Tutorial Tuesday - Fibre Jewellery

Just a quick post to give you this week's Tutorial Tuesday - I'll be back later with news of where I've been and what we've been doing! As I may have mentioned just a few times, I have definitely renewed my addiction to knitting and crochet over the last couple of years or so, and there are two websites that have helped that addiction - www.ravelry.com and www.knitty.com. Today's tutorials combine my two addictions to bring you crocheted and knitted jewellery!

First up, Sun Necklace by Olivia Munroe of Un Jardin de Hilo. 

A beautiful mix of crochet and beads!

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 And Olivia's flower earrings - she has more patterns on her blog, so do take a look!

Some knitted earrings this time.

Coralie is by Sarah Punderson, and the pattern is in the latest issue of Knitty

Enjoy!

Tutorial Tuesday - circles scarf

Spring is in the air - but it's not warm enough here yet to spend too long outside without a scarf, especially with the rain that we've had today! I've been teaching today, and we got a little wet going from the workshed into the kitchen for our lunch! My winter scarf is too long and thick and heavy though, so I decided to make a new shorter one. I'm trying to reduce rather than add to my stash of yarn, though, and wanted a scarf that I could break down into smaller steps as a break from a couple of larger projects that I'm working on..... and this was the result.


It was really easy to make once I'd worked out how many stitches I need to increase in each round, and one of the best things is that you join each circle to the previous as you go along so there isn't lots of sewing up to do at the end.

To make a scarf approximately 15cm (6") wide and 120cm ( 8 circles) long you will need -

approximately 300 yards of aran weight yarn - in the example above I used 3 different colours of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, one ball of each colour, and the example I've used in the step by step photos below I've used two balls of red Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and one ball of Rowan Lima (love that yarn!)

a 6mm crochet hook

You can, of course, substitute different weight yarns with different sized hooks, but you may need to change the increases in each round slightly to compensate, and may wish to crochet more rounds if you are using a lighter weight yarn.


Step 1 - Make a chain of 5 stitches and join them in a ring using a slip stitch














Step 2 - Chain 3 - this will be the first stitch in the round.














Step 3 - Make 11 treble stitches into the chain ring and join to the top of the 3 chain with a slip stitch. (12 st)













Step 4 - Chain 3, 1 treble into the first treble of the previous round, 2 trebles into each of the remaining 11 stitches of the previous round, join to top of 3 chain with a slip stitch. (24 st)












Step 5 - repeat the previous round (48 st)















Step 6 - Chain 3, 1 treble into the top of the first stitch of the previous round, *1 treble into next stitch, 2 trebles in the following stitch*, repeat from * to * all the way round finishing with 1 treble in the last stitch and join to the top of the 3 chain with a slip stitch. Fasten off the yarn (68 st)










Step 7 - Make a second circle in the same way but this time do not fasten off the yarn at the end. Hold the two circles with right sides facing and join them together by crocheting single crochet stitches through the next five paired up trebles of the last rounds of each circle - you will be passing the hook through both of the circles at the same time.








Step 8 - After the first 5 stitches continue in single crochet all round the first circle you made. Join with a slip stitch and fasten off. In the example, the first circle is red, the second purple. The purple yarn is joining the two circles together and then edging the red circle.










Step 9 - Make a third circle and hold it together with the second circle with right sides facing so that you will be starting the single crochet edging opposite where the first two circles are joined together. You will now be joining the second (purple) and third (red) circles and edging the second with red yarn.









Step 10 - When you get halfway round the circle you will need to pick up the back loops of the trebles from the last round of the second (purple) circle in order to complete the edging. This helps to give the illusion that the circles are overlapping each other slightly.

Continue until your scarf is as long as you wish. Edge the last circle in a contrasting yarn to continue your pattern of colours.





If anyone does make one of these please send me a picture so I can see what you've done! I hope that everything I've written makes sense - I've made up my own crochet patterns before but this is the first one I've actually written up so to be honest I'm a bit nervous about what you all think of it!

Finished projects

I'm feeling rather pleased with myself as I managed to finish two projects last weekend while we were driving up to Suffolk for Grandma's birthday. I finished knitting and crocheting them both a couple of weeks ago, but as usual it's taken me a while to sew them up!


I made the elephant for my friend's new baby girl. We called into see them for lunch and a lazy afternoon on Saturday before continuing onto my Aunt's for the birthday celebrations. I had lots of lovely cuddles with baby Emma and was rewarded with a little bit of sick and lots of smiles! The pattern for the elephant came from this blog, and B and Emma's big brother have put orders in for their own!


And this is the waistcoat I made for Grandma's birthday that I was keeping a secret. I'm really pleased with it - it's not my taste but it's definitely Grandma's, and her favourite colour too. I made it longer than the pattern suggests as Grandma likes her tops to cover her back well. I found the pattern listed on Ravelry (a site that I'm spending more and more time on). The cover of the book it's in nearly put me off as it looks so dated, but I think it turned out rather well.

Holiday projects

I didn't take any jewellery projects away with me on holiday this year, as I thought that as much as I love making and designing jewellery a complete break would probably do me a lot of good. That didn't stop me from drafting out three new magazine projects on the flight on the way home though - or maybe my mind was fresh enough to come up with those ideas precisely because I'd have a break?

There was no way on earth that I was going to go on holiday without craft projects though - and you wouldn't really expect me to, would you?! I took three balls of yarn for each of two crochet projects, the Victorian cardigan/wrap for me that I've shown you pictures of before and a waistcoat for my Grandma. I got a fair bit done on each and should have taken at least one extra ball for each project! I nearly finished the back of the waistcoat, but I'm not going to show you that one as Mum comes on here sometimes (hello Mum!) and I want the waistcoat to be a surprise for the family until Grandma's birthday at the end of October. It's proving to me a quick project.


I've made a good start on the Victorian wrap, but that's going to be a longer project. It's crocheted all in one piece, starting at the bottom of the back, going up the back and increasing for the sleeves and down the front, dividing for the wrap's fronts. The lacy cuffs and bottom of the wrap are then crocheted on. I've got as far as the sleeves, and something tells me that I'll still be working on it in the New Year!

Look what the postman brought me!

Aren't I a lucky girl?!

Laura has been really naughty (and lovely!) and sent me this funky coloured crotchet hooks! Aren't they great? Don't they go brilliantly with the yarn I used for the scarf and dress I showed you the other week? Thank you so much Laura - they are a lovely surprise and I shall use at least one of them this evening!

The other parcel that the postie brought me today was one that I paid for, but it was still lovely to open it and see these goodies inside - rough cut rubies, sapphires and emeralds! My ruby and sapphire charm bangles have been selling well on notonthehighstreet, and when I went to buy some more beads I decided to get some emeralds as well so that I could offer more choice. Hopefully the emerald charm bangles, and a turquoise option too, will be on both my notonthehighstreet shop and on my website tomorrow. I've got to finish some with rubies and sapphires for orders first and get them posted!


Before I get back to work, though, I just had to show you this. B and I went over to my parents yesterday for lunch. My Dad wanted to test his new BBQ (very posh, even got it's own chimney!) so of course we said we'd help out by eating the sausages etc. It's a hard life! B and I worked some of the food off by playing golf - I use those words in the loosest sense as I don't think that Tiger Woods has got anything to worry about from either of us! B had a great plan of action though - he picked up the ball, put it in front of the hoop, hit it through and then moved on to the next hoop - when he had done them all he did a celebration lap round the garden!

Still here...

I think that there must be some kind of rule that says the longer you leave it between blog posts, the harder it is to blog. It's not that I haven't got anything to tell you or any new designs and finished commissions to share or pictures of finished projects to show you. Far from it. It's more that I don't really know where to begin!

So, one step at a time - Mothering Sunday (not mothers day, that was invented by the card companies, sorry) was lovely. I was treated to a lie in and then croissants for breakfast, lilies, chocolates, lovely cards from B, and even a little cake! When I got back from teaching my college class the previous Thursday evening I started tidying up the kitchen. I assumed that there was flour on the hob because T had made a sauce for his pasta (he's a pretty good cook) until I moved the toaster and found chocolate sprinkles under it. The cake recipe still up on the internet was the giveaway but I was a good girl and didn't look for it! Unfortunately B and T had forgotten the cake was in the oven and it was inedible, but it's the thought that counts!! We had a lovely picnic on Mothering Sunday too, at a local countryside park.

The rest of last week past in a blur of playdates, preschool and private tuition, until my boys went on a trip to visit some friends in Wales. They were away from Wednesday evening until yesterday afternoon, and despite making the most of later mornings, more crafting time and being able to meet up with friends more easily it's sooo lovely to have them back. They had a great time - well, I know B did, and I expect T did too but I think he now needs another couple of days off to recover! I worked on some commissions, some new designs, started to decorated the hall, stairs and landing, and finally finished my crochet project! Well, projects actually, as I liked the yarn so much that I made two items out of it, and I can finally show you them both as they have both arrived at their new homes!


This is the first one that I started - a dress for Gracie, my friend's little girl who gets more smiley and gorgeous and cuddly every time I see her. The pattern is from a Rowan learn-how-to-crochet book. The skirt seemed at one point to be taking forever, but using a variegated yarn definitely made it more interesting to make. I actually started the bodice three times - the first with the variegated yarn (just didn't look right), the second with the pink yarn in trebles (which the pattern said to use, but it looked all out of proportion despite my tension being fine) and the third in half-trebles which looked just right (I think maybe the book had typos?). I'm really pleased with it, and I can't wait to see how gorgeous Gracie looks in it!


And this is the second project - a scarf crocheted in long rows of half-trebles. This is for Laura to wear as she's cycling round the Oxfordshire countryside this spring, and I think from her email this morning that she likes it! I hope you enjoy wearing it Laura!

On a side note, the variegated yarn is a Wendy one and it's made mainly from bamboo, and it's lovely to use, lovely and soft.

Right then, I'm off to take some photos of some of the work I did this weekend to show you later!