Crossed to the dark side

As a serious crocheter of eight years standing, I have finally turned my hand to knitting! So now I'm all fingers and thumbs again and sticking out tongue. My first and most apposite reflection is that you need more elbow room to knit (but on second thought, perhaps it's just that I am a beginner and will learn to keep my elbows to myself on the train in future??). 

I started with the most enormous needles because I happen to have them from teaching Broomstick crochet. 25mm pins make for quick knits - which for someone with my attention span is a Good Thing. Before too long I had a stretch of garter stitch to show for my over long period of forgetting to intake breath, and sitting at a rather strange angle. Glad I wasn't in public. The superchunky swatch was tactile and drapey, with lots of flaws. I switched to some 4.5mm pins that someone who didn't know me very well gave me as a thank you present a while back. Now I was making a fine stockinette in DK yarn. It really looked like knitting - with holes and extra loops and tweaks and catches - but knitting just the same. I didn't look like a knitter though.

I popped to the market and bought myself some 5.5mm pins to use with chunky and found my level. Tried a touch of ribbing before switching to my new favourite - Moss Stitch. Things have started to smooth down and speed up now, and I've even worked out how to go back on myself and undo some wrongs. Very satisfying.

Back on home turf, meanwhile, I've been Bavarian Crocheting round and round and round until I had to stop and wait for more yarn to arrive from an online store. And trying to follow a Tunisian pattern with one or two missing bits and bum steers in the instructions, from a new book I bought on baby clothes. I should write to Robyn Chachula. Maybe I will… when I've done this. I've also been testing out an interesting yarn that stretches, and am trying to devise a pattern for a chic little swimsuit. Taking too long though without kicks. Gotta have crochet kicks!

On Tuesdays come my ladies (and one gent), and where I was going to get on with my Loom Knitted scarf (the loom arrived in the post yesterday), I ended up not, because my help was required. That's OK. It's all part of the fun of it. Professional musician, Susan, recently swapped crotchets for crochet, and had taken on a dauntingly large project - an Irish themed blanket made of shamrocks in square motifs. We worked on the second stage today - as she has made all forty five shamrock shapes already.

My one gent, lovely Andrew, was making waves over by the fish tank - an unusual version where the mountains were 2tr in next stitch x2 and the troughs were 2trtog in next st x2, instead of the more familiar groupings of 3. I drew some charts for him to demonstrate how to make sure the troughs and peaks stayed strictly lined up.

I also drew a chart for Mandy after we worked together to devise a way to square off a hexagon in two easy rows.

My element. AND we had choco Leibnitz!

I've only gone barmy like this because I have largely finished work on my book - Bobbles Puffs and Popcorns - for Quarto, due out September. Not QUITE at the printers yet but oh so close!

Pictures to Come. :)

Where have I been? Answer - writing a book!

Yes! I have written a book! It's called 'Bobbles, puffs and popcorns ' and launches in September from Quarto.  

Wait a minute, is that what a book does? 'launch'? Or is that just websites and ships?  

Whatever. You can get your copy from then - Yay!  

It has taken close to a year, all told, though there was a long gap between synopsis and full briefiing. It's mainly a stitch book but with projects too, four of them. The stitches were fun but the projects were a bit stressful. There's a rug which is large and time consuming to make, but even more demanding to write a pattern for. And a vintage style bag for which I must have drafted about 10 charts - taught me a lot! 

Crochet patterns can be written shambolically, or trimly, like computer code. I took pride in tightly described, succinct and accessible crochet 'coding'. 

And now the publishers are putting it all together I can only hope it all makes sense. I haven't had too many notes from the pattern checker or the chart illustrator so far. The latest development was this week when I was commissioned one last piece of crocheting for the front cover. I had thought they might use a photo of the rug. 

It was nice to do this one last outsize swatch, but it won't have the 'class' a good, atmospheric image of one of the products would. I was sent a dummy. They tell me it will be a paperback. Little bit flat after hearing that.  

A flat brat. Before I got the deal I would gnawed my right foot off just to get a book and never mind the texture of the jacket!  

Well in the last couple of weeks it's been nice to make something else and I dug out a WIP I began around 7 years ago, a cardigan. I got to grips with bringing it, at long last to fruition. Just have to sew on the buttons....

  I have also 'taken in some mending', begun a new baby blanket design project, started thinking about a crocheted swimsuit and have been mentally drafting a new summer top, amongst other vaguer ideas. Watch this space! 

My Tuesday nights have continued through all the stuff going on, with huge support from my fellow crocheters, as well as from the ladies of the Knitting and Crocheters Guild. Speaking of which, I have also done a bit of volunteer graphic design work on the guild's newsletter - Slipknot. I had been in cahoots with the editor for a while offering new ideas and a dummy and the board finally invited me to lay out Issue 150. It has been received well and it does look particularly nice because they also agreed to print the outside pages in colour. Hoorah!

Finally I want to mention a particular highlight in the last year of my teaching at Denman College which has continued throughout. Right near Christmas, five students came to my 'Felted Bags' course and the results were absolutely gorgeous. We call got so emotional when they came out of the washing machine - cooked as it were!

NEW GOALS: get a design on the cover of INSIDE CROCHET and write a hardback book!

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.

My Jetset Celebrity Lifestyle

Feeling chipper at having a nice splash across the September edition of Inside Crochet which has published my Tunisian Autumn Throw design, and very kindly sent me some additional publicity shots.

They have devoted one whole page to a beautiful moody photo of it draped around a model, as well as a product shot next to the pattern instructions. AND, me and my rug get another little plug within the 'How to Do Tunisian' section! Thanks Inside Crochet.

My son, Gabriel,
having just caught
a brace of mackeral
off Lyme Regis

We've just been for a week in Lyme Regis, checking out all the fossils and dinosaurs - we fitted in perfectly - (HA! Had to get that one in before anyone else did). My holiday project was to continue preparation for popping over to Ipswich next weekend, to make a 'How to Crochet' video for a new website called 'I Made It!'.

Refining a design for the perfect first project - a stitch sampler bag. I've made one big (shopper) one and one small as I think I will need a part-finished one so I can say "and here's one I made earlier - now let me show you how to do the next bit".  Look out for it on the site when it's done!

Tunisian Simple Stitch throw I designed,
image courtesy of Inside Crochet magazine

In September I'm off to Denman again to teach Beginners Tunisian, so I worked on a series of small stitch samplers while we were away too. It's going to be a bit of a learning curve for me to see the speed at which the students get the hang of it and will all be grist to the mill for my week's course in Spain next May (fingers crossed, hope someone books). I've just got to label these up, maybe do a couple more and then I can get on with prep for the next commitment...

In October I'm running a Tunisian project workshop series from the sweet little shop, Stag and Bow, in nearby Forest Hill,  and I need to settle on the project and try it out. Time's a little short for this but it's gotta be done.

A sample of Broomstick lace
 interspersed with rows of
traditional crochet

And before the month is out I'm booked for a return visit to Denman, just for the day, to impart my knowledge of the gorgeous broomstick lace. I noticed this course is on the discount list so I assume they're having trouble getting bookings and could even get cancelled. Nevertheless, I need to make sure my witching skills are fully up to scratch. I plan to make a reticule (it's a little hanky bag) so I need to design and make one of these, prepare a pattern and work out if it can be taught and made all in the space of 4.5 hours. It's not much time. (I don't know why they don't go on till 6pm, these 'day' courses. Finishing at 4 is a bit early for the money. Just my opinion.)

That's it for the year then and I've got November and December to make loads of Christmas presents and decorations. That'll be nice.

Pots of flowers I made for display on my Crochet Bouquet
course at Denman in July. Already gone as prezzies - very popular!

MEGA Tunisian

Another relaxing week at Brick Yard Farm in Banham, Norfolk has spawned THREE throws! How did I manage to work so fast? The biggest crochet hook in the Kingdom, that's how!

Yes, it IS a crochet hook - not a broom handle!

Bethan and I went to a craft fair at Excel at the beginning of April (using free tickets from my mum's WI) and we encountered this outsize knitting stand that got me all excited and unnecessary. I just HAD to have theeee biggest hook - even if only for a laugh, but actually, I have really REALLY enjoyed using it.

A call for submissions from Inside Crochet Magazine provided the inspiration and impetus, along with a colour palette and a special request for Tunisian and/or Broomstick patterns and off I toodled with two suitcases - the larger one containing the yarns of course.

I started with the '1 Tunisian Simple Stitch, 1 Tunisian Pearl Stitch' combo I recently discovered and it was very successful indeed (see above) - more so, in fact than my second go, in my opinion, in which I created stripes in a plain Tunisian Simple Stitch (see piccy with Gabriel modelling).

For the third one I decided to stick exclusively with Tunisian Knit stitch and try to curb my tendency to over complicate things. When I see those throws in the shops I always prefer the simplest, uncluttered designs, so I don't know why I have to keep elaborating when I'm making something myself. This recently acquired self-awareness has stood me in good stead as I recently completed another cushion cover in a straightforward chevron stitch which looks great.

The pink one is the Tunisian Knit Stitch in Big Softie

Anyway, the TKS one, not quite finished actually, really is coming up trumps because the hook size produced a perfect tension in Sirdar's Super Chunky weight 'Big Softie' yarn with this stitch (the TSS one came out a bit too open for my taste).

I also started a Tunisian Triangle Tote which I can continue on my tube journeys as it is a more manageable size project, with a 6mm hook and DK yarns. I bought the lining fabric at the craft fair as well. And I bought the polkadot leather handles in Jarrolds in Norwich (love it!). More on this another time....

If Inside Crochet are interested you could find the patterns coming your way. If not, I'll put them on ETSY anyway!

I'm missing my Tuesday night ladies at the moment because I agreed to teach at Stag and Bow in Forest Hill for a two night course, immediately after we'd been away at Easter. Still, the Stag and Bow crowd are very nice too. We did bobbles, puffs and popcorns with a bit of Up and Down stitch last night, and next week we plan to cover fans/shells and the almond stitch. They're all quite fast workers so we should be able to fit it all in. And for the first time ever, I gave them some homework! The chevron stitch. I hope it doesn't drive them crazy!!!

Last time I taught it was at the Knitting and Crochet Guild last month but I did have TWENTY students in a small room, and NO visualizer. Tricky, but we did OK. :)