A wee update

Our deadline for the spring CAL looms at the end of this week, so as per usual @lyndascraftoom and I have been hooking none stop!! It’s so worth it though because it looks stunning, and we’re rather proud! But I can’t show you! Not yet anyway.

It’s amazing when we look back at Tea on the green, and then to this CAL just how far we’ve come, even if I do say so myself, we were ahead of schedule and then for slightly off track, only slightly, the CAL has now gone to Lynda for her unusual fabulous finish and then back to me for the border, but it means I can catch up and sort out designs for the next Crochet Sanctuary which is on 20th April until 22nd, so literally 8 weeks away. We’ve had so many messages about other dates, we were trying to wait until we’d sold out on the next date before releasing the rest but we’ve given up and released all dates now, so we have April, June, September and November.

So first on my list was to catch up on Coastal crochet seaside stash buster CAL I’m really enjoying this, there is absolutely no pressure at all. And I have to admit blues and greens aren’t really my favourite colours so I seem to have a large amount of it in my stash which means I really can make mine look rather coastal, I’m really pleased with it

Just 4 rows a week, and the patterns are nice and easy to follow, I’m enjoying the process and I know it’s going to be a long CAL but I’m also rather excited to see the finished result too.

I’ve also been teaching my 14 year old daughter to crochet! We spend a lot of time together and she comes to our Knitcraft social most weeks, and I kind of felt guilty that she couldn’t come on the last Sanctuary but she couldn’t crochet and of course it’s a lot of money to pay for her to be bored all weekend, so she has been nagging me if she can come to April, the deal was that if she can crochet she can come, so this happened!

She crocheted her first granny square! Ok so she’s not quite for the bug and I don’t want to force it on her but I couldn’t help but take her to Blacksheep wools on Sunday, she bought herself a yarn cake and a tulip hook

The chunky blossom is mine though!! And guess what? She completely unravelled her cake and decided she couldn’t do it 🙄🙄 do I’ll leave her for a bit and then give her a gentle reminder!

So! While I’m here! We’ve sold out of all day passes for April, but we have got some rooms left for weekend bookings. It is going to be fab, each weekender will receive a fabulous Sophie’s stool!!!

We will work through a number of workshops, using some stunning yarns, three bears yarn, scheepjes and hopefully some hoooked or some Knitcraft Home cotton, all with a spring feel! Our workshops will also be including the very fabulous Amanda Bloom from Little box of crochet

Amanda has a fab workshop planned and no doubt with some amazing yarn!!

So if you do want to book click Here it is just a £50 deposit

Taking of little box of crochet, I was very naughty and bought myself the Not so little box of crochet…..oh wow, just wow!

Well!!! I couldn’t not could I?! So I’ll soon be getting started!!! Once the CAL has been sent and I can concentrate anyway!

Best got to bed now really

Happy hooking xx

Free Pattern! – T-Shirt Yarn Cushion Cover

I had  been itching to make something out of T-Shirt yarn for quite some time, but trying to find a nice pattern is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, so I thought I would design my own.
This pattern uses a rib stitch, I started off with just DC, but found that you could see the cushion underneath, so the rib stitch gives it some great texture, and also makes the cushion less visible. You’ll find this pattern nice, simple and quick, it only took me an evening!
Materials
 10-12 mm Crochet Hook
 2 x Hoooked Ribbon XL or any other T-Shirt Yarn
 16 x 16 Cushion
 6 x Buttons
Stitches Used – UK Terms
 CH (chain)
 DC (Double Crochet)
 BLO (Back Loop Only)
Instructions
(Make 2 of each)
Start by chaining 40
Row 1 – 1DC into the 2nd chain from the hook, 1DC all the way across, CH1 and turn
Row 2 – 1DC into the BLO all the way across, CH1 and turn
Rows 3 -18 Rep Row 2 and fasten off
You might need to complete more or less rows depending on the thickness of your T-shirt yarn and your tension, also the size of your cushion; by increasing or decreasing the number of rows you can make a larger or smaller cover.
Joining
Place the two panels together and join by 1DC all the way across until you get to the corner, once at the corner of each panel 3DC in the same stitch then continue with a 1DC until the end, leave one side unstitched, so that the cushion can be removed for washing. Add some chunky buttons to secure the cushion until required.

If you would like to print the PDF version feel free, just click on the link and print tshirt-yarn-cushion-cover

Happy Hooking xx

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