I'm back !

I'm back! It feels like I've been away from my little patch of cyberspace for soooooo long. It's not really been that long at all I know (only just over 2 weeks) and I meant to come back from holiday and tell you all about it straight away - let's just say crochet and going to work got in the way!

I had a brilliant holiday up in the North East of the UK, staying with friends I haven't seen in a long time. The weather was glorious and we went out and about every day and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
I went up by train (which was on time and there were no hold ups at all - in either direction) and took my project kit with me to do on the long journey, although I did feel like the odd one out as almost everyone else on the train spent nearly the entire time on their phones! I made this -

Well no, to be fair, I started it on the way up, didn't do any while I was there, then did another section coming home, then the rest this past week. It's my Tooty Stripey Blanket again undergoing a little patterntesting. As soon as I'm happy with it - I did find a couple of mistakes and made an alteration or two - then I'll let you see it. But not quite yet.

I'm rather enjoying making baby sized blankets as they work up so quickly - a full sized blanket feels rather daunting when you start and it's easy to lose interest or get side tracked by new projects. But this little rainbow beauty is just about done already.

I'm still debating whether I like the border I've done and might rip it out and try and think of something else, although I'm very low on yarn now. (I won't even bother to show you the border as it currently looks as I'm so not happy with it!) I was using up leftovers and although it's only Stylecraft yarn which I can easily get more of, I didn't really want to have to buy more just for the sake of a few yards for the border - but I'm not happy with it. Other people have said it's fine but if I want to sell it I should be happy with it myself. I haven't even stitched the ends in on the border in case I need to rip it back. So there may be a bit of frogging to come!!

Since getting back I've been so busy working on this baby blanket, plus my waistcoat, as well as going to work that it was more than a week before I got round to downloading all the photos I took - and I took quite a few!! I'll show you some of them next time - the North East really is a beautiful, beautiful part of the country and as well as the countryside the beaches were just amazing!! I wish we had beaches like theirs down here in Hampshire rather than the scruffy strips of stony stuff we laughingly call a beach - a shore-line would be more accurate. Ah well. If I lived right by a beautiful beach I might never get any crochet done as I like to take looooooong walks on a beach, not just sit...

Anyway, back to crafting. My waistcoat is progressing very nicely and the gorgeous hand-dyed yarn I'm using is a true pleasure to work with. You almost don't want to put it done as the colour right at the hook is constantly changing and I can't wait to see what's next! Silly I know but true. It's also very pleasant in your hands and on the hook - I'm looking forward to feeling the texture once it's been washed and blocked.
I've actually done a bit more than the picture shows and I'm just wondering whether to go up a hook size before I do the next lace pattern repeat, so it will be a little wider and therefore fit round my hips better!!!!!! I think there will be enough yarn to finish all the edgings the way I want to as well, as I was a little worried there wouldn't be enough and being hand-dyed I can't just buy another ball!!

I was introduced to a new wool shop in Whitley bay that just BLEW MY MIND. RingaRosie Yarns  has to be the most amazing wool shop I have ever seen and even better, there was a big selection of hand-dyed yarn - and it turned out the owner did them herself!
My friend had casually said "I think there's a wool shop round the corner you might like", and I thought it would probably be very disappointing as people who aren't crafty don't always understand what constitutes a good wool shop. So you can just imagine the look on my face as I walked into this -

It was like being transported to heaven!! My mouth just dropped open and my eyes were on stalks!!! You can see the owner in the top pic over on the left - Barbara - she was lovely and while we were chatting it turned out she used to live in Portsmouth, just a few miles down the road from me. What a small world! We had a lovely chat and I could quite happily have stayed all day.
I do have some more pics of her shop - and the amazing yarn I bought! - but my gadgets won't talk to each other at the moment, so I'm making do with what I've already shared on Instagram. Don't worry, I will be raving about it again later!!!
For now, if you're in the North East, go and find Ring-a-Rosie Yarns in Whitley Bay, say hi from me - and ENJOY!!

That's all for now but I will be back again soon with some pics of the beautiful countryside. And maybe an update on that pesky blanket border!!

Bye for now - T x