Baby Clara's gift

I can't believe I forgot to tell about those! This is a baby booties and baby hat set I crocheted for a friend of mine. I was inspired by another crochetville lady to crochet baby boots and a cap for my friend's newborn girl. As it was for a baby, and for a very dear friend, I dig up the most expensive and soft yarn I had in my stash : mohair. I tried to follow a pattern I had but as usual, couldn't stick to it, so I rewrote it (tried to make a decent scheme in the meantime...). The shamrock shape of the booty lace came naturally to my mind, I added a four leaves one to the cap as
a lucky charm, the bumping edge over the booty lace results from front posting the row before the ruffle (dunno if I'm clear...).

The cap is just double crochet with one increase every 4 stitch on every row. The ear flaps are a cluster of 10 treble crochet I included while crocheting the single crochet trim of the border.. . The boots laces are just braids of the (skinny) leftovers from the yarns I used.

YARN : This was crocheted with Bouton d'or yarn "Melody"(80%
mohair, 13% wool, 7% polyamid - 50g=142 yards) I used one ball of yarn for the whole set.

HOOK : I used a crochet hook number 3 (French number... I think
the equivallent is for American crocheters is D, 11 for English ones...)

More pictures:

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pink hat and scarf

This is a scarf I did for my daughter, it's crocheted with a number 4 hook. I used backpost slip stitch (I thought it was impossible to do that) to have a faux knit effect, there's a big flower crocheted in the front to tie it up... The scarf was meant to match this hat I had a lot of fun freehanding (meant to match the pink bolero)...

My daugter happens to like this scarf a lot (this time... lucky me).
She also likes the hat but her father thinks it's ridiculous...

Well... I don't.

More pics:

pacifier holder or porte-tute

I followed Pfirsch's advice and tried the Saranac stitch.

This was supposed to be the gauge, but I thought it was ridiculous to crochet a square and then frog it or leave it aside. My daughter saw it and asked ifit was a purse for her...

I said yes :D

So here's my daughter's "Pacifier holder" or porte-tute ("tute" is the word she's been using instead of "tchuque" since she was able to utter something,I suppose people from Paris say "tétine", but we, Midi people say otherwise).

So here we go for the gauge:

Gauge : 10 X 10 cm = 27 stitches X 9,5 rows

Yarn : Bouton d'or "flash" cristal (light blue) and bourgeon (light green), 88% viscose, 12% polyamide, 50gr/125m, 1 3/4 oz/137 yards.

Crochet hook : n°3 (USA: D, UK: 10)

I used two different colors just to see what it would look like, and I like the effect. I change colors very much in the way it's done for the interlocking filet crochet technic, i.e the first yarn waits with a stitch marker while I crochet the second one, and vice-versa... I think both right side and wrong side are pretty!

To make the strap I used this very simple twisting method, using four strands of yarn of each color. The button is a big glass bead, the button hole is just a chain reinforced with single crochet.

To make the purse, at the end of the gauge I increased slightly to be able to fold the top and create an opening/closing part, and I crocheted the same number of rows minus 2 (to have sides). then i sewed the bottom and one side, attached the bead, made the button hole, et voilà!

She's very happy with it, and so am I!

edited to add :

I was asked how to make the strap, so here's a how-to... tell me if I'm not clear :p

1. first you choose the length of your strap : you need at least four time more
2. cut the required length of yarn and fold it once
3. fold it gain and insert a pen in the fold while you hold the other end
4. if you're alone, tie the end somewhere high enough to be able to grab the pencil, let it hang and make it rotate (like the blades of a chopper), when the strand of twisted yarn begins to swirl upon itself, pull it holding the pencil and continue twisting
5. if you got help, have one person holding one end while you twist the other one, holding the pencil; when the strand of twisted yarn begins to swirl upon itself, pull it holding the pencil and continue twisting
6. when you have enough tension, grab the strand at the middle, pull the middle very tightly and fold the strand in two
7. when both ends are joined, release the middle
8. smoothe the strap running your fingers from end to end
9. you're done

Happy crocheting!

Happy New Year 2006

I wish you a happy new year.
There's a song that says that joy is like a candle light : it glows and brings light, but it's fragile and must be preserved, or it will die.

Take care of your flame. Preserve Joy and Happiness

- ! - Photo by Fubuki - ! -