Day 4: Crochet and cross stitch

Thank you for being here for the day 4^th.

Little more about the blankets…

I love Sandra of the Cherry Heart blog and podcast.

She is a young mother (everybody is young compared to me, it is funny how I seem to think about everyone as a girl or a boy…), and makes lovely projects, both knitted and crocheted. Her color sense is light and airy and very different from my muddy palette, and I wish I could make stuff like she does.

She knits lots of socks and makes beautiful blankets. 

Would be very difficult to name the one I like best, but her Battenberg blanket is a beauty,

but so is Nature’s Walk blanket too. I think both patterns are free on her blog.

Long time ago, she crocheted a little blanket out of her sock yarn leftovers with double crochet stitches. She called the blanket Happy Scrappy Squares Blanket. It was my inspiration for making Piisku’s blanket. Where Sandra used double crochet stitches (Eng treble crochet stitches), I used linked double crochet stitches. Then I did not like the holes that would appear using dc’s only and used linked stitches instead. I think I used 3mm hook.

I did go through Sandra’s tutorial of join-as-you-go-method, but I think I added my own twist to the pattern, most likely it was accidental, but in the end, it provides a nice ladder where the patches join. I would need to play around with the method to remember how I did that, but Sandra’s tutorial is excellent.

Piisku's squares are about 8cm-10cm (3”-4”), something around that. 

I did make couple of cushion covers with the same method too, a blue one and a red one. (You have seen these before.)

 

I keep the blue one around most of the time but take out the red one for Christmas and it always feels new then.

Two persons this past fall mentioned cross stitch to me… and it got me interested. Of course, I had to try something very, very small. My Mother-in-Law was a Maker (she is very old now, living in a nursing home) and she gave me all her crafting supplies… and for sure there were all sorts of cross stitch things too. I came across this small ornament. I don’t know how small this aida cloth is, but I used one strand of embroidery floss and I love how neat and crisp the design looks. It is hanging above the dining room table on the candle chandelier.

 

The first one being such a success, I made another one, and that ornament ended up as a couch pillow in the Cat house. I used double strand floss, the design is not as crisp and covers the background very well, but I wonder if I could have used one strand there as well… maybe the background would have been too obvious there.

These little cross stitch ornaments were such a treat that I ordered myself a Winter Craftpod Box.

I believe it will be quite a quick make but will be something different and a nice change for my usual crafting. And it will teach me something new.

This was December 4^th. Tomorrow I will go to town and do some shopping. At least I will pop in the coffee shop and look for a selection of coffees and teas that will taste like Christmas.

Wool with you,

Lene