Christmas in Copenhagen

Hi everyone!

Today I want to share with you the beauty of Copenhagen during Christmas time! Holiday decorations have been in the shops for weeks now; the center of the city has been decorated for the upcoming celebrations, with the renowned Stroget (the shopping street) displaying hearts and beautiful shopping windows; Tivoli park has opened for the winter season; Nisser (the little gnomes with red pointed hats) are everywhere in shops and snow has been falling for some days during the beginning of the month. It is extremely difficult to chose which experience has shown me the best of the city during this last month, but for sure I have some I would recommend to anyone visiting Copenhagen in December (and I have pictures to prove it :-) ).

First of all, the most famous activity: visiting the charming Christmas market in Tivoli. For the occasion, the park is open and decorated. A small village is built with every house containing a little shop where you can find decorations, candies, wool clothes and much more; the entire park is filled with trees, sparkling lights, lovely hearts and white snowflakes and you can even see Santa’s sleigh, next to real reindeers! It is like being in a dream and your 5-years-old-inner-child would never let you leave (personal experience :-) )!
 

Visiting the center of the city, with its beautiful decorations and elegant shopping windows is also an invaluable experience. Doing it during a snowstorm can prove a bit challenging, but extremely rewarding :-) (personal experience, again!).

  

One less obvious but unforgettable walk is the one through Frederiksberg have. This beautiful and large park is a bit away from the center , but when snow is falling, it is one of the most relaxing and deeply beautiful places I have ever visited during my stay in Denmark. It might be just because I love nature, but the soft, sleek, white snow on the ground and trees, the iced lakes, small rivers and incredible silence made it definitely look amazing!

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Love Snow wreath

Hi everyone!

I made this decorative wreath for Christmas, but I think I might keep it around also for January, because I really love it (and I hope you will too! :-) ). 

I bought the wooden wreath and heart separately (the first at Søstrene Grenes and the second at Føtex, but I think they can be found anywhere around Christmas), then I added the cream ribbon, by weaving it through the branches with a large-eye needle.

I made the crocheted roses, snowflakes and other flowers with cotton yarn of different types (some tutorials to make crocheted flowers here, on crochet snowflakes here, and more information about yarns here) and then I attached everything to the wreath using brown wire and adding the jingle bells and the two brown felted roses. 

Enjoy the pictures! And links to more tutorials on crocheted flowers soon!

 

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Featured creations

Big thanks to the lovely wesites and blogs that have featured my creations!

Strung Out: Ocean
Treasures winner profile

Cozy Little House:
Tweak It Tuesday #70

The Charm of Home: Home
Sweet Home #148

Strung Out: January Gems 

contest finalists

Strung Out: In Honor Of...
contest finalists

Strung out: Pantone Spring 
contest finalists

Strung out: Love Is In The

 Air contest finalists

Fire Mountain Gems:

2009 contest finalists

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Small crochet flowers

Hi everyone!

Finally, the first post on crocheted flowers :-) !! 

I love these little beauties for how fast you can make them and for their versatility. You can basically do anything: you can attach them to a pin,  scarf, hat, sweater,  box, basket, Christmas decoration…anything!

I will soon post some examples of creations I made with them, but right now, let’s learn how to crochet them! Here are the 4 best small and quick flower tutorials I found on youtube, together with some comments and pictures about my experience with different yarns. In order to not make a too long post, I will refer to different types of yarns with the names and numbers I assigned them in the PREVIOUS POST. All flowers are made with a 2.5mm hook, unless otherwise indicated...enjoy!

1- SMALL DAISY: this flower is so cute, and takes very little time and expertise to make. Even if you are quite a beginner, you can finish it in approximately 5 minutes. I really like the look of cotton. On the right, the brown flower is made with a medium cotton (number 3), the cream one with an acrylic yarn (number 1) and number 3 with the mercerized very thin cotton (number 5). You can adjust the size of the hole in the center by pulling the tail passing through it. You can also weave it through in many rounds in order to make a small bump, which will make the center look more 3-dimensional.

2- SMALL FIVE PETALS: this also takes about 5 minutes to make and looks so nice once finished! I recommend to chain 5 instead of 3 in the first round, as it will make it easier to go on to the second round, and you will always be able to pull the tail and close the center. The tutorial presents 2 ways of making the flower: the regular, with 2 chains at the second round, and the rounded petals, with only one chain. In the picture on the right, the 2 brown flowers are made with the rounded petals method and using a medium cotton (number 3) for the lighter and a thick cotton (number 2) for the darker one. In the last case, a size 4mm hook was used. The pink flower uses instead the regular flower pattern and a mercerized very thin cotton (number 5).

3- VIOLET: I love, love, love this one! It also takes only 5 minutes to make, and I can just imagine how beautiful a bouquet made of different colors would look. The examples on the right were done with a thin cotton (number 4) and a mercerized very thin cotton (number 5) respectively. I really like both of them. You could also add some small beads to the center in order to give a more complete look or make them in different sizes and textures and then compose them in layers.

4- MEDIUM FLOWER: what I really enjoy about this pattern is its versatility. You can make different sizes and looks by changing few elements. It takes a bit longer than others to finish (5 to 15 minutes, depending on the number of petals and other choices). The light brown in the picture, for instance, was done chaining only 5 per petal in the second round and chaining 2 instead of 3 before and after the double crochets in the third round. In general, you can reduce the size of the holes in the petals, by reducing the number of chains in the second round; you can give petals a more rounded shape by chaining 2 in the third round; you can make fuller petals by making more than 3 double crochet in the third round; you can change the number of petals and you can pull the tail going through the center in order to close it. On the right, the dark brown flower was made with a thick  cotton (number 2), using a size 4mm hook; the lighter one used a medium cotton (number 3) and the pink a mercerized very thin cotton (number 5).

You can play with different colors, sizes and textures and, even better, you can layer the

flowers to create an infinite number of combinations. Attach them where you want and give more color and joy to your life!

Happy crochet!

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Themes

Hi everyone! 

Here you can find the list of all the themes among which posts are divided. There is one per each month of the year and some might seem really strange, but just click on the link and have fun seeing how complicated my thoughts about seasons can get!

Have fun and come back soon!

January like White-snow&snowflakes 

March like Spring-flowers&butterflies 

October like Fall-leaves&pumpkins

November like Warmth-berries&candles

 

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