Recent picture of 4 of my 5 daughters

From left to right, Danielle (20), Casey (22), Terrie (25), Cristy (26). It was Casey's 22nd birthday. Just thought I would share my loved one's and best friends with you all.

New Tunisian Hook Additions

I ordered these from Crochet Australia, last week and I have them already. I also received a complimentary bag of lollies.

I did not feel so comfortable with the bamboo hook and I also wanted a larger hook, so I've gone from a 4mm to 6 mm here. I also think it will help with the ply of yarn I am using, evidently you need to use a hook a couple of sizes larger than you would normally use, when working with Tunisian St.
The circular crochet hooks are to be used for hat experimentation, can't wait to try them.
I'm going to frog my experimental Tunisian scarf as I have come up with a better idea, so stay tuned.
At the moment I am working on a graphghan and want to concentrate on that, I'm having fun with it and it will be completed in a few days, so stay tuned for that on too.

Tunisian Worked In The Round

Well this is a little hat made with the Tunisian st and an extendable Tunisian hook. It does look like it is work around, but it is not. The regular Tunisian forward and return has been used here, but there is one exception. At the end of the forward row, you slip st to the beginning of the row you are working on, then you complete the return row as usual. I tell you this had me stumped for a bit. When I was working with the extendable hook, I could not reach half of the st's to work on, it was like I needed a rubber hook to bend to meet the st's I needed to work on. So then I tried 3 crochet hooks, like working with knitting dpn's, that did work but it was uncomfortable. So I tried the extendable again, this time I pushed the st's I had just worked on (say half of the row) all the way down to the end of the extension and I was able to reach the unworked st's. YES!

This hat was just a demo, the above picture is the right way out and the picture below is wrong side out. You can see the size difference in st's where I used the 3 hooks in the lower white part. The hat was worked from the bottom upwards. And a doll is my model.

Crochet Sock Anybody?

Well here we go with my first crochet sock, it's almost finished here, just have to change the yarn and shape the toe.

Now that's better it will keep my toes warm now, good fit too.

I used a ripple st pattern, I had never tried the ripple st before. Lots of colour changes, there fore lots of ends to sew in. The basic sock is very easy to make, just follow the pattern. I'm just wondering if I will get around to making it's pair, I did not enjoy making the sock as much as I thought. I picked it up and put it down for about a week. I could have made the complete pair in a couple of days if my interest was there. So I could have a sock for a decoration, or I may get enthused and complete the pair.

The pattern is from this pattern book

I have 2 new head models

My sister-in-law Robyn has been at it again!

She bought me 2 new head models.

I must say they are prettier than the other 2 head models I have, I think that is why she bought them for me, LOL.

The older and uglier head models.

My Grandson's

I just had to share these photo's of my grandson's from my eldest daughter Michelle.

Damon turned 6 last month, Jake will be 9 tomorrow and Ashton will be 2 at the end of November.

Left to right, Ashton, Jake and Damon.

Nan, misses you all so much and hopes to be able to see you all some time soon.

Make a crochet/extendable tunisian hook

This is how it all started. Stramenda from Cochet Lovers group on ravelry, came up with the idea of us making our own hooks/tunisian hooks. The following picture's and information are firstly from Stramenda as she was the first to begin making her own hook, followed by HappyPeacock, then myself. I have included their own description in their words on how they went about making their hooks. I really never thought it would happen, let alone myself participating and making one also.

Stramenda's Hook

OK, here’s my first attempt. I only had a kitchen paring knife and some old 120 sand paper handy, so I have not used appropriate tools, and this took me about 45 minutes. So with the right tools and right sandpaper, I imagine the process will be quicker and the hook will be better :-)


When hubby arrives I’m going to dash off to Bunnings and get some proper stuff, including finer sandpaper to finish it off, a little saw to saw off the end, and some sort of clear varnish :-)
If I can find a straighter stick, I could sand the entire length and leave the knob on the end and it would be a great tunisian !!

Introducing, my new afghan hook !!
She’s about 10mm in width, and a massive 47 cm long !!! She’s not totally straight, but the width is even all along. I finished her off with 800 sandpaper so she’s actually shiny even before painting, and after a test run, the hook head is pointy enough and deep enough, and she works beautifully !! Super silky smooth too !
I’ve always wanted a wider and longer afghan hook, and I managed to whittle one out of a very long twig. The yarn on this hook is a super thick yarn :-)

She’s not yet totally refined. She needs a light coat of clear paint, and I’m wondering what to do with the end. I can drill a little hole and put a cable in with superglue, or I can find a nice decorative knob to either screw in or glue on.
She’s longer than my keyboard !!

ETA: I envisage that if I start using pre-manufactured dowels from Bunnings, I can have a longer and straighter hook, any width I want ! Basically as long as I want !! (How long is too long?)

I made Hook Soup today !! (Couldn’t help myself whilst doing the veggie chop)

HappyPeacock's Hook

Notes
I have made a cabled tunisian crochet hook.
Started with all the clever ideas of all the wonderful women of Crochet Lovers Victoria and heaps of information on various websites.
Bought 25mm dowel from Bunnings, plus a coping saw, some Araldite and lots of grades of sandpaper.
After searching the internet for ideas of how to attach a cable and thinking long and hard, all of a sudden I realised that a cable knitting needle was already made for the job, it just had to be made to fit.
So that is what I did.
I cut the dowell and carved the hook my self and sanded it all over. A friend drilled a long hole in the blunt end exactly the same size as the circular knitting needle, then I pared that end down as well. When it was all how I wanted it we used Araldite to hold the needle inside the hook and built up the Araldite around the join to make it as seamless as possible.
Then cut a chunky disk of dowell and sanded it down, Another hole drilled and it was glued onto the other end of the cable needle to act as a stopper.
Both times the needle was cut shorter so the thickest part was used to give the tightest possible fit.
then hook sanded again and coated with furniture polish until it stopped soaking in.
The pine this is made of is very soft. I also bought a piece of Tasmanian oak to try for another hook. It is a hardwood so will be much more work.
I should add here that the hook size is 25mm!

This hook was made by Dawniedear. You can read more about it here, while you are there laughingpurple has some ventures with her own hook making where she has taken to the resources of nature to make her own hook.

My Hook

My Recepie For Making A Hook.

Grab some inspiration. There is plenty on this page.

Take a big breath of self confidence.

Find the materials needed, then begin.

If you make a mistake, keep trying, never give up!

It's looking more like a hook end here, I learn't from my first mistake.

I was using the only materials I could find in my Hubby's garage.

A broom stick handle, a saw, a chisel and a triangular type file.

Here she is after a couple of hours of work. She is sitting along side a 4mm crochet hook. I believe I have made a 20mm hook here.

After rounding off the end of the hook, I have some whipper snipper cord to insert into the end of the hook, then I will attatch the small wooden disc's to the end of the cord, they are light weight, wooden biscuit joiners, which remind me a bit of a wafer. Once this process is complete, I will have my 20mm extendable tunisian hook ready to go.

A lovely Embroidered gift

I received this in the post today from AuntieElle, who is a member in the Crochet Lovers group at Ravelry. It is a care gift as Elle, knew I had been unwell. She has embroidered my nick name along with some cats and paw prints. I'm sure she has made the card too! Thanks so much Elle. It's so nice to know that people care.

Visual tutorial for Tunisian Colour Change and how to keep a neat edge.

I have found this video tutorial very helpful for Tunisian colour change. It also has a good method for keeping a nice edge.

Enjoy!

This is also a colour change method, mid row or from the beginning.

Move over and make room for Christmas

I made a quick trip into Spotlight which is a major craft chain here in Australia. I was looking to purchase some sock yarn. To my dissapointment, they have reduced their yarn aisle's to make lots of room for christmas decorations! So my sock yarn choice was very limited, I was very annoyed after walking up and down the 2 aisle's they now have to cater for the yarn enthusiast. I eventually chose the yarn below, which is a very soft acrylic and absolutely no stretch, so these may have to be my practice balls. Although I did come across a clearance on some crochet hooks, the 3 in the middle are the hooks with the light in the end of them and a .99c aluminium large hook. I did need these particular sizes and they all have the fat handle which I prefer to use.

Onto something else. I bit the bullet and purchased this Tunisian cable hook set from Crochet Australia.

I'm involved in a christmas swap and I have my swap items made and ready to go, which now gives me the time to spend on Tunisian crochet and sock making practice. Yippee!

I can't blog about the christmas items I have made yet. I do not want to spoil the surprise for my swap partner, just in case they read my blog. But I will take pictures before I send them off on the due date and blog about them later on, I will say that I have made something that I have not delved into before.

Linda's Woodland Shawl Finished

Remember the shawl Linda sent me?

Well the pattern has a flowered border and she could not get the pattern right, she thought it was because she was a lefty and she thought I may have better luck with it, so she sent me the yarn for the flowers and the pattern too.

Well I had no luck with the pattern either!

So I improvised, the pattern calls for the flowers to be crocheted onto the border, so I just made a long chain of the flowers seperately, then sewed them onto the edge where they belong.

And here she is. What a beauty!

Once again, thank you Linda, no more cold shoulders. Oh one more thing, I ran out of yarn on the last stitch of the last flower! How was that!

Wearing my skirt and top out fit today.

The pictures did not come out so good, but it gives you an idea of how it looks. I am wearing it today as it is warm.

Link to original post.

Meet Linda the Crazy Crocheting Fool

I thought I would share something about some one else here.

This is Linda and some of her yarn stash. Linda is a very talented crocheter, I just love the assortment of afghans she pumps out.

If you would like to see more of Linda's photo's, this is her flickr page.

If you would like to see Linda's blog this is her blog page.

Star Afgahn

Afghan Ruffle

Afghan 102

Lace and Bobbles

Log Cabin

Linda has a new craze lately of making socks.

My American Friend Linda, Sent Me a Parcel.

I've been a member of hgtv for over a year now. It was the first forum I joined as I found it imformative and friendly. I have made some very lovely American friends on the board, shared patterns and had some good laughs. One of my friends is Linda, (warp speed linda, as she crochets very fast) when she knew I was after a knifty knitter, she told me that she had a rectangular one that I could have and she would send it to me. But she did not stop there. She filled a box full of goodies and sent them to me. She mailed the box from the US last Friday and I received it today (Tuesday).

This is the shawl she made for me in the red heart soft yarn.
I have finally seen her crochet work and it is high quality work manship and I just love the shawl! It really is a soft yarn too.

Now these are the other goodies in the box. A lovely hard covered and spiral bound pattern book, the rectangular knifty knitter and some glow in the dark yarn which I so wanted to use.

I can't wait to use this glow in the dark yarn in a project, I've seen it advertised and so wanted it. Now I have it, YES!

Thank you so much Linda.

When People Know You Crochet

When people know that you crochet, they tend to be on the look out for crochet things. Below are some old to very old doily crochet pattern books, from the 60's to the 90's. These came from my Daughters boyfriends Mother. They belonged to her Mother. The prices on the pattern books are in the pound form and from Scotland and England. Some prices read 2/6 and others had the pound price of 1.20.

A lovely lacey glove pattern from one of the pattern books.

Trolley mat and cosey set.

Crochet centre doily.
Padua doily.

My Mum and Step Dad came for a visit today, I was in bed when they came as I had not been too well. But they cheered me up by not only coming, but bringing me some items from a deceased estate. There were specific instructions that I was to have these crochet pattern books.

Centre page from one of the more modern 70's patterns.

I would attempt the top, but the pants?

Nice 70's tanks here.

Pity the camera flash is too flashy, for these twin cardigans.

These are sead beads in a 500gm jar that my Mum and Step Dad brought down too. My step dad says I have to count them before I use them, LOL. The middle jar has larger lovely blue beads too.

It's so nice to receive things when you least expect them.