Dada's Place

Crochet wonderland

Crochet Granny Square Bag

by Filed Under: Crochet bags 24 Comments

I never know how to start a blog post. Or a painting. Or a difficult conversation. But, new crochet projects come very easily to me, often uninvited, at the worst possible moment, when I’m so busy with another crochet project (or projects) that I can’t even manage all of them at the same time. Something like that happened with this bag. I was working on my Blooming Blanket pattern, and boom! The idea for this bag came totally unexpectedly but it still managed to convince me that it was a good idea to stop working on the tutorial and to go about making this bag. So, I made it.

Crocheting this bag was a pleasurable experience, and it went very smoothly. I already had all the yarn I needed, and didn’t struggle (like I often do) to find the perfect color combo. I even had this plaid fabric for the lining which was a perfect match for the bag.

The bag isn’t very big (24 x 26 cm), but it’s big enough for your basic things. You can easily put your wallet, keys, phone, and some make-up in it.

Let’s talk about the yarn. I love, love, love cotton yarn, and for this bag I used 100% cotton yarn “Tango” (St. George), and a beautiful “Una” yarn (also from St. George) with thin silver thread, which unfortunately isn’t visible in these photos but looks really great in real life.

Because I love things to be nice and neat, (but not perfect!), I decided to line the bag with some plain fabric. I even added the same fabric on the inner side of the strap to make it firm, and to avoid stretching.

At the end I added those small colorful circles around the opening because I don’t know, I deeply believe that less is more, but I often ignore that rule and add bright colors and shiny yarn and little circles… maybe I have a secret gypsy soul… who knows… but it doesn’t matter because I really love this bag!

Blooming Blanket

by Filed Under: Crochet baby blanket patterns, Crochet blankets 1 Comment

I am happy to present the latest blanket pattern in Dada’s collection. The Blooming Baby Blanket! It is flowery, colorful and romantic, and very simple and easy to make, which is always a plus, at least for me.

The idea for this blanket came to my mind totally unexpectedly, when I was working on my Vintage style teddy bear blanket. Needless to say, I stopped working on teddy bear blanket, grab some leftovers from my yarn stash and tried to make this flowery granny square. And it worked! It turned out exactly as I had imagined. I didn’t have to adjust it at all. That’s maybe because the granny square is actually very simple, the basic one.

The blanket is 70 cm (27.5”) wide and 84 cm (33”) long and it weighs 515 grams. The square measures approximately 11 x 11 cm (4.3” x 4.3”). I love to work with 100% cotton yarn, and this blanket isn’t an exception. I combined two kinds of yarn. The first one is my beloved “Tango” from St. George, which I used so many times before, and the second one is gorgeous “Vera” from Yumco (also manufacturer from Serbia). They are the same weight: 125m/50g and very similar quality.

For this flowery, colorful blanket I made 42 granny squares in total and joined them together using Join-as-you-go method. In the end, I added this simple edge. At first, I wanted to make some rich, lacy edge, and I spent maybe 2 days designing and developing the perfect lacy border, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Then I asked myself: What is the most obvious solution? I looked at the blanket and I instantly knew that I had to simply incorporate the same elements of the blanket into the edge. From that point on, everything went smoothly. Once again I learned my lesson: the best solution is always the most obvious, and usually very simple. But, for some reason, we like to complicate things, even when it comes to crochet.

I would say that this blanket is suitable for advanced beginners who master the basic stitches. The pattern is very detailed, with lots of step-by-step photographs (98 in total).

For the first time, this pattern is available in both US and UK crochet terms! I love and appreciate my British and Australian customers, so I wanted to make the whole process of crocheting even easier and more enjoyable to them, and from now on, every new pattern will be written in both US and UK crochet terms.

You can easily make this pillow using the Blooming granny square pattern. Just omit the last row of the square, and join the squares with single crochet (double crochet for my UK and Australian followers). You can add whatever border you like. I used the simple shell stitch border, but the Pom Pom edge would also be great.

As you can see, these bags are made of 4 Blooming granny squares (here I’ve also omitted the last row of the squares), joined together with single crochet (double crochet), I used different colors for joining, which makes them even more colorful and playful. You can really be creative with these simple crocheted bags and and let your imagination lead the way, expecially because it seems that you can’t go wrong with them.

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If you want something to bloom in your home 24/7 all year long, maybe this pattern is for you! It is now available in Dada’s place shop, (payment options: Credit cards & PayPal).

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You can also buy it in my Ravelry shop, as well as in my Etsy shop. (payment option: PayPal)

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Crocheted wedding flowers

by Filed Under: Other crochet projects 12 Comments

Recently, when one of my oldest girlfriends (who I have known since kindergarten), asked me to crochet her some little flowers for her wedding, I didn’t have a clue what to crochet.

I haven’t  crocheted flowers very often, but then I remembered that I made some cute roses before, for my tote bag with crochet flowers, and I really loved how they turned out, so I decided to use that pattern (found in a Japanese craft book) again.

The flowers are actually quite small, only 2.5 cm (1″). I made them with thin crochet thread for doilies. I think that I used every possible color that I had because I wanted the roses to be colorful, playful and happy, which I also wish my friend to be and feel in her future married life.

When I finished all the flowers, I made these little leaves (I found the pattern somewhere on the Internet and adjusted it a little), then sewed the roses on the leaves. At the end, I just attached brooch pin backs, and the little crocheted roses became brooches for my friend’s wedding guests.

So, once again it showed how miscellaneous and useful (not to mention creative and beautiful) crochet can be. That’s only one of the reasons why I love it so much!