Indian Summer Days

Hello Lovelies,
well, if the forecast is correct we are set to enjoy a warm sunny week with temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius from Wednesday. Pretty wonderful for the end of September.....Today has been lovely and sunny in these parts and I'm enjoying the blue sky and bright sunshine. It helps compensate for the ever shortening days.

In the garden this pretty plant (whose name escapes me at the moment) is having a second burst......

My sedum is looking at it's best ....

And the Violas I've planted for some winter colour are looking so happy.....

Just last week I really noticed the trees beginning to turn, just as the Autumn equinox arrived.........

Out neighbours elder is laden with berries........

And the hedgerows and awash with them too...

Yes. I'm going to try and get out and soak in the wonderful Autumn colours as much as possible this week .

I'll be saving my crochet for the darkening evenings. My latest Giant granny is almost finished. This row ( row 52) caused my to sweat a bit....all the way round I was worried the red yarn would run out and I haven't got any more. But luckily it just lasted with a small amount to spare :0) ..........

Lucky me !
At this stage each round takes almost an hour to do. I'm planning to stop at round 56 so not too long to another Ta-dah .
Hope the weather is kind where you are .
Don't forget to enter my giveaway HERE if you haven't yet .
Have a great week.
Jacquie x

Crochet Bowl Tutorial

Hello Lovelies,
here is my photo tutorial for crocheting a bowl like the ones above.
First lets talk yarn. For this project you will preferably need some cotton yarn or similar. Stretchy or woolly yarn will not have the strength to allow the bowl to maintain its shape. This is my random selection of cottons and cotton blend yarns. I think there is some bamboo in there also. I've gathered these from reduced bins .
For that reason I don't have much of each colour .But for this project that doesn't matter at all..........

The next thing to consider is hook size. Even though I'm working with two strands of yarn held together I have still only used a 4.00 mm crochet hook (there is a good hook size conversion chart here if you need it )
This means the finished bowl will be quite tightly worked and therefore more rigid than if you chose a bigger hook. This is important to avoid a floppy bowl .
If you are struggling with a small hook going up a size will probably be ok. It all depends on the thickness of your yarn,

This bowl is made in a continuous spiral so even though I'm writing about rounds there is no start and finish point to each round and it is important to have a stitch marker ( I use a safety pin ) to remember where each round begins and ends.

This tutorial is for 6 inch bowl....the biggest size I've made (on the left in ths picture above )
At the end of this tutorial are instructions for making the smaller sizes .


So lets make a start shall we. As usual I'm writing this in U.S. crochet terms.(sc = single crochet)

Holding two strands together make a slip knot in the normal way....

Next chain 2........

Insert hook in the first chain........

Round 1 Make 6 single crochet into the same chain. In this picture I've made 1 sc....

Here I've made all 6 and you can see how the chain stitch has opened up .......

To close the hole simply pull the tail ends of yarn till your work looks like this.......

Round 2 Next make 2 sc in each of the 6 stitches of round 1.If you are not sure where to start it helps to count back from your hook :0)......

When you have completed that round you should have 12 stitches .....

Round 3 Make the first stitch of round 3 then mark this with a stitch marker......

Make another sc into the same stitch the 1sc into the next stitch. Continue around till you reach the stitch marker repeating the 2sc,1sc pattern . You should now have a total of 18 stitches........

At this point I have changed the colour of one of my strands of yarn by cutting the yarn about 10" from the work and knotting on another colour. Remember to leave long enough tails to weave in at the end....

When you reach the knot encourage it to be on the wrong side of your work. If it ends up on the right side pull the tails to move it to the wrong side.

Round 4 This is a repeat of round 3 ...2sc in the first stitch, 1 sc in the next stitch, and repeat around (27 stitches)
 Every round it important to remove the stitch marker and then reinsert it into the first stitch of the next round .
Round5 This round is 2sc in the first stitch then 1sc in each of the next 2 stitches. Repeat this pattern around ( 36 stitches)
Round 6  2sc in the first stitch followed by 1sc in each of the next 3 stitches. Repeat around.(45 stitches)
In this picture I am just getting going on round 6 and you can see I've attached a new yarn colour....cutting the colour I've been using since the start and attaching a new colour......

This is the end of round 6......

Round 7 This is predictably...2sc in first stitch,1 sc in each of the next 4 stitches ,repeat around.
Round 8 You have reached the last increase round ...Yay...it's 2sc in first stitch then 1sc in each of the next 5 stitches, repeat around.

Here is where it's going to get a whole lot easier :0)
Throw away you stitch marker (not literally ) and just sc in each stitch . This will eventually begin to make the sides . It will take a couple of rounds  before this starts to happen . In this picture you can see I just have a floppy circle........

Remember to change colours using the method above when ever you like

Here I have done about 3 rounds of sc and my bowl is just beginning to turn up at the edges ( the wrong way ! ) .........

Here I've worked a bit further and the sides are beginning to grow. I've encouraged it to turn the right way out .....

Then it's just a case of repeating the sc 's around and changing colours to your taste. You can make the sides as high as you prefer. .....

Once you are happy with the height simply fasten off the ends and weave in .
Here is the inside once I've sewn in all the pesky ends...A boring job but it doesn't take too long........

And you end up with a colourful beauty like this ......

Of course you could stick with the same two colours all the way through , this would look pretty too .

This bowl measures 6 inches or 15cm across.
To make a smaller bowl simply stop increasing sooner.
The smallest of my 3 bowls measures 4 inches and I stopped increasing after round 6.
The middle sized bowl (on the right in the first picture ) has higher sides but measures 5 1/2 inches across. For this size I stopped increasing after round 7 .

I hope all this is easy to understand....any problems , please let me know :0)
Enjoy :0)
Jacquie x

P.S. till the end of Sept '11 you can win one of these lovelies, just leave me a comment on the previous post.

New crochet and a GIVEAWAY :0)

Hello lovelies,
I'm excited to have some new crochet to share with you today. But first I'm sharing some pictures of the fabulous flowers that I was lucky enough to be given after my run. These from my lovely sister in law....

And also beautiful roses from Mr BM...

I love flowers but something that makes me equally happy are all your wonderful comments.
 All your support for my crafty and other endeavours means so much that I wanted to do more than just show you pictures of flowers, so I decided to  make something I could give you the chance of winning. But what to make ??
Eventually I settled on  a crochet bowl I had started a few months back.      

I'm not sure why  I never got round to sharing this with you at the time. Probably because I got distracted by another project before I got round to sewing the ends in :0)
Today I've finished it and also made a couple more bowls. 
Slightly brighter colours and different sizes.

Luckily I had written down the pattern when I made that first bowl and today I've taken pictures for a photo tutorial which I'll be posting soon.

So  here are my three crochet bowls, just waiting to go to new homes.........

They are made using  cotton yarn and I held two strands together as I worked. This has created an interesting pattern of colours and also given the bowl strength to maintain its shape.......

The inside is almost as pretty as the outside........

And I'm sure you lovelies could come up with loads of uses for a handy bowl.......

So don't be shy. Even if you don't normally comment , now is a great time to start :0)
Just leave me a comment on this post and make sure I can contact you if you are a winner. There will be three prizes of a bowl each...I'll pop somethings inside too, but that part will have to be a surprise....

These bowls have been inspired by the gorgeousness over at sosorosey. Do have a look at Jennie's wonderful creations...not to mention fabulous vintage fabric.

Having admired her work I decided to have a go at making a bowl in single crochet ( u.s. ) ...trial and quite a bit of error ,eventually led me to a design I'm very happy with.

 If you would like the chance to own a Bunny Mummy original do leave me a comment.
I'll draw the winners at the end of the month........... If you are not lucky enough to win but can crochet remember ,you will be able to make your own version very soon :0) 
Have a great weekend and good luck !
Please feel free to enter where ever you live...I'm happy to post internationally .

Jacquie x

Autumn arrives and a Ta-dah

Hello Lovelies,
we have certainly seen a change in the weather this week. It's been wet and very windy at times . Popping out into my garden on Tuesday morning I noticed a few battered looking Chrysanthemums and just had to rescue them . I popped then on my Kitchen windowsill and immediately felt cheered up....

Isn't this a gorgeous orange ....so seasonal . I know my grandad used to grow chrysanth's on his allotment and when we visited there would often be a vase of them in the bay window. I didn't particularly like them as a child but now I can see why my Nanna loved them......

Did you spot my squash ?...I expect so , it's hard to miss :0)
 This was not grown by myself (though we are attempting pumpkins for the first time this year) I picked it up in the supermarket . Last years lasted for months so I'm hoping this one will add a bust of colour to the dull days too ....I love it's plump shape and purely by coincidence, it's colour goes so well with my flowers.......

Along with the new uniform sorting and altering I've been busy with this week, I've managed to finish my blooming flower cushion . Would you like to see ????

Ooooh , I'm so pleased with how this turned out  :0) Thank you so much Lucy for the brilliant tutorial which made it so easy......

I was fortunate to have a thrifted cushion perfect for this project, does any body remember this cushion I bought back in May? It has a curled feather pad inside and I rather liked the Laura Ashley "Sweet Pea" fabric. ...

It was sacrificed for this project though. I had the idea to use the back of this cushion cover as the back of my cushion ,utilizing the fitted zip.


So after unpicking the two sides I cut some fabric from an old shirt into a circle the same size and sewed my crochet to this. As well as attaching it around the edge I attached a couple more rows further in ,before sewing this to the cushion cover back. I'm hoping this will add strength and prevent the yarn from getting stretched as has happened to me before .Cushions get a pretty rough ride in our house !!

Here is how  the back looks  .....

I've saved the rest of the lovely fabric for patchwork

I'm happy with how the more muted colours have worked in this project...

And I must thank you all for your lovely comments . It's always a bit daunting changing to a different palette.

 I was pretty unsure if I even liked the start of my "vintage" giant granny. So imagine how happy and reassured I felt after reading all your wonderful comments. In fact I was rather scared to add more rounds in case they didn't come up to scratch . Silly I know .

I have braved more rows ...here is how it's looking today...sorry about the rubbish picture....dull weather didn't help......

I think I like it and I'm looking forward to seeing the two projects together in my chair :0)

After I took this picture I threw my newly finished cushion on top of the blanket WIP which was on the floor ,to check they looked OK together ....When I took a picture I was delighted with how it came out ......

WOW........I love this image..........the flowery crochet cushion framed by granny gorgeousness. LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!


 It's a week for firsts in our house ....secondary school seems to be going O.K. and all being well I'm doing something that I've never done before at the weekend .I am feeling a bit anxious right now ....will fill you in soon :0)
Jacquie x
P.S. Sorry I forgot to mention the yarn I'm using . A few of you have asked what it is.
It's mostly Stylecraft....I'll list the colours in my next yarny post. There's also some Cygnet and Bonus from my stash. It's all acrylic.

Progress

Hello lovelies,
Just popping in after a long day at work to share some promised progress shots. My blooming flower cushion grew a lot on Tuesday.
By lunch time it looked like this.........

And by late afternoon I had added more rows ...........

As you can see I'm going for  more subdued  colours than my latest makes , using colours similar to those I chose for my much loved square throw.

I've also started another Giant granny using the same colours......

I know I have my Kaleidoscope blanket in progress but I was seduced by the pleasure I got from making this  giant granny that I gave to my Mum . So quick and easy to do when you are too tired to count stitches or follow a pattern.
I'm hoping these projects have a vintage feel and that they will add a cozy touch to my lounge this Autumn. I love to snuggle under a crochet blanket when the weather turns chilly :0)

Hope you are managing to squeeze some craft into your week.
Jacquie x