Crochet

KOGO Quest Completed

July 23, 2017 by Tessa Leave a Comment

So I haven’t been back in while, I discovered that there were 950 spam comments waiting for me after not cleaning them up for 4 months anyway I just thought I’d update you on how the KOGO quest ended up.

My KOGO quest was a success I even managed to over stretch my goal of 5km, I ended up crafting approximately 7.5km of items for donation. My donations included 1 double blanket 1 single blanket, 1 cot blanket, 1 scarf 4 beanies of different sizes, 1 set of baby booties and several squares.

It doesn’t look like much when it’s piled up, but I’m sure someone out there is nice and warm under those items. 🙂

Single blanket

-Tessa

KOGO Quest

March 20, 2017 by Tessa Leave a Comment

So this year I’m participating in A KOGO Knitathon I am committing 5km of yarn to the project, so far I’ve gone through 3.5km of yarn, the rest of my projects will be much smaller and more intricate. I’ve donated about 2.5kg of yarn to KOGO directly. I’m working through all of my old acrylic yarn so I can finally get up to all of my beautiful cotton, only one more shelf to empty and it’s all gone 🙂

My first major project for KOGO it fits a double bed and it’s approximately 3km.

I call it the ugly scrappy blanket.

Market Day

November 8, 2015 by Tessa Leave a Comment

Today myself and Aspen from Baby Bears Blankie https://m.facebook.com/Baby-Bears-Blankie-719809918123983/ ran a market stall in at Bundoora Extended Care Centre, for once we each earned more than we spent on the stall hire (yay) so you could say it was a successful day, not as successful as we would have liked but it wasn’t bad for a non craft market, I’m not sure when we’ll hold another, some time next year.

I took the stall as a good opportunity to work through more of my acrylic yarn, I’ve now whittled down my single colour acrylic to one shelf, which is definitely a positive.

Overall it was a good day out, extremely exhausting but good.

Tessa

Hooded Cloak

February 15, 2015 by Tessa Leave a Comment

So a long time ago I said to myself ‘do you know what I need, I need a hooded cloak.’ So I went searching for a pattern on ravelry and found this one http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hooded-cloak I fell in love with it instantly. Next I had to find a yarn that I like the sort of matched the weight required, I found a yarn called Moda Vera – Jester – 50grams, composition 70% acrylic, 30% Wool, which had a purple mix (yay)

This is the primary yarn I used for the cloak, I edged it with a turquoise mix of the same brand which you can’t quite see in the pictures.

I had to buy over 40 balls of this yarn to complete the project which was rather costly, but completely worth it. The pattern worked up surprisingly quickly for how large the project was, it came out to be 2 kilograms which makes it a really heavy wearable blanket, which is so warm that it makes Australian winter feel like summer. when you wear it because it is so heavy it fells like a big warm cozy hug, I wear it when I need comforting or when it is super cold. I did have a bit of trouble hiding ends as the weave is a little loose so the ends pop out sometimes making it look a little dishevelled at times. Overall this was a beautiful project to make and wear, I don’t have many places to wear it to, but I’m glad I made it.

If you look hard enough you can see me sporting my favourite pug pyjamas

The cloak comes out to being about 3.5metres wide and 1.6metres tall not including the hood. I apologize for my dirty kitchen floor, it’s the only room in my house with enough floor space to lay the cloak flat.

Happy hooking – Tessa

Long Time No See

September 23, 2014 by Tessa Leave a Comment

So it’s been quite a while since I last blogged, I’ve been very incompleteist lately starting too many new projects and not finishing anything. I have a few interesting things that are in the works, such as a couple baby things (this year has become the year of the baby with two being born this year and one early next year) and I have several wash-cloth pictures that I can upload but I don’t want to bore everyone with mostly the same thing, plus they’re all mostly belated wedding presents for my partners friend which I really should finish :/.

I have to say that the biggest project that I have taken on lately has to be the most exciting and very much different to the stuff I normally make, my best friends are getting married next year and they are going for a naturalistic pagan wedding that is completely their own, and it’s not going to be stupidly extravagant. I’m super excited for them, so what may you ask will I be making for their wedding, I have to honour and the time to make the brides veil, which is going to be worn as more of a head dress than anything, so I don’t have to be careful about vision obstructions.

Anyways here are a few of the motifs that are going to be on the veil, maybe I haven’t really made up my mind about what exactly will be going on the veil I’m just experimenting at the moment.

Hopper’s New Collar

August 6, 2014 by Tessa Leave a Comment

Hopper’s Tale

So a few months ago we started fostering a little guy that we named Hopper, he was a sweet little shy guy who was terrified of people but he simply loved our current dog (Shredder), and as he started warming up to us, he came to be one of our family member, but the day came where it was time for him to be adopted out. We were nervous for him and sad to see him go, but we knew he would be going to a loving couple, we hadn’t considered how affected our current dog Shredder would cope with the situation, she was mighty upset that she no longer had someone to snuggle whilst outside. After three days with his new family Hopper returned to us, he was overwhelmed by the idea of moving and a new dog to contend with. He was shaken that was until he saw Shredder, who was just as happy to see him. One week passed and that was when we made the decision to adopt Hopper, not just for his comfort but for Shredder as well, they were simply inseparable, and so came to pass how Hopper joined our family, we couldn’t be happier with our sweet little shy guy.

Hopper – Jack Russel, Shredder – Pug X

Hopper isn’t particularly fond of the camera.

I’ve been collecting a few different things that I intend to do some crochet accessories with and I finally got around to trying out making collar, and why not start with making one for your own pets.

Hopper also has a matching coat to go with his collar but it is sitting in my sewing pile.

Adjustable Pet Collar

This pattern is best worked when you know the size of the dog the instructions for this pattern are specific for Hopper who’s a small dog but the collar itself is for a small to medium sized dog. I recommend that you measure the circumference of your dogs neck and add 50% of the original measurement in order for it to fit and be adjustable. I can be a little fiddly but it’s a relatively quick thing to make

Collar not recommended for use with a lease as it may stretch.

Equipment:

1 crochet hook 4.00mm

small amount of yarn colour of choice

I used Thorobred 8ply acrylic in two different colours

Sewing cotton

1 sewing needle

1 yarn needle

1 Tri glide clip (2mm inside)

1 Clasp slide buckle (2mm inside)

1 Circular ring or D shaped ring if you have one (2mm inside)

last three items in picture below – can be found on eBay

Stitch Abbreviations:

ch =chain

sl st = slip stitch

sc = single crochet

rw(s) = row(s)

st(s) = stitch (es)

Method

Ch desired length I ch 101 for a S-M dog.

row 1 1 sc in the second ch from the hook (in the back bump only), sc in each remaining st ch 1, turn.

row 2-3 1 sc in each st.

Fasten off

weave in ends

sew ends at appropriate places follow pictures below

I recommend that you sew the ring into place so it doesn’t move all over the place

Enjoy 🙂

Dog Jumper

May 11, 2014 by Tessa Leave a Comment

So I haven’t done any posting for a while, I’ve been super busy crocheting away at a few large projects, or simply not finishing anything. Winter has set in early this year here in Australia so I figured it was time to treat the pets to some clothing, enjoy.

Before my dear foster dog Toby departed for his fur-ever home I made him and my own dog jumpers, I still need to alter the pattern so that my dog Shredder has a fitting jumper, who knows the one I made her may fit a different dog out there.

As you can see below Shredder’s jumper is a little large, another attempt is required to get the sizing correct.Shredder

For Toby’s jumper I added 9 stitches to the original pattern and an additional two rows as he is quite small and he didn’t need much extra from the original pattern. You can’t really see it under all his fluff. The main colour of the coat is a light grey with a darker grey used for the neck and the edging

Toby

Thank you and happy crocheting.

Tessa

The Pattern can be found at : http://stitch11.com/xs-dog-sweater/

Ezio Sackboy Doll

April 14, 2014 by Tessa 2 Comments

So after many hours guess who is finally finished.

This doll is made of general acrylic yarn of several different brands

Alteration that i made to this pattern include using safety eyes with white felt rather than buttons as the item is a gift for a toddler and I wanted to avoid there being a chance of choking

This item was meant to originally be hollow and have a zipper in the body, but I wanted him to have a stuffed body.

Many hours were poured into this doll as it has many little details which required attention for example the hair which is knotted to the head 2 strands at a time with approximately 200 knots that were involved.

Overall I simply love this cute little guy he was worth the effort.

The pattern for Ezio Sackboy can be found at

http://goldenjellybean.com/youtube/about/ezio-sackboy/

Ladybug Set

April 9, 2014 by Tessa Leave a Comment

Here is the completed Ladybug set, the booties and nappy cover were made using existing patterns but they had to be altered so I could use 4ply yarn so they would be soft enough for a newborn, and so each item would be nice and matching.