After I posted the neck-warmer-cowl-thingamajig I had quite a few requests for a “how to”. Honestly, you really don’t need it…it’s so simple. Just a giant tube really.

BUT…
I used 1 ball of Patons Wilderness 100gram ball – 110 metres (sadly discontinued)
If you can get your hands on a ball do – it comes in a delicious range of colours
If you can’t track a ball down then about a 12-14ply of your choosing should be fine.
9mm hook

THEN…
I chained 52 & slip stitched to join.

Round 1
Chain 3 to act as first treble.
Treble into each chain stitch.
Slip stitch to join.

Round 2
Chain 3 to act as first treble.
Treble into next treble stitch.
Chain 2, skip 2 trebles.
Treble into next 2 treble stitches.
Chain 2, skip 2 trebles.
Continue working this pattern then slip stitch to join.

Round 3
Chain 3 to act as first treble.
Treble into next treble stitch.
Treble 2 into chain 2 space.
Continue working this pattern then slip stitch to join.

REPEAT Rounds 2 & 3 until you run out of yarn. For me that was 13 rounds.

I love this neck warmer. It has just the perfect level of collapse (sometimes hard to achieve with crochet). It’s a serious science don’t you know…the “air to stitch ratio” I call it. I love the chunkiness of the stitches and the squidge factor is extremely high.

If you’re looking to move on from a granny square then this is absolutely the very next project for you. You should have it knocked over in a couple of hours.

Find more creative spaces here.

… from a piece of vintage crochet
… without doing any damage to the original piece!

You probably won’t remember, but some time ago I fashioned a sweet little shrug which people got pretty excited about. I said at the time that it was total fakery & that made me look much cleverer than I really am.

I haven’t found any of the square tablecloths at the op shop for the longest time & then a few weeks ago I got lucky (& found four in one store).

Obviously someone’s gran has spent countless hours on the hook working up the table cloths & I think it’s a crying shame to leave them languishing in the op shop. This little how to is totally non destructive as we are utilising the holes made by the original crochet pattern. So, at any time I can snip the line of chain & use the cloth as … wait for it … a cloth!

Please note…this garment is sized “one size fits some”. You’ll need to trial the shrug as it depends on the size of the original cloth etc.

So you know how I blathered on a couple of weeks ago about how much I was in love with Instagram? I wondered if something good would come of it…well it has!!!

Always looking to change things up I fashioned a macro lens for the phone! I got all excited over on instagram about it & now I’ve made a how to so you can do it too. Hooray for that I say…so I have saved the mind blowingly good content for the blog eh?

Anyway … I used more bits of broken lens from the camera lamp affair (lucky I don’t chuck stuff out). The corner was fashioned using a product called Sugru. I found this product via Swiss Miss last year & frankly anything with the slogan “hack things better” is a product I need to have. It’s brilliant brilliant stuff. So thank you Swiss Miss & thank you Sugru.

So off you go & make a macro lens corner for your phone – it was a quick & easy project. Maybe I’ll see you (& your macro shots) over on instagram @kootoyoo. xx

Our house was built to a budget. When It came to the fixtures we went with “bare minimum”. Who knew that meant you’d only get one towel rail in the bathroom? And such an expanse of plain white wall – we can’t have that!

I’ve been hanging my towel in the bedroom for far too long now &. The other day I made a trip to Bunnings and set to work refashioning my op shopped tripods into something more.

I just drilled a hole in the centre of some op shopped placemats to make the shelves and then secured them with a 1/4inch nut.   The towel hanger is of course an a broken film SLR which unsurprisingly required no DIY intervention by me.  I’d had that lying around since the camera lamp makings last year.

Just a bit of fun really.

It’s our best ever tree!

I think it looks like something that Dr Suess would have dreamed up. Completely invented on the run by me in a last ditch effort to avoid the goat’s vomit (my friend Rach says this & I’m totally claiming it) trees of the last couple of years.

The kids & I made it together (in about 10 minutes) from stuff we had lying around the house. Totally inspired by the how does your garden grow idea we’ve hung our only felt decorations on the tree. These gorgeous mini stockings were made by & gifted to my kids by my sister a couple of years ago. I’m heading out to Spotty now to buy more felt so that we can fuzzy felt the entire tree.

How we did it…

-Cut a semi circle of fake turf & form into cone shape.

-Hunt our a couple of mailing tubes & a broom stick. Insert the broom stick into the base tube & fill the base tube with something heavy (sand maybe? – we used metal shot). Make sure your broomstick is roughly centred. Place the other mailing tube (or tin can perhaps) upside down on top of the broom stick & then place your cone of turf on top.

-Mad dash to your nearest craft store for felt to make decos.

I’ll be sure to take pics once the decs are finished.