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.

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.

Felted bag

Felted bag

Last Christmas I was given a felted bag knitting kit. It took me a while to get around to starting it and then it took a while longer to knit (but I was determined to finish it before the following Christmas!).

I hadn’t felted any knitting before, so the process was unfamiliar to me. The bag was knitted on circular needles and was quite large and flimsy when finished. I then knitted one long skinny handle (only 4sts wide). The next step was to felt the bag and handle. To do this I put them in the washing machine with a little washing powder and a large towel (which apparently helps with the felting process) and put them on a hot wash. When I took them out I was surprised how much smaller the bag had become and how much thicker the pieces were. The next step was to attach the handle and I also added a small button fasten to the top using a simple crochet chain.

I wanted to add a little finishing touch to the bag and thought of making some crochet flowers. I came across a crochet flower tutorial on Mollie Makes and set to work with some oddments of wool I had lying around; sewing a bead to make the centre of the flowers.

Chaise longue restoration

chaise longue before

I was kindly given this chaise longue by my mother-in-law as she no longer had the room for it. I’ve always wanted one and thought it would be a good challenge for my next upholstery project. The fabric and foam were in a poor state (and had lovingly been used as a scratching post by the resident cats!).

I found the most challenging part was removing the old fabric and foam. It’s a repro piece of furniture and had literally been stapled within an inch of its life. It took me weeks to get it back to the basic shell. Luckily for me the piece of furniture was bolted together, so came apart easily leaving me with a base, back rest and arm rest – and thankfully no springs or buttons to deal with (I’ll be happy to tackle these skills later on but not for my second project).

I bought some lovely turquoise velour fabric from ebay and used the old fabric as a template. I bought some new thick foam (6″ for the base and 2″ for the back and arm rest) and rebuilt the chaise in a couple of days. Here’s the finished result.

chaise longue after

This is now being lovingly used by our resident cats!

Fudge on chaise longueDaisy on chaise longue