Tea and Cake

I got a chance to catch up with Probably Jane, it has been too long.

We had a lovely lunch and we might have popped into Rainham Hall for a bit of this

I also got a chance to work a little more on my sock.

It was lovely to catch up especially as we no longer meet up at the farm each week.

I got spoiled too, we have an arrangement that we don’t necessarily give each other presents on our actual birthdays but we wait to see something that we think the other would like, so Jane presented me with this amazing yarn.

It is the perfect colour from Travel Knitter it’s called Electric Junkyard and it’s beautiful and am trying very hard not to wind it into a ball and cast on a new project, I think this might be my treat when I finish my crochet workshop hand outs.

There was also this in my parcel

I have always admired the knitted moths and now I have my very own pin to add to my project bag.

Advertisements

Future designs

It’s been difficult to find a photo to share at the moment as a lot of the crochet I’m working on is for the workshops I’ll be running at this years ELCG crochet retreat but I will post this little teaser.

I love the retreat every year, twelve workshops in four days in beautiful surroundings with the best catering with a bunch of friends with similar passions. I learn so much from everyone and enjoy the fresh air out in the countryside.

A little trip out

Today was my first check up after my discharge from BARTs so it was a perfect excuse to cast on another sock after finishing Lb’s last pair. I love socks for bus journeys for two reasons, firstly when you get past the toe you just keep knitting with out any counting if it’s just a vanilla sock. Secondly you only have to carry one ball of yarn so can easily fit in my hand bag.

I have used Jenny’s magic cast on and a modified version of a Queen Kahuna fan toe , the yarn is without label but I think it’s a Regia 4ply from memory.

As you can see BART’s has a lovely court yard in which to sit and knit when you have a bit of a wait.

As for the appointment itself, it didn’t go as badly as it could have done as there was a real possibility that they would want to re-admit me if my bloods weren’t great, they are not perfect but they are ok, we are going to tweak my medication but at worst I may have to go in for an overnight evaluation but fingers crossed if these tablets help I won’t have to do that.

Sampling continues

After a busy evening at a fundraiser for our local beaver/cub/scout groups, where I spent the evening battling some veggie burgers, it took at least double the time on the package to cook, into submission and cooking a whole heap of sausages and burgers, I didn’t have much brain left for crochet so kept it simple and worked three double filet squares that are the first pattern we use to introduce people to double filet.

I love the way this simple square can look so different by just changing colours on different rows. The square on the left is the basic two colour square, you can download the instructions for this here .

The other joy of this square is that it looks as interesting on the the reverse.

Teaching samples

Today I managed to finish off a missing sample from my teaching book for double filet.

It’s not unusual for me to have to remake these on a regular basis as we have a tendency to lend beginners our samples as it’s really useful to see the back and front of the work, this is our sample for short diagonals. In double filet you generally only see diagonals on the front of the work. To see more double filet check out https://doublefilet.weebly.com .

Experiment

I have been wanting to try this pattern since I saw the original sample on Brightnah Instagram feed.

I had already worked a few projects in regular C2C so was intrigued by Wavy C2C, you’ll have to excuse the colours they were the odd balls I had sat next to me, the pattern does talk about colour placement but I was just keen to learn the technique first, which is also why I used a 3mm hook, I find for me learning a new technique in a tight tension is easier as it makes the cloth very stiff and I am unlikely to lose a stitch.

The pattern comes with bonus colour sheets and the pattern itself is full of information, well illustrated plus a lot of additional instructions on extending the pattern. I am looking forward to making another sample with more considered colour placement.

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.