My New Betty Boop Figurine

She's very cute and very blue, a gift from one of my daughters. But I really wanted to show you some progress shots of the collection of face cloths that are coming along. 11 of them are pictured below, whilst more are being made. The one's on the left were made by Shilo from Ravelry. Thanks for your assistance Shilo, much appreciated!

This is a lovely shiny pink cotton, supplied from Happy Peacock, another member from Ravelry. Thank you Happy Peacock! The pink cotton is making lovely face cloths.

Same Pattern Different Look, But Why?

I just made my second Tunisian short row dish cloth, pattern link is here, I find them to be one of the best dish cloths to use, so durable.

The 3 below are made from the same pattern, but if you look closely you will see a difference with one of the dish cloths, one difference being the middle one was not made by me, but why is it so different when the exact same pattern was used and they are all face up?

Rachel from HGTV kindly supplied me with the middle picture of her dish cloth and pointed out the obvious difference to me and why it was so.

It's quite simply that I am a righty and she is a lefty, so the pattern turns in the opposite direction. How about that? I found it quite interesting. How's this one though, Rachel would drive on the right hand side of the road, whilst I drive on the left hand side of the road. US versus AU.

Relief Packages Are A Go!

This is just the beginning of the personal care packages for the bush fire victims. By next week it will be so much larger and we can begin giving them out.

On a lighter note, have you ever seen or eaten dragon fruit? It's the red thing below.

And this is what it looks like opened up. It tastes a little like kiwi fruit but not as strong in the taste. I just spooned it straight out of it's case and ate it that way. Yum, yum and filling too! Very low in calories and contains vitamin C.

Twin V, Face Cloth or Dish Cloth Pattern

This is a very simple stitch to use for making a face cloth or dish cloth. I tried to draw a stitch pattern which is below that may help you. I have used an 8 ply cotton and a size 4.00mm hook for my cloth. Time taken about 1 hour.

To make a square shaped cloth, crochet as many rows high as you started with the foundation chain, ie: 30 chain to start, 30 rows high.
Use any ply yarn with suitable sized hook.
Gauge not important. 50 gm ball of yarn sufficient.
US abbreviations used.

Stitch count is, chain a multiple of 2 ch, plus 1, plus 2 for the foundation row.
I began with 30 ch, plus 1 ch, plus 2 ch, for the foundation row.

Foundation row (rs): work 2 sc in the 3rd ch from the hook, *skip next ch, work 2 sc in next ch* repeat from * to * to end working 1 sc in last ch and turn

Row 1: Ch 2, *skip next st, work 2 sc in next st, * repeat to end, work 1 sc in second ch at the end and turn

Repeat row 1 for every row worked.

Below is the right side of the stitch.

Below is the wrong side of the stitch.

Below is a close up of the stitch.

Below is the cloth with a simple sc border around it.

My attempt at a stitch pattern.

Enjoy.

Tunisian Crochet along with the Video Tutorial

Oh I found this site that has not only the pattern to use, but a video of making the patterned item too! So cool if you do not want to read the pattern and or you think it seems too hard to do.

Well it's not too hard, with the video tutorial to watch, make it while you watch it, pressing the pause button when you need to. I find these video tutorials fantastic!

Below is a Tunisian short row dish cloth that I made whilst watching the video tutorial. It took a lazy hour to complete. I am also thrilled to say that sewing in loose ends and tails are shown in the video and they are the same way that I do it.

Here is the link to the pattern and the video here. But don't stop there have a look around this site for more video tutorials and patterns. What a great way to learn. Thank You to Mary Grace McNamara from Hooked on Needles for supplying these lessons!

Second Froggy Hat For Aaron

You may remember this post here, the first hat I made was too small. I tried it on my grandsons and it was the right size for my one year old grandson and Aaron is 3 years old. So I went back to the drawing board and made a second one to fit Aaron. Being the second time around it was much quicker to make the features and I also used (US) dc instead of the original sc. So now they are ready to make their way to the US for little Aaron. I'm hoping Aaron may have a favourite Teddy Bear he can put the smaller froggy hat on.

Off The Hook And Onto The Floor

You'll have to go back in time to appreciate the end result of this rag rug I just finished for my kitchen floor. The original post begins here in early December of 2008. It was a big bag of scrap yarn, the scraps being under 12 inches per piece and some were also a bit longer. When I first began tying the yarn scraps together I was trying to hide the knot, but once I knew what I was going to make with the scraps, I tied them longer. The knots are deliberately all on the one side of the mat, for that real rag rug look. It is just a bit of a shame that the ply was different in some area's causing the rug to look wider on one end. It's all made in simple sc. The yarn was left over from tapestry scraps and it is 100% wool, I also blended this with a carpet nylon for extra strength and durability.

Little Rev, likes my mat too.
Below is a preview of the face cloths that are slowly building up for our fire victims.

Australian Inferno

My state of Victoria burns and I sit back and feel helpless.

What can I do? I am but one. I am not trained in this expert field of fire fighting, so I would just be in their way.

The one thing I can do is crochet.

So I will crochet for the victims. The victims need so many things, they have lost it all.

My small gesture to begin with is to crochet more face cloths, I have sourced quite a bit of personal deodorant and soap. The face cloth, soap and deodorant will go hand in hand, for just a little bit of personal care.

I will not go to the market this winter and every thing I would usually make for the market to sell will be given to the fire victims. They as we, will need to keep warm on cooler nights and in the winter. We must not forget the fire victims! As a Nation we are all banding together. Whilst the top of our country floods the bottom of our beloved country burns. The flood victims are giving their flood relief funds over to the fire victims! I am proud of our Nation a generous and kind Nation who stick together when times are so tough!

Thank You to those who are helping me in my small adventure here, my American, Australian and Dutch friends who are contributing to my small effort.

Just one of our hero's at the front of a fire.

Not Crochet, It's Little Rev!

I recorded little Rev in action for all to see how happy he makes me and how funny he is.

Rev was the last of 5 puppies to be born, he was the runt of the litter and it was obvious he had problems from the beginning. He was quite cold for the first 24 hours of his beginning. He struggled to feed, I weighed him 3 times a day to ensure he was gaining weight. When he began to walk, he walked backwards, this is why I named him Rev, Rev being short for reverse. I took him to the vet and it was obvious he was starved of some oxygen at birth. But he began to improve and he walked forward. It was not until he was seperated from his mother that we realised he is deaf. His sense of smell is incredible though. I have many visual stimulants and I am teaching him sign language, just simple hand movements for now. I am assuming I will need 2 people to teach him to sit, but I will wait until he is a little older and is used to the simple sign language I am teaching him now.

Crochet A Face Cloth

To crochet a face cloth you really need a nice soft cotton. I have used a soft cotton in all of the face cloths below. I buy lot's of left overs from other peoples stashes and I never knew up until recently what I was going to use this cotton stuff for. I am learning all of the time about different fibres and what they are better used for, the latest lessons have been about dish cloths and face cloths.

I know quite a bit about the different stitch patterns that are around and I just had to have a little think and do some research to find a st that I would like to use.

The latest st I have tried is the woven stitch and it is easy on the eye and also a soft grain for the face as a face cloth.

The first 2 face cloths which are made with the woven stitch and an 8 ply cotton, worked up very quick.

Woven stitch face cloth.

Woven stitch face cloth.

Mitired square face cloth.

Griddle/ Up and Down stitch face cloth.

Griddle/ Up and Down stitch face cloth.

The griddle stitch (up and down st) is an old favourite of mine, but I do prefer the woven stitch pattern in the first 2 face cloths. I found a couple of Illustrations on line that may help with the stitch patterns for you.

Crochet And Feel Good

Once I had finished this small duo, I did feel good!

A plea came from a crochet friend to help a 3 year old little boy named Aaron, who has cancer. We were told of his favourite colours, which were green and yellow, we were also asked for a 12 inch square to go into the making of an afghan for Aaron. Of course this was all voluntary. I had been wanting to make a mitered square and I also find this type of square eye catching. I also thought if he likes green, he probably likes frogs, so I made him a frog hat too. I used my pattern for the floppy brimmed boys army hat, I did not have a size 3. Using the size 2 as a guide, I just went up a half a hook size and added an extra round of increase. I left off the brim and made a band around the hat that can be folded or unfolded, I thought this would cover any difference in sizing, not knowing the size of Aarons head.

Once I had completed this little project for Aaron, I did feel good about myself knowing this was going to a good cause.