Easter Goose Eggs

We were very busy today. This year we used regular food coloring instead of natural dyes which I actually prefer. I love the marble effect!

Chicken eggs

This is how it looked before makeover and how I weaved the yarn around the spokes.

I’ll post some images of the lamp with pom poms once I make them.

Our Halloween decoration.

To make the clips you will need:
- some scraps of cotton yarn, sport weight (pink, of course:)
- hook Nr. 2.5
- a nice button
- tapestry needle, a little bit of thread to sew the button and scissors
- metal clip (I reused the old clip)

Instructions to make them:
With magic adjustable ring and cotton yarn:

Rnd 1: 5 sc into the center of ring (5)
Rnd 2: 2 sc in each st around (10)
Rnd 3: [(Sc, hdc, dc, ch1, dc, hdc, sc) in next st, sl st in next st] around (40)

Fasten off and weave in yarn ends. Sew button on top cener of the flower and glue it (or sew) to the clip.

That’s it, easy and ready to use in 15 minutes.

This was very easy to do little project and it helped find a new home for all the grocery bags that otherwise occupied the precious space of my kitchen’s bottom drawer.

I combined wool (really coarse Bosnian sheep wool) with chenille like yarn that has been around for years. Hook size 4.5 mm. Made by working in rounds without joining.

I started with 20 chains and joined the chain into a ring by working sl st in first ch. Then I worked first round (and last 2 rounds) in sc but the rest of the bag in dc. In Rnd 3 increased to 30 sts and continued working even until I finished 25 Rnds (I thought it will be long enough), alternating between green and pink. In Rnd 26 I made spaces (Ch 1, skip next st and dc in next st) to weave the drawstring through. Last 2 Rnds I worked in sc again. Finished with the scalloped edge.

To make scalloped edge:
[Sl st in next st, (sc, ch1, sc, ch1, sc) in next st, sl st in next st] repeat around.

Then I made 100 chains for the drawstring and weaved it through ch1 spaces of Rnd 26.

Finished with 2 tassels which I attached on each side of the drawstring.

I wanted tassels to be a bit fluffier so I separated individual strands of wool with tapestry needle. The wool I used is 3-ply, it has 3 separate strands.

That’s all. Very simple and easy to do. If you need any more help or if you’d love to see the real tutorial just leave a comment below.

It seems it will not hold just grocery bags

Finish touches by my daughter

Amigurumi Moose Head

I had an idea of crocheting big amigurumi head some 2-3 years ago, while working on Amigurumi Fawn pattern. By the time I finished little fawn I was so fed up with all fawn/deer/moose/reindeer-like creatures that I forgot about the idea. It came back to me just recently and I decided to give it a try. It turned out great, I love the way he looks at me over my entrance door. It’s been there now for the last 3-4 days and I’m still quite (pleasently) surprised when I see it hanging there. It adds such a personal touch and charm to any corner of my home, wherever I hang it.

I enjoyed working on this piece so much that I can’t imagine anything else on my list of future projects than another animal’s head. I’m just not sure which animal it will be………… A mouse? A bunny? An elephant? I’d love to make them all… and maybe I will, I can never be so sure what will inspire me next.

You can see below some more images I took while working on the pattern. The second one showing how to attach ears.

I love green smoothies. I made one this morning, mixed all the ingredients well in the blender and…. oh, I love how it looks (and tastes) when finished. Beautifully green and creamy. But my little princess  doesn’t think the same so I have to struggle each time I want her to drink some of it. This time I poured it into our cocktail glasses, decorated them with kiwi slices and it made a difference. She jumped on it. It was such fun and pleasure to look at her enjoying in green smoothie without making odd faces.

We had some amigurumi company as well. They carefully watched what we did and couldn’t wait to take a sip :=)

To make 2 glasses you’ll need:

1 banana
a handful of spinach leaves
2 cups of rice (or almond) milk
some scraped seeds from vanilla bean

Mix everything in a blender and voila! You have a tasty drink!

Anyway, I wanted  to explain more how to make thrums and how to crochet with thrums. First, I have to say that all I know about thrumming technique I learned from Marlaina Bird and her instructional video she posted on YouTube ( the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ5Qxxsd4LQ). You might also want to visit her blog at: http://yarnthing.blogspot.com/

Anyway, thrumming is not as difficult as it looks. You just need to prepare the thrums beforehand as it can be annoying once you start to crochet to pause in order to make them.

You will need a fleece or wool roving (combed, unspun wool) and you start by pulling off  an 18 cm (7-8″) long piece of wool. From the side of that chunk, peel off thin strips lengthwise.  The strips should be the same thickness or slightly thicker than the working yarn. I tried to work with 2-3 times thicker thrums and it’s working nicely as well. Maybe it’s a bit more difficult to work with that much thicker thrums but it’s doable and the final result looks ok. So, don’t bother that much about the thickness of your thrums. It’s also not a big problem if they are not all the same thickness.

Now, for each thrum, fold the both ends to the center and press them in.

Hold the middle of the thrum between thumb and forefinger and gently roll – that middle part is the part that you put on your hook. Store all your thrums in a glass jar or any kind of container so they are easily available once you need them.

Watch short video of how to make thrums: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8IpBoiPYqk

Now, to crochet with thrums, you do the following:
Yo, insert hook in next st, put the thrum around the neck of the hook (with your index and middle finger grab the ends of the thrum to tighten), yo and draw the yarnover and the thrum loop through the stitch (4 loops on hook: 3 yarn loops and a thrum loop). Wrap the ends of the thrum around the working yarn (bring the ends from behind, in an anti clockwise direction, and wrap it around the yarn),  yo and draw through 3 loops on the hook (through 2 yarn loops and a thrum loop), yo and draw through remaining 2 loops.

Watch video on crocheting with thrums at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m1ZhkTkVL8&feature=related