In case you haven't noticed...

IT'S SNOWING ON MY BLOG!!

I was reading Peggy's blog (http://pegsplace.wordpress.com/) and I noticed snowflakes were drifting down and I excitedly did the same for mine. It's a widget for Blogger.com and if you google for it just type 'Snow Effect Widget'.

And of course I had to change the blog colour a bit so you'll be able to see the snow falling. All in the spirit of Christmas!

My parents and brother are down here this year so I'm not going back to Kuching, Sarawak (which I'm missing to the point of tears!). My sister will be joining us next week so I can't wait for everyone to be together again!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Little Flowers for Ying

Made these little flowers for Ying.

Ages ago. Sorry Ying.

All in the colours she wanted; white, ivory, brown, pink and I threw in a few variegated blues.

Ying is a cardmaker and stamper. She's very good.

See her works here http://yingandrubberstamping.blogspot.com/

I can't wait to see what she does with these little crocheted pretties!

I hope they are what you want Ying!

Free Pattern: Crocheted Holly and Acorn

As promised!

A free pattern from The Heart of Paul for the Christmas season!

I had intended for this to be published here weeks ago but you know lah some people were too busy with life :)

So this is going to be a crochet pattern for a holly and an acorn as shown in the picture below.


Now to be honest limpeh has never seen a holly in my life. So I had to base it on pictures from the internet and from the fake holly that are everywhere during this season.

By the way, I initially thought I was crocheting mistletoe! Turned out it was holly -_-

Or did I get that the other was round? Someone please tell this person!

Anyway, onto the patterns!

This will be in three parts, because you have to crochet the leaves, berry and acorns separately.

Note:
Now I'm writing the pattern under the impression that you already know your basic stitches ie. sc, dc, hdc, dc etc

Material:
Sports Weight Yarn (I used Nona 100% acrylic)
3.5mm crochet hook
yarn needle
scissors
_____________________________________

Leaf


Pull up a tail long enough for sewing in later.

1:Ch 10
2: Sc in 2nd st from hook
3: Hdc in next st
4: Dc in next st
5: Picot (ch3, sl st in 3rd chain) on top of same dc
6: Dc in next st
7: Dc in next st
8: Picot on top of same dc
9: Dc in next st
10: Dc in next st
11: Picot on top of same dc
12: Dc in next st.
13: 3dc in last st.

(By now you would have come to the other side of the leaf)

14: Dc in next st
15: Picot on top of same dc
16: Dc in next st
17: Dc in next st
18: Picot on top of same dc
19: Dc in next st
20: Dc in next st
21: Picot on top of same dc
22: Dc in next st
23: Hdc in next st
24: Sc in next st
25: Picot on top of same sc
26: Sl st on top of 1st chain of the leaf.
Fasten off and weave in ends.
_____________________________________

Holly Berry
(or whatever you call it)

Kukunya kena kunyit time masak tadi sebab tu kuning.

Leave a tail long enough for sewing later

1: Ch4
2: 4dc in 3rd st from hook
3: Remove hook from st
4: Insert hook back into the first st of the ch3 and pull the last dc (that you let go of earlier) through
(You would have formed a little berry)
5: sl st to hold
Fasten off.

(Yes, you have just done the Popcorn Stitch *wink*)
_______________________________________

Acorn


Leave a tail long enough for sewing later.

1: ch10
2: 3sc in next st
3: 3hdc in next st
4: 3hdc in next st
5: 3dc in next st
6: 3dc in next st
7: 3dc in next st
8: 3hdc in next st
9: 3hdc in next st
Fasten off.

You should have a twirly strip which you can nicely wind to give an impression of an acorn, as shown in the picture above.
__________________________________

To finish the 3 items, use your own imagination. You can put them together to make a Christmas tree ornament, or a smaller one for a brooch, or to hang somewhere.

I originally wanted to make it into something that I can hang by the office corridor. Then I found out it wasn't mistletoe so I put that idea out.

This is what I did for this post.


A placemat!!


Backing for the placemat.

And that's the end of the pattern. I hope you'll try it out. Tell me what you did with them. I do want to know!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Please do not copy my pattern for sale or to be published anywhere else but here at The Heart of Paul. You may however make and sell or give away finished products made from my pattern. The pattern has not been tested. Please let me know if there are any mistakes. If you come across any pattern that is similar, please let me know so I may consider removing this pattern if it has already been written earlier.

I'm back!

Long absence I know. Plenty has been going on. I was...swamped. But something good also happened but that's personal so no sharing mwahahaha.

And no it doesn't involve that girl I'm pictured with above.

Before my custom rantings, I want to first apologize to Ying for taking forever with those little crocheted flowers you wanted. Will post it by Saturday I promise! And I'm giving them to you for free!!

And I'm sorry Diane I never mailed that birthday mail of yours from like 2 months ago. I'm so ashamed!!

Oh by the way I have new Christmas-sy patterns to share here so check back in a few days. Wanted to put it up about 2 weeks ago but you know lah I bo eng so it never happened. But now that I'm bo liao again (and thanking God for it!) I can get back to my erm....life?

I haven't started on ANY Christmas gifts and I don't think I'm going to buy because I'm also bo lui so I'm going to make them and only for my parents and siblings. And it's already December so CHOP CHOP!!

Rip it out and start again

Design is a freebie by Charles Craft. An RR I'm working on.

If only the stitches we put into our lives can be simply ripped out.

But that is not always the case is it? The things we say or do cannot be so easily taken back. And that which we say or do impacts other people's lives, as they do on our lives in return.

I wish I can unpick some of the 'wrong' stitches in my life. And put them in the right places. So that the grand design of my life is perfect. But I can't can I?

And this is how we crafters can apply our craft into our lives; count twice, stitch once.

Or maybe something more familiar to the quilters; measure twice, cut once.

So think twice before saying or doing something. You never know what the consequences are after it is said or done.

Two mini-doilies

I haven't been crafting anything major in ages!

But better things have been happening to me. I don't want to share anything here but it's all good and I'm a happy person and at the moment is filled with love for all things great and small :)

Anyway I made these for Radha and gave it to her during our NNC Stitching Bee about 2 weeks ago I think.


That's Radha's hand helping me to hold it up whilst I took a picture!

The patterns are from that doily book MW gave me for my birthday.

I hope you like the mini-doilies Radha. They were kinda last minute :(

The Stitching Bee was a big one this time. Radha flew down from Alor Setar, Wendy travelled from Johor and Janet also came from Ipoh to attend. Unfortunately 2 other members from out of town, Aw from Kuantan and Lody from the Phillipines could not make it at the last minute.

But nevertheless the meet was great. I think there were over 20 people there. Nik, Zarina and I even managed to learn smocking from June! The thoughtful woman pleated some cotton fabric for us the night before and even carried her heavy pleating machine to the Bee to show us how it works. Thank you SOOO much for taking trouble to go through with the tutorial June. I truly learned something new.

Oh and I gave away all that crocheted scrunchies I made. And also that crocheted barrette was given away too. Alynn's daughter is wearing it. But I didn't take any pictures of the scrunchies though. I totally forgot!

I'm not going to write anything about the Stitching Bee but you can read and view pictures of it on Nik's blog.

Well exams period and a lot of datelines are a blink away so till the next time The Heart of Paul writes again, Happy Crafting!

Merlin: Plucking the moon from the night sky

My favouritest scene from that 1998 movie, Merlin.

He plucks the moon from the night sky and plays it around his fingers like a coin.

WATCH!



Don't you think this scene is really cool? Not to mention romantically magical if there is such a thing in this forsaken world!