Crochet pattern for Knitting Together project

I recently came across a lovely craftivism project called Knitting Together that uses simple, knitted finger puppets to raise awareness about loneliness. This wonderful campaign is organized by The Marmalade Trust and the Impact Alliance. It launched as part of Loneliness Awareness Week last month, a national movement dedicated to opening up conversations and building meaningful community connections. I had to write a crochet version inspired by the knitted pattern.

For details of how to take part please refer back to the campaign website. 

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I have written a 4 ply/fingering weight and a DK version - perfect for using up scraps. Patterns are not tech-edited yet.

Materials: 

*Small quantities of yarn for hair, face & body plus even snaller amounts for facial features eyes & mouth. 

*3mm crochet hook for 4ply version, 4mm for DK version

*Stitch marker to mark first stitch of each round 

US crochet terms and working in continuous rounds. 

4 ply version

‐‐---‐-----------------

Start in hair colour 

Either ch2 and 8 sc into 2nd ch or 8 sc into a magic ring

Round 1: increase in every sc (16 sc). 

Round 2: 6 sc hair colour, 4 sc skin colour, 6 sc hair colour.

Round 3: 5 sc hair, 6 sc skin, 5 sc hair. 

Round 4: 4 sc hair, 8 sc skin, 4 sc hair. Round 5: 16 sc skin

Change to body colour 

Round 6 (make arms): 4sc, ch15, turn, skip 1ch, slst14, sc8, ch15, turn, skip 1ch, slst14, 4sc. 

Rounds 7-12: sc16 Round 15: Long sc16 over round 13 to create to create double thickness final round. Finish off.

Add eyes, mouth, hair as required

DK version

--‐----------------

In hair colour ch2, 6 sc into 2nd ch or 6 sc into magic ring.

Round 1: increase in every sc, (12 sc). 

Round 2: 4 sc hair colour, 4 sc skin colour, 4 sc hair colour

Round 3: 3 sc hair, 6 sc skin, 3 sc hair

Round 4: 2 sc hair, 8 sc skin, 2 sc hair

Round 5: 12 sc skin

Change to body colour 

Round 6 (make arms): 3 sc, ch11,  turn, skip 1ch, slst10, 6 sc, ch11, turn, skip 1ch, slst10, 3 sc

Rounds 7-12: sc12

Round 15: long sc 12 over round 13 to create to create double thickness final 

Finish off.

Add eyes, mouth, hair as required

Book Review of Indispensable Stitch Collection for Crocheters

This summer I was bitten by the crochetalong bug and took part in three CALS, one after the other. CAL #2 was an interlocking crochet scarf designed by Maria Segares for the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) Summer CAL.

Many CALs have prizes, chosen randomly from those who complete the project and post a photo of it. And I was absolutely stunned to find out that I was a winner. There were several prizes for the CGOA CAL and I won Melissa Leapman's Indispensable Stitch Collection for Crocheters 200 Stitch Patterns in Words and Symbols. If you check out my blog post where I wrote about the CGOA CAL Five Reasons to Join a CAL this was the prize that I wanted most.

I firmly believe that everyone who crochets should own a stitch dictionary. It's an essential resource if you're a designer. And even if you're only getting to grips with basic crochet stitches this book would be perfect for expanding your crochet skills.

Each stitch pattern is described in written and charted form and accompanied by an appealing brightly-colored crochet sample. Some of the stitch designs are familiar, many are unique to this book and some just jump out at me from the page saying "make me now!" I know this is going to be a book that I return to again and again.

There is a wide range of stitch designs to appeal to crocheters of all skill levels. The stitches aren't rated by difficulty but you generally figure this out by looking at the written pattern, specifically by looking at how many words there are in each row and the number of rows there are in total. The Stitch Collection is grouped into: Simple Solid Patterns, Shell and Fan Stitch Patterns, Openwork and Lace Patterns, Textured Patterns, Colorwork Patterns and Edgings. Reversible patterns are helpfully highlighted with a special symbol if you're making a project where you'd see both sides. The resources section includes super information on abbreviations, a glossary of symbols, tips on reading crochet charts and diagrams of how to do basic stitches and stitch variations.

Melissa suggests trying out the patterns you like by making six inch squares and in the process creating an assortment of spa washcloths or useful dishcloths: the perfect gifts with holiday time approaching. I'm going to get hooking right now!
 

Yak and Yarn is back

My Yak and Yarn group resumes it's meetups this week after a big summer break. I have so missed these sweet crafting friends. In June we moved our daytime meet up to the yarn store where I teach. Our coffee shop venue had become far too busy during the day. I finally decided a change was due after hearing that one of our group had driven around the parking lot three times and then returned home. The back room at Nimblefingers is a peaceful and welcoming space surrounded by beautiful yarn. Aaaaahh, what better? Bliss!

 

I designed a sampler crochet baby blanket and distributed patterns modified for two different yarn weights before we broke up for summer. I do tend to give myself these self-imposed deadlines. So we will see how everyone is getting on with these! They are my test crocheters and I'm interested to hear their feedback. I haven't yet completed joining my nine sampler blanket squares or decided on a suitable edging but I must do this before the meeting. I know I will be presented with several more gorgeous baby blankets for our charity cause and as the fearless leader of the group I need to keep up!

I had such fun choosing which nine stitch patterns to use in my sampler blanket. One of the great joys of crochet is the huge number of stitch pattern possibilities. It's impossible to ever get bored. I selected patterns from two of my favorite resource books: The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet by Margaret Hubert and The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs by Linda P. Schapper.

My criteria was that they had to have a similar amount of open space to match, be suitable for advanced beginners, have a small number of repeats to easily convert the pattern from worsted to sport weight yarn and have straight edges all the way around for easy joining. On our very first joint charity project, where we all made single crochet squares, joining slightly different sized squares (because everyone works to a slightly different tension) was difficult since single crochet is a dense stitch. Doing the initial joining of my sampler I can see that these more open squares are forgiving and stretchy.

 

 
Anyway, do let me know if you'd like a copy of my sampler blanket pattern and once I've had feedback from my group and updated it I'll email you a pdf copy. You can send me a private message via my Crafty Escapism Facebook page or @craftyescapism on Twitter or Instagram.

I love road trips!

A road trip and a crochet project go together perfectly in my mind. We have just returned to Houston, Texas after a whopping fifteen hour, two day road trip from a week in the mountain biking and waterfall mecca of Brevard, North Carolina. We drove through five further states: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. I spent a large proportion of the trip just looking out of the window at the countryside, quite different from that of my home country. My hubby and I take turns driving too but I still managed to complete almost a whole shawl, starting the foundation row the day before we left and having just a few rows remaining at the top to complete.

My shawl is Humphrey by Joanne Scrace of The Crochet Project. It's my second make from their Shawls Book Two. I've become quite a fan of The Crochet Project recently. Their tagline is "Think Differently About Crochet" and their mission is to design, write and promote beautiful, modern crochet patterns. The first Crochet Project shawl, Missed Kingfisher, was made as a gift and I was quite sad to part with it. Having a photo isn't quite the same.

 

Next time we go on a road trip I am determined to combine shopping along the way. Ravelry has a tool for just this purpose: The Road Trip Planner. It's on the tab "Yarn" on the left hand side half way down just below the search box for finding a shop. Type in your starting location, your destination and specify how far you're willing to detour. Planning when to stop en-route is my department so perhaps I could coincidentally find a dog park or café next door to a yarn store. Somehow I don't think my family will be fooled for a second.

Are you a rider, yanker or lifter?

I've been getting a little obsessed about gauge recently. One of my students wants to make crochet socks and we told each other we'd make gauge swatches in advance of the next workshop. I don't swatch very much apart from when the size matters but I know I should really do it more often. Swatching is a sensible thing to do to make sure you don't run out of yarn too. And designers make gauge swatches to find out if the yarn suits their pattern. I do always ask my students to swatch though. It IS good practice. They shouldn't be reckless just because I am!

 

My quick 10 stitch 5 rows single crochet swatches
trying out riding, yanking and lifting.

Changing gauge to accommodate differences in width is simple - just go up or down a hook size. But what about height? In making the gauge swatch for my socks my 23 rows are only 8 cms tall (it's a British pattern) instead of the 10 cms the pattern designer has given for the swatch height.

So I've been hunting around online on see if there is a fix. I have a sneaking suspicion that my stitches have always been too short historically. But usually this doesn't matter because the pattern says work pattern rows until the item measures however many inches.

A post by Marty Miller on her Crochet Doctor blog: What else affects gauge gave me some ideas on what I should try. Marty is a crochet designer, author, tech editor, and teacher - both locally and nationally. She is also a Craftsy instructor with a rather exciting looking class on Mastering Foundation Crochet Stitches.

Marty gives a lot of helpful advice here and I found out that yanking my yarn to tighten the loop on the hook or letting my hook rest on the top of the stitch below could be my issue, causing my stitches to be too short. I should lift my hook up, above the stitch below, to give the yarn some "breathing space" and keep my hook almost parallel to the top of the stitch below.  I tried it and it worked! Yay.

I just realized that I have made a pattern by Marty Miller recently. It was in the latest edition of Interweave Crochet Spring 2016 (the 10th birthday collector's edition no less) and I made it as a sample for the yarn store where I work. It turned out really really well. Check it out on Ravelry: The Rufflier Scarf. Here is my version.

And then I found a fascinating video tutorial by crochet designer Deja Jetmir on her Crochet Ever After blog with further information. Deja has over 400 tutorials on youtube - a fantastic learning resource.

 Deja describes "the Golden Loop Method" of altering gauge height: Fixing gauge when height is incorrect aka Golden Loop Method. The golden loop is the first one that you pull up and how you deal with this first loop makes a big difference to the height of your stitch. Watch it to find out if you're a rider, a yanker or a lifter!

New podcast review - The Crochet Circle

I just discovered episode three of a brand new podcast (late to the launch again but better late than never!) and I am absolutely smitten. It's "The Crochet Circle Podcast" and it's British, like me, and focuses on crochet with a little bit of knitting on the side - which describes my crafting preferences perfectly.

I smile to myself while listening to how giddy and happy the two hosts are - Lynne Rowe and Fay Dashper-Hughes.  Lynne is a crochet and knitting designer, teacher, pattern checker and copy editor and has even published her own craft books. Fay is a new but extremely enthusiastic crocheter and knitter and has just set up her own company selling carefully sourced products for crochet and knitting.

I had a bit of a binge listening session at the weekend to catch up. They already feel like two dear friends to me and I just want to chip in with my own little anecdote and add to the conversation. So I've joined their new Ravelry group The Crochet Circle Podcast so that I can do exactly this. I'm not on Ravelry as much as I should. It's like a rabbit warren, it draws me in and then I wonder where all that time went....

Their yarn stashes are fabulously named the "Yarn Palace" and the "Wool Nest". Fay likes to shop but Lynne is frugal like myself. Fay is a bad influence on Lynne. Listening to Fay is starting to influence my shopping habits too!   

Both ladies by pure coincidence come from a waste management background and one aim of the podcast is to promote sustainable crochet practices of Reduce Reuse Recycle. Yay! I'm a huge fan of sustainability too.

The kind of things you're going to hear on the Crochet Circle Podcast are: interviews with British yarn industry folk and crochet and knitting groups, tips and tricks to improve and simplify crochet and reviews of crochet magazines and books and yarn.  They have a Crochet Yay and Crochet Nay section which is particularly hilarious and there is a WIP wall where they list out their works in progress for all to hear.

Fay kindly provided me with the images for this blog post. I mainly use my own images as you know. Thank you very much Fay!

Here's the link to the podcast. Have a little listen and if you like what you hear why not join the Ravelry group too? I'll catch up with you there!

Knit or Crochet Texan [Part 2 of 3]

I'm continuing with my series of blog posts on Knit or Crochet Texan. Here's a link to Part 1 if you missed it! I am really having A LOT of fun researching local yarn industry folk to include.

Local indie dyer: Little Monkeys Stitch n’ Spin
I ordered a kit last week from Little Monkeys using a Christmas Etsy gift card.  Don't you love it when your family buy you a yarn-related gift!? Dena is Houston-based and specializes in hand-spun yarn, custom crochet and supplies for fiber artists. I found Dena on Etsy using the handy shop location option at the bottom left hand side where you can refine your search. The kit has arrived. It looks amazing and I am being very strong and not starting it before finishing at least one or two of my current WIPs (works in progress). I have put the cute stitch markers to use straight away though on a scarf that I am knitting but that doesn't count as starting a project obviously.

 

Local designer: The Crochet Dude Drew Emborsky
On his Instagram profile Drew writes "A couple of years ago I started a blog and now I'm really busy." which I find rather amusing. When I've been teaching boys I tell them all about the Crochet Dude. He really is super famous. He has his own yarn line and his tools are available nationwide. I do actually own a set of his hooks. I've just lost myself on his website for the last half an hour and I think I have a new project. What do you think of this free crochet purse pattern: Chic on the Halfshell. Don't we always need a new purse?

Local podcast: Kitchen Stitches
I do love my podcasts. I wrote about five pleasing podcasts back in February. I included Kitchen Stitches which features three crafty ladies who I have actually met and crafted with in person: Somer, Katie and Darcy. They are long podcasts, over an hour, but there is a lot of content in there. They talk about current and finished projects and casting on soon, acquisitions, local events and what they are reading and watching and what's in the kitchen!! I have not listened to the last two episodes so I better bring this post to an end, get out my current project and catch up.

Crafting in the great outdoors

My usual blogging time is early Saturday morning while my kids are just waking up and my hubby is out on an early ride with his bike club but last weekend we were camping making the most of the glorious spring weather in Texas. Of course a WIP came too, as it always does. I am working on the extremely cute bobble vine jacket by Edie Eckman with the last of my bargain Cascade Alpaca Lana D'Oro stash yarn.

I love crafting outdoors with my dog by my side in a beautiful peaceful setting accompanied by the sound of nature. I've even taken it so far to entice friends to learn to crochet while camping with us when I needed my teaching hours for my crochet certificates - a captive audience. Poor things. Read my post The Joy of Crafting with others for photographic evidence.

I thought I'd peruse the web for others fond of knitting and crochet in the great outdoors.

What are the best outdoor projects?

I found some extremely sensible advice on the Knitpicks Blog:  3 favorite projects for the great outdoors These are #1 portable socks, #2 modular projects such as squares for a blanket and #3 finishing off. 

Where is a good place to crochet outdoors?

Rachel Choi of the CrochetSpot blog suggest a number of good places to crochet outdoors in her article 6 fun places to crochet outside. Love it!

Knit some camping accessories 

Actually found a book about knitting projects specifically for camping. How fun! Check out In the Woods: 20 Projects for the Great Outdoors by Shannon Okey.

Crochet a camping adventure

Yes I do have this book, a Christmas gift from one who knows me well. It's adorable. Let's Go Camping!: Crochet Your Own Adventure by Kate Bruning  Reminiscent of vintage camping memorabilia, create a nostalgic collection of crochet projects encompassing all aspects of outdoor life ranging from vintage caravans and ice cream trucks, to tents and teepees with all the camping paraphernalia of sleeping bags, backpacks and a log fire, as well as mountain and forest scenery.

A date for your diary - World Wide Knit in Public Day

This started in 2005 and WWKIP Day is unique, in that it’s the largest knitter run event in the world. Each local event is put together by volunteers. It's coming up on Saturday 18th June and here are all the details about how to get involved.

 

Hope you're now feeling inspired to take your yarn projects outside! Let me know if you do! 

 

Happy Birthday to Yak and Yarn

My crafting group Yak and Yarn is one year old this month. And we are going to eat cake and celebrate!

We meet at a local café twice a month (one day time and one evening meeting to cater for all). We have three core members. I am know as The Fearless Leader which makes me smile because if you know me I'm very relaxed. I set the dates and let people know via our Facebook group and email list. I also research pattern ideas for our group projects.

Audrey is our Head of Charity. I started the group just as a meet up with no particular mission other than fellowship for yarn lovers. Then Audrey was asked for blankets for a local charity and so our joint projects began. After the blankets came the scarfs for the homeless and then baby blankets for a third local charity. Making things together has really brought us closer as a group and given us a sense of purpose. But there is no judgment if someone is working on their personal project instead.

Roxanne is our Head of Recruitment. She has been doing an awesome job asking her friends and neighbors to join us and even teaching her friends so that they can take part too.

As for the other members we have a real mix of nationalities: American, Kiwi, English, Scottish, Indian, Russian, Italian, Canadian.... apologies if I've missed any of you. Houston is a very culturally rich place. Our youngest member is 12, a daughter of a member, and our oldest is in her 80s, the mother of a member in Indiana (satellite members are welcome to join). People come and go and that is fine by us. Life is busy and priorities change. But I feel confident our group will continue ... 

PS The pattern for this adorable slice of birthday cake by crochet designer Donna Childs came from the most recent 10th Birthday Collector's Edition of Interweave Crochet.  The yarn store where I work has just starting stocking this magazine. I am SOO happy. It's just marvelous!

March is NatCroMo National Crochet Month

I first found out about Crochetville and National Crochet Month listening to Mary Bird talk to Amy Shelton on her Yarn thing podcast six months ago. At the time I was thinking, "Wow, this is incredible". Of course, I forgot all about it in the interim but on Tuesday I spotted #natcromo in my Twitter highlights and I managed to climb on board the Crochet Express on day 1. Yay! 

You board the train by joining the Facebook group National Crochet Month The Crochet Express is Crochetville's month-long virtual passenger steam train trip taking us on a whirlwind tour of crochet designers, crochet-friendly local yarn stores, and yarn companies.

The Train Staff comprise: Amy Shelton as Conductor and Donna Hulka as Ticket Agent both of Crochetville and Tammy Hildebrand of Hot Lava Crochet.

 

There is a lot going on but I'm particularly enjoying the train stops at the websites of crochet designers and looking out for the daily giveaways. As a passenger on the train you can also post your favorite finds of the day and share your current crochet projects. How fun!

Anyway without further ado I invite you to jump on the train with me: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nationalcrochetmonth/


 

How to untangle yarn [try it yourself or find a yarn wrangler]

Every now and then a yarn-related story will hit the mainstream news, be shared around social media and become a topic of conversation even amongst your non-yarny friends. How fun! In late December, the Wall Street Journal published "Knitters with hopelessly knotted yarn call 'Detanglers' for help".

"Many knitters find their craft a tranquil and even meditative pastime - until knots and tangles in their yarn send them into a fury. But for one group of fanatics, there is nothing more satisfying than a hopelessly tangled web. Daphne of Melbourne, Australia, once paid about $50 on eBay for a 25-pound box of snarled yarn, simply for the pleasure of untangling it."

I loved reading this article and was already aware of the therapeutic benefits of untangling yarn for some. However at the time of reading I thought I'm not one of those silly people who would ever get my yarn in a tangle. I'm far too careful.

But last month I was merrily winding a skein of expensive lace weight yarn on my swift and ball winder. I've never worked with lace weight yarn before I realize. Then the yarn breaks and I start a new ball. And then it breaks again. And in one of those rather vacant moments I just decide rather than start a new ball I'll wind on top of the ball and all will be well. Later when I start to crochet with the yarn the ball collapses leaving me with the worst tangle I've ever witnessed (see above). Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I now realize I should have wound my yarn very slowly because lace weight yarn is so very delicate. And winding a ball on top of a ball was just downright silliness that I will not repeat.

Anyway I decided I would see if detangling was relaxing for me and found the following tips on what to do:

Jessie Rayot from Jessie at Home has a helpful photo tutorial that I rather like on how to untangle yarn. Katrin Kania gives tips on how to untangle yarn using your swift how to untangle a skein of yarn I particularly love Katrin's instruction on how to calculate the time required:

"To get an estimation of how long it will take you, make a wild guess. Then multiply the time of your wild guess by two - that's the pessimistic wild guess. Now multiply that by ten, and you have an estimate."

I spent several evenings on my untangling project and I can report that it was very absorbing. But now it has been put aside, still on my swift, looking just as tangled as when I started. Perhaps I will need to bring in a Yarn Wrangler from the Knot a Problem group on Ravelry. Roving Crafters describe how to get the experts involved in their article: never fear the yarn wranglers are here

Getting a little better all the time [crochet and knit tutorial links]

I have completed making swatch samples for my Craft Yarn Council knitting 1 certificate. Hurray! Other yarn projects have taken a back seat for a while but that's OK because rotating projects are entirely acceptable for yarn addicted people such as ourselves. I love how learning to teach makes you learn new techniques and improve your existing ones. I've learnt "european" knitting, cable cast on, feather and fan stitch and also discovered what I should improve.

I've realized that my purl stitch is far looser than my knit stitch working on the first two swatches which call for 5" garter stitch squares in knit and purl. My purl swatch is simply sloppy requiring far fewer stitches than my neat knitted candidate. But according to one of my proficient knitting friends (she can knit Fox Paws without assistance) this is not unusual and can be fixed. A quick online search led to a solution. Hurray for Ysolda Teague!

We all love to learn new techniques so I thought I'd share a few online resources for this. My list is a tad biased towards crochet since my return to knitting is very recent:

Knitting designer, Ysolda Teague, has a collection of excellent photo tutorials on her Technique Thursday page. This is where I found out how to make my purl stitches tighter.
 
At knitting designers Tin Can Knits, 2016 is the Year to Learn Something New and they even have a hashtag #TCKnewtricksKAL How fun!

Blogger, designer and teacher Marie Segares of Underground Crafter has a great archive on her blog Tips Tuesdays the most recent being how to join your first (or next) CAL (crochet along) - always a great way to improve your skills!

Blogger, writer and crocheter Kathryn Vercillo of Crochet Concupiscence provides very clear photo tutorials of crochet stitches and also gives a link to other crochet tutorials if you'd like more!

Craft media company Interweave gives free crochet tips articles on it's online store including making amigurumi, sizing your afghans etc

New York store and online resource for "needlecrafters of every ilk" Purl Soho provides both knit tutorials and crochet tutorials on their beautifully presented site.

I know this is just a tiny selection (and I haven't even delved into the world of video tutorials), so I'd love to hear from you if you have a particular favorite place to learn new techniques online. Just let me know in the comments section below!

Are you bistitchual?

I think the term bistitchual is rather fabulous. It's defined along with a great example in the Urban Dictionary as:

 

The ability to create stitches in two crafts, e.g. knitting and crocheting.

 

Alena is bistitchual; she can both crochet and knit.
Penelope is not bistitchual; she can only knit.

 

I am one of the 49% of crocheters who also knit* and it's time for me to devote a little more time to improving my knitting skills now that the holiday gift-making is a distant memory.

I am embarking on the Craft Yarn Council's first knitting certificate. Hurrah! It's a six month long distance-learning course and my career in the yarn industry really began when I started my first CYC crochet certificate almost two years ago. Back then I didn't plan to actually get a job teaching crochet at that time. Read about it in my earlier post "How my crochet career began".

 

I have run a knitting and crochet workshop at my local yarn store every Friday afternoon for the last 16 months. I certainly knitted more frequently than crocheted in my younger years. The height of my knitting prowess was a sweater with a multicolored intarsia countryside scene (so twee!). In short, I'm not a beginner. Pattern support is the most common requirements at the workshop and I am pretty good at deciphering the symbols. However, having gained so much knowledge undertaking my two crochet certificates I feel that I have a duty to my knitting attendees to up my game to the same level. I want to be able to talk authoritatively about knitting best practice in the same way as I can for crochet and I know that the certificate will do this for me.

I just received details of my assignments today and my master teacher is the knit and crochet guru Edie Eckman. I own two of her books and I am totally in awe of her skills. I am so excited and albeit rather nervous about having her assess my work. Better get stitching!

*The State of Specialty NeedleArts Survey 2013, National Needlearts Association (TNNA)

Christmas gift-making frenzy

Oh yes, it's time to begin the gift-making frenzy in earnest with just 10 weeks until Christmas and considerably less if your family lives in a different country like us! I started out slowly last month with these amazing baubles by Kate on her Greedy for Colour blog. Check out her christmas crochet bauble tutorial. And I've been playing with the pattern, as you do, making variations for multi-color and school spirit color versions, reducing rows for thicker yarn, changing the decrease a little... Of course I am using materials from my yarn stash. The silver thread is hopelessly tangled as often happens with metallic types but this is part of the process untangling it when I need another bauble top. Craft is meant to be slow and meditative IMHO.

And my daughter has, as of this summer, found her craft and learnt to operate a sewing machine. Yay! So I have been scouring Pinterest looking for inspiration for her too. She has seven teachers in middle school so I'm thinking a gift from her will be far more meaningful to them and far less stressful for me. I think we have decided on customizing canvas tote bags along the lines of the Notepad Tote from Liz Stanley on her Say Yes blog. Everyone needs a reusable bag, surely!

I just discovered Ask Me Monday videos by creative entrepreneur Vickie Howell on Facebook. Video #10 is timed to perfection with tips on successful holiday gift-making. I particularly like the advice to "think small, go big" using larger gauge on-trend yarns. Genius! I'm off to search my stash for chunky yarn...

Yak & Yarn group growth

Last week we had our first daytime yak and yarn meet-up. Since we began in March it has been one Sunday evening a month (with the summer off) but we have members who live further afield and so to accommodate we have doubled our monthly meetings to two! Wow!

Rather remarkably lapghan #13 originates from Indiana (yes - Y&Y has gone national!). One of our daytime members taught her mom how to make our square while visiting and returned recently to find her mom had completed 63 squares, enough for our blanket. Love this story. It just warms my heart! And I am finishing up the joining of lapghan #14. It's a patchwork design this time since I have the final squares in many different colors.

We still have worsted weight yarn left over so we are making scarfs for the homeless using this rather nifty pattern I found online by Evelyn Mayfield on her blog Prayersncrafts. The half double crochet stitch is sturdy but hooking into the back of the loop gives the scarf a pleasing stretchiness. Simple but effective - my favorite kind of pattern.

And our next project (#3) will be baby blankets comprised of classic granny squares in a lighter sport weight yarn using a 4mm hook. I have written out the pattern since there isn't an original designer I can attribute the first granny square to. I am a big fan of the humble but versatile granny square.

The joy of crafting with others

There is something wonderful about crafting with others, getting out of your house and enjoying the fellowship of other gentle yarny folk. My first experience of this was back in Bristol in the UK in the winter of 2011. My local pub, the Victoria, a short stroll from my house, hosted a first Sunday of the month "Knit and Natter". The kids, younger then, were in bed and my husband happily watching Top Gear. There were eight of us knitting and I realized at that first meeting that I had been crafting in a silo up until then. We sat in the railway tunnel part of the pub (maybe it actually was a disused railway tunnel) - from a silo to a tunnel - and I enjoyed a pint of cider as you do in the West Country while we chattered about nothing in particular while our fingers were busy. Bliss.

And then shortly after moving to Houston in the spring of 2012 I signed my kids up to swimming lessons and was delighted to discover a fellow knitter doing her stuff in public with children occupied at the same time as mine. And so an impromptu group began of four of us knitting together and it was the BEST part of my week. But after a year or so the children's activities changed and our happy yarny meet ups ended.

Fulfilling the thirty hours of teaching crochet for my two certificates led to more communal crafting. For several months I carried my hooks and yarn everywhere looking for willing guinea pigs among my friends. Pictured above several victims learning while camping at a Texas State Park! Asking the yarn store owner if I could teach on her comfy sofa led to my current job running their Friday knitting and crochet workshop.

My master teacher asked me during my assessment if I was crafting with a group (the workshop doesn't count) and encouraged me to find one. Well now I have Yarn People at my public library each week (following my original knitting swim mom), a fortnightly craft group at church which has just started and my own monthly Yak and Yarn meet up at a local café which I started after attending a day long craft retreat in January this year. That's probably more than sufficient. 

 

 

Laphans for Yak and Yarn

Our Yak and Yarn group which only began in March this year has been having so much fun making lapghans together for local charity Angela House as our first joint project. And if my calculations are correct we are putting together number 14 currently. Yay!

I have been taking photos of each one before delivery to the ladies but I lost photos clearing my cellphone so I am missing some. I thought they were on the cloud but alas no. I lost photos of the two quilts made of fantastic African material by one of our talented Y&Y members. Technology can be a tad annoying at times!

Anyway, here are the photos I managed to salvage of early lapghans and the most recent beauties we have made. We made single crochet 5 inch squares using a cardboard template and for the majority of the lapghans added an edging of single crochet and single crochet joined the squares together.

 

Log Cabin blanket

I am a huge fan of Lucy from Attic24. She is a fellow Brit, has an amazing eye for combining just the right uplifting colors and has such a sweet voice on her blog.

I have made two of her blankets: the neat ripple and the cosy which I am immensely pleased with. This summer I found "boyish" colors of Ella Rae in sufficient quantities in the sale bin at work so started her coast blanket for my son. However, the ripples were looking a little feminine and I'd been warned not to embarass him. (I fully intend for him to take this blanket to college). So a geometric design came to mind and because I am somewhat scarred by six months of joining charity blanket squares it has to be in the round.

I didn't find a pattern I liked so I made it up as I went along.  Was absolutely delighted to find out on Facebook this week that Lucy's next CAL (crochet along) will be a log cabin too. Of course it looks totally different from mine!! It's oh so cute, the colors are totally Lucy and there is a granny square flower in the middle. Gorgeous!

I have just reread my published post on what I did and they make no sense whatsoever. I do apologize. Please just skip the next paragraph and carry on reading at "I may well...."
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Squares: My starting square is 30 stitches wide by 24 hdc rows tall. Edging the square with single crochet: Once I finished a color I put hdc, 2 sc in the corner and carried on around the corner with one sc stitches per row  for two rows then two sc in the third row so that I had an even 30 sc for my next color block. Then I rejoined the yarn to the opposite side and followed the same pattern one sc per row for two rows then two sc in the third row then 3 sc in the corner and sc all along the top.
Joining the new color yarn: Once I got to the end I did 3 sc in the corner and then joined the new yarn color for a new block at right angles to the last. I started one stitch in and stopped one stitch from the end so that I had space for the edging to go all the way around.

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I may well get around to writing out the pattern properly once I figure out how I make it into a rectangle rather than a square but I'm one color block away from making a decision on that. I'm thinking seven block wide one block high rectangles at the moment above and below the main rotating pattern but will see what I think up!

Here is the blanket so far. I am enjoy this so much and the hdc are extremely relaxing - an easy watching-TV-with-my-husband kind of project.

Peyton Heart Project

I wanted to let you know about a collaborative craft project that I found out about recently. A dad from Conroe, Texas lost his 13 year old son, Peyton, in October 2014 to suicide. Crafters are now trying to help end the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health issues in honor of Peyton through the #PeytonHeartProject, created by Jill Kubin from NJ. They make and leave crochet, knit and yarn hearts in public spaces with an upbeat quotation for people to take away.

Peyton's dad shared the Peyton Heart Project's Facebook page on the yarn store page which I manage and his words have been playing on my mind ever since.

Here is a recent newspaper article and the Facebook page.

I made my first hearts using a fantastic heart crochet pattern that I've used before from Simply Crochet magazine issue 27. I read that over 1,000 hearts have been shared worldwide to date. I've seen many posted to social media with the #peytonheartproject tag and each one makes me smile.

Ladybird ladybird fly away home

Made another gift, this time for the daughter of one of my mommy friends (the recipient of an amigurumi pig). I very much like the quick turnaround of these small projects especially since my only two WIPs are large: joining and edging of charity lapghan #10 and my son's ripple blanket. I reckon I can finish at least one blanket on our upcoming road-trip to Colorado.

Anyway, searched on Ravelry for ladybirds and found this cute pattern. It's knitting again by the wonderful @deadlyknitshade http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lovely-knitted-ladybird But then I had to embellish it with crochet eyes and my husband said "where are it's legs?" so ta dah my ladybird also has legs.

And the recipient of the ladybird built her a home. Here it is. Sweet!