The finished garter

I did promise to take photos in day light when I could, fortunately the sun was still shining when I got home last night so here they are;

I tried to keep the beading subtle, so its just round the very edge.

Now its finally ready to take its place in my shop

 

Thinking of my next project

I have finished my wedding garter now, and will photograph it this evening if I get home during daylight hours!  So I need to think up my next project.

As per my promise, I will need to make something with the stash of yarn I already have.  It is so easy to get sucked into making something that means I have to go and buy even more yarn - I am completely useless at estimating the amount of yarn I'll need to I almost always end up with leftovers.

So I since my collection of cotton yarn seems to be the largest I think I'll have to find projects for that.  I need a coffee cozy sleeve because the drinks at work are super heated & the cups are super thin!  So I can start off with that.

I could also do with a little coin purse for my holidays - if they happen! I'm at the mercy of the British Airways cabin crew on that one, I'm hoping the strikes get called off.

So I think that I'll be making things for me for a while rather than my Etsy shop.

Crochet Wedding Garter

I have almost finished the wedding garter, I decided to use a blue ribbon - in tune with the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue".

I think that it works with no elastic and just the ribbon to tie it.

The concensus of opinion is that it needs beads as well, I agree.  I plant odd some small beads along the domed bottom edge.

I also plan to take better photos ... in daylight !!

Time to get organised!

My yarn collection has been getting out of hand, I don't know what I have and its starting to turn into yarn spaghetti.  I'd try to extract a single ball of yarn and end up with three more that its got tangled with.  So I really had to take action, the time has come to sort out the mess that is my yarn collection.

So let the sorting begin ....

I have started by putting like yarns together, maybe I'll rearrange later.

The most amazing thing is just how much I have, I have filled 2 storage units like this one & I still have odd yarn's left over in a box.

So I now have a resolution;

I Promise to use the yarn I have before I go buying any more !!!

White lace wedding garter

Since the wedding season is upon us I had a notion to make something wedding related.  I decided on making a garter, but I want it to look fairly old fashioned.

To get the look I want I have decided to crochet it in an old lace style.

The idea is that this garter will not have elastic, but will have a ribbon threaded through the larger "holes"

I also intend to sew on some beads, but until I have completed crochet and see how it looks I'll hold off on the final decision on beading.

My mum was so talented

So far I have been blogging my exploits with a crochet hook (and other yarn related activity).  So I thought I should give some insight to where I got the crochet bug from.

My mum was an extremely talented woman, she could knit and crochet so many wonderful things.  She would not only make clothes for us but also outfits for our dolls as well - we had the best kitted out Cindy's and Barbie's in the world ... in my opinion anyway :)

She taught me to knit, when I was very young but never got the chance to teach me to crochet.   She died when I was 9.  But the legacy of wonderful crochet things that she left behind inspired me to learn myself. I am hoping that the genes I inherited from her will give me even half the talent she had.

This photo shows my sister and me (I'm the little one) ready for our aunt's wedding - we were bridesmaids - or at least the junior versions :)  my mum crochet these dresses for us.  As you can see it was in the 70's, Orange & Brown has never been so popular :)

And there she is, the woman behind the hook - hanging on to me.

I have other examples of her work ... I just need to find the time to photograph them properly.

Yarn storage ...

I've been meaning to sort this out for a while, my current yarn storage is one large plastic box with everything thrown in.  It started out with some order.  I put the cottons at one end and the 4 ply's together etc, but that never lasts long.  They very quickly become a jumble of yarns getting tangled together.

So I have finally got my act together and have bought myself some storage.

I got 2 of these.  Originally I was thinking of getting some drawers, or those plastic buckets that fit into a drawer unit.  But the problem with those is that you can't immediately see into them.  So this this unit I can see whats been stored in each "pigeon hole".

The units have arrived today!  So now I need to figure out how I'm going to get them into the car - I may be enlisting some help from the guys at work :)

The major downside of this is, now I have to tidy the storage cupboard that I keep my yarn in so that I can fit these in!  I guess there has to be some pain somewhere.