Tag: headwear

Alice Springs Beanie Festival 2024

Alice Springs Beanie Festival 2024

It’s that time of the year again, time for all the super creative Beanieologists from around the world to strut their stuff at this year’s Alice Springs Beanie Festival; only 2 sleeps to go.

This year’s theme, “Listening to the land” will have inspired many wonderful creations & I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s interpretations. Good luck to everyone who entered the completion. It’s a tough gig &, I imagine the judges, as always, having a difficult task deciding each category.

I named my entry simply “Listen” with a short speal:

Listen:
to the birds & bees,
to the rustling flowers & leaves
&
the cascading waterfall.

This is Alice Springs Beanie Festival’s 28th year & still going strong.

Have fabulous 2024 festival everyone.

For the love of Colour & Texture… Freeform Crochet…

Here are some new freeform crochet pieces I’ve been working on over the past few weeks, now finished & sold from my Etsy shop… Lots of gorgeous colour & beautiful textures to inspire you. For each piece I took into account the type of yarn used, resulting in totally distinct & individual pieces. I’m pretty happy with the outcome… enjoy!

 

This Jester beanie is possibly my most popular beanie style, created in an 8ply, 60% Superwash / 40% Polyamide yarn & an assortment of acrylic / natural yarn embellishments. Rich, vibrant colours, a joy to work with…

 

 

 

 

 

I just love the colour combinations of this lovely 8ply, 50% wool / 50% acrylic yarn, reminiscent of the ocean blues & yellow sandy beaches.

 

 

 

Texture, texture, texture… these 2 pieces, created in 12 ply, 80% Acrylic / 20% wool yarn, are wonderfully chunky yet, if I may say so, subtle & dignified..

& lastly, this freeform crochet scarf that moves from creamy, off white, to chocolate brown to velvety black. Created in a gorgeous, super soft, 8ply, 30% Alpaca / 70% Acrylic yarn blend.

 

 

My re-purposed Freeform Crochet Coat…

Forest InspiredSo, continuing with my personal commitment to complete UFO’s & work on new projects that have been sitting on the back-burner for far too long, I took a good hard look at this Freeform Crochet Coat that I created in 2006 & is featured in my book ‘Freeform Crochet & Beyond.’

This piece has special meaning for me as the colours, textures & forms came alive for me in a forest reserve where I often visited for solace & inspiration. Having that said, & as much as I love it, I also know that it’s big, bulky & heavy, more over, not to everyone’s taste, & to sell it on the Net would cost a small fortune to ship…

It’s been in my mind to pull it apart & make other items, but… Oh my!…What a job that would be… so,… the idea was put in the ‘too hard basket’ time & time again… Then, this summer, an extremely hot one at that, so much so, that I found it difficult to move too far away from the air fans blowing at high speed, I decided that, seeing as I’m sitting here like a sweltering lump, I might as well be doing something useful… & so I began unravelling the freeform patches…. long story short… here are the items I came up with… I’m very happy.

Hood & scarf ComboDSCF1717Large Freeform ToteLarge Freeform ToteSmall Freeform bagSmall Freeform crochet bagFreeform Crochet Tcosy

Beanies… Plain & Simple….

chunky purple flowerWell… not quite… the simple styled beanie hat with a little embellishing & tweaking can become a flattering winter accessory that doesn’t date too quickly over time…

I’ve been rather busy lately, with local displays, markets & classes, so elaborate projects have been put on the back burner for a while or, at least,  until I have a clearer creative head space… but that’s not to say I’ve had idle hands… hence, this collection of Beanie Hats…

With some, I’ve experimented with large hooks & double threads of chunky yarn & with others I’ve used double threads of sock yarn. I hope this beanie hat collection gives you some new ideas for the beanie that is more than just plain & simple… enjoy!

All hats are now available for sale in my Etsy Shop

turquoise hatpurple turquoise flapper

purple chunky beanie

Red chunky BeanieMulti chunky beaniemulti chunky clochepurple turquoise cloche 1rustic clochepurple brooch clocherustic brooch clochepurple brooch beanierustic brooch beaniered flower beaniemulti beanie scarf set2ply beanie scarf set4ply beanie scarf set

Handspun yarn…. A new direction perhaps?…

Handspun shawl

No, not really, but I do love handspun yarn & so admire those who devote so much time & effort creating it. Some time ago I inherited a large box of handspun yarn which, initially, inspired me to make a coat with over-sized crochet motifs but, over time, my enthusiasm for the project waned & it was put on the back-burner.

Needless to say, I’d already invested a lot of time making the motifs, then to just push the project to the back of the cupboard was such a waste & that bothered me. The idea came to create smaller items… here are a couple I’ve finished… Big, bold & chunky…Handspun beanie hat2Handspun beanie hat

handspun shawl2