homemade@myplace

The inspiration for these sombreros comes from Lauren's Mini Sombrero Crochet Pattern . In fact, the first sombrero (the one with the blue edging) is crocheted following the original pattern, while the next ones (pink and yellow edgings) have in my personal variations to Lauren's pattern. My sombreros (all of them) were made using a 3,5mm hook and cotton threads. You need, also, a pair of scissors, a yarn needle, a stitch marker (as working in spiral, it's a good idea to identify the first stich of the round) and a small amount of toy filling. All the sombreros are crocheted using a pale blue cotton thread and the colourful edging is made with single crochet stitches (=SC, abbreviation) (US crochet terminology) and picots (each made of 3 chains). Every 3 single crochets, you make a picot! First Sombrero Is the one with the blue edging I simply followed Lauren's pattern. The only difference is the final embellishment, as I preferred picots...

I'm not the first one to offer a photo tutorial on this specific topic. In fact, there is a good one provided by Tif from dottie angel right HERE (an "ordinarily extraordinary" blanket how to ...). Tif creates a lovely "eyelet join", I'm more basic : my joining method is really essential. I know that some of you will love it, some others will ignore it, but I love to have more options to choose from and I love to share this method with you, just because you can have one more option to choose from, too!!! The two squares shown in the above pictures follow a simple pattern (you can pick any kind of yarn and, consequently, any hook size for this) : chain 42 stitches and insert hook in 3rd chain from hook to crochet your first double crochet (=DC, using the US crochet terminology). Crocheting one DC in each chain, you will end the row with 40 DCs. Chain 2 and turn your work and repeat the pattern. For the first square, I worked the first 18 rows in ...

....After a long while, a new postcard for you all!!! I had in mind this special person since the beginning of the year, but I started to crochet him only a couple of days ago ... ... I was too scared to make him ridiculous and it was not my intention, but the design for My Little Crowd is intended to be naïve, so here what I made : more details ... ... and the postcard I'm sending to you ... ... that matches perfectly another quote from the Mahatma "In a gentle way, you can shake the world". xxxx Alessandra

In February, I made my first triangular scarf ( HERE) ... .... and yesterday I completed a new one !!!! I decided to follow the same pattern used for the previous scarf, but selecting a different colours scheme, more bluish .... Using the same circular knitting needles (4,5mm), I started my project with a royal blue (found in my yarn stash) from SIRDAR "Wash'n'Wear" DK double crepe and I chose other yarns to add later on ... It was a calm knitting, as I used to knit some rows each time (very rare!) I was getting bored with my crochet projects (yes, more than one at a time!) ... When the royal blue was gone (no more from my stash), I decided to join (look HERE) the new colour ( ROWAN RYC cotton jeans, shade 363 blue wash, 2 balls) ... After this shade, I decided to add few rows (I ended my work at row 220) of SIRDAR Snuggly DK shade 0385 twisted blue ... and off the knitting needles ... Honestly, even though I love blues, ...