Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Crochet Shopping Bag



There are always things I should be doing, and personal projects that sneak their way into 
the mix... this one is the latter. A String Bag or Shopper or whatever you want to call it. I've 
seen images of this pattern floating around Pinterest for a while and managed to trace back 
to the pattern. If you want to have a go yourself, the pattern can be found here



For mine, I altered the pattern slightly. I used a 4 ply Panda crochet cotton in green, with a 
2mm crochet hook because I wanted it to be a bit tighter and stronger. Because of this and 
how it alters the gauge, I had to adjust the pattern by doubling all the stitch counts etc. In 
one part (the panel around the base plate) I thought it didn't look quite right so I trebled it... 
it's made it a bit baggy at the base but maybe that's a good thing because it'll hold more ;)




Anyway, this is it and I'm looking forward to taking it out on a test run when I do some 
grocery shopping this afternoon! Hope you have fun making yours :)

Friday, July 26, 2013

Artist Crush: Ari Athans









Ari is very well known in Brisbane for her breathtaking jewellery, but she is also an
amazing artist. Her most recent exhibition, Rockheads, is on from the 30th July till 17th 
August... I LOVE it! Have a peek online here, or if you're in Brisbane, you can see them 
in person here. This is not an ad - it's a true artist crush :)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Finished Pouf

It's probably a few months since I finished crocheting this pouf for my eldest daughter, but 
finally I've got back to it and made an insert. So, here we have it – a finished pouf :)







I'd say it's a mid-sized pouf, about 60cms in diameter and 18cms in height. It's made from 
3 spools of zpagetti... that's about 360 meters of recycled t-shirt fabric. I used the crochet 
pattern from Evelien's Etsy shop, and for the insert I just made it up as I went ;)



Hope you're having a great week :)

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

More Orbit printing in Neon Pink

There were some problems with my first printing experiments with my new design Orbit. 
So, I re-carved some parts to have a bit more clarity but it still wasn't right. Then, by chance, 
I decided to change the fabric I was working with... hey presto! What a difference that made, 
can you believe it? Yes, perhaps I am a tad naive but it was news to me ;) Anyway, here it 
is in (the label said) neon red, but it really looks more pink in real life...





It was so much easier to print and I've had a bit of fun with it by adding the neon yellow 
dots :) It's rather fun I think.



I decided to print up some Oasis in the pink too. Unbelievable that this is the same colour,
photographed at the same time AND on the same fabric, but there you have it...





And caught by the layering bug, I took a long ago prepared fat quarter of brayered chartreuse 
and added the Orbit pattern in grey...







So, loads of printing and experimenting going on here... what have you been up to?

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

(The last!) Creative Space: Orbit block

There's a new design that's been circling in my mind for a while. It's had a few incarnations 
to date, but I think it's now at a stage where I'm ready to show it... This is Orbit. *





It's a bit trickier than my usual block carvings... there were moments of frustration and painful 
slippages of the blade while trying to negotiate these sharp angles. It's not a 'perfect' carve 
but I like a bit of 'wonk'.



The Village Voices meme, My Creative Space, has come to an end. Created by the fabulous
Kirsty years and years ago on her blog Kootoyoo, she single-handedly facilitated the sharing 
of craft, the meeting of new friends, and the interaction of ideas. Thank you so much Kirsty!
You opened up the micro-world of Australian (and international) craft for me.

* Thanks to Enney for the name Orbit :)

Living in a Cloud :)

We're in the last week of school holidays here... time for jobs to be done. The first week or so 
was all about fun, like visiting Melbourne and my newest baby niece :) It was also about 
escaping to the mountains for pure rest. It's been quite overcast and rainy here, so we were 
shrouded in cloud at the mountains. It was so relaxing :)

This is the only shaft of sunlight we saw the whole time...



But mostly, it was like this... living in a cloud :)









On our way back we (finally!) stopped off at IKEA and I bought a height-adjustable table for 
screen printing - yah! I've been having terrible back problems from always leaning over 
regular tables to print fabric... do you get that too? I'm hoping this will make a big difference :)



No prizes for guessing where the idea came from :) 



Hope you're having fun holidays too!