Decorating cookies - First attempt

This is my first attempt ever to decorate cookies using royal icing.

At first, I was thinking about only doing some patriotic flags (on 1st december we celebrate the national holiday of Romania). But then, as I never used before all those cookie cutters I have been collecting, and because outside was snowing (yep, the first snow of this winter), I also created some winter themed cookies.

For the cookies I used the recipe provided by Bake at 350, just that I used brown sugar.
For the frosting I used this recipe.

Crochet snowflake blouse

Somebody asked me a while ago if I can do a blouse out of the snoflake hexagons. She wanted something with long sleeves. Fortunately enough for me, that girl wasn't too convinced about her choice, so I tried to give it a go for myself. After a few more sketches and observations, I concluded that long sleeves weren't such a good idea for this model. Also, for the front and back neckline I crocheted partial snowflakes, so I have a neat border. In the end, this neckline needed a few more sc decreasing rows, to tighten it a little bit. And that was all. I joined the hexagons the same way I did with the corresponding bag, that is single crochet along the edges.

Crochet baby hat FREE PATTERN

I made this hat inspired by Kinga from My hobby is crochet. She didn't write the pattern, so I came with my own version, that I share with with bellow. The instructions are in english. Hope you make great hats for babies in your lives! :)

PATTERN:

I used 3.5 mm crochet hook and Red Heart Baby yarn in two colors, but these can be chosen relative to the age of the baby and available yarn.
Begin with magic ring, A color,
Row 1: 20 dc in magic ring, fasten off;
Row 2 (change color to B): (2dc cluster st, ch1) in each dc, fasten off;
Row 3 (change color to A): (1dc, ch2, 1 dc) in each ch1 space;
Row 4: (2dc, ch2, 2dc, ch1) in next ch2 sp, skip 1 ch2 sp, continue working like this till the end of the row;
Row 5 (attach B color right after the end of row 4): working around row 4, (2dc, ch2, 2 dc, ch1) in each remaining ch2 sp on row 3; before ending this row, make sure to pull toward you the end of the A color yarn on row 4, so you can continue working with it;
Row 6: continue with A color, working around row 5 and making sure to pull toward you the end of B color yarn, (3dc, ch2, 3dc,ch2) in each ch2 sp on row 4;
Row 7: with B, working around row 6, (3dc, ch2, 3dc,ch2) in each ch2 sp on row 5.
Rows 8 to 19: work similar to rows 6 and 7; At the end of row 18, fasten off;
Row 20: working around row 19, 9dc in each ch2 sp on row 18, 1sc in each ch2 sp on row 19. Fasten off.

If 9dc in each ch2 sp on row 20 seems to be too much, you can reduce number to 8dc.

2dc cluster stich instructions

ATTENTION!
This is not a verified pattern. I only wrote the instructions after I made the hat, so they might not be totally correct. Also, I don't have any kids yet, so I don't know how this looks on a baby. If any of you makes this hat, please share with us your work and observations! Many thanks!

Lumi & Kinga

Russian crochet dress

I managed finally to do a proper presentation in images of my beloved dress I made and wore this summer in Bulgaria. Even that evening when the photos were taken, a young curly haired russian girl (she should have guessed something!) congratulated me for the beauty of the dress. I was really impressed!

The model itself is actually designed by a russian, but I can't find her blog anymore, so I made a collage of the photos that inspired me to do this (they still have watermark, so if you find the original link, please post it back here). Hope it helps. As for me, I wouldn't replicate it the second time. It was really a hard work and had to unpick it many times until it was right for me. Enjoy!

Diagram and photos that inspired me:

Any day crochet cardigan and ruffle scarf

This cardigan is based on Double Stich Twins Any Day Cardigan pattern. I say "is based" because I couldn't follow the pattern as it was, the design didn't suit me very well, so I just kept the model and created my own version, with buttons and extra coloured stripes.
The pattern for the scarf is this one (I also added an extra row because it seemed too thin to me).
I think the two pices work very well together.
Used Red Heart Baby in double thread and 6 mm crochet hook.

 

Tatting lace for shirt embelishment

Been having this on mind since a long time. I bought this shirt from Takko fashion and the idea of embelishing the front with some kind of ribbon seemed wonderful, although the ribbon itself with its long beads looked horrible. So I thought about making this lace ribbon in tatting technique. I just had to chose from the multiple models proposed by Daniela on her FB page. Actually, she's the one that taught me needle tatting through her video tutorials. Although I tried using a shuttle, I think I'll stick with needle technique. It requires more attention and I find it more precise.

For the model bellow, I used this tutorial and a transparent bead for each long side.

Crochet photo session

Remember the crochet poncho made of flowery squares? I promised we'd make a photo session wearing that special poncho, so here it is, fresh and hot. My purse also won a special photo shooting so, if you remember my old post about ongoing projects, you'll surely recognise what that snowflake hexagons turned into. Because I used acrylic yarn, it became a little fluffly after a summer of everyday wearing and a couple of machine washings, but it's still holding a good and photogenic shape, don't you think?

Link to the snowflake hexaghons free pattern

Link to the book that contains the flowery square (with purchase)

Bernat Lace Cardigan remake

I was looking for a long time this kind of cardigan to have in my wardrobe and to match with my dresses, but in the end I came to the conclusion that the best you could have of this is the one you make yourself.

I have been wearing this cardigan all summer long, and I'm very pleased with the way it looks, even if I couldn't follow the instruction by sizes, but I combined patterns for different sizes to come to a decent version of it.

Link to the pattern
PS: Do you like my crochet apples? :D

Lila Vanilla crochet baby set

This is my first attempt to crochet something for a baby. But it's for a good cause: tomorrow, my very new little neighbour girl will get baptized, so I crocheted during the week this set. I hope she, and especially her parents, will be delighted by what I managed to do. At least I know I am! Anyway, as I heard from my boyfriend, who is going to put on video the whole christening event, our neighbours are very fine people, so I really hope this will also be an opportunity to get in touch more often with them.

I got inspired from various sources:
1. Beanie
2. Dress
3. Booties

The choice of color was personal.
UPDATE FOR THE BEANIE: With the approval of Kinga from Myhobbyiscrochet,I wrote a free pattern for the beanie, which you can find here.

Thank you for your visit! :)