Sunday, February 22, 2009

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.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

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.

Friday, February 20, 2009

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.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

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!