Project #18: Small Crochet Basket

As you have probably seen in my previous post, I made a little basket to hold some of the bits'n'pieces I need on my desk. I don't like having too much stuff lying around on my desk and this basket helps me keep the small things together.

It is made after a really easy pattern. I used a super bulky yarn in colours matching our living room and the rest of my desk. The whole basket is made with double crochets. The base is crocheted in rounds increasing until I thought it's big enough. 

I followed (once again) the pattern from the book "Crochet with One Sheepish Girl" but made only the first 3 rounds for the bottom. Otherwise it would have become too big. 

The sides are made from 3 rounds of double crochet (changing colour inbetween) and ended with a round of back post single crochets. This finish is my own idea and makes the rim more stable.

I'm quite fond of crochet baskets and have already made few, e. g. this one. They are really handy. Have you ever made a crochet basket? What are you keeping in it?

Home Office Makover

Spending more time working at home during the last few months I became a bit dissatisfied by my desk situation. So far I used a secretary desk (or escritoire) which I thought was ok. But given the circumstances that I'm writing my phd thesis and the most intense phase just began, I now have to work at home more. Since I spread lots of books and dokuments while working, the seretary surface turned out way too small for REALLY working. 

It took us quite a while to figure out a good solution as our flat is quite small and there is only a tiny space in the living room for squeezing in a desk. So we put in this dark tabletop you see in the photo. 

In small spaces you have to see that there is as little stuff as possible on your desk. So we hung up my computer screen on the wall and installed a shelf for my laptop above. There is room for notes on the pinboard or under my clear writing pad. Books and bigger things can be kept in the shelf under the desk. However it was still a very small desk and probably not big enough for spreading all my stuff while working but we didn't want to change the furniture in our living room.

So my husband came up with the great idea to build a variable tabletop inside the cabinet on the right. The doors on the outside remained and he added a wooden panel from the inside. The doors are now linked and can't be opened the usual way but have to be folded out. You can see the result in the next photo. This way I've got a lot of desk space for spreading all my working stuff. When I'm done for the day I just fold it back up and it looks like an ordinary cabinet (with just the slit in the door but I don't mind). Isn't it fantastic?

Of course I had to add some nice little decorative things to make myself feel even more comfortable when sitting at my desk. I put some photos of my family and friends onto the walls because I like having them around. 

My pinboard became nicer by sticking washi tape all over its wooden frame and adding some pompom pushpins (see onesheepishgirl.com). 

I made a little crochet basket to hold the little bit'sn'pieces I essentially need on my desk which is going to be in the next post. And one last thing I just had to do is pimping the handles of the cupboard hanging above my desk (just didn't like them). A super bulky yarn and a simple crochet stitch around them did the trick. 

So, how do you like the ideas of my home office makover? Any more ideas for small office spaces? Love, Kerstine.

Project #17: Scallop Stripe Cowl

Hi there, it's finally time for a new project. The first one this year. I've got several projects in my head or on the go right now but last weekend I was really inspired by this cowl. The pattern is from a crochet book I got for christmas (and which I badly wished for): Crochet with One Sheepish Girl by Meredith Crawford. I've been following Meredith's blog for a while now and I like her modern design projects. It's important to me that things I crochet don't look like they're only worn by grandmas and in my opinion she really does the magic.

So this is her Scallop Stripe Cowl (the photo is from Meredith's book). I chose different colours because I wanted to use some of my yarn stash (see my goals for 2015). I found some skeins of "Rödel Polar" in my stash which is a super bulky yarn for hook size 9 to 10 mm. 

I also think that this combination of dark blue and sunny yellow comes out really nice. It reminds me of the sea and the beach in summer holidays which combines well with the scallop stripes. I've also seen it named as shell stitch. 

The cowl is pretty easy to make if you have just a little experience with crochet (and if you don't you can learn it from Meredith's great book) plus I think it was quite fast to crochet as you' re using super bulky yarn. Despite the instructions in the book I did only 2 repetitions of the pattern as it was big enough for me as the yarn causes to cowl to stand up (and not to slip down as many cowls do). 

So all in all it's a great garment to wear now as it's still winter in Germany and I sometimes need a little reminder of summer. But don't get me wrong - I like snow - but all in good time!

4 days in South Tyrol

My husband and I spent a few days over New Year's in beautiful South Tyrol with my family and some friends. We stayed at a nice little hotel in the mountains near the town of Bruneck. The hotel is really secluded because you have to leave your car at the carpark and walk up the valley for about 15 minutes to get there. But with the snow the little walk was rather enjoyable. The hotel was very cosy (including a spa) and they served great food. The fun part however was to get back down to the carpark as you could take a sleigh ride from the hotel back down.

We visited the nice little town of Bruneck one day. The christmas market was still going with cute little huts, crafts, mulled wine and food specialities. We also climbed up the hill to the castle where you have a wonderful view over the valley.

We had also planned to do some winter activities on this trip. There wasn't much snow in the valleys so we were a bit disappointed at first but on the mountains and near our hotel, there was enough snow to do some sleighing and cross country skiing. This is a ski trail near one of our favourite mountains in South Tyrol.

On New Year's Day we went hiking for a few hours - a great way to forget all the wine and champagne from New Year's Eve (haha). Wonderful winter sun, a stunning scenery and an awesome nature were a very relaxed way to greet the new year...

Have you been on a trip anywhere for christmas or New Year's? Hope you can feel the sun on your skin when you see these photos. Love, Kerstine

Hello 2015!

Happy New Year! Here comes the "what happend last year and what am I planning for this year" finally from me too. I think it's not too late yet though most of the blogs I regularly read have posted this already. 

I've been on holidays a bit over christmas and New Year's and last week work has quite absorbed me. I also needed a bit of time to think about the last year which was my first year of blogging. I've just had my first blog anniversary (can't believe it's already this time!).

... and before you think you're at the wrong blog - yes, I changed the name again - I know - again! I just wasn't happy with the old one any more. In contrast to the last two names, I didn't think about it a lot this time. Within the last two days it suddenly struck me. As most of my projects on the blog are green and the blog is green and I love this color, it just seemed natural. However this name also stands for my general love of bright colors. 

Crochet Slippers

Infinity Scarf

Bunny Egg Cosy

But back to this post's topic:

What happened last year? Here are my publishing statistics:

• 25 posts (this makes about 2 posts a month)
• 16 creative projects, including
• 5 knitting projects
• 8 crocheting projects
• 2 paper projects
• 1 other project (the knotted bracelet)
• 1 tutorial (the Easter Bunny Egg Cosy)
• and 2 travel reports.

I believe this is not too bad for a blog's (and blogger's) first year. Plus I even reached my goal of more crocheting (as I've been a knitter initially).

Certainly, I have plans for the blog in 2015:

• Publish more blog posts: As I often thought "this should go on the blog" last year but then didn't get round to post it, I'd like to blog at least once a week this year. However this makes a lot of more posts so I can't promise ;-)
• Show more finished projects: Throughout last year I made quite a few things that I didn't show on the blog yet. Some of them were presents (you don't want people to see it before you give it to them) and there are some, I just made without thinking of posting them. So I'm planning to show you some of those things throughout the year because they turned out really great (e. g. my very first sweater!!!).
• Blog more about travels: I have itchy feet and my husband and I normally go on several (short or longer) trips during the year. I found that I really liked blogging about Brussels and London, so I want to show you where we're off to more often. 

Grand Place, Brussels

 Besides, I've made some plans concerning my crafting - which naturally goes hand in hand with the blog: 

As my yarn stash is really overflowing at the moment, I'm planning to straighten it up and use yarn from my stash for new projects as often as possible. I love buying new yarn but there's no point when I'm not using it, so I'm gonna try to keep yarn buys down and only go yarn shopping when it's REALLY necessary. I'm excited what I'll find in my stash and which ideas I'll come up with.

Another point is that there are some UFOs lying around or hiding in my stash (you probably know what I mean). I want to finish some of them or unravel them and use the wool for something else if I don't want to finish them. Whenever I start a project this year, my focus clearly lies on finishing it.

Yarn stash

So that's about it. I'll do all I can to stick to these plans but you know what it's like, so maybe to reach 80% of them are a good goal for this year.

Now it's your turn: What are your (crafting) goals this year? What would you like to read and see on my blog? Love, Kerstine