Zpagetti Yarn Plays

Hello all!

I hope you all had a wonderful Pentecost weekend! I was at work all weekend but it was good fun. Every year at Pentecost there is a huge meeting of current and former scholarship holders in Villigst. Many generations, many talks and much fun! Not much time for crochet but still a wonderful weekend! :)

Last week I was very lucky indeed! Some time ago I won the give away at Emerald Cottage and this week Jill's parcel arrived. Wow! Look at all these wonderful goodies!! Thank you so much Jill!! I really love the postcard - such a cute, cute kitten!

After I finished the blanket I talked about last week, I need to use some bigger yarn. So I went for Zpagetti Yarn. From a 2,5 mm hook to a 8 mm one. Quite the change! Most people use 12 mm hooks for the Zpagetti Yarn but I prefer smaller ones. I just wish there were Clover Amour hooks in larger sizes!

I made some trivets using the Maybelle Flower pattern. Already made some last year and they are pretty useful. It's a bit hard on the hands and shoulder to make them but in the end the finished trivet is worth it. 

As I have plenty of Zpagetti yarn (went on a shopping spree last year), I will make more of these. Not sure what I will do with them though. Probably give them as gift or I might even sell them. We will see.

Did you work with T-Shirt yarn yet? And do you have tricks which save the shoulders and hands?!

Take care

Anne

Upcycled Yarn - Workbaskets

Today I finally got my paws on some larger size hooks to work with the tshirt yarn that I won :D 

They are just a tad bigger than what I'm used to working with... 

For scale, my 1.5mm hook that I use for animals is at the top; the 12mm hooks are the grey and blue ones in the middle...

Using the Chunky Crocheted Basket pattern from Crochet in Color, I made myself two work baskets - one big and one small - that I can keep things tidy around my chair, and also easily take with me if I need a project to go on the road (or visit others!). 

The blue one is about 11" diameter and 10" tall. It is the perfect size for my collection of candy yarn for animal making - it fits the 10 balls quite comfortably, with room for a little bag of pieces and the hook! 

The pink one is about 8" diameter and 6" tall :) It fits two balls of Fayette (enough to make a Road Trip Scarf). 

I did make a few little changes to the Crochet in Color pattern - I made the last row crab stitch (or reverse double crochet) instead of a plain double crochet row, and added a button under one handle so I can close the basket a bit for carrying :) 

I love them! And my workspace is already looking tidier :P 

One last shot with extra drama: I accidentally had a filter on and didn't notice...

Experiments with Tshirt yarn!

Last week, something AMAZING happened to me. I usually never win competitions or raffles or anything like that (I figure I've used all my luck up on amazing family and friends). 

Buuuuut......

My lovely friend Angela Armstrong from Get Knotted Yarn Crafts entered me in a yarn giveaway competition on the Upcycled Yarns Facebook page. And I won! 4 x 400g rolls of pink and blue tshirt yarn :D :D :D They arrived in the post this morning.

The very first thing I had to do is make a caddy for my hooks. In the past I've only had one or two hooks in rotation at a time, so never needed something on my table for hooks. But now, with road trip scarves, slippers, toys and afghans on the go, the pile of scattered hooks has been getting a bit out of hand! 

I took inspiration from Anne's Zpagetti container pattern, this Chunky Crochet Basket pattern and a knotless finishing idea from Crochet in Color. The biggest hook I have is a 6.5mm, and it was really a bit too small - looks like I need to buy more hooks! I alternated rows of dc (US sc) and htr (US hdc) to get up to the height I wanted.

What do you think?

(excuse Gerald and Steve the giraffes there in the background, they refused to get out of shot even when I asked nicely) 

What should I make with the rest of this gorgeous yarn? I am thinking a workbasket with handles. Does anyone have a favourite pattern? Hook size? Ideas?

Creativa

Each year there is a HUGE expo for all kind of creative stuff in Dortmund: the Creativa. This year, I was able to go - Hurray the expo halls are just down the road from my house! Lucky me!

I spent a couple of hours browsing with a friend and spent more money than I intended to. Of course. :P

We got there early and thus I had time to talk to some of the stall people. At the stall of Ulrike Helrich from Eiderstedter Garnkontor I was in heaven. Soo much yummy yarn and all of it from Scandinavia. I adore yarn from Scandinavia but it is a bit tricky to get. This yarn shop sells it online though and I think I will become a good costumer... I just hope I didn't drool too much on the yarn.

I was gifted two balls of yummy yarn:

The grey one is "Blend Bamboo". It's 70 % bamboo and 30 % cotton. Oh and my god, it is sooo soft. Not sure what I will make with it but I am thinking in the lines of baby shoes.

The red one is "Alpaca Silk". It's 60 % alpaca, 30 % merino and 10 % silk. Also very soft - I can't stop holding it to my cheek to feel it! I adore the color - don't you? I think this yarn ball will become arm warmers and if I like the feel I might order more (of the same color of course) and make a jacket.

I also got a color chart for a different yarn (Incawool). I never had a color chart before but it looks brilliant for color mixing for new projects! I kind of wish I had bought some of the yarns at the stall... Sigh. I reckon I need to order sooonnn.

Both yarns are from Hjerte Garn from Danemark. Never heard of the brand before but I reckon it might become a regular for me! As you know, my sister lifes in Denmark right now and will come for my grandma's birthday. I wonder if she will bring some yarn?! Lena - if you are reading this... I swap you with sock knitting yarn and you will be in my good graces forever! Well and after my sister moves back to Germany, I will order from Eiderstedter Garnkontor. By the way I am not getting paid for this post or anything. I just liked the yarn so much and had such a lovely chat with  Ulrike Helrich  that I wanted to share my discovery with all of you! :-)

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I also couldn't walk past these postcards. Aren't they adoreable? They are from the Vexler-Verlag. Have a look at their homepage, there are lots of cute pictures! I bought several and will put them into frames. They will then become a decoration for my office which I am trying to transform into my studio.

*~*~*

As you know I like to work with Zpagetti yarn. And guess what - they had a stall at the expo with brilliant discounts. I bought 10 baby yarn balls for 10 €. What a bargain! Lots of beautiful colours...

One already became a little basket to store some of my WIPs in. This basket is a modification of this one. It is wider on the bottom (simply add more rows before you go up) and has more rows on top. I love how the yarn worked out in this basket.

  

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I also bought this large cone. Not sure what kind of yarn it is but it was pretty and I wanted to try such yarn which has different strands of different yarns for a long time.

So I got it... No idea what I will do with it though. Any suggestions?!

*~*~*

As you can see: I had a gooodd time at the expo. At one stall I saw a hippo made from Heidi Bears pattern and some owls made from the pattern from BunnyMummy. While I was delighted to see the finished projects, I was also a bit sad on how they were made. This might be a very mean thing to say (SORRY) but they were made of cheap yarn with a hook which was too large. Sigh. Made me feel sorry for the little animals. Have you ever felt like that when you saw a project? I feel bad to feel like that but I couldn't help it.

Take care,

Anne

Poncho and Super Fast Zpagetti Container

Hello there!

A couple of weeks ago I showed a red lump which should be my poncho at some point... Well, it is not a WIP-project anymore!

I more or less followed this pattern. None of my stitch count matches up with the pattern because I used a different yarn. So in the end I only used the pattern for the general idea and the size.

The poncho is very soft and I love wearing it. It tends to leave little red fluff thingies everywhere though but I don't mind much. What I like best about the poncho is the cowl-neck. Keeps me warm and feels so nice.

The overall yarn cost was rather high but worth it. I have some left overs and so I am thinking about making matching wrist warmers or a hat. We'll see.

The last weeks have been incredible busy, so there wasn't much time or energy for hooky-plays. I did however whip up a Zpagetti basket last night because I needed a tin for my hooks. And yes... I have a lot of them. Why? I tend to loose the 3.5,4.0 and 4.5 hooks and it's cheaper to buy a whole set than individual needles. Opps.

The basket is so easy and it takes like no time to make.

Super Fast Zpagetti Container

Pattern

Start with a magic circle.

Rd 1: 8 sc in the circle. Close with a sl stich.
Rd 2: Chain one, 2 sc in every stich. Close with a sl stich.
Rd 3: Chain one, [1 sc in the next stich, 2 sc in the next] x  8 times. Close with a sl stich.
Rd 4: Sc in the back loop of every stich around.
Rd 5: Chain one. Sc in ever stich around. Do not close but continue working in spiral.
Rd 6-8: Sc in every stich (in spiral!). 
Finish with a sl stich.


Anyway, I need to go to work!

Take care everyone!

~ Anne ~

Goodbye 2013! Welcome 2014

Happy New Year!!

 

Somehow I can't believe it's 2014 already. On the other hand, lots of things went on in 2013. I finished my teacher traineeship from hell, we move to Dortmund and I found a lovely new job. Also, I really got into crocheting and started to do more things than blankets! In 2013 I realize that crochet is my kind of yoga... And intent to keep it up in 2014 and get even busier!

 

I realized that I had far too much stuff lying around in the bathroom – so I threw some out and others got a new home. How convieniend to have a crochet hook and some zpagetti yarn lying around… I whipped up this darling in less then 30 minutes. The pattern is fairly easy:

 

Easy Zpagetti-Basket

 

Use any color of Zapgetti Yarn and a 12 hook.

 

Start with a magic circle and chain two (Counting as one DC*).

Rd 1: 11 DC in the circle. Close with a slip stich in chain 2. ( 12 Stiches).  

Rd 2: Chain two and make one more DC in the same stich. 2 DC in each stich around.  Close with a slip stich in chain 2. (24 Stiches)

Rd 3: 2. Rd 2: Chain two and make one more DC in the same stich. 2 DC in each stich around.  Close with a slip stich in chain 2. (48 Stiches).

RD 4: Chain 2. DC in the back loop of each stich around. Close with a slip stich in chain 2.

RD 5-8: Chain 2. DC in each stich around. Close with a slip stich in chain. Fasten off.

 

* I always use two chains instead of three for a DC-subsitute. I like it better this way. With three chains, the „hole“ looks too big for my eyes…

 

I made several of these baskets for christmas – they are lovely gift bowls. For some I changes the color for the last row (no photo unfortunatly) and I weaves some zpagetti straw through the top loops and finished with a bow. The possibilites are endless!

 

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Apropo christmas: I am a very lucky girl and got a lot of presents! A new camera for example – don’t the pictures look far more awesome now?! My parents gave me a yarn color set among other things. The one Lucy from Attic24 used. Unfortunatly the yarn hasn’t arrived yet. Sigh. Hopefully soon! We also have a new housemate:

 

We moved to middle Germany from the nothern part last year and we miss the seagurls. So my parents gave us a wooden one. I love it!

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New Years Eve came fast! On Monday I realized that there were only two days of 2013 left… Woah! Still, we managed to whip up a wonderful new years eve dinner. We had raclette and of course there was too much food… We will be able to live of it for several more days!

 

 

 

 

We had a quite night in with lots of good food and wine. Yummy! Of course we also had to watch „Dinner for one“ which is a German tradition (even though the short movie is in English). Wouldn’t be New Years Eve without it…

 

At midnight we just had to step on the balcony to see lots of wonderful fireworks. Man – there where tons of it at the sky! People must have spent a fortune on all this firework. We on the other hand didn’t buy anything. Didn’t need to after all…

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2014 greeted us with brilliant weather! Lots of sun, little clouds and nice temperature (6 ° C). How lucky are we?!

We took a talk around our part of Dortmund. Lots of people think Dortmund is a dirty, industrial town with little green. They are very wrong! And I have to confess – I was one of these people when we moved here but I really start to love the city!

 

 

 

Some relics from 2013.

 

 

 

The river is getting recultivate at the moment. It already starts to bloom!

 

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The first projects for 2014 are already set:

We will join the gym tomorrow for one. Phew, it’s about time.

Also, we bought these lovely chairs via Ebay small advertisements yesterday. 5 chairs for 25 € total! We plan to sand them down and put press oil and wax on them. Perhaps paint them too. We’re not sure about that yet…

 

 

 

 

Other than that my plans for 2014 are:

 

Be happy,

Enjoy life.

Take it slower.

Laugh.

Crochet.

 

Sounds doable, doesn’t it? :-)

 

I reckon this yummy cake is a good start…. Mmmhhh. Smells and tastes so good! I used this recipe.

 

 

Zpagetti Yarn Games

Last week I saw Zpagetti yarn at a friend's house and fell in love with the yarn right away. So I went on a bit of a online shopping spree and ordered several balls directly from the Netherlands. There is a special offer on the Hoooked homepage which I got four times. The so called inspiration packs contain three balls for 19,95 € including a hook and two patterns. I reckon it's a really good offer because one ball usually costs 8,95 €. I ordered them on Sunday and they were delivered two days later! What a quick delievery!

It was a public holiday in Germany yesterday and so I had time to play with the new yarn. There was a lot of frogging involved but I think I got the hang of it now. The suggested hook size is 12 mm but I found that far to big and so I changed to a 7mm hook. Works far better for me and and the result is a lot less hole-y.

My current project is a small handbag in red-brown. Unfortunatly the crocheting is quite hard on my hands. The pointy part of the large hook hurts my middle finger... Ouch. Perhaps a little bit of sandpaper will help?!