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

Oops, I did it again!

I had decided there would be no new self-indulgent projects before we go to Spain. I have a several secret projects that need sewing up and finishing off and one secret project i need to cast on for and finish before we go to Spain. But I gave in to temptation yesterday. There was a good reason though. I woke up with an extremely severe pain across my left shoulder blade yesterday. So painful it was actually hurting when I moved and getting in and out of my comfy chair, bending down etc was difficult. I had a massage in the morning and my wonderful therapist, Jan, tried to release whatever it was that was causing it but didn't have much success and I spent the rest of the day in a lot of pain. my bucket full of painkillers didn't really touch it. So I did very little knitting yesterday. During the day I tried to sew up a garmen and got it halfway done. I need to finish it today, preferably so it can go in teh post before lunchtime. I also finished a small crochet project yesterday - more on that later. but i really did not feel like knitting, mainly because all the knitting I had on teh needle was hurting me too much.

So in the evening I decided I had to start somethign easy, something in garter stitch. I wound up a ball of Ocean Silk 4ply. I actually fancied using Pure Silk 4ply but i haven't dyed any yet. I wasn't quite sure what to do but I fancied an easy shawl. I flicked through my note book as I do have some shawl charts ready that I havne't swatched for yet. I decided I ought to do a triangular shawl and perhaps this could be my the next shawl in the 'Easy Lace' series. There was also a stitch pattern in the Vogue Stitchionary 5 - lace stitches, that I fancied trying and I had been thinking about how it might look in a shawl. So I decided to try it and I love it. then I started thinking about whether I wanted to share and self-publish this pattern or whether i ought to keep it for a submission. I missed the latest Knitty submission deadline as I just didn't get anything done on time although I desperately wanted to submit something.  So I thought I'd plan ahead for once and save this one for the next Knitty deadline in October. I think this shawl might just suit Knitty although you never know. It's fun and a little bit quirky, I think. The only thing is that the next deadline is for the Winter issue but this might suit spring or summer better but we'll see. I've got a sneak peak of it. I'm wondering if the colour is right but I can always over-dye it if I need to.

I worked on this while we watched a film last night and apart from one pattern row in twelve where I need to watch what I'm doing it's pretty straight forward knitting. which means it'll be perfect for the next week too. And i may even finish it before we go to Spain.

Emily left for her scout trip yesterday. They are going on a canal boat on the Llangollen canal. She was very excited and a little bit nervous about it. This is the longest she's been a way on her own - 8 days. Previous longest trip was 5 days. We had a text last night saying she was enjoying it although the drive up to Middlewich took ages. It's very quiet without her.

Luckily we'll have a busy week ahead as it's start of our church's annual Grace Family Bible Week. We go down to church today to set up Simon's parents caravan which Simon and Vanessa are camping in for the week. A caravan might sound post an it is a nice caravan but tiny. In fact, Simon thinks the caravan and awning is smaller than our tent but hopefully it'll be drier if it rains which it usually does during Bible Week. Simon sprained his ankle halfway through last year's Bible Week so we're hoping nothing like that hapens this year.  I'm not camping - I don't do camping and the sake of my back it's better for me to sleep in my own bed. I go down for the day and teh evening every day.

I've finished a crochet project too. A few months ago I decided i fancied a litle bag to put my Bible and note book in. I had some Rowan Amy Butler organic merino/cotton that I didn't know what to do with and I loved the colours so I did a very simple double crochet stripey bag. I finished it off with double crochet around the edings and attached some magnetic poppers. I need to add some buttons to cover the magnetic backings. I wanted to finish it in time for Bible Week and I did. The Amy Butler yarn was gorgeous to work with and i enjoyed the double crochet although I was worried it might get a bit boring but because I only did it every now and then and changed colour frequently it was okay.

talking about crochet. My first crochet design for Inside Crochet is due out very, very soon - early August I think. I was hoping it might come before we go to Spain but I'm not sure it will. My second design for Inside Crochet is due back from my crocheter any day now. Really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

I'd better bite the bullet and get this sewing up finished before Simon wakes up and we need to get on with finishing the preparations for Bible Week. We leave about lunch time. I'll be around this week and will post out parcels as usual. I'll also try to do a few posts during the week.

Knitting, bags and crochet

It's been another busy weekend and beginning to the new week. It's the girls last day of school today (I could have done with them finishing on Thursday or Friday instead of today) and it's raining. It's foggy, cold and wet. Typical English weather for the start of the summer holidays. Let's hope it improves soon.

A lovely parcel came today with 3 gorgeous bags from Three Bags Full.

 I bought 2 bags in April and love them

. A couple of weeks ago I made the 'mistake' of browsing Three Bags Full's Etsy shop and got tempted to order some more. After all I need them for my holiday to Spain.

This waterproof bag is perfect for knitting on the beach. the pink bag is quite small and i'm thinking about using that as my notions bag on holiday as my normal notions bag is too big and heave to take away.  This is now my collection of bags from Three Bags Full:

Next week is out church's annual Grace Family Bible Week. About 600 people will be camping on our church field. We have people from all over the country coming. Simon and the girls normally camp but this year Emily will be away on a scout trip (she's going on a canal boat holiday on Friday, lucky girl) so it'll just be Simon and Vanessa this year. I go home every night as due to my back pain I need to sleep in a comfy bed and it's such an exhausting week and if I don't get any sleep I won't function. My job for the week is to organise the craft stall which is open for an hour twice a day. I normally arrive at church for hte morning service at 10 am every day and then stay until the craft stall closes at around 10-11pm. It's normallly a great week but very busy and I won't be home much.

I have a deadline end of next week for 6 designs for Artesano. All the samples are knitted up by super fast Pixie. The last sample came back today. I've still got some finishing to do on most of the samples. I've also got a lot of pattern writing to do. I'm intending to get a couple of patterns off to the tech editor today and the rest finished on Thursday and Friday. It's going ot be a busy week.

I've also got a deadline project I'm knitting and I'm hoping to finish today. It will be appearing at Knit Nation next week. Then it's another quick project to try to finish before we go to Spain.

I've sneaked in a few rows on my 'Carmen' Shawl. This was the first shawl I designed and I'm not very happy with the original sample, photos and the pattern itself. i've learnt so much since then. I've decided to knit up another sample and to re-do the pattenr. i've typed up the charts in KnitVisualizer so they look more professional. I'm planning to finish this in Spain. the yarn is YarnAddict Silky Camel which is gorgeous to knit with. I chose to use the undyed colourway as I think it's so beautiful.

I've also managed to fit in a few new hexagons for my crochet hexagon scarf.

This is all the shapes I've got so far. I've decided I no longer like the colour combo. I love the colours separately but not together. I did 2 hexagons mixing the colours and it made me make up my mind.

I'm planning to finish the scarf in the lilac colour first

and i'm wondering about dyeing a darker purple shade to go with it. sorry pics are a bit out of focus. It's dark and dull today and it's difficult to get good pics. The yarn, btw, is YarnAddict Ocean Silk which is an  amazing blend of silk and seacell.

Notice I've not mentioned Tour de Fleece much? Well, there's been no spinning going on whatsoever since day 2 of the tour. We've been watching it every night and I'm enjoying it but with deadline knitting, sadly there's been no time for spinning. I may try to fit some in tonight.

I'm re-doing the pattern section on my website. I woke up very early today and decided to make a start. I've not been happy with it for a while and since I changed my website template recently it's been looking a bit tacky. Not all the patterns are back up yet but Simplicity, Trellis, Blossom, Dazzle and Golitha Falls are all ready. Simplicity and Trellis is part of the new 'Easy Lace' section with more patterns coming soon, including the new 'Carmen' shawl. All my patterns are available on Patternfish and Ravelry too.

Back to some pattern writing.

Easy Lace

After chatting to lots of knitters at Woolfest I decided I wanted to do a series of shawls that would be perfect for new lace knitters. Lots of knitters admired my lace shawls at Woolfest and said something like: 'I'd love to be able to knit that, but I'm not good enough. I can't knit lace'. Well, lace is not difficult and i believe everyone who can knit and purl can learn to knit lace. I love teaching my lace workshops and I teach one called 'Easy Lace'.

So when we came home from Woolfest I cast on for a shawl using Ocean Silk 4ply which is a silk/seacell blend and absolutely gorgeous. It's a 4ply/fingering weight yarn, so it's not too fine. Thin yarns can be a bit scary to some knitters who are used to much thicker yarns. Ocean Silk is gorgeous to knit with by the way.

This shawl is a half hexagon shape and has 4 increase points. Increasing along these points help to shape the shawl. Start at the back of the neck wiht just a few stitches then increase along each edge and along two 'spines' and you end up with a half hexagon shape. I started with garter stitch so new knitters can relax and concentrate on working the increases. I recommend using markers to remind you where to increase. However after a few rows you can see where teh increases should be made. then once you start getting used to working the increases and can see the shape of the shawl starting to emerge and the garter stitch starts to get a little bit boring,  you're introduced to some simple eyelet rows consisisting of yarn overs and k2tog. Nothing difficult here.

For experienced knitters this shawl is brilliant as a quick knit. You always need somethign to knit when you're watching an interesting TV programme that requires a bit of concentration, while travelling or chatting with friends. Or have you got a beautiful skein of about 400m of luxurious yarn? Then this shawl will be perfect. The simple stitch pattern is perfect for showing off a special yarn.

The shawl is called 'Simplicity' and will be launched in a day or two. I just need to double check the pattern and add some photos.

We've had a week of a bit of illness here.  Simon was ill last weekend, Vanessa was ill and home from school on Monday. Emily said she's felt a bit off this week but been to school. I woke up this morning and felt rough but then I feel like that everyday. Due to my chronic neck/back pain I normally wake up in a lot of pain and feel very stiff. it takes me a while to get going. This morning I was feeling a little worse than normal and it look me longer than normal to get going. I also had a bit of an upset tummy, which I do suffer from at times probably side effect from the 20 odd painkillers  I take every day. I packed up some parcels and got ready to leave for knitting group as I was on duty today (we take it in turns to turn up early to put the signs up and to make sure someone is there for the whole session). I managed to drag myself into town and got to knitting group about 40 mins late. I enjoyed it there though. not very many of us there but we had a lovely chat. then a friend came over for an hour. Then this afternoon I started feeling worse again. My stomach was churning. I tried to do some pattern work. Took Emily for her swimming lesson and I've been struggling to stay awake this evenign. My  stomach is churning and my back is aching. Think an early night is in order.

More new designs

Let's Knit arrived on Thursday last week and Yarn Forward yesterday and I have designs in both of them.

Let's look at Let's Knit first as it arrived first

My design in this isue was the fun minidress 'Miren' knitted in Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend. The dress features a small flower lace pattern and half length sleeves. This dress is perfect for layering and will take you through several seasons. You can make it longer too if you wish.

Another design in Let's Knit this month that I liked was my friend, Tina Barrett's 'Monique'. If i had time to knit it  I would. I love it.

Let's Knit also reviwed my Silky Camel 4ply. There will be more Silky Camel in the update planned for Friday, that depends on the weather though. if it keeps raining the update may not happen until the weekend.

Yarn Forward is good this month too.

My design this month is Belle. Belle is a pretty cardigan with half length sleeves featuring a pretty diagonal lace pattern. The perfect layering cardigan which will take you through several seasons. I love the photos in the magazine but I can't photograph them like I used to to share with you due to copyright. But here are the pics I took before sending the sample off.

Remember I joined Tour de Fleece. Want to know how much I've spun since last time I talked about Tour de Fleece? NOTHING! I've spun a tiny amount of camel so far during the tour. we even watch the round up programme for an hour most evenings and I've still not gotten around to spinning anything. Perhaps i ought to spin during the round up programme.

Instead I've been working on some secret projects. One is off the needles adn will be blocked tonight. The other one is progressing nicely. also working on a large lace swatch which has taken quite a lot of time but nearly done now. Can't share any pics of any of these though.

I've been machien knitting too. I've now finished the back of my silk top. I'm going to knit the front and then sew shoulders and side seams so I can try it on for fit before I do the sleeves. I may try and do the tuck stitch border on the front tonight. I'm very pleased with the result so far. Pics when I've done the front too.

I've been thinking and planning my holiday knitting too. We're not off until 3rd August but I need to plan carefully what I take. our luggage allowance is very restricted. Just 30kg for the 4 of us which is not a lot. There will be a lot of knitting time: 2 plain journeys, drive from Barcelona to Alicante and back (6 hours twice), on the beach and by the pool, siestas in the flat, relaxing evenings on the balcony. I'm not taking anythign too big or hot so sweaters are out. Lace is perfect as you get a lot of kniting out of a small amount of yarn. So I'll be taking my new beaded shawl. I may also take a new secret lace project if the yarn arrives in time. Socks are perfect for the beach, so i'll take my Fantasy cables to finish and perhaps yarn for another pair or two. I need some easy lace too. Still some decisions to make.

Liskeard Show

yesterday was our annual, local agricultural show. For the 2nd year in a row our local knitting group, Liskeard Knit & Natter, had a stall.

Last year we were outside in a small tent and got very cold and wet as it rained non-stop all day. this year we were inside the craft tent. Our aim was to publisice our knitting group and knititng in general. But we did have a sales table

 so that any of our members who sell things could promote themselves. I took a few baskets of yarn

 but wasn't really expecting to see much and I didn't. We had chairs at the front of our stall were we had knitters knitting and nattering all day. My pics were taken before the show opened so that's why it's quiet. We were actually quite busy and got to share what we do with lots of people.

We also had lots of things on display, mainly things made by Hella (our leader and machine knitting expert), Tina Barrett (well-known British designer who designs for several British magazines, and me.

Let's take a closer look at our displays. Here are Golitha Falls surrounded by some of my socks:

Sophia and Midnight Stole:

Snow Queen surrounded by some of Hella's machine knitted swatches:

this table shows a selection of Tina's designs and keen readers of British knitting mags may recognise several items here:

Blossom:

And here's a selection of Hella's machine knitted baby wear:

More of Hella's amazing machine knitted items.

Hella is my machine knitting mentor and such an inspiration. and she'd brought her machine

and spent most of the day showing interested people how it worked, including one of our members, Eileen.

Hella also showed me how to knit fair isle, plaiting and weaving on the macine. I tried to practive last night before I went to bed but it went all horribly wrong and I was too tired, so I gave up. Maybe I'll try again this afternoon.

Tina's husband has been making a selection of spinning accessories including some beautiful spindles and knitting needles. You can find it all on Spin Out's website. You can see Tina's website for details of her books though.

You can see tina's books here too.

Hella made us enter an item into the knitting competition in the domectic tent.

this boosted the knitting class and we got a note from the judge to compliment us all on the big class. And guess who won 1st prize?  I did for the original version of the Midnight Stole.

 I've no idea how the judge can judge such a varied class. All the items there were amazing and as we were all different skill levels, they were a challenge for those who'd knitted them. 2nd prize went to someone not from our group and Hella got 3rd prize for her amazing cashmere machine knitted cardigan using the plaiting technique and reverse stockign stitch.

Plaiting is an amaizng technique were you use on colour on teh front of the fabric and one on the back. One the purl side of the fabric you get stripes like on the cardigan above and on the knit side you get a subtle effect with the colour showing through from the wrong side like on Hella's other cashmere cardigan which won 2nd prize in teh 'gift for a family member' category. Hella also had an amzing plaited jacket on display on our stall but I forgot to take a pic of it.

Eileen entered this category too with her amazing teapot cozy using blue and cream which is used in a popular Cornish pottery line. Look at the cute little teapot on the top of the cozy.

Tina entered a gorgoeus, cute little baby cardigan but because it had a ribbon it wans't eligible to be judged. there was a note left from the judge to say baby items shouldn't have ribbons or strings.

Frances knitted this amazing, beautiful angora rabbit and got highly commended.

All in all it was a successful and fun day and we certainly made our mark on the show. By the way, anyoen curious about what my 1st prize was? I won't £1. yes that's a whole British £1. Not going to make me rich but it was fun.

don't forget the sock yarn sale continues. go and get your bargain.