Crochet flower squares: part 2

Work in progress: Crochet flower squares in various stages
Work in progress: Crochet flower squares in various stages

Following on from my earlier blog I have now completed my crochet flower project. In the end I opted to make a cushion (16 squares were enough to make lol).

The finished crochet flower square cushion
The finished crochet flower square cushion

Using a combination of four colours, plus the cream base colour, I crocheted 16 squares each with their own unique colour combination. I then crocheted the squares together after reading these guidelines on the Attic24 blog, which gives a really neat finish.

The finished crochet flower cushion
Another view of the crochet flower cushion

I wanted to keep the back of the cushion quite plain. I made a chain that was a multiple of two and did a simple tr in the first stitch, dc in the second stitch, and repeated this along each row. I therefore ended each row with a dc and started the next row with a tr and repeated the pattern. This creates a really strong structure and I love the pattern. To make it easy to remove the cushion cover I simply crocheted two pieces and buttoned them together.

The back of the crocheted cushion with two fastening buttons
The back of the crocheted cushion with two fastening buttons

I chose to make mine into a cushion but they are so versatile that you could easily make them into a blanket, bedspread or a bag (to name but a few ideas).

Crochet flower squares: part 1

Work in progress: Crochet flower squares
Work in progress: Crochet flower squares in various stages

Having recently re-discovered a love for crocheting I’m always looking around for inspiration for my next project. One such idea that caught my attention is the crocheted flower-square. After a few failed attempts at trying to make up my own pattern (converting a circle to a square didn’t quite work. My mum found this really good tutorial on nittybits blog.

Nine crochet flower squares in position
Nine crochet flower squares in position

I’ve used four different colours for the flowers and have so far made 16 that are all unique colour combinations.

This is still very much a work in progress and I can’t decide whether to stop at 16 squares, and make a cushion, or whether to carry on and make a throw. They are very quick and easy to make…decisions, decisions lol.

Edwardian tiled floor restoration

We live in an Edwardian home and when I pulled up the carpet in the hallway I was really excited to find the original black and white tiles there. I was relieved to find the majority of the floor was in good condition with only a few small patches that had been filled in with concrete.

edwardian floor restoration

The first job was to clean off all the carpet glue and paint splashed. We used patio brick cleaner and a lot of elbow grease.

edwardian floor restoration

The floor came up really well. The next step was to dig out the patches of concrete. This proved to be more challenging and required brute force and unfortunately this loosened considerably more tiles than we expected. The troubled patch doubled in size!

The first job was to clean off all the carpet glue and paint splashed. We used patio brick cleaner and a lot of elbow grease.

The loose tiles were easy to put back in place but I really didn’t want to use reproduction tiles to replace the missing tiles. After a bit of searching online I was fortunate to find someone on Ebay who had just replaced their outdoor Edwardian path and had literally thousands of the tiles for sale. These tiles were extremely dirty, with 100 years of London pollution ground in to them, but they did eventually clean up.

edwardian floor restoration

Once all the tiles had been stuck in place and grouted, I gave them a coat of sealer to finish them off. We’re really pleased with the finished product (and probably saved £100’s by undertaking this ourselves).

edwardian floor restoration

Knitted poncho & crochet trim

adult-poncho

I remember wearing a poncho when I was a child, that my mum knitted for me, and I haven’t thought about them since. Until last year when I borrowed one to wear, as I was a bit chilly, and loved it and thought I’d knit one of my own. I started it in early 2012 and didn’t finish it until that Christmas (I was distracted by other projects) but finally, here is the finished piece.

I was planning to just knit it, but having completed it I thought the edges could do with a little finishing touch. Over the Christmas holiday my mum worked out a pattern to give it a curly edge. I played around with this and opted for three different stitch patterns, mostly to conserve wool as I was nearing the end of my ball of wool! It is so warm and fits perfectly.