Rocky River

We have just been camping on the Rocky River for a few days. On the way we stopped and met some natural learning families for a play at the beach. One of the Dads made this sand sculpture and an awesome sand castle with the kids.

 The home school play went for hours and turned into an impromptu fish and chips dinner at the beach. The kids had so much fun playing and Rain finally met another unschooling girl her own age! And I got to spend some time with the beautiful majikfaerie :)

We then headed west a couple of hours to the site where the Rainbow Corroboree is to be held this coming weekend. It is a beautiful sacred site. We camped right on the banks of the river and went swimming every day.

Mr T found this tree with a perfect hammock ready made from the vines growing in the tree.

I finished another pair of crocheted pants. Tui had to model them for me. Inspired by the corroboree I did this pair in Aboriginal colours.

Here's a pic of crocheting the elastic waist on. Sorry it's not very clear. I use double crochet and crochet around the elastic and through the spaces between the trs in the previous row.

Also had the time to finish a little pair of Rasta coloured pants.

Now we are back home for a while, I'd really love to go back down next weekend for the main corroboree but will ave to see how things turn out.

Love and light

Ariad

Crochet pattern for little longies.

I finally got around to writing a pattern for the crochet longies I have been making.

This pattern is for a size 2 pair, like the ones Tui is modelling above. I love simple things and these pants are simple, they are made in one piece and there is no making up at the end which is always a bonus.

I use 8ply yarn and a 3.5mm crochet hook.

Start by making a chain 86 stitches long. Join the chain length together to form a circle.

Round 1: 3 chain and then 1 tr in every chain, join last tr to 3rd chain of initial 3 chains (being careful that the work is not twisted)

Do another 8 rounds like this.

Increasing

For the next six rounds you increase at the centre front and centre back. So tr for 42 stitches, then 4 tr in next tr. Tr for another 42 and two tr in last stitch.

Where you do the four tr is the center back and the two tr is the centre front.



At this stage the longies look like the above pic. You can see the increases in the centre front.

Joining the legs

Now crochet a round of tr around half the pants, doing one tr which joins the centre front stitch and the centre back stitch and continue around the leg. You can keep working on this leg for as many rounds as you wish or join the other leg at this stage.





Legs joined together.


Then it's just a matter of working more rows of tr to complete each leg.
I do about 22 rounds on each leg for a size two.

Once they are finished darn in the loose ends.
I do two different methods for finishing the waist.
The first is to make a twisted cord from three strands of wool and thread it through every second tr in the second row as a draw cord. You could also crochet a long chain to use.
Other times I crochet a piece of 5mm elastic onto the top of the pants. By making a circle of elastic the right size for the child's waist and over-crocheting it around the top of the pants in double stitches.

Note: I have used Australian terms for crochet.
The equivalent terms in the US is...
Where I say tr...US half tr
     "     "   " double...US single

Little Longies

I've been working on a pattern for some little long pants and have finally finished a couple of pairs.

This first pair is a size 1 and made from 100% man-made crap ;)

makes them a bit more wash and wear.

and the second pair, a beautiful, soft 100% wool in size 0

I love the colours in these ones.