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Lerato's baby blanket

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Last week on Ons Hekel, at least two baby blankets were finished. 

I completed this one in V-stitch:

A blankie for Lerato's baby girl

...and a hooky friend completed a beautiful, light pastel hexagon blanket for her daughter's baby shower.


I started mine in great haste, next to the swimming pool where my boys have lessons:

http://haak-en-stekie.blogspot.com/2014/10/of-beanies-and-baby-blankets.html


...and then worked on it on our way towards the Garden Route:

http://haak-en-stekie.blogspot.com/2014/10/hookin-on-road-trip-and-new-coffee-spot.html


...worked away the edges over coffee with a friend:

(Hate this part...and I always leave it to the last).


And then finished over another:

A fello Pure-fan recognised the carefully disguised menu!

I edged the blanket with one row of SC, and then a couple of rows in HDC.  In retrospect I think linen stitch would have been neater.  

As for yarns, I used
Vinnis Nikkim Natural (the white colour)
Vinnis Bambi Peach (not shown below - a cotton/bamboo blend with lovely texture)
and
I Love Yarn Imagine in Guava, Antique Rose and Burned Butter

Angie's V-stitch graph here


My V-stitch blankie was delivered on Friday!

All done

The hexagon blanket - it was sent overseas by courier last week...but over the weekend we learnt that a baby girl was stillborn.

37 weeks.

While I'm happy about Lerato's little baby girl that's still on her way, I'm mourning with a hooky/book friend who lost her grandchild.

Into every blanket, we crochet our joy, hope, love.   
Sometimes that must comfort as well.

My Mzansi 14/10 - My Cool Pretoria

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I took my boys out for a drive to Church Square, in the old city centre.  It is the site of one of the latest happenings of Cool Capital 2014, an uncurated, "guerilla" art biennale, by the citizens of Pretoria, for Pretoria.  

At the centre of the square is a large, bronze statue of former  Pres Paul Kruger, president of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek round the turn of the nineteenth century.  For Cool Capital, his statue was covered in aluminium tinfoil, rendering him sparking and brand new!  He will remain as such until 16 November.



My boys getting a dose of local history


The statue was commissioned by businessman Sammy Marks and sculped by Anton van Wouw, cast in bronze in Italy and erected in the 1950's.  It is surrounded by four anonymous Boer soldiers.

(I recently saw a photo of my grandmother here on a visit to Pretoria during the unveiling of the Voortrekker Monument 1938, before this statue was erected.  In this spot was a monument celebrating the crowning of King George VI. Amazing to see how Church Square looked then!)
  

Holding guard, theOld Raadsaal in the background


I could show the boys what real old vellies (velskoen - leather shoe) looked like.



Wonder what Oom Paul would have thought.

There was some murmurs of a crowd that did not like his new cover, but I think the old president might not have been disturbed too much.  Rumour has it, after all, that he has been known to sport a gold earring...


"I see you watching me watching you"


I think he looks splendid!



I've been living in Pretoria for 31 years now, and it's been lovely to see the city slowly shaking off its long-held image of a verkrampte, conservative bastion.  It still doesn't have a city vibe and feels actually just like a very large town (which is also great), but is home to academics, diplomats, refugees and us ordinary folk, making up a very interesting mix. 

What to do with those keepsakes?

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...like your parents' wedding telegrams?

You decoupage the inside of an old trousseau kist with it, of course. 



I am sentimental, and a hoarder, the combination of which makes for horrific storage challenges.


I keep things.  I still have my nursery school blankie, a little test book from Sub A, my Baby Love doll, books since forever.  Heirlooms like my dad's 2.4 m tall grandfather clock, his desk chair, my gran's dinner bell, my other gran's ring from an Italian POW.  I keep not-so-logical things, like my dad's uniform cap with his rank insignia on, the old tea tins my mom used for her curtain hooks (as I do), my mom's beautiful Bally shoes (not my size), an old anvil that was among the last things on my dad's mind as he lay dying - I still don't know where it comes from or the reason for his obsession with it. So I keep it.

And then I had the box with cards and telegrams of congratulations hat my mom saved after their wedding in October 1969.  It travelled with me from Polokwane to Pretoria to Brisbane to Pretoria and as I prepared now to move again, something had to come of it.   

Luckily I remember a pic of a decoupaged something, so the plan was made:

1. Take mom's old trousseau kist, one of those sturdy-but-not-so-pretty ones with the lacquered surface, that you store the linen in.

2. Lightly sand it down and paint with a non-drip satin enamel in a much better looking bone white...

3...While also cleaning the clasps

4. Modge-podge for the first time in your life and almost make a big bugger-up (luckily modge-podge is very forgiving. And luckily the wrinkles do disappear. Laaaaater).




4.   Lightly sand it down again et voilà, one better looking kist.

I used the telegrams on the inside of the lid, and more-or-less matching gift wrap for the trunk.  By then I also discovered adhesive spray, to make things a bit easier.




The rotary cutter...I was contemplating those edges, wondering how in hell I was going to cut it straight, when luckily (again) a Pin came past, advising me to fold the paper flat over the edge, and literally sand it off.  Beautiful finish, straight as a ruler, and just modge over it again. 




Done, I'm happy, can almost re-pack it!



Now to the list of twenty other things to do before we pack
(I also procrastinate...)

Next up: one retro wire garden set to de-rust and repaint.


Projek Bohemia...Trial Version

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The end of the year is rushing up to me and I realised I'd quite forgotten to report on a few of my FO's!

In August, I started a trial version for my summer throw (at LAST I decided on something).  I absolutely loved the Sorbet & Lace square Cornel designed for Ideas magazine, and immediately all my other ideas for the summer throw flew out of the window.  First I tried it out a Elle Pure Gold, my favouite local acrylic (I had a ton of stash, and I had another idea for my own blanket...but first I had to master the pattern).

The pattern hooks up quickly and makes a nice, large square - great if you want to make a quick blanket :-) I wanted to try out some new colour combinations - bright, contrasting edges to each square, and also wanted to figure out the layout, which had to be seemingly random but not, ordered, but not.  That's the Gemini brain speaking.  Even when trying to work totally random, I'll still order around colours, as the lights and dark, cools and warms must balance.

Almost at the end, I made such an epic mistake, I still laugh at myself for it :-D  

But it was easily corrected and I could lay the blanket out, work away the ends and declared myself satisfied. 


A nicely sized lapghan


I used a different joining technique as I didn't want the large gaps of the original pattern, so used granny clusters of four stitches where I joined in the clusters as well as in the chains.  A friend and I sat over a coffee one day to look at the options, and decided that joining with SC's would look better than slip stitches, as it just give that tiny little bit of extra space to allow the join to lie flat.  


I don't try to block or even steam block acrylics, just gave it a quick wash, shake-out and let it hang to dry.  




This blanket was then donated to a hooky friend's charity group and will be donated to an elderly or wheelchair-bound recipient next winter.  

--- X ---

Sooo...in the back of my mind...was this, all along:

Colours of Grace, a 10 ply cotton, in the most beautiful colours. I bought more than a bag full and quickly had to try out a first square in this dusky pink:

It might be one of the most beautiful colours on earth.  And I'm not even a pink person.

It is available online from Beatrix at Btrix Designs or Hilda at Yarn in a Barn.  The autumn blanket by Pigtails in Simply Crochet 23 was also hooked up in this yarn.

I've made a decent pile of squares, but had to put it aside to quickly finish a few year-end projects, but come December, after unpacking in my new hometown, this is one of the first projects to pick up!

--- X ---

PS - a friend at Ons Hekel is using the same principle to make up a Bohemian Blanket, with a square of her own design, but also the colourful, contrasting joins, and it looks stunning so far.  She's using Vinnis Nikkim.

Look. At. This:

Gina's Bohemian Blanket.
I'm jealous.


This year I crocheted teacher gifts

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I'm not much of a teacher gift giver.

For the preschool yes, and during the Foundation Phase I thought up tiny gifts that didn't break the bank.  But this year, we finished at the preschool, after six years of  being part of a great community - fundraising, PTA-ing, bring-and-share-lunching, wondering what greeting we'll learn this year (the kids greeted each in other in circle time in ALL the languages spoken...they could colour in the globe).

It was a great six years, and the school contributed so much to my boys' education.

And so, putting no pressure whatsoever on myself, no, not at the end of the year, with one child writing exam, and a house being build elsewhere, and a move to plan and coordinate, and a training program that leaves me with jelly limbs twice a week...I decided that I would crochet them each a scarf.  

A Chick Summer Scarf (or, I think the Little Lacy Scarf, in the English pattern book) - designed by fellow SA hooker Cornel Strydom for Ideas Crochet Magazine, available here.

The scarf promised to be quick and easy, to finished within a day or two.

That bit I struggled with...but it was done.
Five scarves.
One polka-dot neck piece.
One set of Nordic Wrist Warmers.

I only have energy to show the pics today.  Plus the packers are breathing in my neck to get into the study with their boxes and plastic tape...


For Irene - to contrast with her dark Zulu skin: raspberry and pink Rowan merino, label long lost.


For Meryl, who wears cerise to warm up winter: this one in Vinnis Nikkim


For Shan, whose blue eyes lights up when she wears blue - a soft,heavy, 100% bamboo, label also long lost


Blue-eyed, silver-blonde Heather got this soft one in Rico Baby Cotton


I Love Yarn's Imagine was Sheila's from the beginning.
She also taught Stephni's boys in in their early pre-school years
and somehow the duck-egg blue-green hues drew on her Scottish heritage. 


Eritrean Adiam often wears white linen and loved her neck piece in steelgrey Vinnis Serina,
 old gold Vinnis Nikkim and ivory Drops Cotton Light.

Miriam is a bright and colourful Zimbabwean, whose first Afrikaans word was "handskoene"
(literally hand shoes, for gloves). So the Nordic Wrist Warmers got an African twist for her.

Cook Kate got two balls of red Netlon and a nr 16 hook, which had her grinning from ear to ear.  She saw me starting on a giant doily with black Netlon, and was overwhelmed. Crochet is also popular in her Zulu culture, but she's never seen the oversized hooks and yarn.


That is it.  I think this was the fastest I've ever crocheted. They all loved their gifts - happy about that. 

Now, I'm moving house.  Next time I sit down to type will be from the shade of the Outeniquas, can't wait!

Another Baby Blanket - Call the Midwife

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December has flown by and so has most of January and I've been in my new town for six weeks now, but my books are still all over the place and there are six or so boxes to still unpack,
but for now we're focusing on raising some walls, 'cause suddenly my dogs can jump and now they're escaping and the one came home with a fish yesterday.

A fish.  
Real one, not frozen.

We're not allowed to keep fish in this complex…but there is a small seasonal stream running near our house, although I can't imaging it harbouring fish now.

And we had the most concentrated flow of visitors anyone just moving in can have.

But I managed to do some hooking!

I completed a large floor doily V.2 in netlon, which will also be frogged, as I'm still not happy with that pattern.

Another Little Lacy Scarf for MIL, who like it very much, thank you,  and my aunty has also ordered one.

And the Call the Midwife baby blanket - 13 days after little Baby J came into this world!

I worked very sporadically on this, taking time on the road when a passenger:


Going through the Huisrivierpas, I can't hook, I must look at the most beautiful of mountains

This was en route to my gran, whom we visited for the day.


Taking time for our selfie. She turned 90 this year!






- 0 -

My background with Call the Midwife began when I was asked to fix an old baby blanket, which turned out to be in this pattern*.  It was a really sweet blanket, and I thought it would be nice to make, when, lo and behold, during that same time the pattern came through Blogland, inspired by the tv series "Call the Midwife".

No need to try and figure out the pattern then!

An conveniently so, a friend was expecting a baby, so off I went, with a different colour pattern in mind, but in the end deciding to keep it simple now.

So simple that I edged it with a row of SC.

The pattern is easy enough, although not a fast hook, and makes for a nice baby blanket.  

I used Vinnis Nikkim in Washed Denim, Baby Blue and Natural.


Photo taken on my 3m long stoep table of oldOregon floor planks

I think I might be done with baby items for now :-)

There's some serious winter blanketing to be done here…and I've already begun…while also still working on the summer throw, Projek Bohemia V.2.


And have a look at this lovely pattern, by Hilda Steyn of Yarn in a Barn blog and online shop…available in her Ravelry profile as from today: 


Lover's Lilies - Hilda Steyn

I'm nodding off.  But still there are 25 cupcakes to ice for the 7th birthday tomorrow!

Zzzzzzzz


*Links to HelloHart blog are currently broken, while they might be switching to another platform


A January Festival - Dias Festival in Mosselbaai

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I've never been a big fan of festivals, be it music, culture, grape-harvesting or hunting.  However, I do find myself now in a town with festivals happening left, right and centre; so I thought - let's go with the flow then!

First up - the Dias Festival - Where Cultures Meet in Mosselbaai.

This festival celebrates the landing of Bartholomeu Dias's at what is now the town of Mosselbaai in February 1488.  Dias was a Portugese seafarer sent down south to hopefully find a route around the tip of Africa in order to find better spice (and other) trading route to India.
(Gavin Menzies also hold interesting, though highly controversial views about this).

So Dias continued a bit further east, to the mouth of the Boesmansrivier, before being forced to back by his crew, who might have been dead scared to continue.  On the return trip, he actually only "discovered" the Cape of Storms (later named the Cape of Good Hope). 

Off we went, with one eye on the gathering class and a Plan B at the back of our minds.

Plan B immediately turned into breakfast at The Blue Shed, while waiting for the rain to abate.

Then we ran out and saw...

…vintage tractors on the dune.



…a Morris like my mom used to have, right down to the colour!
(highly excited)



…remnants of the Portuguese parade
(the procession came past in …rain, so we watched from inside :-)



…something to eat.  Although well-known and wide-spread, it's the first time I've actually seen corn on the cob being sold at an event /bazaar like this.



But now the rain set in again, and no amount of promises of the Zheijing Wu Opera Arts Troupe, Indonesian dancers, more street parades or nothing was going to keep my men here.  

So we got a lovely takeaway lunch


Lamb curry roti, anyone?

…and scrambled home.

Coming up…Harvest, Port Wine and Mampoer festivals, Literary, Klein Karoo Arts, Pink Loerie and Oysters, Speed, Forest Marathon and Rastafarian…I'll try it out! 




Anja's Blanket - a year on

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Around a year ago, members of Ons Hekel shared in the grief member Katinka's daughter  Anja died. She underwent heart surgery during December, started her recovery and even posted on the group to thank everyone for their well wishes.  

Her sudden death was tragic, a shock to all.

The response at Ons Hekel was amazing. Someone suggested hooking a comforting blanket for Anja's parents, in purple, her favourite colour.  Katinka's sister put it together, and soon a blanket in all shades of purple was presented to Katinka and Tinus the first Anja blanket.

And then, as with a snowball, the Anja blanket got a life of it's own, and a movement grew out of this one blanket.  A whole new group was created on Facebook - Anja Blokkies Trooskombers - with the sole purpose of creating comfort blankets to those who lost a loved one after the date of Anja's death.
The group stands at around 1700 members today, who are all either knitting/crocheting squares, putting them together, or providing moral support. 

One hundred blankets have been delivered, with another 50 in production.

There have already been 230 requests. 

 After a year, this project has grown beyond belief and has brought healing and comfort to so many people - it is a blessing to Anja's family and all involved.

Katinka said: "The spirit of love and goodwill that we as a family have experienced and are still experiencing through this initiative of a lady called Sharon, is amazing. It is incredibly humbling to realize that somewhere, someone has take the time out of their busy lives to make a square in rememberence of somebody they don't even know. My sister has already received more than 50 blocks and still they keep coming. There are no words to express how this loving gesture is helping us through this difficult time. Thank you....Katinka and family."

And recently:  "...  since my Anja died exactly a year ago, the Anja Group that grew out of Ons Hekel determined my future...and put my mind and future on a positive and inspiring path."

--0--
Today, a baby was born, a grandchild to Katinka and Tinus, a baby that carries her late aunty's name. 

A whole group of crocheters waited for this little one, waited and counted the days and minutes until we saw the first photo of Heidi Anja. 

May she bring joy and even more healing to this family who has suffered such loss and has healed so much, and now is such a blessing to other.


Some blankets already delivered.  Look closely - each one has a purple "Anja Square" with a red heart.


This is a blanket production line!

God bless all involved.

A universe of Sophies

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You couldn't live in this universe and not know about Sophie's Garden, or Sophie's Universe!  

Every day, when I think I've seen the prettiest version of this pattern, another one comes up.  

Sophie's Garden is the brainchild of gifted crocheter Dedri Uys, a SA girl livin' in the UK now.  (Just look at this Ravelry page!) The design was named after a friend's granddaughter, Sophie (said friend being Kimberly Slifer, who runs the Sophie CAL with Dedri).  Most people use the African Flower centre motif, but I have also seen some beauties using the King Protea.

So obviously, Ons Hekel is also abuzz with Sophie.  This is a small selection of what has been coming through Ons Hekel and sister group Playing Hooky!

Photos - Beatrix Snyman, Alet Scott, Lynette du Toit, Melanie Claessens, Elza van der Merwe,  Margaret Burger, Heidi de Bruin, Madeleine Engelbrecht, Wilna du Toit, Erica Cloete, Michelle Groenewald, Sophia Botha, Jenny Botha, Hanli van Tonder, Barbara Celliers, Anita Roux

How do you choose??

Look at this one with a King Protea centre…

How beautiful is this?
Made by Adele van der Merwe


Dalena White took hers on a outing…

First to a room with a view:

Water, mountain...


Yes, the flat-topped one!


Sophie's Garden in the Cape Town Waterfront


Then Loma Groenewald followed  up with a visit to the Union Buildings in Pretoria:


A view over the capital


Adding colour to the sandstone


Love these buildings, love Loma's work.

(A massive yarn bomb is planned for these steps in April, when the 67 Blankets for Mandela Day plans to cover them with…21 000 blankets! This is to celebrate our (shaky) 21st year of democracy.  Wish I could be there!)


These Sophies are all beautiful.  There are hundreds more at The Official CCC Social Group on Facebook.

Listen to this beautiful tale off the CCC…

"My mom is blind and is usually unable to share my joy for the things I crochet because she can't see the colours.  Sophie's Universe is different.  All the fp/bp stitches allow her to feel the pattern and I'm so thrilled about it!  I can finally share this yarn madness with her!…"

--0--

My Sophie will be coming muuuch later.  And smaller.  But a King Protea I will make!







A monster-pouch for his recorder

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My little one started recorder lessons this year...so he wanted a little bag of something for his recorder.


Out came the crochet hook, 'cos the sewing maching is 22 years old and SO in need of a service it's not even funny.  Acrylic yarn it was going to be (out came the Elle Pure Gold), in red, to be visible for those mornings when you're running around, frantically looking for the recorder.


It took about 20 stitches or so, and then rows and rows of SC, until the strip was twice and a bit longer than the recorder.  




Sewed it together...





 ...glued on two wonky eyes and a split tongue, and hey...




 ...there's your monster :-)



(and now Big Brother wants a pouch for his drum sticks...I am searching  for some grey)

My sisi's blanket for Laura

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While I'm slowly nearing the end of my summer throw, I can at least brag with my sisi's Elmer Blanket.

She's good at making beautiful gifts for her in-laws, my sisi, and this one was made for her SIL Laura:


Perfectionist, disciplined - look at the neat stitches.  I can only dream ;-)


This was her first project done in Colours of Grace, of which she bought a bagful last year during the Yarn Indaba, and upon starting, immediately ordered more.

Colours of Grace is a 10 ply, hand-dyed organic cotton, resulting in a beautiful, slightly mottled effect, especially when when using a dense stitch pattern like she did. 


A simple join in Natural


She made one square per ball, using 28 colours


"Here it is"
View from above


Oreo the cat also tried to claim it :-)


Elmer Blanket pattern can be found at Little Tin Bird's blog


A last view in the harbour before to its new owner:


Who can spot the Irishman? Clever man - he wasn't going to let this beauty blow into the water!

Colours of Grace can be ordered from Hilda at Yarn in a Barn, who delivers internationally.
Note that some of the current colours will be discontinued, but a new set will be released soon - we're looking forward to see the new colours!

Shamrock bunting day!

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It's that time of the year again!




When I wear my silly green sock with shamrocks on, put on my dainty silver shamrock that my aunty brought from Ireland, make the best mash potato, have a little bit of a teary smile when thinking of my sisi living far away on that beautiful green isle, have a shot of Jameson then,  take the Irish flag to school and read the kids the story of St Patrick, and show them a real clover, and have them searching for four-leaved clovers in their backyards in the afternoon.

Going on a Guinness search now-now, to make Jack Monroe's deliciously looking Guinness brownies.

And, as usual - a tiny shamrock bunting - this one adorning the neck of the leprechaun the Gr 1 teacher with the Irish name dug out of her store room this morning :-)


Easiest, pretty garland pattern here

I made this bunting with Moya Yarn's organic cotton in Apple, available from Yarn in a Barn and Scaapi

A roundup of more St Patrick's crochet patterns is available at Crochet Concupiscence.

Last year's St Patrick's post here.


Happy Paddy Day. 

Hope you find a pot of gold!

Christmas in March

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Christmas in July happens when you get this gift of Moya yarns:


Six colours in my basket!  What shall I do with it?

The very next day the new Ideas magazine hit the shelves, with a shawl pattern that had a very interesting motif...mmm, I didn't want a shawl, but I could do something with that Alek Arabesque...


...this is the wrong size hook.  Nr 3.  Don't go there.

Yes, it is also a very pretty star!

This was such a beautiful evening, I just didn't want to come in from my stoep.
 Even better by candle light. 

The star accompanied me for a view days, all the way to school,
 - waiting outside music class - 

...and on a quick overnight trip to a nearby beach. 

I was sitting outside with MIL, when two ladies walked pasted and stopped to see what we were doing - but then they became more interested in my grip! When learning to crochet, I tried out both ways - The Knife and the Pencil - and first gained control using The Knife :-)  But it looks like I might have a funny way of guiding the yarn with my left index finger - this baffled them.


A demo of The Knife 

The  pattern hooks up really quickly.  It actually turned out a bit larger than I thought it would, so I meddled a bit with the first round, trying out doubles instead of trebles, but in the end stuck with the trebles.  I used JAYG to join the starts directly.

Four little stars, waiting for some more.

And then I had a tiny little pile.

All done and ready to be hung somewhere.


Now where shall I hang it come Christmastime?

There are some antlers in the kitchen and outside on the stoep...

Or maybe in a window?




Moya Yarn is a DK, but on the thinner end of the spectrum.  The recommended hook size is a 3.5-4.  I used a 3, because I wanted a smaller, tighter star - but this was very difficult to work with.  I also didn't use a good quality hook; the point was too sharp and the process was slow and tedious.
(For the St Patrick's bunting I used a 3.5 Prym, which was an absolute pleasure.  I'll be trying out the nr on project nr 3, and 4.5 on the one after that. 

Moya Yarn is available from:
Moya Yarn
Yarn in a Barn

The Alek Arabesque pattern was published in Afrikaans and English in Ideas Magazine.

What I made with Moya - A yellow lacy scarf

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When I received my gift pack of Moya Yarn, I didn't immediately have a plan with the Canary yellow yarn.  I chose it because it looked lovely, and I knew something would come up.

And so, something did.  Easter break was approaching,  as was our upcoming 3h roadtrip for Ironman South Africa and I would need something for my hands :-)

I've had the image of a loose, little lacy scarf in mind, more of a kerchief than anything else, so I took some internet patterns with me, as well as two of my Japanese crochet books.


First off was a pattern from this book:


Pretty, but it wasn't going to have the right, drapey feel. 


Second try was this one...

...great idea, but now I though another yarn would be more suitable

So I settled on this one:

...I would wear it the other way around though!


This pattern is from this book, that I bought from Pomadour24's Etsy shop

She stocks all kinds of incredibly looking books - I want to buy more and more and just sit on the stoep and look at all of the pictures.


In the end I only started out on our way back!

Passing a wind farm near Humansdorp


I took some time hooking in the car and during a pit stop at The Heath, just outside Plettenberg Bay. The boys played on the mini zip lines, the dad recovered his sore and tired body with some craft beer, and I cooled down with home-made ginger beer under the humongous trees outside. 




Nearing the end I realised my edge might be a tad more ruffley than the pattern indicated...but seeing as that my Japanese doesn't really extend much beyond konnichiwa to read any of the descriptions on the pattern, I declared it totally acceptable and ruffled on:




Having a look at the shape - mmm....can do with a good block, and the symmetry...well yes, the symmetry isn't 100%, but hell... worse things happen in the world and it will be draped loosely.

(Taken on a FOGgy morning)

Relaxed and stretched out, let's play with the asymmetry then :-)

(Taken that same bright sunshiney afternoon)

And I could wear it to church the next morning, cool and foggy again!

I love how it brightens up grey and will surely use it often during our rainy winter. 



I used Moya Organic Cotton in Canary, with a nr 4 Prym hook. 

Dewa mata!


When my Mzansi makes blankets

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Last year some time, Carolyn Steyn was challenged to make 67 blankets for Mandela Day.  She responded by organising an event that yesterday tripled the Guinness World Record for the largest crocheted blanket, covered the terraces in front of Pretoria's Union Buildings and aim to hand out thousands of handmade blankets this winter!

In a week that South Africa was not the happiest place, this was something good to focus on.

Thousands of knitters and crocheters had worked on beautiful blankets, to give away to strangers, to people in need, in crisis.  Everyone who has made a blanket knows that you don't do it in a just a few days, and that, for me, is the greatness of this event, that thousands of people had been willing to put in the time and the effort, from grannies to school girls, corporate yuppies to the Sharks rugby team, this is was a collective effort that makes one happy.

When my Mzansi makes blankets, we go big

Today in The Times. Photo: Peter Morey


It started with unpacking and stitching the blankets together
Photo: Carolyn Steyn


Breakfast tv was there!

My friend Kotie quickly walked over, as this is almost her back yard


How amazing is this!  Filling up the terraces.
Photo: Peter Morey



Fantastic aerial view of the Union Buildings and gardens
Photo: Peter Morey


The blankets are still being counted, as some were received yesterday on site and more will be received until July.

I wish wish wish I could have been there!



The hellohart team posted a beautiful selection of 67 blankets plus their favourites.

And remember our yarnbomb of ±630 blankets at the Voortrekker Monument last year, plus other record efforts in South Africa?

My non-random placement of randomly placed squares

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I am (now really) nearing the end of the Summer Throw aka Projek Bohemia V.2

There goes Tommie Cat


I was checking it out for size, out  on the floor and over the bed, and decided that the hooking will Stop Just Right Here, and posted about it on Ons Hekel, when my friend Hilda said I Must Please blog about my seemingly non-random square placement (I explained my line of thinking to her previously and she totally got it when she saw the photo).

(The size is right - the left and right rows hang over the sides of a Q-sized bed).

Now first - I have a Gemini mind.  

Left and right.
Mad colourful and monotonechrome.
Cool and warm.
Noise and quiet.
Order and chaos.

And so forth.

You should see my whole brain profile...it's almost square. Not really dominated by any one quadrant.

See?

So where I wanted to make a blazing technifullcolour blanket, it also had to be ordered.  I can never get random placement right because I have Rules.

Cool must be offset by to Warm.
Tints by Shades.
Hues by Tones.

I make myself crazy with moving squares and stripes around until I get the right order, and then still That One will jump our at me and I will see it ALWAYS.  It's not in the right place.  

I hate it when I look at other "random" blankets and I see dark squares clustered together and it's not balanced on the other side.

I might also be a bit OCD about this.  

So, here's how I went about placing the squares on this blanket (I had a simpler try-out with Projek Bohemia V.1):

Balancing precariously on matress on quite a high bedstead, hence a distorted blanket


Starting out with nr 1, right in the middle of things. 
Then (2) added two contrasting squares, either sides.
Then (and here I wasn't thinking, coz I used the pink) on the other two sides (3).
Now I needed to fill in some corner gaps, so in went the neutrals (4).
And here I ran into trouble, because I LOVED the green (5) and wanted to use 4 here, so it went next to the previous cool colour...horror. 
Okay, flank it it with yellow (6).
Can't use orange now, because I just used it in the edges, so I cringed and went for the lime (7).
Okay, corner gaps, so back to the blue (I loved the blue as well) (8).
Brought in some warmth again with pink (9).
Flank it with turquoise (10) because that will look lovely.
It's been a long time since red, so...red (11).

And so on and so forth.  

And even so, with my rules, I had to break my rules.  

The same with the joins - the idea was to join the squares in very contrasting colours, hence the lime with navy, orange with taupe, green with pink.

And again, I broke the rules.

I'm not entirely happy with the navy-lined orange, but there's no way I'm going to undo anything now (contemplated that for a few minutes).

In retrospect, I could have left out the neutrals.  But then I also didn't want the throw to be too girly, because my poor, suffering husband has to live with it every day as well.

What I AM happy with, is the symmetry, or the balance. I must have balanced colour placement.  It irked me to add the rows on either side to make it hang over the bed (but I didn't want to add it on all four sides).

See, it will fit.
(That bookshelf?  It's the Still To Read.  Giving me nightmares).


So.  Now it's done and nothing is going out or in and I'm working on some border samples.  

My sistah says I always overthink these things.

Can't help it :-D

(So shall I add a row or to of SC in red or navy before I start The Edge? Just to mark the transition??)






Cheap & Cheerful Crochet

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We need to talk about privilege.

Allow me some ramblin' here, because it's been sitting at the back of my mind for quite while now.  It came to the fore again this past week as I followed Jack Monroe blog about her Live Below The Line Challenge - surviving on £1 a day for five days - as she used to do, scraping together balanced, nutritious meals for something like 17p for dinner, 12p for breakfast, using up the last wilted spring onion in her soup, diluting the juice from the canned peaches for a drink, stretching that one can over five days.

And yet we (I) can get so blasé over the origin of our coffee beans, the presentation of our food, how predator-friendly our lamb must be.

Privilege. 

In South Africa we have an ongoing, raging debate over (white) privilege (e.g. ) and the realisation whether you were/are privileged.  

I didn't grow up in an affluent home. Many months my parents were in their overdraft (privilege) within a week of payday.  Yet, there was no question that I would not attend university (privilege), albeit with the help of bank loans (privilege).  And once these were paid off by my dad's pension payout (privilege), I could continue with postgraduate studies where my Hons. and MSc degrees came basically free, courtesy of bursaries, research grants and the like (privileges galore). 

And then one (I) become so used to be studying/working in this milieu, that you (I) can forget that you're actually part of but a small group.  Same when you start travelling, or working as a registered professional. Your (my) privileges become so part of your (my) background, that you don't even realise it anymore. 

For me that realisation came when we returned to South Africa from Aus (privilege) and chose to buy a house  (privilege) in a less affluent area than where we previously lived.  We did this to afford me remaining a stay-at-home-mom (privilege), but still being able to buy the house we wanted, at half the price and triple the stand size compared to where we looked before.  There, many people I met weren't university (post)graduates.  Travel wasn't a taken-for-granted annual occurrence.  So very quickly my casual references to coffee shop this or Canada that or bought such and such or Scotland/HongKong/Nairobi what not became much more guarded, more thoughtful to where and when it may be raised.

Privilege.

While the more affluent acquaintances would raise their eyebrows at our choice of neighbourhood, choice of lifestyle :-0

Now, raking this topic all the way over to hooky - this can so easily happen over a crochet hook and a yarn of wool.  I'll be the first to admit that I do love my German Prym hook (not available in SA, but a very common buy at Kaufhof).  I love pure cotton Vinnis yarn, pure merino, or bamboo, something laced with silk,.  I go glassy-eyed at the sight of Malabrigo at my LYS, or Katia Cotton Jeans, or linen (priviliges ad infinitum)...but I will not shy away from a nice acrylic - and there ARE nice acrylics.  

Managing Ons Hekel, I came to realise that there many hookers who can't afford the lovely natural yarns exploding on the South African market, or who can't access it from their country towns/farms (our postal system is in a shambles).  Now, when you are constantly bombarded by others enthusing about the above, you can either strive to get your hands on one of these, or begin to feel resentful about the fact that so many other are boasting about it, or begin to feel embarrassed to show off your work, as you don't deem it to be of the same quality/to be as pretty.

And these are all valid, true bona fide remarks I have read on the group or received in my inbox.

Privilege dampening the experiences of others.

That is not something I would have wanted to read, that the joy of one would lead to the withdrawal of another.

It's all about the way one expresses oneself, isn't it?

Therefore I'll take even more care of my use of the term "squeak", because even though I might hate the feel of Mirage, it might also be the only yarn another woman can get in her town. Or someone else might actually love it.

Be a bit more mindful about the way I talk about yarns.

So, hand in  hand with our ongoing discussion on colour (the use of, the combinations of) on Ons Hekel, I decided the launch the Cheap & Cheerful Challenge, a challenge to make something real pretty from cheap acrylic yarn. To show that you CAN make a beautiful blanket with Charity. To show that you CAN avoid horrid colour combinations when you work with Chick. That it is not the end of the world if you choose to /are only able to work with Pullskein.

Off I went to my local Checkers supermarket to buy some Chick and this is more or less how far my own contribution is.

Just two colours, grey and denim blue

I promised a prize to the best contribution on the condition that to qualify the blanket then be donated to the Maak 'n Verskil group (Make a Difference).  I've already had pledges towards the prize and quite a few blankies have been started.  Looking forward to see what comes up!


Disclaimer -  I know that not everybody will agree with my train of thought and/or links between these...that's also fine -  the thought is mine.

PS (ed.) - I want to add on to Ale's comment below - she's residing in the neighbouring Mozambique; much less developed than RSA, much less availability of everything.  My South Africa has very different levels of living - you can experience this country as totally First World, or else totally, hopelessly Third World.  Within three, four km of my house there are squatter shacks, bush sleepers - but also houses with more bathrooms than people to use it.  There are people selling household stuff to get money to buy food, there's a guy driving the latest Ferrari.

What I'm saying is - don't feel guilty about buying great quality, expensive yarn...four balls of aforementioned Katia came to my house this week.  I'm just seeing this against the context of life around me, the things we can get so smug and boastful about - is it really that important?  It's not a bloody achievement.  

Just a privilege. 

Ten things about me

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This is a Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Post

Talking about yourself.  This is not always the easiest thing to do, nè, because although there might be a million things to say, what do you actually say? So I'll try and go with the first ten random things that pops into my head. 



1. 
I love my laugh/life lines.  (I'm lucky to not have frown lines :-) . I thinks it adds so much character to one's face, and therefore I will never try to peel it, fill it, botox it. 

2. 
I have ocular myasthenia gravis (which is why I will never botox).  With MG, your overactive immune system blocks the messages from your nerves to the muscles, preventing them from doing their work - I walked with droopy eyelids for a couple of months and my face felt half frozen.  Why would you want to do that to yourself with an injection?
I thank God for my Mestinon pills that I carry with me, and I am even more thankful that I haven't had to use it for 5 yrs now. 

3. 
I train hard.  Because of MG, I want to be strong.  I recently started with CrossFit and I'm growing to like it, and I'm recovering from this morning's bike ride (a new thing :-)

Tut tut, now don't laugh, that's me learning to do a dead lift. Or something. 

4. 
I twirled around a pole.

Not really!  I did Pole Conditioning for 18 months, and that was some of the hardest training I ever did. I have so much respect for anyone who can lift herself up into an invert and then flag (horisontal), what not to say the various methods of climbing, standing, sitting, sliding - sometimes all of this on a spinning pole, and not falling on you head.   It took me a month just to get my feet off the floor for an arm hold.

I trained with these girls.  They're good!

A benefit of Pole Conditioning is Really Strong Arms and Shoulders, because you work on a upright pole (static and spinning), parallel bars and high bar, and the added benefit of that is...stronger crochet arms, elbows and wrists!  It fixed my sore-ish elbow in no time.

Knees to elbow?  Bring it on. 

5. 
I can do artificial insemination on cows.  
(Many moons ago I did a BSc Agric in Animal Husbandry and Plant Production)
(That is why I can also eat pizza while doing in vitro digestibility studies ;-)

6. 
In my life-before-being-a-stay-at-home-mom, I was a professional ecologist. 
After an Honours in Rural development and MSc Agric in Plant Production, I did environmental impact assessments for various types of developments in rural Limpopo. 
I saw some of the most beautiful landscapes in South Africa, encountered women who still walk around bare-breasted, kids got scared of me because I was the first white female they had ever seen, I worked in a village where on the same day a lion was killed (escaped from Kruger Park), I had to stand on top of my bakkie to try and get a mobile signal so I could call for help when getting stuck in deep sand and learnt to drive really fast and really well on gravel roads.

One of my first site visits, Mamvuka village, rural Venda. 


7. 
I fantasise about doing off-road rally driving 
(see nr.6)

I went there.  See, I can do it :-D


8.
I love travel but hate flying.
I've been so fortunate to have visited Northern America, Europe, Australia, Asia/Middle-East, and of course live in Africa.  I would love to see parts of South America, but Antarctica...best leave it clean and untouched by tourists. 

Love the views


9. 
I was named after my grandfather Charl with the second name of Charlé.
(Didn't like it when I was younger,  but now I do.)
(And now I'm really interested in genealogy and slowly researching the unknowns in my family history).


My grandfather Charl, oupa Sakkie.

10. 
I love love love great coffee.  To the point that I would rather have tea if I'm not sure of the way a cappuccino is prepared.  I buy freshly roasted beans at a local roastery and also get my cappo there most mornings.
That is my vice.  

This at my old favourite, Pure Café


That is also where I'm going now, before picking up boys from school :-D

That's it, ten!

(And on the hooky side, the current PHD is a cowl for school.  Then another one!)

To see other blog posts on this topics,  search 6KCBWDAY2







Photographing my crochet work

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This is a Knit & Crochet Blog Week Post, hosted by Eskimimi Makes
- all about experimental photography and image handling - 

I'm not really one for gimmicks and props and my photos tend to be simple. A previous post for this blog week series indicated recurring themes in the way I photograph my work. 

The last year or so I have noticed more bloggers resorting to the all-white background, which makes for a crisp, clear photo, beautifully showing off the detail of the work, the colours and must allow for great fun when you like playing around with styling and such. 

I tried it once or twice...The white cardboard promptly disappeared and was rediscovered as a Transformers-decorated poster in the boys' room! But...I'm also not that crazy about the stark white-out :-)  So I just resort to the nearest surface at that stage:

A darkish wooden background would either be my kitchen table or worktop of the kitchen island...

Both might be Rhodesian teak


A lighter wood is the 3m stoep table...

This one is made of reclaimed Oregon floor planks

Smaller items I would often put on an old tray or aluminium plate (that seemed to have disappeared this morning)...

The 2nd hand tray with broken handle that I need to fix!

(All my things are old, mainly from a second hand shop in Pretoria.  The kitchen table used to be a police desk - I also have a large cupboard, office cabinet, another desk and lab trolley with police origins :-) - the kitchen island was an old shop counter. The matching wall shelves have been customised now to fit above the stove. The stoep table is made of 3m long old floor planks...it's sagging a bit, I might need to get it reinforced!)

And sometimes there's the crumpled duvet, taken on a weekend morning :-D

White enough background, but softer


For more blog posts on this theme, use the tag 6KCBWDAY3.

Pandora's boxes and bags - my crochet stuff

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This is a Knit & Crochet Blog Week Post, hosted by Eskimimi Makes
- my crochet bag, caddy, box, basket...whatever it is that I use -

Today was one of days where you have appointments scheduled weeks ago, those biennial medical ones that you don't just quickly move, but then it turns out that it should also be the day that the dad of the house have to prepare for and depart to one of the hell-hottest places on earth, where people file their teeth and chew khat, and then when is a better day to drill holes and hang things on the wall and tie trees up and such?

I think tonight I might have a whiskey, or half a little white pill.
Or both :-P

So almost late, but back to the Blog Week topic of the day...

Around two years ago I wrote a post about the tools of my trade, which actually included a lot of what could be covered by today's topic.  I still use the little tin, but also an assortment of other containers for PHDs and WIP larger and smaller.

These lurk in the living room/kitchen of our house, or travel up and down with me on a daily basis:

The small mobile basket

I take this when I will have small snippets of time.  The pattern must be a no-brainer, therefor a cowl for school, in plain doubles.  Also in the basket - my prescription specs to drive with, a tiny plastic container with the vitamins I forgot to take in the morning, and a just completed washcloth at the bottom.  


The large mobile basket
The large basket comes along when I will have more time - an hour during the boys' judo class, on a longer roadtrip, sitting around somewhere.  Also an easy project, plain granny clusters in two colours, for my Cheap & Cheerful project. 


Mmm...what would this be?

I have a work corner upstairs, but I'm not going to run up and down every time I need another hook, or stitch holder, so this gem of a little suitcase found at the Hospice Shop in Pretoria, serves as a general hold-all and lives in the built-in bookshelf in the living room.
In there today:  some leftover Imagine yarn (need to take it upstairs to store properly), my Alek Arabesque star bunting, little bits of Colours of Grace and safely in its box - my nr 4 Illona Heritage Hook.


Voila!

Then there is:

A pouch for my hooks

My sis gave me this pretty pouch - see the knitted patterns? I usually use it with one of my mobile projects, holding the hook, pair of scissors, maybe stitch holders etc, but when me made the move down south I placed all the hooks from my tin in here, in order to pack it better.  Some have returned to the tin, but in here you can still find...

...a whole pile of hooks!

Here's most of my Prym hooks, some KnitPro (the flat soft grips), some hooks that came free with magazines, the blue and red also a gift from Germany, the pink one is (was) my sister's plasticised stainless steel hook, her favourite one...until my Boxers got to it...I'm still searching for a replacement in every yarn shop I enter...my Eiffel Tower scissors from Typo (I have a golden pair as well), another tiny one with sharp ends, and a few stitch holders. 

Nothing gruesome, scandalous and/or surprising! But I must get my hooks back into their tin.  Maybe this weekend is a good time for some organising.

For more posts on this topic, search the tag 6KCBWDAY4.


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