9th January 2017

The knee continues to hamper movement.
Hope restored with almost hobble free walking, then dashed when the tendon? ligament? muscle? at the back and to the side (outer), of the knee begins to hurt again and exaggerated hobbling resumes.  At least my bum is reacquainted with the sofa, it's lowness no longer a barrier.

Plans to visit the skate park are saved by my housemate, who takes Rye and her children there this afternoon.  The sun even shone its benediction on the outing.  I'm bored, these four walls are beginning to press in on me.  To distract myself, I nosey in my wip basket; there's crochet flower motifs ready for hanging into bunting, granny triangles needing blocking, a half finished freeform baby jumper, the base of a gnome house, random scrumbles, and my grotty falling apart red slippers I began covering with scrumbles several months ago.

Cold toes nudge me about the slippers, and I pull them out and decide today is the day.  I find my sheet of faux leather and cut out soles.  I've no idea how to add them properly - in my mind's eye I keep seeing the stitching on Dr Martins boots, and have a vague idea of doing something like that.
I start by gluing the soles to the slippers.  One of the slippers has scrumbles already attached and it occurs to me this could make hiding the edges of the sole difficult.

I work on the slipper without any scrumbles first.  Using a running stitch, I sew the sole onto the bottom on the slipper, my idea being, I will cover the raw edges of the sole with scrumbles as I attache them.  It's not as easy as I imagined, and at some point it occurs to me that folding the edge over and whip stitching it to the slipper is probably the best plan.  I use No.8 Anchor pearlised cotton, reading later online, I discover that waxed thread is probably the better option as it's longer lasting.  I make a mental note to buy some.

The second sole I glue to the bottom of the slipper - it holds the sole in place, and I suspect it will put less pressure on sewed sides. The blanket stitch is trialed...nah.  Whip stitch it is.  It' rather awkward to sew the sole on.  I'm pleased with the second sole, I prefer the sole whip stitch, despite the lack of consistency in the stitches.
I consider the mechanics of creating a slipper from scratch with faux leather soles.   Wee ideasbegin to formulate.

My index finger is sore from the sewing - my toes are thankful.  so warm and toasty.
I love my new slippers!

Oooh I took some better photos:

Playing with designs and mechanics of construction for slippers made from scratch now too, I'm also thinking of offering a service where I will repair and breath new life into old favourite slippers - re-use rather than throwing away!!  

What do you think?  Would it be a service you'd be interested in?

August round up

Hey up lovelies, bit late with this one what with being away.

Anyhoos I thought it would be cool to look back on crochet started and/ or completed in August

 

Lots and lots of these guys, and another 3 orders to fill!

Beginning my puzzle piece freeform.

 

Next part of the freeform puzzle piece.

And yet more babies, the last shipped before camping was this one:

I'm at the Mercian over the weekend, once back I will start in earnest on designs for the Autumn, and, yes I know, very early, but I will also be showcasing some Yule decoration designs. Very boho, very colourful - well, would you expect any less, I love me some colour!!

 

 

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Bits and bobs

It's rare I crochet for myself these days, partly because of the time factor, when order hooky is complete, I am usually testing out ideas for new designs, or creating stock.

So WIP's for me are few, and are often assigned to the back burner - one almost complete item is my elf hood poncho:

Few more rounds on the hood, and a few on the poncho - decided I'd like it longer; and then it's finished!

I had a sudden urge to embellish a rather boring skater style tunic the other day. Recycled silk sari yarn met large wooden hook, and a simple, but I think effective motif was born.

I may add further decoration, although I do like simplicity of this, so dunno, maybe? All rather depends on the next bout of whimsy, I suppose.

 

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Puzzle piece CAL

So, if you follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, tumblr, twitter, G+, Instagram! you will know I am currently up to my hooks in these fellas;

The first bunch have been sent. My hook needed a change, something easy to pick up and down as orders demand...

I joined Dada Neon Crochet's puzzle piece CAL. I'm woefully behind most people, though only because it started 13weeks ago. Not to worry, I'll play catch up. To that end, I've created two pieces. The first was a simple circle motif in which yarn, colour and textures changed, this first motif ended up reminding me of a butterfly, so I added antannae.

The next suggestion was drawing around the hand and creating a life size replica. I decide to free crochet my hand, and began with a spiral motif that I then squared off a bit, and began adding a thumb and fingers. After that came a colour change, well, as this puzzle piece will create a blanket, I'm using a lot of my hand dyed stash, as well as the novelty yarns, and scraps.

This is my puzzle piece so far:

Once I've completed a few more suggestions I'll show it off again, and hey, why not join in? Freeform crochet, is essentially painting with yarn, and while freeform can have avery distinctive look with the preponderance of spirals, bullion stitches and bobbles - it is by no means restricted to those motifs and stitches, for example:

This piece was inspired by The Magician's Nephew and created by Frances Covey

Isn't it beautiful!

 

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Fiddlesticks!

There's very little in crochet that hasn't been done before in some shape or form. It's particularly galling to have an idea...and discover it's already been done.

I hooked a poncho for a housemate's mum last year, it was a pretty pattern, and the poncho was made from two rectangle pieces, adding extra interest in the design. Lucy, from Attic 24, also hooked a poncho, which looked deliciously warm. And popular of late is the different stitch pattern blankets, and mandalas. All giving me an idea for a freeform poncho using the basic rectangle construction.

And today on Pinterest I saw this;

Ok, not exactly as I envisaged, but close.

Bah humbug.

Pretty though.

 

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Sneaky peaks.

Oooh, spring is in the air! The past couple of days there's been a distinct warmth to the sunshine, birds excitedly chirping, and laundry drying on the line! (Major thing when the household consists of 10 adults and 8 kids!!!)

Spring is naturally a time of vigor, creativity, and stirrings of new life, and boy, have I've been busy!

New dread wraps /cute scarves, just need to fringe and add bead decoration, then I'll take photos.

New fitted wrist warmers, the first pair are child size - yes I booboob, and made a tad smaller than intended:

Aren't they cute! I love the touch of lace at the end, and these are longer length too, personally I prefer wrist warmers that are nice and long. This yarn, is the superb James C Brett chunky marble, a premium acrylic that washes beautifully, and if gently tumbled becomes even softer.

So, anyway, after these, I was on a wristwarmer curve, and designed these ones:

So another fitted warmer, this time with ribbing, leading to the lovely woven stitch, and again shaping at the wrist, finished off with granny clusters and picots. And guess what.... YES! I remembered to make notes! Especially excellent because my creative mind is all over the shop at the mo, and I've yet to make the partner to create the pair. Ooh, and again James C Brett Chunky Marble. I'm considering wrist cuffs,as above, without the ribbing and hooked in 4ply, so a lighter, more spring like cuff. Do you like that idea?

Anyway, creative mind jumping around, yup I moved onto the night light. I am ridiculously happy with this, felting the walls, as suggested by my house mate, was inspired! So much easier to embroider onto, sew beads and gem chips onto and looks super! It's not quite finished yet, so more sneaky peaks...

This particular Gnome House night light is already sold, never fear, another is in production. These gnome houses are just so much fun to make, plus I'm learning new skills, embroidery, and general sewing. And oh my gosh felted fabric, the windows in the felting process had shrunk too much. With fearful hands, and a held breath I cut them bigger.... And it was fine. Very handy because the cut out bits can be used to strengthen the walls.

My next thought is I have corks.... Hook wee hats and the corks could become wee gnomes. And while these are night lights, so very obviously multi use, season table, imaginative play, containers, so perhaps accompanying gnomes would be cute.

Anyhoos, that's the sneaky peak - once the makes are properly finished I'll take better photos.

Oooh by the way, I took photos for a wee photo tutorial on how I weave in tail ends for a crochet newbie, but I was thinking of writing it up and posting on here, maybe it becoming a regular thing? Let me know what you think.

 

K, tis late and my lovely warm bed is seductively calling me, so toodle pip.

 

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Ginny's Yarn Along.

It's been a while since I joined in Ginny's Yarn Along and I thought it's about time I started regularly sharing again.  I tend to listen to audio books while hooking away.  I'm currently listening to A Classical Education by Caroline Taggart, and when I fancy a bit of none thinking listening, Dan Brown's Inferno.   I don't actually recommend Caroline Taggart, as there are historical errors and honestly it's a bit feeble..but hey, it's something to listen to, and shake my head at when I hear yet another historical date mistake!  For example she claims Homer was 9BC, when it's accepted it's 8BC, and she gets in a muddle about Athens' empire.

Dan Brown's Inferno.. well, it's easy reading.  I'm not a huge fan of Dan Brown as he just rehashes stories without originality... but it was a free book on audio, and well, the reference to Dante was bound to draw me, as I love Dante, and the art and literature inspired by Dante.  I confess I am quite enjoying listening, despite my personal feelings about the Author.

As for the hooking, this is a lightshade I'm making for my lounge.  I had one of those globe paper ones, but it's got ripped and ruined over the years, so I'm using the metal guts to make a new crochet one - in freeform.

I need to pin this out, as I plan to incorporate Irish Crochet technique for joining the circle motifs.  Then after that I'll add a "row" of squares, and then mixed motifs, paisley, flowers, spirals.  I want this to be gloriously colourful, bohemian and well, over the top fantastic :-)

And if it I like the end result, I shall make a few for Hooky Delights