My Lollipop Cushion: Tadah!

The weather here in Northern Germany is brilliant! We have lots of sun, a little wind and nice temperatures. I even got a little sun burn on my forearms while I was happily crocheting on the terrace yesterday. But I wanted to finish my Lollipop Cushion by all means and it was late in the evening when I sewed on the last button. But now it is done!

And I LOVE it!

 

 I already showed you the beginning of this little project that I started quite impulsively when I looked at all my little yarn scraps that were lying in a yarny bowl.

I really loved playing with all the colours I had left, always wondering if the remaining rest of a colour would be sufficient for a solid granny square. 

Very quickly I knew how the front of my cushion should look like and in no time at all I had all the solid grannies I needed. If you look for a good pattern to make them, just have a look at the lovely blog of Heather from little tin bird.  Her explanations are very good.

After joining all these colourful grannies, I immediately knew that this cushion would need some extraordinary edging. I thought about so many different patterns but no one really caught my eye. Then I remembered this pompom edging and after a good search on pinterest (I am a Pinterestian, I really am), I found a good explanation of this stitch on the wonderful blog of Robin from once upon a pink moon. The only thing that I change was the number of chains. I wanted the pompoms to stand a little upright, so I just crocheted two chains instead of three.

But then the question of how to do the back occurred again. I had this problem already when I made my first cushion here.

And I really hate that question. Most crocheters write that they just take some fabric they have in their stash and they sew a back with a zipper in a breath. 

I am not able to do this! It takes me ages to sew a cushion and when I think about a zipper I sweat blood. So again, I decided to crochet the back. I had enough yarn for more solid granny squares, but I made them differently. Just one more row and I changed colours after the first row.

This is how it turned out in the end and it is such a little colourful piece of joy that I immediately knew how I would call it:

 My Lollipop Cushion!

This cushion matches perfectly my handmade blankets. It looks like it just has to sit in front of the Villa Villekulla blanket, doesn't it?
This is the front:

 And this is the back:

 Which side do you like more? I just can't decide, I like both sides!

 The only thing that jarred on my nerves was the sewing.  It was a nightmare to sew the back to the front. I had an equal number of stitches on both sides of the cushion but when I had finished almost half of the sewing of one side I always recognised that one side was longer than the other. I don't no how many times I had to undo the stitches, in the end I didn't count anymore I just tried to get the squares even. But finally it worked out.

My Dutch readers will probably recognise the buttons I have used, I bought them at HEMA, a Dutch chain of stores that sell wonderful bits and pieces. I just love these colourful buttons and they are perfect for my Lollipop Cushion! 

And here is one last photo I want to show you. In April I had won a give-away hosted by the lovely Franca from righedafavola.

 This cute little bag is really sweet and I love the cheerful pink. Thanks a lot, dear Franca, best wishes to Italy!

Have a nice and sunny weekend,

Viola

My Villa Villekulla Blanket: Tadah!

It's me again...

Are you as astonished as I am? Yes, this is my second blogpost in one day. But I forgot to write about the blanket I made during the winter and which I took with me to Denmark to take some nice pictures at the beach. 

After I had finished my "Tiny Granny Blanket"  (you can find pictures of it here) I had so much leftover yarn that I decided to do another blanket. I was not feeling well that time, around autumn last year, and I was looking for a simple pattern that I could just 'hook away'. 
 
I chose the granny stripe pattern, just simple granny clusters in all the Stylecraft Special DK colours I had in my stash. 
And here it is hanging over the railing of our holiday house in Denmark: 

 My wonderful blanket that gave me so much joy when I made it!

  Every time I started hooking these rows I forgot about my worries and my poor health. Hooking is a kind of meditation when the pattern is easy, isn't it? Working on this blanket was really therapeutic. I didn't really care for the colour sequence, I just wanted to use up all that was left from my other blanket. So it was very easy to work on this blanket, no pondering about neither the pattern nor the colours.

I am in love with this colourful blanket, and it is doing very well on the beach, as well.

 

  The border is a simple one, as well. One round of granny clusters in Sherbert, 2 rounds of double crochets (US dc) in Aster and Meadow, 2 rounds of single crochets (US sc) in Lipstick and Cloud Blue and the crab stitch (also Cloud Blue) as the finishing round. 

It is a big blanket, as all my blankets are that I have made so far. We are all tall in our family and it is important for all of us to have warm feet when snuggling under a cosy blanket.  It is 2,02 x 1,35 m and I used the following 18 colours: 

Pomegranate, Plum, Fondant, Lavender, Spring Green, Aster, Turquoise, Lipstick, Shrimp, Saffron, Meadow, Green, Magenta, Sherbert, Cloud Blue, Claret, Wisteria and Clematis. 

This blanket is frequently used by all of us but my son likes it best. He always tries to get this blanket when he is snuggling on the sofa. It makes me very happy seeing the kids using what I have made. 

 There are already three handmade blankets in our household. I still can't believe that I have the patience and the perseverance to finish a blanket. And there are even more ideas for blanket in my head. I think that the blanket fever got me. However this is an illness I like to have!

Take care,

Viola

  

 

Spring holidays in the Netherlands

 At the beginning of our Easter holidays we went to the Netherlands for one week. We are so lucky that my parents have a holiday house there, just a few hundred metres away from the North Sea. I just love it there! The house is situated in Ouddorp, a small village in the Dutch province Zuid-Holland, approximately 40 km south of Rotterdam.

It was just me and the kids, J couldn't get the week off, he had to work. But the children had asked their best friends to accompany us, so it was me and four kids and our dog Pepples, of course. We had never tried this before and I wondered if everything would be fine. But it was not only fine, no, it was a great week. The children were really excited to show their friends around. The weather was wonderful and we were outside almost all the time. 

 The dune landscape is so pretty. There is a long cycleway on top of the dunes, you can walk or cycle for kilometres always overlooking the Sea.

 We went to the beach to fly the kites. Kitebuggies are always there when the wind is blowing.

 The lighthouse "Westhoofd" in Ouddorp. It is still in operation. 

 I started a new granny shawl for my sister. Her birthday has already been in March but I hope that she won't mind to get it a little later. 

  At home Pepples doesn't like to run after the stick anymore but at the beach she felt young again!

 One day was so warm that the children decided to go swimming! The water temperature was just 9 degrees. Crazy kids!

 Log walks at the beach were fun for all!

 The girls were really fast on their inline skates, Pepples and I had difficulties to follow them. We made beautiful tours! 

The boys explored the vicinity with their longboards but they preferred being on their own. 

And at the end of the day, just once or twice, we went to Paal 10 to have a last drink. These beach restaurants are a great place to be, I love to sit on the terrace drinking a hot tea when it's cold or a glass of wine on a wonderful summer evening.

It has been a wonderful week. I read two books (!), crocheted a lot and most of the time I was the first in bed! We will definitely do this again, the kids had so much fun with their friends and I had lots of space for myself.

This post is long enough I think. I hope that I will be able to write about our holiday week in Denmark  tomorrow. 

See you then,

Viola

It's grey and dark....

... the wind is blowing and I wonder where spring has gone. It looks like November outside! This is just a quick post to say hello after our wonderful holidays. I will tell you about it later.

Unfortunately I got a bad cold last week and I still feel not so well, bad cough again ... 

So today I decided to take it easy, drink lots of tea, forget about the piles of laundry and the sandy floors (I wonder why we always bring back so much sand after a week at the sea) and start a new crochet project using all my scraps of yarn. 

I have so many leftovers from my blankets that are not really useful for the next big crochet project. 

What are you doing with all these sweet little balls of yarn? You can't really start something new with them but I have not the heart to just throw them away. 

'A cushion' I thought this morning when I passed the bowl with all my Stylecraft remnants. 

 And without further thinking and 'pinteresting' I decided to use the simple 2-round solid granny square to start with. It is the perfect size to use even the smallest amounts of yarn and looking at these colourful littles squares makes me really happy!

Last but not least I want to welcome my new followers, I hope you like my little crochet snippets. And I want to say 'Thank you!' for all your encouraging comments, I love to read them and I always try to take a look at your blogs, as well. 

Take care whereevere you are in the world! 

Viola

Japanese Flower Scarf: Ta-dah!

  Looking at the above picture I suddendly feel happy! I took this picture last summer, just a few days after our holiday in the Netherlands. I felt quite relaxed and I was looking forward finishing my Japanese Flower Scarf. There were just a few flowers missing because I had run out of yarn. I ordered it immediately but somehow, when the cough started again, I lost my interest in this wonderful scarf and it took me several weeks to finish it. But one days somwhere in the middle of autumn - I can't really remember anymore when - I added the last flower, weaved in the last ends and could block it.

Since then I have worn this scarf a lot, the texture is soft and delicate and it drapes wolderfully around the shoulders. The yarn is DROPS Belle, a mix of cotton, viscose and linen, it is perfect to wear directly on the skin.

 

 I used the folloowing colours: Moss green, light blue, jeans blue, dark jeans blue, cherry, old pink, dandelion, silver and off white. I can absolutely recommend this yarn. 

  I have LOVED working on this project, making these flowers is addictive once you have started. I already think of making a wooly scarf in bright bold colours and one in pastels or even natural colours - I just can't decide. It is such a lovely pattern and very suitable for carrying around!

I was working the colours totally at random and using the join-as-you-go method, so I had to pay very careful attention to the placement of them. But I managed quite well, what do you think?

The only thing that tempers my delight a little bit is that the flowers tend to look a little scrunched, with curl-up petals after some time. I have already blocked this scarf 3 times. But it is not that bad considering how beautiful this scarf is and how much delight I feel wearing it.

Enough talk now. 

HERE IT IS!

 

 

 This is me wearing the scarf. 

GEEZ! I really look tired! The last year truly drained me of strength. Next week we'll spend a week in my parents cottage in the Netherlands. Long walks at the beach, enough sleep and good food will hopefully do me some good. 

These cute Easter rabbits seem to like my scarf, as well.

Happy Easter! 

Viola