Vote for Mikey!

Anybody who has ever followed this blog, or is a fan of my Facebook Page will know that I am a huge fan of Michael Sellick of The Crochet Crowd. 

The reason I am such a fan is very simple - it was he who taught me to crochet, and introduced me to this wonderfully creative, therapeutic craft.  I'm not alone - his easy-to-follow You Tube tutorials, coupled with his infectious personality have won him 1000's of fans the world over, and have now attracted the attention of the big wigs at You Tube.

Mikey's channel - Mikeyssmail -  is one of 4 channels to be selected as one of You Tube's rising stars, and he needs our votes to win!  The competition is very close  and ends in 2 days.  Mikey is currently in 2nd place - it would be amazing if he could win, and it couldn't happen to a nicer person, so I'm asking you to please vote for him.  It only takes a second and involves no registration or anything -just a simple click on MIKEYSSMAIL.

VOTE HERE

Remember - you're not just voting for Mikey -  you're voting to raise the profile of crochet as a modern, relevant and fun craft!  Thank you!!

Stashbusting Superstar

It's no secret that I'm a great fan of the granny square but I have been known to make other types of blanket.  My favourite of these other types has to be the Superstar blanket.  It grows quickly, is very easy to do once you've established the star shape, and never fails to look impressive.

This pattern is another free You Tube tutorial from Mikey of the Crochet Crowd.  You can view the tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_vMJWWgyJo&feature=youtu.be

Quick Cuffs

I recently spotted a lovely image for some simple bracelets or cuffs on Pinterest and have finally managed to find time to try some for myself.

The pattern was very easy to follow (and free!) and it took me no time at all to whip up my first bracelet

There is an option on the pattern to do 2 different sizes of cuff, and this is the larger one.

The smaller one took literally minutes, and is equally as pretty

To give you an idea of the difference in size I photographed them side by side

And this is how they look laid out flat

Lovely aren't they?

You can find the pattern and have a go yourself by following the link below:

http://createbellacreate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/i-love-crocheting-taking-ball-of-yarn.html



Yet another granny square blanket

I've just finished work on a special present - a very girly flower blanket.  Eighty squares of pink, red and lilac loveliness!  Here it is, in all its glory.

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It's been so long since my last post....so I have lots of catching up to do!  Things have been relatively quiet on the crochet front, but I have managed to complete a few little projects.

One project which I finished last summer, but forgot to blog about, was these lovely little birdie decorations.  They were really quick and make a lovely "just because" present...especially if you keep one back for yourself.

The pattern is another one of Lucy's at Attic 24.  You can see it by following this link:  Crochet Birds.

My latest blanket

Now that we're half way through January, Christmas is rapidly becoming a memory, a nice one, but an increasingly distant one.  During this time I treated myself to a 2-week break from my party bags business.  As we often find, when you have a holiday, no matter how much needed it is, it can be quite difficult to get into the slower pace of life....but an ideal remedy for this is working on a new crochet project!

Having just finished my own floral vintage blanket, I turned my attention, and my leftover yarn, to a Christmas present for a friend.  A granny square blanket can be surprisingly quick to make - this one took me around 2 weeks, give or take a couple of days, so took me through the whole of the Christmas and New Year period...bearing in mind the other smalll matters pulling at me, namely Christmas itself and my 3 young boys, this is not a bad time at all.

This blanket is made up of 30 granny squares...........

Once joined, I added a small border.............





A very satisfactory end product, I think.   Time for something else now, I feel.  After two blanket projects I'm turning to my attention to smaller projects.  More on those to follow soon!

Christmas Eve Blanket

At last, my Christmas present to myself is finished. I really enjoyed making this vintage floral blanket - it also happens to be the thickest, warmest of my blankets so has kept me very warm this afternoon while I finished off the border with a glass of Baileys on ice to hand and ET on the tv.

Happy Christmas to everyone, and a very prosperous, successful 2012!