WIP Wednesday 3/12

The majority of what I've been doing this week is dishcloths. It's only 22 days until Christmas and I'm not sure how many more I can make before then. I haven't been feeling the best this week it's been a very nasty cold where I've been dizzy as soon as I try to stand. I'm finally feeling more normal so I can actually stand up.

BUT I do have an old WIP I want to show you. This should have been completed in November last year. It does kinda have a time limit as it was meant to be for my cousin's wedding last year and I kinda let it slide.

So I'm showing you the latest photos I've taken today. This week I will be putting some focus on this and I want to see if I can get the border all finished.

I'll show you more as the week goes along. Hopefully I will continue to feel better and not get worse again.

Happy Stitching everyone,
Caitlin

Ebb and Flow Dishcloths

Well I have been crocheting dishcloths again. Actually I've never really stopped. I just try not to show you them constantly!

That said I tried a new pattern this week. It's one of the free downloads from knit picks called Ebb and Flow Dishcloth.

I love the simplicity of this cloth while it looks really fancy, it's very easy to do and you quickly don't have to think about the repeats.

That said I found a number of issues with this pattern. They really haven't done a good job of editing their free patterns and if you aren't confident with what you're doing it's easy to misread their patterns and mess up.

1. It's in US crochet terms so make sure you're aware of that. 

2. One thing they don't mention that is useful to know is that you want to have 40 stitches across as you stitch and it is good to keep an eye on it. I found the when you came up to the SC rows it's really important to watch because it's easy to lose track of the pattern.

3. The other part that can be tricky until you work out what you're doing is the crossed double crochet stitch. I've got some pictures below. They are easy, you skip the first stitch and do a double crochet. Then you do the next double crochet in the skipped stitch. It feels weird but the more you do it the better you get.

The other tricky bit with this part is when you start the row with the crossed double crochet you need to skip the first stitch because you've made a 3 chain and then you skip the second stitch and do a double crochet in the third stitch from the beginning.  This is because you have to come back and do the crossed double crochet.

You can see that you have two stitches that are crossed over and they do look a little weird at first but you get used to it.

The other thing I found with this pattern is that they recommend cutting off the yarn after each colour. That is stupid. What I changed was to carry the yarns up the side and at the end I add a border around the finished cloth. I think this just makes it look neater and there are only a couple of ends to tie in instead of 30!

4. For the border I went round with a row of single crochets and then went around with a border of reverse single crochet. 

5. Where it says to repeat rows 1-8 you actually want to repeat rows 3-10 as you don't need to have double blue rows. They have labelled two sets of rows as 1 and 2.

I hope you do enjoy working on this cloth and that this has helped you work through the pattern.

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

WIP Wednesday 26/11

Well I haven't really done much this week... I had a craft day and half made a card for my cousin's party on Saturday.

I'm having so much fun with my stamps. They are so pretty and happy :D I need to finish up the inside and then it's ready to give.

I do have some crochet but I will give you some information about it on Friday, as I want to help you make it. So today is a small post and look forward for more later.


Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Around the World Blog Hop

I received a lovely invite to join the around the world blog hop last week from the lovely Rhona over at Tangled Threads. I was really excited to answer the questions as I've been seeing them appearing more and more on other blogs. So here goes.

1. What am I working on?
It's more a matter of what I'm not working on. I love working on Ink Circles Baroque at the moment. It looks pretty amazing. I love all the sparkles.

 
 I've also been doing some crochet and having lots of fun making dishcloths.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

To me the big difference is how many crafts I seem to do. I'm comfortable picking up a hook or needle. I just enjoy tackling many different tasks and making whatever I can. 

I love teaching others and passing on my knowledge and sharing what I do.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

 Because I have to make stuff. Simple as that and I need to share what I do and what I love. I can't not make things. I've tried that and it's never worked for me.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

I just write. I'm not very good at planning things out so I just write what comes out of my head. This is sometimes a good thing sometimes not.

 Now keep an eye out for next week. On the 1st of Dec I've got two lovely bloggers joining in. I tried to get a third person but it kept falling through. 

I have shebafudge joining me I love her cross stitch and I always enjoy reading about what is happening with her. 

Also joining me is Charbella stitching she has some amazing work on her HAED designs and also finds time to knit for her daughter's barbie dolls. 

So happy stitching everyone and thank you for visiting. 
Caitlin.

WIP Wednesday 19/11 on a Thursday

Ohk I could give all sorts of excuses for not posting yesterday but the main reason is I went to Movie World yesterday with my sister, cousin and his girlfriend as my cousin was visiting from out of town.

 Here I am in front of the Bat Car. I was slightly excited.

 We got to see an awesome stunt show. Thankfully the storm stayed away long enough for us to watch it.

This is the Arkham Asylum... used to be the lethal weapon. I just watched my sister and cousin on this one as I'd just been on the super man ride twice and my motion sickness was playing up.

Now since it is WIP Wednesday a day late, I do actually have some stitching to show everyone. Not the best photo ever but we haven't had much solid sun in the last couple of days it's been very cloudy.

That said if you follow me on instagram you'd have an idea about what I'm about to show you.

I finished the second motif of Baroque! I was really excited but I've been waiting for some good light to photograph it but that wasn't going to happen. The heat wave is gone replaced by stormy weather. It's still hot but we're getting storms most evenings.

I love how the colours look on the sparkly fabric.

I've already started the next motif. I like the green I'm now using.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin