ferrousland.com - creative news
mentions of creative things i might be up to, hands-on things, or brain creative things.
only the fifteen most recent entries in this category are shown below. to see other entries in this category use the navigation to the right.
May 07, 2008
finished my jumper! - 09:19 AM
i finished my jumper! it took about four months to finish, but that was with plenty of long breaks. if it was the only project i was working on, i reckon it might have taken only two months or less.
i'm really pleased with how well it turned out.
i need to get myself a white or off-white singlet top to wear under it, i think. audrey gave me a voucher for cotton on for my birthday/mothers' day so i think i'll use that.
March 19, 2008
socks for smiley - 03:41 PM
a pair for smiley! the second pair i've made him, actually. the first pair i made him were exactly the same as the first pair i made for me, so i haven't bothered to get a pic of them. also, i made them quite big for him to grow into, so they look a bit odd at the moment.
this pair are made from yarn with some stretch, so even though they have room to grow in them, they don't look baggy like the other ones.
smiley says these are fruit coloured socks. lol! 
March 16, 2008
socks for hellie - 06:52 PM
i started another pair of socks that i was originally planning to be for me, but then someone gave me the idea of making a pair for hellie, who was just in town for her sister's wedding.
she stayed with us for a couple of nights & so i got to try it the first one on her foot to make sure it fit well. then i finished the second one this morning, so i'll probably mail them to her when she's back on heron island (she's living & working there).
these are the socks. they fit me quite loosely, but since they're made from yarn with a bit of stretch, they shrunk down nicely enough to be able to take a decent pic of them on my small(er then helen's) feet.
March 14, 2008
wrong hook size - 10:27 AM
now that's a tad annoying.
i spent quite a few hours last night & another hour or so this morning on the second sock that i'm crocheting for my friend who's in town, hellie, & i'm more than half way through the sock.
i just realised that i've been using the wrong hook size. i'm going to have to pull it apart & start the whole sock again. argh!
March 04, 2008
minced pork with beans - 07:06 PM
i just made the yummiest dish. it should probably be in taco shells with salad or in that wrap style bread, but i didn't have any of those so i put it on toast, instead. it was just as yummy.
it was minced pork with a few herbs & spices (you could use whatever your favourites are, or none at all), some soy sauce & worcestershire sauce, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of four bean mix. cook it up in a fry pan & leave it to simmer for about 10 to 20 minutes.
oh .. but the secret ingredient? a big dollop of peanut paste! (mine is some that's ground from just peanuts at the health food store. there's nothing added to it except a small amount of salt that i put in because i wasn't used to it being so unsalty.) the peanut paste (peanut paste, peanut butter, whatever you want to call it) really makes it.
yum, yum! 
my first crocheted socks - 06:49 AM
i'm so pleased with how well these turned out!
i love, love, love the yarn i used for it. it's a special sock yarn & it comes in a great range of colours.
it was funny, actually. i had the yarn for about six months before i used it. every time i was in the yarn shop, i'd see the sock yarn displayed up on the wall & remember vaguely the orangey one that i bought. i'd look at one particular colour of the sock yarn up there & wish that i'd bought that one, instead. when i finally took out my ball of yarn, it turns out that i had bought that one! so i had good taste after all. hehe.
as always, there's some learning that happens with a new pattern. they fit well enough, but next time i may use a larger hook around the top of the cuff since my tension became a bit tighter with the second sock & the top is a little less stretchy on that one. the heel is a touch loose, but not loose enough to worry about for fit. next time, though, i'll use a smaller hook for the heel just to shrink it a touch.
the measurements on the pattern were weird. they gave arch circumference measurements for each size as well as calf circumference measurements. i have larger calf muscles than most, but they were *way* off what they suggested, so i wonder if they were measuring a different spot on the calf instead of at the widest point.
anyway, i'm still really happy with how they turned out & they do fit well, so all in all, everything's good.
i used just over one ball of yarn, so there's more than enough left to make a pair for smiley. he thinks they're pretty cool, too, so he's keen to have his own pair.
i got the pattern from this book.
March 03, 2008
is there such a thing as too much crocheting? - 06:51 PM
about a month ago, i started a crochet club at a yarn store not too far from home. i turn up every monday & sit & crochet with the other members .. which, so far, is just me. lol!
actually, there is one other member, but she's there almost every day anyway, so she's kind of an honorary member of the club. her name is geraldine. she's a lady in her sixties (no sure how far into her sixties, but she said that she only learned to knit when she was sixty & she's been knitting at least for a few years, crocheting for much longer than that). she doesn't work there but—as described by one of the staff—'she thinks she does'. lol! she's really lovely & is always helping out somebody in the shop. she also does odd jobs for the shop for something to do occasionally. i guess she appreciates that they don't mind her coming in almost every day.
so anyway, they hold these clubs on various days. there are two knitting clubs as well as an embroidery club. it doesn't cost people anything at all to turn up, they just suggest that you might like to buy a cuppa or some lunch from the attached cafe while you're there. mostly, people work on projects with yarn they've bought from the shop, too.
they've been telling people about the monday crochet club, but there really do seem to be more knitters than there are crocheters. time will bring some more people, i'm sure.
in the mean time, i don't really mind that i'm the only one. there are plenty of people coming & going in the shop all day & the staff are lovely & are always interested in whatever project on which i'm currently working.
it's some really nice time out of the house for me & just about the first regular 'grown up' activity that i've done without child in tow since smiley was born! i've arranged for a regular visit for smiley at his nanna & poppy's for mondays so that i can go there. i really enjoy it.
today i finished a pair of socks. they turned out really well. it's too dark to take a decent pic now, but i'll take one tomorrow & post it here.
so as to whether there is such a thing as too much crocheting? perhaps there is. i guess i hit my limit today trying to get the second sock done, because i got home & haven't done any since. i might do a bit more later, though.
February 20, 2008
some notes on crocheting - 06:03 AM
i've started on a fairly advanced crochet project. it's probably the most complicated one i've done since i started crocheting about a year or so ago.
before this, the only projects i'd done were fairly simple ones. simple stitches, just a whole lot of them all in a row. well, in quite a few rows, but you know what i mean.
as i've been looking through the book i bought (the one i made this brown top from), i was seeing some projects marked as 'advanced' & thought to myself, 'well, it's one stitch at a time. how hard can it be?' that is true to a certain extent, but as i've worked through the first two balls of yarn in making it, i'm learning what it is about a project that makes one advanced & another not.
with simple projects that are basically just one row of the same thing after another, it's very easy to tell if you've made a mistake. it's usually obvious straight away. with the more advanced projects where each row changes & you have to have the pattern book in front of you for each of those rows, it's not so obvious if you make a mistake. it might not show up, in fact, until several rows later.
also, to do these advanced things, you really need to have a pretty good idea of what it's supposed to look like & what each stitch is going to achieve once it's put together with the other stitches. someone who hasn't crocheted much of the 'boring' stuff doesn't have the experience to know how these things will look at each stage of the construction of several stitches that are put together to form a shape. thus why projects like the one i'm doing now are called advanced. i can see that i would have had heaps of trouble doing this one a year ago.
i certainly wouldn't say that i'm a very experienced crocheter. i would, however, say that i'm a very careful crocheter. more than one person has told me, unprompted, that my crocheting is very neat. with sewing & other creative things i've done in the past where a lack of neatness is fairly obvious, i've been told the same thing. it's not something that i feel i put much work into. it must just come naturally (for creative things, that is. anyone who's been to my house in its current state would know that neatness in other areas is not natural to me. lol!). i think that particular bent of mine really comes into the fore with my crochet. it helps a lot for doing tricky stitches, too.
getting the pattern established for the first ball of yarn on this jumper took me hours & hours. i looked carefully at the pictures & at the pattern & i had to pull it apart quite a few times when i spotted a mistake a few rows down. it took at least the first ball of yarn to really see where it was going & to see that it was working exactly as in the picture.
it's taught me a few new stitches, too, so i'm pleased to be learning new stuff with it.
by the way, if you want to see the jumper, go to this search inside link at amazon (takes a while to load if you're on a slow connection) & you'll see it on the second page in, on the lady with the most gorgeous dark skin. i'm making it in a similar colour to what she's wearing with yarn that's a blend of silk, lamb's wool & cashmere. if you're interested, the yarn brand is noro & the type is 'cash iroha' in natural.
flowered bolero jacket - 05:06 AM
i finished this the other day, but hadn't yet got around to posting here about it.
February 09, 2008
what i was crocheting - 02:30 PM
i showed the crochet hook holder i made just before. this is what i was crocheting that was causing a need for my crochet bag to not be messy.
i used a pattern in 'cool crochet', by melissa leapman (laura, page 16). i'm pretty happy with how well it turned out.
crochet hook holder - 01:23 PM
i made this crochet hook holder since my crochet bag is getting a bit disorganised. i could never find the stuff i needed because it was so messy. now i won't have that problem.
January 03, 2008
poi - 09:52 AM
after i bought smiley a set of glow poi at the woodford folk festival, which he then wasn't really interested in, i went to two beginner poi classes at the circadia tent.
i've learned only the three-beat weave so far (you can see a lesson on it here. you only need need to watch the beginning of it to see it demonstrated) but i'm not very good at it yet & i don't look all that stylish wincing every time the poi goes around behind me, waiting for one of them to hit me in the back of the head. lol!
i'm still trying to perfect a turning butterfly. not sure if that's the proper name for it, but you can see the butterfly done here (again, only need to watch the beginning). what i'm talking about is where you do the butterfly & you turn your body around in a full circle. sounds easy, but the poi don't change the direction of their circle as you turn, which means that you have to change what your hands are doing to account for that.
it's really fun. i've been enjoying it a lot. i'll have a great excuse to take smiley to the park now, so that he can play while i practise my poi skills.
July 14, 2007
crocheted jumper - 10:52 AM
i just finished my crocheted jumper!
i gave it a wash to help loosen up or tighten up the fibres or whatever it is that i want to happen to it by washing it. it's now on the line & i'm allowing it to stretch out a bit across the width & pull the sleeves out a touch.
once it's dry, i'll see if i can get a pic with it on me .. well, as long as it doesn't look totally dicky. heh.
July 02, 2007
non-blanket project revealed - 03:20 PM
since i've told you that i'm doing some crochet, i thought i'd show you some of what i've been making.
a hat for smiley which, typically, he refuses to wear:
a hair band/ribbon type thing for my sister. she likes it & tried it on straight away. i'm making one each (in less 'grown up' colours) for her two girls:
these are my first non-blanket projects. i have a blanket/quilt/afghan that i've been working on (or more correctly, not working on) for about a year which might take forever if i want to make it big enough for a queen sized bed. eventually, once i find a nice pattern, i'd like to make a jumper or two.
exciting coat hanger covers - 02:52 PM
i know that i've got into crochet just lately, but i still do believe that just because you can crochet something, it doesn't mean that you should crochet it. examples of things which i believe should never be crocheted are toilet roll covers, sports themed coasters (i.e. cup coasters that actually look like a football or a baseball, etc), pencil holders & cd cases. sadly, crochet patterns for these things exist.
i just came across a book listed online called, "six exciting crocheted coathanger covers." yes, indeed, coat hanger covers are very practical if you have some nice fine knitted tops that you don't want to be damaged, but does anyone seriously believe that a coat hanger cover can be exciting?
i don't have an issue with other people doing these things, but if i start crocheting coat hanger covers, doilies or toilet roll covers, please shoot me.
ferrous
gmail
com
