Crochet and wire knitting

I had a pretty awful weekend really. After working like mad last week to finish a secret project I must have over done it as this weekend my neck/back and shoulders were killing me. Iwas in so much pain i didn't really know what to do with myself on Saturday. Saturday mornings are rather stressful here as girls have ballet and the way the lessons are organised means 4 trips in total back and forth. In between all this Simon was nagging Vanessa to do some homework and revision. Vanessa was tired and argued back, then Simon and I ended up arguing. Not a nice morning. In the afternoon I went to bed and slept for 3 hours. Didn't want to wake up again and had to force myself to get up. Sunday was a little better but I was still in lots of pain. We went to church in the morning and I managed to sit in a comfy lounge chair which helped a lot. In the afternoon we went to a local diy store and got paint and flooring for decorating Vanessa's bedroom next weekend. I struggled even though we weren't in the store long. Basically the top half of my back was a tight, aching mess this weekend. I'm a lot better today.

I decided to do some indulgent knitting this weekend. I had some silver Organic Merino 4ply which I was desperate to do something with. I've also fallen in love with garther stitch this year. I used to hate garter stitch but now I love it. It's squishy, quick to knit and beautiful. So afte charting and thinking a bit I started a shawl in garter stitch with a lace border. I forgot to take pics earlier and it's too dark now so will share pics later in the week. But it's looking good so far and I'm very happy with it. Not sure if I'm going ot use one or two skeins yet.

Last weke this gorgeous 'Crochet Motifs' book arrived. It's full of colourful crochet shapes (see below for what I've made already). I love it. So much inspiration.

I've also acquired this Crochet Answer book. I have the knitting version and it's brilliant, so had to get this one too.

And I was tempted to get tihs Granny Square book but I'm not too impressed. There are two projects in there I like. If I'd flicked through it in the shop I wouldn't have bought it but that's the problem with ordering online.

This was the first shape I made from the first book. It's done in Patons cotton whichI don't like. It felt stiff and horrible to crochet. I'm not too keen on cotton and this didn't do anything to persuade me.

I crocheted these two squares last night. The yarn is Manos Silk Blend in one of my favorite colourways. I'm kind of thinking I'd like to crochet up enough squares in Silk Blend ot make a scarf or a blanket. But these two are very different size. So not sure.

I knitted two bracelets in wire with beads. The one on the right is purple wire and a mix of beads in lilacs, purples & plums and it's for me which is why it is so much bigger than the other one.

The one on the left is silver wire with silver and charcoal beads. The wire was the same thickness but the silver one was much harder to knit with. Not sure how to secure the bracelets. If anyone has any good advice re fastenings please let me know. I decided to try another flower brooch too. This one is knitted using silver wire and a silver Kidsilk Haze. I'm not totally happy with this one so may try another one tonight. Got some gorgeous pink Kidsilk Haze ready.

After an indulgent weekend of knitting I'm now ready to start my next secret project. Yarn is ready and is one of my favorite, Manos Silk Blend, in this gorgeous lime-green colourway. This is one of the top colours for this season according to what I've seen in the shops lately.

I started a mobile phone sock with beads last night too. My local knitting group is having a stall at a craft fair next week so I thought I'd knit up a few mobile phone socks to sell.

This week I'll mainly be working on the new secret Silk Blend project but I'm hoping to find some time to knit some wire bracelets and mobile phone socks and some scarves on the knitting machine for the craft fair next week.

I'm hoping to do a shop update with bambino sock, organic merino 4ply and Merino Plus sock on Wednesday.