Sweet Pea Ta-Dah!

Since the beginning of the year, I have been joining in with Attic24's Sweet Pea CAL. Lucy has designed a blanket for some years now, releasing the pattern week by week, and crocheters around the world are able to join in and share their hooky love. This is the first time I've joined in and I have to say that I absolutely loved it. I managed to keep up with the crochet each week and dealt with the ends as I went along. (So, so happy that I've changed my thinking on ends as I used to leave them all to the very end of the project!) From getting the yarn (Stylecraft Special DK which is THE PERFECT YARN for blankets) and making a colour card to starting the very first row, from wrestling the blanket from Flo's clutches as I tried to crochet with her on my lap to hooking the final stitches on the border, the whole process has been an absolute pleasure. I love Sweet Peas; they remind me of my uncle who used to grow absolutely magnificent blooms in all the rich deep colours in this blanket. The sweet, heady scent is simply summer to me. Here's a glimpse of my Sweet Pea journey. Enjoy! xxx

Sweet Peas and an impromptu pair of socks

Thanks for calling in. I've lots of colour to share with you today which will hopefully make you think about warmer, summery days and the heady scent of sweet peas. I have enjoyed taking part in Attic24's CAL very much. I've never done one before but my recent love of crochet blankets spurred me into joining in and it's been great fun! Having a lot of spare time on my hands at the moment, I've managed to keep up with the weekly rows. In fact, I'm quite disappointed that Lucy's planned in a spare 'catch up' week this Friday, so I'm going to have to wait another week before the border is revealed! I'm sure I will find something else to keep busy with though. I've got plenty of balls of the lovely Stylecraft Special DK and am thinking of a knitted blanket. The only thing putting me off is that knitting takes such a long time compared with crochet! (I'm still pondering over a crocheted temperature blanket too!)

In between crocheting, especially when Flo wasn't happy to share my lap with the blanket, I started a pair of my Bee Cosy socks. I didn't realise that the yarn I was using was sport weight rather than double knit, but it seems to have worked out ok! This is an Opal 6 ply sock yarn. 

Someone on Facebook asked me if the pattern would work for 4 ply yarn too, so I jigged around with the stitch count and had a go. Here's sock one of two, knit in Stylecraft Head over Heels All Stars sock yarn. This range is the one that was created by some of the Stylecraft Blogstars. The colourway I've used is called Red Pots and was designed by Lucy from Attic24. I'm really happy with how it turned out and have cast on sock two immediately to hopeful avoid an attack of Second Sock Syndrome! Then I'll write up the pattern and put it on Ravelry for you.

Talking of the All Stars yarn, I received a really gorgeous gift recently from a friend. She wove a scarf using my shade from the All Stars range, Woldgate, and sent it to me. It was a lovely sunny morning today so I was able to take a couple of photos in the garden.

I'll say bye for now and leave you with one of my favourite photos from the last week - a clump of snowdrops flowering in the garden. It really does mean that spring is getting closer and I can't wait! xxx

Linen stitch scarf ta-dah!

There is definitely something to be said for (almost) monogamous crafting. I have been working on my Attic24 Sweet Pea blanket and my linen stitch crochet scarf over the last week and great progress has been made on both. I have only four more colour stripes before I've finished part 5 of the CAL (part 6 comes out on Friday) and my miniskein scarf from my Twelve Days of Christmas treat is done!

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It's not long enough to wrap around my neck more than once, but it ties quite nicely and is super-soft and cosy. If I had made it any longer, then it would have been too narrow. I made a fringe out of the ends by knotting them together and trimming. Much better than having to weave them all in! If I was going to make another one, I would crochet my starting chain on a slightly smaller hook as that edge is a little bit wavy so obviously needed to be a little tighter. I haven't blocked it yet because it's been chilly enough to want to wear it IMMEDIATELY, but a bit of vigorous blocking might remedy things a little. I love the effect of the linen stitch and am contemplating crocheting a temperature blanket now. I can imagine Mr JK smiling at me, and asking if we really need another blanket! He used to say the same thing about cushions each time I made a new one, and my answer was that you could never have too many cushions. I think it's the same about blankets too, don't you?! xxx

What to do with mini skeins

Are you one of those people who can't resist buying those beautiful mini skeins of yarn? They always look so tempting, like rows of delicious sweeties, don't they? Some people use them in scrappy blankets and others, like me, just accumulate them with no clear idea of what to do with them! 

For Christmas last year, I treated my knitting pal Snoopydog to a Twelve Days of Christmas yarn calendar from Pixie Yarns. And of course an extra one kind of fell into my basket for me too! Funny that! It was beautifully presented with 12 number stamped bags hanging on a cord which I was able to hang from my mantelpiece throughout the festive period. Each morning I opened a bag, and was totally thrilled with both the yarn and the thoughtful extras that Sophie included in each bag. Sometimes it was an edible treat, and other times a beautiful stitch marker or decoration. Have a look for yourself...

My initial plan was to knit a pair of socks with the yarn, but I decided against that as I knit socks cuff down usually and so I would be unlikely to use all of the colours before finishing the pair. Having been bitten by the crochet bug recently and really liking the effect of the linen stitch border on my Hyacinth blanket, I decided to use the skeins to make a scarf. I crocheted a chain until I thought it was long enough for a scarf and then began the rows of linen stitch.

I went up a couple of hook sizes to a 3.5mm because the fabric created is quite dense and I wanted it to be softer and floppier. Basically you double crochet, chain 1 along the row of chain stitches and then when you come back the other way, you double crochet into the chain space and make a chain where there was a double crochet.

I've now crocheted two complete repeats of the yarn and love how the colours look together. I'm not entirely sure that it's going to be long enough to wrap around as a scarf, so I might end up having to sew the ends together to make it into a cowl. That would be a great shame as I was hoping to leave all the ends as a fringe! And if it was going to be a cowl, I would probably have joined my initial chain together to make a massive ring so that I was crocheting in the round. Something to bear in mind if I make another one. And I probably will as I have loads of sock yarn leftovers sat in a box. It's a great way of using up all those oddments of precious yarn that you've been keeping. What do you do with all your yarn leftovers? xxx