crochet doily Archives - Zeens and Roger

Small things and Fun things.

February 18, 2016crafty, crochet, flowers, sewing18 Comments

It’s half term, so it’s all a rush. Without too much gubbins I’ll share what I’ve been up to over the last few week.

Husband got a Valentine’s card, my Mum got a birthday card. Both quick, easy and fun to do yet very effective, I think. Inspired by The Messy Brunette and her post about Valentines.

I made a couple of doilies with the cheap Drops cotton I bought. Cheap for a reason. VERY splitty. But I wasn’t expecting it to be amazing at 80p a ball.

The first one is the better of the two but neither are great. Not dainty in the slightest and I think they’ll just get hidden away rather than used. I found a diagram pattern on pinterest that I used. And I only went and blocked something!! I usually try to avoid it but here, there was no escaping it this time.

I completed my hyacinth embroidery. I can’t find the time to do anything with the flowery embroidery things I’ve been doing. Maybe next week.

Crocheting instead of perservering with my knitting. I love crochet.

Buying cotton. I can go through so much embroidery thread. Hopefully this is the answer. Bought from Ebay for less than £25! 50 flippin balls!

It wasn’t in any kind of colour order so I’ve been playing with the way they live together.

I’m more excited than I should be about some cotton.

Look at the beautious bounty of awesomeness!

It was bought with Christmas money, I still got a mild telling off for buying more craft crap. It has nowhere to go.

The things I made in December

January 4, 2016January 7, 2016amigurumi, crochet, sewing32 Comments

Better late than never, here is the Christmas stuff I made. Not all of it, I didn’t take pictures of it all. These are the things I thought I should record as they’re all firsts.

This fella was finished on Christmas Eve. I spent a long time on him, mostly in little bursts because like an old lady, I couldn’t work with the black yarn in the dark. And it was always dark in December.

Many hours later…. I think I did an acceptable job.

Little toddler fingers had smudged the camera lense and I didn’t notice until much later.

I followed Elisabeth Doherty’s pattern from her Amigurumi book. The pattern is for a fawn which is surrounded by other ami patterns (although I don’t fancy making a crochet burger really). However, I know that the fawn pattern can be bought on its own on Etsy and maybe Ravelry as a pdf. I’m sure it was last time I looked.

The back legs twisted too much so that the knees are wrongly placed, I didn’t say anything and I don’t think the recipient will notice. She’s only two.

I made a little crochet cardi. Super speedy it was. The pattern is from Simply Crochet Magazine, issue 32. I was very good and bought the recommended wool, Drops Nepal. I chose slightly different colours but mostly I stuck to the recipe.

I had pink leftover so instead of a ribbon tie, I made a crochet one. It might be a bit bulky though, which is probably the reason why the pattern goes for ribbon.

Not sure what to do with the leftovers, only a small amount of the yoke colours are needed. Ohh, pompoms?!

Nanna and Grandad got a doily for Christmas. I used DMC Natura Just Cotton in Dk. The pattern is from Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts: Lacy Crochet. I didn’t do a particularly neat job of blocking it as I ran out of ironing board. My Nanna was pleased as she said it can replace the doily her mother had made her (it is falling apart). I don’t know how old that one is but she told me that her mother died in 1976.

And here is Coraline.Quite a big doll. Whilst not perfect, I am proud of her as I made her up totally from my head. All of it. Including the pattern for the coat, which only bloody well fit first time! Dead pleased. But not completely over the moon. I want to make her again to sort all the tweaks that are required. Her head and neck shape is wrong, which in turn has ballsed up her face. And I was afraid to press her clothes incase the felt melted. Neatness has been sacrificed.

She also needed an emergency operation on her ears because they were dreadful. I so know what I’d do to make them better but I ran out of fabric and time.

They are supposed to poke through her hair and that, they do

It is a huge relief to have ticked these things off my list. I have a perkier list for January, which pretty much includes making stuff solely for me!

One completed doily

May 28, 2015crochet, flowers, garden1 Comment

I took this photo yesterday morning around 6.30. It looked lovely in the garden. It was a bit cold but that didn’t stop two children barging past bare foot, in their pyjamas.

I finished my doily. I got around to blocking it so that it looks neat and tidy. If I make this pattern again, I’ll add an extra round of single crochet in the main colour before embarking on the final two rounds of contrast colour. I think it would look neater this way.

Now I just need to work out what to do with it. Where should I put it? Not got a clue! I’ve put it in various places but can’t work out what looks good. Maybe I’m not a doily person after all. It just looks daft. I’d better make another one, just to be sure.

This was the blocking process; pinning it out on a piece of cardboard covered in a tea towel. I also put clingfilm round it to hold the tea towel in place. It got a light spraying of warm water and I left it until it was dry. The cardboard wasn’t that thick so I did manage to poke my legs with pins quite a few times.

The garden looks good at the moment. I keep going out to take photographs but not quite achieving what I want. Mind you, I don’t think I will, not without learning how to use the camera properly. I need to locate the instruction manual and become less of a “point n click” person.

There is speedwell growing in my herb bed, it decided to move in last year. It’s a good looking weed though so I don’t mind it being there. It’ll soon be overcome by the alarming amount of self seeded borage that’s started to show.

I’m working on two crochet projects at the moment and a couple of sewing projects. It’s half term week though, so I’m not able to do as much as normal.

I’m making a crochet doily

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015crochet1 Comment

I bought new yarn with some birthday money. Usually I use double knit or thicker so this is a new thing as it’s much finer. I got it up the road at the garden centre! It’s DMC Natura cotton. There were a lot of colours to choose from but I narrowed it down to my favourites. I bought the book from Amazon a year or so ago and it has some beautiful patterns.

I started my first project from the book yesterday; a rectangle doily. If you’re into crochet then surely, you’ve got to make at least one doily? I’m now very much on track with old ladying the front room anyway.

It was fiddly to begin with because I’m not used to using the fine yarn but it got easier. I don’t know how well I’d do if I used proper lace making thread. I thought I’d ease into it gradually, rather than go straight to crippling my hands with a teeny tiny hook and teeny tiny thread.

It is also only a little doily, so it has been nice and quick to work up.

The book has been translated from Japanese and I thought that it showed in the awkwardness of the writing. Some basic crochet language is left out and replaced with more literal prose. I definitely needed the pictorial diagram to go with the step by step instructions.

I’m nearly done. Just the final round to go and then it’ll need blocking to stretch it out and neaten it up. Thinking of a round doily next… However, I still have to crochet these together:

Will I get round to it this week? I managed to sew in the ends last week and that’s the worst bit.