A little bit of crochet

I like a few people I imagine are finding the world a bit challenging at the moment so  it was lovely to lose myself into the first East London double filet crochet workshop of the year last weekend.

As most of you know I belong to the group that specialise in this form of crochet, intermeshing crochet is similar but a little different, and we run four workshops a year. Unfortunately our March meeting had to be postponed because of the snow, our members travel from all over the country so  it was decided that it just wouldn’t be safe, so we rearranged the workshop for last Saturday and although we were missing a few of our members we almost had a full house with a few beginners deciding to join us for the first time.

Unfortunately being busy meant that I didn’t get many photos.

These use patterns from our last meeting, Barbara M’s used Rose’s tile pattern to make a great bag (wish I had taken a photo of the ends now, and Rose worked these squares based on Michael M’s designs on African stools, the squares should be viewed turned 90degrees anticlockwise, this shows how rushed I was trying to grab a few photos.

These are very quick snaps on the amazing work Barbara M. did on transferring Torchon Lace to single filet to double filet in the first photo and in the second photo taking it a step further using the Torchon Crossover stitch as inspiration (including her own handmade lace samples).

We always have a show and tell after lunch for anything yarn based so can be knitting or crochet and these are only a glimpse of what was presented, we have such a talented group.

We also had designs by Micheal M., Rose B, and Mary B. in our pattern pack this time around and I hope to get a few more photo’s of their samples when I meet up with them next so I can share.

My contribution for this meet were for patterns that double filet patterns from our back catalogue could be used to make.

A really simple pair of slippers, that even beginners could tackle (the front square designed by Natalie B.) and a phone/tablet rest based on a humbug shape. I also found a great source of DMC original patterns from their archives here which I translated into a couple of pages of patterns, no photos I am afraid.

It was a lovely day if a little exhausting, next one is in June so I better get on with some designing.

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SkipNorth

It is my favourite time of year, our annual group trip to fondle yarn, eat cake and laugh.

This year we made the brave choice to move locations after unfortunately our previous hostel had, due to decisions being taken further up in the organisation, dropped in standards with no wish to take onboard any feed back, we will miss the staff there but on with the positive side and that is we have found a new home at Ingleton Hostel

I have to say they really made us welcome, especially as it was their first weekend of the season, the place has lots of space with beautiful views from the sun lounge over looking the viaduct. They also do great food, sourced locally including a great vegetarian pasty.

As we were in a slightly different area it gave us a chance to visit a couple of new places, on Friday as people arrived we got a chance to wander around Ingleton itself and I found  Bernie’s where you can buy great cake and fulfil all your climbing purchases. They do a great bacon Bap and have the cutest Milk jugs.

We of course had our annual P/hop swap in the evening and I have been very good and have already used the cotton I picked up, unfortunately I can’t show you the result as its for a workshop later in the year.

As you can see from the earlier photos we did manage to avoid the snow but on the Saturday it was a little damp but this didn’t spoil the views from the coach.

For me this is one of the reasons I love the weekend, the views are amazing even if a little damp, you can’t take a bad photo even from a speeding coach.

Our first stop on the Saturday was Adelaide Walker who opened especially for us. They are a glorious place for any spinner or felt maker but also have some useful little things like bag magnets, olive oil soap and shawl pins.

Now this is where my photography skills failed, I think because this is the place that I love visiting and got so carried away for looking for bargains (Rowan Wool Cotton at £2 a ball I thank you) that I forgot to take any photos of Stash Fine Yarns I do recommend a visit though if you are in the area, they were so lovely that they took pity on us all and made us tea and coffee.

We then headed onto Skipton, where there were a selection of places to visit including Purl and Jane also a good number of charity shops and places to take afternoon tea.

And on our way home we dropped into the closest wool shop to the Youth hostel Beckside Yarns which for a smaller store had the most amazing collection of yarn including a good selection of Kauni and Noro.

We returned back to the hostel for a fun evening of tea and cake, I’ll let the ladies explain whats going on here

Sunday brought us some sun and a day of new locations to visit, we headed north to Sedbergh and Westwood Books which is an amazing second hand book shop with over 60’000 unlisted books, I was a bit mean and only allowed people half an hour to be honest I could have spent all day especially as there was a sofa and a coffee machine.

We carried on to Farfield Mill which is an Arts, Crafts and Heritage centre, lots of artisans at work plus the large working looms in the mill, plus displays of floor looms and lace making. Of course the essential Cafe, we were warned that it was going to be busy as it was Mothers day but we must have timed it right as we had the cafe to ourself

The views were also stunning

The journey back on the coach was the highlight of the trip for me, the sun brought out all the lush greens on the hills.

I had a great time, it is always great to catch up with everyone and now that we have found a new home I hope a few more people will be able to join us next year.

Thank you, thank you, thank you

Thank you to everyone who took the time to either buy, favourite, liked and took the time to look at my new pattern Gejelh on Ravelry it absolutely made my day, as I said on instagram I fell in love with this pattern as I designed it, it came out just like I had imagined it.

It’s influenced by the crown worn by Merry Gejelh in the Dr Who Episode Rings Of Akhaten (this is a you tube link). They say design from what you know and I know it may be a bit Geeky but Dr Who has been with me through out my life, from hiding behind my parents sofa as a young child hiding from the cybermen, always the scariest of the Doctor’s enemies, to present day where my little boy hides behind me when the weeping angels appear. So hence Gejelh

Its knitted in double knitting weight yarn, in this case DMC Woolly, which is a 100% merino and seems to give really good definition to the stitches. I have used eight beads as an accent but you don’t have to do this, just replace the stitch with a simple knit stitch and it will work just as well.

And once again thank you, as Terri commented on Facebook its like giving birth to a child and letting it out into the world, its incredibly nerve wracking so to have such a positive response was wonderful.

WAWS

Its been a busy week, its amazing how much work a move creates, not only the physical packing and unpacking but so much paperwork, especially when it is over the Christmas period as so many official bodies close over the holidays so we have spent a lot of time chasing things up that have got lost in the ‘mail’.

But the good news is that it is one of my favourite wool shows coming up this weekend.

The reason it is one of my favourites is that there is plenty of opportunity the not only shop from great indie designers and dyers but its a great social occasion, the hotel has a great open reception with great seating and a bar where you can buy tea and coffee, and its great to see the  place full of knitters and crocheters when I get a break.

Unfortunately because of the move I am not in a situation to dye yarn at present but I have finally finished a couple of knitting patterns that I have been working on for a while that I am going to have with me. Jane of course will have her great collection of patterns plus a few new patterns from her Gothic Island collection too.

Here is a sneak peak of one of mine called Gejelh, I hope to have it up on Ravelry in a couple of weeks, I just need to reformat it for that.

I know the photo isn’t great, I blame the failing light, hopefully better soon.

I hope to see some of you there.

New Craft

I posted this photo on my instagram feed yesterday

I thought I might explain a little bit about how I came across this new to me craft.

I actually ordered this kit back at the beginning of December from Amazon, I had actually been searching for a book on 3D embroidery stitches when a item describing itself as 5D embroidery popped up, well at £2.50 and free postage I couldn’t resist seeing what it was and added it to my order and didn’t think any more about it.

Well it arrived a couple of days ago and to be honest it couldn’t have been better timed, I’ve been struggling to knit or crochet without a sofa, I find it quite hard without good back support for any length of time so my fingers were starting to be really itchy but my brain was a bit to foggy to do anything complicated but felt I just needed to do something so I opened the parcel.

You get a printed canvas, it looks a bit like a cross stitch pattern which is covered in small squares and different symbols.

It is covered in adhesive and in this case a clear plastic coating you can peel off (some have a paper covering) also on the side it has a colour chart showing you which symbol matches which colour.

Also enclosed are the stick tool, a tray, a small chunk of wax and all the different coloured faceted resin pieces.

These aren’t quite how they came, when they arrive they are a strip of sealed packages, I have transferred them into little resealable bags. In this case I have fourteen colours. From what I understand you can get different types of these kits and this is quite a good one to start with as the resins are round so you have a little lea way in placing them where as if I had got the square resins you have to be a lot more accurate, you can also choose between kits where you have to cover the whole canvas with resins (I think if I order another one this is the type I would choose) or there are kits like mine where you only have part of the canvas to cover.

The tool is very nifty, you just take a small amount of wax into the metal end and this is enough for the resins to stick enough for you to pick them up.

And the tray is clever, it has little ridges in the bottom so if you gently tap it they all turn the right way up.

After watching a few you tube videos, some people seem to finish one colour before starting another but that means exposing all the glue so I have gone for working from one corner. The glue is very sticky so it’s definitely a hair back situation.

And it’s as simple as picking up the resin and finding its matching symbol and pressing it down into the canvas.

It’s a bit like a mix between a cross stitch but with the speed of a jigsaw, I must confess it’s like one of the reviewers on Amazon said, it’s probably not something I would hang on my wall (just not my personal taste) but it’s all about the doing, I found it a really good way to zone out and even vent a little anger, saying that I don’t recommend stabbing at the resins in the tray too hard as I found out as a number of other resin jumped out. It’s also one of the few crafts that Lb wanted to actually try and in fact spent twenty minutes doing one of the flowers and unfortunately in a house full of craft materials he has little interest in most crafts so it was nice to find something he wanted to try, he is far more involved in making music.

In this photo I have placed a penny just to show the scale.

My progress may slow down as my sofas actually arrived today, so tomorrow my knitting and crochet are coming out and I am treating myself to a day on the sofa.

Can’t wait till tomorrow

Thank you everyone for your kind and supportive words after my last post, I am honestly not quite as forlorn as I may have sounded, I am sure that I will learn to love this place as much as the last.

What will help is that our sofa’s arrive tomorrow.

They are new to us and a lovely grey suede so at least when I put a throw on them it won’t slide. Now fingers crossed they fit, I got a rough measurement but unfortunately I hadn’t gone prepared and the only measuring tape our local British Heart Foundation shop had was a cloth tape which didn’t make things easy, especially as I was by myself so fingers crossed, that also goes for the wardrobe I found too.

The sofas though will make a huge difference, we’ve been sitting on dining chairs since the 30th, our last sofa wouldn’t have fitted in the new place, and I have found that I can’t really sit in them for longer than two hours, or knit or crochet and what is even worse is that on nights like these where the insomnia gets the better of me I can’t really get up and watch some stupid TV and unwind. So tomorrow is going to be a great day and have already booked myself a whole day of sofa sitting and knitting on Wednesday, and then maybe all will feel right with the world once again.

So a New Year in our new flat, now it is a nice flat and I am in love with our new flooring

But I am finding it hard when people come in and say oh isn’t it so much better than the last place, now cosmetically it is and yes it has double glazing which will help with the bills but I didn’t want to move from our last place. It was old and shabby but it was almost double the size of this place and the windows were huge and I could lay in bed and watch the clouds sail by and witness amazing sunsets.

I am very grateful to have a roof over my head as I know many haven’t and I will make it a home but please if you visit remember we were forced to leave our last home due to the council deciding to pull the blocks down rather than us looking for somewhere different so I am still in mourning for our old home.