My Forgotten Treasure

Hi there lovely Blogettes, how is your week going?  Here in the Kimbles household it has been a busy week - with hubby on a "tidying up the garage and loft" mission.  There has been a lot of "we don't need this" and "why are we keeping this?" and to tell you the truth I find it all a bit difficult - you know, to let go of things and I know in my heart stuff that has been sitting there for 20 years probably won't be used again!  We compromised in the end with me squirreling away certain items that NO WAY were going anywhere!  The reason for this big sort out is that our heating system has really struggled all winter (how typical is that, when we have had the coldest winter for 30 years!!!!!) and just before Easter stopped completely and because we live in a small village there is no mains gas - so other avenues have to be explored.  Anyway the upshot of this is that the whole system needs to be replaced and that means access to the loft and garage - hence the BIG clear out!!! Hope you are keeping up!

I am telling you this because as all of this busying was going on - in amongst all the forgotten "treasures" or "mess" I found this - and a tear did come to my eye

This is "Ann" my favourite doll and LOOK what she is wearing - one of my very FIRST crochet projects!!!

In real life she looks a little dusty and tired but the photos have brought the colours to life!

I have been trying to work out how old this crochet is and I am sure I made this when I was about 9 or 10 so in and around 40 years ago!

There is no  sewing up - I have threaded drawstrings through the waist and neck - so very simple, and I love the green and lemon - still working in green today!

I clearly remember the first time I learned to crochet - a very trendy friend of mine at primary school was trying to make a poncho (they were very fashionable at the time) and I got a hook and a ball of yarn and tried to copy her, without any success, and my mum was more of a knitter - then one evening I was with my mum and our sick doggie at the vets of all places, it was busy and the waiting room had spilled over into the front garden and they had put out chairs for us. I was messing around with the hook and yarn and a lady sitting next to us taught me a chain and treble - from then on I was hooked and made my first poncho  - sadly I don't have a picture of it, but I remember it was all higgledy piggledy with colours.  I then progressed on to dolls clothes!

Its funny, but that kind lady introduced me to a life long love of crochet, a chance meeting, I haven't the faintest idea what she looked like - but I am very grateful to her.

Can you remember where you first learned to crochet?

Here is an update on my current crochet top - I am really enjoying this - the bamboo yarn although a bit splitty isn't too bad to get used to and feels very "drapey".  I just hope I won't be disappointed when I try it on!

Gosh, I have been very "wordy" today - hope I haven't bored you with my childhood memories.  Have a great weekend (over here in the UK its a Bank Holiday - so Monday off yipee!) .

Speak soon xx

FIVE

Yes there are FIVE of us back in the Kimbles household - we moved Little Kimbles back home over the weekend as she has now completed the Uni studies, there are many more boxes than five to tidy away though!!

FIVE photos of signs of summer making me happy

FIVE  - that is the time the Kimbles household got up this morning - to watch the last ever episode of LOST and eat bacon butties - such an impromptu daft family thing to do, even though we had work - but just fun!!

FIVE minutes snatched in the garden with a cup of tea and my latest project

I 'm not usually into crochet clothes - have tried a couple of times with mixed results - but I found this pattern and thought I would have a go. It is in Bamboo cotton which is a little splitty, but the colour is divine and reminds me of all the fresh green leaves on the trees at the moment and is probably my favourite colour along with pink!

The stitch is made up of shells with the next row chains and dcs so that the shells are above each other if you see what I mean.

Its growing quite quickly so we will see how it turns out - mind you, if its a disaster - I might not be able to bring myself to show you he!he! 

Speak soon xx

Garden Mosaic

I have to tell you dear Blogettes, that surprisingly I haven't picked up a crochet hook or done anything crafty at all this week, and that does make me a little sad.... but not for long, I will be back hooking away as soon as I can.  I left myself a day free from work work on Wednesday and headed off into the garden to plant my little plants which have now sprouted from the seeds I planted. Oh the bliss - the sun warm on my back as I worked, the lovely green plants going into the ground and the excitement and anticipation of hopefully the lovely vegetables that I will be able to harvest in the not too distant future!!!  An almost perfect day - if only I had had the time to crochet instead of clean out the showers!!  Oh well you can't have it all!!

 

Garden Mosaic - little cucumber plant, my small veg patch, under the leylandai (worst place ever, but seemed to work ok last year!) , basket of Margarite daisies, Ferns uncurling, Lillies that have survived the harsh winter and in fact came from my Grandad's garden and he died 18 years ago!!   lovely Lily of the Valley reminds me of my Wedding Bouquet and finally more seeds.

Thank you for looking in on me and for the lovely comments on the Mini Hexagon tutorial - I hope it comes in useful.

Oh and check out the SIBOL blog - my squares arrived safely and Karin has named us Sibolettes!! Lovely like Blogettes!!

  

Speak soon xx 

Mini Hexagons Join-As-You-Go Tutorial

I have finally got the detail for you for the Mini Hexagon Blanket - I must get used to noting down methods and amount, measurements, number of motifs etc as I go along - I am afraid I get so absorbed I forget all that technical stuff!  Anyway here are a few details:-

Measurements: 100 cm x 114 cm
Number of Hexagon flowers: 16 each made up of 7 hexagons
Number of outline Hexagons: 168
Number of half Hexagons: 16
Edging: Crab stitch
Yarn used: Cygnet Acrylic double knit
Hook: 4mm

TUTORIAL

Joining the hexagons to make the flower motifs is relatively easy - but it may be better to plan your design on hexagon paper so that you can see which hexagons to attach to which when doing all the outline hexagons.

A quick refresher of the hexagon motif (tutorial in my side bar)

Chain 5 join with slip stitch

1st row:  3 ch, 11 tr into ring and join with slip stitch (12 stitches)

2nd Row:  3 ch, 2 tr into same space, *1 ch skip a space and make 3 tr in next space. Repeat  from * 4 times more and join to top of beginning 3ch with a slip stitch (6 groups of 3 trebles)

3rd Row:  3 ch, 2 tr, 2ch, 3 tr in same chain space, *1 ch then 3 tr, 2 ch, 3 tr in next space. Repeat from * four more times and join to top of beginning 3 ch with a slip stitch (6 groups in all).Fasten off.

Below I have already joined two hexagons together, and I will show you how to join in a third

First of all you need to make another hexagon and when you get to the last round make your first hexagon point as usual then chain one and make the first 3 tr of the second group

then instead of doing the 1ch, make 1dc  but through the 2ch space of a corner of the hexagon you are going to join it to, then twist the hook back and do your normal 3tr back in the previous space to complete the corner on the first hexagon.

then instead of doining the 1ch, make another dc through the 1ch space between corners and then twist the hook back and do 3tr for the start of the next corner.  Again, instead of your 2ch make a dec into the corner of the hexagon you are joining to

Can you see where I am coming from? I do hope so, I really do - I promise you it is quite easy!!

Carry on with this technique and once you reach the end of where the hexagons touch carry on the rest of the round as normal.

I hope this is a bit clearer than mud!!

I hope you  have fun with this my lovely Blogettes and pleeeeaaase let me see the results so I know this tutorial has been worthwhile!!  I will try to do a tutorial on the half hexagon - but to be honest I will have to make one to remember how I did it - I think it was a bit "hit and miss"

I hope you all have a happy hooky weekend

Speak soon xx

Hello Blogettes!!

Hello dear Blogettes - do you mind if I call you Blogettes? I thought it was rather a sweet name.  I was at the computer the other evening doing something totally un bloggy when hubby passed by and asked " how are the blogettes?" and I thought this was rather sweet - a collective name for ladies who like to read and write blogs, sounds to me much more lady-like than bloggers!!

This week I have made a few squares for the SIBOL project and I have been preparing a tutorial on the Mini Hexagon Blanket join-as-you-go - I thought I had finished it but I am not happy with some of the pictures so you will have to wait another day or two, I find sitting down and writing a tutorial can be much more tricksy than you think!  I will do my best for you all!

On to the squares, 

 

Now the two squares with the flowers in the middle are Grandmas Garden Squares from a pattern I bought from Michelle at Loving the Vintage - a great blog and the other one is from the 201 Crochet Blocks book - it is in varigated yarn but doesn't show up too well.

I got this pattern from the SIBOL site I think, forgive me but I can't remember exactly where I got it, this has turned out a little tighter, even though blocked - hope the lovely Sue can still do something with it.

This final square is an experiment I made up using a kind of twisted shell, I think this is going to be called "Choppy Seas" square!! 

This week I have also got my sewing machine out and taken it apart and oiled, dusted and de-linted it (put it back together!) ready for making curtains for our recently decorated bedroom - still not finished but getting there!

And look at how my little seeds are growing

Do you know, I think this is favourite part of growing stuff - when the little shoots start to appear - magical!!

A warm welcome to new followers (Blogettes!) I hope you find something of interest on my blog - it is always lovely to hear from you all.

Signing off Kimbles and the Blogettes!

Speak soon xx

African Flower Mini Project Bag

Good Morning dear blogland friends, here in the UK has been a tad cold again this week, summer is proving stubborn and not wanting to make an early entrance - and I can't tell you hoooow much I am looking forward to the summer.  Escaping to blogland is so refreshing and I want to send you all these

to thank you for the lovely comments about my mini hexagon blanket, comments are really appreciated, its nice to have like-minded people check out your work! 

Some of you have asked about a tutorial for the mini hexagon blanket - I will try to post next week about assembling the blanket but basically you need to make loads of the mini hexagons - and the tutorial is in my side bar - I joined mine as you go, which is easy and if you don't know how to do this I will include that next week.  I was so excited to finish the blanket I haven't measured it or counted how many hexes are needed,  sorry - me being too eager, I will do that for you!!

Here are a some more pictures I have tried to get a closer view for you as requested

Lastly today, I want to show you what I decided to make with the African Flower Motifs. 

Its a little project bag,  its just big enough to keep some wool and hooks, scissors etc for little projects, so I can carry it around easily from room to room or away with me.  It kind of evolved in my mind as I went along and I must admit I really love it!  I added handles and threaded some strong carboard to make them firm (may look for something plastic which will last longer) and ta dah!, one mini project bag!.

Just big enough for my next stash of SIBOL squares to send to Sue!

I hope you all have a great weekend

Speak soon xx

Introducing - Mini Hexagon Blanket

Hello dear bloggies - how was your weekend?  Here in the UK the weather was in typical Bank Holiday style - cold and wet ugh!  I had wanted to spend most of the time in the garden but after dodging shower after shower, I gave up.  Did plant my seeds though

All ready to be tucked up and watered  - I gave them a talking to - you know - to make them grow!  We have beans, broad beans, tomatoes (large and small), cucumbers, and courgettes. To add to that will be some salad leaves, radishes, brussel sprouts and sweetcorn. I am telling you all of this now, not to boast at all, it is to remind myself later on in the summer when some have been eaten by caterpillars and some by aphids that I was full of hope for my tiny vegetable patch and I did try, really I did! 

One success of the weekend was finally finishing the Mini Hexagon blanket - I am rather excited about this because I made up the pattern in my own head (its probably been done before, but I hadn't seen it), visualised it, worked out how to do the half hexes (bit hit and miss) did a crab stitch edging and finally added the tassels and Ta Dah!!!!!!!!!

I wanted it to look like a traditional patchwork quilt - really pleased with the way it has turned out. 

Hope you like it - a really quick pattern to make and great to join as you go.

Now as I showed you previously, I have been making African Flower Motifs you can see some beautys on the lovely Elizabeth Cat's blog, she introduced us to this motif, but I have also been enticed by the Grandma Garden Cushion on The Royal Sisters.

Before I go, please check out the new blanket Sue has made for the SIBOL project, it is such a work of art - reminds me of 60's pop art - should be displayed at Tate Modern!!! 

Speak soon xx

African Flower Motif Love!

Happy Weekend to you all!  Here in the UK it is Bank Holiday weekend so we all get Monday off yipee!!  To tell you the truth, it couldn't have come at a better time.  Last week I was in London with hubby on an exhibition stand - and although enjoyable, it takes its toll on your legs and feet, plus the fact we were acutely aware that outside, summer arrived for a short while ..... and we were stuck inside!  I have to confess I didn't get round to any SIBOL squares, so hopefully some will be done this weekend, but I did discover the joys of the African Flower Motif, OOOHHH they are a joy to make! (Sorry I do sound so daft, all excited over a motif!)

This is me squashed behind the exhibition stand for a ten minute break! Its amazing how you can make your home in such a small space for a few days! I think this is quite a strange place to be crocheting - I think you should all post a picture of the weirdest place you have done crochet - could be a new Flickr group! 

Anyway back to the motif - this is how they turned out

I feel ridiculously happy with these! I don't even know what I am going to make with them yet - I just keep gazing at them - such eye candy!!!

I have been a good girl and sewn/crocheted all the ends in as I have gone along and sewn them together, unlike the mini hex blanket which has taken me aaaages to sew the ends in!  Big reveal moment for that blanket next week and I am very happy with it!

The end of the week after arriving back from London has still been frantic because we are in the process of having the windows replaced - so much banging and dust - so I had to escape - and a friend kindly invited me to go with her to a Decorative Living Fair - a very small version of Country Living Fair.

Off we went and had a smashing afternoon, it was all lovely vintage stuff, bunting, flowers and coffee and cakes, set in the garden of a lovely country house with  views across a valley

- my idea of a perfect afternoon and a nice way to end a busy week.

Speak soon xx