Well frog it all to hell....

I have been working on my Midsummers night shawl that I am making for my mum.

I was getting on great, progress was going well - given that I only have a couple of hours a day at most to work on crochet.

I got up to the final piece of the edging and then disaster struck ... the pattern just didn't work.  After a couple of attempts and  a bit of head scratching I finally thought to check that the shawl was even on both sides.

AAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.

It wasn't, damn it all .... I'd made a mistake, and not one of those "I can cover this up" sort of mistakes - a proper, buggered it up mistake.

So I took a deep breath and thought to myself. "It might not be that bad.  Just start frogging ("rip it") and see when the mistake happened, its probably not that far back".

17, yes 17 rows of frogging and I finally got back to where the shawl was correct.  17 !!!!!!!!!

Feeling pig sick, I wound myself up the largest ball of yarn and got back to crocheting those 17 rows.  So far I have managed to rework 6 of my rows.

I should chalk this up to a learning experience, at least now I am checking that everything is as it should be with every finished row.  I don't plan on frogging this one again.

what to do with a butterfly

I created this Irish Crochet butterfly during one of my enforced periods of resting. 

This is created by crocheting over a number of strands of cotton to create the padded appearance.  This was quite a challenging piece of work for many reasons.  The tiny gauge thread, working over multiple strands to create the padding and also the pattern was vintage.  The phraseology and ordering of instructions in vintage patterns can take great patients to work through.



Having battled my way through the pattern and the pain of stabbed fingers from the tiny hook I needed to use I finished the butterfly.  I think it looks quite pretty.

The final challenge is what to do with it.  I had considered;

1. Make a brooch
2. Thread it up for a Christmas decoration
3.  Attach it to a hair ornament

At the end of the day, I'm really not sure what to do with it - but it seems a shame to have put all the effort in and just leave it there.

Midsummer's night Shawl

After returning from my holidays again and having put my shawl to good use again I have decided to make another one.  This time for my mum.

I had a good look through my existing patterns but I found that a lot of shawl patterns are too light weight for what I had in mind.  I wanted to create something that had a little warmth but not heavy weight.

I found this pattern for a Midsummer's Night Shawl on Interweave Store.  It's just what I was looking for. 

It is substantial enough to have some warmth but also not too heavy.  The pattern is pretty easy to follow and has a really useful stitch diagram - actually after the first couple of rows I put the rest of the pattern to one side and just followed the diagram.

I am creating this using Adrafil Azzura 3 ply yarn, this is a 70% Wool and 30% acrylic mix.  It is lovely and soft, east to work with and comes in a pretty good range of colours.

Shade Card

I've chosen to use shade 33 Turquoise.  I've really only just stared with this project, but so far so good - I think its going to work out quite nicely, fingers crossed anyway.

Finished my shawls

I can't believe how long its been since I posted here, the fact that I have completed both the shawls I blogged about before says it all !!

These are the two shawls that I planned to create, the patterns are by Kristin Omdahl from her Crochet So Fine book



Here are the images of what I was attempting from Kristin's website

I made the first shawl for myself.  For this one I used Louisa Harding Willow Tweed in Heather.  Its a wonderful luxury yarn of 40%Merino Wool 40%Alpaca 20%Silk

My shawl has already been put to good use on holiday :) 

Having finished this one I was inspired to start the second shawl, I started making it using Anchor Aida #10 crochet thread but no matter how I tried I just couldn't get it right.  I had to use a large hook to get the right gauge and it was working up very loopy, even when blocked.  So I took an executive decision and went for a completely different yarn, I used Rowan Panama in Daisy. 

Rowan Panama is 33% cotton, 12% linen, 55% viscose, it has a sheen to the yarn and is lovely to work with.  I found that using this heavier weight yarn I could work with a smaller hook and get a less loopy outcome.


I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, and thankfully so is my mother-in-law who I made it for (or maybe she's just being polite!)  :)

iPad cover #2

Quite a while ago I created an iPad cover for myself I blogged about it here.  Ever since I made this one I have been planning to make some more.

I couldn't make more of the same without risking the wrath of Apple so I needed to come up with another design.  I decided that I would like to create my next cover in an envelope design.

When I decided to teach myself Tunisian crochet the opportunity presented itself to give it a go.

If you've never encountered Tunisian crochet before its done using a long crochet hook which resembles a knitting needle with a hook on the end.

The fabric is worked in two distinct rows, one where you pick up all the stitches onto the hook and the return where you work the stitches off the hook.

There are various Tunisian crochet stitches, for this project I used the simplest one.  I think it creates a great looking fabric - completely unlike standard crochet.



I created this cover using Patons Smoothie yarn - not the easiest to work with because it tends to split, but I got there in the end.  I used the shade "Linen" for the body and "Lilac Mix" for the flap. 


I finished the cover off using a blue and white shell button.



Although the yarn was difficult to work and was probably an unwise choice for my first attempt at Tunisian crochet it is very soft to the touch and a wonderful sheen.  I think that it worked out quite nicely in the end.

So many things on the go

I am in one of my flitting between projects stages right now, I currently have 5 projects started and none of them finished.

I am still working on the shawl for my mother-in-law, but its proving to be quite a task.  I just can't get into it, I keep being distracted by other things, the thing is ... it would be lovely if I just could get up the enthusiasm to finish it.

In the meantime I have started another shawl, for myself this time

And before I've finished this I started making myself a pair of gloves

Which I am making with some lovely multi-coloured Noro yarn

Having made one glove I then started a new Kindle cover, which I am crocheting in Tunisian crochet.  My first attempt at Tunisian crochet was an iPad cover I made somewhere in the middle of starting all of these projects (I've not got round to taking photos of it yet).

Oh..... and I also have a belt just started in Tunisian crochet too ....

I think I need to get some focus !!!!

Giant Rose Headband

I've blogged about 6 months ago about making my giant Irish rose, well I finally got round to using it on the headband I made.

It has worked out better than I had hoped, the size of the rose is just perfect for what I had in mind.



As everyone's head is different I decided that I needed to add a little piece of elastic into the back of the headband to allow for expansion  The band itself is crochet using TR stitches so has a bit of stretch regardless, but the addition of the elastic piece allows the band to stretch but still remain a snug fit.




I used Twilleys goldfingering in black for the headband, it is a metallised yarn which makes it catch the light and "glint"



The contrast of this glittery yarn with the softness of the Rowan Silk Twist yarn that I used for the rose works really well.



Overall I am really happy with how this one turned out - if you like it too its available in my Etsy shop