Crochet, Knitting and a Chance of Quilting

Since my last post the Vintage Sweethearts Crochet blanket has progressed with all the units sewn in. I haven't, as yet, got onto the border, but here it is to date

Please forgive the darkness of the photo.  The light can still be a problem this time of year.  I'm pleased how this has turned out and hope the border will use a significant of yarn as I do have quite a bit left in the net bag.

Instagram can be a bad influence on me as I see things that others have a go at and this was a photo from The Crochet Sanctuary (@thecrochetsanctuary) who held a retreat where I saw some ladies winding giant balls of yarn which turned out to be a workshop for a rainbow blanket.  Here's the link
I had a go with using 4 balls of yarn as I had a smaller hook (1.2mm), which is the largest that I have, and wound yarn until one of the colours ran out.

I used a half treble (UK) stitch into the back loop of the previous row so it created a ridge pattern but as you can see my stitches are getting less in number so there is something I'm not doing right, but it was just to have a go.  I love the texture on the colourful effect of the mixed yarns.   The pattern is by Lottie and Albert.

Yesterday and today I've done some piecing and quilting.  Last year I took part in a block swap with UKQU block swap group and sewn some blue crosses on a low volume background.  I sent off 6 blocks and received 6 in return.  I blogged about this here .

I used the 6 received and 3 of my own blue cross blocks

I used whatever blue fabrics I had to sash and border the blocks.  I had some oddments of wadding which I pieced together.  I had just enough backing a white with coloured stars and used some blue/green/yellow batik for the binding which I've had for ages.  The photo above shows the quilt so far with thread ends to be sewn in and binding to be slipstitched down.  This will be a Linus Quilt, which I can add to a collection of 3 quilts from my Mum for Project Linus too.

I mentioned knitting in the title and there is some knitting content.  I've almost finished the body of my top down jumper and will be able to show that next time when I've finished the ribbing.  I haven't tried on yet, but fingers crossed it will fit!  However on Wednesday I started some socks...

I used Judy's Magic Cast on, (You Tube video) which is a brilliant cast on and because the yarn tail is inside the knitting, the marker on the bottom is to mark the front stitches.  The two blue markers are to mark the pattern repeats.

By Wednesday evening my sock looked like this.

Then yesterday evening I tackled (new to me) short row heel shaping.  This took some patience and I'd already done some un-knitting and re-knitted to get it right, but I got there!

 And it will be ready for some pattern knitting up the leg until I reach the cuff.

 The pattern is a free one on Ravelry by Mel-Tran Designs called Chevron socks and the yarn I'm using is Stylecraft Head Over Heels All Stars in the Saltaire colour way.  The heel is the sandy colour of Salts Mill in Yorkshire but I'm not sure where the pink and heathery mauve comes in.  I'm guessing that its not too far from the Dales and the designer picked up on the flora that grows in the area.

I'm off to Unravel yarn festival tomorrow.  Never been to a wool show before so could be interesting. This is held in Farnham and we also catch up with David's brother and also our friends too.  Should be a good weekend.  Hopefully I have some photos from the day and some yarn to show too.

Its All About the Crochet

Way back in June 2017 I started a Crochet A Long (CAL) published in Crochet Now magazine, which was designed by Sandra Paul of Cherry Heart Blog/podcast, which was called Vintage Sweethearts.  The crochet were a variety mainly V-stitch or Granny square in pale vintage-y colours.

I blogged about this here and duly ordered the pack of yarn from Wool Warehouse.  This was some Scheepjes acrylic yarn, which is a softer, bouncier yarn than the Stylecraft I'd usually use for a crochet blanket.  In my enthusiasm I made the blocks up whenever a new magazine came out until I got to part 9 and things must have wavered.  The crochet blocks were loose in individual plastic bags inside the Wool Warehouse net bag,

I dug the project out last Monday and set to with starting to join the blocks together and at the end of last week started to crochet the remainder of the Part 9 blocks and have just finished crocheting Part 10, ready to sew in ends and join together.  There are 12 parts, the last being the borders around the blanket.  I'm giving myself until the end of March to finish this, although I didn't add this to the Finish A Long list.

So here is my progress - up to Friday...

Part 9 blocks sewn together

Part 10 in progress (with 1 large block similar to the blue one above, yet to be made

I'm experiencing trouble with my photos at present so don't have much to show this time.  iCloud has decided that I'm running out of storage for photos and won't load any more when I do have plenty of of cloud storage.  Not sure what is happening, lets hope normal service is resumed shortly.

January Round Up

It's now February!

January seems to have lasted an age - being a cold, dark month - but there were one or two bright days and on Monday went with other TG ladies for a walk around our local country park, which was really lovely.  Contrast with today which is snowy and cold.  No snowy pics here as the its not very impressive (go back to posts at the end of 2010 to see more impressive snow when we lived up North!!).

Anyway because there's been more time indoors than out I've managed to get quite a bit done on the sewing and knitting.

I finished off this...

 Carry all caddy (more about that on my last post)

And this...

Dazzling Diamonds quilt.  That pic was when I'd put the binding on.  As I'm hibernating indoors today that's now been slipstitched down.  I will make a sleeve to put on the back for hanging.

So that's 2 finished items on my Finish A Long list.

Started and finished items...

 An EPP journal size quilt

And a Zip Up Tray pouch.

I've also made some blocks for the Siblings Together Bee - some Wonky Cross blocks in assorted sizes from 4.5" to 8.5"

On the knitting from I've made 3 pairs of fingerless mitts

 Above is my first attempt, knitting straight across the fingers.  This was a pattern by Nicolette Kernohan.  These were for David but he wanted 'half fingers' so another pair were made, see pic below.  Both pairs were made with the same yarn but photos are taken in different light.

I enjoyed making the gloves so I made a pair for myself.  That small ball of yarn is all I had left after making these. The pattern is by Paula McKeever and called Fingerless or Not Gloves.  Both the fingerless glove patterns are free to download from Ravelry

I've now started making myself a jumper.  It's been a long time since I made one and this one is a bit different as its a top down, all in one jumper

As you can see I've started from the neck and done some ribbing and well progressed with the raglan shaping.  Soon to do the scary bit of splitting off the stitches onto waste yarn for the sleeves while the body is knitted.  The yarn is Drops Air from the Wool Warehouse and the pattern is a free one from Drops which is called Winter Wine

I try to keep my Ravelry page updated, when I remember, but I keep forgetting! So you can have a look at my projects page here.

I follow other blogs on Bloglovin' including Archie The Wonder Dog, who not only has revived her blog but also started a monthly round up of blogs called Mini Archie's Furtle Around the Blogosphere.  This is a bit like Fresh Sewing Day that Lily's Quilts used to run each month which I joined in with from time to time, which finished a few years back.  So I'm going to link this post to the Furtle Around and hope you will have a look at other blogs Furtle-ing Around too!

So that was January.  I'm hoping that February will be more progress on the above jumper.  Being February is Valentine's month I am hoping to layer up and start quilting the Hearts quilt which is on my Finish A Long list this quarter.

Mid month for the first time I will be going to a Fibre Festival - Unravel at Farnham Maltings.  I will be going on the Saturday and really looking forward to it as there aren't many yarn exhibitions in the South.