Meet James the Giraffe

I joined in a fun challenge with the Laughing Purple Goldfish group on Ravelry. The goal was to put your own stamp on the Jerry Giraffe pattern designed by Sharon. It is fun to see the creations people have come up with.

I chose traditional giraffe colours as James has become a gift for mum. But there are some very adventurous 'Jerry's' out there looking great in green and pinks!

It was a quick and easy project. And fun to embellish. Who thought I would have found a use for those brown buttons in the stash!

I can see a few more of these guys being made ... but first I need to find a collection of safety eyes so the next giraffe is suitable for smaller hands to play with :)

Granny Square Hot Pad

Looking for a quick and easy project to hook up from left over yarn?

This is the perfect answer ... a granny square hot pad.

All you have to do is make a basic granny square. I used 8 ply wool and a 4mm hook for this one and crochet 11 rounds.

But you could make it as big or as small as you like. How about little guys as coasters for your coffee mug?

Then, with the wrong side facing, fold the four corners to the middle and stitch (or crochet) the edges together. That is it - done!

One granny square hot pad - the perfect size for my curry pot!

Nappy bag

Untitled, a photo by Lugga Creations on Flickr.

Over Christmas I put down the crochet hook and pulled out mum's old sewing machine ... the machine she used to make my clothes as a kid!

I am not very proficient with the sewing machine. I have only ever made pillow cases and straight forward tote bags. However with mum's guidance and an easy to follow set of instructions I made this little nappy bag for my niece. And I really enjoyed making it.

One crafty area I would love to dabble in is patchwork. I have an aunt, who creates beautiful patchwork quilts, and wants to learn to crochet. I think a trade of lessons will be on our future agenda :)

Baby Granny Rug

My very first crochet project was a traditional Granny Rug. It is the perfect way to kick off your adventure into crochet with only 3 easy stitches (chain, treble and slip stitch). I changed colours every round which held my interest, adding two rows of black after four rows of colour - to kind of tie it all in.

I wish I had kept that rug. It would be interesting to look at it now ... some 25 years later. But I gifted it to my then boyfriend's grandmother ... as you do :)

I have made several granny rugs over the years and still love hooking them. My latest rug was made for a newborn baby boy ... my 'great' nephew. (Yep, I am sure I'm too young to have a great nephew too).

My niece put a photo on Facebook of the baby's room so I raided my stash for colours to match. I am not normally that good with colour selection but think I did ok this time :)

As I am sure you can see, it is not a traditional granny rug. I used the grandala square motif, a circle within a square. A great tutorial can be found over at Crochet with Raymond.

I used a 4.5mm hook. And the yarn consisted of left over oddments of 8 ply wool in the stash. The cream was an 8 ply alpaca/wool mix. It made for a very warm and soft blanket. 

I didn't take final measurements. It is not large ... just big enough to wrap up a newborn baby boy :)

The beginning

I have sat staring at the computer screen for long enough trying to think of cool and creative words for my first post.  But now it is time to write something down before the building storm hits!

Welcome to Lugga Creations! A place to record my crafty endeavours and explorations.

It is hard choosing a name for your blog ... even harder than writing the first post! So how did I decide on Lugga Creations?

Lugga is Aussie slang for lagoon. I am lucky to live beside a beautiful lagoon on Sydney's Northern Beaches. And Creations ... well I love to create. I am especially fond of crochet but do enjoy mixing things up a bit, as you will find out in the coming months.

I will be back tomorrow to share my first craft project with you for 2012 .... a baby granny.

Jonnine x