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A Beginners Thoughts on Crochet (or How to Make a Giant Granny Blanket)

7 Nov wavy_stripe_scarf (2 of 8)

So, I have recently just blogged about a recent crochet project I have just completed, rainbow ripple crochet scarf for my lovely boyfriend. What I didn’t share however, was that the scarf wasn’t the first project that I completed. Oh no. My first learning of the dark art of crochet were first with the Amazings, where after covering the basic stitches I then tried to tackle the idea of making a granny square, which then developed into a giant blanket. Pretty standard beginner’s fare eh?

To begin with I did a lot of Pinterest research – If research counts as looking at other people’s gorgeous items and thinking “I wish I could make that”, until I finally settled on recreating a similar design to this one featured on the Little Tin Bird blog. It’s not in my nature to keep things small and square. With Rosie, life has to be big, bold and colourful. And even better for me, there was a tutorial to recreate the magic on the post, as well as plenty more tutorials to look through. Hurrah!

http://www.littletinbird.co.uk/basic-granny-square-pattern/

So. I had picked the pattern. Now to pick the yarn. I had discovered that my local sewing shop lives up to it’s name, Sew Amazing. It stocked lots of different varieties of the colorful Stylecraft Double knit DK, which was my yarn of choice, for cost (£2.50 a pop) and aesthetic reasons. Living room wise, we have a  red sofa, a green rug, and accents of different colours around the room, so I decided that the main colour of the blanket should be lime green, with each square having a different multicolored accent colours. In practice, some of the squares took a  rainbow and graduated turn rather than completely random. Armed with a 4mm crochet hook from amazon, I was ready to rock & wool!

I was going well… until I got stuck. I had forgotten all those wise words those amazings taught me! Thankfully Youtube came to my rescue. If you ever have a question, 9/10 there is a YouTube tutorial answering it. And for me, this was my gospel. Four months later I had completed all the squares, or so I first thought, thinking that 12 squares was going to be enough, bearing in mind it took me about 3 hours to make justvone square of 18 rounds. It wasn’t. I had to do 15, or else it wasn’t going to cover my toes. This was going to be a giant blanket…

9 giant granny squares

Post assembly, joining and a few extra rounds around the whole blanket and I’m not just impressed with the result, I’m now properly addicted.

Giant Square Crochet Blanket

I’m already dreaming up new projects. tutorials, and homewares. I’m afraid by previous love of cross-stitch is now taking a bit of a back foot! But if I could do it all again, I would pass on the following tips:

  1. Do a test square first. You don’t have to use it in the final pattern, but it’s important that you get the pattern nailed before you carry on. Everyone makes makes mistakes in the beginning, and your first project is not going to be perfect. But the best bit about crochet is that you can unravel if you go wrong!
  2. Watch a master in action. They can teach you things about the craft that you can’t learn from a book. Like the best way to hold wool. Or crochet anecdotes. And if you are lucky, their skillz might be catching…
  3. Buy all your wool in advance – and then some.  I made the tragic mistake of not buy enough of my lime green wool to finish my lime green border. Unknown to me at the time, wool is dyed in batches, and once the whole batch has gone, the next batch might be the same shade, but not the same tone – which is silly of me not to realise that now thinking about it. I used 3 balls of the lime green, and still needed more. Next time, I’m buying bulk.
  4. Buy your wool in person if you can. Then you can really get a feel for the textures and qualities, as well as comparing those all important colours. You can always buy your favourite kinds online later on, but it’s important to support local traders!
  5. Absorb ideas everywhere. Read blogs. Make a Pinterest board. Like pictures on Instgram. Keep collecting visual examples of projects to inspire and challenge yourself ton the next project. The craft community is lovely too, be sure to share the love! Books are great, but the internet is your friend. Here’s a few blogs that have defiantly inspired me along the way: One Sheepish Girl, The Purl Bee andA Beautiful Mess.

So there are my thoughts and musings from a crochet beginner, even now I am no longer a novice. but it’s OK. Because I am making pretty things If anyone has any crochet thoughts, stories or musings as a beginner, be sure to let me know in the comments, I would love to hear from you!

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Rainbow Ripple Stitch Crochet ScarfRainbow Ripple Stitch Crochet Scarf

Make your own beautiful rose paper flowersMake your own beautiful Rose paper flowers

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Finished Cross Stitch – Malarky Graffiti

10 Aug Malarky Cross Stitch

4 weeks of hard stitching and I have finished my latest cross stitch. You might have seen my posts showing off the work in progress but here is my finished embroidery, my first project from a completely new own made pattern.

Malarky Graffiti Cross Stitch

East London residents might recognise this cuddly multi-coloured bear, it’s a character created by Graffiti artist Malarky, as seen on the shop shutters in Shoreditch. I first discovered his street art in the brilliant Street Art Magazine VNA, and since I can’t walk down Brick Lane without encountering these cute colourful characters.

Malarky graffiti East London

Image by snakefightinglife on Flickr

I have been a fan of this London/Barcelona artist for a while, but inspiration struck when I saw his prints for sale at the Pick MeUp Graphic design fair. I was toying with the idea of buying a print for several months, but I then decided to make my own as a homage to his fun and playful work. Browsing through Flickr I was instantly drawn to the this bear, a) for the Bolt shades (it is the Olympics after all) b) for the colour c) for the gnarly gnashers. This hipster bear has attitude! To make the design I borrowed an image from Flickr, put it into Photoshop and modified to make sure the colours were all in blocks and there was no shading, put that image into Kit Pro App and then commenced stitching.

Malarky Cross Stitch

Malarky Back Stitch

And…. (and this is going to become a running them with my posts)… I couldn’t resist making another animated gif of my stitch in progress.  Note: The Gif doesn’t replay – yet – so just refresh the page to watch again!

Malarky Gear gif

Not sure what to do with my latest work, it seems like it would work well to be turned into a cushion cover, or I could stick in a frame. Not decided yet, but I am sure I will share it all with you when I do.

Now for the next project… this latest embroidery has given me the bug for making my own designs. Rather than cheekily copying designs from other people’s work I defiantly want to start drawing again and see if I can come up with some new patterns and designs to share with the world.

Like this? You might also like these similar posts:

Rainbow Ripple Stitch Crochet ScarfRainbow Ripple Stitch Crochet Scarf

Make your own beautiful rose paper flowersMake your own beautiful Rose paper flowers

An Animated Gif Cross Stitch!An Animated Gif Cross Stitch

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The Death of the British Festival

10 Jul Death Horse - London Pleasure Gardens

Bloc Festival - Horseman

Last weekend I had my heart broken.

It wasn’t a boy that I loved that hurt me. Or a friend that told me my outfit was shit. It was a brand that broke my trust. A brand, that brings people together from around the world, to make them happy through the form of music. After several years of courtship and then a blissful elopement to Butlins last year, I thought were going to be lovers forever. Everyone I met during our relationship was united in our love. You might think I am just talking about Bloc, an electronic dance music festival that ended in calamity (but not disaster) when it was shut down due to overcrowding at 12.30am on Friday 6th July. But when I was walking around the Pleasure Gardens site, soaking up the hurt and bitter disappointment felt by many of my fellow revellers at the never-ending queues, the night for me didn’t signify the end of Bloc, as whatever happens, the company will get renamed and restart, ticket refunds or not. But really, for me, signified the end of the British festival.

Festivals used to be big business, but last year it’s estimated 30 festivals went bankrupt. Let’s take a look at the festival season this year; The Big Chill was cancelled in January, Truck Festival has gone bankrupt while Isle of Wight was a complete muddy washout. Just today The Hit Factory concert in Hyde Park festival was cancelled to the ruination of the Hyde Park site due to this weekend’s Wireless festival. The market is already over saturated, the founding father of festivals, Micheal Eavis, said last year that festivals only really have another 3/4 years. You can blame the recession, you can blame the weather, but with high ticket prices, rising travel costs, we need to prioritise what we want out of our summer. And lets be honest, this year, it’s been an absolute washout.

But that’s the big picture. I think communication and online PR has a big part to play in all the continuing death of the British festival. Fair play to The Big Chill, who said early in the year that; “Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn’t risk going ahead with the event this year.” Biting the bullet early meant the brand lost no respect. People will probably come back next year. But other festivals have not done the same. The Isle of Wight Festival did a poor job communicating how the weather issues were affecting the site, leaving many travelers stranded along the way to the site, sleeping in their cars. Bloc also chose to ignore while thousands of people were lining the streets trying to get into the East London Docklands venue, instead tweeting that everyone inside was having a good time. We weren’t. Bloc was even more silent after the eviction, which was announced by the Pleasure Gardens online, but then Bloc took over 36 hours to apologize via a second statement, and is now collecting information from revelers to ascertain what happened. Bloc defiantly made the right decision in closing the festival early, but unfortunately their online behavior only served to knife Bloc’s own jugular from very respected promoter, to a perceived greedy money sucker that needed a bigger boat.

But there were positives gained from this PR disaster, where the Bloc community used social media in a positive way. Many of the artists that meant to play at Bloc got together to play at venue all over London, many free to wristband holders. Where social communication works it is collaborative, grassroots and for the people. Other festivals taking place during the rest of the year should take note to communicate misfortunes to revelers early, with empathy, understanding, and respect.

Maybe I’m getting old. But I have been to far too many festivals over the last two years where I felt my money was taken from me not for my pleasure, but for corporate greed. And as my disposable income becomes less and less, like many others I think I might choose to spend my precious time and money abroad seeing the world rather than be stuck fenced into a site with tents far too close together, music bleeding into each other, and overpriced donkey meat disguised as beef burgers. For now, I’m all about the gigs, and the sun loungers. Oh, and taking Kodak moments of short-lived festival happiness.

Bloc Festival 2012 @ London Pleasure Gardens

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Make your Own Beautiful Crepe Paper Rose Flowers

18 Apr IMG_7286-5

Pink Crepe Paper Roses

I love fresh flowers in my flat for the homely touch, but this is a) expensive, if you buy the cut versions and b) deathly, if you are a un-green-fingered person like myself that eternally kills pot plants. This poesy of crepe paper roses is a cute living room/bedroom/anyroom addition for anyone needing the girly touch in their home, without the weekly expense. They are super easy to make yourself, and look fabulous and almost like the real thing. You could even go craft crazy and make a whole bouquet of flowers, different colors, the possibilities are endless! All you need is:

Pink Crepe Paper

Green Crepe Paper

Floral Tape

Wire (and wire cutters)

Flower Template from Martha Stewart.com - print template the normal size and cut the petal template a little smaller.

For a step by step how to make, check out the Green Wedding Shoes blog for the how to tutorial, where this craft project was inspired from.

Pink Crepe Paper Flowers

Pink Crepe Paper Flowers

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What’s better than a Cross Stitch? An Animated Gif Cross Stitch!

16 Apr Skull-Movie

For my latest adventure in cross stitch, I decided to go one step further from my last craft project and make an animated gif out of my stitching. Using another Day of the Dead Sugar Skull design from the awesome Bombastitch. It’s my first animated Gif made with Adobe (rather than the India gif made with an online program), made of no less than 191 photos, with the final animation made in a combination of After Effects and Photoshop. It’s a little jumpy, both position and exposure wise, for a few reasons. Because I was stitching both in the evenings and the daytime over a two-week period, the variable light conditions meant the images needed Lightroom adjusting, which was difficult to make all 191 images exactly the same. The image moves because I don’t own a full tripod, so taking the photo at exactly the same position was also tricky. These are all excuses I know, but for a first attempt I am pretty chuffed, knowing it was a bit of a beast of a project. Expect more creative animated gifs from me in the future as my embroidery and technical skills get better…

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Thoughts of an Apple Hater

7 Mar 171398958_e03a923309_z

Today Apple are releasing another product, probably an iPad 3. While everyone is making their predictions, I penned this piece about my hatred for anything mac. This post has also appeared on The Huffington Post.

Mac in the Bin - by nathan makan via Flicker

Mac in the Bin - by nathan makan via Flicker

It’s no secret to my friends and family that I loathe Apple and their products. From the evangelical store openings, to the product rumor mill dominating the online space prior to launches, their extremely smart PR campaigns promote Apple as probably the best at what they do. Which is, in my honest opinion, producing shamefulmoney pits. Once you buy an iSomething, you have to buy compatible accessories, you can only buy certified apps, and you better hope water never meets your new baby so you don’t have to kiss goodbye to your warranty. But they do look so good. A lifestyle lubricant for the 21st century, no self facilitating media node would be such a fashionable dickhead without one.

I am fully aware that they are well designed and technically brilliant machines. My boyfriend and I argue about this religiously. ‘Your life would be so much better if you had a Mac!’ he wails. My life would be so much better if people stopped telling me I need a Mac. You want doesn’t equal I need. I now get introduced in social circles as ‘The girl who hates Apple’, which as you can imagine as a lively conversation opener as mentioning the BNP.

“Why do you hate Apple?! What’s wrong with you?” I am met with a look of confusion and terror that I have seen many times before.

“I don’t feel need to prove my importance by walking into Starbucks with an iPad under my arm. There are much less expensive ways to look like an idiot.” This comment is always generally agreed with. One person has once unashamedly confessed to me that he has stuck a Apple logo sticker over the top of a Dell logo to maximise his respect points.

“But you work in online? How can you do your job without working on a Mac?” This generalisation never fails to stagger me.

“I work perfectly fine on a PC thank you.” This statement is always particularly hard to admit, as I do curse repeatedly about working on Windows. But I would rather say this than rant for the next 10 minutes about how fast it is, or shown off my latest Scorsese digital masterpiece on Vimeo, or produced some sound that when processed through some digital synth sounds like an elephant farting, and before you know it I have had my ear bent on how I am totally wrong and they are very right. An unsuspecting loiterer (probably a mac user too, as they always hunt in packs) ask to join the conversation. “Rosie was just trying to convince me how a PC’s are better than Macs.” Errrr, WRONG! I can’t get a word in edge-ways in between your big head and your even bigger Apple shaped ego!

I know crap PC’s can be, and I am not defending them. But when you buy an Apple product, you also buy a special pair of apple-tinted spectacles, that makes you believe that there is no other digital product worth having. I refuse to buy into that cult. They get cracked, they break, and they get bugs and viruses just like any other technological object. It is also bad for people to assume that everyone else as bought into that cult. It’s very painful for digital marketers to admit teenagers phone of choice is the Blackberry for it’s messaging system, not the iPhone. If people are creating content with one demographic in mind, they will run the risk of bypassing certain minorities and alienating in favour of another product that fits their needs better.

So in short, I probably will one day buy a mac book pro. When the market has bottomed out, the price-tag has been slashed in half, and the hipsters have levitated to the next big thing. But until then, show off your Apple love to someone else, cos this Apple-hater don’t wanna know.

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5 things to think about when planning a travel holiday to India (or any budget backpacking travel)

22 Jan Boys on the Beach at Sunset in India
Boys on the Beach at Sunset in India
I got back a week ago from an amazing 3 week holiday in India. A group of friends spent two weeks travelling around Goa during the Christmas/New Year period and then caught a train down to Kerala, where we did a lot of beach hopping, a lot of eating, saw some baby elephants, and a lot of bugs! India was intense, immense, and extraordinary, yet we only saw such a small part of the country. Nothing can really prepare you for what you will experience on your journey, but here are a few things I learnt from my trip that I thought it would be worth sharing with those who are thinking of travelling to this amazing country.
  1. Visa – It took us three attempts to get our tourist visa, but only though our stupidity because we didn’t read the website properly. The whole process takes about a week: you have to fill in an online application prior to heading to the office to formally apply in person and hand in your passport. You don’t need to book an appointment, but the earlier you can get to the office the quicker the process will take, we arrived when the office opened at 8.30, and were out in an hour. About three days later you should return to pick up your passports and visas. If you want to do the process by post it will take a lot longer. And a word of cation, if you work in media (e.g: journalist, photographer) hesitate before listing it as your profession, if you do you may need to get a different and more complicated media visa.
  2. Accommodation – Depending on the kind of holiday you looking for will depend on how you will look for your accommodation. Budget accommodation is plentiful so look for it on arrival in a new town, you can barter for a good deal. 3 star accommodation (with air con) is less plentiful, and you should try to ring a few days ahead wherever possible. Always check the rooms, particularly shower and the mattress for thickness and cleanliness. For the first night, it is worth booking some comfortable accommodation in advance so help you acclimatise to the country, expedia was pretty good.. It is worth spending that bit extra when you can, the same goes for travelling around too.
  3. From Delhi belly to Diarrhea, sooner or you are going to get sick. Deal with it. I was sick for an entire week and I was determined not to let it spoil my holiday! If you get ill, try and take it easy the following day, eat plain bread and rice and avoid spicy, fried and acidic food. First Aid kit essentials include re-hydration sachets (which are also great for hangovers) pepto-bismol to re-line your stomach, and pro-biotic tablets to help get your digestion get back to normal, all of which are also available over the counter in India at a much cheaper price.
  4. Should you buy Malaria tablets? We did, we were offered the most expensive prescription with supposedly the least side effects, and were flabergasted upon discovering that a 30-day course of Malerone set us back 90 per person!. However, the side effects were still very severe, and mid way through the holiday we decided to stop taking them as we thought the continuous nausea and psychotic dreams couldn’t be worse than actually catching Malaria. It was a tough call, because I got bitten continuously (mosquitoes apparently love certain blood types), but the area we were travelling in was a low risk area. My advice? Do your research before you travel, but ultimately it’s your call.
  5. I had my first experience of bartering for goods, and you do it pretty much everywhere and for everything, excluding fuel and food. For souvenirs, some say the inital price offered is double or three times what you should pay, while some shops have low prices to discourage bartering, but ultimately it’s down to how much you think something is worth. Start low and you will meet somewhere in the middle, but never let a price pass your lips that you are not prepared to pay. Having the exact money in your hand can work well for closing the deal, as does suggesting an offer for multiple items, but don’t be afraid of walking away from the deal if the price is not satisfactory for you. It’s all a bit of fun, but don’t begrudge someone a few rupees if they deserve them.


Here’s some of my Kodak moments on Flickr, but the opportunity also arose for my to make my first animated gif… Ross rising from the sand after being buried – like the incredible Hulk!

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Rosie’s Tunes of 2011

14 Jan 6695738001_ba0f4085b3_z

Multi-coloured hearts - Rosiemrogers on Flickr

I know, I know. Every blogging Tom Dick and Harry posts their ‘top tunes/gadgets/films/bullshit of year’ during December, so everyone is vomiting never-ending lists through their eyeballs by Christmas. Well I missed that window, and I have been posting my fave tunes of the year for the last two years (see 2009 and 2010), so I am going to post my 2011 list up anyway. Ner ner, ner ner ner.

My list, as always is in order of discovery and personal poignancy. There are some tunes in the list that weren’t created in 2011, but I discovered and fell in love with them that year and thus made my list. The links below go to act’s soundcloud page or a youtube link, and I have made a Spotify playlist which you should defiantly subscribe too.

(Baby I Don’t Know) What You Want – Jacques Greene

This Much – XXXY

Nights Off – Siriusmo

Holkham Drones – Luke Abbott

Sweetest Kill – Broken Social Scene

Maze – Actress

Natalia’s Song – Zomby

Love/Lust – D/R/U/G/S

Just Gazin’ – Digitalism

Tetra – SebastiAn

Hold On – Sbtrkt

The Carter Barron – Oddisee

Little By Little (Caribou Remix) – Radiohead

Too Insistant (Trentemoller Remix) – The Do

Still Life – The Horrors

I’ve held off from putting on some extra additions; I’ve been a long time fan of Metronomy and this year’s album was outstanding. This year also discovered the genius that is James Holden and all the gems on the Border Community label and M83 put on a fantastic show at the Heaven in December, but that is my top list and I’m sticking to it. Top Tune of them all? By far Nights Off by Siriusmo. Not only have I listened to it at least 50 times in the last year, but I can still remember their set at the Black Atlantic/Modeselektor show back last March as one of the sweatiest meatboxes I have ever had the pleasure of dancing to.

Enjoy :)

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Ten tips I wish I knew when I was a job-seeking graduate

27 Jul

It’s graduation ceremony time. And you graduate students are all shitting yourself. I can tell, as the amount of searches containing the word ‘internship’ that have led you to this blog have quadrupled just this week. You are not alone.

If you’ve graduated this year, Congradulations! You are now about to move from degree land to join the world of work. A career is a fish that is hard to catch, and it’s a slips from your grasp once you think you’ve got the hang of it. It’s not as demoralising and degrading as the movies sell it, but you can kiss good-bye to that personal freedom that you didn’t even know existed until you chucked it in the air with your graduation cap. But hey, at least you can start reading for pleasure again!

I was in your shoes last year, and here’s my advice. This time last year I was shitting myself about job-searching too, and even went as far to ask if the university system was failing graduates.

  1. Gutted about your grade? No-one will ever ask you what you got. Except for academics and snobs. Similarly, no-one will care what your degree is in, until you get to 30 and start thinking about an MA. Except for academics and snobs.
  2. If you havn’t had/got an internship by now… It’s time to stop being picky. Or start looking. Or start volunteering. Or start packing.
  3. Don’t expect your first internship to lead to paid work. Most people have to embark on three before they’ve gained enough experience to gain paid work. The secret though is to make yourself indispensable.
  4. The perfect job won’t be around the corner waiting for you. Finding your first role can take anything up to a year. Your first job won’t be perfect either. It takes a decade of discovery to know what you really want to do in life. Don’t lose heart.
  5. If you are skint, there is no shame in moving home to save cash. But set yourself a move out deadline before you kill your parents.
  6. There is also no shame in getting a stop-gap job. It’s cash, more skills to your bow and most importantly, not forever.
  7. If you want to go travelling, do it. If you want to do another course, do it. But if you are doing either if those just to delay the inevitable, don’t.
  8. If you are thinking of staying in your uni town, think back to those lonely summers. Student magic doesn’t last forever once your friends depart.
  9. With the friends that are left, surround yourself with those in the same boat as you. Distance yourself the gloating or whiny ‘friends’ that you shared at uni that will only serve to depress you. Fuck it… UNFRIEND THEM.
  10. And yes… you looked very stupid in that hat. It’s a look only a mother could love. But you will forget about it. Until next year.
01/08/11 Update: Guardian careers has featured this post in their weekly Grad links. Thanks :)

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