Dorset 4

 This was a late afternoon/ early evening walk just me and Lucy as I wanted to see how far it was to just walk from the cottage to the sea. ( about 3 miles). As you can see I did get there- eventually(!)

 To ensure success I kept to the road this time: direct from Shipton Gorge to Burton Bradstock.

 See those tall white houses? That's where the sea is.

 On the edge of BurtonB village I took a wrong turn but found this lovely stream with a Mill-house and everything, very pretty.

 And some lambs!

 Back into the centre of this village I found directions to the beach, which are away from the village.

 SEE? THERE it is. FOUND IT. I then discovered this is a National Trust beach. And was called Hive Beach I think. But not on my maps and not on any other maps I consulted.

 The ligth was staring to fade a little depending on the angle you held the camera?

Yes, well I can't get enough of the sea, waves and all those permutations of sea, sky and sand...
I promise there are photos I have NOT uploaded, lots indeed.

 There were lots of fishermen at 6 pm that evening.

And really lovely lively waves!

Footsore ansd weary after walking uphill and downhill and winding our way back to the cottage, we'd been away just over 2 hours... Onto cook dinner and then relax with some crochet:

These armchairs were oh so ''bug ugly'' BUT very comfortable and GREAT to relax in, doing crochet or reading and watching tv! Now I want some comfy armchairs for home too! Some you can curl up in or side sideways with your legs over the side.....?

Lucy had walked so much she was chewing her paw and had to wear a bucket to stop the chewing...

Crochet directions on a SPECIAL day.

 Celebrations are ongoing this week and here are some sublime, simply divine sweet peas that I was given.
Very summery I think, maybe they were grown in greenhouses.

 The single tulip is doing well. And YES I've been drying washing outside for the first time this year- 2013- this weekend.

 The little bowl from Sicily, souvenir from Lyme Regis. For my used teabags, which I reuse after 8 pm if I want a cup of tea with little or no caffeine left.

 This has been breakfast yesterday and today, it's Canderel powder and WW double cream so it's only 1 Propoint. Delicioso!

 Are we finally getting to the point? Yep. First ARAN crochet : a special interest of mine and a joy as I love working those cables and relief stitches. This is what I worked as samples when in Dorset:

 In lovely Rico creative aran cotton, although it IS quite splitty, and a 5mm hook.

 Some yarn from Art of Crochet , as I treated myself to an issue in WHSmiths, Bridport.

 And some very soft Rico Kids aran yarn.

 There was crochet being sold as garments in FAT FACE in Bridport: look?

 A shrug and a longer cardigan

 Then I finally finished the first stage of my white circles top, the second stage being the potential addition of short sleeves, but I like it as a tank top as well? This is in my bedroom in the cottage, lovely beamed ceiling.

 And I was progressing ever so slowly with the red Carezza angora as most of the time I was playing with aran stitches or the white circles.

 Then once home the sleeve grew a bit more....From short to 3/4.

 But again at home I played with yet more aran stitch combinations.

 And while in Dorset I developed my own way of charting some of these ''travelling post stitches''.
Colour coding made it all so much quicker and simpler to read.

 So we've had : garments and aran, the third direction for me is THREAD crochet and this is inspired by this beautiful LARIAT which is one of my birthday presents from Miss Y , which we acquired in Lyme Regis, that rainy day when we went back don;t you know? Couldn't resist any longer.

 It's simply BEAUTIFUL don't you agree? There was no name and no brand or anything when it was purchased, but it was sourced from the Hilary Highet shop in Lyme Regis and she has a website.

http://www.hilaryhighet.com/contact.html

Or you can look at images for her wares as she designs lovely knitwear?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sophie+digard&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vBd1UduqIImr0QXBoICQBA&sqi=2&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=1228&bih=800#hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=hilary+highet+lyme+regis&oq=hilary+highet&gs_l=img.1.2.0i24l4.300187.305992.0.308214.25.18.0.3.3.3.209.1161.15j2j1.18.0...0.0...1c.1.9.img.dY8iMihQxnc&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45512109,d.d2k&fp=b83456c8aabc63b&biw=1228&bih=800&imgrc=OUxmvLFxWWu26M%3A%3BAgdIwFptW9hKcM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hilaryhighet.com%252Fwpimages%252Fwpc65ef90d_05_06.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.hilaryhighet.com%252Fbespokedesigns.html%3B798%3B779




Now let's get back to CROCHET and the divine sunflower lariat:

 It's about 3 metres long and is possibly made of fine silk thread or mercerised cotton, possibly  even viscose because it's very shiny. It's much finer than a grade ''10'' crochet thread. The shop assistant declared it was NOT crochet, but I disagree: the flowers are clearly crocheted in trebles or double trebles and the raised seed centres are double crochet worked in the round. There's a picot at the end of each sunflower petal tip and the single green leaf is just delightful. The strands between are chained lengths with beaded clusters.

 I've worn it as a necklace - connected with a decorative pin and twisted round 4-5 times on a plain navy dance dress to a dance and I had ever so many admiring comments - for the lariat of course, not me.

My ideas from this are that I want to play with silk embroidery threads and fine cotton or linen embroidery threads and work 2 or 3 d flowers and butterflies with a hook finer than a 1.5 mm.

Ideally the flowers will be slight 3 d such as roses and blue bells, tulips, daffodils or orchids....

And the butterflies will have folded 3d wings not just be flat 2 d ones?

miniature nature inspired crochet would be a whole new departure for me!

I have already started to play with PUPPETS cotton thread size 10 from Coats, bought at the yarn shop in Bridport and a 1.5mm hook and some seed beads from the craft shop in Bridport.

Photos to follow... I didn;t have my flower crochet books with me of course so I had to make it up as I went along which was not great.

Still as one who usually NEVER ventures below a hook size 3.5mm as absolute minimum and is much more used to 4mm/4.5 or 5mm and bigger this was a new departure for me.

And then I want to explore beaded and decorative edges using beads and the puppets yarns as well as I have this book:

and this could adapt some of the edges on plain cotton dance dresses or shrugs and cardigan-jackets worn to Balls and dances for me.

DIRECTION  # 5: 

INSPIRED COLOURWORK and again using much finer yarns so you can get more colourwork into a piece like a shawl or scarf.

This came about by me watching the great British SEWING BEE on BBC catch up i-player YESTERDAY while adding to that red angora sleeve and suddenly I was gripped with a vision of a really glorious scarf!!!

It was Anne, a lady I hugley admire, a lady of 81 who has the most amazing skills in fitting, sewing and tailoring and who used my own fave Linton Tweed fabric for a style of jacket- jewel neck, short but shapely -that again I always just LOVE.

My skill level is nowhere near hers however and recently I have suffered a massive loss in my confidence in sewing. I do have Linton Tweed fabrics in my attic stash....

I digress: at the end they were in a cafe and she wore this scarf and it was crocheted!!!

And, by the by, when I am totally white- haired I too plan to wear my hair JUST like that, in a chignon, the perfect CHIC granny style.

Now look see:

 scarf looks like silk but it's crochet and tucked into a lovely cream mohair coat.

 AAAAH! The excitement, wow I love that scarf I thought. Fun circles in granny squares and differing sizes.

 You do see different bits in each photo though it seems repetitive, you can play spot the difference?

 And I also love the colours, the choice, variety and arrangement of them, but still with the dominance of blue paired with quite a bit of ochre, yellow, orange, burgundy and white?

So THEN what? Well Direction 5 is COLOURWORK and in particular with FINER yarns!!!

I then googled SOPHIE DIGARD as I have been a fan of her work for years and years but I have seen that the above scarf is NOT a Sophie Digard design after all.

Still DO have a look using google images or the link below and GASP in AMAZEMENT at the fabuolous colour work and designs from the Sophie Digard Studios:

This is a FEAST for the eyes and the imagination and had me very excited indeed.

Heart fluttering, breathing fast ans shallow, ooooh when can I have a go, where do I get some fine linens, wool or silks in those subtle but delicious colours?

please note Sophie DESIGNS, she has them made up in Madagascar and orders the dyed colours from sources to her own specifications.... And if you look really really closely on-line you can see stranded work where totally differing strands of colour are combined to a stunning effect.

More of this later.

First - AFTER EPIDEMIOLOGY revision- I can go search for some tapestry wool which is stranded finely so I can have a go, but what hook shall I use?

Go on here follows the link: ENJOY!

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sophie+digard&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=vBd1UduqIImr0QXBoICQBA&sqi=2&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=1228&bih=800

SUMMARY OF -NEW- CROCHET DIRECTIONS pour moi:



1. Garments
2. Aran crochet including accessories and household items
3. 3d Thread crochet for jewellery and necklaces and so forth, nature inspired.
4. BEADED thread crochet for bands, edges, straps etc.
5. COLOURWORK in finer yarns to use at least 12-15 colours in a piece....Sophie Digard as inspiration.