My First Crochet and Knitted Lace

Remember these?

Well here is the final product.

A crochet cotton bikini top (pattern found here)

and a knitted dish cloth. (pattern found here)

Not by any means perfect - but I am pleased with them non-the-less.They were made to send to my friend in the US for her bridal shower (and should arrive any day, so I can finally post about it!) The hand-made tag that goes with them says "Something to wear while you do the dishes". I hope she likes them - she is a great gal with a fab sense of humour, and was also the one that got me into knitting something other than scarves and kept encouraging me to learn to crochet! Here is her old blog where you will find some of her creations, and a link to her new site.

Knitted Sock for an Iphone Tutorial

Thank you so much for all your kind comments yesterday! Being that I have only been a member of bloggy land for a few months now, I have to say, I get so excited reading your comments and encouraging words - especially when they are from people that I don't know that have taken the time to have a look at seaweedandraine AND leave a comment! (There have been a few times I have gone tearing around the house fizzing with excitement - crazy I know, but it is true). So you see, even though I haven't had the chance to meet you all, your thoughts mean a lot.

There were quite a few people commented yesterday on the phone sock, so I thought I would whip up a quick tutorial for you...

Phone sock for an iPhone

I used 8 ply yarn and 4mm needles.

1. Cast on 32 stitches (34 if they have a phone cover or if you are knitting in a 4 stitch pattern like the one below).I used long-tail cast on because I love the finish that it gives, but you could use whatever style you like. Edit: The Raspberry stitch made the phone sock a bit tight - I think if I were doing it again I would make it 38 stitches!).

2. Start knitting!
Knit what ever style you are aiming for. In the first sock I did, I just used stockinette stitch. For this one I raspberry stitch, which I found here and goes basically like this:Row 1: purl

  Row 2: K1, (K1,P1,K1 all in the same stitch), P3 tog, K last stitch

Row 3: purl

Row 4: K1 P3 tog, (K1,P1,K1 all in the same stitch), K last stitch  Some of you mentioned that it looked like blackberry stitch... I'm not entirely sure. I did have a quick look on YouTube, and this stitch is listed a few times mostly under Raspberry stitch, but they are both there. There were also a couple of different patterns listed as Black berry stitch. Call it what you like :)

3. Knit until your work measures 13cm in length.

4. Cast off.

5. Fold in half and sew together using mattress stitch (I did - but incorrectly. I have since found a good tutorial here)

6. I finished the second sock by weaving beading elastic through the top stitches to pull it in tighter and stop the phone from sliding out too easily (my SIL didn't have a phone cover, but I was working a 4 stitch pattern, so I didn't want her phone to slide out in her bag).

The first phone sock I made I stitched in some thin twill tape to make a loop as my other SIL wanted to attach a short lanyard so she can have it secured to her wrist when taking loads of files from the lab to her office. This is totally optional.

So there you have it. Piece of cake! Have fun :)

My Creative Space - Raspberry Phone Sock

I have been away from blog land for the past few days... we had a house inspection yesterday, and my creative space was spread all over the house (need I say more???), but I'll share with you some of the latest.

I finished the raspberry stitch on the weekend

 
...which was just as well, seeing as I was giving to my sister in law for her (early) birthday before she heads to Canada and the States for a month. We had a great family-day-get-together.

I have to say I actually like the pattern made on the back of the fabric

... but I would never make anything just for that - it's just too fiddly! What do you think?

Also here is the finished photo of the Slubby neckie from the list. Sorry it's upside down. I gifted it to her for her birthday also.

First Day of Spring!

Yay! I have been waiting for Spring to arrive since (it seems) forever, and now it has finally arrived. And with it some explosions of wonderful.

Some strawberries that the Jellyfish, Little Clam and Mr. Kelp helped me eat for lunch. These were a first for Little Clam, and he seemed to have an exquisite time revelling in the squishy sweet juiciness of it all!

Some sweet Daisy thing that decided to put itself in my veggie patch

Some Clivias just coming out in my garden. Sadly these are a little sunburned.

Freesias.

Spraxus.

A miniature Azalea.

AND...

A GIVEAWAY! :) Aneela of Comfortstitching is having a giveaway of some of her gorgeous quilting scraps. Pop into her site to have a look and enter.

Lots of lovely designs to play with (if you win!).