Learning to Crochet

Many, many years ago I tried crochet, but soon gave it up.  In March my local knitting shop Sitting Knitting at Mere Green ran a beginners crochet course.  I had a lovely day, I quickly remembered what I'd learn years ago and made some samples that lead to even greater things.

I felt my samples were ok, but I wanted to make them into something.  Back home I used the small purple Granny Square and found some wool in my knitting basket and just kept going round, and round and round.

Before long I needed to go out and buy some more wool! 

I used every colour for two rows, by the time my blanket was this big, it took the whole evening to do just one full circuit.  But it was lovely and warm to do, on the cold winter nights earlier in the year. When the weather warmed up I put it away until a couple of weeks ago, when the weather changed here.

Now I can handle a crochet project and my tension is ok,  I need to try something more adventurous, a pattern perhaps. 

 But first, all the wool left over from those socks I wrote about last time needs using up, and this time I'm doing lots of smaller squares and joining them together to make another blanket.  

I've done 3 and almost finished the 4th.  The sock wool is finer than the double knit of the first blanket, so I have a feeling this one might take me a little longer. I've heard my sister is doing a blanket too, and you can guess I'm sure who will be finished first. 

Since my last post, I've been sewing, sowing, and knitting lots of interesting things.

The fair isle jumper I wrote about on 5th January did not end up as I had wanted it to.  As a loose knitter I generally use a size smaller needle than the pattern suggests. But this time I made a really big mistake.  Instead of doing the rib in a size smaller needle, I used a size bigger.

It was no surprise it turned out to have a rather strange finish to it.  But my wonderful sister came to the rescue.  She chopped off my rib and redid it for me on the correct size needles. She worked the rib upside down, really clever, something I certainly could not have done and doesn't it look lovely. She is a genius.

Mike wore his jumper for the first time last week and he said it was lovely and warm. 

Lots of lovely socks all hand knitted by my sister over the last couple of years.  I have started a Granny square blanket with all the left over wool, I will add some photos next time, because I've only done two so far. I'm wondering just how long this will take me!

Waistcoats for a February Wedding

Way back in January I was busy doing some waistcoats for a February wedding. 

I made three like this for the groom and his party. 

As well I was asked to make two more for the brides party. 

The burgundy colour complimented the bride beautifully. 

This was the start of a very busy year. More pictures and articles to follow.