I’m gonna begin this TAD challenge on a hearty note. My theme for TAD this february is going to be recycling. I will be using recycled materials and trying to find new and ingenious ways of making them into fun creative objects.

This heart I just made is crochet with a magenta wool (see it on Grey Duckling) that I ripped from a sweater and 3-plyed last year. Later in february I think I will do some more of this yarn making from old sweaters.

The pattern for the heart garland can be found free here on Skip to my Lou!

But why am I making these hearts you may ask? Well let me tell you.

In january my friend Cecile and I came up with this idea to spread the love a bit for Valentines. Actually we want to spreaad it across the world – hence: A World in Love.

The idea behind A World in Love is really simple:

1. Handcraft a heart (anything goes!)
2. Take a picture of this heart in front of a place that means a lot to you
3. Share the image (flickr group, or post in in the Ravelry or the facebook group and it will be uploaded for you onto flickr) and us know where the place is!
4. Tell us about your handcrafted heart and why you took the photo where you did (optional)

The best bit is that all the hearts will be geo-tagged on flickr so that we can see how the love has spread across the world.

So are you going to join us. We hope you will. As of today you have 14 days to craft a heart in one way or another and share it with us.

Happy crafting,

Eddie

Have a look at the project on Ravelry!

I have been in love with the idea of having a couple of retro crochet gloves for a long time but all the gloves me and my friend ever looked at where way to small for our working class hands. So what can a girl do.

Well she can make some herself. I had actually begun to make some gloves myself with a very simple square pattern. Unfortunately, I had begun from the fingers working my way down so that I was left with 10 fingers without knowing what to do next. Funny enough someone in my knitting group was also crocheting gloves and she pointed me to the Hook Yarn and Needles page where I found some great patterns for just this. So I finished of my pink gloves with inspiration from the Smart Crocheted Gloves. They did turn out a bit funny because I began from the fingers down instead of the wrist up.

By now I had fallen in love with the Sunlight Gloves. They where sophisticated and elegant and I thought that if I could make them in the right yarn they would be perfect for my upcoming nuptials. But it was so difficult to find the right yarn specially since I did not understand the yarn type and hook sizes in the pattern. But I had a go with a hook size 1mm and some natural cotton crochet yarn size 20 and I think the result it quite good. I will definitely be wearing them on my big day and hopefully they can become a family heirloom.

The pattern is fairly easy to follow. Where I thought it needed a bit more explaining was when it came to making the fingers but I guess there is a lot of trial and error in that trying to make it fit the individual. I think I redid the opening for the thumb 15 times before I was satisfied. Also with the first round of chains at the wrist I found that with my yarn and hook I had to make the chain a bit longer otherwise in scrunched up when I added the pattern.

As a final extra, I did wear these lovely gloves at my wedding. It was a wonderful day and I an sad to say that I only wore them for about 30 min during the ceremony. When we got to the exchanging of rings I took them of, gave them to a bridesmaid and completely forgot all about them. However, the good thing is that they are very flexible and any friends or family who want to wear them for their own wedding can do so.

I made these wrist warmers in a rush before christmas as a X-mas present for my best friend. I couldn’t find a pattern I liked so I had to make it up and as a result of that the first one I made is a bit loose while the other is nice and snug. I actually really like them myself and luckily I wrote down what I did so I can recreate them.

So far I have tried out a couple of patterns from the book and they where really fun to do. However, in the future I will try out some new things for myself. The thing is though that it is so relaxing (for me at least) to do and so easy to take around with you (except on planes). It also give such an instant pleasure since most things are quite easy to finish of. So far I have made a small bag (which I am not sure what to do with since I never use things like that so it will probably go to a friend) and a very nice scarf with green and pink flowers (for my sister). So stay tuned for more.

I actually began knitting after all in spring 2009, but I still love to crochet!