A Crochet Along

Hopefully you’ve heard of the Back To School Sweater CAL by now. If you haven’t, then you’ve still got a month before the Crochet-A-Long ends. It is the perfect excuse to try something you’ve never done before. I had never made myself a crochet jumper before. Now I have made two!

And it’s partly due to this fabulous sweater party that has been devised by Tamara from Crafty Escapism and Helen from Making at Number 14, not to mention shouted from the rooftops by awesome Fay of the Crochet Circle podcast. They will take you to a hive of information and lead you down a rabbit hole of jumpery goodness. There are loads of specially written blog posts by some truly knowledgeable people.

I’ve stopped caring about showing my mad face to the world. It doesn’t really matter, does it? I expect you’re looking at the jumper/sweater anyway. And you have probably noticed that both my jumpers are the same pattern. It’s the Cleckheaton Colour Block Jumper, and I have mentioned it several times now, mostly over on my YouTube channel (episodes 13-16), where I’ve shared the details of yarn (it’s Drops Lima, which I’ve learned is deffo handwash only) and other super informative stuff.

You can find the pattern for free on Ravelry, along with many others that are in a useful bundle put together by the CAL team. Look here, aren’t there so many you could make?!

Yes, my sweater seaming is a bit dodgy, but I’m saying it’s part of the look. And you can always turn it inside out, where it blends in more. And if I’m not mistaken, I appear to have walked past many (far more than usual) doors/walls/strange places that all have nails (or other protruding things) poking out, waiting to grab hold and snag at my granny clusters. It’s a handmade jumper’s worst nightmare (that, and the shrinking/felting thing that I achieved on the first wash).

As it’s a CAL, there are prizes to be won if you enter your project into the Ravelry threads. I have offered one of my patterns as a prize. I don’t know if it’ll be a bundle of prizes for just a couple of winners or if there’ll be many prizes for different categories.  Here is the Chatter thread so you can see what everyone is getting up to. And here is the Finished Object thread. I admit that I’m not very good at chatter threads. I easily forget to check in, but I do enjoy seeing other crafter’s takes on projects. Simply by joining in on the threads (and by using the Instagram hashtag #BackToSchoolSweaterCAL) means you’re eligible to be entered into the prize giveaways.

Again, sorry about the face. This photo really shows the jumper off, though, so I’m overlooking the crazy stare (it’s not as if people cross the street when I walk by or anything).

Have you already made crochet garments before? Is it something you enjoy? I loved making mine and will definitely make more crochet clothes for myself in the future. And please shout out if you are already taking part. Or maybe you’ve had a spark of inspiration and now feel the pull of the CAL?! Let me know! Cheers.

It’s about time, it’s sweater weatha… x

 

 

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Find Your Crochet Fade

Do you know the Find your Fade? It is a knitted shawl with glorious colour play, a spectrum of tones and speckled variegated yarns. I absolutely love the Fade, but I’m just not a knitter.

Therefore, I was so excited when I discovered that a very clever crochet designer had come up with a crochet version. The best thing of all is that the Blurre shawl is a completely original design. It isn’t a copy of the Fade, it is its very own thing, and it’s totally fab!

The Blurre Shawl By Addydae Designs

I stumbled upon the Blurre shawl whilst watching a fellow crochet podcaster. Claudia of Crochet Luna was talking about it, and I told her how beautiful I thought it was. A few days later, I found a copy of the pattern in my Ravelry inbox! Claudia had bought the crochet pattern for me, for my birthday!! How lovely is that?!

I got stuck in straight away! I knew that I wanted to use the hand-dyed yarns I’d found at Stephen & Penelope’s in Amsterdam. That was my starting point. At the time, I was making a different shawl with some neon yellow I’d bought at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. That was definitely also going into the shawl, too.

I needed two more colours, so I looked for yarn shades that would blend the neon with the dusky blues from Amsterdam. The Wool Kitchen’s Nebula sprang to mind pretty quickly. Then, a spot of time trawling Etsy gave me Made By Jude’s “When Dye Pots Attack”.

Check out my crochet podcast episode where I talk about the shawl, too!

The pattern is awesome. It’s super easy but represents really sophisticated and modern crochet. I didn’t know Deanne of Addydae Designs before. Well, I’d seen her work before, but not properly registered in my head that one person was linked to all the pretties.

Take a look at the Three Springs shawl. I lurrrvve it!! Deanne also has a podcast, check that out, too.

I’m in love with my crochet Blurre shawl!! It’s awesome! However, it has been a bugger to photograph. The neon blows out no matter what I try. It makes the other colours look lacklustre. In real life, it is all superb, I promise.

If I were to be picky, I’d say that I’d like a few more rows of the first colour (the turquoisy one) and more rows of the Nebula (the dark one with rainbow flecks). I think that would have helped to balance out that crazy neon punch to the face. For the most part, I’m well chuffed. If I didn’t have so many other things to make, I’d definitely make another crochet blurre shawl straight away. I know others have said the same, too.

Photographing the Blurre Shawl

I got the camera out the other day and took some snaps that didn’t work too well. I asked my four year old to take some pictures of me, too. Initially, I just handed him the camera and asked him to click away. It didn’t go down well. I ended up with about twenty blurry Blurres.

I got the tripod out, but still couldn’t see exactly what was going on (not until I remembered to flip the viewing screen). Anyway, here are a few reasonably acceptable photos so you get more of an idea about how the Blurre looks.

It was fun to play around, and the boy enjoyed some “responsibility” as my photographer. His favourites were when the cat got in on the action. She didn’t like being a model much.

What do you reckon? Fancy having a go at your own Blurre shawl? I’d love to see other versions!

 

 

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A Yarny Exhibition

I love the Thelma Hulbert Gallery, it’s always welcoming, and they have a really eclectic mix of exhibitions. A couple of years ago, I went to see a collection of Matisse paper cut-outs, which was great for a small-town gallery (the Thelma Hulbert is in Honiton, East Devon).

Sometimes we go just to use their fully stocked art and craft room. The kids love grabbing glue and making collages, or drawing the biggest pictures they can on massive sheets of paper. It’s a great way to encourage a bit of messy freedom in playing. What a fab gateway to art and craft!

I left it really late to visit their latest exhibition, the last day is this coming Saturday (24th June). I can’t believe I didn’t see that it was on until now.

Blooming Marvellous

Blooming Marvellous is right up my street because it is a knitting and crochet exhibition! It’s a garden of all things yarn. People of all ages, from all walks of life, hand-stitched every item on display. I wasn’t sure if it’d be a bit too cutesy, but I was delighted to see it all!

We also contributed by adding a few rows to some knitting that was there. Can you believe that there weren’t any crochet hooks?! I forgot to take crochet flowers with me. Annoyingly, I have some at home that would have been perfect to donate to the exhibition.

I went with my friend and our two youngest children. The boys had a great time finding things on a list they were given. A mole in a hole, tick! A ladybird wearing a lace collar, tick! A plate of prawns, tick! (The boys were also really pleased to find plug sockets hidden in the floor. But they are only four years old).

After the exhibition, one of the people working there told us to go and explore the gardens. There were plenty of strawberries to find and eat, she told us. It’s little things like that, that make me like the place so much.

Blooming Marvellous has been touring the UK for the past six years, and I wish I could tell you where it’ll be next so that you might get to go. Sadly, I have no idea. Hopefully it’ll be on somewhere else soon. I did take pictures though…

Knitted Foxy Roxy Scarf

Do you remember when Wool and The Gang asked me to review their new Take Care Mohair, and I thought they’d made a mistake? Well, it can’t have been much of a mistake because they got in touch again to ask if I wanted to try out one of their other knitting products! Result!

Today I’m here to tell you all about how I made my Foxy Roxy knitted scarf.

I chose the Foxy Roxy scarf from the WATG Hygge LookBook that I was sent to peruse. I could have chosen something to crochet, but I was seduced into going a different route. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’d love to knit more (I can do the very basics, but that’s all).

The sock knitting phenomenon still eludes me, but I do see lovely knitted shawls out there. Maybe one day…. Anyway, I thought the Foxy Roxy would be a good introduction to the world of knitting, and the fact that I was being sent the kit would be a good kick up the bum to get something done.

The kit included five balls of Crazy Sexy Wool, some fab knitting needles, the pattern and a little label to pop on the finished project. I just love the packaging it all comes in ( I didn’t take pictures this time because my mohair review has those).  It was Christmas again when the box was brought to my door!

I chose Midnight blue, but it really was hard to decide (there are so many colours…). In the end, I went with the sensible choice. I knew that I’d wear a shade of navy. And it’s true, I’ve been wearing it non-stop since I downed needles a week ago.

Relearning How To Knit

I took it easy at first. My parcel arrived the Saturday before last, and I knitted up half a ball that afternoon and the second half the day after. By Monday, I’d gotten into the swing of things; I caned through the last four balls in less than three days.

For a couple of rows at the beginning, I kept stabbing through the yarn with the pointy needles (these are proper vampire slaying needles). After a few rows, that stopped, and I got into a good rhythm. It seems I respond well to the noise of needles. It might be the main reason I fancy taking up knitting. The noise of these chunky knitting needles is hypnotic, and I really enjoyed the woody clacking I made with my chunky stakes.

And oh my goodness! No achy hands! I’m used to achy hands when using a giant crochet hook, but I must hold needles differently, cos no ache this time!

Obviously, I needed tea and cake to help me along the way, but I did get a few crumbs on my stitches [I use the best lemon drizzle recipe there is]. I needed the energy to keep on with all the rows of knitting.

One ball in and I could see that this Foxy Roxt Scarf was gonna be loooonnng. To be honest, I have no idea if there are more rows than the pattern told me. I didn’t count. I just kept going until I ran out of yarn. I got carried away with this and didn’t have enough to cast off.

At that point, I had to take an enormously deep breath and frog a few rows. I gathered each stitch slowly and carefully back on a needle and knit back on a couple of rows before trying the cast off again. Here, I have to admit that I don’t actually know what a row looks like. I think it’s both the wiggle chain things per row and not half of one of these. Is that right?! Er, I don’t know. Whatever the weather, I now have a knitting project under my belt, and I am proud!

Thank you to my eldest boy for taking some amusing photographs of me. It was very good timing that he was off sick from school. I made him take a squillion pics. To help him, I even cracked open the tripod that I bought a year ago.

Why haven’t I ever used the camera tripod before!? It makes life so much easier. Duh. How snuggly and cosy does my new knitted scarf look though!? It is flippin’ gorgeous, I love it. I know it’s wrong, but I’m wishing for colder weather so I can enjoy laughing at everyone else in their piddly little, ineffectual scarves. I will be super warm and happy! Gleefully, manically laughing, I expect.

All I will say is this: when wearing it, I will have to learn to be careful. Yesterday, as I casually sauntered home from the school run (probably with a little hint of scarf smugness too), a great big gust of wind took my scarf and threw it in brambles. So embarrassing. I was there for an eternity, carefully and not so casually untangling my precious new, hand-knit scarf.

I’ve only included a picture of the cat, due to the fact that she was watching me whilst I took the photos.

 

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Christmas is getting super close now, and I’m not ready. So many crafting and crochet ideas have not yet come to fruition. I’m probably being too ambitious in my crafty endeavours, but there’s so much I want to make!

If anyone else is in a panic about handmade gifts, this cosy crochet hat is really quick to whip up and looks great, too. It’s the Ski Lodge Hat by Mama in a Stitch. I made it last week for my friend. She didn’t want it to be itchy, so I used King Cole Big Value Super Chunky, an acrylic yarn. The pompom is Robin yarn. I don’t like Robin; it’s proper nasty quality, but it didn’t really matter what the quality was like for pompomming.

For the hat, I made 40 chains at the beginning rather than 46. That’s because my mate’s only got a small bonce. 40 was fine for her, but for me, I think I’d do 44 (bigger brain obvs ;p).

Practice the Knitting

I bought two balls of the King Cole stuff just in case one wasn’t enough for the hat (it was). With the second, I thought I’d have a go at knitting again. It transpires that one does need to practice to become an expert knitter, and I ought to have a few goes to get good. I know what I want to make now, though.

My blogging friend Alida from Buttercup and Bee showed a picture on Instagram of a cowl she’d knitted. I said how much I liked it, and she’s given the stitch count [is this what you say?] for making it. This is my first go at purling for a very long time. I can so do this! But not yet. Get Christmas out of the way. Get new circular needles.

Quick Bit of Christmas Sewing

I’ve done a rush job on a Christmas star garland. It’s not up yet (won’t dec the halls for a few more days, at least). I haven’t pressed it. It’ll look tidier once I’ve had a good go with the iron (not sure I’ll look at my iron in the same way again, not since I saw what Negan gets up to with his!).

I could have worked on making this neater, but I had just a twenty minute window for sewing machine activity and whizzed through it. Actually, this would make a nice little tutorial. That’ll have to wait for next year.

I’ve been using some lovely yarns to make presents. The green stuff is Malabrigo. Thought I’d go for something fancier than my usual purchases. It’s very pretty.

And whilst I’m here, let me give an update about this lot of crochet squishiness. I’ve not finished typing up the pattern. I’m nearly there. Last Friday I did do most of it, but it’s surprising how much work goes into even the simplest of crochet patterns. Not only am I constantly double-checking that I’m writing it down correctly, there’s also a lot of photography and editing. I’ll get there in the end, even if I end up publishing it in June.

Finally, today I posted off my two remaining parcels for crafty Secret Santa craft swaps. Will everyone actually keep them under the tree until Christmas Day?!

 

 

 

Crafting and Memories

The first week of the summer holidays was a trip to Southampton. In between the obligatory trips to Toys R Us and Ikea, there are the family visits. I always go and see Nanna and Grandad. They both turned 90 in January and are still very independent (to be honest, I’m always expecting them to pop their clogs). On this visit, we went through some of Nanna’s crafty gubbins, and it triggered a nostalgic twinge.

Nineteen Forties Embroidery

Look at this! Nanna embroidered this tablecloth in 1945, and she said that she’d like to pass it on to me. I’m quite chuffed about that. It’s really very pretty. It needs a bit of cleaning (anyone got any advice on how to do that?).

She stitched it whilst her brother-in-law was in hospital. He’d had his face torn apart by shrapnel in World War 2.

Vintage Embroidery With Provenance

Who doesn’t love a bit of vintage embroidery?! Whilst it’s lovely as a tablecloth, I wonder if it wouldn’t be too insensitive to repurpose it. I would rather it be regularly used and loved than folded neatly in a drawer.

 Now that it’s the holidays, I won’t have much time, but I would love to try some embroidery of my own. I do tinker with pretty stitching, but don’t do masses of it. It’s another thing to add to the list.

Nanna’s Knitting Needles

Nanna also decided she didn’t want her spare knitting needles anymore. This is daft because I’m sure she’ll want some of them back. Also, I am terrible at knitting.

She hasn’t given me the ones she regularly uses. I think these are all surplus. Amongst them is a Tunisian crochet hook. I got quite excited about this as it coincides with the growing fancy that I want to learn a bit of that.

Vintage Madeira Bag

Then there’s this awesome bag from Madeira. It needs repairing, but I think it’s pretty cool. I think she said a friend gave it to her, but I’m not sure. My guess is the 1970s, but it could be much earlier.

I’ve got no clue how to fix the broken bits on this very old bag. To be honest, I haven’t checked out how broken it really is. I can just see that the fabric is coming away from the baskety bit. And the baskety bit is a bit fragile in itself.

A Handmade Patchwork Blanket

Upon returning home to Devon, I went and rummaged in my own cupboards and dug out a few things.

Nanna made this patchwork blanket for my 18th birthday. For a good couple of years leading up to that birthday, I’d see EPP hexagons here and there and ask what they were for. She was always evasive, and I wouldn’t get a straight answer, hah!

I have to be careful with this blanket; I think there might still be a pin lodged in the quilted layers somewhere. I found about three when I got it and managed to get a couple out. I use it regardless, pins be damned. It is not quite twenty years of age.

Having made a patchwork bag using English paper piecing, I know how this sort of thing is a proper labour of love. And her hexies are smaller than the patchwork bag I made!

A Classic Crochet Granny Blanket

This is the crochet granny blanket she made for my eldest boy just over seven years ago, when he was born. It’s a classic granny, and it is this hotchpotch blanket that made me go to my local wool shop and buy my first crochet hook!

A Simple Crochet Chain

Rewind to some point in the 1980’s… This tatty-looking thing in the above pic is the first piece of crochet I ever attempted. I made this foundation chain and decided that crochet was rubbish.

I don’t think it helped that I was told that I must hold the hook a certain way (Nanna and I don’t agree on hook hold). Knitting was easier for me back then; I could make squares and scarves and things. This crochet failure was tied to the middle of a Nanna-made crochet blanket that I had as a little girl. I threw it away last year. It was stinky and holey. The foundation chain is the only bit that remains.

Traditional Knitted Baby Blanket

She knitted this white baby blanket for Eldest boy also. It’s quite traditional to gift a white knitted baby blanket. I was given more than one at the births of both my boys.

And as usual, the cat wanted in on it so she clambered on Nanna’s blankets and went to sleep.

I’m still feeling funny about old things (not Nanna and Grandad, the other stuff). I’ve been sorting through my old work from when I first started school. I blame going back to Southampton.

Old School Work!

This was when I went to the Hall of Aviation in Southampton (now called Solent Sky). I took my boys last week. It’s still awesome.

Sindy’s Wedding Outfit

I don’t know if I blame Southampton that much. It might also have been before that because I asked my sister to dig stuff out a few weeks ago. I was watching the Sewing Bee and had begun to wonder when I first started sewing.

I used to sit for hours, hand-sewing outfits and accessories for my Sindy doll. After a while, I graduated to the sewing machine. I was around ten when I made this wedding outfit from the leftovers of my other sister’s christening gown. It has set in sleeves!

My step mum helped me do this, as I don’t think I could have managed those sleeves alone. I think I need to ask Sister to go back in the loft to see if she has the red corduroy dress I made her for Christmas when I was twelve, and she was two… I was dead proud of myself!

Nanna Knitted Doll Clothes

What Sindy/Barbie wouldn’t want knitted clothes?! Some Nanna specials.

I particularly love this woollen coat. I actually think my mum knitted this. It wasn’t passed on to my sisters; it was the only one I kept.

Speaking of my Mum. I’m fairly certain she knitted baby blankets, too (pictured above and below). One knitted, one crocheted. Both in the seventies, for my brother. I’m sure she’ll correct me if I’m wrong.

She said this crochet blanket wasn’t suitable in the end. Too many holes for baby fingers to twist up in.

Anyway, I’m gonna go. I didn’t realise there was so much from the past that still exists. What the blazes am I gonna do with it all?! Hope no ghostly cooties are clinging to all the dust.