Scarves

I learned the value of a good scarf while sitting in cold university lecture rooms, on freezing winter days, at the University of Western Sydney.










Thankfully my studies are all finished, but as we now live in sub-arctic Wallerawang, a good scarf is a must. I also love a light scarf in the warmer months.






I love the ruffles that hyperbolic crochet gives. And working with 2 strands of yarn together means you can use a bigger hook and get to a finished item quicker!







My daughter Emily is 9 and can now chain and do single crochet stitches. A simple scarf is a great project for beginners.

How to crochet an easy crochet scarf:
[Terms: 'Ch' means chain. 'Sc' means single crochet]

Row 1: Ch 20
Row 2: Sc into 2nd chain from hook, sc into next 18 ch stitches, ch, turn.
Row 3: Sc into next 19 sc, ch, turn.
Repeat row 3 until the scarf as long as you want it to be.
Final row: Sc into next 19 sc, tie off. Weave in ends.
For a special touch, sew a row of matching beads along each of the short ends of the scarf.

Babies Galore

So many people I know have had babies or are expecting. Over the last couple of months I have added new patterns to my etsy shop with quite a few booties.














Maryjanes with a nice wide strap are pretty unisex. It just depends on the colour one uses.




I discovered Lily Sugar'n Creme cotton yarn. I have to buy it from the US and wait a week for it to arrive, but it's worth it. A good exercise in delay gratification. I order through Spin Blessings and they are always very quick to post it out, and they accept Paypal!

Still love Heirloom 8ply cotton, which is light worsted, and I've also started using Red Heart.


I didn't have any boys style booties, so I came up with a little boot design, which can be either short or tall.














These unisex baby shoes are made with Patons Smoothie.















The ladies cloche hat is adjustable (via the ribbon) to fit teen to adult.






These shell scrubbies are quick to make and the bright colours are so cheery. I came up with the design by accident when I was experimenting with new flower designs.




My pattern pack (4 crochet patterns for $10) is going great guns.

Crochet Booties for pretty baby feet.

I was working on a basic bootie design with a strap and had made the flowers with another project in mind. But I just had to have the flowers on the booties and the pearl looks too sweet. They are cotton yarn (light worsted weight = Australian 8 ply). The yarn is Heirloom brand and I love it. It's so smooth and has no fluffy bits like acrylic can have.

I sorted through my yarn the other day. So much yarn, so little time. Harrison sleeps for a couple of hours in the morning, after he watches The Night Garden, and I get a bit of work done.

This pattern is available in my etsy shop.

Love crochet

Lots of late nights watching House, NCIS and other crime shows. And here are the results!

Having a go at crochet design.

I'm currently working on new crochet patterns.
I've made a mermaid tail and top to fit fashion dolls.

GIMP and teeth

First go at blogging. You know how some people jump straight into cold water and others walk in slowly. I'm the latter. So I'm jumping right into this blogging thing. Very caution to the wind, uncharacteristic and exciting. I'm not very computer savvy, so here goes.

After lurking around the Etsy Forums , I found out about a free software program called GIMP. Its image manipulation software. I've been using it to edit pics for my store ketzl.etsy.com and have started creating some original art.

The next step is to print out some of the pics to see how they look.

My little tacker, Harrison (10 mths) is teething. Talk about miserable. He clings on like a barnacle.
And my best girl, Emily (7 yrs) just lost another baby tooth, which she has left out for the fang fairy, with a tiny glass of water and an olive. Yes, the tooth fairy likes olives.