Made Marian: Oozing Crafty Goodness

Hat-trick

Marian — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:31:48 +0000

Another two of these hats, slightly different look this time. The first one is done in Debbie Bliss Pure cotton in various colours. The second one uses some of the same yarn but I’ve also used some other types of yarn including Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. Hats like this are a great way to make the best use of any small balls of yarn you might have left over from other projects, the different textures of yarn worked really well together so don’t be afraid to try mixing them for small things like this.

Fringe Benefits

Marian — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:01:47 +0000

I promise that after Christmas I’ll try to do a pattern that’s not from The Bible, but in the meantime here’s another one. This is the Self Fringing scarf and it’s so simple to do (pretty much just all single crochets). The best thing about it is that there is no tidying up to do at the end, I hate weaving in the ends of the yarn so this is the perfect scarf if you’re like me. I’ve actually done three of these so they’ll be appearing under a number of trees in the extended Made Marian family this year.

The only problem with the Debbie Stoller book is that much of the yarn is not widely available in Ireland, luckily I have always had excellent advice on substitutes from Lisa at This is Knit. But on this occasion, I loved the look of the scarf in the pattern so much that I sourced the yarn from Paradise Fibres in the States. It turned out lovely if I may say so myself.

Autumnal Highlights

Marian — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:07:05 +0000

I picked up this Rowan Country Wool in Lena’s in Limerick a while back not entirely sure what I was going to do with it. As it turns out it’s now a scarf for someone’s Christmas stocking. I love the colours and the thickness of the wool, it makes me wish I could wear wool

I started off by chaining 17.

Row 1) Double Crochet (DC) into the 3rd chain from the hook and DC across (14 DC)

Row 2) - ? Chain 3, turn and DC across

Basically keep going until the scarf is long enough or you run out of yarn.

Gift Hamper Time

Marian — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:04:49 +0000

We’ve decided to give hampers as gifts to some lucky people this year. I’m in the process of making them up at the moment and will post pictures as soon as they are ready. But if you are like me then you like to get a head start on these things, so I said I’d post a list of my chosen suppliers for the hamper goodies.

The hampers will contain things from the following list:

Wine from Olio and Farina
Wine from The Wine Buff
Spice Mix from Spicendipity
Olives from Olio and Farina
Stuffed Peppers from Olio and Farina
Ginger Girl’s Cranberry Chutney
Ginger Girl’s Seville Marmalade
Chocolates by Lorge
Red Onion Relish by Bellish Ltd (087 9477669 - available in the Milk Market in Limerick on Saturday)
Seaweed cheese by Maja of Dingle Peninsula Cheese (available from the WIld Side in the Milk Market)
Crackers of some sort for the cheese/relish

I’ve bought some baskets in Dunnes and some nice festive Ribbon to decorate them, photos as I said above to follow. Margaret has been giving hampers for years and they are always well received, she does one better than me though, she makes a lot of what she puts into the hampers. I am way too busy making yarn related products to make food as well but if you’re so inclined it is a great gift to give.

Baby, it’s cold outside…

Marian — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:53:27 +0000

Yes it’s that time of year again, and it’s the perfect season for all things crafty too. As I mentioned previously I’ve taken the pledge to hand make most of my Christmas gifts this year but it’s a great time to get crafty with your decorations and table settings too. On the recommendation of my friend and blogger on sabbatical, Mary T , I bought this book. Creating your Perfect Christmas has some brilliant ideas for advent calendars, Christmas Stockings, table centrepieces, ornaments, gift wrapping and loads more. I got my copy in O’ Mahony’s in Limerick for €6.50. I am also taking the pledge to blog more frequently over the next few weeks, I have made fantastic progress in the handmade presents but I need to photograph them and blog them. I’ll be doing some gift wrapping suggestions too and I’ll post some links to places where you might get your hands on some handmade presents of your own. Until then, happy weekend everyone.

Hats Off

Marian — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:45:23 +0000

I really need to buy another crochet pattern book, before I have to rename my blog “The Debbie Stoller Appreciation Blog”. Anyway, in the meantime, here’s another one from the Bible. This time it’s the Boy Beanie. The yarn for the first one was donated from Lou’s stash a while back and I, er, forgot to return it! The yarn for the second one is a Tivoli acrylic. The pattern was for a grown-up hat and I earmarked this pattern for some smaller people. I made some huge mistake when I was trying to size it down I know that the smallest one is way too small for any of the smallies in my life, but I’m pretty sure that the grey one will fit one of them.

These were very quick and easy to do, I did them in one evening each, so if you’re looking for a possible christmas present for someone this is a great option.

Scary Stuff

Marian — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:31:16 +0000

Halloween is just around the corner and in an effort to put the crochet hook down for a while I decided to do some themed cross stitch. I found the pattern in a craft magazine and once that was done I just dressed it up a bit.

I got some orange card stock and cut out a window big enough to see the pumpkin through. I then attached the cross stitch onto the back of the window. The orange was then attached to some black card cut to size, to give the effect of a frame. I picked up the little black bats in my local stationary shop and just stuck them on to add to the seasonal theme.

I have this in a frame as a Halloween decoration but it would make a lovely greeting card if you attached the orange paper to a black blank card.

Happy Halloween.

Homepages

Marian — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:37:11 +0000

Catherine is organising a blogger charity book for the Christmas market. The book will be called Homepages and will consist of submissions from Irish Bloggers. The proceeds are going to Focus Ireland. I submitted a craft project to the book. I wanted to do something that would be easy and would fit into the theme of the book so I chose a handmade Christmas card as they come in the letterboxes of every-one’s home at Christmas. Here’s the finished product.

If you want to know how to make it, you’ll have to get your hands on the book when it comes out. Keep an eye on the book blog for updates. Huge thanks to Catherine for getting this together, it’s an amazing idea and I can’t wait to see it.

Snake Pit

Marian — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:41:25 +0000

My latest commission was this snake scarf. It was “inspired by” this one. The scarf is for Lette and/or Keith. I started of by chaining 5 and continued as follows:

Row 1) SC (single crochet) into the second chain from the hook and the SC across (4 SC)

Row 2) Increase by 2 stitches by doing 2 SC into the first stitch and the last (6 SC)

Row 3) Chain 1, turn, 1 SC into each stitch (6 SC)

Row 4) Same as Row 2 (8 SC)

Row 5) Same as Row 3 (8 SC)

Row 6 - 17 Repeat pattern above until you have 20 stitches across

Row 18 - 20) Chain 1, turn, SC across (20 SC)

Row 21) Chain 1, turn, decrease by SC2tog at the start and SC2tog at the end (18 SC)

Row 22) Chain 1, turn, SC across (18 SC)

Row 23 - 24) repeat row 21 and 22 (16 SC)

Row 25 - ? Chain 1, turn, SC across (16 SC)

Basically keep going until the scarf is long enough then start to decrease again in the same way as Row 21 and 22 until you have to cast off.

The tongue was added on after - I joined the red yarn by Slip Stitching into the 4 original stitches in Row 1, so I had 4 red stitches, then chain 1 and turn, SC2tog, SC2tog so that there are only two stitches left, then SC2tog those two so that you are only left with 1 stitch, then I chained a few until the tongue was long enough. Cast off and leave a tail of about 1 inch. Separate the strands of the yarn so that the tongue looks as of it was two prongs.

The eyes are just buttons sewed on. I used 4 buttons as I wanted to have eyes on both sides.

If anyone tries this, can you please let me know how you get on, my pattern writing skills are extremely basic as you can see.

Getting Ready for Winter

Marian — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:41:48 +0000

Given that the weather has taken a turn for the worse this is a very appropriate time to post about my new hat! This hat is adapted from a pattern in the Bible. The flower on the side is a hand made brooch, same pattern as this one, but I added a pretty yellow button in the centre. I hadn’t intended it to be for the hat but when I saw it finished I new it would look good on it.

I have a new found respct for wardrobe bloggers as I only just discovered how hard it is to take pictures of your own head!