Recent work

Look at what using my bits turned out to be!

The pattern was found on Ravelry and it by Helene Rush.  It is called Taking Flight.  And this is indeed what it feels like!  I LOVE it!  But now I want to use ALL my bits up to see how the colours work into each other!!

 

AND NOW FOR THE BIG BIG BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!  This is earth shattering as far as i am concerned! 

Drum rooooooooollllllllllllllllllll…………………………………………………

I have completed my 2nd crochet project!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

This has been undone and cried over more times than I care to remember.  BUT I persevered and now its here!!!  Just a few ends to sew in and its really really here!!  I can hold it!  I finished it!  I made this!!!

Amanda Perkins Lorna Doone shawl.  Natural Dye Studio.  Genius!  I used Jamiesons spindrift in different colours for each motif so that I could see where I was (my first attempt went hopelessly wrong cos i got so confused!).  And this worked!

Insignificant news to those of you who find crochet easy but to me this is monumental!  Probably out there with the 2013 achievement lists!  I for one shall be leaving 2013 with a great big silly smile on my face!

There is one more thing which I will write for the record as it made my long hot smelly summer SO worth while!  All the fleece I cleaned via the fermenting method has turned out better than anything I have ever done before.  The fleece is SOFT SOFT SOFT and the yeild was significantly up scouring this way.  So although no one else in the world probably cares much at all, in my life it counts and i am very pleased!!

 

Early Autumn Inspirations!

What a glorious start to autumn this year! I feel optimistic and inspired which may not be a good thing for my family! The colours in early turn are gorgeous and they have inspired lots of action on the knitting front.

Here are some new designs and new colourways and inspirations ………

I also recovered from my single crochet attempt which turned into a bathmat. The bathmat is successful since it lies beautifully flat if you stand on it! Result!!

Now I am on to new pastures. I saw the Lorna Doone shawl from Natural Dye Studio and I love it. Being a mostly wild child at heart, everything appeals about this design including the name. So for my second attempt I am trying this. As a ‘ps’ I think possibly one should have crocheted a bit more before attempting this! I have reduced the time on a motif from one and a half days to 4 hours now! And have completed in my fashion 8!! This may be my life times work since there are a lot of motifs in the shawl! BUT I still want it and so will plod on…………..

Part Time/Full Time

 

Apparently have decided in my alternative world of ‘I should have more time’ to interact with my full time life on a part time basis. So besides having animals to care for and about 42 puppies (6 in reality, but definitely 42 on last count), I must have thought I should start something new. Maybe this is something to do with old age and being in denial, or maybe I just needed a break in my head? Who knows? So this is what I decided to do…..

I am a knitter. Through and through a knitter. I have never been able to grasp crochet. Not at all. My crochet attempts have so far always involved dubious language and a pair of sharp scissors. I made an attempt with my friend who is superb at crochet, and this almost ended in tears. I crochet like a knitter. And the problem with this is????? Anyway I have started 2 projects (never by halves this one), and all scissors have been removed from my reach. This is what I am attempting,…

 

 

Not perfect but PROGRESS!!! I will not reveal however how long this took me OR how many attempts I made. Plus I have discovered matches have an even more satisfactory result than scissors!

 

Wonderwool was great but left me feeling like I had been hit by a train! And I still have not sorted the stock from where we unloaded (is the crochet the lesser of 2 evils??). But I WILL!! I have also been visiting the flocks I buy fleece from and collected so much Shetland on Thursday I had to share the driving seat with ram fleece. The dogs were well impressed when I got home. The puppy people less so. Funny how you get used to smell….. Or not!

 

So part time projects in a full time life seem to fit the bill right now. I am off to get enough fabric to finish those patchwork trousers I started over the bank holiday……..