The Turtle Moves

Sophie's Universe - TaDa!

Yay! Sophie's Universe blanket in all her glory. What on earth am I going to do now? I was quite tempted to get more yarn and just keep on extending the border, but I thought I might ruin the proportions of the patterns. She's quite spectacular though, isn't she? I have enjoyed making her and have learned a few new stitches along the way.

I guess I'm going to have to go back to making little critturs and Star Wars peeps, though I'm toying with the idea of socks. I don't know how comfy crocheted socks would be, but it's worth a shot.

Meanwhile we're just pottering along here, enjoying the fact that dawn and dusk are gradually getting further apart and the snowdrops are out.

My super talented daughter's latest Novel  was released on Thursday. It's called 'Beneath the Water' and is really very good. (I know, I would say that, but it's also perfectly true.)

 

Twelfth Night

Well here we are at the end of the festivities. Twelfth Night, the 5th of January, is actually our wedding anniversary, and for some reason we never do much in the way of celebrating it (or even remembering it some years). Could we be partied out? Or could it be that we were a solid couple for so long before we actually tied the knot. We got married in quite a hurry just before moving from Scotland to Wales so m'darling husband could take up a new job and we thought we'd better start off with as few things for People to Tut At as we could! Anyway, we get quite a lot of pleasure from taking down the Christmas decorations and restoring the house to normality. Doesn't take much to make us happy! 

I had a brief break (2 afternoons) from crocheting Sophie's Universe to test out a Christmas present.

I was given the second book of Star Wars crochet patterns  Even More Star Wars 

by my lovely daughter, so I thought I'd better road test it. The patterns are obviously constructed in the same way as the first book, so all the characters will fit well together. It's based on 'The Force Awakens', the film before this season's 'Last Jedi', so it doesn't have a pattern for the Porgs, but I guess I can make something up for them  because they have to be made, don't they? Anyway, this Jawa is pretty good, and there are patterns for Rey, BB8 etc., so that should all go down well at the next Christmas fair.

My only gripe with these books is that I wish they would just issue them as a wee pattern book (12 characters to make) and not bump it up into a 'kit' by adding a big box (lots of empty space), a couple of hanks of really naff acrylic yarn and a crochet hook and yarn needle (from the cheap end of the Chinese output). It could put people off if they were using this as a start into crochet, because the yarn splits really easily and the hook is pretty crudely made. So my advice would be to keep the book and throw away the 'kit'.

Use a decent acrylic yarn - (you're not going to use real wool for wee Star Wars figures) - like Stylecraft, and buy your crochet hook(s) from the same retailer. I recommend 'Wool Warehouse'  -  their website is easy to negotiate, their prices are good, their dispatch and delivery times are good and they are plugged in to the most popular craft blogs.

I'm not getting any commission,  I just buy from them all the time. (and the yarn comes in nice organza bags)

 

 

 

Happy Christmas Everyone

Hello! I see it's two months since I last posted - so sorry. We have been having some lovely wintry evening skies lately, and last week we stood out in the back garden at midnight and watched a great show from the Geminid meteor shower. Falling stars in abundance to wish upon. 

We've just put up our Christmas decorations so we're finally feeling festive, the cards have all been written and posted and the presents bought and wrapped. I can now settle down in my comfy chair and Carry On Crocheting. I've been working on the Sophie's Universe blanket since I last posted and have reached Round 64. Still a long way to go! It's a wonderful project, though, and I'm loving the Scheepjes yarn - it's a cotton/acrylic mix with lovely colour names like Amazonite, Canada Jade and Moonstone and it's great for crochet because it doesn't split. I've learned some new stitches from the project and the surface patterning and texture is amazing. Such fun! I look forward to showing it to you when it's finished - probably summer 2018.

I did have a couple of week's break from the blanket at the end of November, as I agreed at rather the last minute to do a Christmas Market in my lovely daughter's village, so frantic production of robins and penguins ensued. All went well, although the market was not very well attended. There's so much else on at this time of year. 

 

As you can see, my kitchen/dining room gets a tree as well as the living room - I do need quite a lot of branches from which to hang the things I've made over the years -  and of course every  year you have to buy a new decoration, don't you - and you can't throw any old faithfuls away. Do you think it might be getting a little over the top?

I wish you all the very best of health and happiness this Christmas and for the New Year to come.

Wow! Demelza Blanket.

Wow! I finished this blanket yesterday afternoon. Isn't it fabulous?

I've had a lot of fun doing it, and have learned new techniques along the way. The Frontpost/Backpost crochet stitches are now second nature, and it's amazing how such a simple technique can produce such wonderful surface textures and designs.

 

The designer of this blanket Catherine Bligh is very clever. I would never have chosen this colour combination, but it works beautifully, and the CAL is nicely paced so an intermediate crocheter can learn as they go. (I wouldn't start a beginner on it!) 

The end result is very satisfying and I can see myself using  parts of it in other projects. That lovely Chrysanthemum (next square in from the corner square) could easily form the centre of a splendid Mandala - just keep it going as a circle rather than squaring it. The lovely lacy edging I can see being used to finish many other projects. Best of all, I've found that what looks complicated to start with is actually just a matter of using well known stitches in different ways to produce a stunning result.

Thank you Catherine Bligh.

I'm quite fancying setting off on the Sophie's Universe blanket next. I've got the book, now just need to steel myself to buy all that yarn. I did think of trying to use the Stylecraft colours I already have some of, but somehow starting a new big project with not-quite-the-perfect materials is off-putting. Sigh! I'll just have to accept that I'm never going to Bust That Stash - more yarn will enter the house very soon, I know.

Besides which, it's called Scheepjes. Sheepies! How can I resist?

Unicorns

Here's the latest in the series of strange beasties I've been crocheting to use up the stash. 'My Little Pony' Unicorns! The eyes are needle-felted on and the mane and tail are just strands of the Stylecraft yarn knotted in to the head and neck stitches and then de-constructed -ie unwind the three strands using a needle. You could also take a wire dog-grooming brush to the mane and tail to make it fluffier if you like, but I think I prefer the Kevin Keegan 70's perm look.

After doing these guys I got a bit fed up with crocheting heads, bodies, legs and stitching them together. I got the urge for another blanket project so went online to see what was out there ....

Demelza!  The talented Catherine Bligh has designed some blankets based on the characters in the BBC series Poldark. This reference means nothing to me, as I've never seen the programme, but you have to admit it has generated a lovely colour palette. It is also quite a complex pattern - full of front-post and back-post stitches and taking stitches down through the previous rows etc.

So far I've done part one - the four inner corner squares made up of four small squares each. The colours remind me of my Gran's living room - that sort of mid green that Lloyd Loom furniture was painted and floral curtains. (I am quite old, you know!)

  

It's certainly proving interesting and challenging and I look forward to showing you the finished article.

Young Groot

There is a new Guardians of the Galaxy film out in which, so I'm told by my offspring, Baby Groot has grown up a bit and hopped out of his pot.

So I thought I'd better keep up! I looked for images on line and mostly found pictures of plastic toy Groots. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know if I've made him the right shape or not. Anyway, it's the first pattern I've done absolutely and completely from scratch rather than adapting existing ones, so it's an achievement of some sort.

I did front-post half double crochet round the top of his head and the ends of his feet to try and get some sort of bark-like texture. The yarn is Rowan Felted Tweed because the splendid nubbly yarn I found for Baby Groot is now discontinued. It's a little bit too dark in colour for the texture stitches to show up well, but it's a very nice yarn - an alpaca/wool mix which crochets nicely - not too liable to split.

If anyone wants the pattern, post a comment with your email address and I'll type it up for you. At the moment it's in the form of scribbles in my notebook. I'm from the paper and pencil generation!

In other news, we're off to Orkney (Rousay, to be precise) later on this week, so hopefully there will be pictures to show you in due course. Here's hoping for good weather.

Moorland Blanket

Well hello there, and Happy Easter! This week I finished the Moorland Blanket. Lucy from Attic 24 really does have great colour sense, doesn't she? This beautifully evokes moorland, heather and sunny sky. I can almost hear the skylark.

This week's been wonderfully warm and sunny and the broad bean and pea seedlings are sprouting merrily in the greenhouse. I hope it continues next week so I can get them into the ground before we toddle off to Knapdale for a week's holiday next Saturday. At the Farmer's Market this morning there was a stall selling tomato plants and suchlike - once again I marvel at how robust and mature the professionally grown plants are compared to the spindly little tomato seedlings I've got. I was quite pleased with their progress until I saw this lot! I suppose it's all down to polytunnels and lots of feeding. Ah, well. Don't give up the day job.

After I finished the blanket I got down to making a Niffler

As I said in a previous post, I tried using eyelash yarn, but simply couldn't see where my stitches were among the long strands, so I used ordinary Stylecraft special DK. There isn't an absolutely perfect pattern out there in web-land so I adapted one and then needle felted some merino onto his back and tail to make him a bit furry. He's okay, but could be better. I will try to make a bigger one at some point, and will use alpaca or merino wool, so it can be brushed a bit to make him furry.

Anyway, here he is - all I need to do now is find a 'gold' coin to put in his pocket.

A Perfect Weekend

It's been a lovely weekend. The weather has been WARM and springlike. Flowers are opening and the first grass mowing of the year took place.

A fund-raising event on Saturday evening went okay (we at least raised some money) and I vow it is the last one I will be involved with as organiser. I just don't need the stress. So that's all done. Phew.

I finished the 'mystery CAL' - the Jane Crowfoot Sunshine and Showers blanket - and very pretty it is too. The last section plopped through my letterbox last Tuesday in the April edition of Crochet Now.

I practised some new combinations of stitches to create the bobbles and lacey bits, so it was a learning experience as well.

Best of all, we had our fabulous grandchildren to stay on Sunday all day and overnight because their mum and dad (aka My Incredibly Talented Daughter and Amazing Son-in-Law) had a luxurious spa hotel stay booked for mother's day/ their 40th birthdays).

We had a lovely day playing Cosmic Encounters, talking nonsense, throwing the ball for Maisie and finally watching Dr Strange on telly and eating popcorn.

Also, they had the bonus of not having to endure the school bus this morning because our house is right beside their school. Result!

Next week my other wonderful grandaughter comes to stay for a few days because it's the Easter Holidays. Hurray!

We are truly blessed with a gorgeous family.

 

Mystery CAL

I was given the yarn pack to make Jane Crowfoot's mystery 'Sunshine and Showers'  Crochet Along. This is being published section by section every month in the magazine Crochet Now.

I started it just after Christmas and here are all the sections  so far. I don't know how they're going to be pieced together, but it's looking very promising - you can rely on Jane Crowfoot for plenty of waves, bobbles, lacy bits and flowers! I just hope there isn't a border of flowers all down the long edges like there is at the ends - they involved sewing in about 200 ends. Tedious or what?

Anyway, I'm now waiting for the next issue of the magazine - it should arrive today or tomorrow - but in the meantime I got started on Attic24's latest CAL. I got the yarn pack for this at Christmas, too. Lucy has taken her inspiration for the colours from the North York moors near her home, and so far I have done the grass, sedge, sphagnum, dead bracken and little patches of heather section and am just about to get into the deep heather and young vegetation. Lots of plum, grape, sage and violet to come. I like the neat ripple pattern, too. It gives a texture as well as wavy lines and is very soothing and calming to do.

Crochet as meditation - can't fault it.

The other lovely thing is to see the splendid designs people have made from the colour pack. Lucy has posted some pictures on her blog. Take a look!

I also want to make the Niffler from 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' but so far I haven't found the right yarn. Eyelash yarn would give a good furry texture, but it's difficult to see your stitches when it's black yarn with long strandy bits. I'll keep looking for a mohair or something in dark brown or black - I'll keep you posted!

Barry the Turtle

Well peeps! I've had my first crochet commission. A lady who bought one of my pokemon figures at the Christmas market emailed me to ask if I could crochet a turtle from a drawing her son did. Apparently this turtle, called Barry,  has been figuring hugely in stories and adventures invented by her son and she really wanted to surprise him with 'Barry made flesh' as it were.

This is the picture she sent. The description was  - his body is green and his shell is brown.

 

 

Hmmmm.

 

Luckily there have been a few different turtle-type creatures in Pixar movies and so on, so there were a few patterns out there in web-land to customise.

 

Heeeeere's Barry!

 

 

 

What do you think?

 

Once again, features and shell details were needle-felted on, which means you can get much more control over the expression on his face - the most important bit.

The nice lady was happy, and I hope Barry's creator is happy too come Christmas day.

Happy Christmas everyone!