Finnished balnket and amigurumi crochet bunny

Cold weather always makes me want to crochet more. And this time around my head is full of ideas for lots of crochet projects. As I mentioned before I've been making my firs baby blanket. It's supposed to be a part of this baby gift basket/set. I'm not sure what else is going to be in this set, but a blanket (lovey) and a crochet amigurumi toy are a musts. At first I really wanted to restrain myself and make it one piece at a time - first finish the blanket and then move on to the toy. But boy is that a hard task for me :) I always tend on start new projects while the on going ones are still not finished. And this time I did it again. But to be honest it really turned out good this time. I managed to make the toy and still finish the blanket without having to push myself on finishing.
So here is the finished blanket. It's about 13x13'' (33x33mm), few inches bigger then expected because I went went with the flow of the pattern. It's still not washed so it's a bit stiff and wavy.

For the toy I went with the bunny. Always loved them and it seemed like a good fit for a baby's toy. I really had no clear pattern for it, just made it one row at a time :) Having a vision in my head helped, rest is just a case of trail and error. Although for the head I used this great pattern called "The Ideal Crochet Sphere" I used it before, it has few different sizes, it's absolutely awesome and perfectly round. After assembling the parts whole picture came together and I was so happy with the result. Also I made this pink dress for the bunny (it's obviously a girl :)).

Since while making the fist bunny I didn't wrote down any of the pattern I had to star making the second right away while still remembering how it was made. And this time I'm writing down the pattern very carefully :)

For the second one I switched from cotton to baby wool (Merino) and the color is Cream, more like a winter bunny :)

Peacock inspiration

I find myself having a bit of a peacock obsession lately. The colors, shapes and the over all mood of this majestic creature is captivating and some what overpowering. Of course this is not something new to the fashion and inspirational worlds, peacock have been around for quite some time. But for me this fascination helps to see all this from a new perspective. Now I can see so much potential for so many new projects. And let’s face it peacock is not one of the more simple creatures. Let alone the number of colors and hues.

So this all started from a couple of bottles of nail polish. One ordinary day I stumbled upon a new color collection from my favorite nail polish. I picked two lovely colors – apple green and this teal with glitter. They looked really nice together, figured I’m gonna do my nails in that green and use the sparkly teal for the ring finger (Yes I love this trend!♥). When buying these nail polishes I thought to myself that together they remind me of peacock. And that was the trigger. After few days I was working with polymer clay and decided to make some earrings in peacocky colors and this nice swirl pattern so it would look kind of like swirly feathers. It came out beautifully and made me want more of this peacock inspiration. So as always for inspiration I “went” to Pinterest. After few hours of countless images I made a “Peacock” board and got hooked for real LOL. 

Now I’m working on this bead loom bracelet pattern with a peacock feather. Since it’s beauty is mostly in the colors I had to made it in 25 colors (mostly different hues). And after raiding my bead supplies I managed to match only half of those colors. Good thing my favorite (and the best) bead shop is very near my home and my good friend works there so bead shopping is always twice as fun. So I got like 14 new colors (couple of more “just in case”) and plan to by done with the pattern soon. And I’m really excited to start beading this bracelet. Since after this I will have a LOT of peacock color beads left, I feel plenty more peacock project coming up. Right now I’m also making new set (or few sets) of crochet flowers in these colors and while bead sopping I found these gorgeous tiny sparkly cabochons in blues and purples so they will be becoming something too.

Accordingly Cup of Color may be changing it’s color scheme for the time being, we’ll see ;)

That’s it for now, till next time!

Best wishes,

Kristina

Joys of gift swap

This time around i decided to take part in this wonderful gift swap organized by the Lithuania team on Etsy. I love the idea of gifting someone you probably never have met and maybe even don't know at all. And receiving gift from people you don't know is really fun too :) It was my first time in this swap, so deciding what to gift was quite a task. But finally i managed to put together a gift and send it out with best wishes. While getting my present was not so easy as it could seem. The notice about the letter came two days before the post closed for Christmas. The first day was so busy i didn't managed to get to the post office. Next day I totally confused myself with the closing time and almost got left outside the post office in the last minute. It took my fiance a bit of persuasion to the post lady to let us in (she was clearly to eager to close early). but thankfully we managed to get in and I was very happy with my package. I decided to open it at Christmas with the other presents. And what a treat I got! Wonderful linen gift bags with adorable prints and a cute needle pillow. You just have to see it yourself, so here it is -

For all of these wonderful gifts I have to be thankful to Urtė from "Lefthandedcraftclub". She has some pretty amazing things in her shop, and I love the vibe you get in the shop, it feels very cozy and sweet. And now i can say from experience her works are not just beautiful, but high quality too. 

In the end I was very happy with my gift and I will definately take part in the next swap :)

Best wishes,
Kristina

First snow

This morning I got a little shock then I opened my window shutters - SNOW! It was white all over! Although yesterday it seemed like winter is still far away, grass was still a bit green and the temperature was still more like late autumn. Couple of days ago then I heard that most of the northern Europe was being covered in record amount of snow I was not looking forward to that. I don't like the cold and snow is always accompanied by it. But strangely enough I didn't felt unhappy or anything like that and that "Oh no!" felt forced. It actually felt kind of nice. I never argued the beauty of winter, but it felt more than just that, it felt - joyful. Our apartment started to feel even more cozy and warm. It seemed like finally You could feel Christmas coming. So first thing after breakfast I grabbed my camera and went out. It was still snowing and it got much more colder then a day ago, but it was fun. I took a walk around our apartment block stopping at almost every tree and plant it all looked so peaceful and beautiful. I even went into the other apartment that we are renovating and stood there for a minute looking through the window and imagining how it will feel when we finally move in that place.

So this is few pictures I took today. Pretty happy about them :)

Like my fiance said - the cozyness and warmth of your home is the best part of winter. And there is one more thing that makes this feeling even more pleasant and sweet - hot chocolate. Sweet and rich taste of chocolate is magic, and there are many ways to make it even more special. Today I want to share this wonderful idea from "Mrs. Fields" - Chocolate Candy Cane Stir Sticks 

All this winter stuff made me realize that Christmas is really not that far away and my presents are far from ready. Because I always love to give something handmade for my loved ones every year, getting ready is quite a task. But in the end the love you put in those handmade things always makes the diference.

So if You're also thinking of making something yourself here is some pretty neat and quite easy stuff you can make - "101 Simple handmade gift tutorials". 

Crochet pincushion, pentagon

Some time ago I got tired of getting my needles in and out of that special sorting box. And noticed I keep on pinning those needles in some random thread ball lying on the desk. It was clearly time for a pincushion (no idea why I didn't made it even earlier). At first, while browsing the net I found these cute flower like pincushions sawn from beautiful colorful fabric. But it took me a bunch of time to find the right fabric (I’m very particular about these kind of things), and I almost forgot why I needed it (while keeping on pinning my tread balls). And then my new found love for crocheting came. While looking for inspiration on patterns I stumbled upon this gorgeous crochet pentagon pincushion. "I have to make this!" - loud inner voice screamed.
I adapted the simple granny pentagon and it came out perfect! First one was for my mom (she‘s a seamstress so new pincushion is always welcome) and the second one for myself (of course the bright colorful one :)). They both came out very cute and fun looking. So now my needles have a respectable place to hang out :)

Now I‘m making another one, and this one will go into my shop.