Lovely young things are a good reason to crochet.

I have booked a stall for the Celebrate festival in Whalley Range at which I will be selling my hats and things. So I am having fun writing up patterns and trying to size things. Hopefully I will get around to putting them on my patterns blog. I would like to get better at writing up patterns, so I can share a little crochet love, and encourage others to make their own lovely things. :-)

Here is the Babe in Hat and Dress. The hat is Paton's 100% cotton DK and is dominated by a split shell stitch, and the dress in RYC Cotton Jeans in Peacock Stitch which I found in a Pauline Turner book. Just made them up, and didn't write them down very well, so will have to try again. Oh well, at least there are nice photos.

The button band isn't perfect, so I will have to sort that out, but it works. And I had the perfect coloured buttons lurking in my sewing box. So all in all, pretty pleased. The Babe's outfit reminds me of the book we have My Mum and Dad Make me Laugh. It's the spots and stripes. :-)

Old Bag

So I have wanted to felt myself a bag for a long time, and watching all of Martine's posts about felt, finally motivated me.  I had some 100% wool from Dragon yarns, which I had bought years ago for doing re-enactment stuff. Some of it had been used to make Viking socks - naalbinding- and doing tablet weaving for belts and things.
So I had red, yellow, orange, green, and some dark blue from New Lanarkshire. I spent ages on Ravelry looking for patterns, and in the end I made one up. Also in the end, I decided to limit the colours, as all those squares were looking weird.
So I crocheted some circles in squares and crocheted them together and ended up with this.

After a couple of washes, it looks like this.

And I am quite happy with it. I would like to think I will get around to lining it, and adding a zip or poppers, but I think I know myself well enough to know that won't happen.

something for me.

I have gone back to the Buttercup. I started it last summer, with some yarn I got with a gift certificate my husband got for my birthday. It is nearly my birthday again. And maybe it is time I finished it?!
Good god, there are a lot of stitches needed to get around my boobs!

Mad crochet woman!

Doing loads! Getting repetitive strain injury! :-)


A shrug for the Meister. There is a matching halter...but not a photo of it.

This is the same cotton in an openwork mesh summer top for the Changeling. It didn't turn out at all like we planned, but she is happy with it. It was supposed to be baggy, but she likes it fitted, so I guess I get to try again to do a baggy one. :-)

 And this is the Granny Shrug that I am working on for fun with thinner yarn that I got from a Freecycler ages ago and haven't known what to do with. This is being done on a J hook, which I think is 6.5 mm .  The Changeling says she is interested in it if I turn it into a cropped top. We shall see.

There is also some work being done on another crocheted baby dress  pattern that I am trying to write up, and the toe up socks, and I may even get to work on my Buttercup again.

Owls

I have finished the knitting for the Owls jumper, but I am in a bit of a mood, so will write the story of it another time. (This is why I am in a mood.)
It is a bit tight in the armpits, so I don't know what to do about that. And the neck ribbing is a bit narrow as I ran out of yarn. But the Changeling looks lovely in it, and as soon I figure out the underarms and sew on a million buttons for eyes, it will be nice. And then she has to wait a few months for the weather to be appropriate for a wool jumper. :-)

Now I am going to do something in cotton. :-) Have been sitting in the garden knitting with Martine, so am looking forward to using cotton in the sunshine.

A new project :-)

I was given a new 6 cup teapot for Mother's Day. I guess I will have to crochet a tea cosy to go with it. :-)

Aha!

 

Here is the lovely green cotton summer dress. It is little big, but still wearable, and probably will be for the next few years.  It is the Ruffled Baby dress   with one fewer increases so as not to be quite so ruffled, and no sleeves, so as to be more summery. Just a row of shell stitch instead of sleeves, which is cute enough for the Babe. Also got some lovely heart shaped spotty buttons that match the green perfectly from Folksy  but necessitated me sewing up the button holes a bit. The buttons are worth it though. :-)

Also, so nearly finished with these socks that I shall just call them finished and post the photo.

They are made with Violet Green sock yarn, doubled and on 4 mm needles. I started at the cuff with a 1x1 rib, over 42 stitches, and then changed to a pattern of k3 p3 for 3 rounds, and p3 k3 or 3 rounds, to give a checkerboard effect.


Have also started a pair of toe ups, but not really following a pattern, more like following about 5 patterns, as I try to get my head around how to do this. Thank goodness for Knitty.com and this great magic toe-up cast on.

And here is cheeky Babe, who wouldn't stand still or look at the camera while I was photographing her in her new dress, but who was more than happy to climb all over me and do her best to prevent me from photographing anything else, other than her lovely smile surrounded by a few dairy free chocolate brownie crumbs. ;-)