You can also download the PDF below, if you’re not on Ravelry. The PDF includes a visual chart as well as some handy tips on how to keep your place when making the waves. There are also instructions on how to make this into a longer proper scarf if you fancy that instead of a little scarflette. I have been wearing mine around my office the past few days, as I am trying to be good and not turn on the heating during the daytime. I am not sure why but I have some kind of fixation with this at the moment… I guess it’s the environmentalist in me or perhaps the miserly Miko showing up!

Anyway, here’s the pattern… and if your name is Amber, please DO crochet this as you will have Amber’s Waves of Gray!

Waves of Gray Neckwarmer / Scarf Pattern (PDF)

Downloads ahoy!

I picked up the book again before Christmas this year, and I was determined to figure it out. The funny thing was that once I did, the project was really easy and crocheted up in no time. The main problem with the book is that Doris makes reference to other patterns in the book, and you have to refer back and forth to multiple pages in order to make the project. The other issue is that there is no clear indication of which bit you follow to make a gauge swatch, and on any clothing gauge is super-important. But once I eventually pinpointed the bits with which to make the gauge swatch, I was able to figure out the rest, and I am really pleased with this, my first crocheted garment with sleeves and such. I am now actually quite a fan of Doris’s patterns, so I reckon I will definitely make something else from the book soon.

The pattern is a variation on Joelle Hoverson’s Pashmina Cowl from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but I made some alterations to suit my yarn and tastes. I didn’t want the top edge to roll down like Joelle’s, so I replaced this with a few rows of K2 P2 basketweave to make a flat edge that stands up.

Here’s my variation…. cast on and knit away!

Easy 1 skein cowl pattern:

Materials:

Exactly 1 skein Manos del Uruguay Maxima (and I do mean exactly… be careful if you knit loosely!)
5mm circular knitting needles – 59cm or shorter

Gauge:
17.5 stitches in stockinette = 10cm

Finished dimensions:
Aprox 30cm diameter x 33cm total length

Instructions:

• Cast on 96 stitches (or any multiple of 4 to get desired diameter).
• Knit 5 rounds, then purl 1 round.
• Knit in rounds until the length is 26 cm from the purl row.
• P2 K2 for 3 rounds.
• Now K2 P2 (purl the knits and knit the purls from the previous round).
• Do another round of K2 P2.
• Bind off in pattern.

Icy Hombre Poncho Pattern – free download (1MB PDF)

If you have any questions about the pattern, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will try to answer ASAP.

I made a huge mega batch of chocolate chip cookies, and I wanted something festive to put them in, so I once again turned to the biscuit tubs from M&S which I made a flowerpot from last year. Funnily enough, I think my mother in law was more impressed with the container than the gift inside! All told, this project cost just a few pennies as it was made from cheap things which I had lying around in my crafting stash. You can have a go yourself using any old container and a pair of jeans, or any fabric.

Recycled Jeans & Plastic Tub Gift Box

You will need:

• 1 old container (plastic, metal, cardboard or whatever)
• 1 pair old jeans
• glue (I used hot glue but craft glue would work fine)
• small bits of felt
• small amount of yarn (I used cheap acrylic yarn)
• crochet hook suited to the size of yarn
• chalk or pencil

Instructions:

1. Cut down the seam of the legs of the jeans and lay them out flat, right side down.
2. Draw around the edges of the container onto the denim with dressmaker’s chalk or pencil.
3. Cut out your pieces and trim to the correct size. Don’t worry if they are not perfect edges, as the edges will be covered with glue & yarn.
4. Glue your denim onto the container to cover all sides.
5. Cut out felt pieces to make decorations, and glue them on.
6. With a crochet hook, make a chain of yarn the same length as the edge of the container. Do the same for all edges you want to cover.
7. Glue the yarn chain to the edges of the container. You’re done!

Instructions on how to make your own recycled sweater wine cosy:

First, a couple of points to note…

• Make sure your chosen sweater (or jumper for us Brits) is 100% wool, and that the label says handwash only. Machine-washable wool will not felt. The size of the sweater is not that important, but I reckon an XL would be too large and an XS might be too small to fit onto a wine bottle. The one shown was a ladies Medium sweater. Ideally the sweater won’t have raglan or massively bulky tapered sleeves. The straighter the sleeves, the better.
• The whole process is a bit experimental: you can’t guarantee exactly what size your item will come out. Even if you can’t make the wine cooler, you could make other items from the felted sweater, such as hotpads / oven mitts, placemats, coasters, or tote bags. Another idea would be to cut both sleeves off, sew them into a long tube and fill them with old socks, underwear or t-shirts to make a draft excluder.

You will need:

• 100% wool sweater
• Old pillowcase
• Safety pins or old shoelace
• Washing machine & detergent
• Scissors
• Bottle of wine or other delicious beverage
• Optional: embroidery floss or yarn and a large needle, needle and thread, felt pieces, fabric glue or heat-n-bond adhesive, sequins, beads or buttons
• Possibly needed: masking tape or lint brush/roller

Steps:

1. Stuff your sweater into an old pillowcase and tie, roughly stitch or safety-pin the pillowcase shut. This will help keep your washing machine from clogging up with little tufts of wool.
2. Chuck it into the machine, and put in a normal amount of laundry detergent, but NO FABRIC SOFTENER. Now put the machine onto the hottest wash cycle and start.
3. Once the cycle has finished, open the case and check your sweater. Try sliding a bottle of wine into the sleeve. If the sweater has not shrunk enough, you may find that it shrinks a bit more if you run it through another wash cycle. If you are scared of it shrinking too much, you can use a Quick Wash or short cycle. Sometimes it won’t shrink any more, though – it really depends on the sweater.
4. When your sweater is finished with the washing part, take it out of the pillowcase and put it somewhere to dry. A radiator is fine.
5. Some sweaters really shed a lot of fluff, so you may need to remove the excess fluff with masking tape or a lint brush when it’s dry.
6. Once dry and fluff-free, you can cut the sleeve off the sweater. Properly felted wool will not fray, so there’s no need to worry about the edges. You can cut the sleeve to whatever size you desire: you may want a short sleeve that just covers the thick part of the bottle, or if you want one like mine, cut it about where the metallic wrapper on the neck starts.
7. Now you can get as creative as you want. You can choose to stop here and leave it as-is, or you can embellish it however you want. For my version, here’s what I did next:

• Sew 4 darts around the top of the sleeve, so the cooler looks more like the shape of the actual bottle.
• Use a blanket stitch to sew around the top edge of the sleeve for a decorative effect.
• Cut out shapes from felt and adhere them to the sleeve with hot-melt iron-on bondable adhesive (or fabric glue).

Cosy & Comfy Mittens, with Flaps

This is a variation from the pattern in the book:
* note all stitch references are British method as the book is British *

Work the pattern as written up until Row 21 (you should end on a popcorn round).

Row 22: Basically you want to crochet as written the half of the mitten that sits on the back of the hand (the side with the popcorns) and make a chain along the palm. The order of these depends on whether you are working the left or right mitten: Work 17 st as written along the back/top of the hand, then ch 17 and slip stitch to attach (or do the ch first and then the normal pattern bit on the other mitten). The ch form the front of the flap (on the palm side).

Row 23+: Continue pattern as written, working the htr* stitches into the chain you made as if it were a part of the normal mitten. You will end up with a full-width hole on your palm, but otherwise the mitten will look as expected.

After you finish the mitten as written in the pattern, you need to go back and cast on to crochet the fingerless portion, which will cover the hole in the palm and also add some warmth to your fingers when you have the flap open. The fingerless portion is worked in the round in double-crochet* (or single crochet for us Americans!).

• Step 1: Fold open the flap, and find the row where the flap ‘officially’ starts (in other words, where the fold is). You will be crocheting into the back of the fabric on this row. For now, just leave it open but know where you are going.
• Step 2: Join yarn at one side of the hand: pinkie-finger side on the left mitten, index-finger side on the right. This is so you can crochet clockwise along the palm edge first.
• Step 3: Work dc* across the palm, and when you reach the bit where the flap starts, carefully continue your dc stitches into the back of the fabric where the fold is, making sure you follow the same row around. TIP: You may want to skip the first/last stitches on the corners of the fold, as this makes the fingerless portion fit a bit more snugly and therefore makes it easier to open and close the flap.
• Step 4: Continue working in the round, making as many rows as you want/need in order to cover the hole and extend over the base of your fingers. Stop and try them on every now and then. Keep going until you are happy, but not too long or you might find it difficult to move your fingers around and use the flap. TIP: If you find that the palm portion of the mitten dips down a little lower than you’d like, you can add an extra 1/2 row to the palm, and end up on the opposite side of the palm from where you started.

That’s it – enjoy your mittens and play Angry Birds in the snow without taking your gloves off!

Just a really quick little project to while away a few minutes one evening: it’s one of the 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet from the self-titled book. The pattern is called Centifolia Rose and the yarn I used was some freebie yarn that came with a crochet magazine. It really only takes a matter of minutes to make this, and I reckon it would be a great way to use up leftover yarn.

I made mine into a brooch, but there are loads of clever ideas for what to do with this flower (combined with others from the book) over at Ravelry.

I have washed all signs of Bad Kitty away, but still the bed goes empty. Either Dierdre hates it or he’s just being a cat and picking other places to sleep. Here’s a rare moment of him actually in the bed. My brief moment of joy. You can’t force cats to like something, but at least people will wear something you made just to make you feel better

The yarn is a yarn with a conscience: not only is it made from the very sustainable bamboo plant, but the company Be Sweet is based in South Africa and provides women who live in economically depressed regions of South Africa with a fair wage. The artisans who make and dye the yarn are primarily from the Xhosa tribe who live in the Cape Town area. Be Sweet also donate a portion of their profits to support educational development in South Africa. I reckon this makes the yarn a perfect choice for Liz (my mother-in-law) as she spent her working life as a schoolteacher.

The photo shows the work in progress, but as I was crocheting right up until Liz’s birthday party, I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of the finished product. I will have to ask Liz to model it sometime so I can post a pic here. Until then, you can see other pics of the same pattern on Ravelry.

UPDATE: Finally got some photos of my mother-in-la wearing the shawl, so here you go!