Australia Archives - Meagan Made

Tag: Australia

13
Aug
2016

Sunset Clutch – Tunisian Crochet

This week I’ve been travelling for work, so I’ve been thinking of all of the projects that I wanted to start, including this Tunisian crochet sunset clutch. You can never have too many WIP’s – Work In Progress – right?! I was able to start designing and working on my clutch, and am very happy with how it’s turning out so far.

I picked up these balls of Hoooked Ribbon XL yarn last year in a small craft shop in Berry NSW while visiting a friend. I had thought that I might make some crocheted baskets and put to the side in my stash. I’d also been seeing a lot of Tunisian Crochet projects pop up in my Pinterest feed lately, but haven’t been too keen to start yet another blanket! After seeing a Tunisian crochet clutch in a friend’s Mollie Make’s magazine, I thought I’d try to design my own, and use up these gorgeous colours of Ribbon XL.

Ribbon XL colours for Sunset Clutch | MeaganMade.com

When I picked these colours I thought they looked nice together, but this week I realised just why – they reminded me of a sunset! I wanted to combine these colours together in the one clutch, and thought this would be a good yarn to try out Tunisian style of crochet.

I’d purchased a set of Tunisian hooks from Amazon and made a test swatch to see if I could actually master the stitch. I was able to get the hang of it, much to my relief, and decided on the size of completed clutch. Bella Coco’s YouTube tutorial was incredibly easy to follow, and if you want to give this stitch a try, I’d definitely recommend that you try following her 2 part tutorial. I’m making the body of the clutch in one piece, and I’ve almost finished that, but I now have to decide if I’m going to use a flap and button closure, or if I’m going to try to attach a zipper instead.

Sunset Clutch in progress | MeaganMade.com

I had originally planned to use wool and line the pouch, but this Ribbon XL yarn results in a thick and quite rugged finish, so I think it will be right without lining. I also like the finish of this stitch with the squares visible on the front of the piece. Ribbon XL is made from recycled cotton and is the lightweight version of their Zpagetti yarn and is fantastic to work with.

I’ll keep you posted as I work further on the pouch, and I am thinking about writing up the pattern… what do you guys think?

Happy crocheting,

Meagan x

09
Jul
2016

Puff Stitch Beanie

categories: Craft, Crochet

Well, it’s certainly been a busy week! After a brief kerfuffle with the post on Monday, I finally received my yarn in the mail to complete the beanie that I mentioned last week, and I’ve been working on it a little each night since to finish it off.

While attending the craft fair, I fell in love with this beautiful yarn which is a blend of Alpaca and Merino yarn from Australian Alpaca Barn. They have an online shop where I was able to buy the additional yarn that I required in Mulberry. While buying it, I couldn’t resist and purchased enough to make another beanie in lilac and dark grey.

I’d purchased this pattern from The Hook Nook after seeing so many of her gorgeous photos on her Instagram account. I was waiting until I had the right yarn, but realised this was the one. Since her pattern calls for worsted weight yarn (10 ply here in Australia), and my yarn is 8 ply, I knew I’d need to modify the pattern slightly. The pattern is very easily scalable and with a few try-on’s I got the perfect fit.

Jessica also provides you with a link to her video tutorial for the puff stitch. Even though I had never used this stitch, with her video, I found it very easy to pick up and was able to proceed with smooth sailing. While I’m nowhere near her speed – seriously, check out some of her videos on her Instagram feed, she’s amazing! – I am so happy with how it turned out!

Puff Stitch Beanie | MeaganMade.com

I had to add a pom pom, and I was inspired by this video on the Better Craft Facebook page to try this new way of creating pom poms. Every time I see this pom pom I just want to give it a squish, and it’s super soft.

After finishing the beanie late on Thursday night, I had to wear it to work yesterday, and wow, my head was so toasty warm. I couldn’t resist taking a quick selfie to show you how it sits when it’s worn, and there were even some beautiful flowers still in bloom!

Puff Stitch Beanie | MeaganMade.com

I’m looking forward to making another one of these in lilac and grey! Give this pattern a try, you won’t be disappointed! 🙂

Happy crocheting,

Meagan xo

26
Apr
2016

Welcome to Meagan Made

categories: Uncategorized

Welcome to Meagan Made, I hope that you enjoy reading about my adventures in the world of craft and cooking!

What will l be blogging about? Well, I seem to spend a lot of my time on Pinterest, either on the hunt for my next craft project (though I have enough things pinned to last the rest of my life) and for lactose free recipes! The thing is though, I’ve also seen my share of Pinterest fails… I decided to start this blog to keep track of which patterns and recipes work, and help you all out by directing you to those that do!

Photo of laptop, crochet hooks, project and yarn

In the last 9 years I’ve dabbled in a number of crafts; beading, quilting, sewing in general and most recently crocheting. I’m looking forward to sharing some of these projects with you, and hopefully you’ll enjoy either making them yourself or sharing them with friends.

When it comes to recipes, I often find that living in Australia, we don’t always have access to the same ingredients that are found in other parts of the world. On this blog I’ll be posting my ingredient substitutions for things that can be found here in Australia, as well as what I’ve done to make these recipes suitable for those of us with lactose intolerance.

I hope you enjoy reading the blog, feel free to drop me a line using the contact form or comment on any of my posts!

Thanks for reading,

Meagan x