Cute and Easy

Everyone*  loves Nicky Trent's book 'Cute and Easy Crochet'.  I think it's the colours more than anything - a baby pastel palette that seems to 'log in', somehow, to the collective brain of contemporary woman. This is the woman, by the way, who's got past 'ladette' and thinking more in terms of house and home. It's girly and it's got baby stuff in it, and there's a dash of vintage about the whole thing.

For sister in NZ

After discovering some very pretty pink superwash wool in a posh charity shop in East Dulwich at a pound a ball, I set to and made Ms Trench's fingerless gloves. She was right - it was easy, and quick, oh, and they are cute. I packed them off to my sister in New Zealand for her birthday in late March, coming as it does at those latitudes, at the end of the summer, she'll be needing them soon as she counts out the small change in their ice cream shop on Napier harbour. 

But not before my mother spotted them, tried them on, begged for some of her own. Not a problem! Care of another pound-a-ball bargain basket, this time in Hobbycraft in Croydon, she received them on Mother's Day, where, here in England, it is still chilly enough to get some use out of them before this winter is finally through.

For mum 

So now I'm back on the baby blanket, from the same book as it happens. Each square is very small and doesn't take long but there's an awful lot of weaving in of ends and it's slow going. The baby's due in April so I really had better get a wiggle on. I've already joined some of the little squares together and the finishing seam in cream seems to transform them. It IS really pretty. I've got lots and lots more squares to go and I didn't help myself by making a few with the wrong size hook when I returned to the project after the fingerless glove break. It was only when I looked at my notes (meticulously made in an Android App) that I realised my error.

Android App? I hear you mutter. Whatever next? Well, yes. It was a free download from the Android marketplace to my HTC Legend mobile. It's called 'CrochetCards', but anyway, I'll be talking about Crochet and Technology in my next blog….

*(all my crochet students that is, oh and my mum) .

For baby

So much to do, so little time

I went on a little foray to John Lewis today. I don't go very often: the walk's just a little bit too far from the office so I have to take a slightly extended lunch hour if I go or I won't have enough time in the shop. Another reason for not going very often is I would go bankrupt. AND, the array of colours and textures and yarn weights and fibres is so dazzling to me and so inspirational that after a while I feel like my head is going to explode.


I wanted a large knitting needle so I could start making Broomstick lace. They didn't have one nearly big enough but I bought a 20mm crochet hook and it's turning out to be fine for the purpose - ie, creating a relatively small swatch. I also bought a 6mm double ended hook so I can make some more Tunisian that isn't incredibly firm.


I sat myself down and leafed through a book called Simple Crochet by Erika Knight today. I've seen it on Amazon of course, but this was the first chance I'd had to look inside properly. I found it very inspiring. I'd had the idea of producing a book of patterns done entirely in double crochet and although it's not QUITE that, the patterns ARE incredibly easy but they are BEAUTIFUL, tasteful objects in really interesting textures with a lovely, natural, understated colour palette. Very chic. The photography, of course, is all, and made me even more determined to team up with my friend Karolina, an aspiring photographer with an interest in my craft.


The textures make it of course, leather, raffia, string, hemp, as well as wools, cotton, linens and silks. I'm itching to get on with designing and making something to submit for publication. Lots of ideas but I'm holding myself up by wanting to maintain a momentum with my diploma, as well as creating birthday presents for family. Oh, and prepare classes for my students!

Fingerless gloves I'm making for my
sister Caroline's birthday. I got the pattern from
Nicki Trench's Cute and Easy Crochet

Perhaps I should just throw?

Craft4Crafters,
Exeter, Feb 2012

The yarn is Sirdar Tweedie. It's billed as 'Chunky' but really, I don't know where they got that idea from! Personally, I'd place it somewhere between a DK and an Aran weight. It was a cut-price bulk buy from the Black Sheep Wool Co stand at the Craft4Crafters Exhibition I went to this month in Exeter. It's an attractive, and robust-sounding fibre mix, being a large part wool, and a small part alpaca with a good healthy dose of acrylic. So it has all the washability of a synthetic without really feeling like one, and it's got a luxuriously soft 'edge' to it that presumably comes from the alpaca. 


I'm trying to recreate Melody Griffiths' 'Cosy Creamy Throw' from her book 'Crochet in No Time' - admittedly without using the recommended yarn (I think it must have gone out of production, I couldn't find it anywhere). I thought Sirdar's Tweedie would do the trick and I treated myself to a rather fantastic bamboo marble painted 7mm hook with an aluminium tip, and got stuck in.


But Tweedie wool is, I think by it's nature, kind of lumpy. It creates its own texture which is subtle and really at its best on the plainest of stitches. Like a knitted stocking stitch, perhaps? Even crochet's plainest stitch (arguable?) the double crochet (US single crochet), is possibly veering towards the overly ornate and interesting to make the best of tweedie yarn, especially when this particular tweedie DOESN'T have the flecks of other shades or colours in it like most of them do. I LOVE the flecks - I used a really gorgeous one out of my stash (I'm sorry I didn't record the details of the yarn) to make my simple mobile phone cover.


I think on reflection I would have done better to find myself a chunky or aran-weight cashmerino to do this job. Preferably chunky because those squares all came up pretty small with this near-aran weight yarn from Sirdar. In fact, I had to make three more for what I would regard as a minimum size for a 'throw'. It's 5 squares by 3 now and nearly complete. I wasn't at all happy with the way the squares are joined (though they are looking better now I've steamed it a bit on the ironing board) particularly where four squares meet at the corners. I'm even considering making some flowers to stitch over them I'm so unconvinced. But you know, 5 squares by 3 squares is turning out to be an irritating number simply because you can't satisfactorily fold the thing. It doesn't sit right in quarters because you are folding squares instead of joins. And if you fold on joins it just looks like a strip or a pile of squares. Not easy to drape about anywhere looking casually beautiful.

I finished the border with a simple
 'Crown Picot' from Betty Barnden's
 'Handbook of Crochet Stitches'.

Anyway, with lots of experimentation around my home, I've decided that the banister on the landing best suits it. It's a short balustrade that's always proved a little restricting for standard quilts (my family are consummate quilters). It's there now but I will have to bring it down again later and finish weaving in the ends. Perhaps those six simple flowers will make me fall in love with it more.......

Multi-tasking

I'm positively FEVERISH with activity at the moment!

A great stash buster....

First of all I've begun making the baby blanket (photo from book below centre) from Nicki Trench's book Cute and Easy Crochet . This is for Lenka, my ex-childminder, who is about to produce a child of her own.

I used a 4ply yarn with a 9mm hook
and took a lace block pattern
from Melody Griffiths' 201 motifs

I'm also experi-menting with the idea of lamp shades, as I've seen some interesting work done on a website called 'Room 39' which has inspired me. 

And I'm teaching chevrons and edgings next Wednesday so I've done a swatch in Rico Essentials mercerised cotton which reminds me of raspberry ripple icecream. I think I'll be able to submit this as part of my swatch set for the Diploma too.

I'm going to Devon next Saturday, to the Craft4Crafters exhibition (combining the trip with a get-together with sister Mandy - also a great crocheter) - so I'll have to decide which project to take with me on the train!

Bits and Pieces

I've finished the skirt, so strictly speaking it's not on my hook anymore. Still, thought it would be nice to show what it looks like.


Now, practicing edging in preparation for teaching on Wednesday, as well as a popcorn stitch square I used a few years ago on a cushion cover I made. 


Am also making swatches for submission to my Diploma assessors. Hoping to get on with that turquoise cardigan again soon though. It's on the brink of being re-ranked from WIP to UFO (Work in progress to Unfinished Object) and we don't want that do we?


Tried some felting recently too. I'll bring you more on that another time.

Double Crochet Miniskirt

A double crochet miniskirt

A very simple design with the easiest of stitches. I promised Nadine I'd make it and bought the crofter yarn before Christmas She has approved it and sent me her measurements since I've had two false starts. I'm now making it in a single strip, with the intention of joining it with a centre back seam. It will be a straight block from the hem to the hips and will then decrease in width as I climb towards a low waist. I may put in a drawstring with flowers on each end.

I want to get it to her before the weather gets warm again, and then I can continue making samples for my crochet diploma. Although it's a very basic stitch it is very relaxing, can be done while I'm watching TV and the self-stripe of the crofter style makes it that bit more interesting to watch as it grows.

It's coming along nicely!

Christmas is coming once again!

Where does the time go? Well last year I played it fairly cautious and made lots of scarves and the odd simple hat. So now my family are kitted out on that front, so what next? Well, I spent the greater part of the year studying an OU module called 'Technology Enhanced Learning', so I've turned to technology for my inspiration, of course! Everybody's getting mobile phone cases. Each one different, tailored for their personalities, personalised. They're a great vehicle for practicing new, fancy stitches. I even finally turned my hand to Tunisian Crochet - more of this later I think!

The prezzies almost all made, my Polish colleague Marta sent me a link to some fantastic crocheted Polish Christmas decorations which inspired me to make the tree decoration in the picture. The pattern is the first four rows of Melody Griffiths' snowflake in her book 201 crochet motifs.....

Have a very merry christmas, and a happy new year!

Mum's mobile phone cover. Made using Tunisian or
Afghan crochet, embroidered with silk embroidery
thread in little chain daisies and then beaded. Edged with
a standard double crochet stitch and finished on the flap
(as shown) with a row of surface crochet. The flap is
also lined with red Tunisian crochet and it fastens with a
simple press stud fastener.

Lindy x