Just a quick catchup. Am making something for myself. I’m even using a pattern from as book! The yarn is greener than the picture shows and I love the curvy shapes…. But can you guess what I’m making?
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Click here to go to Crochet Camp!
Promised yourself you’d learn to crochet this year? Then try this……
I’ve been following the Crochet Camp run by the beautifully named ‘Slugs on the Refrigerator’ for a couple of weeks planning to make some of the goodies – but other work has now got in the way. So for those you who still have some time, how about making some items of your own? I might be tempted to have go myself so will post my efforts for comparison!
Have fun! (Go to their Facebook page to join in automatically with the new patterns)
PS Tent is optional!
I decided to try my hand at creating a neck wamer – I find scarves too bulky for wearing with ski type anoraks and now the weather is blowing hot and cold it was time to have a go at a neck warmer, sometimes called a snood I think (to me a snood is worn in the hair). The great thing is you can stick it in a pocket if it gets tropical, try doing that with a 3 foot scarf!
So this is the result, I made it complete with buttonholes and then had trouble finding suitable sized ones which didn’t cost more than the yarn used to make the neckwarmer. I eventually found these lovely buttons at my local bead shop, Indivijewlistic http://www.indivijewelistic.com/ . The neckwamer itself is constucted from half trebles using two strands of acrylic yarn – I find wool too itchy – and looks great with both my ski anorak and Uniqlo padded jacket, and of course the matching headband I blogged about in ‘New Year, new crochet’. If you want to try making it yourself, I’ll be putting up the pattern soon. In the meantime, I’ll be selling a few in different colours on my virtual craft stall at the end of this week, or to order if you have specific requirements.
Enough from me, here it is:
and it seems there’s a new WordPress! Have I been away that long? (perhaps not, have just given up on the new interface….)
So – Christmas, birthdays (times 3) and anniversaries are past; and am struggling with doing finance-y type things so am not reaching for the yarn stash just yet. But the longer days are giving me a spur to make stuff – what to start with? I have ideas for sea creature related amigurumis in mind – but do I make them realistic or cute (complete with teddy bear eyes)? Or shall I get ready for the next seasonal event and make some lovehearts for Valentines? Let me know.
And in the meantime just to show I haven’t been completely idle, checkout my store on Storebeez.com – a new marketplace in the UK:
http://www.storebeez.com/stores/seawitch-designs/
More items to follow soon!
Just a few of the items I’ve made for this Christmas. Let me know if you like them! (And if you want any they’ll be in my Etsy shop soon….)
Not bah!
Ok – so the wire decorations were not working out (yet), so I finally got to grips with the humbug design. Not sure if these will get out of the door as daughter will probably want them. May make them into tree decorations too.
Not another non-crochet blog post? Yes, but one of my other passions is gardening so stick with it as there will be many more!
This summer we managed to get a few days on the Isle of Wight; we used to go every year to a bike rally in early May (BD – before daughter) and in the summer sometimes went to spend a long weekend near Ventnor to let ‘imself relive childhood hols.
Having spent a day on the beach collecting cockle shells (which I’ll be using for a crafty effort soon), and then another day trekking
up to the Old and New Batteries at the Needles with my daughter, we had a day visiting the innards of the island by car. One place we’d never visited, although it’s been there around 30 years, was the Garlic Farm http://thegarlicfarm.co.uk/index.aspx. We indulged ourselves with a few of their chutneys, and, after a tasting session, went for some smoked garlic too. But I’ve been told by many people that garlic is easy to grow, and having recently been making more forays into growing my own veg in my shady, almost earthless garden, I decided this year would be the one to try garlic in a pot. So I read the info and went for the Early Purple Wight – mainly because you can harvest the bulbs early in the season (around May) – growing veg in pots requires a dedication to watering that I sometimes lack! I’d been putting off the actual planting until I’d cleared the tomatillos, also purple, and beans that I had this year – but my conscience was jogged by seeing the farm on the BBC’s Great British Food Revival, Series 2. So half an hour later I have a smug feeling of having done something energetic and a pot of garlic waiting to sprout – and as luck would have it, it’s now drizzling so I don’t even have to water them in (well, maybe later).
Extra joy, the local farmers’ market stocks the Garlic Farm produce so I can get my fix of British garlic – which according to
Clarissa Dickson Wright in the Beeb programme ‘has more kick’ than the imported stuff. I won’t be doing her garlic pudding though, and will adapt her stuffed tomato recipe to be veggie friendly in a way that would horrify her.
As I forgot to take a picture, I am sharing memories of the sunny trip on IoW instead. Roll on next summer!
Leading the way to the Old Battery
Cinnabar moth caterpillars
The mini coven
Well, actually more Nanny Ogg than mermaids. But they are from me as the Seawitch. They’ll be on sale tomorrow at the craft fair in Enfield, UK from 10. Hurry, hurry!
Since I’m suffering the typical change of weather type lurgy, have been guzzling many different teas this week, including Yogi Teas’ Breath Deep. The tag on these has a fortune cookie type saying, which, as I rarely go to Chinese restaurants and if I do not those that have cookies, has always pleased me secretly.
So this morning my car refused to start – despite being checked yesterday by ‘imself- thus meaning a switch of cars, making me late for the school run and in very bad mood. Today’s tea told me:
To be calm is the highest achievement of the self
In half an hour this will be put to the test when I try the car again. Beware north London!
Hi – have been inspired to share my thoughts after meeting Doris Chan today at the Knitting and Stitching show at Ally Pally in the UK. This event always amazes me as there are so many great displays – not just the stalls – but the graduation shows from many wonderful artists. I turned a corner and saw a knitted lampshade and stand cover which just made me smile! Sadly I have forgotten the name of the creator of this loveliness – you know who you are!
Doris demo’d broomstick crochet to the crowd and patiently answered my question on ‘just how to do you shape the piece?’ As with all crochet (and possibly knitting) it’s all a question of maths.. which brings me back to why I’m doing this blog. A few years ago I stumbled over the crochet reef on its world tour when it was at the Southbank Centre in London – I found out that it was started in Australia but really came about through research into ‘hyperbolic’ curves. I then played about with this myself and came up with some interesting shapes – mostly scarves!
I hope to share my creations with you, and possibly some of the patterns of how I did them. Expect a few amigurumis on the way as well – I came across these too and have been making them as festive decorations.
Keep hooking!
Daf
seawitchcrochet 