A crocheted heart

Quite often simple is best. And a spot of creativity can do wonders.

I’ve many crochet projects on the go, and most are larger items which will take a while to complete. A few weeks back - you can tell by the sun! - I felt like I needed to finish something, but wasn’t sure what. I’d started to sew in some ends of my vintage hearts throw, and being the magpie that I am, I’d kept the longer ends. Along with the scraps I’d deemed too long to throw away, but too short to be worthwhile using on a larger project, the blues - and I mean literally the blues - called me.

And so it wasn’t long before I’d crocheted myself a heart. My plan was a crocheted flower, but somehow this happened. I’d searched through several patterns, and this is a mix of many. It seemed to work well as a one-dimensional piece, and with a crocheted string soon added, it worked as a keyring.

I have it in mind to try a double sided version, adding some stuffing - but not just yet. For the time being though, my little heart of blues makes me smile every time I pop out the back. There’s definitely room for improvement, but as I said before simple is good, and so is done.

Succulents on the terrace

You’ll know I’m rather partial to a succulent or two, and so having been relatively ‘starved’ of ogling other people’s succulents when I saw these perched on the wall overlooking the main lawn at Standen, it didn’t take me long to be standing in front of them.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

I mean, who could be disappointed with the dusky grey pink variety above or the pink, orange and yellow flowers of the one below.

And that large rosette. Pure heaven. Though my succulents tend to do this, and migrate to the edge of the pot. I’m glad that that is usual behaviour, however frustrating that may be.

But I think the one that stole the show was this pretty, pale pink flower. How delicate, and how exquisite. And even better it let my iPhone capture its detail - always a winner for me.

That was quite an unexpected succulent fix, but one that I didn’t realise I would enjoy quite as much as I did.

A laptop sleeve

A while back I scratched the outside of my laptop after a weekend away. I thought i’d placed it carefully in my bag, but clearly not. I have a laptop bag, but when you’re taking more than a laptop then usually I pack around my clothes. Somehow though, things went wrong and I was a bit upset with myself. I’m the sort of person that likes things nice, and keeps them nice and in good condition so it was all a bit grrrr.

So when I saw someone share the idea of a crocheted laptop sleeve, I was sold. Full of enthusiasm I started straight away, crocheted two squares, and four triangles and there it stopped for quite a while. But finally, I’ve picked it up again, and finished it.

I used pale blue and mint cotton double knit, a strand of each for some extra padding and a 6.5mm hook. I chose a fairly dense square pattern, which is offset with the four corresponding triangle shapes forming the pattern. Of course I followed a pattern for the main pieces.

I’m not usually much of one for a pastel approach, but I love these colours together. In fact, I’ve just made myself giggle a little as I’m sitting here dressed in pastels too, very uncharacteristic of me. A pale pink top and pale blue shorts, in case you’re wondering - I’m not quite matching the laptop cover.

But when it came to putting it together I went a bit off-piste and free-form. Mainly because I needed it a little bigger, so once it was sewn together I added a few rows to extend each end. Thinking that in my more clumsy moments a laptop might slide straight through my sleeve, I decided to enclose one end. I thought it would be stronger if it was crocheted together, rather than sewn. And it worked, but I should have thought about that earlier on. Ideally the squares should be front and centre, rather than top, bottom and over (or under), if you see what I mean.

But you live and learn, and in any case I’m pretty sure unless I told you, you wouldn’t have known.

Now I need to make another one, and put that lesson into practice. I’ve threatened to make MOH one, but he keeps crinkling his nose up at me, so I’ll keep it as a threat for use when needed!

And despite what he thinks, I’m going to enjoy using this and will be proud to pull this out of my bag.