How to :: Foundation Half Treble (fhtr) ::

How to make a foundation half treble stitch (fhtr) or if you're using US terminology, foundation half double crochet (fhdc) ::

I love using this stitch and it's counterparts (fdc and ftr) because it creates a much more flexible foundation row for your crochet stitches than the traditional row of chains, it's also a really good way of starting a project if you want to turn and work into the underside of the stitches as it creates really clear loops in which to work into on the underneath. It's also really easy and in my opinion much quicker than the chaining option.

I've put together a little video showing you how to construct the the stitch ::

Design Wars Challenge with Scheepjeswol ::

I'm so excited to reveal my newest design for the Design Wars Challenge. If you don't know about Design Wars, it's a weekly challenge pitting 2 (sometimes more) designers against each other. Usually the designers use the same yarn, sometimes they follow a theme, both produce a pattern and the public votes for their favourite. The last time I took part was back in 2013 before the challenge went weekly, you can see my entry over here. You may remember me posting about starting my design process back in May over here. 

The theme for this weeks design challenge was the gorgeous Sunkissed yarn from Scheepjeswol. This cotton yarn has a hand dyed effect, which produces lovely subtle colour changes, it's also really nice to work with, no splitting, which is pretty rare in my experiences with cotton yarn.

Obviously babies and baby garments are heavily on my mind recently, so I was very eager to turn this yarn in to something especially for my little Effie. Inspired by the many envelope neckline vests she has in her wardrobe, I made this envelope style t-shirt. I absolutely adore this Oceanside colourway and paired it with Scheepjeswol's Cotton 8 in Canary to add a pop of colour to the edgings.

I liked it so much I sized it up for Milo too. I moved the little pocket up to his chest to make it a little more boyish and made his in Rockpool, with a red trim.

My competitor for this weeks challenge is the wonderfully talented Ana of Accessorise, with this gorgeous crochet shawl.

You can cast your vote for your favourite of the designs over here.

The pattern will be available to purchase on ravelry from Thursday and if you use coupon code DWSALE you can get 50% off until Saturday too! 

Life Recently ::

Apologies for my sudden unexplained disappearance, life has been very strange and all consuming of late. Just as the summer holidays got ready to kick off, after over 3 months of waiting we were told we would be ready to exchange on our first house purchase, it's been a long time coming, we've been looking for 2 years, offered on 5 different houses, but finally it seemed as though we were actually going to be buying a house. However just as we were in the throes of packing we heard that the vendors we were buying from had pulled out. It was annoying and frustrating, but not the end of the world, these things happen. Unfortunately though, as we'd told our landlord we were buying a house, he is now expecting us to move out. We found ourselves with 2 weeks to find another place to live. Obviously there is no way we can buy a house in that short amount of time, so we're having to rent again. There was one 3 bedroom house to rent in the area, which we'll find out today whether or not we'll be able to have. It's all been so very stressful and exhausting, but I keep reminding myself to stay positive and really there could be a lot worse things happening than this.

One big thing that has lifted my spirits is the viewing of house on Saturday, a house which is just so perfect for us. We'll be making an offer today and we're keeping everything crossed that finally our luck will start to change. In the meantime, I'm going through all our possessions reorganising it into stuff we're going to need for the next 6 months and stuff to put into storage until we finally finally get a home of our own. In the meantime, I'll be over on pinterest fantasising about interiors!

Wish us luck!

This Week ::

A round up of some of my favourite moments from my Instagram this week ::

How to :: Rainbow Smile Necklace ::

Following on from yesterdays "Crochet I-Cord' post, today I'm sharing with you a little tutorial on what you can make from all that lovely i-cord. I simply made this necklace as a way of using up all the icord I myself had been making, I raided my jewellery making supplies and gathered together a rainbow of cords.

It's pretty easy to put together and such a fun and bright piece of jewellery. Of course you don't need to make a rainbow, I think it would look fab all in the one colour or use a super chunky yarn to make just one big cord.



So if you fancy having a go you can find the i-cord tutorial here, though if you'd rather you can also knit your i-cords.