Beaded Crochet Pouches

 

Before Christmas I found this pattern for beaded crochet pouches by Janie Crow.

It was a free pattern and I liked the patterns and colours and thought I could maybe make some as Christmas gifts using my stash.  But they took longer than expected and I wasn't sure how to line them and I sort of gave up on them a little.

 

I think part of the problem was I was using a digital pattern on my iPad, so it was very hard to keep up with where I was in the pattern (I normally use a post-it note to mark my place) and it was hard to keep track of which colours I'd swapped out to something else. 

But once I'd finished the Evendoon cardigan, I went back to the pouches and finished the crochet side of things.  Then I found some lovely rainbow star fabric and matching zips, and over the long Easter weekend made them up.

 

It was of course a lot simpler than my brain had been telling me.  I was helped along by a very helpful blog post about how to add a lining to a crochet pouch and then they were done.

 

I also made a flower, but added a safety pin to the back so it can be worn as a brooch too.

I think I prefer the pastel colours more, but like that the blue/grey one is made with leftovers from my sky blanket.

 

They are still going to be gifts, but not as I'd orginally planned.  I hope they enjoy them. 

 

Seaside Sweater

 Over the summer I came across the free Seaside Sweater pattern from LoveCrafts to use with their PaintBox Yarns.  This was a crochet pattern and seeing as I'd just spent months on a frustrating knit, I thought it might be good to switch over for a bit.

 

It's a very straightforward pattern, and once you get it in your head, very easy to follow.

I was slightly thrown when I started to make the back to find it wasn't the same size as the front, but when I spoke to the very helpful lady in my local wool shop she said it's because cotton stretches as you use it.

 

I had decided to go with the suggest yarn - PaintBox cotton mix DK in Pebble, which is lovely and soft and has a nice drap to it.  I used about 4 1/2 balls, although I did make the arms a little longer than suggested.

The thing that really slowed me down was then having to sew it all up.  I hate that, especially when you've got to go slow to find the right stich to sew into.  It was very strange, having started this project in August, to be finishing it up in December while listening to Christmas carols.  Especially as this is a summer item! 

 

While sewing up I was a little worried that it might be too tight, so I didn't sew all the way to the bottom on each side, which I think looks nice.

I'm hoping that we have a better summer next year and I actually get to wear it!  Fingers crossed.

Easy Crochet Cardigan

 So I saw this free pattern ages ago and wanted to have a go.  It looked so straight forward but kinda cool.  So I made it this Christmas for my mum, using a really dark purple chunky wool.

But I really should know by now that free patterns never have enough detail in them to do a good job.  For instance this is a crochet pattern but it didn't say if it was using UK or US terms.

Also the sizing - hooks and wool were pretty vague.  It would have been more helpful to know what the end material should be like.  In the end I had to buy more wool than expected and it was very thick, which means it doesn't have quite the drap I was hopping for.  In reality I should have used a bigger hook size (then I probably wouldn't have needed more wool), but there was no guidance on sizing other than the final size to make the cardigan.  

 

So I gifted it as a cardigan, but with instructions to cut the sleeves if it didn't fit or feel good and turn it into a blanket, something I think it would do really nicely.  (this is what she ended up doing.)

I do really like the texture of the material.  By crocheting into the back of the stitch rather than the front as I would normally, I've ended up with this sort of ribbing which is a nice detail.

It took ages to make.  I think I need to be more discerning about the projects I take on.  I really don't have time to spend on things like this - there are so many possibilies out there, of course there will always be things that don't go to plan - that's how we learn.  But maybe stick to more trusted sources in the future. 

The Sky Blanket - December

 

After a year of knitting, the sky blanket is finally finished!

To keep it's shape I finished the squares on 26th December, then spent the last couple of days giving the blanket a crochet boarder.  This helped me tidy up a little bit of left over wool and make the blanket look a bit more finished.

 

I can't believe it's finished.  It's been one of my longest projects I think.  I'm pleased to have completed it and within the year too, but I'm also glad it is finally finished.  What a year!

• 360 squares
• 154cm wide by 170cm long (apparently thats 2.61m2)
  
• 5 rainbows
• Weighs 5lbs
• 19 balls of wool 
• 1 year

Crochet Snowflake Table Runner

With all my Christmas projects finished and a week to go until the big day, I decided to try and slip in one last Christmas project.  A crochet snowflake table runner.

 

I've been wanting to do this project for ages, but I've found it really difficult to find some approprate wool.  The suggested wool is out of stock and no one can suggest an alternative.  In the end I took a chance on some Rico Fashion Cotton Metallise DK, which I was very pleased with.

Although the pattern was free, it had lots of detail and was easy to follow.  They suggested making a lenght 12 snowflakes long, but my table isn't that big so I stopped at 8. 

 

Once made you need to do something to stop it curling up at the edges, so I mixed some corn flour with water and dipped my crochet into it, then pinned it out to dry.  The starch from the corn flour is supposed to keep everything in place, and it seemed to work, without making it stiff. 

This was quite a quick project to work on and looked really pretty on the table.  I like how it matches our wooden table.  And if I decided it isn't long enough, it would be really easy to add more snowflakes.

Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels Crochet Blanket

 Last year I was given a crochet kit for the Persion Tiles blanket in the Eastern Jewels colour way by Jane Crow.  But then COVID happened and I couldn't deal with such a big project.

This year I was working on a knitting project when I ran out of wool!  In lockdown and unable to get anymore I looked for something else to do and came across the crochet kit.

I have to say I didn't really like the colours when I first got them out.  And even when making the sections I didn't really like some of them.  It proably didn't help that quite a lot of it was made in artificial light in the evenings.  I also hated making the little crosses.  They were so hard to get even!  I had to undo the first two octagons when I'd done all of them to redo the crosses, they were that bad!

The magic happened when I started to put the pieces together.  Suddenly the colours looked great and the whole thing sang!  Seeing them in daylight also made them look much better.  This is a summer blanket.

I really enjoyed making it and look foward to using it.  The sort of thing to drape over your shoulders while sitting in the garden in the evening. Maybe on one of 'im ourdoors new benches.

More Little Hats

Simple crochet hat

I can't call this post more little knitted hats, as I have started making the crochet patterns too now!

They are all starting to get a bit more involved, so I'm not sure how many more I will manage.  After all Christmas making needs to take priority for a bit.

Post box hat

Ear flap hat

A sheepish sheep hat

Sombrero hat

Sheriffs hat

Shark hat

Mystical Lanterns Crochet Scarf

In January, looking back at last year, I realised that I hadn't done any crochet at all!  And with no cash to spend on crafting, I had a look through what I already had to decide on my next big project.

My eye was caught by a kit I was given a couple of years ago for a crochet scarf from Janie Crow, and off I went.
Except I didn't as it was supplied with Coop Knits 'Sock Yeah!' wool which, while very nice, comes in hanks and had to be turned into balls first.  My first couple of attempts turned into tangled messes before I read how draping the wool on the back of a chair makes this easier. 

(The tangled messes came on my daily commute on the train, to be untangled while I listened to podcasts.)
So after a week of evening winding I finally was ready to start.

Except I'd forgotten how to crochet, so had to watch a YouTube video to remind me.  Then I really was finally ready to start.
I had to make 94 lanterns, joining them into strings, that were then attached to each other before a fringe was attached to each end. 

It's a pretty scarf and I'm pleased with how it came out, but to be honest it was a bit of a tedious project, from winding the wool, to the repetitive nature of the lanterns, to stitching them all together and adding the fringe.  That's probably why it had been sitting on my shelf for so long.
But it's done now (March) and was supposed to make a great Mother's Day gift - a light scarf perfect for indecisive spring weather.  However I didn't get to meet with my mum for Mothers Day and so I have saved it for her birthday in October.   

She was very happy with it and loved the range of colours included, meaning she'll be able to wear it with many different outfits.

Little knitted hats

A heart bobble hat

Over the last 4 or 5 weeks of lockdown I've started to feel that I could be doing more to support the community.  We are doing a weekly shop for our neighbors, but maybe I should be doing more?

A simple bobble hat

However I am one of the lucky ones able to work from home and still on my full hours, so I don't have as much time as some.

A stripe hat

Then I saw that innocent were supporting Age UK again this year with their big knit.  They want people to knit tiny hats for their smoothy bottles.  Then for every bottle they sell they donate 25p to Age UK.

A chunky bobble hat

On their website they have 41 knitting and crochet patterns that you can use and I've decided I'm going to have a go at as many as I can using my stash and my 'commute' time.  Of course the banana hat might have to wait as I don't have any yellow wool right now, but I think I can try most of them.  So far the basic one's haven't taken very long and I look forward to trying the rest.

A beginner hat (accidentally Christmas)

Crafty fox hat

Fez pattern

Apple hat

Trello

My Trello board - full of cards

 Anyone who knows me, knows I like a list.  And I’ve found Microsoft OneNote perfect for most of my organising needs, but there was still one thing that wasn’t quite working for me - my craft project list.

My craft projects fill my head, but remembering how much wool or fabric you need for a particular project, never mind all the other stuff like zips, buttons or thread, is really hard, especially if you haven’t planned a visit to a shop and just find yourself in one.

I’d created lists in OneNote for the four different types of project I tend to work on at the moment - Knitting, Crochet, Sewing and Paper, but I was struggling to keep them up to date - it was really hard to see if something was already there, without reading a list that might already have 50+ items on it.

And even if I knew it was on the list I couldn’t remember if I had the pattern yet or had already bought materials.

Prioritisation was also really hard as I changed my mind about what was important.

I was feeling uninspired and overwhelmed, knowing there were lots of projects I wanted to work on but with little idea of what I should be aiming for next.

I was talking to a colleague about something unrelated and they mentioned they were using Trello to organise their project.  I’ve used Trello before, but I’ve never quite got it working to its full potential. However I had a light bulb moment and it occurred to me that this would be the perfect platform for my projects.

Trello is a free platform that allows you to have different swim-lanes, in this case Knitting, Crochet, Sewing and Paper, and then each project can be a card.  Each card can hold as much detail as you need, for instance a description of the project, amount of wool or fabric needed, an image, the pattern, and labels - to do, in progress, done, etc.

What a card looks like inside

 I’ve also set up some checklists, some are for every project, for instance do I have the pattern, materials and the equipment needed to complete the project?, while some checklists are for individual projects, for instance a knitted bear needs legs x 2, arms x2, head, body and ears x2.

And I can change the priority in a moment by dragging cards up or down the lists depending on what I’m thinking at that moment.  

As I was filling it in I found lots of things that I was interested in but didn’t have to happen any time soon.  Most of these were on open tabs on my iPad and getting in the way. So I created another swim-lane called Ideas for the Future and added cards here with links to the pages of interest.  It means it is really easy to move them across to the working lists if I suddenly want to work on them and I can declutter my iPad.

The other thing I found on my iPad were tutorials or help pages about certain techniques or methods.  Another swim-lane was created titled Tutorials and links added.

I now have a comprehensive list of things I want to work on all in one place.  If I’m in a shop I can easily see how much fabric I need (Trello has an app for my phone) and if I’m wondering what to work on next I can scroll through the list and see images to inspire me, instead of trying to read a massive list.  

I’ve only just started so I’m interested to see how it works going forward, but so far it feels like I’m on the right track and I’m excited to see it grow.