is free and you can find it HERE !!!

I had even to crochet (my "little" sister request !) two Totoro hats (do you remember the first one?) ...

.... slightly different from each other !!!!

Then a different kind of hats ....

..... sweet little decorations, nice to gift to a friend who was hosting a Christmas party last week !
The photo tutorial ? Have a look HERE and have fun in making them !

I've tried something new (still my own design!) for a couple of chilly friends ...

yes ... hot water bottle covers !!!!

.... So I was not kidding !!!! I was really busy !!!! ;oD

Everything is all packed now in my luggages : tomorrow we are flying back to Italy for the Christmas break ....
..... but I will pop again next week for the Season Greetings !!!!!

xxxx, Alessandra