Bonfire bag pattern

Thought I would pop by and let you know that my Bonfire Bag pattern is now ready and available for your hooky pleasure here! 

I love this bag; it's a very simple one to make once you get the hang of the weavey post stitches. I've done my best with a photo tutorial for the pattern to try to explain these the best I can, but what makes sense to me won't necessarily make sense to anyone else! So, if you do fancy having a go at making this bag I would love to hear how you got on with it and see a picture of the finished item. Either leave me a comment or find me elsewhere (ravelry, twitter, facebook - @hookingcrazy).

I've got so many things that I want to crochet at the moment my trouble is knowing what to do first. I'm still inching away at the sheep blanket and having a bit of a colour break now and then making diamonds and doilies. 

I do wonder when a house can have too much doily? I think I reached peak doily about a year ago and now each little frilly circle is just adding another layer of twee. Why are they so much fun to make? I would gift them but I can't remember the last time I heard someone say 'I would love a doily, if only I knew where I could get one'. 

XXX

Hooky New Year!

I’ve started the New Year with lots of plans and enthusiasm. I hope that it isn’t all just grand ideas; I really want to get stuff done.

With this renewed urge to crochet I went on a yarn hunt so I could get started carpe-ing the Diem. But In the chaos of post-Christmas disarray the only yarn I could find was my Rico creative cotton because, that’s what I had been using last. Not to worry, pretty yarn makes pretty things - usually. I started crocheting and this is what I came up with, lots and lots of diamonds. 

I think the basic idea was to make a patch work quilt type of design, for a cushion or something. I thought it was all going well until I came to actually pinning the diamonds out to see what they looked like.

While on the subject of pinning out/blocking, I have a new blocking mat! I had been generally complaining about the inadequacy of the ironing board for blocking, without actually doing anything about it and Mr M had been paying attention (!). So he did a bit of research and got me this foam play mat stuff as a little Christmas present, very cheap and very cheerful! And yes, a bit thoughtful too J 

Anyway, I digress. I had a slight problem with the diamonds, the angles aren't quite right; there is a bit of a gap in the 360 degrees needed. Perhaps I should have measured more carefully before making dozens of the things. I may or may not be able to fix that with a bit of creative sewing together of the shapes, if not I should be able to find something else to do with them.

They are my bit of colour therapy on the dreary January days and also something bright and cheerful to break up my other new project: 

Yes, another sheep blanket! If you read my posts about the first one that I made my feelings about these blankets is mixed. I enjoy the repetition and creating something so darn cute, but the endless cream can be very tiresome. That isn’t to mention my stand-out memory of the first one, the edging! 

Oh my word it was tedious; it seemed like days spent making endless chains for the frill.

So why am I making another one? I couldn't help it, it's so lovely.

Happy Hooky New Year

XXX