On the mend

I’m still getting over the virus that started last weekend, it took the wind right out of me, literally, I ended up in A&E on Wednesday evening on a nebuliser to help my breathing, but feeling much better, and got my hook back on last night.

Whilst I’ve not felt like doing much crochet I did do a little online shopping!

My daughters friend came with us to yarndale last week, she’s just had all of her bedroom decorated and was in the hunt for some cushion covers, but we found that not many stalls were selling finished items, more the yarn and utensils to make an item, I felt guilty that we had to leave early so I said I’d make one for her bedroom.  She’s only young so I wanted to do something quite fashionable for her and lovecrochet had an offer on hoooked tshirt yarn, so I bought some ribbon xl

Now this really is XL, I thought I’d bought enough for two cushion covers, but two of these skeins barely finished 1!!  I also struggled to find a pattern for a cushion cover using tshirt yarn, so improvised and wrote my own, if you like it you can find it on etsy, anyway this is the finished result

I used a rib stitch, I’m quite pleased with it to be honest!

Hooks

I’ve been using some very pretty knit pro bamboo hooks with a cute Swarovski crystal at the bottom, but recently a lot of people have been speaking about clover amour, one person said since using clover she cringes using her knit pro! I thought I’ve got to give these a try, so they arrived yesterday evening

Verdict

Where have I been!!!!! These are a amazing!!!! They gliiiiiiiiiide through each stitch so smoothly! I’ve crocheted all day today and when I finish this update I’m going back for more, compared to my knit pro these are honestly like driving a Rolls Royce!!!!

I’m looking forward to crochet brocade tomorrow, I’ll be taking my carousel to join before the next release on Tuesday, if I get that finished I’ll also be taking lily pond, I’ve not done much on that recently.

I’ve also started this sneaky project, I found the pattern foc, and I had the yarn already so made a start on The Tree of Life isn’t it gorgeous!!!

Anyway I’m missing my clover hooks off to do some more! 
Happy hooking xx

Yarndale 2016…..

Ok so I’ve been looking forward to 24th September for a whole year, yarndale, skipton, I’d never been before but had heard so many stories, and weeks prior to the event there seemed to be a huge build up of excitement on social media.

My day was planned, I was going to show my face at crochet group in the morning and then make a move towards skipton……but……

Friday afternoon I stated to get a sore throat, by Friday night I had a high temperature, I knew I wasn’t right, but I wasn’t going to miss that one day in the whole year!

Showed my face at crochet group, which is building nicely I must say! We had another new starter!

I then made my way towards skipton, now the auction Mart is on gargrave road, one of my clients is there also so I go there at least once every three months and I have done for the last 8 years, but I kept getting lost!! So I must of been poorly, finally after a 2 hour drive (should of been 65 mins) I got to the auction mart, towards the yarn bombed entrance there was a lot of people and I got excited, when I got inside there just seemed to be a sea of heads! If I managed to walk a metre without someone stopping dead in front of me I felt lucky, who knew all these people loved yarn?!!

Honestly it was manic, but I don’t think it helped that I didn’t feel at my best,my first stop was at Woolly Mahoosive I’ve been desperate to get my hands on a giant ball of their yarn for ages!

I mean these are huuuuuugee!!! I was very tempted to buy one and I had all intentions of buying one, but after speaking to them, just to make something like a bed spread I’d be looking at about 4 large 4kg balls at least, at £160 per 4kg it seemed way to extravagant for me, gutted, I would of loved to have given it a go.

My next stop (which took an age to get to) was a small stall selling yarn holders, and for £8.50 I got a wooden spinny thing to sit my yarn on, it’s great!!! Holds my yarn nicely and no more losing my ball under the sofa!

At this point I was feeling a little worse for wear, I only wanted to find Little Box of Crochet I found it, I’d missed a few subscriptions, and they were selling some past boxes, I think next year Amanda may need to go for a stall three times the size at least!!! It was rammed!!!! You couldn’t see anything, well I ended up excusing my way through to the bottom of the stall, Amanda wasn’t there, as jenny is quite ill at the moment, I would love to meet Amanda, but I was glad not to as I wasn’t right and I would hate to of passed on any virus to jenny, anyway I squeezed my way to the bottom and managed to get what I wanted 

This was Amanda blooms first ever subscription, I think these are so cute, I’m looking forward to doing them.

Unfortunate visiting this three stalls took me a whole hour, at that point I made my way home, and slept almost for 2 1/2 days, I felt vile, I’m back on my feet today, back at work, I’ll probably give yarndale another go next year, but if it’s as busy as Saturday it might need to be a miss.
Happy hooking xx

It’s CAL carousel day

So it’s 08:16, I’ve postponed my 12:00 London meeting to 15:00 so I can be home for 09:30 for the launch of sue pinners carousel CAL, so I thought I’d kill some time and fill it with a quick blog.

I’m a bit excited, I’ve got my yarn

And I’ve sorted my stash!

And I am ready to go!

I’ve got two CAL’s on the go, got the lily ponds too, I started block 2 last night and loved it! Check out this beauty

I learnt a lot from my last CAL, three things I learnt:

1. My tension is pretty good
2. Always measure as I go instead of winging it (just incase)
3. Weave in ends as I go, it’s a pain in the rear

Oh If it’s not right FROG IT! It’ll be better in the long run

On Sunday I took my mum and my daughter on the emmerdale tour, if you’re not in UK you’ve may not if heard of emmerdale, but it’s soap set in the countryside and it’s been running for around 40 years, there’s a family known as ‘the dingles’ that live in a farm, and they’re always being filmed in their lounge, and very often I notice the crocheted blankets in the bank ground, so I managed to get a few pictures of them, apparently they’re donated by the general public, could this be a way to get rid of my Emma blanket?!  I have also read that Lisa Dingle is also a bit of a hooker and often makes them herself though 

It’d be amazing to see one of mine on tv!! Ha!
I also got a lovely mention on Instagram from one of the girls that joined crochet brocade group on Saturday, she’s been crocheting longer than me, but struggles to work more than 15 minutes before she starts getting pain in her hands, she’d been working on a tea cozy for over a year and only completed about 4 rows, she came to group on Saturday, and admitted she wasn’t finding crochet relaxing, I noticed straight away she wasn’t holding her yarn right, and her fingers were ridged, she needed to relax and not ‘hold’ the yarn but let it rest between her fingers and then flex her tension finger when needed, it’s hard to unlearn something you’ve been doing for a such a long time, anyway she left group doing exactly the same as when she walked in, I know she watches a lot of bella coco tutorials and weather I helped her or the online tutorials helped her I don’t know, but between Saturday and Sunday she’d actually completed her tea cozy and it looks lovely!!! So well done to her! 

Anyway another 42 mins to go until the launch……….

Happy hooking xx

Fabulous Saturday!

I’ve had such a lovely day!!! Crochet brocade crochet group was at 10:30 this morning, we had 2 new people join us which was great!! Although we missed @itchycrochet this week, where were you Amanda! One of our ladies learnt to slip knot, chain and DC in the first week, and she’s been practising rows since then, so I thought I’d see how she got on in rounds, she did fabulous! We then had a lady walk over to join us, and she picked up a hook and yarn and before I knew it the lady who only started three weeks ago was showing her how to crochet! Yayyy!! 

Then a lovely elderly lady came over to our table, she reminded me a little of my Granny Muchy, the lady that inspired me to crochet, she initially came over to ask what we were making, then she started to tell us about the items she makes, and how she taught her children, she was one of those ladies that doesn’t mince her words, a spade is a spade (I like that) well before in knew it she was showing us how it’s done!!

I’ve asked her to come back next week, but she didn’t seem overly excited by the idea!! 

Then this afternoon I went over to event city at the Trafford centre, Hobbycraft we’re sponsoring the stitch and sew event, I was impressed by how busy it was! There were some great stands, not much in the way of yarn but there were a few yarn stands.  

I stopped off at Blacksheep wools stand and picked up a good bargain!  All if these skeins of Aran should of been over £40, mine for £19.99! That’ll do me nicely thank you!!

Now where to hide…….
Now, I did approach a stand, no names mentioned, they were offering items to help make hand made cards, and they had some beautiful cards on display, it was the first stand I approached and I went straight for the cards as they really caught my eye, I was met by a sour faced woman (I’m being extremely polite) who said ‘no, no, no they’re not for sale’ and then stared until I put the card down, I said ‘oh ok, that’s a shame, they’re really lovely’ I went to walk away, when she piped up….’well this is a c-r-a-f-t-f-a-i-r, you’ll find people here will be selling you things to actually make things’ at this point I had my back to her, well I was livid, she spoke to me like I’d not got a scooby about where I was or what I was doing there, so I just turned around and said ‘oh! Really? Silly me!’ My face said it all though, I’m not good at hiding what I’m thinking my face spells it out very clearly  🙈 so we walked around the corner, and would you beleive it!! There was a stand selling fudge! Not the tools to help you make the fudge, but the actual fudge, anyway I’m not one for confrontation (my face is) but if I had bigger balls I’d of bought the cheeky cow a bag!  Anyway rant over……
Happy hooking xx

Finally!!!!!

I have finished my Emma blanket, from Deramores……its a relief, taken a whole week of sewing and NO CROCHET!!!! I can no longer bare to look at it, so it’s now been folded away until I’ve gotten over the pain.  I am considering giving it to a friend who has been going through a difficult time, but, I might just hang on a little longer, I’ve put so much into it I’m not quite ready to give it away just yet!

Anyway finished article

I finished it last night at 20:00, and started on my lillypond straight away, it was so nice to actually crochet! The Lilly pond is designed by Jane crowfoot, the original is full of mice greens and bright colours, but I’ve gone for the cherry blossom, the good news is it isn’t a mystery cal and the cal finished a long time ago, so I have the full pattern and can actually join as I go

Gorgeous colours aren’t they!!! 

Lilly pond takes quite a few different colours of yarn and you need to read the pattern carefully, and this week I am away with work, so I’ve bought an attic 24 pack to make some bunting for my best friends baby boys nursery, I ordered from wool warehouse and it came within 24 hours of ordering!

I also ordered some Mahoosive buttons for an alpaca wrap I started last winter, I’m crocheting it with two skeins at a time so it’s hot and heavy, so I’ve put it on hold for a bit into the weather has cooled down and I’ve done my CAL’s, but check these out!

60mm buttons!!! From woolwarehouse again!

I don’t know if anyone has seen any of their designs but I saw a lovely oversized jumper from Frank & olive on Instagram and was going to buy the pattern and yarn when I spotted this

How beautiful is this?! I sent the screen shot to my mum and she loves it, she said it was very ‘mint velvet’ so my finger slipped and I ordered the yarn 😬 oh dear!!! I changed the mont colour for a baby pink

Definitely my mums colours!  Then of course on September 13th the pattern is released for sue pinners carousel!! So lots going on.

The crochet brocade group at hobbycraft in Warrington is slowly building, we had 5 last week including @itchycrochet, it was great to put a face to a name, although I was pleased to hear her name is Amanda, not itchy!!! We’ve got one lady who is learning and has mastered slip knot, chaining and DC! I r Clin next week I am going to push he to start crocheting in a round and perhaps doing a DC hat for her grandson.  We have another lady who has just moved to the area she’s a knitter and crocheter and she’s lovely! And we have a few more joining us next week, 

So this week is mainly staying away in London and Southampton I’m about to pack my bunting to do whilst I’m away, then Saturday crochet brocade group again, then Saturday afternoon is the Manchester craft fair and Sunday is a trip out to emmerdale set! So busy and exciting week ahead!!
Happy hooking xx

Weekly update 💕💕💕

It’s  been a funny old week, lots of travelling for work… Over night stays etc. I quite like an overnight stay (sometimes) it means I get pure uninterrupted crochet time 😊 so this week I think I got over the trauma of finishing my Emma blanket, it’s still folded away in the place I left it, I can’t quite bring myself to either look at it or give it away just yet, a real labour of love.  But I’ve done a little more on my Stylecraft Lilly pond blanket, slowly but surely, I’m still on the first block just 2 more to go before I can move onto the more intricate bits!! 

During my hotel stays this week I managed to finish Stylecraft baby bunting for my besties beautiful little boy, it is designed by Attic 24, anyway he’s just moved into his nursery so I thought some bunting would be cute

Cute isn’t it!!!  And this morning I’ve just started part of my mums Christmas present its a stunning jumper (oversized) designed by Frank and Olive 

I’ve only done the first 11 rows, plenty more to do!! But the yarn is beautiful! I’ve never crocheted using Aran before but this is lovely, it’s grey with speckles of mint green, black and baby pink it’s a real pleasure to use it is Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran tweed, I’d recommend it for sure!! 

Next week we start Sue Pinner carousel blanket CAL!! I’m using Stylecraft UK again for this one and all my colour way is sorted and in order and ready to start!!

I’ve got a busy weekend coming up, I’ve got crochet brocade group tomorrow morning which I’m looking forward to, then in the adternoon I’m going to the sewing and craft fair sponsored by hobbycraft at Trafford Manchester, the Sunday I’m taking my mum and my beautiful daughter to the emmerdale studio experience in Leeds, very excited!!!

Anyhoo!!! Some exciting news, well I think so anyway, I’m getting a new logo!!! I’ve instructed Seven seven design agency local to me, and this week they sent through my suggested new logos, oh my!!!! I got pretty emotional looking at them!! I work full time, but crochet is my passion and I’ve got plans for the Wee house of crochet, and the logo suggestions just made it feel so real! I’m so overwhelmed with them, I’m not sure which to choose, I’m sure I’ll share it with you soon though!  I’ve also been looking for a pattern for a while, I know what I want, and the colour way but I’ve not been inspired by any patterns, sooooooo I’m in the process of designing it myself, of course it’s all on paper at the moment and I’d have make it first, which could take some time given my current workload! Once done I’ll share it with you also.  Anyway best get some work done!!
Happy hooking xx 😘