Crochet Stuff

In the last month or so I've been overwhelmed by yet more house sorting. I'm going to run out of rooms to re-decorate at some point, surely? We're now on to the middle floor and the room which we have always called my workroom. It was my original craft room when the children were at home and occupied the top floor and it's going to carry on being a sewing room. It was sorely in need of a new coat of paint and a re-varnish for the floor though which I've just finished.

When my son and daughter are both here for a day in a couple of weeks time, they're going to move some furniture back in here. At the moment, the bedroom next door to this room looks like this.

I can just squeeze past the bed to hang up washing in front of the three bookcases stacked in the corner. One corner of this room is also taken up with things my daughter has been storing here while waiting to find a house but the good news is ... they've got somewhere!

This is the best news we've had for years. They have been living in a damp one bedroom flat with no windows for four years, during which time they've had a flood, a fire and numerous other problems. At the moment they are without a cooker or hob and getting the landlord to do anything takes forever. The house they are buying is a four bedroomed thirties semi in Oxford which boasts not only windows but an actual garden! Needless to say, they will be paying less for their mortgage each month than they do in rent on their current flat.

They are hoping to move in the autumn. This means that Rose will be able to take the things she's got here so they will move it all downstairs into what will be the new storage room for now. This is the back room on the ground floor which has also been keeping me busy lately because of this ...

This is what happens when your floor joists are damp. You end up with your floor being several inches lower than the bottom of the walls. After several days of work, Steve the plumber and builder managed to track down the leaking water pipes which were to blame (one hiding under the kitchen floor and the other in a wall), re-route them both and then repair the joists. It made huge amounts of mess as you can imagine but the floor is now magically back where it should be.

I've moved the de-humidifier up from the cellar to that room and it's now chugging away, working to dry the room out. I'm hoping that it will be settled enough to re-decorate next summer and, in the meantime, the floor is now strong enough to use the room to store things while we work on the rest of the house.

All this has not exactly helped my health but, then again, even normal things make my Long Covid worse. I had a straightforward doctor's appointment last month which set me back for weeks. The day after it I lost my sense of taste and smell again and they still haven't recovered. This makes eating more of a chore, combined with being too ill to cook ... I'm meant to be going back for some blood tests but have to recover enough to be able to cope with another appointment. I didn't realise before all this happened how inaccessible the NHS becomes when you're ill. 

Anyway, I expect you've been wondering where crochet comes into all of this. Well, I noticed recently that I have published 599 patterns on ravelry in the last sixteen years (although it does count all those multiple Christmas patterns as separate ones). Anyway, I thought I ought to publish a typical Frankie pattern for my 600th. I decided it should be a bit unusual and involve plastic canvas. Anyone who knits my patterns regularly will know what I mean.

So, I came up with the idea of knitting a mini suitcase. I thought I'd base it on the little card suitcases I use to store my perle threads for making Dorset buttons.

Designing this is not going smoothly. After six complete re-starts, I finally have a lid that actually fits the bottom of the case.

After a similar number of false starts I've also contrived a fastening for it and I am currently avoiding working on the handle. So, needless to say, knitting is not my favourite thing at the moment! Which is why I keep turning to the contents of this basket.

All I want to do is to crochet. This had led to me fishing out various unfinished projects as well as starting several new ones. 

Shall I show you some of them  in a bit more detail? Those plain pink hexagons are the start of a star bedspread, inspired by a vintage pattern. I'm working them in 4 ply and have only done a few so far.

I really like blocking shapes over plastic canvas but, as I don't have any big plastic canvas hexagons - I wonder if you can buy such a thing - I've drawn a hexagon on mountboard and covered it with library film to pin them out on.

The joy of these blocking mats is that they're sturdy enough to prop up out of the way while things are drying. I've only blocked the first couple of hexagons so far so you'll have to imagine how those triangles will eventually become the points of stars.

The next project is also hexagons, this time my version of African Flowers. These are fun to make and I love the way the flower petals suddenly appear about half way through.

I'm using two shades of a variegated yarn called Hayfield Spirit for these, the lighter one for the flowers and the darker one for the edging. I love how well they work together and the cream in between really sets them off.

I can't really say the same about the yarn I'm using for these crochet squares.

Although Batik Swirl is a very nice yarn, I wasn't happy with how I was ending up with a mixture of soled coloured squares and some with just an odd bit of another colour. This is why I decided to add some surface crochet in the shape of four diagonal wavy lines which I'm hoping will make them a bit more interesting.

You get a tidy straight line on the wrong side too which I like. This gives you a bit of an idea of how the squares will look when they're joined.

So much for hexagons and squares. I do enjoy learning new crochet techniques and, last year, I discovered the joys of Corner to Corner Crochet (sometimes called C2C). Look it up and you'll see what I mean. As the name suggests, it's worked diagonally in a series of blocks. I first tried it out when I made a scarf for a friend for Christmas, using King Cole Riot DK.

I can't remember which shade this was, either Rainbow or Caribbean I think. Anyway, never being one to waste a good project, I thought I'd make another one to turn into a pattern. This time I'm using Juniper which is a mixture of pinks and greys.

The other exciting thing about this type of crochet is that it produces a regular grid of blocks which means that, by changing colours and using charts, you can produce all sorts of wonderful pictures. This Christmas Blanket was one of the first to catch my eye. I toyed with lots of ideas for charted designs but then decided to go back to basics which, for me, means maximum effect with minimum effort.

Working diagonal stripes means much less changing of colours but still gives you lots of design possibilities. I'm using two shades of four colours (with cream as the main colour) and making sets of eight different combinations of these colours.

This is the plan for how the finished blanket will look with eight sets of these eight squares.

And yes, I've used this idea before. This is the basic idea behind my knitted Pathways blanket from many, many years ago (hence the dreadful photos). So, here are the first eight squares of what will be my New Pathways blanket.

I won't bore you with the details now but I've worked out a way of changing colours with these squares so that both sides of the blanket will look good which I'm very pleased with. It's nice to be able to throw a blanket down without having to check which side is the right side.

I've also enjoyed learning Tunisian crochet over the years and I'm particularly taken with the colour possibilities you get when working with two yarns and a double ended hook. Here's the scarf I made when I first discovered this technique.

Now I'm using different yarns and a different stitch pattern to make another one - just because I felt like doing some Tunisian crochet again.

This time I'm using two variegated yarns for a more subtle effect; I love the way Tunisian crochet blends variegated yarns so that they look almost woven.

These are all the crochet projects I'm carrying around in my basket but I've also resurrected a couple of others. The first one is a workbag made up of rather over the top flower blocks.

I worked on these flowers four years ago when I was looking after my lovely stepfather, Bob. I kept the bag of yarns up at his house and would do the odd round whenever he didn't need me. He always commented on what I was making and thought these were pretty. After he died and I came down down with Covid the next day, I put this project away and didn't feel like picking it up again. I'd done so much though that it seems daft not finish it so I'm going to try to get it done, although my heart's not really in it.

On a more positive note, I've picked up this baby shawl again lately too. I wanted to design a simple, square shawl that could be worked in washable acrylic yarn and used every day without being scared of spoiling it. 

It's got to be a lot bigger and it will look much better once I've added a pretty border and blocked it. I'm working it in V stitch with lines of eyelets to break it up a bit. I also added a round of clusters every fourth round to make it a bit more interesting and stop it getting too boring to make.

So that's the crochet that's keeping me going at the moment and making life a bit more fun. what about you? Is anyone else in a crochet phase at the moment?

Year Lists

I've always been a great maker of lists - things to do, books to read, all sorts of things. I keep an ideas book which was originally intended to be ideas for knitting or crochet designs but over the years it's relaxed to include everything from quotations to plants for the garden and lots of other things besides.

For the last three or four years I've also kept yearly lists on the computer (or Mabel as she's known to me) to record things I've achieved each year. Now that there are so many things I can't do, it's good to see what I have managed over the previous twelve months. 

My 'miles walked' lists are a bit sad. The year before I got covid, I walked about 700 miles. It's surprising how it adds up; I use a very simple pedometer that goes in my pocket or bag, every time I leave the house so those 700 miles aren't just made up 'proper' walks but also lots of walks to the postbox or in to town. A couple of  years ago I'd managed to walk about 300 miles, all in very short, daily walks but last year my Long Covid was worse and I only did about half that. 

I also keep lists of books that I read, not as a target but just for fun so that I can look back and see what I was reading. Last year, I started listing how many crosswords I'd finished too. I do the daily cryptic crossword from The Guardian (I love being able to print it off) and, in 2023, I finished 109 of them. Given that they publish six a week, I've still got plenty of room for improvement. When he has time, my son also does the crossword and, over Christmas we did really well. Cryptic crosswords are easier to work on with someone else and we finished all but two in about two weeks.

My other big yearly list is the one you might be most interested in though and you'll be glad to hear that this one includes pictures. Every year I list all the things I've made, whatever the craft. Since I started doing this a couple of years ago it's encouraged me to make more stuff which is always good, right? It also gives me a great sense of achievement; I may not be able to do most of the things I could do before getting ill but I can still be creative.

I always start the year by knitting the mini stockings that go on my Christmas presents, filled with little chocolates. It gives me a good sense of getting ahead, even if it's all downhill from then on. These were the stockings I knitted last January.

They were knitted with a three colour slip stitch pattern and solid coloured toes and heels. Working out how to keep the pattern going round the shaping for the instep was very tricky. This year's stockings have a Fair Isle pattern but I decided to make life easier for myself and only use the pattern on the straight leg section.

As you can see, I'm getting on well with the next batch of stockings. One of my plans for this year is to go over all my old mini stocking patterns, re-write some and publish new ones.

So, what else did I knit in 2023? Four and a half pairs of socks (the half was the first of a pair for me, all the rest were for other people), several scarves and two sets of Pippi baby clothes for new babies. They also got a Lazy Vee Blanket and a Paddle Ball each.

A slightly older baby got a knitted Raggy Doll, another pattern that needs a complete re-write.

Knitted toys can be a pain to make, what with all those pieces but the finished results are always pleasing. Last year I knitted two Frog and Toads on tiny needles, at a tight tension - never again. Mind you, they look brilliant.

These are knitted with Shetland Wool which turned out to be ideal for small animals with a lot of shaping. I remembered this when it came to designing my Little Donkeys at the end of the year.

I knitted a fully dressed hedgehog for a friend's birthday in the summer from Louise Crowther's book Knitted Animal Friends which I can thoroughly recommend. I bought the yarn to knit myself the owl from the same book but haven't made it yet. Something to do this year.

I did though finally manage to knit myself a Kipper from the pattern by Alan Dart. The original pattern is for DK weight yarn and comes out too big for my tastes so I used thin 4 ply sock yarn and small needles to make a smaller dog.

The shading between colours is done with an ordinary pencil which I thought was a clever touch. I updated the shapings a bit as I went along but, otherwise, followed the pattern.

The rest of my knitting in 2023 was for published patterns, including two big ones: Summer Cottage and my Christmas Cheer wreath. I have been working on samples for two more Ten Stitch patterns as well, a rectangle and an oval. The rectangle is easy but I wanted to explain how to calculate how long the first strip needs to be for any finished size.

The oval was much more complicated to work out and I needed the help of my mathematician son to write me a formula to explain what I'd knitted. 

The obvious use for a Ten Stitch Oval pattern would be for a rug but it could also be used for placemats or a knitted basket base. Maybe I'll get round to designing this one later this year.

Most of my crochet in 2023 was, again, for published patterns. I've got one shawl waiting for me to write up which uses my Lazy Vee technique which I always enjoy working.

Towards the end of the year, I discovered the technique know as Corner to Corner crochet or C2C and had fun making this scarf for a Christmas present.

Again, this was fun to make and a great way to use self-striping yarn. I used King Cole Riot DK for my scarf. And I nearly forgot this little reindeer, crocheted from an old magazine pattern, again changing the weight of yarn to make it smaller. This one went in my daughter's Christmas stocking.

One more woolly finish from 2023 before I move on to other crafts. In May I finally finished this rainbow Tunisian Crochet blanket, worked in the round, which I started years ago. 

It looks nice now it's done but it was an absolute nightmare to get it to lay flat. I kept having to re-do the edging to hold it in shape and then it took a lot of serious blocking. 

In the first few months of the year I made quite a lot of things with felt, starting off with these two Christmas tree ornaments for my son and daughter.

These are copies of the one I made for my tree more than thirty years ago and which they irreverently refer to as the 'Hitler Santa'. I also made two sets of more traditional decorations. These were from the book Modern Folk Embroidery by Nancy Nicholson which has lots of great patterns.

As you can see, I got a bit carried away when it came to the embroidery. I kept one of each set for myself but then hid them away until Christmas. Only of course when Christmas came I couldn't remember where I'd hidden them. They finally came to light last week at the back of  my sock drawer. 

Using the same book, I also made a pastel coloured felt garland for my daughter - still adding lots of embroidery.

I had fun making some felt flowers too, all of which I gave away as presents. I'd like to make more of these at some point.

The big flowers are from the book Fabric Blooms by Megan Hunt but I worked out the pattern for the little rosebuds myself.

I borrowed a book from the library in the Spring called Stitch 50 Birds by Alison J Reid and used it to make four different bird ornaments as presents.

Some of the patterns have quite a lot of pieces but the instructions are clear. I particularly liked the use of cocktail sticks for legs. There are other books in the series if you fancy making some felt creatures.

I'm a big fan of Mandy Shaw of Dandelion Designs and, when I was well, used to enjoy visiting her stall at craft shows. This means I have quite a few of her patterns stashed away and, last year, I used a couple of them to make more presents. Three little redwork tree decorations (yes, mine was lost with the felt ones) and a little lampshade that goes over a wine glass with a battery tealight inside.

I always start off the year with plans to make all the birthday cards I need to send but people born in the first half of the year tend to fare better than those with later birthdays. I cross stitched six cards last year; this is one of my favourites. It's by the designers Lesley Teare; I love the way she combines cross stitch with blackwork.

I enjoyed working this cone shaped Father Christmas for a Christmas present too; it's cross stitch on plastic aida and came together well.

I did manage to make one card with hardanger embroidery. I must do more of this in 2024; it's quite a new craft for me and I enjoy it. It's quick to do and nowhere near as hard as it looks.

As ever, I made quite a few bags last year. I often make one of my Reversible Tote Bags to put presents in. They don't take long to make and it's fun choosing the fabrics.

I also made two bags using remnants bought at my local scrap store Orinoco. The first one used some pieces of vintage barkcloth fabric and the second is made up of velvet squares from a sample book. I actually kept the velvet one for myself.

I've still got lots of velvet squares left from the sample book so they might appear in this year's list of things made.

What else? I've made some more Dorset Buttons and woven a few bookmarks and I've done a little bit of needlepoint. I enjoyed making this little pincushion kit in April ...

... and I made two little needlepoint boxes with plastic canvas later in the year.

I only made two quilts in 2023, even if one of them was the biggest quilt I've ever made. I'd like to make more this next year. I'm going to start with this aptly named pack of charm squares that I got for Christmas (thank-you Rose).

The craft I've made most progress with over the last year though has been my 3D beading. ThreadABead have so many patterns that I want to make that I decided I needed to do more beading in order to speed up! So ... I finished the third building in the Christmas Village which is a barn for the reindeer ...

... and then I made two (yes, two) more of the Father Christmas Houses, one each for my son and daughter. They have little boxes on the Christmas tree with tiny presents in and these were just the right size.

Working the same pattern twice in a row really helped me concentrate on my technique (or lack of it) and, as well as getting quicker, I think I'm making less mistakes now too. I then decided to make these three Ornaments as Christmas presents which were a bit different as the patterns allow for a lot of creative decisions on the part of the beader. This was a challenge for me; I do enough creative thinking in my designing so I really prefer to be able to just follow a pattern when it comes to other crafts. I have to say though, I was really pleased with the results. One day, I shall make some more of these.

I think  my next 3D beading project will either be an Easter pattern or this little Toadstool House; there are just too many to choose from.

In 2024 I also want to do some more miniature building. Do you remember my little house?

After finishing this more than two years ago, I've been slowly adding furniture. I'd like to finish it this year and perhaps start a new project. Petite Properties are launching a magazine focusing on small scale miniatures this year - that could be just the prompt I need to get building again.

What about you? Does anybody else keep 'things made' lists? What are you hoping to make more of in 2024 - other than time, obviously. We could all do with more time to craft, couldn't we?