Crochet Design

We're back from Bible Week and although I'm totally exhausted, more on that later, the new issue of Inside Crochet popped through the letter box a few minutes ago. The new issue features my first crochet design, the Flower Square Blanket and i was also interviewed for 'Designer Inspiration' so a very, very exciting issue for me. Inside Crochet is going monthly from now on which is also very exciting.

I learnt to crochet as a child but didn't like it much. My Grandmother was a brilliant crocheter and made amazing lace table cloths and doilies etc. I preferred knitting. For the past few years I've been keen to re-learn. I did an hour long workshop at Ally Pally a few years ago but didn't get around to practicing much and quickly forgot again. Last atumn my local adult education office held a 3 day crochet course. I booked to go on it and fell in love with crochet. As soon as i re-learnt I started thinking about design ideas. One of the things I love about crochet is being able to crochet shapes like squares, hexagons and circles etc and combining these to make various designs. It's a great way to use colour too.

To find out about the design process behind the Flower Square Blanket read the Designer Inspiration in this issue.

I tried out a few different colour combos before deciding. I was given free rein on choosing my own colours and also got to use my own yarn, the amazing Fantasy Sock which is just so soft and gorgeous to work with. My original flower squares were made in some mystery yarn I got at the very first Fibre Fest 3 years ago. I think it was from Fyberspates but it wasn't labelled and it feels like merino/silk and is a single ply yarn.

I then tried it in my BFL sock in two different colour combos.

I nearly went for this pink/purple version. But in the end i opted for Fantasy sock in a Silver and Midnight colour ways.

Only 2 skeins of each are necessary. But you can easily make the blanket bigger or smaller by adding or subtracting squares. You can easily sub different yarn weights too.  A totally flexible project. And as each square is made separately it's a perfect portable project too.

Bible Week was fantasic and exhausting as usual. We had services in the morning and evenigns with excellent worship music and preaching. After each service I ran the craft stall for about an hour. In the afternoons we relaxed outside the caravan. Teh weather was excellent for most of the week, apart from yesterday when i rained.

This was my knitting chair for most of the week in the afternoons. I did do some proper work too though. I wrote up several patterns this week and finished off some garments. The caravan btw is Simon's parents. Simon said it was small but perfectly formed. I don't know much about caravans but this caravan is a bit of status symbol among caravanners. SEveral people came past and admired it. A bit too small for us as we're a tall family. Only Simon and Vanessa stayed at night so it worked okay though. I went home every night as it was only 10 mins drive.

On Thursday afternoon we went down to Fowey with our friends, Clare and John, and went out on their little boat. The kids didn't want to come and it was nice having afternoon out with another couple. We went out to sea.

Here's a view of Fowey when we came back in again

and we popped into Polruan for an ice cream

Simon and Clare fished and caught several mackerells, Simon caught a pollock and Clare caught this interesting looking fish which i can't remember what's called.

It's very unusual though. Clare kept this fish and worked out how to cook it yesterday. We took some of the mackerell home and it's in the freezer for us to cook it when we get back from Spain.

Talking about Spain, we're leaving on Tuesday. i've got tons of stuff to do before then. Including deciding on which knitting to take with me. I'll be back with my short list tomorrow or monday