Circles of the Sun by Lilla Bjorn

Dear all,

I am thrilled to announce that I got my mojo back  :)

And here is the project I was telling you about that made me plunge back into crochet after that sad period I suffered from.

It is the circles of the sun cal (crochet along) by Tatsiana from Lilla Bjorn crochet. You can read all about it in her blog Lilla Bjorn Crochet This link will take you straight to the general information page and if you scroll down a bit you will find the links for all the tutorials. It is a fantastic design in overlay crochet and Tatsiana did a marvelous job planning, designing, and organizing this CAL. It needs a bit of skill if you are not familiar with overlay crochet but I have to say that she wrote the pattern in such a way that makes it so easy; and there are pictures to make it more comprehendible :)

I used Alize cotton cold which is a mixture of cotton and acrylic, and a 4.00 mm hook. The end result came a little big bigger but I am so happy with it :) I joined my blocks with the right sides facing and crocheting in both loops. I changed the border as well, did the one in the below the picture. I found a chart of it while searching google. 

All I have to do now is buy some fabric to make my cushion - I am laying it here over my sofa's cushion. Still figuring out how I am going to do it but I know that I am buying some upholstery fabric to make it more durable as well as washable.

Mmm, and I really need to paint my walls into a bright colour!!!!

So stay tuned and go take a look at Tatsiana's blog, she has some amazing designs going on there both free and paid.

Till then, happy hooking everyone,
Salma

Being Away, Being Back, and Being Sad

Dear All,

I have been away for so long; which is so frustrating for me by the way. Sadly, I went into a very bad mood due to everyone getting ill in my family-including me :(

I went into a phase where I did not want to do anything actually. I felt so drained feeling that everything is going wrong at the moment and I needed a break for a while. It was so hard for me because I had to be away from my blog at a time where I am trying so hard to keep it up and running.

And even though I was away from my blog I was not away from crochet.  I have been crocheting things for my daughter, wedding gifts, and finishing most of my works in progress. But then a couple of weeks ago I lost my enthusiasm entirely and didn't want to crochet at all.

So I tried to find a nice project to ease myself back to crochet once more. I was so glad to find one which I started yesterday and I am so happy with the outcome. 

But that cheerful news desreves a post on its own.

So stay tuned everyone and stay cheerful :)

Salma

The reason I was away

Hello everyone again,

Here I am after almost a two months disappearance. I apologize for being away for that long but I do have a very valid reason for such a disappearance. My daughter were very sick for quite some time now and she kept getting one infection after the other along with high fevers, well the whole illness package.We found out that she is suffering from a case of rhinitis and that her tonsils must be surgically removed. She had the surgery last week and she is recovering as well as can be expected thank God :)

So, on to finish writing up the pattern for my Rainbow blossom motif which had to wait of course. I still have a few pages to type on my computer. Hopefully, I will do it this week and then I will send it to my tester.

Well, it is 1 am here and I need my beauty sleep :)

Good night all and Good afternoon to those in the other part of the world :D

Salma

Hello Everyone,

It is with a sad heart that I return to my blog. Marinke (aka Wink) from A creative being has been taken from us last week due to a sever depression. A great loss to the crochet community!

She was a very creative person whom I did not have the pleasure to know personally. Nevertheless, I was an avid visitor to her website following all of her lovely creations. She begun to crochet in order to heal from depression and created along the way some of the most beautiful mandalas I have ever seen on the web. Unfortunately, it was depression that claimed her in the end.

There has been a worldwide call to dedicate mandalas for Wink using the hashtag #mandalasforwink on all social media. So, regardless of your religion please pay tribute to Wink and help to raise awareness when it comes to depression. It is an illness like any other illness and can claim anyone's life.

Be safe everyone,
Salma



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Rainbow Blossom - Writing down the pattern

Hello everyone,

Been quite for a bit as I am writing down the pattern. Can I just say that I didn't expect it to take that long. I have 12 rounds to write and I filled up 6 pages already with detailed instructions :D

I started last Friday at my parents' place while visiting them and manged to concentrate with all the fuss my little girl was doing with the help of my earphones listening to music :) 

 And a couple of days ago I manged to sit down and write a lot more. I had some rough time trying to explain certain rounds as there are some rounds that are being worked in two previous rounds at the same time, bit tricky to explain and I do hope that when I send out my patterns to testers they will not get back to me and say it is poorly explained :) 

The first picture is taken at my parents' and the second one is at my place, did you notice that me and my mom has very similar table covers. She bought hers from Syria some 30 something years ago and bought me some when I was born so that makes mine 35 years old... Yep I am not that young : D

Anyways, I am going to continue writing the pattern today but I don't think I will manage to finish it because my kiddo has a gymnastic practice after coming form daycare and as you can see from the pictures I do write them down in paper and not on my laptop directly. I don't know why I do this but it makes me feel more close to the process; all the writing and erasing and rewriting make it more personal to me rather than typing it and hit the backspace button enormous times :D 

So, as you can imagine that after I am done I have to write the whole thing in a word document but hopefully that will not take long. I expect that by the end of next week I will send the pattern to my testers and then we all have to wait for them to crochet it and send me feed back so that I can upload it for everyone.

Well, off I go to my pattern. 

PS: Why don't you like my facebook page so you don't miss any blog posts :) 

Happy hooking everyone,

Salma

 

Deramores Craft Blog Competition 2015

Hello everyone,

It is the first week of May and as promised here is my big announcement. This post is my submission to the Deramores Craft Blog Competition 2015. Deramores is the UK’s number one online retailer of knitting and crochet supplies. Visit www.deramores.com for more details.

I found about the competition totally by accident early last April while I was surfing Dedri Uys blog Look at what I made. Naturally, I was curious enough to go to Deramores website to check it out. After much deliberation I decided to go with Dedri's trend for the year which is Large Motifs. You can read all about it here.

So, I got my double knit yarn out of the box, choose my rainbow colours, grabbed  my 4 mm hook and sat down on my sofa to crochet :) I have to admit that when I decide to design something I do not sit down and draw what I have in mind and take off from there - although I think I will start doing just that in the near future. What I did with my Rainbow Blossom is that I transferred my idea to the yarn while I was working.

The process contained a lot of frogging and redoing especially when it was time to square off my circle. For me that was the biggest challenge as I never designed something square before let alone something as huge as this. This is why I am very proud of my design which came out to be 46 cms/18 inches.

I was so engrossed on making my square that I forgot to take pictures :( So, I am going to crochet another one pretty soon and write down the pattern properly -I have it in scribbles at the moment in scattered papers :D I might be adventurous enough to do a photo tutorial as well. Then, I will turn my squares into two colourful cushions to adorn my craft room :)

I really hope that I can win this competition, but whatever the outcome is I know that I will not have any regrets as I came up with a design that I will cherish for all times.

Till then everyone,
Salma

Henda's Potholders

Hello everyone to my very first photo tutorial. I am so excited about this :) Please forgive me for my poor talent in photography. I tried to do my best. So, allow me to introduce to you my new pattren, Henda's potholders :D I named it after my mom after all. You can read all about it here.

Size:
Around 15.5 cms/6 inches from one side to the other.

Materials:
Yarn: the yarn I used is a Turkish brand called Madame Tricote Camilla 6/4, or any cotton yarn you feel comfortable working with.
Hook: I used a 2.5 mm steel hook.

  

Terminology Used:

Terminology used is UK.

UK	US
Extended Double crochet	Extended Single crochet
Half treble	Half double
Treble	Double
Double treble	Treble

 
Stitch Abbreviations:

Sl st	Slip stitch
ch	Chain
htr	Half treble
Extended dc	Extended double crochet
tr	Treble
dtr	Double treble

 

Special Stitches:

Cluster: We will be working clusters of 3 double trebles in our pattern. A cluster is a group of stitches that are joined together at the top but worked in subsequent stitches. So work each of your 3 double trebles in subsequent stitches, leaving the last loop of each of the double trebles in your hook. After doing the third double treble pull a loop through all loops. You should have four loops in your hook before joining them to form the cluster.

The beginning cluster in Round 5 will consist of 4 chains and two double trebles or you can do a standing double treble instead of the chain 4. 

See the picture in round 5. You can also search youtube for video tutorials on clusters.

Pattern:

If you wish to work in a solid colour, then don't fasten off your yarn after each round and keep working in a circle.

Start with chain 4 and sl st in 1st chain, or do a magic ring. There is a great video tutorial of how to do a magic ring again on Moogly which you can find here.

Round 1: Chain 3 or do a standing tr, 11 trs in the ring, sl st in top of the beginning of ch-3 and fasten off. {12 trebles}

 Round 2: Attach your new colour between any 2 trs. Chain 3 or do a standing tr, 1 more tr in the same space, ch-1,  2 trs in the same space, * work 2 trs in between the following 2 trs from round 1, ch-1, 2 trs in the same space,* repeat from * to *, sl st in 1st tr. Fasten off. { A group of 11 petals consisting of 2 trs,ch-1, 2 trs}

Round 3: Attach your new colour in any ch-1 space. Ch 3 or do a standing tr, work 4 trs in the same ch-1 space, work 5 trs in each of the following ch-1 spaces, sl st in 1st tr. Fasten off. {11x5 trs}

 Round 4: Attach your new colour in any tr from the previous round. Work 1 tr all around, sl st in 1st tr and fasten off. {55 trs}

Round 5: Attach your new colour in any tr, work your 1st cluster of dtrs (check special stitches), ch-4, skip 1 stitch, * work a cluster of 3 dtrs in the following 3 stitches, ch-4, skip 1 stitch, * repeat from * to *, sl st in 1st cluster, Fasten off. { 14 clusters}

After this round your circle will not lay flat as shown here in the picture. Don't worry about it once you work round 6 it will flatten out.

 Round 6: Attach your new colour in any ch-4 space, ch-3 or do a standing tr, work 3 trs, ch-2, 4 trs in the same ch-4 space, work 4 trs, ch-2, 4 trs in each of  the following ch-4 spaces. Sl st in 1st tr. Fasten off. {14x4 trs, ch-2, 4 trs combination}

Round 7: Attach your new yarn in the 1st tr of any combination from round 6, chian 1, 1 extended dc, 3 extended dcs in the following 3 stitches, 2 htrs in the following ch-2 space, 4 extended dcs in the following 4 trs, * 4 extended dcs in the next 4 trs, 2 htrs in the ch-2 space, 4 extended dcs in the following 4 trs,* repeat from * to *, sl st in 1st extended dc.
Fasten off.

To finish off my potholder, I crocheted a circle of 8 rounds to act as the back of my potholder and crocheted them together using extended dcs. I had to skip a few dcs from round 7 so I can crocheted them together.

Hope you have enjoyed my first photo tutorial :)

Copyright Notice: You have permission to sell your finished product. Please give me credit for creating the design by providing a link to my blog http://memysofaandmycrochethook.blogspot.com/2015/04/hendas-potholders.html

You have permission to share this patter providing that you either share it from my blog (above link) or from my Raverly page  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hendas-potholders

You are NOT allowed to rewrite, resell, distribute, or copy this pattern in any way.

Happy Hooking everyone :)
Salma

And I Am Back :D

Hello Everyone,

It has been two months now since my last blog and I totally apologize for that. I were faced up with a little health issue that left me a little bit under the weather and a little bit tired to do anything. I didn't of course stop crocheting - I actually had a lot of things going on - but I just didn't have the stamina to organize my written patterns, take photos, and publish them.

The first thing I am going to publish of course is my pattern for my mom's potholders. Right before that health problem I managed to take loads of pictures to do a photo tutorial, and that is what I will be working on over the weekend. Still needs to find a name for my pattern ( I might name it after my mom after all ) and do some editing on the pictures.Hopefully, I will be able to publish it by the middle of next week.

I am also working on something huge and I am praying that I will be able to finish it off before the end of the month. I will be blogging about it during the first week of May, God willing. I have shown it to my husband and my best friend and they loved it, so hopefully you will too :) Just to give you a hint it is a huge square that will end up measuring around 50 cms/ 20 inches.

So stay tuned everyone,
Till then, happy hooking to all :)

Salma

My mom's new potholders

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I posted here :( Had some things going on with family and stuff, which leads me to present you with my new design :D

My mom's birthday is tomorrow and I were thinking about what to give her as a present and it came to my mind that she needs some new potholders. Hers were a bit old and made out of fabric. She asked me to crochet some for her a couple of weeks ago and even offered to pay for them. So, I thought to myself that I will surprise her with them in her birthday!

We celebrated it earlier today and I let  my daughter present her with our humble gift and she was thrilled with it if I may say so :) She even helped me with taking the pictures and gave me that tablecloth which I used in them. My dad gave it to her many years ago, he bought it from an Arab country - from Libya as far as she recalls! I have to admit that I am so happy she handed it down to me, for now I have something to use as a prop while taking my pictures :)

The pattern is so simple but I yet have to write it down, find a proper name for it, edit the rest of my pictures and blog about it. Probably I will do so by the end of this week.

So till then,
Happy hooking everyone,
Salma

Star-like Flowery Coasters Pattern

Size:

Around 10 cms/4 inches from one side to the other.

Materials:

Yarn: Alize Bahar Batik (sport weight) 100% Mercerized Cotton.

Hook: 3 mm steel hook.

The yarn I used is a Turkish brand. You can use any sport weight  yarn you love working with.

Terminology Used:

Terminology used is UK.

UK	US
Double crochet	Single crochet
Half treble	Half double
Treble	Double

 Stitch Abbreviations:

Sl st	Slip stitch
ch	Chain
tr	Treble
dc	Double crochet
htr	Half treble

Special Stitches:

Bobble: A bobble stitch is a group of trebles that are joined together at both top and bottom.  We are doing groups of 3 and 5 trebles to form our bobbles.

How to do your Bobble? This is for a 3 trs bobble. For the 5 trs bobble follow the explanation but do the number of repetition required that is mentioned in the parenthesis.

Wrap the yarn around the hook, insert the hook in the required stitch, pull a loop through, wrap the yarn around the hook and pull through the first two loops, leaving one loop on your hook, repeat 2 (4) more times in the same stitch. Then wrap the yarn around the hook and pull through all loops closing your bobble.

Note that at beginning of the rounds your chain 3 counts as your 1st treble. So you will start your bobble from “repeat 2 (4) more times…” till the end.

Note:

o   Chain 3 counts as your 1st treble, or you can start with a standing treble. Tamara from Moogly does explain in it in a very easy way. Find the tutorial of how to do it Here

 Pattern:

Start with a chain 3 and sl st in 1st chain, or do a magic ring. There is a great video tutorial of how to do a magic ring again on Moogly which you can find here.

Round 1: Chain 3, 7 trs in the ring, sl st in the top of the beginning of ch-3. {8 trebles}

Round 2: Your bobble in this round will be the group of 3 trs.

(Check Special Stitches)

Sl st between the 1st and 2nd trs, chain 3, 1 bobble in same stitch as ch-3 (since it counts as your 1st treble), ch 1, * 1 bobble in the following space between trs, ch 1,* repeat from * to * 6 more times, sl st in 1st bobble. {8 bobbles/8 ch-1 spaces}

Round 3: Your bobble in this round will be the group of 5 trs.

(Check Special Stitches)

Sl st in any ch-1 space, chain 3, 1 bobble in same stitch as ch-3 (since it counts as your 1st treble), ch 3, * 1 bobble in the following ch-1 space, ch 3,* repeat from * to * 6 more times, sl st in 1st bobble. {8 bobbles/8 ch-3 spaces}

Round 4: Sl st in any ch-3 space, chain 3, 3 more trs in this same space, ch 2, * 4 trs in the following ch-3 space, ch 2,* repeat from * to * 6 more times, sl st in the top of the beginning of ch-3. {32 trebles/8 ch-2 spaces}

Round 5: Sl st in the 1st tr of any 4 trs group, chain 3, 1 tr in each of the following 3 trs, ch 4, * 1 tr in each of the following 4 trs, ch 4,* repeat form * to * 6 more times, sl st in the top of the beginning of ch-3. {32 trebles/8 ch-4 spaces}

Round 6: Sl st in any ch-4 space, to make your 1st petal chain 1, 1 dc - 1 htr - 3 trs – 1 htr – 1 dc, repeat the previous petal combination in each of the following ch-4 spaces (without the ch-1 step) till the end of the round making a ch 4 after each petal, sl st in the 1st dc. {8 petals/8 ch-4 spaces}

Copyright Notice: You have permission to sell your finished product. Please give me credit for creating the design by providing a link to my blog http://memysofaandmycrochethook.blogspot.com/2015/01/star-like-flowery-coasters-pattern.html . 

You have permission to share this patter providing that you either share it from my blog (above link) or from my Raverly page http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/star-like-flowery-coasters.

You are NOT allowed to rewrite, resell, distribute, or copy this pattern in any way. 

If you would like to know the story behind these coasters read about it here

Happy hooking everyone :D 

Salma