Handmade Heartmade 2011

Last year I decided to hand-make all my Christmas gifts. It was the first year that I planned to do this, and of course it was a learning curve! By far the biggest lesson, was to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Handmade doesn't mean quick necessarily and so this year I am determined to start early and pace myself...

I love the idea of handmade gifts...I love that I need to think about what would be appreciated by my gift recipients, and that a little bit of my ability and love is wound into the gift. Of course, in these tough economic times, it certainly helps that one can make gifts for a fraction of what bought gifts could cost, and really the only "big" cost comes in with the amount of time you spend of making :) I also absolutely detest doing Christmas shopping in shopping malls, so all in all, this Handmade is the way to go for me!


If you would like to hand-make your gifts this year, please join me on this journey :) You can add the Handmade Heartmade 2011 button to your blog or website, and link back to me...I am hoping to do a post once a week on ideas for gifts and an update on my plans and completed projects.

Getting started...

The first thing to do of course, is make a list of all the people you want to make gifts for... Be clear about the people on your list...these are people close to you and are a part of your life. For instance, I certainly wouldn't hand make corporate gifts for everybody that has something to do with my business...that's just mental....so be judicious in your choices!

Next write down a few things about each person...hobbies, likes, dislikes, needs, spoils etc... think about things they might have said, colours they like, smells, textures...my youngest for instance, loves bright colours, soft cuddly things and swoons over baking type smells...vanilla, chocolate etc...

Spend this coming week thinking about and finalizing your list. While you mull over each person, if an idea comes to you for a specific type of gift, write it down next to that person's name! Your list will be your lifeline folks (just make sure that you don't leave it lying on the coffee table...kinda spoils the surprise... ;) )

I have made a pretty list that you can use for your handmade journey...print it out on plain paper :)

Inspiration

Sew, Mama, Sew! is a wonderful place to find an amazing list of ideas for handmade gifts...they have pretty much done all the graft for you! I love that ideas are organized according to themes, so you can choose where to start from. Be sure to check out all the previous years' handmade lists as well, you never know where you'll find the perfect idea :)

Here are some more links for ideas...

Handmade Homeschool

Martha Stewart

Crafty Nest

HGTV

Check out these links and make a list of things that you like...next week...we start making!


Have a creative, fruitful, happy evening!

♥Heidi

Noro...to love or not to love...price is the question...

Yesterday was a wonderful day! I spent the morning with my group of knit buddies, sitting in the spring sunshine, eating cake and drinking cappuccinos and just chatting about life, the Universe and everything...
Since Gerry is in the US, I do not need to go into work, so I have just veg'd and wasted time doing fun * (see footnote) things...
I have had a new idea for a project using the African Flower Hexagon (have you noticed? I love this pattern...), and messed around with different colours and combinations, as a trial run for the pattern (Yes, it's still a secret...)


A couple of moons ago, I decided that I needed to find out if all the hype about the Noro range of yarns was justified. If you take a look on Ravelry, Noro seems to be side by side in the Hall of Yarn Fame, with the likes of angel wing handspun and unicorn mane roving...
Of course, in South Africa, it was impossible to find the stuff, so I ended up importing it from the States....and no, I admit to ordering NOT just one ball....

After I had to virtually trade an organ to pay the &%##?!! customs person the price of the exorbitant duty levied on the yarn when it arrived, I muttered unpleasantries all the way home, because surely I thought, no yarn can be worth that amount of money.

Strike 1....

When I opened the parcel, It was wrapped in a plastic bag and looking at the colours, I re-thought my earlier uncharitable behaviour! The colours are absolutely divine! Really saturated, intense colours in gorgeous combinations and gradations. Then I opened the plastic bag...

Strike 2....

The stuff is as hard as three day old oatmeal stuck on a spoon! Aaaaarrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!



D**m I thought! Ok...Stay Calm and Fabric Soften On... I told myself....

It was not to be. After soaking a skein in super-concentrated fabric softener, all I ended up with was Noro that needed rinsing.

NOT good.


Oh well, if life chucks lemons, chuck lemonade! See? I must be getting old...in the face of an obvious reality, I choose to ignore the 900 pound gorilla in the room...
Noro Kureyon is seemingly made from a roving spinning type action, because it has no ply, and is very uneven in places, with yarn thickness varying from 4 ply to chunky! Ugh! I even had the tragedy of the yarn committing a self destruct in places...no folks, it's not the greatest to knit or crochet with...

Strike 3...


So....despite the beautiful colours and the fanatic following, I have come to the conclusion that Noro is ok (only because of the colours), but not at that kind of cost!

I guess in fairness, it does cost less in the US and Europe, so perhaps putting up with the scratchiness, and uneveness is less of a burden, than here in SA.

But for now, I will just use up what I bought and then seek other sources of colour nirvana...

Do you love Noro Yarn? Let me know... :)

♥Heidi
*totally frivolous and absolutely necessary

Spring....

Spring is finally here! We have had a really cold winter, and at the very best of times, I do not like cold dark mornings, so I am well and truly thankful that it is finally over. This year I have decided to turn a part of our garden into an organic vegetable plot and to plant fruit trees throughout the garden. I am no green fingered garden elf, and when I got this idea , my first thought was that I can hardly keep a pot plant alive, never mind throw myself into a fully fledged organic, companion planted cornucopia of nutrition....but I armed myself with loads of books and online reading, and the so the die was cast...


I decided to plant the vegetables in raised wooden boxes, because I wanted to use organic soil/compost products, and be sure that there aren't nightmares of weeding ahead of me. Our garden soil is very rich and wonderful, so grass manages to grow everywhere (even where it is distinctly not wanted!), but over the years I couldn't be sure that there weren't yucky chemicals in the soil...we have had a lot of renovating and construction done over the year, so between chemicals, and the ever growing grass, the boxes seemed the best way to go.


The boxes have slowly but surely started to see the light of growing, and I have managed to sow most of my seeds. I used a wonderful garden planner called " Growveg", which is a very easy to use online vegetable plot planning software programme. If you are into growing your own produce, you really have to check it out...www.growveg.com it is fantastic!



I used quite a few pots to prevent certain prolific growers from taking over the garden completely....the raspberries, loganberries, passionfruits, grapes, gooseberries and blackberries are all in big pots, as well as the naartjie trees and the Meyer lemon trees. Meyer lemon trees actually like to grow in a pot, so they are a good choice for smaller gardens. The citrus trees are putting out hundreds of blossoms and I expect to have a bumper crop soon :) Good companion plants for all citrus trees are Lavender and Comfrey.


My almond trees, although small have already produced these tiny green, furry almond babies, :)

My youngest daughter has planted her own box, with carrots (4 different colors including yellow, orange, purple and white ) as well as strawberry popcorn, which is a small variety corn that has reddish pink seeds. She put her little pig "Pea" to keep watch over her precious plantings...



When I started this gardening idea, I of course went completely mad and bought waaaayyyyy too much seed...I reckon I never need to buy a vegetable again!


I was very fortunate to find some wonderful sweet cherry trees, which are self pollinating. I got two varieties, " Santina", and "Skeena", and although they are only about 1-1.5m tall, they are all in bloom. Cherry trees are usually not self pollinating , and when you buy a tree, you need to make sure if it requires a pollinator, or you won't get any fruit! There are now more varieties that are self pollinating, so if you can find those, your problems are solved :) By the way, many pear trees also need to have pollinators as do almond trees, so check before you buy!


I have sown only open pollinated/heirloom seeds, which in South Africa are available from a variety of online stores. These seed varieties are usually well known, old varieties, which over generations have been passed from family to family. They are not genetically modified.


The strawberries are doing very well! I have planted them near Borage, which is a wonderful herb that is probably the best companion plant for strawberries you can find! Apparently, it increases both yield and flavour, so I'll have to see how it goes when they start to bear fruit :)

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who has bought a Lollo Bear Pattern, and who have left kind comments and emailed me! I am currently working a new African Flower Pattern...it's a surprise...here's a clue...it's an African animal...

Have a great evening folks,
♥Heidi

African Flower Pentagon Tutorial

Hi everyone,
Well, I have been very pleased and thankful for all the wonderful kind comments I have received since I posted about Lollo Bear Pattern last night! Thank you to every person who commented and visited, and of course appreciation and thanks to all who bought a copy of the pattern!

One omission on my part, was to leave out a tutorial on how to crochet an African Flower Pentagon. I assumed (and we all know what that does...), that if you were familiar with the hexagon, you would be able to crochet the pentagon... I am really sorry folks! I should have done a tutorial, and so here it is.

Essentially the pentagon and hexagon are crocheted in the same way, except that you make 5 petals instead of 6. You just crochet one repeat per round less, and the stitches remain the same. That being said, I have put together a quick pictorial on crocheting the pentagon, in the hopes that it will help those crocheters who are making Lollo :) I have made one or two small modifications for ease of crocheting.

African Flower Pentagon Tutorial

Chain 5, and join to the first chain via a slip stitch (represented by the round dot). This forms your ring.

Chain 3. Dc into the center of the ring.
Chain 1.
* 2dc into the ring, chain 1, repeat from * 3 more times.

Slip stitch into the third chain to close your round. Round 1 completed.



Now Slip Stitch into the next along chain space as seen above. If you are making Lollo, now is the time to change yarn colour.

Chain 3. Dc into the same chain space. Chain 1. 2dc into same space. Moving along to the next chain space of Round 1, crochet 2dc, chain 1, 2dc. Move to the next along chain space of Round 1, and repeat the 2dc, chain1, 2dc as before. Continue crocheting around the motif, until you have reached the end of the round. Slip Stitch to the third chain to close the round. Round 2 completed.


Now slip stitch to the next along chain space. This sets your hook up for the 7dc repeats of Round 3.
Chain 3. 6dc into the same space. Move along to the next chain space along of Round 2, and crochet 7dc into that chain space. Move to the next along chain space of Round 2 and crochet 7dc as before. Continue in this way around your motif until you have reached the end of the round. Slip stitch to the third chain to close your round.
Round 3 completed.

Join a new colour yarn. Just as you would for the African Flower Hexagon, crochet 7sc (one into each consecutive stitch of Round 3), and 1LONG dc into Round 2 below. Repeat all along the motif, until you have reached the end of the round. Slip stitch into the first sc and change yarn colour. Round 4 completed.

You need to make one round more, Round 5 (which in Lollo Bear Pattern is the cream colored yarn round). Remember that when you are joining motifs for Lollo, you need to crochet Round 5 as-you-join! I have illustrated one 9dc repeat as seen above, to show you that you still end up with the correct amount of stitches for joining, even though the motif is a pentagon :)

I hope that this helps, and please send me an email if you are having difficulty with Lollo's pattern :)

Have a good evening folks!
♥Heidi

Lollo African Flower Bear Pattern is available!

Hi everyone!

I have finally finished the pattern...so here is a quick post to announce that my Lollo African Flower Bear Pattern is available in my Ravelry Store for purchase...it's been a long time overdue! I have never uploaded a pattern for sale on Ravelry, so if you do buy a copy, and there are any glitches, please let me know...it's a learning curve for me as well... :)

Here is the link:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lollo-the-african-flower-bear

The cost of the pattern is $10US, and there are 6 separate PDF files to download.

I hope that you will find the pattern easy to follow and a pleasure to crochet!

Chat soon,
♥Heidi

An African Flower Surprise Pattern

Hello everyone! It's been a looooooong time since I last had the time to blog, but I have managed to write up my pattern for our newest family member...Lollo African Flower Bear!
She is named after my youngest daughter, whose nickname is Lollo. Lollo has been long in the making, with more frogging than I care to remember, and more design changes than I would like to admit.

Between work and all the rest of family life, I have worked on and off on this pattern. Before I started , I managed to speak to the original designer of the African Flower Hexagon Pattern, who graciously sent me an email with permission to use the pattern and to make up Lollo Bear and sell the pattern. Thank you very much! Lots of Lollo Love coming your way :)

I have purposely over-explained every single step of how to make Lollo. The eBook comprises almost 200 pages and has over 300 explanatory photographs, with clear legends. That being said, the eBook has been broken down into several parts, as the whole book is quite a big file.
This week, I am going to try get to grips with uploading the eBook to Ravelry! I have never submitted a multi part eBook, so wish me success with this... :) ...so keep checking back if you are interested in making a Lollo for yourself!


On other matters...it has been a very busy time in the last 6 months! We had a fabulous holiday in France, skiing in April this year :) We have also been extremely busy in the ICU, with loads of new developments. Gerry has been busy with all his ECMO work as well, and is presenting at the International ELSO Conference in September this year...I am very proud of him!

I have also turned part of my garden into an organic vegetable garden and orchard. It is Spring in South Africa and the fruit trees are blooming! I have sweet cherries, pears, peaches, mulberries, grapefruit, apples, nectarines, loads of lemons, Calamondin oranges, limes, Kumquats, pomegranates, figs, gooseberries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, grapes, Loganberries, Blackberries and am going to try and grow litchis and avocados as well (however, they will have to live in the greenhouse, as it gets way too cold here!) I will post some gardening photos and info in another post...I have learned so much about organic gardening and companion planting in the last few months :)

I have so many things I want to post about, but have run out of time, so I'll say Ciao! everyone,
have a good evening :)

♥Heidi