A new curtain for my craft's room in the making

 

Hello All,

It has been so long since my last post and nope I didn't finish my circles of the sun cushion which you can read about here. Again everyone was seriously ill these last couple of months including me :( I spent like 10 days in bed suffering from a very nasty flu, my daughter suffered from it for 3 weeks; and a close member of my family was in and out of the hospital these last two months. So it has been a hectic time for everyone.

But now I am back and I have decided to crochet a curtain for my craft room, just to brighten it up a notch :D And my favorite colours at the moment are bright rainbow ones :)

I am using Alize Diva baby yarn (which is a Turkish brand) and a 1.4 mm hook. I am using the pattern found in the pictured magazine above. The magazine is in Italian and I don't understand a word of the written pattern but I was able to follow the chart quite well. Actually, I am crocheting that flower in the cover but I changed the last round a bit because I liked it my way better :)

I am going to link them with black yarn but I didn't figure out how yet. And look at all those end tails that I have to weave in!!! I crocheted 8 flowers of each colour and I will start linking them this week and check the exact number I need to finish off my curtain. 

Hopefully, I will finish it by now next month, just right before my birthday. Not sure if I can gift it to myself but I will do so anyway...

I promise I will keep you updated.

Happy hooking everyone,
Salma 
 

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