Do You Love Crochet?

If you do there is a new magazine on the market for you. Online crochet magazine, Love Crochet launched just before Christmas. I was lucky to be able to contribute 3 designs to the first issue. We were on a tight deadline and I had help from Leni and Zoe (Love Crochet's editor) who crocheted the two sweaters for me and both did an excellent job. Big thank you to both of you!

The pictures of my Love Crochet designs used in this post are all copyright Love Crochet.

Aliona is a loose-fit, relaxed lacy sweater with a wide treble hem and a big split cowl collar. Quick to crochet & cosy to wear. We used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for this sweater and the yarn is gorgeous to work with.

 Emilie is a simple top worked in two pieces with a big open diamond pattern across the yoke, sleeves and hem. The rest of the sweater is worked in treble crochet.

 With half-length sleeves it's a perfect layering garment which will take you through several seasons. The yarn is Louisa Harding Ianthe which is a gorgeous merino/cotton blend.

 And lastly, the Citrus Broomstick Infinity Scarf. This scarf is worked flat using 2 different knitting needle sizes to create the broomstick crochet stitch. It's easy and perfect if you've never tried broomstick crochet before. I used Fibre Harvest Knit By Numbers for this scarf. Knit By Numbers is a gorgeous dk merino spun in Devon. It has an amazing range of tonal colours and I'm totally in love with this yarn and you'll see it cropping up in a few more designs very soon.

There are lots more patterns in the first issue of Love Crochet. Take a look. All the patterns are written using American and British crochet terms. I've got a design in the spring issue too but ofcourse I can't tell you about that yet.

And as we're talking about crochet, I've got another crochet design about to be self-published. The Paloma Infinity scarf is worked in Debbie Bliss Paloma which is a gorgeous, lightweight chunky yarn. I rarely touch chunky yarns but this yarn is very different from most chunkys. It's a very light, knitted tube which makes the items you knit/crochet from it much lighter than most chunky yarns. You can pre-order Paloma now at the special price of £2. Once it's published on 1 January the price will go up to £3. There will be a cowl included in the pattern too. I need to get some better pics of Paloma. I've been wearing it all week every time we've been out. It's so lovely and warm.

Here's a pic of me and my friend Jo at the Boxing Day Hunt at Jamaica Inn. I'm wearing Paloma & my new mittens. More on those later.

 it was quite windy & cold and my hair definitely looks windswept. I've been doing a lot of knitting over Christmas. I had planned not to do any deadline knitting but a last minute project crept in and I've been progressing nicely on that one. Most of my knitting this Christmas has been on a stripey shawlette and my mittens. In the pic below you can see the beginnings of fingerless mittens to go with the new mitten pattern. Most of my projects this Christmas has been knitted in Quince & Co. I've been knitting with Chickadee (for the mittens), Tern and Lark. Love the Quince & Co yarns. As far as I know the only UK stockist is Loop in London (but you can order online too).