Pretty posy

 

I'm supposed to be working flat out for a craft market/late summer fair next Saturday but couldn't resist the temptation to make a nice flowery crochet necklace.

The stem/chain was made a bit more substantial by running a line of chain and then slip stitching back along it. The flowers are made up of five clusters of chain and double treble crochet and the centres are stitched. Very pretty, I think.

Blunt blades and curses galore

My cutting mat and metal rule mock me

Having blunted my rotary cutter on my metal rule I needed to cut quite a lot of bias binding using scissors – I already have a few blades, all blunted in the same way! Cue much muttering and not inconsiderable carpel tunnel niggles.

I've been putting off investing in a sharpener but no more! Here it is.

Review to follow . . . 

Progress

Latest progress on the lacy, flowery scarf. This is much more what I want to achieve.

When worn the weight pulls the chain straight and makes the pattern considerably more linear but, while I suspect I will work on some ideas to make it even more open, I think this is very pretty.

The lovely slatey blue yarn is a blend of cotton, silk and cashmere. It has a nasty tendency to split if not treated with care while being worked but I think it is worth the extra effort as it is wonderfully soft to the touch.

To doily or not to doily

My earliest adventures in crochet were due to a kind gift from an elderly neighbour of my gran's. She presented me with an ancient chocolate box filled with mercerised cottons and a tiny steel hook. What a thrill!

My gran's house was adorned with doilies, complete with 3D flowers, which cushioned many family photographs. Most of these were created by my aunt, who was a definitely a dab hand with a hook and although she wasn't involved in my lessons her work was always around to inspire. My gran could do the basic stitches and so taught me what she could and set me on my way.

I spent many hours with this magical box, thinking of what wonders I would create.

The reality is that I bore quickly with shop-bought patterns – preferring to work things out as I go – and doilies with #40 crochet cotton, multi-coloured pansies and a 1mm hook were just never going to happen. I did manage a couple of doilies before I moved on to wool and hooks I don't have to strain my eyes to see but I still have the box and I still love looking through it. Good memories I guess.

And so to my current dilemma . . .

I want to create an open, lacy, crochet scarf (doily-ish). I have a pattern (Patons Crochet Booklet 3244)  but although it's not quite what I want it makes me think a lacy scarf will not be too difficult.

I was thinking loose and lacy and flowery all at the same time so played around with hook sizes, flower sizes and lengths of chain.

First attempts

There are a few niggling problems so, to help me figure out where I was going wrong, I decided to make up a sample from the pattern in the book.

The Patons lacy wrap

The Patons pattern worked out surprisingly solid so I'll definitely persevere with my own version but it was a pretty informative exercise all the same.

Seeing the samples together confirmed that I want this to be loose and lacy

The pretty box lid

Sunshine at Aberlady

Sunshine, miles of golden sand and a submarine – a fantastic day in East Lothian!

My PEEDIE messenger bag makes an appearance at the beach.
This black and cream version is the well-tested prototype for the ones in my shop.

Variations on a theme

More PLEATS bags. I absolutely love this style and am enjoying creating different versions.

Little ray of sunshine

Peedie bag – messenger style in super-bright!

I think I might have gotten a little bit carried away – the flap is blue on the underside, there's a big blue pocket on the back and the strap is really bright pink. The lining is a fab brown and white (!) patterned quilting cotton.

Obviously got a bit crazy after a few sunny days.