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Picking Up Stitches

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Autumn colours come round again

September 19, 2018 by Annie Leave a Comment
Crocheted autumn leaves acorns and flowers

 Autumn is a welcome relief

Autumn is finally here, thank goodness. The summer was so hot that I rarely felt like knitting. Lily my dog found it all too much too, and spent lots of time lazing in front of the fan dreaming about the park!

White and black Staffy lying on a bright coloured sofa

Lily is bored with all the sunshine

So, now that autumn is in the air again, Lily’s enjoying finding sticks in the park, and it’s time to get back into knitting and crocheting with a vengeance!

turning colours of autumn leaves

Noticing that the leaves were changing colour gave me a burst of inspiration. I soon came up with some new leaves and flowers to create an autumn wreath. Here’s the original inspiration…

Autumn leaves and acorns

And here’s what I came up with: a special sunflower, acorns and three different types of leaves. I particularly love the oak leaves I created eventually.

Crocheted autumn leaves acorns and flowers

I used Stylecraft Special DK as there’s such a huge choice of colours. Then I decided to add some Michaelmas daisy-type flowers, too, and crocheted a jade background. I made the background in Deramores Studio DK to fit a 17cm polystyrene wreath. The technique I used,  I found on the  Attic24 blog. I love this blog and the wreaths Lucy makes on there.

Positioning and sewing the items on the wreath took as long as crocheting some of the motifs. Eventually it was all in place, though. I love the result. So much so that I’m going to run classes on how to make one in Crouch End in October. I’m running an autumn wreath class at The Village Haberdashery West Hampstead mid October too. But, this September, I’m teaching simple autumn leaf and flower classes here in North London.

Here’s the finished wreath…

Autumn wreath

Keep the coffee cozy

This month, I discovered some Sirdar yarn I’d forgotten in my stash, and it was perfect autumnal colours. (Sadly, it’s now discontinued, otherwise I’d have bought some more). I used it to crochet some autumn takeaway coffee cup cozies, which were popular at last month’s Makers Market…

Mug cozies in autumn colours

For knitters, I’ve come up with a basic knitted cup cozy and coaster which I’m teaching at my beginners knitting classes throughout autumn in Crouch End. In October. I’m also teaching them at an afternoon course at Fringe in Muswell Hill.

Mug cozy and matching knitted coaster

Not wanting to leave out the crocheters, I’ve also designed a couple of simple crochet mug cozies too. Don’t worry, I’ll put the pattern up on the website very soon! Classes for these this autumn too! 

crocheted mug cozies

Be prepared for autumn winds

Realising that it’s soon going to be gloves and hats season, I decided to knit a new hat. I chose a WoollyWormhead pattern called Toph which is a really interesting to make.

This is me modelling my finished hat. You may notice that I used the rest of that Deramores Jade DK for the motifs.

Annie wearing her Toph hat by Woolly Wormhead

It’s knitted from side to side and uses a technique called German short rows, for which I’ll be adding a ‘How to’ section soon. By the way, I’m going to be putting up a lot of knitting video and pictorial tutorials as well over the next few weeks, as lots of people are coming along to my knitting classes at the moment.

Black and white staffy cross smiling

Happy again!

And finally, just in case you were wondering, here’s a picture of our Lily looking a lot happier with the temperature!

Posted in: crochet, inspiration, knitting Tagged: craft, crochet, crochet classes, German short rows, knitting, mug cozies

Sunny days and crochet

April 23, 2018 by Annie Leave a Comment
bright coasters

Sunny days arrive!

After my last post when we were shivering in chilly London, it’s strange that we’ve just had the hottest April day here since 1949! We’ve been sweltering our way through the sunny days, eating nothing but salads and sipping buckets of ice-cold drinks. Poor Lily the dog has been panting every time she steps outside – even though we’ve been sticking to  the shady paths around the woods that thankfully are just a few minutes’ from here.

Lily the dog in the woods

She’s been arriving home and rather than running around trying to distract me from my crocheting with her toys, she’s been heading straight for the spot in front of the fan, where the breeze even manages to blow her “down” ear up for once!

Lily the dog lying on a grey carpet

A craft for the sunshine

I always find crochet far more appealing craft than knitting during hot spells, don’t you? At least you can easily carry around small items, rather than having swathes of knitting draped over your knees.

It’s easy to take crochet out and about as well, so plenty of options to craft under the trees in the park (or even in the pub garden!). There’s often inspiration around too, like this pretty blossom I spotted while heading for a spot to sit…

blossom next to a cricket field

And talking about being in the park and the great outdoors, I’ve been working on a whole range of items that would look perfect if you’re eating al fresco. I think they’d be a brilliant way to brighten up picnics – gorgeous sets of crocheted cotton coasters.

bright coasters

I find cotton yarn a really summery choice to work with (even though, technically, I know it’s still spring and it’ll probably be raining and chilly next week!). Cotton comes in such a mouthwatering range of shades as well.

New designs

First off, I thought I’d dig into my existing stash make some simple round mats in the peachy Sheepjes Catona I bought last year, with slip stitch overstitching in pink Rico Essentials DK cotton…

salmon and pink coasters

Then I spotted some Aran weight cotton, and next came some bright and cheerful, simple round coasters…

bright crocheted coasters

Luckily I found some colours that were ideal for a watermelon colourway, which I thought was fun, as melon’s always welcome on sunny days, isn’t it?

watermelon crochet coasters

However, after ordering a whole new palette of shades of Rico Creative Cotton Aran from The Wool Warehouse, it sent me off in a new direction. I loved the fact that the yarn arrived in an organza drawstring bag, which is now in use as my coaster project bag. Here are just some of the colours!

Rico Creative Cotton Aran

Lacy days in the sun

The pattern I came up with next is more lacy than the bold circular ones, and I’ve made up lots of sets in different colourways.

Here are just a few…

retro crochet coaster set

Vintage shades

paster retro crocheted coasters

Pastel hues

crocheted coasters

Bright colours

I think the bright ones are such fun, and the vintage set would be lovely at a retro picnic or street party. And the pastels would be lovely at a at a christening party, or perfect for a summer wedding, especially outdoors or in a marquee.

Pastel coasters in organza bag

Off to market

The sets will be heading to my Etsy shop very soon. However, if you’re in North London in a couple of weeks, they’ll definitely be on sale at my stall at the next Makers Market in Crouch End.

Makers market poster

Did I tell you about the Makers Market? It’s a new collective of local craft makers that I’m part of, and we’re putting on a market every first Saturday afternoon of the month. It’s been great fun so far, and it’s lovely to show what I’ve been creating to everyone who comes along. Lots of interest in my crochet and knitting classes too! Here’s last month’s stall…

Blink Makers Market in April

Talking of classes, lots of people have been asking to learn how to make crochet flowers, and there’ll be more floral classes soon, but, in the meantime, I’ve been planting out my window boxes again, so am getting plenty of inspiration for some new crochet designs. I mean, just look at some of these beauties…

yellow flowers

Yellow is such a happy colour!

violas

And it looks so striking with purples.

daisies

Daisies are always a must…

And how could I finish my Sunny Days post without sharing Lily among the dandelions?!

Lily among the dandelions

 

 

Posted in: craft fair, crochet, inspiration Tagged: cotton yarn, crochet, floral inspiration, inspiration, spring, sunny days

Mittens and gloves and socks and coats – it’s cold

March 19, 2018 by Annie Leave a Comment

Mittens time

It’s been so cold recently that I’ve been really glad that I’ve made so many pairs of mittens over the past few months. It all began before Christmas when I decided that some pretty fingerless mittens would make perfect presents for my sister and my nieces. I’d soon designed my Flora Fingerless Mittens, which feature a floral granny square as the central motif on the back.

Blue and salmon flora crocheted gloves

I’ll be writing another post about the Flora mittens as soon as I’ve put the pattern on sale (you can already buy the actual mittens from my Etsy store), but in the meantime, here are just some of the lovely colourways…

Flora crocheted gloves colourwaysThey’re either made in Stylecraft Special DK or in Deramores Studio DK. Hope you like them – I think they’re quite feminine and perfect for chilly spring days!

Bobbles and stripes

My second design is so warm. It’s not got a name yet, but I’m loving wearing them on wintry walks with Lily the dog. They’re striped and have an offset bobble effect to give texture and add warmth. I’ve already whipped up quite a few.

Striped bobble mittens

Here’s some more underway on the back – very Harry Potter colours!

Striped bobble goves back

And here’s the bobbly front – it’s alternating double crochets and treble crochets…

stripy crochet bobble mittens in progressAny ideas what I should call them?

Chunky mittens

Once I’d started designing mittens, seems I just couldn’t stop! I worked with two strands of the DK together and came up with these chunky mitts, which are sooo quick to make… I like the crossed treble effect and love the contrast embroidery as well.

chunky crocheted mittens

I decided that a pair of quick-to-hook fingerless gloves would make a perfect beginners’ project, so I came up with a chunky, yet slightly lacy pair which I’m now teaching in my classes (the timetable’s here) – they just use double crochet and trebles, and are going down really well!

beginners chunky fingerless glovesThere’ll be some pictorial how-to help up here on the website very soon.

Out with the needles

When I was a teenager, we often knitted up gloves for ourselves, and the other day, I discovered some of the patterns my sisters and I used to use… One even still had the handwritten notes about yarn amounts used!

vintage gloves patterns and knitting

Even more needles

Thinking about keeping out the chills, I decided it was time to wind up the lovely HeyJay hand-dyed yarn in Rouge Jacket I’d bought at the Wool Fair last year (read about that event here) and finally embark upon some socks.

Hank of pink tweed wool from HeyJayAnother nostalgic moment – I suddenly remembered how, as a child, I used to help my grandmother wind hanks of wool into balls.

winding wool from hank Nothing was wasted in those days, and any jumpers that we’d grown out of were unravelled and the yarn washed in hanks to remove the kinks, then wound into balls and knitted again. When there was no-one to hold the yarn on our outstretched hands, we used the back of a chair. And that’s exactly what I did.

Socks being knitted and pattern

I’ve chosen a pattern from Socks Yeah! book from Coop Knits I bought at the Knitting & Stitching show and used my KnitPro dpns in 2.5mm. It was so odd switching from chunky to 4 ply, but it’s providing welcome variation.

Socks being knitted on three needlesAnother WIP (work in progress, that is) but then again, I have finished something…

Don’t forget the dog!

It’s been so cold, that I couldn’t forget our Lily. She’s a Staffy-cross rescue dog  (do check out the lovely charity we got her from All Dogs Matter). She has really short hair, and we couldn’t have her shivering… So it was just as well as my finished project for this month was my Butterfly coat design, made from the spare Rowan Pure Wool Worsted DK (which you can get here among many other places) from the Martin Storey Windy scarf I’d made for my friend’s 60th birthday.

Lily's butterfly coat

Lily’s little coat fits snugly and has a fleecy lining, and what’s more it matches her lovely collars from Rad N Bad.

rad n bad co;;ar for dog Just like her skull coat I made the other year!

White spotty dog with knitted coat with skull on back

Hope you’re all keeping as warm as us!!!

 

Posted in: crochet, Crochet patterns, knitting, knitting patterns Tagged: crochet, crochet patterns, gloves, knitting, knitting patterns, mittens, socks
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  • How to guides
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