Showing posts with label christmas earrings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas earrings. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 January 2014

Happy New Year and About Crochet Mood Blanket 2014!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! I'm so sorry for the lack of blog posts but I was travelling across the country, visiting family etc, so I didn't really have time to write an update for you all!

I also hope that Father Christmas/Santa was good to you all and gave you lots of craft-related gifts! I received crochet hooks and a case from my uncle and auntie! You may wonder why I need more crochet hooks, but these are in a lovely variety of sizes and have handles! So useful and very comfortable to use. The case is so pretty too so I can now travel with my hooks with pride!

My mum was thrilled to bits with the earrings that I made for her (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to this blog post here!) and has told me that next year I will be receiving an order from her as presents due to the number of compliments she's received! Always lovely to hear :)

So my sister was browsing Instagram, as one does, and came across a crochet project. Mummy_Stacey on IG had the great idea to make a blanket through 2014! The basic idea is to assign colours to specific emotions or moods and to crochet or knit one square/stripe a day/week using the colour that reflects your mood! I thought it was a brilliant idea and knew that I had to make one! There was a lot of chat about a Facebook group for this project so I offered to make one. The group was set up the morning of New Year's Eve and at the moment, there are over 1,700 members! I can't believe how many blankets there are going to be by 2015! Some people are even dedicating to more than one blanket. If you search #crochetmoodblanket2014 on Instagram, you will find many many posts about this wonderful idea!

Several members of the group have decided to do different types of squares. I have some lovely examples here from the Facebook group!


These gorgeous squares are by Janet Stone on Facebook. She explains that the flowers are constant and stands for faith and hope, and the colours will show her dominant mood for the day. The pattern is her own creation! Amazing talent :)

These lovely solid squares are by the very-talented Faye Walsh, also known as Little Dove Crochet. These squares will really make an impact! She is aiming for a colourful patchwork and isn't assigning a colour to a mood, just crocheting what takes her fancy each day!


These wonderful squares have been made by Cara Mia. She has decided not to go for the classic square and took inspiration from the Crochet Motifs book you can see in the photo above. She was originally going to do a different style square each week but now she's not sure because this square works up so quickly!!

I've chosen just to do a basic granny square for my pattern of choice because I knew I'd stick to it then :) I also haven't selected specific colours to moods. My mission for this blanket is to stash-bust so I will just be using colours that take my fancy each day, but it will also be reflecting my mood! Here are days one, two, three and four:


I felt creative on this day, hence the variegated wool!


Brown for boredom because I had a 4 hour train journey back to Nottingham!


Blue for day three because it was cold and raining outside!


I chose light yellow and mint green today because I had a relaxing day :)

Each of my squares will have a white border as a joining colour and I will be joining as I go, using Attic24's tutorial. This means I will actually end up with a blanket instead of a collection of squares!!

Stacey has been kind enough to thank me on her IG for making the group and I have since doubled the amount of followers! I cannot believe it but I am also very thankful. I think that I will make a lot of friends through this project :)

I will dedicate one post a week to #crochetmoodblanket2014 and show you all my 7 squares from the week and why I chose the colours I did.

Come and join the fun on both Instagram and Facebook!!

Thursday, 19 December 2013

Christmas Earrings!

I am very new to making jewellery and I am the first to admit how bad I am at it. I have recently started a new job that sells beads and the bits and bobs you need to make jewellery. Since starting at this shop, I have learnt so much!

I decided to make a pair of Christmas tree earrings for my mum for her birthday present!


I'm not very good at photographing something that's so small! These earrings were made using Swarovski crystals. First, you will need to slide a 4mm cube bead (I used a siam-coloured bead) onto your head pin. Then thread on the sew on flowers in 10mm, then 8mm and finally 6mm in Emerald green, or whatever colour you decide to use. The final bead you will need to thread on is a 3mm Xilion bead. I decided to use a Golden Shadow bead to represent the star on top of the tree and I think it goes nicely with the gold plated fishhooks and headpins I used!

After you have threaded all your beads on, you will need to make a loop above the Xilion bead. There are many ways to do this so check out some YouTube videos (and once I improve, maybe I will make a tutorial!) Finally, attach your trees onto the fishhooks and ta-dah!! You have Christmas earrings!


I hope that you enjoyed this post. Let me know what you'd like to see in future posts on this blog :)