Mystery Crochet Ta-Dah....with Pattern

Hello Loveies, 

I've finally got round to finishing my mystery crochet object I first shared with you here

This week I've come down with a cold and my legs are letting me know they would like a bit of a rest after last weekends adventure so I've been sitting crocheting and pottering about taking pictures. I do love a crochet ta-dah post best of all and I'm really pleased with how this fun make turned out. 

I think it's colourful stripes look great with my spotty,thrifted  plate ........

As you can see it's got a cord to hang it up .

 Oooooh , more spots and stripes lovely. This pom pom garland was a Christmas decoration I could not bear to take down. It always makes me smile and now I have a big stripy pom pom to go with it.........

Some of you may remember I mentioned this was not just a decorative object and many of you guessed what it was going to be. But no one guessed correctly. 

Can you tell what it is yet ? .......

There is a strange "tail" hanging out of the bottom. 

A tail that belongs to this ..........

Yes........... it's a crochet string dispenser :0) I said you would laugh

I first made a version of this in pre blog days, 2009 I think. It's been so handy . I always know where the string is when I need it and it's easy to dispense the correct amount. 

I can't remember if I saw something that gave me the idea or it just came out of my head. I've googled crochet string dispenser and got nothing so maybe it is a  new idea. Who knows .

 it does work and only collapses when there is very little string left ,as long as you get the correct sort of ball of string. it needs to be made like this.........

with a hollow centre . You need to find the end of the string in the middle of the ball and thread this through the hole in the bottom of your crochet..........

then the string can glide easily out without the ball of string needing to move.

It's such a simple idea but often they are the best, don't you think? 

 I've written out the pattern as a thank you to all you lovelies for your wonderful comments .It's something you never knew you needed but will come in useful as well as looking great  :0)

As usual it's written in U.S terms.

The stitches are double crochet  ......dc........ ( U.K. treble )

and half double crochet.......hdc...... ( U.K. half treble )

The yarn I've used is Patons Smoothie which is acrylic but cotton yarn would be ideal too. It's double knitting weight and I've used a 4.00 mm hook.

You may need to adjust the pattern it fit your particular ball of string. Mine had a circumference of roughly 31cm.

Round 1. Chain 4 and slip stitch to form a ring

chain 3 ( counts as first dc) make 11 dc into ring. Slip stitch into 3rd chain of initial 3 chain and fasten off ( 12 stitches)

Round 2.Attach a new colour in any stitch and chain 2 ( counts as 1st hdc ) make 1 hdc in same stitch.Make make 2 hdc into each remaining stitch around (24 stitches).slip stitch into second chain of initial 2 chain.Fasten off.

Round 3. Attach a new colour and chain 2. make 1 hdc in next stitch and in the following stitch make 2 hdc. 1 hdc in each of the next 2 stitches and 2 hdc in the following stitch. Repeat around . slip stitch into initial 2 chain, fasten off.

Round 4. Attach new colour ,chain 2 .Make 1 hdc in each of next 2 stitches and 2 hdc in following stitch. 1 hdcin next 3 stitches and 2 hdc in next stitch . Repeat around and slip stitch into initial chain then fasten off.

Round 5 .On this round inrease every 5th stitch i.e. 1 hdc in four stitches then 2 hdc in fifth.

Rounds 6 to 14 are simply 1 hdc in each stitch around

I would keep checking with you particular ball of string to make sure the cover is a good fit. It needs to be fairly snug to look good . Remember crochet will stretch .

Round 15 ( or when you are near the top of your ball ) Attach a new colour and chain 3. make 1 dc in each of the next 2 stitches. In the 4th and 5th make a dc decrease stitch. repeat around ( 1 dc in next 3 stitches , 1 dc decrease in following two stitches. When you get to the end don't slip stitch , just finish off .This will make it easier to get the ball of yarn in and change balls when it runs out.

Round 16 attach a new colour to the first stitch of row 15 and repeat patten of round 15.

At end of round again do not slip stitch , just fasten off.

Last round . Now make chain 4 in first stitch of round 16( counts as 1 dc ,chain1) skip next stitch . 1 dc in following stitch and chain1 . skip every alternate stitch and put a chain between all dc's . This creates holes to thread your cord...

turn inside out and weave in ends.

Make a twisted cord using 2 strands of yarn and  this method.......

Put your ball  of string into it's colourful jacket, putting the central end of the string through the hole in the bottom ,and weave the cord in and out ,through the holes made by the final round. Then simply pull tight and knot.

If the ball hangs unevenly then thread the cord back through  a few holes to help in hang correctly.

I'd love to know what you think of this project and of course it would be great to see your version if you give it a go.

It really is a handy little thing , both in the home and in the garden . I just love it's gorgeous round shape and colourful stripes..........

 Any problems with the pattern ,please let me know.

Have fun 

Jacquie x

Sunburst Granny Hearts...with pattern

Hello Lovelies,
Does anybody remember the circles I teased you with at the end of this post ?
Well I was making a quick gift to take with me to Yorkshire.
As I said before , it wasn't a blanket or a bag , rather something purely decorative.

 Would you like to see what they became ? 

 Here we are , a little Ta-dah moment ( my favourite )..........

 

Colourful , Happy Hearts :0)

I first came up with this pattern back in February 2011 , made one and hung it up, then never got round to doing any thing else about it. 

Then ,when I knew I was going to meet up with Heather I decided  I could make some to string together as bunting ( to look pretty in her babies nursery ).......it had never occurred to me to do that before. These are quite big when made up . I used Style craft double knitting yarn and a 4mm hook...........

Luckily I had jotted down the pattern and managed to pop it somewhere safe . I thought maybe some of you lovelies would like to try your hand at these so I'm going to share the pattern......sorry it's not a tutorial but I simply don't have the time to do one at the moment.Hope you  understand .

 The centre sunburst is not my pattern . There is an excellent photo tutorial for these HEREso pop over there first then come back here for the heart shaped part :0)

Got your three round circle ? Good . 

Here is my pattern, written in my usual U.S. terms

Abbreviations are as follows :-

ch = chain 

sc = single crochet

hdc = half double crochet

dc = double crochet

htc = half treble crochet

tc = treble crochet

Round 1

In any space around your circle ( Space 1 ), attach yarn and ch 1, 1 dc,ch 1.
space 2   3tc, 2 ch, 3 tc, ch1
space 3  3 htc, ch 1.
space 4  3 dc, ch 1.
space 5  3 dc, ch 1.
space 6  3 dc, ch 1
space 7  1 htc, 2 tc, ch 2, 2 tc, 1 htc, ch 1.
space 8  3 dc, ch 1.
space 9  3 dc, ch 1.
space 10  3 dc, ch 1.
space 11  3 htc, ch 1.
space 12  3 tc, ch 2, 3 tc, ch 1.
space 1  1 dc, 1 sc.
Your heart should now look like this.........

You could stop at this point , but this was not properly heart shaped enough for me so I carried on with a second round to make the heart more pronounced.

Round 2

Note there is no need to join the end of round one to the beginning , simply ch 1 then work into the next space ( first space of round one )
space 1  2 sc, 1 hdc, ch 1.
space 2  3 dc, ch 1, 1 dc, 1 htc, 1 tc, ch 1.
space 3  5 tc, ch 1.
space 4  1tc, 1 htc, 1 dc, ch 1.
space 5  3 dc, ch 1.
space 6 3 dc, ch 1.
space 7  3 dc, ch 1.
space 8  3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, ch1
space 9  3 dc, ch 1.
space 10  3 dc, ch 1.
space 11  3 dc, ch 1.
space 12  1 dc, 1 htc, 1 tc, ch 1.
space 13  5 tc, ch 1.
space 14  1 tc, 1 htc, 1 dc, ch 1, 3 dc, ch 1.
space 15  1 hdc, 2 sc.

To finish off insert hook into the stitch in the middle of space 1 on round 1 and slip stitch.

As you can see there are a lot of different stitches and not many repeats so while it's not difficult you need to keep referring back to the pattern and concentrate on where you are up to .

If you want your hearts to look flat it's best to stiffen them in some way. I pinned mine to some foam and sprayed them liberally with this stuff......

then I left them over night to dry completely .

Here is Heathers own  photo of them strung together. It was all a bit last minute so I forgot to take a proper photo of how I joined them onto a long chain...........

 But I simply chained about 30cm then attached a heart by stitching from to back, close to the top of the first "bump" at the top of a heart. Then I chained enough to reach the second bump and joined that, both times I used  a slip stitch.
 Then I counted how many chains till I attached my next heart and joined it in the same way. I continued till all 9 hearts were joined but you could make yours as long or short as you like. Just one heart hanging up somewhere you want to prettify looks great too :0)
 Hope you have fun with this. Please let me know if anything is unclear.
 Jacquie x