Crochet mandala earrings

I've already told you about making mandala for Yarndale 2014 festival in my previous post. Crocheting mandalas is so pleasant and inspiring, that I decided to make a few more, but in a smaller size and create an earrings. At the same time I didn't want to send an envelope with a single mandala to Lucy, I wanted to put a little handmade present for her. I have been reading Lucy's Attic24 blog for several years already and I'm so thankful that she writes it, it's so cozy, colorful and inspiring, it's like a sunshine in blogland that warms hundreds of grateful readers. Thank you Lucy for what you do!

So that's how this two pairs of crochet mandala earrings appeared. I used the pattern for cup coasters from here - it's a reworked crochet circle motif pattern from 1893 and it reminds a flower a little bit.
First pair of earrings is mono-color - in gorgeous blue.

And another one is in a combination of grey, purple, light blue and darker blue. I adore each of these colors. The colorful one of course goes to Lucy as she is the queen of colors :) and another one will stay in my crochet jewelry collection. Hope she will like it.

By the way, do try this cute easy pattern.

Crochet mandala for Yarndale 2014

Are you making mandala for Yarndale 2014?

I couldn't stay away from this beautiful event. After reading Lucy's post about mandalas and her great idea of mandala wall installation I was sure I'm participating. I took the box of my yarn leftovers, picked up the colors and choose the pattern. I've looked through a lot of inspiring colorful mandala patterns on pinterest, but I decided to stop on this one - it has like a wheel motif in the center and something floral.

I have to say that crocheting mandalas is very quick, easy and so addictive.

Do try making one or more.

Crochet earrings with pom-poms

This earrings are my new spontaneous creation. I was walking by the jewelry furniture store, of course I entered and bought some cute details for future creations. When I came home I've already had a clear idea of this colorful ethnic earrings in my mind. And finally I've got an opportunity to use those super cute tiny pom-poms.

The earrings turned out pretty charming, very bright and warm, reminding about summer and sun during this cold rainy days.

Do you like the colors? Hope you do :)
Such earrings are really easy and quick to make. Just 4 rows of single crochet, joining different yarn each row. After that sew the pom-poms and beads to the 4th row.

Crochet red ball earrings

I started working on these earrings quite a long time ago. I've made the balls, bought the furniture and they were laying on the shelf for a while. Then one day I've come across them and decided to complete this work immediately. Here is how they turned out.

Here is the pattern for the crochet balls.
Take a bead and use it as a basis. Beads are especially good for earrings as they keep the form unlike soft fillers.

1 row: make a magic circle and 6 sc (single crochet) into it (6)
2 row: increase* in each stitch (12)
3 row: increase in each 2 stitch (18)
4 row: increase in each 3 stitch (24)
5 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
6 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
7 row: 1 sc in each stitch (24)
8 row: decrease** in each 3d stitch (18)
9 row: decrease in each 2nd stitch (12)
10 row: decrease in each stitch (6)
11 row: continue decreasing in each stitch to finish the ball without a hole. (0)

* increase means make 2 sc into one stitch
** decrease means merge 2 stitches

Enjoy making your earrings!

Crochet slavic bride and groom

Here are slavic bride and groom amigurumis - my recent creation for my lovely friend's wedding. Both bride and groom have light brown hair with red tint, that's why I used orange yarn to reproduce their hair.
Sorry for not the best quality photo, unfortunately I haven't enough time to wait for the proper light. We have constant rains here lately.

The deadline for this present was really tight, so I had to significantly simplify the scheme. The initial idea was much more rich and detailed. But I think I've managed to keep the symbolism and put my soul, good energy and best wishes into it. Hope it will bring only luck and happiness to it's new owners.
I used linen fabric to make their clothes, blue and pink yarn for belts and headbands, orange yarn for the hair and some synthetic filler to fill the heads. Amigurumis are about 10 centimeters high.

Amigurumi Viking Girl

Let me introduce you a little viking girl. I made this cute amigurumi for a good friend of mine, who moved to Sweden recently. She has a bright red hair with braids and a traditional viking hat with horns. She is wearing a fur coat with colorful buttons, that not only warms her, but also is her basis.

She likes looking out of the window waiting for her viking boy.

Despite braveness, courage and strength, that are usual characteristics for an average viking girl, she is also very graceful and tiny - she actually fits in my palm.

Just take a look at her gorgeous long hair.

So here she is - Viking Girl. Hope you enjoyed your acquaintance. See you later!

African flower potholder

I've been in love with African flower pattern since I've first seen it. First I've tried a hexagon version of the African flower. The best step-by-step tutorial I've found was this one - it has a lot of photos and is written very well. After that I've discovered the square version of the African flower - tutorial here. I prefer the hexagon version, it looks prettier to me.

I was looking for a proper project to use this great pattern. It is to rich to be used as a motif in multi-hexagon projects, like blankets, bags, etc. It best of all plays as a main part of the item, being an accent of it, like in this project, but that's only my opinion.

So here it is - an African flower potholder. I've made it as a present for my grandmom's birthday. It can be used for holding hot things, as a cup or teapot coaster or just a table cloth to put a vase of flowers on.

The pattern is very easy. First make a six-leaved African flower using this tutorial. Then 5 rows of double crochet stitches (one dc in each stitch from the previous row on the sides of the hexagon, *1dc, sc, 1dc* in each corner of the hexagon). Last row is a shell edging - I've explained how to make it in this post.
Of course, as usual my little helper was helping me to take photos of the ready made potholder.

Hope you're doing good.

Crochet ♥hearts♥

I've found one more crochet heart pattern, that I used few years ago to make this cute hearts. Red one was a present for St. Valentine's Day. And purple and yellow one was made as a new year tree decoration.

The posts are written in Russian, so I decided to make a short translation for my English speaking readers. See the scheme for the first and second side of the heart below.

Happy crafting!

Crochet ♥ heart ♥ shaped cup coasters

Here is one more gift idea for the Valentine's day - crochet heart shaped cup coasters. They are quick and easy to make, you don't need a lot of yarn, any leftovers of matching colors can be used. You can give it either to friends, relatives or to your beloved person. The cup coaster will remind them about your love and care every time they'll drink their tea or coffee or whatever.

Everything you need is crochet hook, scissors and of course some yarn.
And here is the crochet scheme.

This is a basic heart pattern. I also added some edging for my heart cup coasters. This one has two rows of single crochet stitches - white and pink one.

For the second heart I've made a shell edging. Here is a description.
5dc in 2d chain from the hook
skip 1 chain
1sc into the next chain
*
skip 1 chain
5dc in the next chain
skip 1 chain
1sc in the next chain
*
Repeat actions between * until you reach the end of your pattern.

Are you preparing some handmade presents for the upcoming Valentine's day?

♥ Happy crafting! ♥

Things I enjoy this weekend

Today I'm enjoying...
... crocheting heart shaped cup coaster;

... crocheting few more squares for my blanket;

... home brewed coffee;

... tiny chocolate muffins (recipe in the previous post);

.... trying new frosting for my muffins (recipe here - everything that is written about the taste and consistency of this frosting is true - mild, smooth and light as air);

... color pencils - I feel an inexplicable need to draw some nice colorful pictures like in childhood;

... looking trough my notes regarding Valentine's day ideas;

... watching Feature playing with a little pink crochet circle I made for her, she adores such things, and I can actually continue crocheting after she gets piece of what I have - that's a kind of fee;

... weather outside my window - a lot of snow again.

Hope you are finding something enjoyable in your weekends as well!

Shell edging & drawstrings with tassels

Hi there! It's time to share a little handmade project - knitted bolero with crochet decoration. My mother knitted it for herself and asked me to help her with crochet edging and some crochet accessories. I was looking for a proper edging pattern for a while and decided to stop on this simple one, that is called shell edging, to keep accent on the knitted pattern and not to overdo it.

If you'll decide to try it out, here are the instructions.

 How to crochet a shell edging: 

5dc in 3d chain from the hook

skip 2 chains

1sc into the next chain

*

skip 2 chains

5dc in the next chain

skip 2 chains

1sc in the next chain

*

Repeat actions between * until you reach the end of your pattern.

Another little details, that I've added to the bolero were crochet drawstrings with tassels at the ends. The drawstrings are just a single row of chain stitches. And the tassels are made according to this tutorial.

As for me it looks better now. What do you thinks?

Here it is on the happy owner.

Sending you best wishes for the upcoming week. See you soon.
♡ Ju ♡

Potholder

Last week I was reading blog buzz as usual and suddenly came across this post. I needed only one look to understand that I'm going to make this immediately.

The tutorial is super easy and you can find it here.

This potholder is fun too make and good to decorate and use. Also it is a good opportunity to use yarn leftovers form other projects, because it's quite small and you don't need a lot of yarn.

I had some green and white yarn leftovers, so the yarn was found, as well as the occasion - my mom had a birthday last week and she adores green color right at the moment, so it could be a perfect present for her. Just about half an hour and the potholder was ready to use and make the eyes happy of bright colors. Mom was happy too and now is enjoying a color therapy on her kitchen.

Wish you to have a peaceful Sunday evening! Will be back soon with bunch of another news.

DIY T-shirt yarn rug

I made this rug last summer to be able to put legs on warm rug rather than cold floor while getting up in the morning. It is made from T-shirt yarn and I crocheted it with my fingers, because I haven't got such a big crochet hook. 

I can recommend a very good tutorial for making really good T-shirt yarn - you can find it here. Unfortunately I've found it only after the rug was done and I can say that I've definitely missed few very useful tips.

Here is the list of main mistakes I did:

1. I did not stretch the yarn after cutting it. This is a really good practice, because you are getting more straight and homogeneous yarn. This also can help to hide cutting defects.

2. I used all the T-shirt including sleeves (greediness?), so my yarn had seams and thickenings. And it was a little bit hard to cut it of same width.

3. Using fingers to crochet. Well, it is fun to try crocheting with your fingers, but it's enough to do this once. Using a hook is much more comfortable, easy and fast.

Next time I'll take into account two of those. Anyway I'm quite satisfied of the rug I have. I looks a little bit messy, but cute at the same time.

Hope you are having a good weekend. See you!