Review: Crochet Stitch Designs

This book was published just a couple of months ago by Linda P. Schapper. It's a huge collection of 500 different crochet stitches, everything from basic all-over single crochet to more detailed patterns with advanced stitches.

Each design has both written and pictoral instructions and the diagrams are excellently done. The designs are organised based on the main feature: dc, clusters, shells, etc.
The only fault I can find with this book is that the swatches aren't always up to scratch, but they serve the purpose of the book and hey, if I had 500 swatches to make, for sure some of them would be less than perfect!

A very good value for money purchase at just €24 (from amazon.de) and I will no doubt use it as a reference and an ideas catalogue for many years to come. Highly recommended!

Ruska

It was quite sunny here the other day and so I took a trip down to the river to capture some of the nice colours that are around at the moment. I love the leaves in the water. There are leaves everywhere - there's no place they won't land.
I like this one because it shows the colours well: the rich clean blue of the river, the orange and yellow of the fading trees and the green of the grass that's still here.
This is the first time that I've ever lived in a small town - before moving here, the smallest city I'd ever lived in had a population of one million. It's a different feeling here; so unbelievably quiet and actually rather peaceful. It's nice not to have to fight through crowds to get on or off trains/buses/trams, not to have to dodge the dog messes all over the footpath and especially nice to walk outside in the morning and have the air greet me with such crisp freshness.

I feel like I'm doing myself a favour by living here.

The end is in sight

Sure, it looks like a big messy pile of lilac angora now, but soon it will be wearable! The most frustrating part of the project is upon me. Sewing bits together, darning in ends, blocking...these are all things that strain my patience to a degree. I've learned how to work the yarn ends into the work as I go along, but not all patterns lend themselves to this technique and hence often there are many many scraggly bits left to annoy me. A poncho I made recently was worn a few times before I talked myself into getting rid of the twenty or more ends flailing about, how embarrassing! But, the sooner I finish this project, the sooner I can start something new, right?

Ripe Wheat Doily

This was a good pattern for my foray into doily crocheting. Not too big, not too complex, and very pretty. It took quite a while to make, around two months off and on.

Pattern: Ripe Wheat Doily by Coat's and Clark's, free pattern on Angelfire
Yarn: Thread cotton, 100gram ball still had some at the end
Hook: 1.25mm
Measurements: I think somewhere between 45-50cm diameter.

Doilies are so elegant and there really are tonnes of gorgeous patterns around, but doilies must be quite high on the list of non-functional items, which kind of de-motivates me from making more of them.

The Mermaid has arrived!

Ohh, what excitement! My mermaid is here! Hanne Falkenberg's Mermaid Jacket kit arrived in the post and I can't wait to get started! (of course I will finish all of my other projects first, she says)

Hanne Falkenberg is a Danish designer who sells her patterns in kit form. The kit includes the pattern and the yarn in the colours you can select from fotos of the finished garments. The range of patterns she has is quite large and many of them are innovative and stunning.

I bought my kit online from Cucumberpatch, a UK based company. They're definitely not cheap but I hope it's well worth the mula!

These designs are notorious for having ill-worded pattern instructions, so I've joined a knitalong group especially designed for helping with Falkenberg creations. Wish me luck!

Sneezefest shawl

I bought this yarn probably last century...I have zero recollection of this purchase, but for sure it was at least five years ago, most likely much longer. The combination of it being so old and being angora causes me to sneeze like buggery whenever I whip it out...so perhaps it's not the best yarn selection for a shawl that's going to be near my face, but at least I'm finally getting rid of it! I won't stop crocheting until the wool runs out, so there will be none of it left. A three metre shawl coming up!This pattern comes from Lion Brand, a little freebie online. Because my yarn and hook are thinner and smaller, I included an extra pattern repeat to add width. It's an interesting enough pattern, but at the same time it's relatively easy to memorise.

Purple Cushion Cover

This one was completed for Christmas 2006. It was originally a doily pattern, but I changed up the yarn and hook sizes a couple of notches and made two of them and voila! a cushion cover! It was received with gusto and is apparently still enjoying pride of place.

Pattern: 'Square Pineapple Doily' by Priscilla Hewitt, found free here.
Yarn: Laceweight...I think possibly merino? not sure

Hook: 3.5mm aluminum

Notes: I really should have bought an undercase for this one.

Finland in the Summer

Finland in the summer was great. I love love love the 24-hour sun! We went out walking in the middle of the night and it was still light!

There were lots of nice flowers and everything was green and sunny. Max temps were around 25 degrees.

There are reindeer wandering around, but you have to go outside of the 'city' to see them.

Now we're into what the Finns call 'ruska', which is the time of year when the trees turn all shades of orange and red and brown, very pretty.

So the equinox has been and gone and we're losing something like 8 minutes of sunshine per day and I'm not sure how I'm going to last the winter here, with no sunlight for quite a long time, temperatures of -35 or even lower...

Anyone have a spare space suit they can send me?

Boyfriend scarf

It's done - the boyfriend scarf! Designed to use up some of the leftover yarn from the nostalgic cover-up.I used it to start practising knitting continental style and of course that meant it took ages to complete!

Pattern: Own. Just seed stitch worked over 49 stitches with some random stripes.
Measurements: 104cm x 32cm.
Yarn: That crazy Macedonian stuff again, 50/50 wool/acrylic.
Needles: 5mm straight.
Notes: It has one of those holes to slip the scarf through itself, because boyfriend didn't want it to be too long and a slip-hole helps it to stay in place better.

Boyfriend doing his best Ned Kelly impression.

Nostalgic Cover-up

Another take-two project. Blanket number one, completed in 2006, had a teeny boo-boo...but it was deemed 'artistic'.



Second time around, I wasn't feeling as creative, and ended up with the boring-yet-satisfying rectangular option.


Pattern: Nostalgic Cover-up from Mile-a-Minute Afghans.
Yarn: some crazy Macedonian stuff, 50% wool and 50% acrylic. I don't even really know the name of the brand because it's all in cyrillic script.
Hook: 5mm aluminium
Notes: This afghan was ridiculously quick; it took just over a week to crochet, then a few more days for putting together and blocking and so on. I added a single crochet border to straighten out the edges.

In sickness and in health

Steffi's a sick puppy.
Boyfriend very thankfully hung around long enough this week to infect me and has now gone away for the weekend, leaving me here alone to dwell in my sickness. This is the first cold I've had in about a year, from memory. Ugh.
But anyway, here's another of my works-in-progress, a jacket for the aforementioned boyfriend which I started in May, before I even moved here.

This project has been on the backburner for some time, but I've been fighting my second-sleeve-sydrome to get the thing done. The pattern is from Drops Design and the yarn is exactly what the pattern calls for. Soon I can join the sleeves to the body and start the shoulder decreases. Am a little worried that it's going to be a bit too tight on the already slim man.

Railway Socks

It's true: I've only ever made one pair of socks, last year. But now looky-here, a new sock! Hurrah!

And some sneaky pete is trying to nab them! The pattern is from the legendary Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush and I'm using Southwest Trading Company Tofutsies yarn and 2mm needles. I spent most of last weekend on them and they didn't seem to grow at all, probably because I slaughtered the heel and had to frog it and redo it.

They're a little shorter than the pattern calls for, mainly because I was worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn. These are a chrissie prezzie for someone, but of course the recipient's identity will not be revealed for some time yet! I'm planning on making a few pairs of socks for xmas this year, hence the early start.

Chanson en Crochet, take two

I have a confession to make...
The Chanson en Crochet that I made in early 2006 got washed...and it felted! Woops!
But look, here's a new one!


Pattern: 'Chanson en Crochet' from Interweave Wrap Style (and it's also available free on the interweave website, woo hoo!)
Yarn: Drops Alpaca colour #2919, 100% Alpaca, 180m/50g, two strands held together
Hook: 6mm bamboo
Notes: The front panels didn't turn out even because I fluffed something along the way (I was watching Hannibal at the time, can you blame me?) but I tried to fix it up whilst adding the front border. It didn't really work, so I tried again during blocking to mask it...and it's still wobbly.

Tervetuloa!

My first post!

I'm not exactly sure where I'm headed with this blog or even if it will last more than a week! But the main idea is to share what's going on with the hooks and the sticks, and also to share the peaks and troughs of settling into life at the top of the world.