Granny Square throw

With all the scrapbooking I've done lately, you'd almost forget there are lots of other crafts out there as well ;-)

When crocheting became "hip" again last year, I set my mind to making my own granny square throw. Once I'd found some yarn that I liked, I looked for a nice pattern to make a red polka-dot throw.

The nice thing about granny squares: they're managable. You can make as few or as many as you want in an evening. If you'd wanted, you could even bring some yarn and a hook with you and do some crocheting when having coffee with a friend, while waiting at City Hall or during a subway ride...

Having said that, I made a start but am nowhere near finished:

Nine down, approximately 141 left to go...

crocheted hat

After I finished my bedroom slippers, I had some yarn left over and I decided to use it to make a scarf. Then I ran short and had to buy some more yarn. When I finished the scarf I had leftover yarn again, so I thought I'd crochet a hat. You guessed it, somewhere halfway through I ran out and had to buy some more yarn...
Of course Murphy's Law was in full effect and my local store had sold out. So I went to another branch today and finally managed to get some more yarn and finish the hat...

I planned ahead this time and bought some additional yarn to make mittens - they will be posted once I've finished them ;-)

Anyways, I did not use a pattern for this hat. I crocheted a circle and when I thought it was wide enough to fit my head, I just crocheted until I could pull the sides over my ears - LOL.

{photo to follow}

Crocheted bedroom slippers

I found a pattern online to crochet really cute slippers.
However, since I used a thicker yarn and needle, I had to adjust the pattern somewhat and the end result is a bit more, um, robust, shall we say? ;-)
All in all, not a bad result for only a 2nd crocheting project, if I do say so myself!

the materials: 2 balls of yarn and a no. 6 crochet needle (US: J / UK: 4).

After 1 night.

After 2 nights.

After 3 nights. Tadaaah! All done!

ETA: to make the top a bit more snug so the slippers wouldn't slip off my feet, I wove some elastic yarn along the opening.

Bag accessory

A while ago I bought this turquoise Nepalese bag (in Paris, France of all places...). Although I loved the bag, it had a hideous wooden key-chain-type hanger adorning it, and I've wanted to change it for the longest time.

At last weekend's craft fair, I came across little crocheting kits to make a bag accessory. And guess what? They had them in turquoise too!

So that's what I've been upto yesterday evening and this afternoon. It's - literally! - been decades since I last crocheted ANYTHING, so it took a bit longer than it would have taken a seasoned crocheter to make the layered flower. I had to check my newly purchased crochet guide several times to reacquaint myself with the different stitches... A great little project to refresh my memory, though!

 The kit's content.

Progress after day 1: the crocheting part is done.

The final result.