Crocheted Barefoot Sandals.

What better way to dress up your bare feet this summer with barefoot sandals. The variations are only limited by your imagination. Some lovely soft left over cotton yarn a few beads and you are on your way.

Some lovely blue pearls and small cats eye beads match this cotton yarn really well.

A sturdy pink cotton yarn and some wooden beads really give off that beachy feel.

Flowers that really grow on you, with a contrasting variegated cotton.

Mmm, pink and beads.

Made especially for Alisha, who loves green and barefoot sandals.

I really had a challenge here with the single crochet foundation row used in the ties for a much neater look. Not only is it time consuming, but at times I found it difficult finding the space to crochet into. So I used sight and feel to over come the slowness and to find the correct opening. I crocheted all of my ends in as I went along to avoid the sewing in of ends once finished. These are really quite easy and quick to make. I made a couple of pairs for a xmas gift and the pair for Alisha is for her birthday which is just after the new year.

Some light and easy crochet

Yay I'm back into some crochet! I finally felt like doing some. There was no way I was going to read a pattern, I needed something nice and easy and I also wanted something simple for christmas gifts. So with some left over cotton yarn and an idea in my head I purchased some hand towels and away I went. I used the same method on all of the sets, but none are exactly the same with stitch or row counts. I found out what different ones had as a colour scheme in their homes and came up with these. The red set has a removable christmas decoration. I hope you like them and hopefully I'll be back with some more of my crochet adventures much sooner. Thank you to all of my readers who contacted me to see if I was okay.

Red Dust Storm In New South Wales, Australia

I live in the state of Victoria just below the State of New South Wales, so we were lucky not to receive a hares breath of this. I've included some amazing pictures of it for you to see. Thanks to my readers who were concerned for me, knowing that I live in Australia!

Finally Something To Show You All!

Remember in a previous blog post I asked you to guess what I was making? Well here it is. It's a cappuccino hat with saucer and choc chip cookies on the side.

This is the first picture I revealed for you to have a guess at what I was making. I made a basic beanie in a dc and added white fluffly yarn around the edges for the milk froth.

I completed a saucer, by making 2 pieces the same and sewed them onto a round piece of cardboard I cut to shape, then I added the rim you find on the under neath of a saucer, by crocheting over the top of the sc's in the saucer.

I used some pipe cleaners, twisted them together and made a sc cover to sew around the pipe cleaners for the handle.
Another view of the components I used.
So here is the hat and saucer seperate.

This is about where it will be sewed together.

Now it is sewed together.

Now the handle is attached with some choc chip cookies to go with your cuppa. Hope you have enjoyed this original and unique hat. I have made it especially for my step daughter who works part time in a coffee shop, the one who loves and wears all of my crazy hats.

Please Forgive Me

Please forgive me for staying away, I'm not blogging or reading blogs, I'm just off it for a while, the crochet project I am working on is taking me for ever as I am barely crocheting. Out of sorts I am.

I thought I should let my blogger friends know and share this picture of little Rev, he has eaten the left over spaghetti bolognaise and it has stained his face, too cute not to share.

Hope-fully I'll get back into the swing of things soon and begin talking to you all.

Cheers Cat.

Bargain Found In Country Town

The closest place to me with a small supermarket is about 20km's away which is about a 10 min trip. It's an old out of the way little country town. I dare say their over heads would be minimal due to the age and distance of the shops. There are 2 second hand shops and a fantastic Antique and Craft shop that you would definately get lost in for a couple of hours!

It's a bit like a rabbit warren whilst you are navigating your your way around the delights the store has on offer, mmm.

Below are 3 items I picked up for a mere $1.00 at the second hand shop, the bag of 4 x 20gm cotton and the 2 very large heavy duty nylon that would be perfect for soles of the slippers I have been making, which are now worn down to a much thinner ply.

Oh and one more thing, here is a sneak look at the new project I am working on, you'll bever guess what it will be, but the components I need to complete the project are sitting right in the picture, LOL. Go on and have a guess.

I'm Hooked!

Ha,ha. Hooked up to the internet that is. I have not picked up a hook in over a month, but I have an idea roaming around inside of my head, due to a request that was made of me. I also feel a little out of sorts in my new craft room, I keep moving the furniture around to make it more comfy, but I'm still not pleased and there is so much still to do in other parts of the house. I caught that dam swine flu as I was moving, so it slowed things down for me so much. But hey, I'm good now so on with thing's. Hope you are all well and I'll be checking out your blogs and back onto the forums too. Take care the Cat, ha,ha.

My daughter snapped this of me whilst I was sleeping.

Hello to all my Crafty Crochet and knit Friends!

I've been off line, but I'm on my way back, so stay tuned for some more mischief from the Cat!

Felting My Crochet For The Very First Time

Well I found this free pattern on line, for a pair of hexagon boot slippers. Now knowing US foot sizing is different to AU sizing, I decided to make them im 100% wool that I could felt if they were too big for me. As you can see from the picture below, they were far too big. So now my very first felting project had to come to light.

Compare this picture to the picture underneath it for the felting success.
Small enough to fit me now. But I did have an adventure felting these.

I first tried felting by hand, but the slippers were too big to do it by hand, I even had them boiling in a pot for more shrinkage. Scrubbed lots and lots of a high quality dish washing liquid into them and even gave them the shock cold water process. I was not getting far at all by this stage.

The idea of machine felting was against me from the very beginning. I have a front loader. Once the cycle begins, you cannot open the door to check on the felting process, also my machine is not connected to hot water, so I had to fill up and boil the kettle several times to fill the lower part of the machine. I thought I would be fine to begin the cycle, front loaders use low suds powder or liquid and I neglected to rinse out all of that high quality dish washing liquid I had begun with! Eeek, my machine is not supposed to look like this!
Eeek! It is foaming from places it should not be!
It's foaming from more places!

I have a foaming mess!

It just gets worse!

After draining and cleaning up, I begin another cycle with hot water. This is what the machine should look like when it has a load in it. No foam! My slippers are actually in there at this point too.

Once the second cycle of the felting had finished I saw the results! Yes, thay have felted and shrunk! I stuff them with news paper to shape them and dry them off in front of my little fan heater.

Not all of my crocheting went to plan either, I ran out of the blue wool on the second sole and had to use another colour, oh well, I'll be walking on that part any how's.
I'm sure I could have felted these a little bit better and they do need a little more shrinkage. But wait for this, after this fiasco, a US crochet buddy said, I could have just washed the slippers first then put them into the dryer for felting! Why oh why did I have to find this out the hard way. I am going to wash then once more and put them into the dryer, I can also open the dryer door to check on their progress.

When they first dried I was so excited and put them on, then ran into the kitchen to make a cuppa', woops! I nearly went for a sixer, the soles are far too slippery! I know there are several ways to make a woolen sole non slip, I just have to plan that one out next.

I do hope you get some enjoyment out of reading this post!

By the way, I think felting is just a fancy word for shrinking wool, what do you think?

More Crocheted Slippers, Easy Design With Free Pattern

Why am I making so many slippers? Well it has to do with the cream coloured carpet that comes with my new house. Because of the cream carpet, there will be a, shoes off before entering rule created. So I am going to supply an assortment of slippers for those who stroll in and choose to keep their feet warm and cosey with the slippers.

The slippers I have made here are so easy, it is not my pattern, but you can find the free pattern here. It is a versatile pattern that you can easily make changes to, easy to follow pattern, quick to make up and you can make them quite quirky with lot's of colour changes too!

This is the first pair I made.

Now Nathan, my son-in-law to be, was promised a pair of slippers ages ago, so here are his, in the AFL Hawthorn football team colours.
I was trying to make these for hubby but they were too small.

So here we go with a bigger pair for hubby and by the way, it is the first thing I have ever crocheted for hubby! Am I bad? I did a long trc with sc around the tops too.

They look odd in the making up process.

But here they are finished. I did not crochet in the back loop of this pair, as the pattern states.

I hope you have enjoyed my slipper post once again. I have another slipper story to tell too, but that one is more interesting, just wait for it. LOL.

Update On A Couple Of Recent Post's

I finally took the Piano Wrap to my Mum's this week-end. I got her to close her eye's and stand in front of a mirror whilst I placed it over her shoulders. When she opened her eye's she started laughing with pleasure and humor and said "I can wear that to Church tomorrow". And she did. When she walked into the church every body commented on it, but when she finally played the piano, she forgot to put it on, LOL.

And for those slipper socks, I'm going to have to make plenty more, I've already been wearing both pair! They are so warm and comfy, I think they are great!

Kids, House and More

Lily is our second eldest grand child and our eldest grand daughter.

Today the 31st of May, is Lily's 9th birthday. Her Mother made a wonderful tea party setting for Lily and her birthday friends.

Just a small collection of Lily's presents so far. Lily is such a trendy kid, she just loves fashion!
Now here is Bella (4) being a mother to Bradyn (1).

Darcy who turns 7 next month was so grateful to have a boy to play with, Cooper (3). Darcy gets very sick and tired of his sisters and no boys to play with. Most of his cousins that live close by are girls too, so he just loved being with with Cooper today.

Onto more house talk.

My kitchen has gone from this, 8 seater table and 4 stools.

Make shift seating with the out door setting.

Now we have a sweet little setting ready for the new house that was bought at auction on ebay. I just hope all of the pieces of furniture I have chosen to use for my dining room will tie in nicely. The furniture pieces I already have, were all hand made by my brother.

After our visit to the birthday girl, we took the boys with us to view the progress of the new house. We now have the fencing up and the exterior house painting is completed.

This is down the very back of the block and the boys just loved the messy dirt mounds.

Now of course we had to go for a walk on the jetty once again. The tide was out when we were there, lucky for us as Braydn was rearing to go! Cooper and Bradyn are pictured here with Pa.