Easter Tree, a collaboration...and... "A Swap is Announced"

A Travelling Easter Tree

Evening all!

Tonight is a special post for me, and for my dear friend Linda :) We have been chatting for a few days now, and we have decided to do a special blog collaboration! Since Easter is just around the corner, we have decided to do a creativity exercise, a veritable blog-travelling Easter Tree!

The idea is to create an Easter tree (in the same spirit as a Christmas Tree), but something a little different... I will start with the basic tree (and it's a little different to what you may imagine ;) ), add some embellishment, then send it to Linda, who will add her own decorations, etc, back and forth until it is complete...

We haven't discussed specific ideas, so it will be interesting to see how it unfolds... I will try to do each "addition" from my side, as a tutorial, so you can create something similar. Easter is a special time for our family, so I will be doing some extra tutorials that are Easter-related, simple, easy to do, and fun!

"A Swap is Announced"...

I have always wanted to say something a la Agatha Christie, and today is that day :) (although a good announcement, not the big M!)!

Linda and I are going to host a swap!!!! Yay!! The theme will be "Hearts", and in a nutshell, because we love hearts, people who join in will be paired with one another and will swap a heart- related item. There is no limitation except that it must be a heart of some kind, made of any material, small to medium in size, and preferably more valuable by it's creativity and love, than monetary value... We want to share the LOVE folks! We will post a button on our blogs tomorrow, and (hopefully!), set up a Flickr site for everyone to post a pic of their creation to, so we can all see how amazingly creative we are!

We are very excited about this, and would LOVE to have some comments of what you think of our plans :)

If you would like to join in, please email me at
heidibearscreativeblog@gmail.com
or contact Linda at lindadawkins@mweb.co.za

We look forward to seeing you!

Will be back tomorrow,
Have a good evening,
Lots of Love,
Heidi :)

Crochet Tutorial: Treble Crochet Stitch

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Well, yesterday was really a lazy day...I did a bit of creative stuff , but had a lovely afternoon nap, and listened to an audiobook and just enjoyed being... After the activity of the weekend, I think we all needed some time-out :)

The party was fantastic, the kids had a wild time, swimming, messing, eating, playing, tearing around the garden... the adults had a great time catching up, chatting, eating and not worrying about the kids... My daughter is a supercar fanatic, and the party theme was supercars. Not your traditional theme for a 13 year old girl, but then again, this child is not your typical 13 year old! Thank you to Pete for organising to have some nice cars to look at, you rock dude... :)


On another note... my 13 year old was on her dad's laptop for ages the other day...I wondered what she was doing...and then the little cherub gave me a card, out of the blue... I love it, very special... :)

Now for a quick tutorial, I want to be sure that everyone (who is interested...;) ) knows how to do all three basic crochet stitches, as I have a small easy project for later in the week and you need to know the basics...

Crochet Tutorial: Treble Stitch

For the project (later this week...), you will need some yarn in various colours. I happened to have used the gorgeous Rowan Handknit Cotton, but any Double Knit yarn will do. Use whatever colours you like, as each item will be one colour. You will also need some strong small magnets. If you can't find any, email me and I'll send you the link I used... Also some small scraps of fabric, a needle and sewing thread and a tapestry needle... Ánd obviously....a crochet hook (3.75mm)!

Step 1. Make a slip stitch. If you don't know how to do this, look here.

Step 2. Chain about 10 stitches. It doesn't matter exactly how many, you are just learning, not starting the project yet...this is just practice :)

Step 3. Remember in the previous posts on SC and DC stitches, where I explained that you need some "height" at the beginning of a row of crochet, and that this "height " would be different, depending on what crochet stitch came next? SC (single crochet), usually one chain is fine, DC (double crochet), usually two chains stitches, and now you will "skip" three chain stitches. So you will insert your hook into the loop next to the "skipped" stitches. See the pic above for clarification...
OK, now that you know where to put the crochet hook, you are first going to wrap the working yarn around the hook twice before inserting the hook into the chain stitch loop...

Step 4. Insert the hook into the chain stitch loop.

Step 5. Wrap the yarn around hook again...

Step 6. Pull the working yarn wrap through the chain stitch loop...

Step 7. Yarn around hook again.

Step 8. Pull yarn through two loops on hook. You have three loops left on your hook.

Step 9. Yarn around hook again, pull through two loops on hook. You now have two loops left on the hook.

Step 10. Yarn around hook once again...(getting the hang of it :) )

Step 11. Draw through both loops on your hook. Ta-da!!! You have completed one treble crochet!

Step 12. In the pic above I have finished off the row of treble crochet. Now you have all the skills needed for the cute project that will come... :)

Right! Some interesting links: this boggles the mind (although, I'd say that the one thing I am pretty sure of , is that there is nothing new under the sun...or something like that...so I honestly shouldn't have been surprised by some of the items in this list!!!!), I was surprised by this (what do you think?) and this was predictable (the emotional factors with big disasters, I guess makes for opportunists?)

Word of the Day

hagiography

a noun: meaning the biography of a saint

That's it for today :)

Have a meaningful day ...

See you tomorrow,

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)

Row Counter for Circular Needles Tutorial

Happy Monday everyone :)

Today is a public holiday here in South Africa, and we are all taking it easy and relaxing on a beautifully sunny day. There is a lovely calm in our garden, the little finches in our porch light are calling, the bees are buzzing around the lavender, and a drowsy sunny warmth fills the air... like the feeling of having a snooze in a patch of sunlight...

My dear friend Linda called me this morning to tell me that she had recieved some enquiries about the row counter seen in her Easter Bunny post... she wondered if I would do a tutorial. It is really such an incredibly easy thing to make, it's almost shameful to call this a tutorial...
In any event, here it is...

Circular Needle Hanging Row Counter Tutorial

Requirements:

Beads (I like to use natural " beads" as well, including pearls, semi-precious stones, glass, quartz etc), but you can use whatever takes your fancy
Bead Caps (these are the small rounded fancy caps that I use top and bottom of most beads)
Bead pins (brass, steel, copper etc)
Sharp-nosed pliers
Wire cutters
Row counters
Clasps, including lobster clasps
Charms
Bezels
Any other embellishments you might like...


I am going to be making an example of how to create this particular green row counter, but again, you can play around and try different things...

Step 1. Gather all your tools...

Step 2. Using your sharp-nosed pliers, open the loop on a bead pin slightly. These bead pins come in a huge variety of lengths, finishes and can have plain loops, plain flat ends, fancy decorative ends etc

Step 3. Slip the bezel, charm (or other looped item), over the open bead pin.
Close the loop with the pliers, ensuring that the bezel swings freely.

Step 4. Slip a bead cap over the bead pin, being careful to insert the pin through the tiny central hole as seen above.

Step 5. Slip a bead over, and then again a bead cap. The bead caps now cover the bead top and bottom.

Step 6. Slip the row counter over the bead pin, again ensuring that the pin passes centrally through the row counter. Some row counters have a central set of flanges that are meant to " hug" the straight needles that they were designed for... you want your bead pin to sit exactly in the middle of the flanges.

Step 7. Slip another bead cap over...the bead caps needn't be the same, I use smaller caps on smaller beads and vice versa.

Step 8. Slip a second bead over, and again a bead cap to make it top and bottom...

Step 9. This is the slightly tricky bit. You need to hold the entire assembly quite tightly between your fingers, so that you have a good deal of tension when you bend the top piece of bead pin. This keeps all the elements nicely together, and stops your row counter from rattling around loose and irritating...

Step 10. Bend the pin to the side first using the pliers. Still applying pressure to the row counter's top and bottom, use the pliers to " loop" the end of the pin over into a circle. Don't close the loop completely.

Step 11. Loop half closed...

Step 12. Slip the clasp onto the bead pin loop, and close snugly with your pliers.

Step 13. Make sure you don't have any snaggy bits of metal (you don't want to snag that gorgeous cashmere you got on sale... ;) )
And there you have it!!

The possibilities are endless. You can customize the row counter as you like, add theme charms, add family photo charms, use bezels that are initialed with the recipients' name, change the size of you clasps if you prefer a smaller clasp hole size, make them fancy and over the top, make them plain and functional....

The nice thing with this particular style of row counter, is that they double up as stitch markers. Just hook them over your cableneedle where you need to mark a place in your pattern. Even if you don't add a row counter, you can use the same basic techniques for making stitch markers as well. A nice gift would be to make a matching set of stitch markers, together with a matching row counter. Relatively inexpensive depending on the beads and accessories you use, quick to make and useful!

This was bit of an unplanned tutorial, so I will post party pics and maybe a little extra tomorrow, my friends...

Off to have an afternoon nap in a sun patch somewhere...

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)

Mystery Blocks Tutorial: Sewing Up Part 2

Good morning :)

Well, I am glad to be back in Blogland! Even though I have only recently started blogging, I have missed posting these last two days. Of course, the excuse would be that I was really busy...organising my daughter's 13th birthday party :), of which I will post some pics tomorrow. We all had a fantastic day, and I know that it will be remembered as a special time with family and friends...

I am sure that you are anxious to see the next installment of the Mystery Toy... (I tend to assume a lot ;) ), so here it is...

Mystery Blocks Tutorial: Sewing Up, Part 2

Ok, when we left off last time, you had what you see below. The toy is still in two pieces, which are mirror images of each other. We will slowly add more and more bits, and although it may seem confusing as to the final product...keep going, it will be a fun-to-play-with-toy (promise!)...

Step 1. Place your work as seen above. This will orientate you with the steps to come...

Step 2. Find your dark green rectangles equivalent. Making sure that you place the knit side down, put them over the blue rectangle as above. Note that only half of the dark green rectangles will line up with the blue rectangle underneath. You will only sew up the two abutting edges (ie half of the dark green rectangles will be flapping free...)

Step 3. Sew up the seam, using the same oversewing technique as before. I have indicated the edges to be sewn up by a turquoise outline (just to be sure things are clear :) )

Step 4. Flip the free edges of the dark green rectangles towards the middle, so that you see the knit side (look on the left side of the pic above) You will sew up the edges indicated by a pink line (dark green rectangle), to the edges indicated by the turquoise line (on the blue squares).
Repeat on the other side....

Step 5. The seams are done...

Step 6. You will need your light green squares equivalent for the next steps. Place them knit side down, onto the blue squares. Sew up the indicated edges (turquoise outlines).

Step 7. Done!

Step 8. As the whole should look at this point...

Step 9. Using the pic above as a guide, sew up the edges on the light green squares (indicated by a turquoise line), to the edges of the dark green rectangles (indicated by a pink line).

Step 10. I have lifted up the light green squares, so you have a better view of the next steps. I have also pinned the dark green rectangles for the same reason, but you don't need to do that...

You will need your orange rectangles equivalent for the next seam.

Step 11. Sew the short sides of the orange rectangle to the free edges of the blue squares.

Step 12. Repeat for the other side...

Well done! You are getting there slowly but surely... :)

If you have any questions about the tutorial, or if you feel I could explain things a little differently/more clearly, please leave a comment. I would appreciate it very much my friends... :)

On other things... this was a bit unexpected, loved this (what do you think?), and found this interesting...

Word of the Day

gallimaufry

a noun: meaning a hodgepodge, a jumble

Tomorrow, pics from the party...

I hope you all have a wonderful day...

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)

This day...

Hi my friends....

Today I am grateful for my life...



Sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes unexpected...

But always, blessings run through...

Sleep well...

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)