Crochet Bobble Edging: Video Tutorial

Finally!! I promised this months ago and here we are, I have pulled my finger out and made a tutorial for my crochet bobble edging. Rejoice!! It’s over on YouTube, the pic above is the link but feel free to travel HERE to the whole channel.

You can add this edging to pretty much any blanket, scarf, cushion etc. If the multiples don’t work then I’m all in favour of wangling it so that they do! Crochet is not offended by mild cheating. But for you sticklers out there it’s mults of 3, plus 1 and the corners [my corners are (2tr, 2ch, 2tr)].

For the swatch in the video and the rainbow edged striped blanket pictured here, I used Lucy’s Attic 24’s Granny Stripe tutorial. For more details of making a rainbow edged blanket I have a tutorial for that too! It’s HERE.

Just in case you want to know, I used some random acrylic dk and a 3.75mm hook, which might be a bit small if you have a tight tension.

I first came up with a version of it when I made Sandra’s Cherry Heart A Touch of Spice blanket. (This seems like a lifetime ago!). At the time I made a photo tutorial. It’s just ever so slightly different but it will help here if you want pics.

I’ve also used it on my crazy chevron blanket

 I’m currently slogging through it on this rainbow edged blanket

What do you reckon? I can tell you that it’s time consuming, and on a giant blanket you might get a bit miffed of having it take so long. However, it’s worth persevering as it looks great!

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August Garden

Hello! It has been aaaages! How’s it going? I haven’t written for nearly a month! I’ve been working on crochet commissions and hanging out with the boys as the summer holidays have started. I wanted to write a garden update a week or two ago but either we weren’t here or the light wasn’t right for photo taking. I’ve given up on waiting to take more pictures so I’m sharing what I have manged to snap.

Flowers first. I’m thrilled that the white anemone has bloomed for the first time. I bought it about four years ago and planted it down at the very bottom of the garden. It had never been happy there and not once did I see a flower after its  first year. I dug it up last year and plonked it in a pot to live nearer the house. Hey presto! Flowers! I love anemones. I don’t suppose they’re anything special but I don’t care. They’re definitely a favourite.

See? I have a pink one too! These flowers have always been happy sharing a corner with ferns.

This plumbago lives next to the pink anemone and the ferns. It looks like the ferns are spreading and will swamp it. I ought to move it but don’t know where it could go. Given the opportunity, I think this could get much much bigger. Where would it be happiest? The borders are where I do a lot of guess work. I’ll do some research.

Then there are the patio plants. This is what I was waiting to capture; none of these photos really show what’s what. Maybe it’s a good thing there are no other images, it isn’t the best bunch of pots I’ve ever had. The prolonged high temps made things leggy and sparse. But the boys chose this year’s plants and they chose bright things. The flowers that have come out really do make an impact. Sort of. All the summer’s rain seems to have fallen in this single past week. I wonder if it’ll pep things up. Then I can ask the sun to come for a photo opportunity! Quick, please, before the autumn comes!

Veg patch. I’ve been much better at keeping things tidy this year. It helps to have more plants waiting in the wings. There has been no room for laziness. Once the mange tout was over, once I’d pulled up all the (sadly, maggotty) carrots and eaten all the broad beans, I pulled it all out to make room for leeks and purple sprouting.

I got the leek seedlings from my step dad and the purple sprouting from the garden centre. I have tried growing both from seed before but I no longer see the point. I didn’t like the tangle of microscopic leeks that you had to wrangle (and you get too many – even without sowing them all). And caterpillars ate all my PS babies (I can’t be bothered to keep typing purple sprouting). I don’t feel the need to cheat in the garden all that often but there are times when it works out for the best. Courgettes, for example, I buy two plants each year because you don’t need more than that. Even if you made all the chutney and cake to feed an entire town, there would still be a magic porridge pot of mini marrows.

Anyway, I made a PS net house.  Three sodding hours it took me to build! I had to sew the netting together at the joins, which took ages. But, I have noticed lots of healthy growth and no butterflies. I was told to build it high as butterflies drop their eggs like bombs! Cheeky buggers. I’ve had to make a few repairs already as the cat has seen it as a daily challenge to break and enter. Pfft. I am hoping my efforts will be rewarded with the gloriousness of the best vegetable in the whole world! (Now that I’ve written that I realise that they’re all my favourite vegetables. I’m growing all my favourites! Of course I am, I wouldn’t grow ones I didn’t like, duh).

Finally. Have you ever happened upon a mystery squash? There’s one in the herb bed. I thought it was going to be a butternut. It’s not. I grew them once so wondered if it was a rogue seed.  The other option is it’s a pumpkin. I grew mini pumpkins about five years ago. This isn’t mini. Whilst it isn’t orange, I’m guessing it’s a Halloween job. Last year I chucked the carved ones on the veg bed to rot down. There must have been seeds  left in one of them. Do they turn orange at a later date? Squash Watch is a thing now.

Oh, hang on the rain has stopped. Right, I’m off outside. Whilst I’m gone, let me know what’s going on in your patch? Cheers. x

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When Did the Garden Grow?

Massive bush…

I find it so odd that a garden can grow and grow but it’s not until you look back on pictures that you really notice just how much. It’s all happened so quickly that I’ve been overwhelmed by the progress so I’m jumping in with random pics of the last couple of months before it all gets too much. This HERE is the last “stage” back in May.

I’ve only commented on a few pictures. You don’t need a massive essay on a garden I go on about all the time.  As it stands, right now we’re eating courgettes (zucchini) like our lives depended on it (for the first time ever, the yellow ones are bigger & better than the green).  The broad beans are just coming in, which makes me happy (I love them!). The mange tout are over but the runner beans are in flower, waiting to transform into my favourite ever beans.  Beetroot and carrots are being pulled up and added to salads and roast dinners. I’m also finding a plethora of wildflowers have cheekily wedged themselves between the rows of my veg (viola, nemesia, snapdragons). They won’t get pulled up though, they’re too pretty.

At some point this week you’ll probably find me in the kitchen, standing over a pile of courgettes, trying to decide whether to make chutney, cake or both.

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The hawthorn flowered much later than expected. Usually it’s May but this wasn’t until June. I look forward to it; it makes a great focal point smack bang in the middle of my view, down at the bottom of the garden.
Every year I forget what it’s called. Not any more, Love in the Mist!
Peony. Way too heavy for its own good.
Caught in the act. But I’m totally shocked to find that none of my hostas are riddled with holes. Winner!

  xxx

Garden in May

In absolutely no particular order (because there are just too many – soz!), here are some recent pics of the garden. It’s been just over a month since I last shared what was going on in the garden and it has been a very productive few weeks. I can’t believe the difference from these photos to the ones in the last blog post! The garden has gone bonkers!

We had the bonfire that I said I wanted to have, took stuff to the dump, sorted out all the pots and got planting. There’s still lots more to do as I’ve not done all the lettucey type things and there are baby runner beans and purple french ones to go out.

A sunny May day is the garden at its best before there’s the weird June/July lull. I’m curious to see what the pots will look like later on in the year; the kids have persuaded me to change colour scheme. They’ve chosen lots of garish, clashy things. I hope I like it! I’m also desperate to get my hands on home grown veg. It’s all late because my early stuff got bitten by the frost and I had to start again. But, hey, it’s only May!

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    x

Tar Barrels 2017

Ok, a few pics of this year’s Tar barrels in Ottery St Mary. I took them on my phone so they’re not fabulous but I couldn’t let it pass without saying something about the weekend. It’s unique and special, it has to be done. I’m not writing a proper article but do check out  2016 here and 2015 here. Those posts have more info.

You can’t see well but that’s the massive bonfire next to the river, which in turn is next to the fairground. Over to the left somewhere is where I stung my arse on nettles. Someone might have seen but there were a lot of bushes to hide in and I needed a wee. It’s a pity that it was too dark to spot the stingers.

A bonfire is mesmerising. We stood and watched in revery for a while before going off to find a few burning barrels. As usual, the kids went home after the bonfire. Well, we found a safe spot for them to witness one barrel and then they had to go home. Too dangerous for little guys.

The square was packed with people. Although I’m pretty sure it was relatively “quiet” for a Saturday. I didn’t get proper pictures of the barrel being carried. I did a ten second burst as one went by and then put my phone in my pocket for the most of it. I wanted to enjoy it with my eyes. Last year I was too focussed on getting a good picture (not that I achieved it). I’ll leave that to the professionals. If you google the event you can find some terrific footage. You’ll then be able to see that the barrels really are in the crowd.  No safety barrier. No illusions.

Once midnight passes the crowds have thinned, with everyone staggering home. I stayed on hoping some magic would happen. It didn’t. Just a lot of trash and a strange quiet. At that point I felt I’d out-stayed my welcome so I dragged myself away to my bed. Roll on next year.

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Connie’s Blanket. A Colourful Crochet Granny.

It feels like this pretty crochet granny blanket has been in the making for aaaaggess. Relatively speaking that’s probably not true. I started it because I had leftovers from the Crazy Chevron blanket I made back in February. Trying (unsuccessfully) to reduce the stash has been the aim for quite a while. For this chap, a few colours were swapped depending on what there was most of in my “collection”. I only bought two balls extra.

If you watch my crochet podcast you’ll have heard me go on about this in nearly every single episode! I thought you guys might be interested in a blog post too and it’s a good idea to have all the info in one place. So here we are!

This colourful creation is now called Connie’s Blanket. I didn’t know when I started, that it would end up as a birthday present but at some stage or other it decided (not me), that that was what it was!

Connie’s Blanket is made up of 130 squares (10×13), which were Joined As You Go. The pattern and construction are similar to a blanket I made a few years ago. That one is nattily entitled Crochet Circles in a Square blanket. That blog post has links for all you need if you’re going to make a blanket like this. I’ll break it down here too…

Crochet Circle pattern.  The difference in Connie’s blanket is that I used a magic ring to start each circle and I added no chains between the trebs (US dc’s) of the first round. Oh, and no double trebles on the joining round, just some trebs.

Attic 24’s Join As You Go tutorial

Zeens and Roger on YouTube, pick an and episode, any episode… I’ll probs be talking about it!

I used Stylecraft Special DK in the following colours: Duck Egg, Spring, Fondant, Fuschia, Shrimp, Lobelia, Apricot, Grey, Kelly, Cloud, Mustard, Wisteria,

I made all the inner circles first (well, most of them – I kept adding more when I saw I had enough yarn for more rows), then evenly distributed those between the shades. I haven’t checked but I reckon they’re all unique.

The border is dead simple. Three rounds of Grannies, 1 row of trebles and a scallop edge. To jazz up the edge a bit more I ended up doing this: Starting in a dip: *(ch2, 1dc after next treble) x4, ch2, 1ss in the dip between scallops; rep from *. I think that’s right but give me a shout if it’s weird!

And that’s pretty much it. Blankets like these are one of my favourite things to crochet. I don’t know why, they just are! What about you? How do you get on with granny blankets?! I know some people think they’re naff and old fashioned but I can’t help but love em!

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Geo Rainbow C2C Crochet Blanket

Helloo!! How’s it going? It’s all crazy here at the minute, I have many “things to do” lists strewn about the place! One thing I can tick off the list is: stop worrying about the Geo Rainbow blanket pattern. It’s out now! This month’s Inside Crochet (issue 90) is in the shops. There are loads of great patterns in there but when I opened it’s pages, I went straight for my colourful crochet blanket.

EDIT: This pattern is now available to buy on Ravelry HERE

I made the front cover! Excuse me for getting excited; it’s very novel. I’m mega proud of what I’ve achieved over the last few months and I’m taking time to shirk off the modesty and say “yay me!”. I absolutely believe everyone should do this from time to time. Just stop and tell yourself how great you are, because it’s true! Stop worrying about others and concentrate on yourself for a while.

The idea popped in my head around October/November and the first stitch was made at the end of December. It was born from a crochet cushion I made last August, this one….

It’s funny where ideas take you.  I liked the geometric pattern but there was no way I wanted to make a whole blanket out of such small stitches (even though I have since done exactly that, with a chevron blanket!). The best way of getting the look I wanted was to go C2C.

Not only do I have a published pattern in this issue but there is also have an article about how to do the corner to corner stitch. I submitted the finished blanket in February; in May I was asked if I fancied having a go at writing a “mini masterclass”. I said yes because you can’t say no, can you?!

For the article I made a swatch, with each stage photographed so I could show how to do all the important bits of c2c.  Breaking it down was fascinating. It makes you realise just how much work goes into all the crochet that we do. Think of all those twiddly twists made with hook, yarn and fingers!

Lots of yarn is used at the same time. It’s so much fun to see it all jumbled together. I was (surprisingly) pretty fastidious about keeping it well organised. There’s no way you want this lot to get in proper tangle.

The people behind the magazine would like to take my blanket to Yarndale this year! How fab is that?! I do hope I can make it up to Skipton for September. I don’t relish driving for 5+ hours on my own but I’d love to go…dilemma.

Corner to corner is really popular at the moment. What do you think? Is it something you’d like to try? Have you made a a graphgan before? I’d love to hear. Do let me know.  Cheers. X

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Crafty Catch Up…

i-love-this-picture-daffodils-with-my-crochet-cushionIt’s been a while since I had a round-up of current crafty WIPS. Today is the day to remedy that.

chevron-progress crochet-chevronThis crochet chevron has been my main focus. A very jolly, bright blanket.  I’ve wanted to make one for ages. I gathered all the colours together in October but they sat in a bag for months. I think I made over 200 stitches for the foundation. Unfortunately, the chevrons have a concertina effect and it’s smaller than I wanted.  I’m having a think about how to square off the zigzag  for the border. The chevron pattern is from Meet me at Mike’s.

pistachio-humbug-crochetI’ve made a start on the Humbug shawl with a pistachio coloured wool from Blacker yarns. The yarn was a Christmas pressie from Becki at The Dartmoor Yarn Company. The pattern is by The Crochet Project and I got that as a freebie for naming it! (Always happy to mention that). I started it a few weeks ago but put it down for a while. Last weekend I did a few more rows and I’d like to see it grow some more soon.

crochet-mandalaI made a mandala in yucky colours. Ok, they’re not yuck. Just not seasonal. I don’t have a vast collection of cotton dk to choose from. It seems I need some spring colours. Great pattern though. It’s a free one. Go here.

crafty-messingThe idea was to stitch it over a gaping hole in my jeans. It turned out that a great big doily stuck to my haunches was gonna look pretty dodgy so the idea was binned….

embroidery-on-jeans…in favour of something more subtle. I quite like how this turned out. I posted a pic of the finished article on Instagram the other day and it got a really positive response. I’m happy to wear my jeans with a piece of Liberty fabric embroidered on. Make do and mend etc.  I’ve got another pair of jeans waiting to have similar treatment but this time the affected area is round the other side. Do you know that awful feeling when you realise you’ve been walking round in public, all day, with a split in the seat of your trousers?! I do.

nebula-the-wool-kitchen custom-dyedI made a couple of naughty yarn purchases recently. I’m arguing that this is still Christmas money. Not sure how long I can get away with that excuse though. The pale one is a dye job I requested from Rhapsodye Yarns and the other is called Nebula from The Wool Kitchen. Both are aran.

crochet-trianglesBoth new yarns are for my continuing experiments with triangle infinity scarves. Once these are done, that’s it. No more messing about with triangles. I have to draw a line under this project. Still, I’ll make the most of it while they last. And maybe I’ll wear one of these to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival next month! That’s right, I got me a ticket!! I’ll be there with my sister on the Saturday. My birthday is the beginning of May. Do you think I can wangle some birthday money for March?!

ugly-granny-crochetOnce all the other stuff is done, I’ll pick this up granny square up blanket. I like getting it out every few weeks. It feels like a new project each time I work on it.

flapjackAnd last week, me and one of my boys made flapjacks. Not technically a crafty thing but nevermind.  I forget how yummy they are. I can even eat them when I put raisins in them. That means they must taste good; everyone knows how much I don’t like raisins! Maybe we’ll make some tomorrow too.

inside-crochet-magEdit: I can’t believe I forgot to mention my mini interview in Inside Crochet magazine. What a chump! I was so excited to see it in there too. It’s the “Blog We Love” section. Get yourself a copy. Lots of fabulous patterns too. X

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Feeling the chill.

knitting-with-cake-and-teaCold innit?! I’ve put the heating on and I’ve got tea, cake and knitting. Knitting, I tell you!!  This is my first ever knitting project (not counting the endless squares and “scarves” I made as a kid or the unfinished multi colour/multi stitch jumper I attempted when I was fifteen). There will be more of this next week because I definitely want to write about it when it’s finished…

january-gardenI was planning on releasing a free crochet pattern today but a thing I ordered for it hasn’t turned up. It’s gonna be super cool, why hasn’t the postman brought me the thing I need!? Boo. Instead of crafty talk I’d better do a quick garden update. It’s been a long time since I posted anything non crafty and I feel bad that I’m ignoring the garden just cos it’s winter. Winter gardens can be beautiful too. I’ve just looked up what it was like in September. Flowers!

sun high-f-stopI took these at 8.45 this morning. Different f-stop used but the same view (I’m taking a few minutes here and there to learn about my new 50mm lens that I got for Christmas).

web frozen-himalayan-honeysuckle frosty-herb cold-plant chilly-morningCripes, it was chilly. I didn’t stay out there for long. If I took my time I could get some really nice pictures. I’m a panic picture taker though and really should give myself more time to think about things like angles, lighting and focussing properly (obvious, right?!). Also I need to give myself more time when using the camera functions; actually think about how I can employ them to their best advantage. There’s a lot to process.

ice-bucketThere are still dead sparklers in this bucket. Abandoned in November. Slovenly.

potsI’m embarrassed to say that I started to tear up some of these plants the other day. They looked just like weeds.  I’d forgotten what I’d planted and assumed that they’d be bulby type plants if I’d put them there. They’re anemones! As soon as I saw their cormy bottoms, it dawned on me and I hastily shoved them back in the pot. I hope they don’t mind too much.

Even in winter, I love my little garden. It’s a mess, but that’s allowed at this time of year. Still wondering why my purple sprouting has no purple sprouting though…

Anyway, I’m off to wait by the letterbox with my knitting. On the plus side, I might be able to get my knitting done by tonight so I can wear it out later!

 

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