Time flies!

I've been away from my little space for HOW LONG?? Six weeks?? Really?? SIX? How did that happen?..... Guess I must have been busy...

Busy with the beach bag I mentioned last time, that's for sure! It took a bit longer than planned as it became a bit more detailed - especially the lining. But it is now finished and listed on Etsy, should you care to take a look. Thankyou to all my lovely followers on instagram, who helped with the design process!
I'm toying with the idea of making another but doing it more slowly so I can write the pat*tern up with lots of pics - and a choice of either a detailed lining for the sewing experts, or a really simple hand sewn one for the non-sewing. But pat*tern writing takes a long time you know, so it may not happen anytime soon!

I took it down to the local beach for a little photo shoot to try and get some nice pics for Etsy. While I was there, I took some more pics of my Tooty Harmony Blanket and the Winterberry Blanket which is on Folksy. Want to see??

This last shot was designed to show just how BIG the bag is, as the ones with props made it look medium sized. It isn't - it's two feet wide!

I finally went back and finished the border on my Tooty Harmony Blanket. Just a very simple border of treble crochet which frames it nicely.

 And you can really see the little bobbles on the Winterberry Blanket in the sunshine! That's still listed on Folksy at the moment but will transfer across to Etsy soon.

You will also find the Peacock Tail Bag I crocheted a while ago - I have re-listed it on Etsy with some new photos.

The "I Love London" print project bag I showed you (6 weeks ago...) has sold and is on it's way to Oklahoma as we speak! It may even have arrived today. I will buy more of the fabric and make another as it was rather fun. It's Woodland Friends partner (see pic) is still available, if you're interested??

On the pat*tern writing front, I've been busy writing, re-writing, re-writing and yes, re-writing again, a crochet scarf pat*tern. I think I've shown you a sneak peak before. It's a long, narrow crescent shape with a nice bit of texture.

It's getting close to being ready for someone to test it for me. I can try and test the pat*tern myself but to be honest, because I know it inside out now, I might not actually do what is written but automatically do what is right. If you know what I mean?! Each version I have made has come out a bit different as I've developed the shaping of it. The increasing was soooooooo simple - the decreasing? No. Again and again and again I tried. But eventually I was happy with it.

Designed to be a one skein scarf, preferably in a beautiful soft merino 4 ply but equally nice in a soft baby 4 ply. The main reason it took so long was because I wanted it to only need one skein. Knowing exactly when to start changing your shaping for the decreasing wasn't easy at all!

It doesn't have a proper name yet - something that took so long deserves to have just the right name but I'm not quite sure what. If you have any ideas, please do drop me a line!

If you're a new visitor to my blog, perhaps you landed here via Your Crochet, one of the free pat*tern websites? My Tooty Stripey Pat*tern was picked up by them in mid April and has been very popular, with lots more people downloading it.
They gave it a lovely write up, with links to the pat*tern on Raveley,  plus my blog page - and even protected the content so the picture couldn't be copied.
 One of those people asked me for US Terms version of the key to all the stitches I used and I was very happy to oblige. I don't know why I didn't think of it before - sorry!

If you have downloaded it and made your own version, I really would love to see it, so please do get in touch - or share it on instagram and tag me. And don't forget, it has it's own dedicated page - click the button at the top of the screen.





On a sad note, I'm very sorry to say that Creative Crafts,  the craft shop where I have worked one day a week for the last two and a half years has now closed. Ridiculous rate and rent increases, coupled with the rise of internet shopping finally became too much and after a big sale, the store closed at the end of April. A great loss to the city  of Winchester.
There have been a lot of independent retailers priced out of town by greedy landlords over recent months - as it's one of the best places to live in Britain, they seem to think they can charge what they like. But the thing that makes it one of the best places is the quirkiness of all the different shops. The new retailers moving in are the big chains though, so the city will soon look just like any other.... And anyone who loves arts and crafts - like me - has lost a massive resource. Very sad indeed.....

So my Mondays now feel very empty and strange, as I'm sure is the case for Lyn the owner and the other staff - and my body clock is completely thrown out!

On the up side, I did have someone offer to sell printed copies of my Tail of Two Dragons Scarf pat*tern at a yarn fair, along with my stitch markers recently. I didn't have many stitch markers made - and they certainly weren't packaged in any way - so I spent several frantic evenings making loads of them! I've yet to hear how many sold but I enjoyed making them so much I think I'll make a batch and try them on Etsy.
The same people also suggested I might like to design some of my own knitted and crocheted items with accompanying pat*terns, that can be made up in the wool they spin themselves. My pat*tern will showcase their yarn and their yarn will showcase my pat*tern. So I now have a head absolutely BUZZING with ideas on what I could make!! I thought a man's scarf and a ladies textured shawl to begin with, preferably using yarn in its natural undyed colour. But what weight of yarn??... Decisions decisions!

Anyway, I think that's enough for today! I'll try not to leave it so long before I pop in again!!

Thanks for reading!    T   xXx

PS  Fluffy says Hi!!

Ta-Dah!

I've just finished the Winter Berry Blanket - literally! I'll do a proper "reveal" after it's been washed and blocked but I couldn't resist telling you it's done on my blog's 2nd anniversary.

I'm really really pleased with how it's turned out and apologise for the very poor lighting in the photo. But as I say,  I couldn't resist!

You may also have noticed the new header and personal photo - I changed them last weekend. They'll do nicely for now I think.

That's all for now - it's rather late and I'm very tired after a long week. I'll pop back again soon with some decent photos and tell you how I did the simple border.

Night night!!

A warm and snuggly anniversary

Wow! Look! 18,999 views of my little blog!!

I've almost reached my 2nd anniversary now and never expected to get many views at all. I still don't... Although to be fair, a lot of the views are just robots I know!! And why is it a warm and snuggly anniversary??

That'll be down to the Winter Berry Blanket which is progressing very nicely thankyou, and is very good for snuggling under while I'm working on it!! I need to weigh the wool that's left to see if there's enough for one more pattern repeat before I do a border. I doubt there will be as I'd like to do a 3 row border ideally. Just 3 rows of trebles in different colours, maybe with a row of bobbles all the way round if there's enough...
Time to get out the digital scales and calculator I think!!

Winter Berry Blanket

 I meant to pop in last week to tell you that I've written up how I made my Woodland Walk Blanket (based on Lucy's cosy stripe blanket) and that it has its own dedicated page.  (Can you see it there at the top of the screen?) I also went back to my Rippling Clusters Blanket page and wrote a bit more about how it evolved and was made - and what went wrong! - as well as straightening the edge and adding a border .
But today I'd like to show you my new blanket which I'm calling my Winter Berry Blanket and will be for my Folksy Shop.

Again this is based on the cosy stripe blanket, with my little tweak as in the Woodland Walk, but with an another tweak! (It also has its own Ravelry page.)
As I mentioned before, I bought the wool in a sale and it was all they had left. I wanted five colours but the 5th colour I chose  they only had one left; so I had to adapt the pattern or I would run out before the blanket was long enough. I decided to work four 2 row stripes, one of each colour, then for the 5th stripe I went off piste and worked a row of small bobbles. Just one row, not two.

Always worked from the same side the bobbles (or bumps, they're so small) are the ones that appear in the Circle  of Friends blanket square by Patricia Hewitt. It's a very simple little bobble  - you work *a double crochet, then you do a double treble, then a double crochet *, and repeat to the end of the row. (The double treble stitch is worked into the centre stitch of each granny cluster of the row below.) The double crochet stitches make the tall double treble crochet stitches "squash down" and push out making little bumps. Very effective.

I did try a sample working two rows so that the bumps would appear on both sides of the blanket and I calculated how much wool that took and realised I wouldn't have enough with one ball, so I decided to stick with just one row so the bumps will always appear just on one side of the blanket. The opposite side will be relatively smooth.  It looks very effective and if I make this one again I'll buy enough wool so that I can make bumps on both sides.

The colour and texture of the yarn means that you can't really see the cosy stripe pattern but I don't think it would look better if it was either just rows of trebles or grannies. Stick with what you know works. 

Before I go,  have a look at the hyacinth I bought for work. The flower spike was still a  tight bud nestled down amongst the leaves when I bought it. A bit of water and warmth and it went beserk! I can't believe how fast it grew - the flowers opened just 10 days later! When I get back to my desk on Tuesday, it will be over....

But it brightened my desk for the week and the fragrance was fabulous too! See you again soon,  T 😉