hey jute

I have such odd­ly shaped feet, it’s quite dif­fi­cult to buy shoes that are com­fort­able. Shoe-shop­ping is always a time-con­sum­ing ordeal. So I thought, maybe I’d cro­chet my own shoes! That way I could make them cus­tom fit and comfortable!

I have no idea how to make shoes, but I thought for sure there’d be pat­terns on Etsy, so I looked, and came across a pat­tern by Wild­flower and Sage. I love that it includes instruc­tion for mak­ing the shoes out­doors ready. There actu­al­ly aren’t very many like this one out there.

Was very excit­ed, went out and bought all the mate­ri­als right after I down­loaded the pat­tern :D I could­n’t find hemp (which is what the pat­tern called for) at the local Michaels and Home Depot, so I bought #48 jute, and start­ed on the soles…

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Jute is actu­al­ly kind of hard to cro­chet with, and I had to use a larg­er hook than called for. No won­der the pat­tern called for hemp. Oh well. I just took lots of breaks in between so my wrists don’t get too sore.

So final­ly I fin­ished mak­ing the two soles. If I make them again I prob­a­bly will fol­low the pat­tern for reg­u­lar width rather than instruc­tion for wide, since I had to use a larg­er hook. I think wide was too wide. But it’s still ok! There I am water­proof­ing the soles by lath­er­ing them in sil­i­con caulk. The fume was stronger than I thought. Ven­ti­la­tion is imperative.

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Slow­ly work­ing on the straps, try­ing them on as I go so the strap place­ments feel right :D I made the insoles with Bernat Mak­er Home Decor, which feels kind of like a t‑shirt yarn.

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And here they’re, fin­ished :D

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They’re actu­al­ly real­ly quite com­fort­able! I think I made the straps on the right shoe too tight though, they keep push­ing my foot for­ward out of the san­dals. But maybe as I keep wear­ing them and the straps stretch the prob­lem will cor­rect itself.

Side view…

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I’m quite hap­py with them! Will find an oppor­tu­ni­ty to test them out out­side sometimes!

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It’s real­ly an excel­lent pat­tern, high­ly rec­om­mend it! :D

Hope every­one have a hap­py rest of the week!

 

 

hongdae

So named because I tried work­ing with this yarn on a project while stay­ing in Hong­dae, Seoul, and because this hip­ster mus­tard yel­low seems to go well with the neigh­bour­hood that is known for its urban arts and many indie cafes.

I end­ed up frog­ging the project that I was work­ing on while in Hong­dae. In the mean­while, the Gink­go pat­tern has been get­ting a lot of traf­fic late­ly and I’ve been think­ing about doing a cro­chet-only remake for those who are not real­ly into sewing. So I thought I’d use this yarn for a new pattern.

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As with all of my pat­terns, I made the gar­ment to fit me, but it does­n’t involve much shap­ing at all and I think it’d be pret­ty easy to adjust size.

Clos­er up of the lace pat­tern :D

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I used:
Mira­sol Illaris — DK weight 100% cot­ton, 5 skeins, 580 yards (you’d need more yarn if you were mak­ing a larg­er size)
4.5 mm hook
Tapes­try needle

Fin­ished measurements:
Bust 30″
Length 20.5″
Length — shoul­der to under­arm 7″
col­lar width 9″

Gauge: 6 dc = approx. 1″
To adjust size, add or decrease mul­ti­ples of 6 ch in foun­da­tion ch.
One could also make it wider for a cap-sleeve boxy-top look.

Pat­tern:

Front:

ch 63

Row 1 (RS): dc in 4th ch from hook, dc in every ch across, turn (61 dc).

Row 2–33: ch 3 (counts as 1 dc through­out), dc in every dc across, turn.

Start lace pattern: 

Row 1: ch 1 (does not count as a st), sc in first dc, *ch 2, sk 2 dc, dc in next dc, ch 2, dc in same dc, ch 2, sk 2 dc, sc in next dc* repeat from * to * till end of row, turn.

Row 2: ch 5 (counts as dc and ch 2), dc in first sc, ch 2, sc in ch 2 sp, *ch 2, dc in next sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, ch 2, sk next ch 2 sp, sc in next ch 2 sp*, repeat from * to * till last sc of row, ch 2, dc in last sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, turn.

Row 3: ch 1, sc in first dc, *ch 2, dc in next sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, ch 2, sk next ch 2 sp, sc in next ch 2 sp*, repeat from * to *, end­ing with sc in 3rd ch of turn­ing ch, turn.

Rows 4–12: Repeat rows 2–3 four more times, then row 2 once more.

Left shoul­der:

Row 1: ch 1, sc in first dc, *ch 2, dc in next sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, ch 2, sc in next ch 2 sp*, repeat from * to * two more times, turn.

Row 2: ch 2, sk first ch 2 sp, sc in next ch 2 sp, *ch 2, dc in next sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, ch 2, sc in next ch 2 sp*, repeat from * to * once more, ch 2, dc in last sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, turn.

Row 3: ch 1, sc in first dc, *ch 2, dc in next sc, ch 2, dc in same sc, ch 2, sc in next ch 2 sp*, repeat from * to * once more, turn.

Row 4: ch 1, sc in first sc, [sc in ch 2 sp, sc in dc] twice, sc in ch 2 sp, 2 sc in sc, [sc in ch 2 sp, sc in dc] twice, sc in ch 2 sp, sc in last sc. Fas­ten off.

Right shoul­der:

Attach yarn to the begin­ning of row 12 of lace pat­tern at the 3rd ch of turn­ing ch. Work the same as left shoulder.

Back:

Work the same as front until shoul­ders. Repeat lace pat­tern row 3, then row 2.

Left shoul­der: Work rows 3–4 of shoul­der for front.

Right shoul­der: Attach yarn to the begin­ning of row 14 of lace pat­tern at the 3rd ch of turn­ing ch. Work the same as left shoulder.

Assem­bly:

With wrong sides togeth­er, sew shoul­der seams together.

With wrong sides togeth­er, sew side seams togeth­er, start­ing at the base of the 2nd dc row below the start of the lace pat­tern, and sewing to the bot­tom edge of the garment.

Turn gar­ment right side out. Work one row of sc even­ly around the col­lar, basi­cal­ly work­ing 1 sc in each dc, sc, and ch 2 sp. Then work one row of sc even­ly around each of the arm­holes. I find that it turns out pret­ty even when I work 1 sc in each row-end, and 1 sc in a space between 2 rows.

Weave in all ends. And we’re finished :)

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As always if you spot any mis­takes or have any ques­tions please feel free to drop me a note, and I will cor­rect or try my best to assist!

Hap­py first week of summer!

 

 

water’s edge, now in dutch! :D

Saw lots of vis­i­tors to the Water’s Edge pat­tern yes­ter­day, thanks so much for vis­it­ing! Did you know that the pat­tern is now also in Dutch? :D Thanks to a very gen­er­ous blog read­er, Lisa, who trans­lat­ed it. This is the first time my pat­tern is avail­able in anoth­er lan­guage :D You can see the pat­tern in Dutch here on Haak Infor­matie.

Hap­py weekend!

 

summer wanderings — doors open

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It was Doors Open Toron­to at the end of May. We try to vis­it one or two build­ing every year. This year we decid­ed to take the long trek to Fool’s Par­adise, the for­mer home of Cana­di­an artist Doris McCarthy, who lived to be 100, and donat­ed her home to be an artist-in-res­i­dence cen­tre after her passing.

Her home was the first one built on this stretch of the road. She designed and draft­ed the blue­print for the house.

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As soon as we entered the front door we were greet­ed by this rug, made by McCarthy.

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Paper owl guard­ing her desk and all her tools still. “Like she nev­er left,” said the tour guide.

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“The Chap­ter Room”, which she built to write her mem­oir. It is the cozi­est room I’ve ever found myself in.

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Per­haps a sun­ny read­ing nook.

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Her beau­ti­ful chan­de­lier and her beau­ti­ful arc­tic landscape.

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The tour guide told us that McCarthy built all the cup­boards in the kitchen by mak­ing card­board mock-ups.

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Neigh­bour­hood chil­dren used to skate on this pond in the winter.

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And at the edge of the back­yard is the cliff of Scar­bor­ough Bluffs.

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There were vis­i­tors picnicking…

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And paint­ing :)

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After our own pic­nic we explored a near­by park. The dan­de­lions were like glow­ing orbs lin­ing the path.

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Look­ing down from the cliff. The water was so blue.

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Next time we’ll vis­it the bluffs from below the cliffs so we can see the lay­ers of sediments!

Hope every­one is hav­ing a good weekend!

 

this week’s awesome finds

All the sum­mery stuff! :D

Cut fox print, also great for t‑shirt! :D From Patch­work Cac­tus.

These cat donuts are soooo adorable. Orig­i­nal recipe is not in Eng­lish, but Google Trans­late does a good job! From Schoen Und Fien.

So pret­ty and sum­ma­ry, straw­ber­ry short­cake in a jar <3 Looks sim­ple enough for non-bak­ers like me to make, espe­cial­ly if I buy pre-made pound cake… From Make & Takes.

Cutest jel­ly­fish I’ve seen! Pat­tern from One Dog Woof.

Clothes­pin fairies for rainy day craft par­ties and sun­ny day gar­den par­ties. From Crafts Unleashed.

More rainy day crafts! Loo roll nin­jas on Kids Activ­i­ties Blog.

These are the most gor­geous dish cloth, inspired by old-times linoleum floors. Pat­tern on Mason-Dixon Knit­ting.

This is just plain awe­some. The tuto­r­i­al uses colour gel fil­ters, I’m not sure where to get those, but I think for a small­er ver­sion tis­sue paper will be OK. From Oh Hap­py Day.

Enjoy the sun! :D

in transit

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Was look­ing for a project that would be small enough to work on while tak­ing pub­lic tran­sit. I find it a great way to de-stress to/from work and deal­ing with rush hour traf­fic. (And so it is also nec­es­sary to learn to knit while stand­ing in a mov­ing train — it’s quite a skill, if I do say so myself :D)

I found this love­ly pat­tern on Rav­el­ry by The Yarn Juice. I’ve always been par­tial to side­ways tri­an­gu­lar scarfs with con­trast­ing stitch pat­terns and colours. This pat­tern is perfect.

I start­ed on Vic­to­ria Day hol­i­day while tak­ing the bus to my par­ents’. This makes wait­ing for the bus much more tolerable.

day1

On the street­car to the beach!

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Post-long week­end morn­ing… but look, we got seats! This hap­pens like once every 6 months. I’m real­ly pleased with how the pur­ple con­trasts with the var­ie­gat­ed lime/yellow yarn (which by the way I got in Hal­i­fax, hand-dyed by East Anchor Yarns, and I’m so hap­py to incor­po­rate it in some­thing I can wear :D).

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Fast-for­ward to week­end again, tak­ing the long sub­way ride to Scar­bor­ough Bluffs (more on that trip later).

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This is me bind­ing off 7 days lat­er. It’s a super quick knit! (And yes, that is a Michaels bag with more yarn in it for my next projects.)

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Arriv­ing with a fin­ished scarf! :D (iron­i­cal­ly, there was a sched­uled clo­sure in the sub­way line that week­end, which made our trav­el time quite a bit longer. Well, more time for knitting!)

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I’m real­ly pleased with how it turned out. I love every­thing about it. I love all the dif­fer­ent tex­tures lay­ered togeth­er when it’s wrapped around the neck. And it’s wide enough to drape over the shoul­ders. It’s far too warm to wear it right now but I’ll be sure to bring it with me every­where comes this fall.

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I used worsted weight yarn and 6mm nee­dles, rather than DK yarn and 5mm nee­dles as called for in the pat­tern, because I have a lot of worsted weight scarp yarn. It’s real­ly a great way to use up scarps. I think I will make anoth­er one as a gift. I also got to prac­tice using cir­cu­lar nee­dles, which I nev­er real­ly liked using. But it’s great for knit­ting in transit.

Hope every­one’s hav­ing a good weekend!

 

 

ode to nyan cat

Need­ed to make myself a new wal­let, I thought I’d make some­thing fun :D

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The Nyan Cat pop-tart! :D

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That’s not real­ly a wal­let, one might say. More like a card­hold­er, one might also say. I guess one could use it as a card hold­er. I made myself a tiny wal­let this size when I start­ed work­ing at a cof­fee shop near­ly a decade ago. There were no lock­ers in the back­room, so I made a wal­let that would fit in my jeans pock­et, so that it’s always on my per­son as I worked. I’ve been using the small wal­let ever since. My bank cards and IDs fit snug­ly in it. And the few bills I have I’d just fold them up to fit them in.

In case any­one finds a cro­cheted case of this size use­ful, I’ve made a chart! :D And a few notes describ­ing how I made it.

chart

The fin­ished size is about 2.5″ x 3.5″.

I used worsted weight yarn in tan, pink and dark pink, a 3mm hook, and a tapes­try needle.

  1. With tan, ch 13
  2. sc in every ch across (12 sc)
  3. Repeat row 2
  4. Begin fol­low­ing the chart adding the pink and dark pink, using strand­ed cro­chet technique*
  5. At the end of the chart, you’d have 18 rows alto­geth­er. Don’t fas­ten off, cro­chet 18 more rows with tan. Fas­ten off, leav­ing a long tail for sewing.
  6. With wrong side out, fold the piece in half cross­wise, sew the sides togeth­er. Weave in ends, turn right side out.

*Tips on strand­ed cro­chet for this project:

  • The first row incor­po­rat­ing pink (3rd row of chart) is wrong side, as are all the rows with just pink.
  • All the rows incor­po­rat­ing both pink and dark pink are right side.
  • Chang­ing colours: in the stitch before new colour, yo and draw up a loop with old colour, yo with new colour and pull through loops on hook.
  • Car­ry the strands of colours not in use as you cro­chet and wrap the strands in the stitch­es you make. When work­ing on the right side, car­ry the strands of yarn on the back of the work. When work­ing on the wrong side, car­ry the strands of yarn in the front of the work.

Do let me know if you have any questions! :)

Have a good rest of the week and week­end, everyone!