Tutorial: Fold A Star Blanket

Hello hello!

A couple of weeks ago, I finished a star blanket for a newborn baby girl for good friends of ours and complained to my husband that I never know how to fold these blankets. They always look oddly shaped when folded, are impossible to gift wrap, and so on. Well, my husband took one look at the blanket and was like "uh, yes, of course, you could fold it", took the blanket andddd folded it perfectly. Right. I was baffled and posted a picture on Instagram. It looks like I am not the only one struggling with folding star blankets, and I was asked to ask my husband to show the world how he folds star blankets...

So, I present the "fold your star blanket tutorial" :). The pattern I used for the blanket is from Celeste Young and the yarn is Life DK and Life Changes DK from Stylecraft. 

I would love to see your folded blankets! Can you tag us on instagram or use the hashtag #crochetbetweenworlds? That would be awesome!!

If something is unclear, please let me know, and I will try to describe it in other words. 

Take care, 

Anne

Tutorial: Fold A Star Blanket

Step 1

Lay it out with the wrong side facing up.

Step 2

Fold in the first side. I use the corners (the dips) as guidelines. With larger blankets, you might to fold it over a bit further though. 

Step 3

Fold in the second side. If your blanket is bigger than mine, the sides will overlap more and you might need to fold the side in a bit further.

Step 4

Fold in the upper half. If your blanket is bigger, you might need to fold it in a bit further.

Step 5

Fold in the lower half. If your blanket is bigger, you might need to fold it in a bit further.

Step 6

Fold the lower half in again to the middle and turn it over! :)

The Video

It might sound more complicated than it actually is. In fact, it is super easy... So, we made a short video - it doesn't have the highest quality (we filmed it in the middle of our move and were rather short on time) but I hope you get the idea anyway. :)

REVIEW: Round and Round the Crochet Hook by Emily Littlefair

Hi everyone!

Today I have something a bit special for you - a peek at Emily Littlefair's new book, Round and Round the Crochet Hook. It is a gorgeous book of patterns with things you can crochet for your home, such as table runners, blankets, decorations, coasters and doilies. 

It was so hard to choose which pattern to try out - I don't need more blankets, my husband can't stand doilies, the coasters would come out huge in the DK yarn that I had to work with... but I just kept flicking back to the "Stars in the Night Sky" pattern. Yes it's a doily, but I figured I could make the beautiful stars individually as coasters instead of joining them together!

I used Drops Cotton Merino, which is soft enough to be lovely to work with, and firm enough to be able to hold up to being used as coasters.

The pattern is very clearly written, and I had no problems following the instructions or the chart.  

The finished stars did require steam blocking with the iron to get them to sit flat, but no pins were needed, just gentle coaxing with my fingers to straighten up the points. 

Aren't stars just perfect for this time of year? The coasters came out the ideal size for our oversize mugs, and even the little snowman got the opportunity of a comfy seat!

Overall this is a beautifully written, charted and photographed book. Thank you Emily!! 

Star Blankets

Hi there!

Hope you are all doing well! I miss the long summer days but oh well, autumn/winter means cozy crochet time on the couch, doesn't it? 

Some weeks ago I felt like doing another Star Blanket from Celeste Young's pattern. I made three of these blankets last year and they were such a joy to make! So off I ventured and pulled some skeins of Stylecraft Special DK from my stash. I did that just before we left for a weekend at my mum's and the light wasn't perfect, so the colors didn't turn out to be the ones I thought they were when I pulled them out of the bag the next day. Oops! With the help of my husband (who is much better with colors than I am) I managed to put together a blanket color order which worked very well together in the end. Phew! One skein traveled in vain though - there was no vain it actually fitted with the other colors (it did in dim light...).

When I finished the first blanket, I had quite a bit of yarn left over and thus I decided to make other of the star blankets with the same yet of colors just in reverse order. To tell the truth, I played yarn chicken with the last two colors but it worked out in the end! I used one skein of each color except for the white (1,5 skeins). 

I adore the blanket pattern. I fell into a rhythm very quickly and thus crocheting these rows was so relaxing. The finished look of the blanket is something really as well! I think I will make another one soon just because it is such a joy to crochet the pattern. I would like to make a larger one at some point but for that I would need more yarn for the outer rows.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Take care

Anne

P.S. I know that the blankets need a good blocking at some point... I will get there. Eventually. 

Tutorial: (Multi-Layered) Paper Stars

Hello you lot!

Welcome to all the new readers and welcome back to all the regulars! We love to read your comments - so thank you for taking the time to drop us a note!

Today, I bring you another tutorial but... it's not about crochet! What a shock! It is about some paper art (I warned you some weeks ago that you would see some of that on this blog too).

There are two reasons why I decided to make these stars.

1. I saw something like this on Dawanda (the German version of Etsy) some time ago and really liked it a lot. I did forget about it after a while though.

2. We brought home maps, paper bags and such from our travels. They were keepsakes but had no space in our flat. We didn't want to toss them but couldn't figure where to put them either. So the boyfriend suggested that I make some kind of oranments out of them (to hang on the Christmas tree). And BAM! I remember the paper stars. 

I couldn't find a good tutorial online, so I came up with my own which I will share with you today! :)

Tutorial: (Multi-Layered) Paper Stars

You need

Paper - I usually use heavy transparent paper or old book sides

Star stamper in the desired size of the stars

Sewing Maschine

Paperclips

Step 1

Stamp four stars out of the paper.

Put the pieces on top of each other.

Fasten with paperclips.

 Step 2

Head over to your sewing machine and get it ready to go. Pull some thread through to start with - this will make the hanging thread of your star later.

Put the point of the star underneath the needle.

Sew together with a straight line.

Optional: Add next star after about 15 cm. That way you will get a "star chain".

Cut thread. 

Step 3

Put a knot at the bottom of the star.

Fold in the sides of the star, so it becomes 3-dimensional.

Hang your star/star chain.

Enjoy! :)

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! :)

Triple Ta-Dah on Tuesday

Welcome to Triple Ta-Dah Tuesday! I have a few lovely things to share with you today, all finished and ready to unleash on the world :) 

Crochet Between Worlds Facebook Page!

Crochet Between Worlds now has its own Facebook page! 

https://www.facebook.com/crochetbetweenworlds 

Head over there and Like the page for notifications of new posts, plus teasers and tidbits that occur to us between posts, plus shares of beautiful and inspiring work from other crochet pages :) 

Magnificent Mug Markers!

At our new house on Lake Macquarie, all the mugs will be the same... 

We drink a lot of tea, and I figure there is going to be endless confusion if everyone has identical mugs! So, using some of my lovely Red Heart Miami cotton and a little bit of internet exploration, I made a set of mug markers :) 

I was inspired by patterns I found online for the little motifs, but adapted them to make them a bit neater, a bit easier, or a bit more straightforward to add the loop. To each motif I added a loop of 30 chain stitches, to wrap around the mug handle. Plus, they are dishwasher safe if we forget to take them off! 

Star: http://mymerrymessylife.com/2013/06/crochet-mini-star-applique-free-pattern.html

Bowtie: http://crocheteverafter.com/tutorials/free-pattern-workshops/bow-applique/

Loopy flower: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flower-doodle 

The mug markers can also be used on stemmed wine glasses - a colourful, washable, practical way to keep track of whose is whose!

Cosmos Fields Shawl

Last, but definitely not least, I completed my Cosmos Fields Shawl. I proof read this amazing pattern for Zelna of Zooty Owl's Crafty Blog a few months ago, but hadn't gotten around to actually making it!

I used some of my precious Stylecraft Special DK, and it was just a dream to work with. My Ravelry Projects Page has all the details on colours and yardage :) 

The colours remind me of photos of the lavender fields of Provence in France - purples, blues of the sky... It is so warm and cosy too, and very large! It measures 218cm (85") across and 108cm (42") long. 

This is for a birthday present - I hope the intended recipient likes it, and it keeps her nice and warm in her chilly office :) 

That's all for Triple Ta-Dah Tuesday! 

What projects have you finished lately? Put links in the comments for us to visit!! 

Some crochet, some paper craft and some translation

Hello you all!

First: Welcome to our new followers on Bloglovin and Google+! Good to see you here!

I wish I could tell you about a finished project but I can't. However, I can tell you about lots of WIPs... One can never have too many WIPs, can't one? Earlier this week I hoped to finish one of the WIPs but well, here we are: Friday and my cowl is still a WIP. I have been incredible tired and thus couldn't put in as much crochet time as I hoped for. Sighs.

My current crochet WIP is this neck warmer cowl from Drops Design:

Pattern can be found here/ Picture belongs to Drops Designs

As you can see, I am about 78 % done. I use Drops Cotton Merino instead of the Alpaca yarn. Why? I adore the cotton merino yarn. It certainly is my favorite yarn. :-) Do you have a favorite yarn too?

I am also working on Christmas presents. I can't show you pictures yet as some of the recipients might read this post. I can tell you however that it involves something to eat and glass jars. Any ideas what it might be?

Some days ago a whole bunch of old city maps were to be tossed out at my work. After all there are very few people who still use paper maps and those maps weren't exactly young either. So I saved them from tossing and took them home. Boy, they will keep me busy for some time. One map of Paderborn and Wuppertal each I used up to make paper lucky stars. In order to to this, I cut the maps into 20cm long stripes. I like how they look - now I only need to figure out what to do with them. Any ideas from you by any chance? I am happy about any kind of advice.

My other WIP is crochet related again. Do you know this wonderful Sunday Shawl from Alia/Little Bee yet? 

Picture belongs to The Little Bee

It is a fantastic pattern and I can't wait to make a shawl for myself! At the moment however I am translating the pattern into German for Alia. Apparently a lot of people ask for a German version and I am very happy to help her out. Fortunatly Andrea from  Kokopelli Design will proofread the German version. I am very happy that Alia trusts me with her wonderful pattern! Once finished you will be able to purchase the German version in her shop. :-)

What are you up to these days? I hope you have lots of yarn to keep you happy!

Take care

Anne

Finally Finished... Tuesday?

It's been a wet few days in Sydney! We are just never happy here - either it buckets down with rain and we complain about the wet, or it doesn't rain for days on end and we complain about everything being too dry :P

I know it's only Tuesday, but I have been trying to clear up my WIP (works in progress) pile and fiiiiiiinally have a stack of things to show off :)

My dragon is finished! Isn't he adorable??

Plus, I managed to finish my Stained Glass Afghan last night! I used JulieAnny's Stained Glass Afghan Square pattern for the pieces, joined them with double crochet in aqua (single crochet for any American readers), and then edged it with a dc row of aqua and then back-loop-only trebles in black, to make the aqua row stand out. I'm really happy with how it came out! Plus it is so thick and warm :) 

The sun came out for just a few minutes today, especially for me to take photos for you!

All my scarf orders are up to date (so if you want to order one, now is the time). I am also experimenting with more colour options, including this one called Jewel Mix:

Isn't it dramatic?

Blankets, Beanies, Snowflakes and Stars

Hey you all!

It has been a long time since I posted here. I had many ideas but never got around to actually write it. Fortunately I have today off (hurray!), so I get to spent some time with my yarn and hooks…

Last week was a week of happy days which I kind of celebrated in form of two blankets. For once my grand-dad turned 100 year last Sunday. One hundred years! Can you imagine it? He has seen so much in his life! Two world wars, five different government systems, joy and grief… He also lived both in Germany and France, traveled to Africa in his youth for work and wanted to immigrate to Australia. The last thing didn’t happen though because my grandmum wanted to stay in her home village. Well, lucky me, because otherwise my dad wouldn’t have met my mum… :P

I made him a lap blanket for his birthday. There really isn’t much you can give old people and I figured he really could use a blanket. I modified the baby blanket from AlisonLoBianco. I started with 92 chains, added a different border and used two strands of dk-yarn (might have been aran. Not sure) at once. In the first place I wanted to use this cotton colour pack from Junghans Wolle but it didn’t work out. I ordered it early September and they said it would be delievered within one week. Well that didn’t happen. Instead I got four emails during the next weeks each of them delaying the delievery date even further. In the end I was so upset that I cancelled my order. It would have been fine if they said right from the beginning that they could only deliver mid-November, but with this email-by-email-delay I always got my hopes up it would be here soon. Anyway, I ended up using acryl-yarn (Alpina) which I got from Wollrabe. The quality is nice and the price is quite reasonable! What do you think of the result?

The other happy occasion was the birth of my grand-cousin who is almost 100 years younger than our grand-dad! How awesome is that? Little Thees will also receive a blanket from me but I haven’t yet decided on the color. Thus no picture for you yet!

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I told about my beanie production some weeks ago. Well I finished three by now – you only get two pictures though because one of them is in the car.

This is the Brain Wave Beanie from Ravelry. The pattern is really good and I highly recommend it. I like my beanie but unfortunatly I used different kind of yarns that is the green one has a different size then the other two. It results in some "bumbs" in the beanie but it's not that bad...

 

This is the Basket Weaves Beanie from Ravelry. I quite like the pattern and I think I will use it again! Once I got the pattern, it was very easy to make.I reckon it will make a very cute baby beanie too!

I used this Pronto yarn which is very soft but unfortunatly it also splits a lot. And... this happened:

Don't you just hate knots in your yarn too?!

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Also, I have made tons of snowflakes and stars for a secret project, I can’t tell you about yet… Wait and see! 

Take care everyone! 

~ Anne ~

P.S. I would love, love, love some comments!