Keeping track when crocheting in the round...

There are many ways to keep track of your work and many notions available for this task but I have found that this way is by far the simplest when crocheting in the round.

Remember the tail? I normally keep a pretty long tail (around 15cm) when I cast on.

1. Just before the first stitch after the first round (set up round), I position the tail to the back of the work (not the side facing you). Crochet as normal.

2. Just before the first stitch of the next round, I flip the tail to front of the work (see the arrow closest to the centre). Continue to crochet as normal

* This is the marker for the beginning of the round *

3. Then continue to work the increase rounds until no more increase is required.

4. At the next round, just before the first stitch, I flip the tail over so it is now on the inside of the work (see the arrow near the edge).

5. Keep crocheting in the round until the next increase or decrease round.
 

In the example here, which is the body of an amigurumi (more to be revealed soon!), as I had to decrease evenly at different intervals, I just flipped the tail back and forth marking the start of the round. This makes it all easier to count the rounds crocheted as well.


When it is all finished, just snip the tail somewhere near the start of the work (circled in blue above), be careful not to cut the actual project! Reach inside, pull the tail through and just leave it sitting inside. All will be hidden once the body is stuffed!

Hope this makes sense! I am hoping to put more tutorials together in the coming months, might even try recording a short clip...

Stitch with Love...

Merriwa Festival of the Fleeces

We just came back from Merriwa! And what a wonderful trip we had!

Last year when a friend told me about an annual event in country NSW called Festival of the Fleeces, I was instantly intrigued! The idea of having 100 heads of red socks wearing sheep walking down the main street of a country town just tickled me silly.

Merriwa is about 4 hours north west of Sydney and the event is being held over this June long weekend - perfect! Hubby planned his work schedule ahead of time and I took an extra day off work so we could drive up on the Friday. We stayed at the Sandy Hollow Tourist Park and what a great find! More on that after the photos of Merriwa...

Main street of Merriwa at around 9:30am, people are just preping for the day!

Sheep dog demonstration and I had an overwhelming urge to call out "BAA RAM EWE" but that would just be silly!

It would be sacrilege not to have scones with jam and cream at the CWA (Country Women Association) morning tea now.... and they didn't disappoint - YUMMY!

Met Angus the sheep with this owner who would later be leading the 100 heads of sheep parade -  he was such a great sport treating everyone on the street! And check out his red socks!

Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of the actual sheep parade cause silly me pushed the wrong button when I thought I was recording the possession but I turned it off instead - DOH! Anyway, I can just see them lining up behind the men in white coats (don't really know who they were - hopefully not butchers...)

Riding club

The band - got to have the band!

Small dog jumping competition - that's really funny but I didn't stand close enough to get good pictures!

Met Gail from Pleasant View Fibres, a family owned business in Mount Pleasant (near Singleton NSW). They have Angora goats and coloured merino/ bond sheep. They process their own fibres on their property and they sell saw fleeces, hand dyed fibres and hand spun yarns. Gail was really friendly and helpful, she even invited us to email her if I have any questions at all... so I think a trip to Singleton is going on the calendar soon!

So Sandy Hollow - I am so glad we got to stay there! The hosts David and Chun are very friendly and knowledgeable. The 1 bedder cottage we stayed in is spacious, clean and modern with all the necessary amenities. It has beautiful views of Mount Dangar, part of the Goulburn River National Park, even on misty foggy days! There are plenty of nature walks around too.

They have a paddock that housed 3 girl sheep who are fully grown and very cute...

... or so I thought until we met Troy, the baby lamb. He is just epic cute! Troy has been adopted by David and Chun because his mum died so he stays with his adopted family at their main house and has his own patio. They are hand feeding him until he is big enough to join the ladies in the paddock.

Well, I had never been this close to a baby lamb before and naturally I was completely smitten. We were allowed to pat him, to feed him and wait for it... to walk him! Yep, I had a happy "SQUEAL" moment!

When Troy saw his human run, he picked up his pace and boy he can run!

Well I can go on and on but the internet seems to be cutting in and out and I really have to do something about dinner so I will wrap up here: We are definitely doing this trip again!

Next time, we will factor in some time to visit Tocal Homestead where they have the Back to Back Wool Challenge! Gail from the Pleasant View Fibres mentioned above was one of the spinners!

I did do some crocheting over the weekend and started to draft a post about one of my favourite techniques on keeping track of the number of rows when working in the round. Hopefully I will get that post up later on this week.

Stitch with Love xx

Sewing with laminated cottons - learning a new technique!

I tried something new recently! Not long ago a friend asked if I could make a giant baby bib for her little girl who was starting to eat solid food, ergo the extra mess...

After a little research I found the Bapron by Craftiness is not optional. I love how it is an apron for a baby (yeah clever name, right?) and of course isn't the little model on the front of the pattern just so adorable! Anyway I promptly purchased the pattern and then I realised that I would need to work out how to sew with laminated cottons and bias tape.

It turned out that both were not as hard as I first thought! I think the joy of choosing from the huge range of laminated fabrics far out weighted any tricky sewing techniques...

Anyway the pattern is really well written, whilst I didn't make my own bias tape, her instructions are very clear there too.

I made the 6-18 months size which I think it is a little big on baby Olivia but this also means that it will last her for a little while. I have it on good authority that she loves it... Honestly seeing her happy smiley face is enough to make my day! Thanks to Olivia's mum and dad for allowing me to use these pics!

Sewing with laminated/ sticky fabrics can be tricky so Pinterest was my first stop (naturally!) and I found these great links (just to name a few):
http://pinterest.com/pin/19069998395000931/
http://pinterest.com/pin/19069998394838547/
http://pinterest.com/pin/19069998394842907/
http://pinterest.com/pin/19069998394843239/
http://pinterest.com/pin/19069998394843245/

And here are some progress pics:

I don't own any clips other websites suggest you use but I have loads of paperclips in all shapes and sizes. I did have to watch out to make sure they aren't too sharp and luckily most are fine.

I used the normal foot rather than a brand new walking foot I bought recently. I was too impatient to learn and wanted to get started on the sewing so I tried on a piece of scrap and all worked nicely! I will forever use the walking foot next time as I heard that will make things easier too.

What else did I learn? Sewing with bias tapes is fiddly and I really need to watch my seam allowance!

Other than that, will I make more baby aprons? For sure, maybe a bigger size next time to see how it will fit a toddler... they do painting and other stuff right? Although I would love to make some little pouches using the other cool laminated cotton I bought recently... Surely no one can expect me to just have bought enough for one project?!

Until then... stitch with love!

Odie the Blue Bunny - 15 months on...

Thought I would do a "where are they now" on Odie the Blue Bunny amigurumi pattern I published in February 2012...

Odie was my first ever self-published pattern and I am surprised and excited to see the amount of hits he got. I put him on Craftsy and Ravelry, two of the most popular yarn crafting online communities there is.

So 15 months on, here are the stats! 534 downloads from my Craftsy pattern store and 4 projects queued on Ravelry!

These two websites are huge so I definitely didn't expect more than a hand full of hits let alone this type of numbers! I would however like to get some feedback on the pattern as I haven't gotten any yet. So that is my next task/ quest - to connect with people who have made an Odie somewhere in the world...

In the meantime, I am happy to have been able to share something that has brought me so much joy :)

Stitch with Love!

PS - I am pleased to report that the original Odie the Blue Bunny is living happily with a little boy, getting lots of cuddles and sloppy kisses!

Where did May go?

Can someone tell me where has the month of May gone? I mean I can account for every day, I didn't lose time, that I knew of, but how can a whole month flew by without one single blog post being written?

I did stuff, lots of it! Since we are still in May, I figured I haven't lost it completely!  Here is a quick recap:

A relaxing weekend at a friend's place by the beach and hung out with a thieving kookaburra! This sneaky kookaburra managed to snatch a sausage from my friend's hand! This photo was taken before the "incident"!

Then I had my birthday... yep still in the 30s, just... but let's not dwell on that! Hung out with my two favourites by day and dinner out with my beloved by night - so blessed!

 

Then we had my sister in law and our nephew visited the following weekend. We went to the Million Paws Walk on the Sunday too!

 

And the weekend just gone? We caught up with friends, did things around the house and a visit to the Fabric-a-brac market in Newtown! I am so glad to have visited, great variety, the people were so nice and I just loved the community feel. There is something fun and exciting about digging in someone's sewing box and finding treasures like vintage embroidery threads!

 

These are just snippets of what I have been up to. I haven't done as much crafting as I would like but I am working on a couple of projects/ custom designs... more on them soon!!

Stitch with love xx