Trying to get things finished

I have been wracking my brains for something to tell you about. I have been crocheting like the clappers for days on end but I am finding it hard to think of anything more I can tell you about the sheep blanket I am making. It is still growing, slowly, still all cream and still very cute.

But there really is only so much I can say about it until it's done, which will hopefully be very soon!

I can't pretend that I am not craving colour though so I have been having a look around and listing all the things I need/want to finish and one thing has really been bugging me for some time now. Remember this?

The boring office chair that we have the dining room that marked the walls as it was all in black. So I found a couple of peices of crochet that I had made for something else, (that didn't get finished) and sewed them together to put on the back of the chair. 

It did the job, no more nasty black marks when it rubbed against the wall and yet something else in the house that has been given the wooly treatment. The seat however is the thing that has bugged me. I had no big plans for it, just some simple granny squares fitted on nicely. Now I knew that I must have some granny squares already made up that I could use for this but where were they?

 I had a rummage and found a bag of scraps

There are allsorts of bits and peices in there, dinky squares, african flowers, some little macaroons, a sun flower, half formed amigurumi ideas...

And the granny squares!

I am sure I have more somewhere but I really don't know where. I laid them out on the chair and I nearly have enough to make a cover for the seat!

It won't take me long to make the few that I need to finish it and then sew them up, I could probably get that all done in an evening. I do fear that If I put down this sheep blanket it might stay put-down so I shall do a bit more and making this seat cover can be my reward for when I have finished it. 

XXX

Mad March Crochet

Oh how the rows are flying by with this sheep blanket! They are so much fun to crochet and I didn't think I would say that, being all in cream. The start of the blanket was hard work but now the sheep are appearing it is much more fun. Unfortunately although the rows are whizzing by it is growing very slowly. I have set myself a target of getting it over half way made by the end of the week, a tall order but do-able I think.

Sweet!
As well as this blanket I haven't forgotten about the ever growing list of other things that I have on the go. My ripple blanket (so close to being finished), my lacy bag (just needs a zip and a strap making), my flower shawl (I really will get it finished this year, and soon!) and other things I have probably forgotten about. Before I get on with anything else though I had a birthday present to make. Nothing big or too fancy so I settled on a pretty flower brooch and knocked that up last night.

Just the finishing touches to put on this morning, press and starch the leaves and add a backing to make it more solid..

... not a bad sewing job for a bleary eyed me at 7 o'clock this morning!

This is a pattern by Lucy at Attic24, triple layered flower. I decided on this rather than making up my own pattern, it seems pointless when there are thousands of beautiful flower patterns out there already and I chose Lucy's as it really lends itself to being multi-coloured, so I didn't have to pick one colour for a single rose or daisy or such. I am so pleased with how it turned out and I think the birthday girl was too!

Along with all this other crochet I taught a beginners workshop on Saturday. Alas I didn't take any pictures but the ladies all managed to make their first granny squares, absolutely nailed holding their hooks and yarn to get a good tension and can chain and treble along now with the best of them. So proud :)

XXX

Baaa

Hello! Thought I had better pop by to say hi and tell you about the new thing I am making.

A lady who goes to the wool shop I frequent has asked that someone make a blanket up for her, I was intrigued by the pattern and it looked simple enough so said I would. I thought I would do a few rows to see how long it would take and oh my word were they tedious! 2250 stitches of double crochet to be precise and even worse, in CREAM!! 

 But then look what happened...

...some legs and a tummy started to appear, and then...

... a sheep! Oh how I love these sheep! They are so ruffly and cute, the pattern says to embroider little sheepy faces on them but as usual I will probably leave all the sewing stuff until last when I can put it off for no longer.

I have no idea how long this is going to take, the rows seem to be flying by but as it is in DCs it is a very slow grower. I'm nearly a quarter of the way there now and although parts of it are on the tedious side (crocheting all in cream for one) I really want to finish it, I just love the sheep!

In all this spring-like sheepy blanketing I haven't forgotten about the bag I am making. I had to stop on Friday when I got to the top while I decided on how to carry on with it. The first one I made all in white, I just edged the top with a ribbon and put two straps on it, tote bag style. This one I would really like to be able to use more often than a tote bag so the plan I have come up with is to put a stiff peice of card in the bottom so it has a flat base, this will then define the sides a bit. At the top I am going to make a long shoulder strap and put a zip in to do it up. 

While I work out the finer details of exactly how I am going to do this I am carrying on with these sheep. I is nice to know that I have something bright and colourful to turn to if all this cream gets too much. 

Busy week of hooking ahead for me! 

XXX

Neat and tidy-ish

This weekend I retreated into my own little world of crochet and spent most of Saturday and Sunday adding to my doily bag.

With all the doily bits made I had the job of attaching them together and then working out the rest of the bag. As I couldn't really remember exactly how I had done it on my last doily bag I improvised a bit and I am pleased with the results

As this bag is multi-coloured I am having to treat it slightly differently to the white one, in that I am having to be much more careful of how I am joining so that there aren't wrong coloured threads here and there. Yes I still have the job of sewing in lots of the ends but it is really coming along now.

The weekend job was getting the base of the bag made and then that yellow strip of DCs around the top of the doilies. To give the bag structure and make it hold its shape I tightened up my already bit-on-the-tight-side tension. Wow did that hurt my hand, holding that kind of tension for hours on end while I plugged away at making rows of neat and tidy DCs, I could barely move my fingers when I put it down (I really should remember to take breaks!) but it was worth it, it is so satisfying seeing all those stitches in neat and tidy rows.

With those bits done I can now concentrate on the chevrons for the top portion of the bag. I have decided on a random colour scheme for these but as some of the colours that I have to work with are quite muted I am trying to make sure that the brighter colours are evenly placed, random is quite a difficult thing to do!

I haven't yet finished with the endless DCing as I will be putting a band around the top and then there are the straps to make too, I may try to use a slightly looser tension for those bits as I'm not sure that I want claw like hands forevermore! 

XXX

Having a lovely day until I checked my emails...

Oh dear I seem to have upset some people. I  have received comments on my Tunisian circle cushion pattern today saying that I had ripped it off from someone else’s pattern (this pattern here…). What can I say? Yes they do look similar, but I can absolutely guarantee that I have not copied Laura Pavy’s pattern, I have never seen it. Perhaps the reason they look the same is that to do Tunisian crochet in a circle it will always look similar to this? I don’t know, I am not an expert at Tunisian crochet, I was merely playing around with Tunisian trying to get it to go in a circle and this is what I came up with. It is not an easy thing to do, getting all the maths right and one of the reasons the cushion is so small is that I have no idea how to make it any bigger!

One of these lovely people that commented on my pattern has since said that she has posted all around social media saying that I am a poacher and saying not to come and have a look here, she also doubts the originality of my other designs. I really have no reply to that only that I have NEVER intentionally poached anyone else's patterns. I am not sure why I would, all my patterns are free, I have no advertising on my blog and receive zero reward for writing and publishing patterns other than for my own enjoyment.  So why then would I want to rip off anyone else?

I have had one of my own patterns ripped off, did I do anything about it? No of course not, it’s crochet, not worth the aggro. And what proof would I have? Every stitch has been done before in a million different ways, things are bound to look the same from time to time. I made a clock once, I thought it was a brilliant original idea until a friend googled crochet clocks and found that http://accordingtomatt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/crochet-oclock-tutorial.html had already done them and they were spookily similar.

I am more than happy to talk to any pattern designers that think I have copied them and try to allay any concerns they have about me infringing their copyright. 

I considered taking the pattern down, receiving a raft of negative comments, threats with legal action and such is really upsetting, but that would feel like an admision of wrongdoing on my part and I don't believe that I have done anything wrong at all. I really don’t want to upset any one, I do this blog for my own enjoyment and being thought of as a thief of other people’s ideas has really upset me, it is definitely not what my crochet is about, I just muddle along the best I can.

 

If you want to do Tunisian crochet in a circle I would definitely recommend doing Laura’s pattern, Sunny Daze as I am sure it will be far superior to my little circle cushion.

Peace

XXX

Doilies Doilies Doilies

Ooh I am much happier with my crocheting this week. After dithering for ages over what to do with my cotton, I started on my second doily bag and soon got well on the way with it.

It did take me a while to work out what to do next with them but I think I have figured it out. I am going to join them in different colours top and bottom so that I can carry a colour theme through the bag.

It will all look much better when the ends have been tidily sewn in but I am putting that boring job off for a while. I can see that being a mistake as blanket progress has slowed right down and I am pretty sure that is because the rippling is nearly finished and I will have to get sewing on that too. I do mean to sew-as-I-go but it never happens, crocheting is much more fun!

So my plan for the rest of the week and the weekend is to make some real headway with the bag, get the bottom made and some progress on the top piece. As most of the fiddly lacy bits are done now I should be able to crochet in the evening under artificial light. I have really been at the mercy of daylight  for the doilies, but we are nearly in March and the evenings are getting lighter and lighter. Of course the light evenings bring a whole host of other things to do, like sorting out my very shabby neglected garden.

I got my first bunch of daffodils from the graden this week. I would normally leave them there to brighten it up but they were in a place that they shouldn't be so I snipped them and brought them inside.

It really does feel like Spring is almost here, my favourite season!

XXX

Make your mind up Mrs

How pretty and inspiring is that little lot? Bright happy colours in a 4ply cotton, I should be crocheting like the clappers! But no, I can’t get anything finished with it, I am really trying – I even started on another birdy like my freeform birdy…

 …but I’m trying to neaten up the pattern and write it down. I’ve made lots of notes and got most of the body done, it really hasn’t taken long but I’m bored of that so want to do something else with it. Finish some flowers maybe? Well I managed a few leaves before I wanted to do something else with it…

… and repeat. So invariably I end up going back to my blanket and settle into mindless rippling.

Over a week ago now I thought it was nearly there, but I keep thinking, just a few more rows and so it grows!

 

Anyway, back to the pretty cotton that is playing on my mind. I just don’t know what my problem is with it. Maybe it is because although the colours are lovely, they are far lovelier in chunks rather than in little details. So I have another new idea which (worst case scenario) will give me some surplus doilies. It is very much along the lines of this lacy bag that I made in 4ply white cotton last year.

I look back on this bag now with fond memories, it turned out so much better than I had hoped, I may be conveniently forgetting certain bits of it that weren't as fun, like the million ends to sew in (really, there were loads!) and how tedious the straps were. but as I gave it as a Christmas present I would love one of my own.

I may well start this, put it down and go back to my blanket but as I am running out of ripples I shan’t be able to put it off for much longer, I need a crochet plan for when the blanket is finished and surely I can do something with the cotton.

XXX