Ali the Alien!

I really appreciate all your wonderful comments on posts - recently finding out that many of you save your short ends  - and some of you are going to start the addictive hobby!

I also relish those comments that set a challenge or get me thinking!

The fabulously creative Kate from Starfish Studio set me on a voyage to a galaxy far far away...
when she commented on the aliens made to decorate bras for my friends when they walked the moonwalk.

A smaller rounder version was created....

but she's a bit shy....

 

ah...that's better!

This little alien had a look around outside

...and inside...

... a crocheted sphere, some needlefelted features, fuse wire and wet felt for antennae and an (almost) invisible hanging thread...

the most unique element is the stuffing - oodles of short ends - a head full of memories of previous fun projects!

one more look around before she travelled in a recycled tomato box jiffy bag spaceship

all the way to the Scottish coast

where through the magic of the web I have seen her hanging around in Kate's workspace!

Kate has named her Ali - so I am very flattered!
She was made with 13g of stash.. if you include the stuffing!

The original aliens and their/my friends had a very memorable night raising money and awareness - they walked the walk, had fun and met lots of interesting ladies!

As a thank-you they gave me a beautiful brooch

and some amazingly delicious works of edible chocolate art!

I think the alien ideas may be here for a while...I may boldly go and hook some more!

Bits and Pieces

This month most of my hooky fun has been experimental or smallish projects...as I continue to bust my stash I thought I'd include some of the items I have made that are part of larger plans or one off items!

We sent this card to my father in law for Fathers Day

4g of navy wool

Experiments in Butterfly design
7g

3 BIG bloomers for a winter project
(should have been last winter hope it will be this one!)
Perhaps the weight will give you an idea of their size!
40g

All wiggly at the edges! 

Adventures in going round in circles!

15g

So, totals for June:
Bits and Pieces: 66g
Bow Tie: 2g
Daisies: 9g
Mini Owl: 8g
Coasters: 48g
(Elisabeth, the yarn is Anchor Style Creativo fino and Astri  - its an Ikea Apron!)
The special project in the next post: 13g
Sooooo June Total: 146g

Total for the first half of the year: 1127+146= 1273g
WooHoo!
 I didn't even think I had that much...and there's still loads more to have fun with!!
I'll stop writing and get on with the next project!

Colourful Coasters!

These colourful coasters were a sunny birthday project hooked outside in the bright sunshine!

The pattern for the first three rounds was taken from Tracey's crochet motif  to which I added a border of scallops.

48g of cotton stash was busted.

One of the great things about using stashed yarn is the colours are often chosen for you!

The background fabric is my new apron..which I am reluctant to get dirty as I love its vibrant stripeyness!

Perhaps this post should have come with a warning to wear sunglasses?!

Be-hoot-i-ful!

This colourful little chappie has had quite an adventure in his first few days!

 

The pattern came from Liz's fabulous colourful blog Amigurumi Barmy.

 A parliament of her wise woolly owls are the cover stars of the current edition of Craftseller magazine. She also designs for Inside Crochet..

(as do the talented Tracey, Lynne and Emma amongst others!)

 Its been a while since I amigurumied but Liz's pattern was great to follow and was hooked during a Star Wars film!

His eyes are needlefelted and his beak stitches of bright yellow yarn 

(from a longer length of TUSAL!) 

He busted 8g of stash!

He was given as a 6th birthday present and taken to school the next day..how exciting!

I'm sure there'll be some more mini hooters flying off the hook soon!

Last week was International Knit in Public week - whilst racing out of the door to collect RW Junior and his friend from the cinema I grabbed a small ball of wool, a 4mm hook and a pair of scissors.

I stood outside the pictures, at the top of the shopping centre, amongst the Friday evening diners and filmgoers, and crocheted 2 halves of a granny pocket heart!
At one point the ball of wool leapt out of my pocket and ran across the shiny floor - I have the ideal solution for that in bag form..as I am intending to repeat the whole crochet while you wait experience!

More Daisies!

Happy Birthday to one of our Nieces! 

She has recently bought a stunning dress covered in 9 petalled, black centred daisies. 

This bloom has been sent in the post.

 There are lawn-fuls of Daisy patterns around - but I made my own, tweaking my dragonfly wings pattern and stash busted 9g in the planning and execution.

I might try some more with yellow centres and a few more petals....

Whilst hooking earlier daisies, Ali over at the Creations of Crazy Dazy was making her own beautifully knitted daisy chain - her fab photo tutorial and patten can be found here. 

These sunny pictures are reminding me of the beautiful weather we have had ...

Totally Useful!

I've been collecting short ends for a while, and am not alone - 

last year Linda introduced us to the TUSAL jar!

This particular jar contains the shortest of short ends, the longer ones were sorted into a bag to be used in scrumbling and other projects..

Whilst browsing fellow stash busting blogs I came across these fabulous ideas from Stephanie of Handwerkjuffie (Needlework missy) on how to use those tiny scraps.

So totally useless scraps became a very useful colour injection!

One layer of  natural shetland, a sprinkling of random bright off cuts -

two more thin shetland layers and a top splatful of  colourful randomness

followed by a very thin topping of shetland to trap all the fibres.

Whilst rinsing the piece of wet felt the combination of the two coloured layers was really obvious..

The wrung out wet felt was drenched in water again for a sunny photo shoot to optimise the colours

each scrap is a reminder of  past projects and fun creations

there are some sparkly bits of thread too camera shy to show up here!

The next photo is the sopping wet back view...

Held up to the light more colourful squiggles can be seen...

From the next few pictures you can see how different the felt looks when dried as the trapping layer of shetland fibres subdues or masks the colours.

Back view:

 

So now I have to work out what to do with this piece..I really felt liberated

 being free to fling fistfuls of fabulous fibre at random and

I would have been really pleased with the final dry result had I not known its fully soaked gloriously colourful secret! 

Only you and I know that though!

Any ideas very welcome...Mr RW has made a suggestion which I might investigate.

Until then I'll leave you with a sunny front face of friendly fibre filled felt and the fact that the jar is still full of colourful threads!