Cast Off Crew and Fresh Off The Hook videos

Although I am not blogging often I am still crocheting away. I haven't yet taken photos of half of the things that I have finished since I was last blogging frequently. I have discovered The Cast Off Crew videos and this has spurred me on to try to show more of what I have finished. I do love watching the hats, and other things, that the ladies produce. The main person who started the Cast Off Crew is Sweet Pagan Rose aka Crochet Zombie. This is one video where she also mentions a lot of the other members

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwHr3HLKisE

I also like watching One Virtuous Woman from the Fresh off the Hook series of videos. She is usually with her daughter and they always make me smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz4FkEYmF64&feature=relmfu

Whilst I love these videos I am envious of the Red Heart Yarns that they use. It's one of those yarns that US crocheters use as a cheaper acrylic yarn. Here in the UK there isn't an alternative. Our acrylics are very limp in comparison to this. I did enquire to a couple of online places as to how much the shipping would be for a few balls but didn't get an e mail in reply from either of them despite repeating the e mails. I can't understand why the yarn has never made it across the pond. It's probably because we have a lot of yarnies over here who only crochet in wool or other expensive yarns. I will have to ask one of my US friends to price up shipping for a box full of it and send them a Paypal payment. No matter how much the shipping costs it has got to be cheaper than what the US retailers on Ebay are asking for one ball to be shipped (multiplied by a few balls). I did look on Hershners and although they mention shipping to the UK I just got confused looking at the shipping amounts for different countries and the taxes that they mention..

This is my photo display of what I have made since the last time that I blogged.

This is the front view of a pattern from the 60's that you will have seen before on my blog in different colours

The colours look darker on the photo than they do in real life. It is one of those 'wear your sunglasses and don't be afraid of colour' garments, As you know, from past posts, this is the pattern that I get asked most about. I have found a link to a waistcoat that is very similar to this one except for the fastenings so I will put the link here.

http://heidiwalsh.pbworks.com/w/page/17535631/Spider-Web-Cardigan

This next shrug is a pattern that I bought from Etsy. It's called V Lace Shrug from the Crochet Spot The designer is Rachel Choi.

Although the pattern was very easy I think that I messed up the sleeves. The pattern is basically a rectangle folded in half with a bit stitched up at either side for the cap sleeve, I have never made a shrug in this method before and the pattern didn't tell me how much  to stitch up. If I make it again then I will just catch is together for about a half inch instead of the 3" that I stitched on this one.

I just used an oddment cone of 4ply for this as a test piece. I wrote down the size of my rectangle so that I can repeat it in my own way. I would change the stitch of the border as although it looks OK at the back it looks a bit spidery around the collar area. Even though the wool is fine it crocheted very quickly. Because I have too much sleeve the border is a bit too tight which is why the collar isn't draping properly.

This short jacket started off as one pattern but when I didn't like the pattern stitch used I changed it to twisted UK trebles on one row and plain UK trebles on the next. The yarn that I used is a bit of a mystery yarn. It came on a cone labelled machine yarn but it was thicker than a double knitting and a bit thick for the machine. I realised whilst I was crocheting that the jacket would work out too large if I followed the pattern exactly. It is worked sleeve to sleeve and so I had to ammend lots of the pattern. It has turned out almost my size when it was supposed to be an average ladies size for my Etsy store.

Because of the side to side shape this jacket is very slightly dolman sleeved. I suppose it's good to have something larger on my site as not everyone is a tiny size. Small things are easier to display for photographic purposes. I have ordered a tailor's dummy but when I phoned I was told that it won't arrive until next week. It is holding me up taking better photos for the site.

I  had a couple more patterns in the post today and will probably start one of those whilst I watch TV this evening.One is a 50's style summer jumper. I was hoping to do some machine knitting today but I lacked the inspiration. I must find my knitting mojo again as I have so many machine cones to use up. I still have to finish the maternity sweater for my younger niece. The baby will be here before she gets her sweater if I don't hurry up.

I hope that you all had a good Valentines Day. Special wishes go to Bev (Beverooni) as she got married on Valentines Day 42 yrs ago. Congratulations to you and your hubby.