What I’ve been up to
Good morning fellow hookers and craft enthusiasts!
I hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas and excited and enthusiastic about 2013.
May it be a crafty one for us all.
I for one am quite excited but also a bit terrified about this year. I’m busy organising stock for an online store which will be selling some of my creations, including the elephant string! I have done quite a bit of research and decided to stick with a South African company, but the store has international shipping too, so all of you who have been asking about the elephant string will be able to order in the not too distant future 🙂 YAY!
I will post the link once everything is ready.
Now, for my first post of 2013 I thought I’d show you what I was up to before Christmas and over the holiday period.
Being a crafter I decided two years ago that I would try to make most presents myself and so this year was no different.
It’s a bit tricky to come up with ideas for everyone, especially the men in the family, since most of them don’t wear scarves and/or hats, so I ended up making things only for the kids and the ladies.
For the kids I made these really cute owl hats, Eliana modeled them for me and I forgot to take a photo of the cousin wearing his on Christmas Eve. I love this hat, it’s really quick and easy to make and the cotton/bamboo blend yarn I used is really soft and squishy.
A month or so before Christmas I posted a link of owl shaped phone covers on facebook and my brother’s girlfriend commented on the link, saying how much she liked the cover, so I obviously had to make her one.
I used my go to Vinnis Colour cotton yarn and combined it with a lovely mohair to create some texture.
I had to make her pose with the cover, which she loved 🙂
For my sister, sister-in-law and closest friend I made cowls. I loved making these because it gave me the opportunity to try out some more stitches from Robyn Chachula’s book Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia.
For my sister’s cowl I used the Petal Link Stitch, adapting it to work in the round. This cowl is quite tight-fitting and can also be worn as a headband. It’s made with 100% bamboo yarn, which makes it soft and silky.
This cowl is 100% cotton and I really think I need to make one for myself, I love the stitch and I love the two-tone gray.Well, that’s all the handmade items, except for some stars which I made as part of the tags on the gifts.
The stars are also all from the same book.
I was asked to make an elephant string, my most popular item by far but this one had to have tutus and ballet slippers added. I was so excited to make these, and they turned out so nicely. I just love the frilly tutus and the cute little slippers. I will add these to the store too (and no, I am still not parting with the pattern.)
I have taken some photos with my DSLR and will post them as soon as I’ve processed them.I thought I’d share a bit of my holiday with you. There was quite a bit of eating on Christmas day. Apart from the starter, which varies from year to year (this year it was cucumber and melon salad with parma ham skewers- delicious!) we pretty much eat the same thing on Christmas day. A full on German Christmas lunch with a roast turkey, potato dumplings, red cabbage and gravy. We also had roast butternut squash and carrots this year (usually it’s peas and carrots) and for desert we have black forrest trifle and the Lindt Santa Claus made an appearance too.
Eliana and her cousin had a fun bath together on Christmas day.
There were plenty of homemade German Christmas cookies, courtesy of my mom, if you live in Gauteng, South Africa you can order them from her.
We flew down to Cape Town to visit my sister-in-law and her husband. Eliana slept through most of the flight, she’s a great traveller 🙂
We went to the Johannesburg zoo, which she loved! She cooked with Oma and we received a surprise Christmas present from one of my mom’s friends in Germany. Matching handmade socks. They are totally awesome :)!
Don’t forget to send me photos of your projects (especially if you’ve made one of my tutorials) and I’ll feature you on a future post.
You can email me stephanie@radiate.co.za, or if you’re on Instagram tag your photos #loveabagfullofcrochet and @stephaniedavies.
I love your snowflakes(stars). What book are they from?
I follow Snowcatcher’s blog and always print out her patterns. I have made 3D snowflakes also!! So much fun, so beautiful.
They are from Robyn Chachula’s book Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia. Did I not link to the book? I usually do when I use a stitch or motif from her book.
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