Goldie the Goldfish Toilet Roll Cover

When I first learned to crochet my husband kept telling me that I needed to make a toilet roll cover. I'm pretty sure he meant it in jest, and I'm pretty sure he meant one of those ones where you put a barbie doll in the middle and her crocheted dress covers the roll of toilet paper.

On the lovely Ravelry group - Crochet Lovers Victoria - we are planning on having a toilet paper cover design competition after Christmas. Well, I couldn't wait that long! I can't remember but I may have even been the one to recommend we wait until after Christmas because I was too busy! LOL

Well, instead of working on Christmas presents like I should be, last night I designed and made this goldfish toilet paper roll cover instead. I'm exceedingly proud of myself - seeing I envisioned this thing in my head, winged it - having never made a toilet cover of any kind - used techniques I've never used before, and ended up with something that, if I do say so myself, is pretty cute!

First I drew a sketch (I know, I know... don't give up my day job to be an artist)

Then I grabbed the orange acrylic and started with the "face" - making sure it was the right size to fit the loo roll.

I decided I wanted to make and attach the eyes and mouth before proceeding any further as they would be harder to attach later on. First the eyes...

I was originally thinking red lips, but it was just too close too the orange. I pulled out some different shades, and found I like the purple lips the best. I made a small set of lips and a bigger set of lips. Unfortunately the bigger set made it look like a duck instead of a fish, so I went with the smaller ones.

After attaching the eyes and lips, I went back to my orange, created the "dorsal fin" curlique on top of the head, made a seam around the face (by doing what I think is called going around the post) then continued on until the body was "almost" the length I wanted.

I then switched to this variegated blue and white mixture for the water and waves. I made a few more rows with this colour, did the "going around the post thing - I think" and then made the waves around the bottom with triple crochet shells of five stitches each.

After I was done with the water and waves, I improvised some fins, popped them on, and TA-DA! My first toilet roll cover design was complete!

It would be very easy to modify this design for any colour fish... add some black stripes to make him like Nemo... do smaller cross eyes for a goofy fish, all sorts of variations.

I was hoping this would satisfy my husband desire for a toilet roll cover, but now he's talking about me making the entire cast of Nemo. Er, I don't think so!

Tricia's Christmas Scarf

I'm trying to get things crossed of my Christmas to-do list. On Sunday, I was on a roll and was able to both start AND finish a scarf for my dear friend Tricia. She has lovely Auburn coloured hair and I thought this coffee brown Patons soft haze would look very pretty on her.

This is a modification of the "One skein scarf" pattern from the "Happy Hooker" book. (Always takes me two to three skeins - just for the record). I'll post this at the end of the week so it will get to her sometime in December (along with a packet of Tim Tams for her cookie obsessed husband).

Some New Zealand Treasures

My husband and I just got back from a wonderful trip to New Zealand. In addition to all the lovely scenery and activities there were, of course, lots of sheep! And sheep make lovely wool. :)

There were a few purchases I just couldn't resist making. The first was an adorable little stuffed sheep wearing a pink hoodie. I've named him Jelly (short for Mint Jelly).

I also found some gorgeous NZ wool called "Touch" that is so incredibly soft, you just have to, well, TOUCH it! It was a bit expensive (okay a lot expensive), but it was a special treat for myself.

I also had to pick up some Possum/Merino/Silk wool that I found. You can buy the possum/merino products all over New Zealand but they are SOOOOO crazy expensive. The wool was pretty expensive as well, but it was just so different with the possum in it, I had to get it. I'm using it for some Christmas presents... which will have to remain secret for now.

Avatar Part 2

I spent quite a long time on my avatar yesterday, making sure it was accurate as possible, even making sure to add crow's feet by the eyes. I was quite proud of myself. Then I showed it to my husband and he said "Why do you have an F on your scarf?" Aaaahhhhhh!

I don't know how that F got there, and it is really annoying me. Especially since I can't think of anything that I could "make" it stand for. Ergh!

Avatar

I created a new avatar for myself today. I had to do this on my own without help from anyone else. I found it kind of hard actually because it's hard to know what you look like - shape of your eyes, face, nose, etc. I hope I did okay, but I'll have to get some feedback from people who know what I look like! :)

2 Bizarre 4 the Car

Several months ago, when I was pretty new to crochet, I boughtsome wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills to make a blanket for me car. Unfortunately, I severely underestimated how much I would need. What I've done so far will need to be repurposed for something else now.

A new Spotlight opened up last week and I was able to pick up some Cleckheaton's "Vintage Hues" wool for the wonderful bargain price of $1.29 a ball. I think I originally put 18 -20 in my basket, but I think some fell out and I ended up with 16. A good number though.

Some of the other colourways of this wool were going for $5.99 per ball, so I'm gonna take a wild guess that this colour wasn't selling so well. It's an "interesting" combination of purples, yellows and a little bit of green. There's something about it that is kind of ugly, but for some reason I am drawn to it anyway.

Well, for the price I couldn't pass it up, and picked it up to work on a blanket for the car. It's wool so it should be nice and durable, and with the "odd" colour combinations, you shouldn't really be able to notice if it gets a little dirty in the car.

As I'm starting to work with it, it is growing on me a bit more. I've made three squares (of 10 rounds each), and it's quite interesting how different all three of the squares have turned out - from where the colours happen to fall. Right now I'm getting one square per ball (with a bit leftover) so I am planning to make 16 squares all together for a 4x4 blanket.

I know I just finished making the granny square baby blanket, but I thought the granny square format would show off the different colours well, and seeing it is kind of a heavy wool, I thought the nice open granny square pattern would keep it from being too heavy or hot.

My goal is to have this finished by the end of the year - just in time for summer - ha! ha!

Blue Skies Baby Blanket

A friend recently had a baby boy. Since they are technically my husband's friends, I let him pick out the yarn for the blanket. I think he did a pretty good job. I'm not a big fan of the pastel type baby colours, so this bright blue blanket is very cheery in my opinion.

It is made of 9 granny squares (3x3) with 10 rounds per square. I whipstitched the squares together and finished it off with a row of SC border. The photo is a bit dark as I just finished it at about 7.30pm and it was getting dark outside.

Touche Scarf

I have some wonderfully soft yarn from Lincraft called "Entice" that is just soooo amazingly soft. I was looking at it and feeling it the other day and it made me think of my dad's wife's aunt. A very sweet lady who is unfortunately losing her vision. I thought this would be wonderful yarn to make something for her since it is so very soft. I'm working on this scarf for her for Christmas at the moment. Just a simple scarf of 10sc across. It's my understanding that she has a tiny bit of vision on the side (don't know how to spell "perrifreal???") so hopefully she will be able to get a glimpse of the pretty salmon colour as well.