I wish all of the visitors to my blog a

Holy and Special Christmas.

On the 17th December, my father passed away suddenly

so I will be taking a break from blogging for a while.

~ Gillian ♥

Making Progress...

Just thought I'd share a progress photo of my calico crochet floor rug :)

it is coming on really well and very enjoyable to make

with the exception of a bit of a sore thumb from working with such a big and heavy project...

a small price to pay for what I am hoping will be a lovely piece in the end!

PS...the flooring you can see in this photo is our new flooring!  I took this photo on our kitchen floor, we now only have our lounge room to floor to lay and hopefully we will finish it off this weekend.

Have a creative and lovely week

~ Gillian ♥

Three Granny Stockings.....

Ok....so I have gotten a little sidetracked from making my Calico rug!

But when I saw this gorgeous granny stocking pattern

designed by Michelle from the Royal Sisters Blog

I just had to make some for my children.

I still need to add some cute little pom poms,

I am waiting for a smaller pom pom maker to arrive - oh I know I can make pom poms the old fashioned way, but I much prefer using pom pom makers!

Michelle sells the pattern on Etsy here

and her Ravelry page for this project can be found here

Pattern is very well written and easy to follow,

it is written in UK/Australian terms with US terms in brackets

Lots of great step-by-step photos, well worth the small purchase price.

I used 8ply Moda Vera Marvel & Panda Magnum Acrylic

with a 4.5mm hook.

a little update on my Calico rug 

thank you all for your interest in it :)

I'm almost finished my second ball of calico!

It now measures approx 90cm in diameter.

So far its turning out great!

Trudi asked me how my arms and wrists were coping with the heavy hooking..

Thanks for asking Trudi, so far ok but my left hand thumb is feeling the pressure from working with such a heavy project so I need to work a row or two, then take a break...

its not as hard to hook as the denim was in my

Who said Granny's dont look good in denim bath mat

But I think it will be all worth it in the end ;)

Have a great weekend everyone

~ Gillian ♥

Calico Crochet Rug

 Our little family has been busy since October laying new Bamboo flooring in our home, it is looking so beautiful! We only have the lounge room and staircase to go, we will be working on the staircase this weekend...so exciting :)   I've made a couple of small rag rugs this year and so decided I'd make a large one for our lounge room to add a touch of softness for the kids to lay on and for exercising etc...

 The previous rag rugs I have made have been out of old sheets I had in my linen press, But I decided I would use calico for the lounge room....It is growing rapidly and is much bigger than shown here in these photos and I'm already onto my second ball each approx 1250gms in weight. 

I'm using a lovely chunky 12mm hook and I have torn the calico approx 4cm in width all worked in dc (sc in US terms) with increases when needed...very simple and enjoyable :)

I've got a few projects on the go at the moment....as always ;)

I am almost finished my giant granny square blanket -yay!

I am also hooking another pair of slippers...

But I really want to finish this calico rug before our lounge room floor is finished,

so it is taking priority at the moment.

I hope you are having a delightful day

~ Gillian ♥

Edna Slippers.....

I made these fun little slippers this week....

The pattern came from Crochet Today Magazine Nov/Dec 2011

The pattern is called 'Edna Slippers'

of course I just love anything that has a granny square in it ;)

I used Moda Vera Cardellino yarn (from Spotlight) & a 6mm hook.

They were quite quick to hook, I did make a few alterations to the pattern so they fitted me a little better.

if you are interested about what changes I made

I have noted them on Ravelry page for these slippers here

Hope you are having a creative weekend,

Gillian ♥

Dodecahedron Thingymabob......

I've been busy crocheting Granny Squares over the past month or so

and decided I needed something a little more dimensional for a change this week.....

and crochet doesn't get much more dimensional than this ;)

The pattern is called Dodecahedron Thingymabob, which makes me smile :)
and anything Mathematical is always going to find a home at our place, its being tossed around our lounge room as I type..lol!

Pattern is available on Ravelry

The pattern is Excellent! with lots of photos & well written. 

This was loads of fun to make, quite easy once you have made a couple of points and ss them together.

I decided to put 6mm black safety eyes in the end of each point to add a little something ‘extra’ :)

I also filled the points with plastic pellets (the type used in softies) then toyfil…and added a cat toy to the centre to give it some noise.

The plastic pellets give this a wonderful weight and makes it spin through the air as it is thrown (just make sure that your crochet is tight so the pellets don't come out).