A Golden Broomstick

Image by Inside Crochet Magazine

Forgive me, for I have sinned, and not written a blog post since last Autumn, tsk!

I was just showing a crafting colleague how I used Blogger, and realised the error of my ways. It's time. And more so because this month I'm PUBLISHED AGAIN! Inside Crochet of course, the March 2015 edition, you can find my Golden Broomstick mitts and snuggler set. They very kindly allowed me the use of this gorgeous photograph to show you how it looks.

This is quite a nice little project for getting into broomstick/peacock lace - which is a bit of a maverick technique as it involves the use of a 20mm knitting needle, AS WELL as your normal crochet hook. It's not that hard though, once you know how - and You Tube is really good for sorting that out.

I found that because it is essentially a one-sided fabric (having a wrong and a right side) it involves the use of what could be described as a forward row and a return pass - just like Tunisian. Therefore, it works well with Tunisian stitches in the same pattern. This lead to me starting out with the cuffs in a Tunisian Knit Stitch/Purl Stitch rib, leading on to a wrap-round rectangle of peacock eyes, and then a Tunisian thumb. Claire Montgomerie, the editor, wanted patterns with these two techniques and she got them both in one!

I have, very recently, had another design accepted, and bundled the sample off in the post, followed by the written pattern instructions by email last week. It's for a beach mat and, no doubt, I'll be telling you all about that too, in the coming months. Here was my design 'sketch' - just as a taster.