Yarn Berry

Oh, how I love Fridays! Especially when Aberdeen is having an Indian summer and it’s the last Friday of the month, so I can wear jeans to work. If you saw my Year of Projects post on Sunday, I’m afraid this won’t be so interesting for you, since all I’ve managed this week is finishing the Lacey Crochet Scarf at long last. It really did seem to be taking forerver! However it’s over and I’m glad it is. It’s made from Drops Cotton Light, which is a cotton/acrylic blend, and I really like it. It’s nice and soft and feels really smooth and warm. It wasn’t splitty either, which is great since some of the other cotton I’ve used has been. I really liked the pattern too, it was easy to remember and looks really nice, slightly lacey but solid enough to be warm in winter. It did get more than a little tedious before the end though!

For more exciting FO’s check out Tami’s Amis!

WIP Wednesdays are one of the highlights of my week. I love to see what everyone else is working on and be inspired by so many wonderful knitters, crocheters and bloggers! Hopeful my jury duty will be over today and then life can go back to normal, although since we’ve been starting at 9.30 instead of 8.30 I’m going to miss my lie in in the mornings! This week I have finally finished the lacey crochet scarf, which is something of a relief since it felt like it was taking forever, so you can see that on Friday if you haven’t already. I started the broomstick lace scarf, but I’m not sure if I really want to keep going with it, as pulling all the loops up seems to take forever and it’s quite fiddly to work. I might change out for another scarf on my favourites list.

I have also been working on a second pair of fingerless gloves. I’m using the same pattern as before, but this time I’m using fingering yarn so I’m having to adapt the pattern quite a lot, luckily though I can try it on as I go and check how well it’s fitting and I’m really happy with how it’s going so far. The yarn is Wendy Happy and it feels so soft. It’s a bamboo blend and the first variegated yarn I’ve worked with and I really like how it’s turning out, although I wish the colours were longer.

Don’t forget to check out Tami’s Amis for more awesome WIP Wednesdays!

Now I’m settling in to blogging again, I’d like to get blogging more frequently. Currently I blog on Wednesdays and Fridays, for WIP Wednesdays and FO Fridays over on Tami’s Amis and on Sundays for Year of Projects. And occasionally on other days, like my birthday books, yarn and blocking posts. I’m not planning to blog on Saturdays, because I’m lazy, but during the week I want to blog more, since I can put posts up in my lunch break at work, or schedule them from the night before. So with this in mind, I’ve made up a loose schedule for blogging Sunday to Friday.

• Sunday - Year of Projects
• Monday - Yarn, Books, Blocking, New Hooks, or anything else that happens
• Tuesday - Ravelry Favourites (some of the hundreds of things in my favourites on Ravelry for inspiration)
• Wednesday - WIP Wednesday
• Thursday - Knooking (a new skill I learnt at the weekend - knitting with a crochet hook) although this one might change later
• Friday - FO Friday

So starting next week, by which time my jury duty should be over, this will be my schedule and I’ll do my best to stick to it. Since all of my birthday books have arrived and my new hooks should be here very soon, I’ll have loads to talk about next Monday.

Yet another Sunday already! I’ve held up today’s post, and forced myself to finish the Lacey Crochet Scarf before I posted and it’s finally done! I haven’t decided who it’s for yet, but the colour (which is a nice lilac, although it doesn’t photograph very well) suits three or four of the girls on my list. I’m really pleased I’ve finished this at last. It feels like it’s taken forever! I started it over a month ago, and I haven’t really spent much time on it consistently, especially when I had to leave it behind to go on holiday with my sisters-in-law. At some point along the way, I also seem to have lost my gauge and tightened it up a bit. I went up a hook towards the end and got the width back on track, so hopefully blocking it out will even up the middle section.

This means I’ve started a new scarf! This one is Broomstick Lace in aran yarn, so hopefully it’ll work up quite quickly. I haven’t had much else on the go recently, other than the fingerless glove I made last week, so now I can make the second glove without feeling guilty about not working on the scarf. I got my new books from my birthday this week, so expect even more changes to my list! I think it’ll be interested to look back next June and see how many things from my original list are actually finished, and how many changes my list ends up having! 

Here’s my current list:

Scarves and Shawls

• Ziggy Lace Scarf
• Circle Crochet Scarf
• Lacey Crochet Scarf <- Finished
• Sweet Scallops Shawl
• Sydney Infinity Scarf
• Iris Crocheted Shawl <- Finished
• Spring Ripple Scarf
• Recuerdos de Infancia
• Slant Stitch Scarf
• Urban Shells <- Finished
• Elise Shawl <- Finished
• Broomstick Lace Scarf <- Started
• Blue Lagoon
• Angel Crochet Scarf

 

Amigurumi

• Chester the Dog
• Fawn 2.0
• Tilly the Panda
• Little Bear
• Sheldon Turtle
• Realistic Octopus <- Finished (and awesome!)
• Finola the Fox
• Amigurumi Penguin

Other Things 

• Tote Bag <- Finished
• Berenguela Shrug
• Guenvieve
• Ginny Cowl
• Realta Blanket <- In progress
• Polo Neck Bag <- Added and in progress
• Skaði Fingerless Gloves

Have a great week everyone!

So I have been very naughty this week! After saying on Wednesday that I was just going to work on my Christmas presents, I started some fingerless gloves! The pattern is Skaði Fingerless Gloves. I have to admit though, this post is a bit of a cheat, since I’ve only finished one, but they’re really quick and only take an evening to work up, so hopefully I’ll finish the right hand one tonight.

I really love this pattern. It’s quick, easy and very adaptable. I’m making it with some DK yarn that’s been in my stash since before I learned to crochet. It’s not really a colour I wear, but they’ll be fine for using while I’m on the computer at home, and I have plans to make more in different colours, in cotton and possibly make the wrist part longer. Because I’m using DK instead of worsted I had to make the starting chain longer, but because you can try it on as you go so it’s ready to see how it’s going. Next time I think I’ll put in one less repeat before the thumb.

Don’t forget to check out Tami’s Amis for more awesome FO Fridays!

I’m running behind today, because I’ve had to do Jury Service. I should have scheduled this last night, but I forgot. This week, I’m getting back on track with my Christmas crochet presents. Everything else is being put on hold until I have the first two (the ones I currently have yarn for) finished. The Lacey Crochet Scarf is going pretty well - Once I’ve finished the ball of yarn I’m working on, it should be long enough, and then I’ll move on to working on the Broomstick Lace one, which is done in aran, so hopefully should be quite quick. My new hook sets will hopefully arrive in the next couple of days, so I’m really looking forward to trying them out!

Don’t forget to check out everyone’s WIP on Tami’s Amis!

It was my birthday yesterday, lucky me! I’ve had a few presents already, that weren’t crochet related, and some that will hopefully be on the way soon. I haven’t had anything from my parents yet, but I’m thinking of asking for some fancy yarn from them, like fybrespates or handmaiden sea silk that I’ve been lusting after recently! From my husband I’m getting a set of aluminium hooks, and a set of bamboo hooks (and anything else I can talk him into letting me have, lol). And from one of my friends, and one of my brother’s I have Amazon vouchers! My Granny also sent me a cheque, which I’m adding to my Amazon Fund. I’m getting the latest Mathew Bartholemew book Mystery in the Minster by Susanna Gregory, to feed my love of Medieval murder, and a few crochet books.

The first one I’m getting is The Essential Handbook of Crochet Stitches, by Betty Barnden (also known as the Crochet Stitch Bible). I saw this book in Waterstones a couple of months ago, and I’ve wanted it ever since. It has loads of stitches, stitch patterns, borders and even some motifs, and I can see it being really useful for learning new things, and for making into scarves, or embellishing things.

Next is another book I’ve enjoyed looking through in Waterstones; 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans by Jan Eaton. Once I’ve finished the Realta Blanket, I’m slowly working on, I really like the idea of designing my own blanket, using the blocks in this book, and I can use them to make pillow covers and maybe bags and other modular things too. Some that I particularly like are the 3D flowers (check out some of the patterns on Ravelry here).

The next book is one that I haven’t seen in person, but after browsing the patterns on Ravelry, I’ve decided to go for it, as there’s loads I’d like to make. Crochet that Fits by Mary Jane Hall, uses graduated stitches, and shapes clothes with the height of the stitches and without any increases or decreases, which sounds intriguing, and I love the look of the tops, the skirt and the little black dress, as well as a couple of the hats and other accessories. It’s also had good reviews on a lot of sites and blogs.

The last book, I haven’t actually chosen yet, but it’s going to be a jewellery book. I love making jewellery and now I’m getting a nice new set of crochet hooks, I’m going to use my old set and give crochet wire jewellery a go. My favourite way of making jewellery, is chain maille, but unfortunately I don’t have the equipment to make the rings I need for myself, and buying them in silver gets expensive very quickly (I can’t find cheaper materials in the same range of sizes in the UK, and shipping from the US is just too expensive), so I can rarely afford to make any, except for special occassions, like the bracelet and chocker I made for my wedding last year. Wire and beads are pretty easy for me to get hold of though, and hopefully this will give me a lot of new ideas. I just need to get on my computer so I can see the previews on Amazon, before I decide which I want to get. If anyone has any recommendations, please let me know!

Despite, or possibly because of, being on holiday last week, I’ve actually managed to be very productive. My in-Laws (unlike my parents) are not early risers, so I

managed to get a couple of hours of crochet done first thing in the morning, and a couple more hours in the evening while watching TV. I couldn’t take my Christmas crochet with me in case my sisters-in-law saw it, but I took my Polo Neck Bag yarn, and my Organic Stole to work on. I’m really loving the Polo Neck Bag so far. The yarn and the pattern feel really sturdy and hopefully it’ll stand up to a fair amount of abuse! I’m making it with DK yarn instead of fingering, and I’ve sized it up a bit too. So far I’m pretty much exactly halfway through - although I might decide to make it a bit wider later. I think I’ll need to block the fabric before I make it up too, as it seems to want to pull tighter in the middle than at the edges. 

The Organic Stole on the other hand, didn’t go so well. Even though I was using the same hook as before, I apparently lost my gauge, and since I hadn’t really

been enjoying it anyway, I frogged the whole thing, and it’s gone! We went into town one day while we were there, and in The Works I managed to pick up two crochet books, for £5 for both! So the yarn I was using for the Organic Stole is now becoming the Cap-Sleeved Wrap from Easy Beaded Crochet. I’m using DK yarn, instead of Sport, and a 3.75mm hook, instead of a 3.25mm one, so obviously my gauge is a little looser than the pattern, but that also means it’s going to be slightly bigger and (if my maths is right) it should be a good fit. The button closure make it easy to adjust the fit that way, and mine should end up a couple of inches longer which I need. I’m currently on row 35 out of 40-something, so I’ll have a better idea how it’ll fit when I’ve finished the back. 

As for my list, it has changed quite a bit! Here’s the new one, with a progress report! 

Scarves and Shawls

• Ziggy Lace Scarf
• Circle Crochet Scarf
• Lacey Crochet Scarf <- In Progress
• Sweet Scallops Shawl
• Sydney Infinity Scarf
• Iris Crocheted Shawl <- Finished
• Organic Stole <- Removed
• Spring Ripple Scarf
• All Shawl <- Replaced with Recuerdos de Infancia
• Claudia Scarf
• Treenah <- Replaced with Slant Stitch Scarf
• Urban Shells <- Finished
• Elise Shawl <- Finished
• Broomstick Lace Scarf <- Started
• Outing Shawl <- Replaced with Blue Lagoon
• Angel Crochet Scarf

 

Amigurumi

• Chester the Dog
• Fawn 2.0
• Tilly the Panda
• Little Bear
• Sheldon Turtle
• Realistic Octopus <- Finished (and awesome!)
• Finola the Fox
• Amigurumi Penguin

Other Things

• Tote Bag <- Finished
• Go for Baroque <- Replaced with Berenguela Shrug
• Flower Crochet Coasters
• Cut Away Cardi <- Replaced with Guenvieve
• Ginny Cowl
• Realta Blanket <- In progress
• Polo Neck Bag <- Added and in progress
• Cap-Sleeved Wrap <- Replacing Organic Stole

 

Hope everyone had a great week!

Holidays are nearly over. We swapped the comparatively cold and dry North East coast, for the warm and wet West coast and a caravan, in which, we survived the tail end of ex-hurricane Katia. I have to say, being from the north east, the gales at the start of the week were very weird. I’m used to winds being freezing and having to wrap up against them, because of the gulf stream on the west coast though, it was really warm! We had a good time with everyone, did some shopping, went to a castle and a small rainforest themed wildlife park. We came the rest of the way south to Burnley yesterday so I finally have wireless, and I can catch up with a weeks worth of blogs (there were over 200 articles in my google reader!), and I had a great evening with my two best friends, who I rarely see, since we now live six hours apart, so seeing them for a few hours was awesome! And today was the wedding, which went well, and I’m glad we dressed up, because in this case apparently “casual” meant “small and we don’t send directions until the day before”. I’m really happy with the shawl I made for it, it was so warm and it went with my shoes really well. The bride (witch) asked joking if I’d made it myself, and was surprised when I said yes, lol.

As for crochet, I’m now halfway through the fabric for the poloneck bag, I’m really happy with how fast it’s been going and how it looks so far. I also took the organic stole with me, but it came to disaster. I wasn’t really enjoying it anyway, but then I did a couple more repeats and I lost my gauge, so it’s gone! We went into the Works in Ayr, and I got a couple of crochet books (better than the one in Aberdeen!). I got the Cool Girls Guide to Crochet, for £3 which had a wrap I really like, and Easy Beaded Crochet, for £2 which has loads of patterns I really like. The cotton I was using for the organic stole, is now becoming the cap-sleeved wrap (without beads) - I should have just enough yarn to make it. My Year of Projects list has changed dramatically, and I’ll try to have it up for you tomorrow when we get home, or on Monday (because I have the day off, yay!).

It’s Friday, I have an FO and I go on holiday tomorrow! Today is a good day! Although it would be better if it wasn’t raining… You can’t have everything though. So I finished my Elise Shawl on Wednesday and

blocked it out. I’m really happy with it. I love it. I definitely think I made the right choice with the border. I love the spikey points, without stretching out my shawl and blocking it so hard it looked holey. I do wish a bit that I didn’t have the tc in the centre of my groups of three, and I think if I make another, I’ll leave that as a dc like the ones on either side. Other than that, I blocked it just enough to get my border points to stand out, and spread the shawl out nicely. It might have grown a couple of inches in width and length but I didn’t measure it at all, so I’m not sure.

The yarn is fantastic! It’s Drops Baby Alpaca Silk and it’s so soft it’s fantastic. I had no problems with it spliting, it didn’t twist at all, I had one knot, but I’m pretty sure I put that in myself. It was a dream to work with. I’m definitely going to use it again - It’s also cheap - £3.60 for 185 yards plus p+p and delivery only took a couple of days (ordering after 6pm) (a single skien of most other yarn up here is at least £5). Since mostly what we seem to have in the shops up here is DK, being able to get yarn delivered easily and fairly cheaply is a huge advantage. I’ve also loved the other Garnstudio yarns I’ve used so far, so I think it may soon become one of my favourite yarn makers.

I bought three skiens, but I only actually used two - including making this little flower. It’s the same pattern as last weeks, but much smaller. I still need to get a brooch to put it on - I’m sure I have some somewhere, but I couldn’t find them last night, so for the photo it’s on a safety pin. I blocked the flower out at the same time as my shawl, to make the points sharper. The petals were originally very round and floppy, bit I prefer the sharp points to the petals, like my original.

The only problem with all this, is I can’t wear it for a week! The shawl is gorgeous, and soft and off-white, and I need it to wear at my father-in-laws wedding a week tomorrow, so I can’t take the risk of it getting dirty before then, so it’ll have to be packed carefully until then, but I’ll still be able to show it off to my mother-in-law while we’re on holiday with her next week. Tami doesn’t have her FO Friday post up yet, but check it out later and see everyone elses awesome FOs!

It’s Wednesday again! I love WIP Wednesdays and seeing everyone’s current projects - it does take me until Thursday to finish getting round everyone though!I just want to say thank you for all your lovely comments, and especially for the advice I got on Sunday about blocking my shawl. My Elise Shawl is so nearly done, I was just too tired to finish it last night. The dilema I was having was that I love the spikey edges in the original, but to get that I need to block it pretty hard, and in the sample I made, the stitches opened up a bit too much and made it look like it had big gaps (not just lace). I liked the spikey edging though and didn’t want to lose it, so I went looking for inspiration.

What I settled on, was doing what fanalaine did and using the first and last rows of Doris Chan’s All Shawl border. I actually stopped at the suggested eleven repeats after all, but the new border is a lot wider than the simple sc picot border, suggested for the Elise Shawl, so it’s actually widened it to about the same as twelve repeats. I’ve got about two thirds of the side of the shawl left to finish it (I worked on a bit after taking the photo’s last night), and then I’ll just block it out gently to make the border lie flat, and even it up a little.

Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s blogs on Tami’s Amis!

Another week and another Sunday! I got my new hook through the post on Wednesday, and since then I’ve been working on the Elise Shawl (excuse my toes in the picture!). I’ve just started working the eleventh repeat and I think I’m going to do thirteen or fourteen repeats. I’m a little concerned about blocking it. I’m worried it will open up too much and look holey where it shouldn’t, so I think what I’ll do is block it out dry and see how it looks, then soak it. Blocking makes me horribly nervous - I think I need more practice to get used to it! Other than my Elise I really haven’t been working on anything else, so I can get it done asap and sort out my holiday crochet! I’m probably going to be making some more changes to my YoP list and next Sunday I’ll be away on holiday, but I’ll schedule a post for you all to read in case I have no internet (or time!). Have a good week everyone!

FO Friday is highly addictive! I didn’t really have anything to share this week, but luckily yesterday (while looking for fingerless glove patterns) I found this gorgeous flower. Originally I started making this pattern in DK, but it just felt too floppy, so with about three petals done, I frogged it and started again with chunky. I made one small change to the pattern, and started with a magic circle, instead of the chain - mostly because when I started with the chain before, the petals seemed too wide. While making it the flower looks a bit crazy - just a big pile of wild flaps of crochet! But once it’s finished and flattened down it looks great. The button is one I kept from an old pair of trousers, and hadn’t had any use for until now. I really like this flower and I think I’d like to make more of them, if I can think of a purpose for it! I think it might look good as decoration on a cushion, or on a bag. It’s a bit big for a brooch or hair decoration, but with thinner yarn, it would look great for that too. And it was ridiculously quick to make!

I also got my new hook on Wednesday (yay!) so this weekend I’m going full steam ahead on my Elise Shawl. The hook is awesome - I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated a hook more, but having to struggle with the plastic one, really lets me feel how smooth and easy my new aluminium one makes it! It doesn’t have a brand, but it does come in a set, so I’ve decided to get the set for my birthday in a couple of weeks!

For more (proper) FO’s, check out Tami’s Ami’s!