Rainbow baby.

A rainbow outfit and blanket for a rainbow baby called Maya. All made with Stylecraft yarns, the rainbow colour yarn is Wondersoft Merry Go Round, and there is a tiny bit of King Cole baby yarn on the blue headband because I ran out of rainbow.

The dress and bolero is a free pattern by Just Crochet. The booties were also made from a free pattern by Hopeful Honey, called Pink Lady Baby Booties, and the headband pattern, which goes up to adult size, is also free from Crochet Dreamz.

The star blanket was from a pattern in Inside Crochet magazine.

Well hello there!

I’ve not blogged for ages, years! I just don’t seem to have time these days.

I finally finished Persian Tiles in Stylecraft Life by Janie Crow. It still needs blocking when I can wrestle it away from Mable, I’m waiting for nicer weather to do that. After my previous post I left it, I lost the pattern and bought it again, then found the first copy. I only had to finish the last two rows on each large motif, complete a less finished one, join them and do the border. Phew it’s done, quite a relief really.  I’m working on a circular Tunisian crochet cushion to use the leftover yarn now.

It’s been a dhalk Meg, a totally new technique so there has been much frogging, I like it.

T on Tuesday, by a bad blogger!

First I want to apologise for not returning your visits and comments last time I joined in, which was two weeks ago, and I missed a week to top it off. How embarrassing, but it has been a tough couple of weeks.

The week I posted I meant to go round at the weekend at least, then Hubby was ill and in hospital on the Thursday where they decided his anaemia was worse and he needed blood transfusions, and would be staying the night - then they decided to do the transfusions all that afternoon and evening and send him home again. So he was back home that evening but feeling really fragile. He seemed better for a couple of days then started being sick again mornings, and I was trying to keep his spirits up.

Then last week Hubby had appointments at the hospital 4 out of 5 days, and I had an appointment about my foot (which is now fine) on the other day. I had to go with him to the hospital each time, in case he needed me to drop him near to the department and park the car. The day he had his transfusions I couldn't park in the drop off car park, had to drop him as near as possible and then it took me 45 minutes to park. He nearly collapsed just walking in, and they took him straight to a ward - he couldn't walk there and when I finally got in he was being taken in a wheelchair which the nurse left with me at the entrance to the ward. I couldn't push the thing, they are made of cast iron tubing and so heavy! 

We started last week with an oncology appointment, then he needed his bloods taken, then there was a treatment day. On Friday he should have been going in for a Radiotherapy appointment but on the Thursday during treatment they said he needed more blood transfusions and booked him in for those, then rang us late afternoon to say "something had gone wrong" and his cross matching blood couldn't be tested, so we had to go in as early as we could for the blood to be taken again - then it took two hours for the blood to be delivered for him! Oh what a long day, I was so tired after all that sitting about and wandering the hospital corridors for two days in row, and we were there for seven and a half hours Friday!

Anyway it is T on Tuesday time, and you can join in at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's blog. As you can see from the first photo my crochet "nest" has been drastically tidied because we have our son, daughter in law and two little grandchildren staying. It's only been moved to the craft room, which I won't be able to get into soon (and where I am posting from now so maybe I won't be able to get out).

See my Dance in the Sea storage bag is filling up nicely, we are on week 6 so 24 squares have been completed and 10 weeks to go. This is going to be a really nice sized blanket.

Because I finished the week 6 squares in the hospital I thought I should do more on the Persian Tiles blanket, I would like to finish it - or decide if I will make it bigger but only if I can still get the same dye lot in the navy which will show if it is different. In the background a pirate ship, this is my grandson's present (well the main one) for his 4th birthday which was on the 17th. Our little granddaughter Lily is 6 months old now and beginning to move, which is one reason I tidied the "nest". On the footstool the tiles are all now at the same stage, I was finishing the same two rows on the last one. Now I can move on to the next row which is a smaller hook and fills in the valleys to make the octagon, then there are just two rows left to finish. So I hope to be able to block and to start assembling the blankets soon.

I have been using two colours, so both yarn bowls are in use. Next to the new yarn bowl I blogged about last time (which is now officially part of my birthday present in advance for July) is a set of Tulip Etimo crochet hooks, which hubby has bought me in advance for my birthday.

I started to use my new hooks, I know - should wait until July, but I wanted to try them. The handle feels lovely and warm in my hand. I found that the size 5mm created a much bigger square than the Knit Pro hook, here they are side by side and you might be able to tell that the shaft of the pink Tulip hook is thicker than the Knit Pro. I tried both of them in a hook gauge took and they both fit the 5mm slot but the Tulip shaft is tight in the slot and the Knit Pro is not. As I didn't want to have to redo the gauge swatch and work out which hook I needed I carried on with the Knit Pro hooks for now but I have found since having them I often need to go up to a larger size than stated and this difference in the two hooks might explain why!

 Can you see how the non slip coating has worn away on the Knit Pro? It has on several of them, and I looked at the Knit Pro web site where it states they have a lifetime guarantee - unless you bought them from Amazon or Ebay, so I can't do a thing about it!

 Side view, you can see the different profiles.

Back view, notice that the Tulip hooks seem to be slightly longer, the handles and the shafts are a little longer.

Close up of the hook. I don't know how much difference I will find when I work with the new hooks properly but I will tell you all as soon as I know.

 Here are my strawberries, the only thing I am growing in the greenhouse this year because hubby cannot help me with carrying compost, or heavy watering cans so it is better that I don't grow any tomatoes or courgettes. The slugs and snails are more prolific this year too, so would probably eat the lot!

Look at my strawberries! They are ripening at the rate of three per day right now! The one above is the first one I picked, it was delicious.

Bit blurry but this is a huge strawberry, which my little grandson is going to have for breakfast!

 This is the Dance in the Sea week five square, it was supposed to be pale green but seagull prints looked better in the sand to me, this is the first time I have changed the colour from the pattern.

 Week 6 square is a C2C (corner to corner) square, and I did a lot of those making the premature baby blankets! They were supposed to be sand coloured and I swapped last week's colour so they are green.

 I've joined a mystery CAL, see the last post if you don't know what a CAL is! All I know is I needed Aran yarn in cotton or acrylic and the quantities, so here is a bag of lovely squishyness waiting for June 7th to find out what we are doing first! The mystery CAL is by Melody's Makings and is called Veronica meets Spring, and cost a few dollars to join. There will be some free patterns given out in addition to the mystery CAL instructions. My yarn is Rico, due to a special offer which made it very affordable - am I crazy taking on another project when I have so many not started?

I hope that I will be able to get round everyone's blogs this week, barring any excitement and if I get time. I have spent three days getting the house ready for our visitors and I am totally exhausted now and aching all over, hoping for a good nights sleep so I better go hit that sack right now as it is already gone 1am. So I am a candidate for Alzheimers due to lack of sleep, but crochet will keep my brain active so maybe they net off!

Birthday infinity scarves.

For a week I dropped the Persian Tiles blanket and instead I made birthday scarves (one each) for my brother and father. 

Here the denim one made with Stylecraft Life is finished, the tan one made with Rico Essentials 100% Marino wool in Pebble.

The Rico wool was tightly twisted and reminded me more of cotton in use and appearance, when squished the scarf is soft enough, but not sure it looks as good as the denim one. Also I found myself researching different methods of joining yarn, and on the pebble scarf I used the invisible knot, the Russian Join and the Braided Join. I hope the invisible knots will hold, I was led to believe they do then read comments left by people on the other two which said otherwise! The Russian join made the yarn bulky so there was a lump in the scarf, the braided join tutorial said that it wouldn't add bulk and you wouldn't notice it - maybe I haven't quite got it yet, I tried twice and it was just as bulky as the Russian join.

You can also see the Furls yarn bowl in use here. This bowl while very beautiful is quite small, I was a little surprised when I first saw it here. You can only buy it direct from Furls in the US and I guess I carried away, it was on sale when I bought it but it still was slightly over the limit for Customs, so I had import tax and fees to pay and the Post Office fee is a flat rate £8, which is ridiculous when it is many times the actual tax. Made the bowl around £40. It still worked out cheaper than any wooden ones I have found over here! It is only suitable for one colour at a time too.

 It works really well with round balls of yarn, or cakes wound on the wool winder. Larger oblong balls of yarn really don't work at all. I have tried finding the yarn in the centre on these and failed many times, I just checked on definitions and I see that Red Heart explains how you can't use the yarn from the centre of a "ball", well I will stop trying! The Americans call what most others seem to call a skein a ball, and a skein is a similar but different arrangement.

I found a good definition of hank, skein, ball and doughnut, even cones here.

I always thought skein and hank were the same thing, and this is backed up in this definition and it seems is a U.K. thing.

When you buy a hank you have to wind it into a ball or cake before using it, the doughnut, ball or skein (oblong ball) can be used as it is. I know a lot of people always rewind their yarn into a cake, it makes it easier to store and easier to use, you can find the beginning of the yarn in the centre easily. 

The Rico wool I used would best be described as a doughnut (US donut). The Stylecraft Life is in skeins, or if you are in the US it would be a ball. I have had to wind some of these into cakes recently, and I will explain why when I talk about the new tote I bought recently.

If I buy a huge skein of yarn (maybe it isn't a skein then as the term also seems to refer to a specific quantity according to some definitions) of 200 grams to 400 grams it is better to cake them.

If you use skeins as they are they bounce all over the floor, and there is no good way of stopping that - except for winding into a cake it seems.

I must give my model a makeover - anyway here the finished wool scarf looped over twice.

Here is a better photo of the little scarf I made for me in hand dyed yarn from Woolly Wonders, and I am still debating whether to frog it and make it with a different pattern. I like how the colours worked up though. It is shorter but still loops over twice easily which surprised me. 

See what I mean? Looks almost stringy.

I might just keep it as it is, what do you think?

Infinity scarf

This is my latest make, an infinity scarf for hubby - and he is actually wearing it! The pattern is a free one from Little Monkeys Crochet, which was done originally in pure Marino wool, mine is made with Stylecraft Life which is 25% wool and 75% acrylic and the colour is Denim. After making this I really understand the third loop thing that I didn't quite get right on the Rustic scarf a couple of posts back!

We have had a couple of walks down to Barton Farm again and I've been lucky to get some great photos of swans, a cormorant catching fish, moorhens, the robin, canoeists and a grey heron really close. On top of the Kingfisher the other day this has made me really happy. I can't understand the people who throw sticks and balls into the water for their dogs to fetch (or in one case a small boy was just throwing stones while his carer watched) when it contains ducks, swans and a heron! The swans were threatening dogs that went near them, the heron seemed to put up with it, and one day a dog was chasing the ducks across the river!

Unfortunately Sooty seems to have picked up a tummy bug, he was running loose and Alfie was on his lead, so Sooty got to stick his nose in more places than Alfie and maybe even found something he shouldn't eat! Lets hope it doesn't last long or spread to Alfie!

Rustic set, hat and infinity scarf.

It has turned cold here in Wiltshire, and the rest of the UK, and I had lost my only hat last year. It was a bought one anyway. I had stored these free patterns meaning to make them and I had left over yarn from my crochet jacket, and these were made just in time to keep me toasty on some crispy cold Winter walks!

The pattern was intended to be worked in plain yarn really, but I am happy with the results using James C Brett Lakeland which is a chained chunky yarn lovely to work with because there is no splitting.

The patterns are from Little Monkeys Crochet, Rustic Fringe Infinity Scarf and Rustic slouch hat. I had a few issues with the pattern, maybe it is me, it is an American pattern. I have asked the designer a lot of questions, maybe I have made wrong assumptions here!

I found that the repeat rows needed one more row to bring the rib to the same side, or maybe it shouldn't be - that is one of my questions. The tension is given just for width, my tension worked out exactly, so my scarf (worked sideways) was the right length, but when I had completed the requisite number of rows it was not the width stated so I need to do an additional repeat, which is why mine has 4 buttons not three.

Then the fringe, I wrapped the suggested number of times, and cut the fringe yarn but didn't have anywhere near enough to finish, even before I carried it on along the end. Maybe I threaded too many, but going by the written instruction and the photo I didn't think I had, and I had the exact number of stitches.

Then I got to the hat, of course the height should be correct as my stitch width was perfect remember, but the hat width, well measurements were only given for the finished hat at the brim so it was a bit of guesswork. I have asked the designer if the size of the first piece could be given, it would help a lot! My hat seems a little big, which is better than a little small!

I bought these buttons at a show ages ago, decided now was the time to use them! Maybe they are a bit big for the scarf but they are the best I could do without going shopping.

First time wearing the set, this is the Tythe Barn at Barton Farm Bradford on Avon, where we went for a short walk with the dogs. Alfie has got too old to do long walks, but we were all pleased to get out, and I got a Kingfisher photo or several - this made me very happy!

Oh my new coat (well new last Summer when I forgot to take one to Torquay and it was due to rain) looks very tight, well I have got my crocheted jacket in the same yarn on underneath, and it makes it very tight to get on. The set would look weird if I showed it with the matching jacket! Now what I really need is leg warmers, don't think I have enough of it left for those.

 I was so happy to see a Kingfisher on Thursday but I didn't have my camera, went back with it on Friday and I was ecstatic to find this beautiful bird still in the area and in good light to get these photos!

The ducks seemed to be getting fed lots of bread....

 .....the robin got some too!

 Sooty made a new friend.....

 ....three new friends then....

...he even got his paws wet in the river, and he hates water usually!

Finally I am not at all happy with Deramores, who sent an email advertising 80% of Stylecraft Allsorts super chunky yarn, it was an amazing offer and I could finally afford to make the chunky cardigan from Simply Crochet so I ordered 3 packs immediately. That was on Dec 30th, then after waiting and hoping I recieved notification on the 13th Jan that the order had been refunded. They said there had been an administrative error, also the yarn was discontinued and they were having problems getting it from Stylecraft. I suspect they put it on sale to hook us in so we would also buy something else. They don't seem to realise (or care) that us hookers talk to each other on Facebook groups, where many people were reporting the same, apart from one who said she was first told her order was cancelled, then told that it was still on order but would be delayed! 

So I am back on the hunt for some super chunky that is at a reasonable price to make my cardigan.

I also ordered enough yarn to make a blanket from Deramores, not in the kit form, but individually as it worked out a little cheaper to use all the same yarn at the sale prices. I had a MyHermes delivery of - drum roll dudududududududududududududududududuuu -

ONE BALL OF DAFFODIL YELLOW! Yes one ball at £2.45 arrived by courier with notes saying it was a part order and the rest was to follow! I have since complained about the refunded order, and at the same time mentioned that I would be even more unhappy if the same was to happen to my second order, and that I cannot think it is cost effective to send just one ball of yarn by courier! Since then I had a notification that my other order was being processed - funny that!