Charity Crochet Class: operation Christmas Child- shoe box appeal.

 So after much excitement, spending hours crocheting/testing samples and re-writing patterns and printing them off I baked a cake Friday night 11 th for the charity cake 'n crochet class on Saturday 11 to 13:00 at Bicester Wools.

 I had sorted my hooks into the right sizes for people to borrow- especially the 7mm ones on the far right.

The cakes came out beautifully..

 Top and bottoms just perfick, yum!

 Sandwiched together with vanilla icing..

 covered in same....

 Had fun decorating with swirls of dark chocolate.

 Then we had the class and I want to say  a HUGE and public THANK YOU to Ellie who suplied the hooks and yarn FREE OF CHARGE and the venue room as well as tea and coffee! WOW!
I had printed 8-12 sets of patterns but knew the acceptance rate was 4-6 from facebook and Ellie's comments. It went quite well, there were the 5 of us and I thank those ladies who came from the bottom of my heart, I forgot to take photos or ask permission, so no names but you know who you are?
We had three who chose the ripple scarf design lengthways and one who went for the fans. I had written the design for the ripple in 2008 and published it on my old blog here:
http://merrysusan.blogspot.co.uk/2008_11_01_archive.html


But here it is again with a few amendments  for the SCARF as I write differently these days and of course I have progressed/improved/whatever you call it in the past 5 years of - almost- daily crocheting!

Made with a 6 mm crochet hook and part of a 200g ball of MARBLE CHUNKY by James Brett.

The hat used up 56 grammes and the scarf 80 g and they easily fit both a child's head and into a small child sized shoe box( from Clarks).

For once I have veered away from the usual pink for girls as my own 10 year old won't go near pink but has approved of this set.

PATTERN: HAT

Chain 3 and close with a slip stitch., work 3 chain then 15 trebles into the circle.

Chain 4 and work 1 treble 1 chain into each treble : ending with 15 trebles and a chain 3 masquerading as a treble with a chain space between each.

Chain 3 and work 1 treble into the top of each treble and 2 trebles into each chain space: ending as 48 trebles( include the 1st 3 chain as a treble).Close each row with a slipst into the 3rd chain.

Continue in trebles working one into each treble and starting each row with a chain 3, close each row with a slipst as before. This turns the flat circle into a ''bowl'' shape as there are no more increases to keep it flat.

After 9 rows working straight without increases: change to dc as follows:

chain 1 and dc in every stitch with a sl st into the chain, repeat for 5 more rows( 6 rows of dc in total)

chain 1 and work dc in the front loop only ( to create a foldline) all the way around, sl st in ch: 48sts.

work a further 6 rows in dc as before finishing with a crabstitch border if desired.

Make pom pom ( 35 mm)and flower and attach to turned back brim. Work in ends.

Fits adults as well as most children aged 5-10.

SCARF:

CHAIN 149 or use the formula:( 12 R plus 17).The 17 is made up of 3 ch for one edge, 11 sts for the next edge and 3 ch for the turning chain which counts as a Treble stitch.R stands for the number of repeats you want. You could do 125 or 137 or 161 instead for example.

 Now the very first stitch is a treble-2 together( TR 2TOG), which is worked into the 4th chain from the hook , working a half completed treble, then sticking the hook into the next chain and working another half completed treble- now you have 3 loops on the hook, then finish by yarn over and pull through all 3 loops, one TR2TOG made.A visual tutorial will be on the NEXT post.

The Tch ( 3 ch) and the TR2TOG form one edge. Now you work repeats as follows and there's a lovely rythm to it: like a waltz: (!!!)# 1,2,3,plain single trebles, then increase , increase, 1,2,3,plain single trebles and then decrease , decrease, repeat from #

That was just a song or line to help you see the pattern now in crochet terms it is THUS:

  3 trebles in the next 3 chains[one per stitch], then {work 2 trebles in one chain-} twice and work 3 trebles- one in each of the next 3 chains, then work TR2TOG twice over the next 4 sts.

The ( two Tr in one are increases) create  the points or mountains and the TR2TOGs are the decreases which creates the dips or valleys so the scarf ''ripples'' along in chevrons.

Now you repeat this only for the number you used as R in the formula, so if you used 149 chains you do 11 of these repeats and then you should have 11 chains left. Now you work 3tr, 2 increases, 3 tr and finally JUST ONE TR2TOG and a single normal treble in the last chain. This is your other edge and will keep it straight.

There are 12 chevrons along the length if you used 149 chains.

In following rows you always increase by working 2 trebles into a treble in the 2 trebles at the centre of a point and you decrease using a treble before the previous row decrease and the treble created by joining 2 trebles of the row below.By this I mean if you learn to  ''read'' the stitches below you can see what you must do? It's also easier woth a diagram which I gave to the class participants but I don;t draw that well.

On the stitches that look like a V you only do an increase in the treble that sits next OR ADJACENT/ CLOSEST to the next V: VV  you see? From those 4 trebles you only increase in the centre two?

Decreases in the row below look like inverted V's and for the decrease or TR2TOG you will always first use a normal treble with the top of the stitch that looks like the inverted V first , and then the next decrease is a combination of the top of the next inverted V together with the next normal treble.

Start  each row with chain 3  and then a TR2TOG then work into stitches below in the same pattern as the first row above and following the contours of the chevrons.

6 rows complete the scarf- work in ends and make 6 pom poms and attach these to the scarf.

VOILA! A lovely present for the Christmas box! Can both be made in the one evening!

 Slightly dissappointed at the low  attendance and with such a lovely sunny ride back through gorgeous Oxfordshire I stopped off at the FLOWERPOT in Long Crendon for tea and lunch as I was starving despite the cake or maybe because of it?  I sat in HOT sunshine, IN the window on this comfy leather sofa.
Coat, Inside Crochet Issue 46 COWL , notepad for ideas/ blogging thoughts/lists, tea, crochet scarf, crocheted hook case and crocheted backpack all visible there?

 This was the view, lots of cars whizzing by as I sat crocheting in the window in the sun.
I felt like one of those ART INSTALLATIONS?! Where people are involved and move.
I can recommend the tea, I had 3.5 cups out of my pot, all of them stayed hot somehow.
And the bacon sandwich was DELICIOUS

 Bye bye, going home now.

 Where the cake was eaten... And I walked Lucy at Cuttlebrook. Pippa was in a ''non -walking'' mood.