The first Bolero I ♥ to wear!

I always wanted to have a crocheted bolero to wear and tried to make a couple of things wearable before, but this is the FIRST one I can wear comfortably and I really love it! It was done over the weekend, you know how excited I was working on the finishings! It came out much much more beautiful than I expected!

Actually I started to work on this bolero several months ago but then I just kept getting distracted by many other projects so it had been in my WIP's bag for a while, until I took it out last week and tried to get it done.

In case you are wondering, I made this bolero using a pattern I by chance found on Picasa, in chart form. I will soon upload the pattern to share you all when I find out where it's hiding in my computer - I just printed it out to follow the instructions and cannot remember what folder I put it in - but it must be somewhere within this small machine!

- Thread: DMC cotton thread No. 10 (1 ball is enough for the whole body, a little of the second ball is mainly for joining and making the borders).
- Crochet hook size: 1.8mm

Don't you just love these lovely fronts?

And a close look at the stitches... It's so soft and the creamy color is just so sweet enough for me to look at it, hold it, and feel it all the weekend!

I love every detail of the bolero, but the most wonderful thing is it fits me sooooooo well, just like it's just for me! See how it looks on me - sorry for the "model"! :)

A look from the back... Surely my tank tops are all ready and happy to go with it!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Wishing you all a beautiful rest of the week!

~ See you soon ♥

UPDATE on Sep 9, 2012:

Here is the link to the pattern on Picasa.

Note: I added 7 rows more for the lower body parts and 3 more rows on the upper parts (as seems the cotton 10 is quite thinner than the one used in pattern).

~ Lovely goodies and an award ~

Hello all, how are you doing? I hope you all had a great weekend and your new week ahead will be a beautiful one!

It's been over a week since my last post, sorry for the silence, work has been quite busy lately! Thank you so much for all your kind comments, your messages, your words of encouragement really made my day!

Well, not much for today post, I just would want to share with you some lovely goodies I bought from a lovely lady on Ravelry last week. She has some beautiful yarn for sale there, I checked out her stash and picked these beauties out:

Two balls of Vanna's Choice Baby, Aqua, one is wound into smaller balls.

Caron Simply Soft in Country dark blue. I see some bloggy friends using this type of yarn very often for their projects and I would want to try also, but it's not available at my local craft store here, so I took all three balls and love it!!

Caron Simply Soft Paints, also very soft and has a lovely variegated colors - Oceana.

Naturally Caron Country, in my favorite color... Soon I will find something beautiful to make with this lovely yarn!

And these Paton's Brilliant in lilac are just so soft and beautiful. This type of yarn has been discontinued, there were only 6 balls left in her stash so I took all. I've been thinking of knitting a top with these, and I'm still looking for a pattern to try!

I've never used any kind of glitter yarn so far, but it looks just cute so I took 2 balls, this can be something fun for my baby projects... ;)

The package arrived quite fast and here is all the yarns I have bought from her:

Look at the picture below, except a set of DPNs size 3 I also bought in the same order, all the rest are included in my package for free! Knitting needles - used and new, 11 pairs in total and a pair of Takumi circular needles together with some stitch holders - she offered them all for free as I was buying her yarns!

Other than that, below is some lovely stuff she included, a small ball of Simply Soft paints in rose garden and some bows, flowers,.. she made for embellishment and gifted to me as well. How nice!

But the best part is this pair of barefoot sandals - also a gift from her! I'm going to have a vacation and these will be something very cute with me on the beach, and very sexy, too! Thank you Denise, for such cute stuff on our first deal! I love them all!

And, one more thing to share is, I have received this "Liebster Award" from Miss Beena Stephy over at Beena's Creations. Thank you very much, my friend, for thinking of me and has passed this award on to me, I'm so honored!

I just googled the word "Liebster" and so fun to know it's German and means "Dearest", or "Beloved"! Go check out Beena's "Dearest" blog, her embroidery is amazing!!!

Thank you everyone for stopping by, wishing your days are all gorgeous!

Take care and best wishes ~

~ Grass and Flowers Crochet Bag

Hello everyone! I am very happy you like the dotty square pattern on my last post. Thank you for all your sweet comments and compliments. I really appreciate! I made 24 squares and here is what I turned them into: a granny bag! Some of you guessed I would make a blanket - that's a lovely idea for my next projects! :)

This bag actually was done, packed and sent to the birthday girl on July 31, but I was unwell and too busy the last few days to post about it. I made the same bag a while ago, with solid granny square pattern and different type of yarn. I'm still using it and love it.

I worked very hard on the lining for this bag. My previous one doesn't have a zipper so I'm afraid to carry important personal stuff like a wallet or so. This time I managed to sew a zipper to secure the bag, and a small zipper for the small inside pocket too.

Even this little piece to hold one end of the zipper took me a lot of effort - sew and unsew - again and again until I got pleased with it.

A look from top with the zipper closed:

I named this bag "Grass and Flowers", as I love the "green grass" look when it was all joined together, the dots in center of each square and the lining fabric are beautiful flowers that I really liked. The only thing is, it no longer stayed with me!

Thank you so much for dropping in. Wishing you all a gorgeous weekend!!!

~ See you soon! ♥

Dotty Solid Granny Squares

I'm making a gift for my sweetie's niece, her Birthday is coming up on July 31. I wanted to make something special for her and finally ended up with these granny squares:

This is a modification of Solid granny square pattern that you may all know. I wanted it to have a dotty look so I made a small round in the center instead of a small square as the original pattern. I had to rip out and start again several times until I was pleased with the result as pictured.

Written pattern of Solid granny square can be found HERE, and HERE is for those who prefer crochet chart. Below is how mine looks - My "Dotty Solid Granny Square":

In case you are wondering, I have written down the modification and am happy to share you right here.

Make a magic circle or chain 6 and join to form a ring.

Round 1: Chain 3 (count as a dc), 19 dc into the loop. Join with slip stitch to the first ch-3 (20 dc).

Round 2: Join new yarn (mine is with a secure knot).

You will work in the stitch next to joining stitch, i.e on the right hand of the first ch 3 (as you will work 4 dc into the same stitch so working in this stitch will be easier than working right in the stitch of joining).

Chain 5, 2 dc into the same stitch, dc in each of the next 4 stitches, * (2dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in the next stitch, dc in each of the next 4 stitches. Repeat from * 2 times more, dc in the next stitch. Join with a slip stitch to the 3rd chain of the first ch 5.

Round 3: From this round and moving forward, using the Solid granny square pattern above until you get the desired measurement. I made a chain 3 at the corners instead of chain 2 as the pattern says. So here goes the round 3:

Chain 3, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in the ch-2 space, dc in each of the next 8 stitches. Repeat from * 2 times more, (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) in the ch-2 space, dc in each of the next 7 stitches. Join with a slip stitch to the first ch 3.

I have made 24 dotty squares, they came out beautiful! What are they for? I will show you once it's finished! It's a surprise!! :)

Thank you for stopping by. Also thank you so much for your kind comments on my posts so far. That means a lot, a lot to me.

Wishing you all a great rest of the week!

Take care and best wishes,
~ LS

~ Sunburst Granny Square

Have you ever seen a square like this before? I was so inspired when I first saw it and couldn't help myself trying it right away! It came out so beautiful! It also has a cheerful name: "Sunburst Granny Square"!

You can find how to make it HERE. This is very fast, easy and fun to make! Go and check out the site, you may love other pretty patterns offered for free!

I just intended to try the pattern so see how it comes out. But after I finished the first square, I just couldn't stop, so I made one more, just one more,..., and I have 4 for the first try! I need to keep working on my current granny square blanket and other WIPs, so I will save this pattern for a baby blanket I'm going to make when my first blanket is all done. Making granny squares is so addicted, isn't it? ;)

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing everyone a happy day!! ♥

~ Till next time, x

~ Simple Pin Cushion with a Granny Square

I made a few pin cushions like this before and love them. I just thought it would be lovely to share if any one of you like it as well and would want to make...

So here is how it's done:

Sew a tiny pillow with a scarp of fabric, it's about 2.5 inch square. Stuff it with some polyfill or some unused yarn like mine. Either will do.

As I'm working on my Flower Blanket so I made a square with the same pattern. You can make any pattern of square that you like. This one is an 5 inch square.

Turn the wrong side up and place the small pillow on like this:

Fold all 4 sides toward the center...

And sew seams across.

Turn your work. You have done a pin cushion with a granny square! Another way to make pin cushion. Super easy just in 5 minutes! Simple but still lovely.

Pin me!

Small, neat and pretty pin cushion...

Hope you find this helpful in some way.

Thank you for stopping by.

You have a great week ahead! x

New Jean Bag from an Old Pair of Jeans

I took this pair of jeans out when I re-arranged my wardrobe last week. I didn't wear it for a long time even though I still love it. When I was looking at it, an idea suddenly came up and must say I was so excited with: I would repurpose this old pair of jeans into a bag!

... And here is how it turned out! I found on Internet there are many ideas about turning unused jeans into many useful things and that inspires me a lot. Finally, I decided to make my own jean bag. Doesn't it look just lovely? :)

I'm not professional at sewing at all, so making this bag is really a struggling job to me, although it looks quite easy. I used the pattern from my sewing book but for the lining I figured it out on my own.

Do you notice the small pocket with pink zipper? This is the first time I tried a zipper for the small pocket inside and was so happy with the result! It came out just so cute! My small stuff will be safer with it!

You know how happy I was to try to get this bag done. I was so excited during the whole progress of making it and in turn it didn't break my hope!

A look from the bottom... I was going to attach the outer pocket on the front only, but my Sweetie suggested to sew one more on the back so both sides will look the same. I must admit he had a great idea! :)

And, of course, the first thing I put into my new bag, nothing but YARN!!!

The size of this bag is 20cm height x 30cm width, so it's completely perfect for this ball of yarn!

No more photos after this one, I promise! I just would want to show you a professional look of this bag :). I love every detail of this bag, the jean fabric, the zippers, the handles, the pockets... I will put my personal stuff in and get it ready for going to work tomorrow!

Thank you so much for stopping by. Wishing everyone a happy rest of the week!

~ Hugs, LS ~