Thursday, March 29, 2012

Thursday Thoughts

Source: Pinterest



finished at last!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A Birthday Stone



It's really been a while since I've made or posted a new crochet stone, right? But now that I've finished the super-secret project (yes, that's right, I did it!!), I've got time for some new things apart from the "Beyond the Square" motifs I'm still posting. By the way: thanks for all the lovely comments you're leaving, you always find something nice to say, nevermind how simple the motif - thank you!!

Now back to the stone. I still enjoy playing around with colors, patterns and the different shapes of the stones to make each one unique. However, I've already got so many of them lying around here, so I started to make stones only to give them away for special occasions instead of keeping and hoarding them at home :)

Yesterday was my sister-in-law's birthday, and I gave her this new creation:


Recently, my sister-in-law and my brother re-decorated their living-room with shades of brown and creme, that's why I've picked those colors for the stone. The center of the pattern is once again from a doily-magazine, the rest is improvisation.


This was the first one of four brand-new stones I've made last week. I'm looking forward to showing you the other ones and of course there's still the super-secret project to reveal very, very soon...

Take care and please come back if you've enjoyed your visit here today :)


Monday, March 26, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 115

 Motif # 115

Category: Squares

Progress: 31 of 100+

Notes:
Oh, this one is really unique, I think. There's one round with lots of spike sc's worked into one, two or three rows below the actual working round. Great effect!


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 52

Motif # 52

Category: Hexagons

Progress: 30 of 100+

Notes:
Another motif that reminds me a little of a starfish, I like it - feels like summer... :)


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 22

Motif # 22

Category: Circles

Progress: 29 of 100+

Notes:
Interesting! The center of this motif features the "roll stitch", also known as "bullion stitch" which I've seen in lots of freeform crochet pieces. I've tried this stitch before (to make some tiny hearts), and I was happy to find and practice it here again - because this stitch really needs a little practice before you're comfortable with it. I've used four different colors for this motif which is one-colored (green) in the book.


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif #124


Motif #124


Progress: 28 of 100+

Notes:
Here's one of the heart-shaped motifs in the book. The original version is one-colored, but I wanted to highlight the center of the heart - love it!!


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 61

Motif # 61

Category: Triangles

Progress: 27 of 100+

Notes:
The diagonal half of the traditional granny square. A basic you just have to know.


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 114

Motif # 114

Category: Squares

Progress: 26 of 100+

Notes:
Aahhh... one of my favorites!! I think I've mentioned before, that the "Squares" chapter is not my favorite part of the book, but this one is gorgeous - I love the overlapping shape of the petals! And again, this motif wasn't difficult at all - if you can crochet chains, sc's and dc's, you can do this motif!


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 42

Motif # 42

Category: Hexagons

Progress: 25 of 100+

Notes:
A quarter of the Challenge is achieved, this is the 25th motif I'm posting here! This here is a simple star-shaped hexagon, mainly made with dc's and lots of ch1-spaces. The motif in the book is two-colored as well, lilac and purple.


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 7

Motif # 7

Category: Circles

Progress: 24 of 100+

Notes:
This motif has turned out a little larger than I had expected - okay, it's seven rounds of dc's, I shouldn't have been surprised! :) I've picked three colors, the motif in the book is made with two shades of green. What I like about this motif: the wavelike edging and the little picots in the middle rows (they came out really nice after I had blocked them!)


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif #123


Motif #123

Category: Unusual Shapes

Progress: 23 of 100+

Notes:
Who isn't thinking of a sunrise when looking at the motif? I admit, I had my problems with the "unusual shapes", in the beginning they just didn't catch my eye the way the circles and triangles did. So after a while, I've tried to focus more on this last chapter of the book and try a few of those motifs. In the book, this motif is plain yellow, but I wanted to see how it looks with several different colors and picked orange, white and yellow. Not bad, what do you think?


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Theme Party # 8: Colorful!

Hey girls! It's nice to see you've dropped in again, to brighten up the last days of this winter with your most colorful crochet! This topic has been on the list from the beginning, and it's good to see that it has made the race this time. Isn't it interesting how sometimes the most simple patterns look just stunning because of the colors? I'm thinking of granny blankets and colorful ripples, cushions and potholders, anything - okay, maybe not a white doily :)

Before you add your link and hop away, please have a look at my right side bar: I've already started the next poll with a new topic, Spring and Easter Crochet. I've planned the next theme-party for the Easter week-end, so it would be a perfect topic, don't you think?

Have a great week-end everybody!! :)


Some things you should keep in mind:
What you see is what you get: please link to the specific post where your chosen project can be found (not just your main blog address), and make sure that your post is about crochet and matches the given theme! No shops! Please understand that I might remove links that ignore these points.
Feel free to post as many links as you like - you should really search in the depths of your archives to retrieve your forgotten treasures, this is your chance to bring them back to the surface! :) more info

This collection can be found at The Crochet Boulevard now!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 60

Motif # 60

Category: Triangles

Progress: 22 of 100+

Notes:
This is the triangle version of a square I've posted before (motif # 121). Again, you work longer chain loops for the corners and weave them together just before the last round. I just love this style, really!


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 101

Motif # 101

Category: Squares

Progress: 21 of 100+

Notes:
This one was again picked with John's assistance :) I was flipping through the book and couldn't make up my mind, so I gave the book to John to pick one. This time he seemed a little bit more enthusiastic (if this is an appropriate expression for a man dealing with crochet), he took his time and checked my list of motifs that I've already made, before he suggested this one to me. Although I've already seen this motif in our shared gallery, it somehow never caught my eye when flipping through the book. I'm glad I made it though, it turned out quite nice. In the book, the motif is one-colored, I've made it with two colors, off-white and brown.


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 32

Motif # 32

Category: Hexagons

Progress: 20 of 100+

Notes:
And here it is - the reverse side of motif # 31 which I've posted yesterday. The instructions are clear: work rounds 1-5 as for motif # 31, then turn and work a round of sc's. But instead of working lots of back post dc's and turn, I just made front post dc's instead (and didn't turn), the result is the same. Both sides look nice and I've still got the potholder-idea in mind :)


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Beyond the Square: Motif # 31

Motif # 31

Category: Hexagons

Progress: 19 of 100+

Notes:
This interesting little hexagon is mainly made with back post dc's. It's very easy to adjust the size of the motif, ie. making it bigger (or smaller), depending on what you want to do with it - a few rounds more and it would make an interesting potholder. Interesting? Of course, because the reverse side of the motif (ie. the backside of the back post dc's) just has to look different and interesting, too! And that is why the next motif in the book (# 32) is actually just the reverse side of this motif - come back to check it out tomorrow! :)


Links: 
Shared Gallery: link up your motifs!

Friday, March 2, 2012

March News and Reviews

Can you feel it? It's already March, the days are getting longer, spring is coming closer and I LOVE it! :) Today let's talk about past and upcoming crochet projects and the State of my New Year's Resolutions again.

Crochet:

During february I've been really busy with the super-secret project. I even forced myself to weave in (most of) the ends, because this project really had lots of them!!! It felt like a million threads, but it turned out it was "only" about 400 - so far. Damn, I'm so glad I've started this part early, it would really annoy me to add two extra weeks just for weaving in those ends! Here's another little glimpse, we're coming closer to the end...


I've also signed up for the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week:

(click on the picture for more info)

Unfortunately I had already missed this fun blog week when I started my blog last year in May, and I hoped that there'd be another blog week this year. So I was really excited when I first learned about this year's blog week over at Lazy Daisy Crochet and I signed up at once! For those of you who are also new to the crochet blog community or have missed this project last year, here some infos: in the week from April 23rd - 29th every participant (crocheter or knitter) will blog daily about a given topic. The topics will be announced before, so you can plan your posts in advance. I'm looking forward to this project, and I hope that many of you will join in, too!

Now I've told you about my February crochet and my plans for April, but what about March? Well, first of all I have to finish the super-secret project and of course I want to continue with the Beyond the Square Challenge (edit: I've updated this post today as well!) I'm afraid I have to post the motifs more frequently to reach my goal of 100+ this year. I've also started working on another wiggly design, but I'm not sure if it will work out the way I have in mind. We'll see... :) Last but not least, there'll be another theme-party in a week already - there are still a few days left to vote for your favorite topic. So far it looks like it's going to be a very colorful party :)

And now let's see how my New Year's Resolutions are doing:

I'm doing fine with my activity plans: I still haven't lost my motivation to go to the gym three times a week, mainly doing a combination of moderate cardio workout and strength training - and meanwhile I lost 12 pounds!! No, wait - I've read a brilliant quote just yesterday: "I'm not losing weight, I'm getting rid of it. I have no intention of finding it again!" *lol*
March will also be the last month of our dancing course: so far we've learned the Slow Waltz and the Wiener Waltz, the Foxtrott and the Disco Fox, the Boogie Woogie and the Jive, the Blues and the Cha Cha Cha. Tango and Rumba will be next on the list. Oh, I love the dancing lessons, I really do! I hope I can persuade John to do the next course, too - maybe after the summer, I don't want to overwhelm him :)
I've also got plans for the time after the dancing course: it will either be Zumba (which I've never done before) or Country line-dance (which I've been doing for about two years in a group before I lost interest). You see, my activity level has really increased a lot this year and I feel good, I'm not that tired and lazy like before, it seems that I've got more energy.
Thank god the main point of my Resolutions (the activity thing) is working out, because some other points don't: I'm still wasting time on Pinterest (but it doesn't feel that addictive anymore), I still haven't read a (fictional) book this year and I have done nothing to improve my skills in digital photography. On my to-do list. The year's still long :)

I wish you all a happy month of March with lots of sunshine, energy and happy thoughts! :)

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