Practising Tunisian Crochet

Last night I had a little practise with my new Tunisian hooks. Although I do find the short hook attached to a cable a lot easier to manage than a long rigid Tunisian hook I still have a long way to go. At the moment although I can do the basic stitch I am struggling with the purl stitch and my tension is far to slack at the moment. I think it's a bit like when I learned to crochet. It's all about holding the hook and the yarn at the right angle and getting the tension right. I think that I will need a lot more practise before I embark upon one of Kay Jones patterns.Once I have finished off the things on my 'to do' list then I will have more time to have another try.

I managed to finish off the Triangular Shawl for my sister in law's 70th birthday party. It is from the Contemporary Crochet book by Sys Fredens and is so quick and easy to make. I used approx 300 grams of James C Bretts Marble Chunky that I bought from Abakhan on Thursday. I have added an edging to the shawl as I think it looks a bit bare without one. The shawl is on a 12mm hook but I had to use a 10mm hook. Not only do I crochet a bit loose I find overlarge hooks hard to grip as I have arthritis in my hands.I think that is another reason why I am struggling to get my tension right on the Tunisian crochet.

I have started a sweater from a Kay Jones pattern 77 that I bought this week. I am using the Robin DK that I also bought from Abakhan this week. I have changed the stitch as the pattern uses a half treble stitch for the main body of the sweater and it was turning out too loose with the way that I am crocheting at the moment. I am using the pattern for size and shaping but am using an alternating treble and double crochet stitch which is closer crochet. I never used to crochet loosely so I am blaming my arthritis and the fact that I cannot grip the hook as I used to. I compensate by using smaller hooks but some stitches still come out too loose for me.

Another sunny day today but as I haven't yet been outside I don't know if it is warm. Our weather is deceiving. I can dress for a sunny day and then go outside and it's quite cold. I will stand outside for a while before I decide how to dress for the party tonight. I am, at the moment, quite sedentary I do tend to feel the cold more than most so I will be taking a cardigan with me no matter what.

I hope that you have a good weekend. I am hoping to be able to get to my monthly Knit Out tomorrow but it all depends on how the old knees hold out tonight.

Easy Triangular Crochet Shawl

Although this shawl is crocheted in chunky it is very light to wear. The pattern is from Contemporary Crochet by Sys Fredens. I used approx 300 grams of James c Brett Marble chunky and I used a 10mm hook as I found the 12mm hook advised on the pattern to be too bulky for me to hold comfortably.

The shawl in the book is quite plain as you can see in the bottom photo so I decided to add a bit of a border as in my opinion it looked a bit plain. This is for my niece as a compensation for having to give her birthday present so late. I haven't actually done any more crochet on her jacket as I wanted to finish off the shawl first. I have, at least, got it out of it's bag there is every chance of my restarting it tonight.

Yesterday I went to Tesco after the hospital so today my knees need a good rest so maybe I will have a crochet afternoon instead.

Thanks to everyone for your lovely comments. I am so pleased that I had good news to share with you. It was a tough week even though I tried my best not to think about it. I had some funny thoughts running through my mind during that week. Maybe it's my strange sense of humour. I was tidying my basket of hats the other day and was thinking to myself well if I have chemo and loose my hair then at least I have plenty of hats to wear! And another day I said to my niece if anything happens to me make sure that you distribute my wool stash and books. I know it's morbid but I will have to think about these things some day so I have delegated my niece to the task of getting rid of my clothes. wool stash, hooks, needles and books. My son would place no value on them and just throw everything in the bin and as a avid crafter I would have to come back and haunt him if he did that instead of passing them on to someone who would value them. I don't think that it's morbid to talk about these things. I know that when I eventually go to meet my maker I want to know that my wishes are upheld. Far too many people never discuss these things and the family left behind has to make all kinds of decisions as well as dealing with their grief.

Time for Loose Women, a spot of lunch and then I think it's feet up with a bit of daytime TV and my crochet. Yeah this is the life. The housework can wait until the weekend as I have already done my food shopping.