Inside Crochet Issue 7

My copy of Inside Crochet number 7 arrived from Pavi yarns this morning. I only ordered it from Pavi yarns a couple of days ago so that was really fast service. I also ordered a plain black shawl pin as I have seen them advertised on line and this was the closest version of what I was looking for and about half the price of the others that I had seen. They have these pins in a variety of colours but I can't afford one for every shawl so just stayed with black to match everything.

Once I have finished off the second version of the crochet Baby Surprise jacket I am going to settle down with my learn Tunisian DVD and a hook and have another try at learning the technique. Tunisian crochet and broomstick crochet seem to be making a comeback and I need to learn both skills for Doris Chan's new book and also for the broomstick crochet cardigan by Sarah Sutherland on the front cover of Inside Crochet.

I took a close up shot of the broomstick lace cardigan to show how pretty the stitch when it comes out right. I have a wooden broomstick but it might be too large for learning crochet. My needles dates back from when broomstick knitting was all the fashion back in the 60's and 70's.

The purple Trefoil scarf by Robyn Chachula has ribbon threaded all around the edges making it making it look very feminine with the lacy pattern as well as the ribbons.

The belted tweed jacket by Melissa Horozewski is a warm looking jacket with it's wooden beads threaded on the edges of the belt. I would make it with long sleeves id the jacket was for me.The pattern calls for Rowan felted tweed which would put me off as I would be doing the twitching dance if I wore anything like that.

The flower cardigan by Sian Brown is a fun idea for summers. I like the style but am not impressed by the huge flower motifs that have been used. I have a book with hundreds of crochet and knitted flowers which are far nicer then those flowers.

I can admire the broomstick crochet stitch on the cap and cape by Helen Jordan. I would call it more of a capelet than a cape myself.

The blue organic stole by Annette Petavy. It uses two different crochet stitches to make a wide pretty stole. I think that I fell in live with it for the colour as much as anything as I do love the rich jewel type colours.

The Plum blossom shawl by Dora Ohrenstein has a pretty openwork pattern almost like a pineapple in design. Once again I think that the colour attracts me as well as the pattern stitch.

The little girls Pretty Pastel tunic by Nicki Trench is a pretty stitch but is very openwork and would have to be worn with trousers as shown or over another dress as an overlay.

The book also has a bag, slouch beret and small shrug along with photographic how to do broomstick crochet instructions. My one complaint about this magazine is that it has far too much padding in the way of articles. Pages and pages about fibre farms, book reviews, artist interviews and articles about different expensive wools. Some people might like reading all of these articles but to me I see them as written adverts and I would far rather see more patterns and less of these page filling articles. 14 patterns for £4.99 is rather expensive compared with the Interweave Crochet and Crochet today magazines.

The hospital has just rung me about attending another pre op assessment. This is when they found a water infection last time so lets hope that my course of antibiotics and all the of the cranberry juice and cranberry extract tablets that I have been taking every day since have kept away any more infection from my waterworks.

I had quite a good sleep (for me) last night so I can;t understand why I am so tired. I have fallen asleep at the desk twice whilst typing this blog and the phone call from the hospital woke me up last time. I discovered that I had filled the page with hundreds of full stops as I must have fallen asleep with my fingers on the keyboard! Time for a reviving cup of coffee I think.