A note on crochet (and a bit about knitting)

I have cancelled my subscription to The Art of Crochet. There are several reasons for this.

1. I have completed all of the square patterns at least once.

2. I'm not so keen on the other patterns in the magazine.

3. I will have very limited space in my new house for storage of crafty items.

4. I don't think I can learn much more from it.
5. I prefer square patterns from 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton and ones I find online. More imaginative and purty.

I've achieved what I set out to and feel no remorse about not completing the throw. I have The Art of Knitting after all! One subscription is enough for anyone. I only know the basics of knitting so I shall see how I feel about it when I can confidently say the first four things listed above about it.

On a crochet related note, I have made another amigurumi! Meet Barry.

He's a bit cute inne? He was made for my friend Kate because she loves penguins...a lot. He's another Lion Brand pattern (link here, you'll need a [free] account to view it).

In other yarn related news: the sweater I started for Isaac in January. You know...the one that nearly made it to finished item status? Well, it's never going to be finished because now it's TOO BLOODY SMALL for him. Plus it's summer. So meh. Nevermind. I learned that sweaters aren't as hard as I thought they would be and that knitting with circulars isn't as bad as I originally thought. R.I.P. lovely jumper. I've edited my Ravelry queue so I should ctually find myself achieving more, especially if I finish what I cast on and don't buy yarn unnecessarily! I'm told it's manageable. We shall see!

Delivery delerium!

My yarn arrived from Lion Brand yesterday :-D

I'm not so keen on Vanna White, whoever she may be, staring at me from my lovely yarn though.

The arrival of said yarn means that I can stop kidding myself about knitting in the round. Knitting with 5 needles is JUST RIDICULOUS! I think I was only really doing it to pass the time until the above arrived. I've also come to realise that crochet is better than knitting (for me). Period. It's OK if you've been knitting for years & don't make mistakes, but for relative beginners (despite knowing how to knit for going on 18 years now) like me who occasionally slip up (or slip stitches in the wrong place i.e.: at the beginning, thus throwing off one's whole row) it is definitely not OK. With crochet each stitch is complete thus relatively easy (but not not painless) to undo & redo.With knitting on the other hand, if a mistake is spied, one has to frog the whole freaking row(s) & then spend an age faffing about with unpicking stitches, then getting them back on the needle (facing the right way too I might add) whilst ensuring no additional, unintentional stitches are dropped! Bleh. I'll stick to my one-at-a-time craft for now ta. I'm sure I'll get around to knitting my Grace Lace Beret at some point, but for now it won't even make it to UFO status because my mind is amigurumi filled!!

I found out the other day that doing what I've described before (i.e.: unpicking row(s) of knitting is called frogging. Apparently this is because you have to "rippit" out. I couldn't make that up. Seriously. :???:

In the background of the yarn shot you can just see a small section of…*drum roll please*…my lovely new sewing machine that arrived a few days ago! I know, right? The lady in the shop was surprised too. :-|

I’ve made one thing so far & that (sewing machine wise) only required 3 lines of straight stitch. The thing in question is Isaac’s cot bed tent – a collaboration of father-daughter skills. It’s rather nifty and we’re pretty pleased, even if we do say so ourselves :-) I sewed & Dad drilled.

I. Love. It.

Sewing machine blues

Recently I've been getting into sewing a lot more, well all things crafty really...

Anyhoo, with an increased desire to create I decided it was high time I got a better sewing machine and went for the Janome 525s. I wanted to show support for a local business in town and by doing so luckily got a 10% discount making it about £23 cheaper than anywhere else, plus I didn't have to pay shipping which I would have from an online retailer. When I ordered, it the lady in the shop said it'd be about a week, but it's now been a whole month :-( Apparently the company are out of stock & today was the new date she gave me for its arrival, but I haven't heard from her still. I gave my old machine to Simon's Mum and so haven't had a machine for about 3 weeks now, which isn't a very long time in the grand scheme of things, but I've got a list of projects as long as your arm, all of which require a machine! BOO!

Anyhoo...isn't it beautiful?! It isn't fancy, but is so very much nicer than my old one - and quieter too! Little things, like a thread cutter at the back, larger plate, transparent bobbin housing & an horizontal spool holder make it great. I know these things come as standard, but weren't present on my old one. It was a good machine, don't get me wrong, but I think over time it would have irked me. This one is a more robust with more reliable stitches (i.e.:  a zigzag is a zigzag rather than sometimes being a straight stitch!), plus comes with a hard case. It has it's own little place on the shelf waiting for it to come home to :mrgreen:

My wonderful Da is also fixing my sewing box. I bought it online from an hospice with a load of thread in it - most of which were differing shades of purple! It was a little more rickety than advertised, but still a good £20 cheaper than a new cantilever box, plus I feel good that I've reused something that had already been made and clearly used & loved. He's coming up next week so I'm excited to have it back - I can put my bits away rather than fishing about in the two rather fetching plastic tubs which are the temporary accommodation for my threads/needles/scissors/pins/miscellaneous sewing accessories etc.

In other crafty news: I made this hat from two and six's beautiful blog (isn't her son the cutest?) Yes, I've made it for Isaac, but it's definitely too big for him just yet! Although I'm sot sure by how much because I finished it this evening after he went to bed so I haven't had a chance to check. A small job for tomorrow. I know it looks a big like a giant egg cosy, but the shape will change, when his head is in it & the right size for it, to a bit more like a giant egg cosy LOL!

I'm well chuffed. It's only a small project, but I achieved 3 firsts; I did my first attached i-cord hem, used Kitchener stitch for the first time and used backstitch for the first time in knitted seam sewing. I have a marvellous book which I bought about 4 or 5 years ago called Simply Fabulous Knitting. I knew it would be useful, but lost touch with knitting and didn't give it another thought until I was faced with Kitchener stitch. Of course, it was in there! PLUS the method in the book i.e.: flat (minus the starching, although I can see how that would be helpful on occasion) was so much easier than the on-the-needle method which is just confusing and weird.  I have to say that, even though it is only a hat, it had the best seam I've ever done on the top. I guess I must be taking knitting more seriously these days. So now I have a seam-free, tassel-tastic hat for the boy. At least he'll never be short of hats - hurrah!

I found this pattern for a beret a while ago and would quite like to use the yarn  stipulated (Louisa Harding  Grace) rather than substituting for a change. Luckily Yarn,  just outside Nottingham sells it. Whilst on my search for said yarn I found Threads of Life in Castle Donnington. It's about the same distance as the other place and looks totally fabulous! I like the first thing the owner says on her site:

"If you are interested in working with yarns or threads there’s nothing quite like coming into a shop where you can enjoy the colours and textures of a wide range of wools and silks. It’s a bit like being a child in the middle of a sweet shop!"

Couldn't have said it better myself. Isaac and I will be paying her a visit in the not-too-distant future :-)

P.S.: I just got an email from Lion Brand telling me that my order has been shipped. Amigurumi ahoy - whoop whoop!

Hat!

I made a hat! It's somewhat pixie-esque, but hey - the child's got to know what kind of family it's been born into!

Olivia gave me the yarn a few years ago & it's been sitting in my yarn stash since then. It rather luckily matches a lot of the Bertie Bear stuff from Boots that we have which is good!

Rinny worked very hard too while I was knitting away -

Oh to be a dog.

I started to crochet a hat, but I kept mucking it up with sizes and number of stitches to increase by and it also had a weird lump running along the join at the back. So I unpicked it all. The beauty of crochet it that it's so much quicker than knitting! I dare say I shall have another crack next week. I'm thinking about putting ears on it :-D

I'm starting to think that maybe I should've stayed at work for the extra 2 weeks as I'm now getting increasingly bored. It's nice to be at home and all, but I think I'm going a little crazy! I'm told I should be grateful for not having anything to do, but I'm one of those people who can't just sit around (unless I'm ill); I'd rather be too busy than not busy at all, that's just who I am.

Anyhoo, I'm leaving the house today! WOOH!