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.

Start Of Another Shawl

As you can see I still haven't returned to the black crochet. I will give myself a stern talking to and get back to it before long. I am in the mood for shawls at the moment. My elder niece saw this shawl in the Contemporary Crochet book and said that she liked it. I didn't have any pale grey as on the pattern in stash so I am hoping that this brushed cream chunky will be a substitute.

I keep thinking that I should make something for my younger niece but she is a lover of all things subtle and quite dark and most of the stash that I am working with doesn't seem to be 'her' kind of colours. I will get my elder niece to run her eyes over what I have and see if there is anything that she thinks is suitable as she is more in tune with her sister's taste than I am. I don't see much of my younger niece as she lives in London.

My mind is buzzing with so many projects that I have seen in my latest books that I can't seem to crochet fast enough for me. I am always thinking about the next project. Planning things is half the fun isn't it. Wondering which pattern to chose and which colour and then just when I get it sorted I look on Ravelry and there is something else that I like. No wonder my mind whirrs sometimes. I can almost hear the crochet brain cells working overtime. Plus it doesn't help when I keep falling asleep over my crochet in the evenings. Just recently I lose an hour or so of crocheting time through nodding off in the chair.

Today has been a lovely warm summery day. I have been sitting out in the garden in between pegging out washing when the washer stops and reloading it with another load. Nothing spells summer more than a line of washing drying in the sunshine. Of course the minute I sit out I can see that the lawn needs mowing and the shrubs need pruning but I have learned that I can only do one thing at once so the gardening will have to be on another day.

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.

Easy Peasy Shawl

As I didn't finish cleaning the front room properly until today I could not return to my niece's crochet birthday present last night as dog hair was still everywhere. I started this triangular shawl instead. It is a very easy shawl by Sys Fredens from her Contemporary Crochet book. It is just UK trebles with increases in the centre on every alternate row and each end of every row. I started it last night with a ball of James C Brett Marble Chunky that I had left over from when I knitted myself a sweater recently.

The pattern was supposed to be on a 12mm hook but I found the hook too large to work with because of the arthritis in my hands so I changed to a 10mm hook instead. I tend to crochet a little on the larger side anyway and as the shawl is worked from the point upwards then size isn't that much of an issue. I might just have to fit in a couple of extra rows to get it to the right size.

The rippled wrap shawl is now dry. It is quite a bright shawl and as it is made mostly from man made fibre yarn it is light and airy. Hopefully it should still give extra warmth across the shoulders and has the advantage of being machine washable.

I am hoping to get back to the crochet that I put on one side tonight but I might just push on and finish the chunky shawl first as I don't like having more than a couple of projects on the go at any one time. I have so many projects buzzing about in my head that I want to make this year that I just don't know where to start next so I am trying to be disciplined and only have a couple of WIP at any one time otherwise I get overwhelmed and nothing seems to get finished.

It has been quite sunny today but I don't know if it is warm as I have been washing sofas, dusting and hoovering. Housework takes me much longer to do these days and I have to keep sitting down so jobs that used to take me a couple of hours now seem to take me most of the day to complete. Still as long as the work gets done it doesn't really matter how long it takes to do it.

Just Call Me Florence

I feel like a cross between Florence Nightingale and Dr Doolittle. Buster is still feeling very sorry for himself but I call him a wee bit better today.I have been tending and bathing his ear and neck all day. He had a good night's sleep last night and has slept on and off for most of the day. He keeps tilting his head to one side which worries me slightly but as my son says it's probably because his ear hurts so much. Last night he didn't want me to go anywhere near his wounds but today he has let me bathe them frequently which I take as a sign of improvement. He is going to stay with me now until after Easter as my son and daughter in law have plans and I usually have Buster anyway over the holidays. He is eating and drinking OK so I not too worried about him in fact he has just had a treat of some left over rice and chicken. I am just keeping him indoors or in the garden so that he doesn't get near dirt until his wounds have healed.If I walk him he will jump in the river which isn't a good idea as all kinds of animals, including rats, could use the river As I type he has just brought me his ball which is a massive improvement as yesterday and today he hasn't been the slightest bit interested in any kind of interaction with me.

As I had to put away the black crochet because of shedding dog hair I have started a pink crochet baby cardigan. Any dog hair that goes on this will easily get washed off. I am using a pattern by Kay Jones. I like her patterns as they use UK terminology so it's a welcome relief from having to translate from US to UK all of the time. Younger crocheters have learned with US patterns but old school as I am I still think in UK terms and so have to convert everything in my head.

The postman brought me two crochet books that I ordered from Amazon. Contemporary Crochet by Sys Fredens has quite a lot of designs in it as you can see from the 3 pages of small photos. I can see a few items from this book getting crocheted. If not for me than perhaps for my nieces. I haven't browsed it properly yet. I have just given both books a quick look. The Crochet Me book by Kim Werker I am a bit late in ordering,. It has been around for quite a while but for some reason never made it into my wish list until just recently. I quite like the cover Victorian shrug and wrap by Robyn Chachula which I have seen made up many times on Ravelry. The leaves sweater by Annette Petavy is unusual and I quite like the zig zag edging.

The pink bolero or comfy cardi is again by Robin Chachula and is another that has appeared on many peoples projects on Ravelry. The shades of plaid scarf by Julie Armstrong Holtez is quite quirky and I have used the wool weaving over mesh crochet technique on a cardigan and a pram blanket a long time ago.

The babydoll dress by Amy O'Neill Houck is another instantly recognisable pattern. I had always given it a miss as I don't exactly have the kind of figure for a crochet dress. I then saw a version on Ravelry that was made shorter with a slightly longer bodice. The model doesn't look as though she has much boob age room and she is slim. Worn over trousers I though that I could get away with wearing it that way. I wouldn't make the sleeves so puffed though as I think that look is exclusively for the very young. I may leave it sleeveless and wear it over a fine sweater or make it with long sleeves. I would use a cord or a chain to thread through as again I think that floaty ribbon is for the young.

For the moment it looks as if I will be crocheting baby clothes or other bits and bats. I will have to give my niece an I.O.U for her black cardigan but I think she would rather have her cardigan later than crocheted with chunks of Buster hair woven in it. I don't know why it is only black wool that his hair seems to stick to so much. Anything acrylic and his hair just seems to slide off. Yesterday I was wearing a brown hand knitted cardigan with a wool content and it looked like a yeti when I took it off. One Buster has healed a bit he will get a jolly good brushing. He adores being hoovered so I might risk giving him a quick once over at the weekend as long as I don't get the nozzle anywhere near his neck and ear.