Latest purchase !

I have recently been reading all about "blocking" my granny squares, and I must admit, from the pictures I have seen, they do look better once they have been blocked. I looked at a few blocking boards on the Internet, but then someone on the Bella Coco Group on Facebook, shared that they had bought some child's foam play squares from B&M which they used for blocking their crochet.

I had a few days off at the beginning of this week, and headed straight to B&M.  Wandered around a few times, but then spotted this on the shelf.  It was the last pack, so I grabbed it !!  

Hopefully it will do the job as it looks pretty similar to the more expensive ones.  Better still it was a bargain at only £2.99 for 10 squares.

I will report back once I have tried it out !! 

Progress so far ....

Thought it was time to share a pic of my granny square progress so far as it's now 2 months since I completed my very first granny square.

The grey one on the bottom right was my first ever attempt.  The pink one above it was my my second attempt.  The red one was made from my Aldi sparkle wool. The two at the bottom of the pic were my first attempts at solid granny squares.

Finally the black, pink and purple ones were made with my bargain wool from Poundland.  The wool was 3 for 2, so can't complain at £2.00 for three balls !!  Hoping to make my first cushion cover with these.  Before I do that, I need to sew in the ends, and then get on YouTube again to find out how to join them together, and then maybe do a border !!  I won't worry about that just yet though - need to make a few more first  ......

Yarn winder in action

Well here it is all unpacked !! Can't believe how excited I am about this little gadget !!  

Just a word of warning for anyone buying one, as I did think I had a dud one at first. It relates to the little metal "hook" which holds the yarn in place.  The instructions say to pull it out and it will lock into place, however, mine kept dropping over to the side.  I decided to do a search on YouTube and someone on there had had a similar problem, and explained that you had to give it quite a hard tug.  I was a little scared of breaking my new treasured possession, but then decided what the heck, and gave it a good yank !!  I am pleased to say it then clicked and stayed in place.  I was obviously being far too gentle !!  It now works perfectly, and I am really pleased with it.

As you can see it makes a really cute "yarn cake".  This was not a full size ball of wool, so this yarn cake is fairly small, but just wanted to try it out.  It was a 50 g ball.

And here is my finished yarn cake !! There will be no stopping me now lol !!

Finished mobile phone case

I did it !!! 

 

You hopefully saw the beginnings of my mobile phone cover in an earlier post.  Well here is the finished product, complete with button !

I am feeling quite proud, as it's the first "item" I have ever made !  Not only that, but it is the first time I have followed a pattern from a book. Everything else I have done so far has been from YouTube tutorials.  Admittedly, it was a very simple pattern, but hey ! we've all got to start somewhere. 

 

Now let's see if my phone actually fits inside (as I forgot to measure it first !) ....................

 



Yippee !!!  My phone is safely tucked away inside it's new home !

 

 

If anyone is interested in where the pattern came from, it was from the book "Crochet - the Complete Step by Step Guide".  It is available from The Works for £10 (link below), but I bought my copy from TK Maxx.

http://www.theworks.co.uk/p/crafting-books/crochet/9781409334675

It fits !!

Well, here it is !!!  My perfectly formed yarn cake in the cute little bowl I got from the charity shop.

 

Very pleased with this find, and hopefully it will mean no more tangled wool.  Not yet sure if it will stop my dog running off with it though !!  We shall see !!

Double crochet attempt

Thought it was time I had a go at double crochet !!  This time I am actually following a pattern from a book.  It is from the book "Crochet" which is a DK book.  I plan to review some of my many crochet books when time allows.

It is a very simple pattern, but hey ! we've all got to start somewhere :-)

Seems to be progressing okay.  Had a minor panic when my stitch count at the end was one out.  However, realised where I had gone wrong so frogged back a couple of rows. No, I had no idea what frogging was either until I joined the Bella Coco group, but apparently "to frog" means to "rip" stitches. It pays tribute to our amphibious friends, the frogs, and their choruses of "ribbit, ribbit, ribbit". When you discover a mistake in your crochet work, you rip it, rip it, rip it – hence, you frog it. So now you know !!

Anyway back to the pattern.  I worked 30 chain.  Row 1 was 1 double crochet into the second chain from the hook, and then 1 DC (double crochet) into each chain to the end.  There should then be 29 DC.  Row 2: 1 DC into each DC to end and then turn.  You then repeat Row 2 until the work measures 12.5 cms (5 inches).

So I'm off to do a few more rows.  Hopefully once it is done, I am reliably informed it will be a mobile phone case !!  We shall see !!

First go at a coaster !

Decided to try something a little more challenging !!  This is again from a Bella Coco tutorial.  My first attempt did go slightly wrong, but the video was so easy to follow, I knew I would get it on my next attempt !  

I'm quite pleased with the finished result, and it reminds me of the little doilies my Grandma used to make, and have on her dressing table.  They were much more intricate of course, and the yarn was much finer, but I do think these look rather cute.  I have copied the link to the tutorial below, which hopefully will work :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ium6UBEEpm0