Durham and Operation Christmas Child- crochet HAT pattern.

Sunday last I had the privilege of travelling comfortably by train to Durham to spend some time with a dear friend from the late 1980's who I had seen very little of recently. I was also in for a treat: a walk around Durham, which I have been longing to do for a few years- and it was SUNNY!
Suitably impressed by the cathedral and castle I was awed by the interior and loved the wood, the frescoes, the triangle carved stone decorations which looked like many layers of ric-rac along the arches.
Can you remember Harry Potter and other Hogwart's students walking along this quad?
This wood ceiling fascinated me, the new wood so plain but the OLD wood so patterned, almost like a pelt of wild fur or moire taffeta?! The older wood panels are below the newer ones in this shot. The picture should be ''clickable'' for magnification if interested.

Back outside, we had a lovely walk and I was surprised how small and compact the city-centre was. I had always thought it rather huge as the view from the train station as the train pulls into Durham is one of the towering cathedral and castle with the city below and the river curling through. A view I had seen so very many times on my way to and from Newcastle upon Tyne when at University there for 5 years. But in practice it's much smaller than York.
The rose window, with a postcard of the colours below.
The castle, student accommodation now: LUCKY students, but suffering from subsidence...
Walking down from the cathedral to the river.
Looking back up from a bridge.



I am still very keen to find out WHAT these birds are? There were many on this weir in the river. Some all black, some black and white. Long sharp yellow beaks.



oops, window didn't load rotated to the right as planned.

This one shows the corrugated edges look or the ric rac edging as I described?
Monday morning I walked from the IBIS hotel- very bad night DO NOT stay there if you have a choice- along the walls of York to the University Biocentre. Took about an hour.

And I was extraordinarily pleased to be able to use an app which showed me the way on my phone....aaah the little joys of new toys, we don't grow up do we? I just LOVED the way the little blue dot( ME) moved along the route as I walked from red dot to green dot.
Here's the hat I made on the train journey from Haddenham to London: in just an hour!

Pattern to follow below. It's for OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD.

Am not entirely sure of the scallop edge: does it make it look like a teacosy???
This is the top of the hat without the pom pom.
And here's the scarf I made earlier- Blue Peter style- in just ONE evening. All in UK term double crochet stitches, worked in the BACK loop only.
This is the reverse side.
Pom poms are to be fixed to the ends. Here's the fab clover pom pom gadgets I use a lot. Pom Pom in Progress as it were. Lent my middle size to a student so will make the small ones this time.

HERE'S THE PATTERN:

HAT WORKED IN THE ROUND IN TREBLES AND DOUBLECROCHET

Marble comes in 200g balls and the hat used only 56 g, the scarf used 94g

6 mm crochet hook.

It's that time of year again: time to fill those shoe boxes with gifts for children not as fortunate as one's own!

Warm hats and scarves are needed as well as pencils,paper,soap,beads( for a girl), and other appropriate small toys.

I must admit I do buy the gloves/mittens to go with the above set from Thame market on a Tuesday!

The hat is finished with a simple shell border of* 5 trebles in one stitch skip 2 sts, work a dc in next st, skip 2 sts, repeat from *AND an optional pom-pom.

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 94 g and they easily fit both a child's head and into a small child sized shoe box( from Clarks).

PATTERN: HAT

Chain3 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 chain3 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 chain3, close each row with a slipst as before.

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

chain 1 and dc in everystitch 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 beforefinishing with a crabstitch border if desired or a shell stitch border as described at the beginning.

Make pom pom ( 35 mm) and attach to hat. Work in ends.

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

In the photographed hat I used two different colours of the yarn to add a few stripes. It can be made all from the ONE ball. Yarn available on-line from purple Linda crafts, google for information or message me. It's exceptionally soft and nice to work with as long as you have a metal hook.

SCARF PATTERN: as an oval.

Uses about 100g of James Brett Marble Chunky(mine weighs 94 g excluding pom-poms)

A 7 and 6.5 mm hook.

A pom pom maker by clover or custom- cut card rings.

Gauge not essential: my sample scarf measured 11 cm by 174 cm .

Chain 150 with the 7mm hook and change to 6.5mm hook.

Chain 1 and then work a dc into the 3^rd chain from the hook, continue to the end stitch where you work 2dc in the last stitch. Do not turn, but work 2 dc in the first loop on the other side of the starting chain.

Then continue working a dc in each loop until you reach the last loop of the chain on that side. Work 2dc in the last loop and 2 dc in the dc on the other side, then continue across working in the back loop only. The back loop is the loop of the V furthest away from your body.

Continue until the last dc on that side and work 2dc in the next 2 dc, one from one side and one from the other side. You will have completed row 3 and starting row 4. Continue in this manner until the last 2 stitches in row 5 where you work 2dc in each of the last 2 dc on that side AND 2dc in each of the 2dc at the start of row 6.

From now on you increase in the 2 stitches either side of the midline at each end ( ie 4 stitches in total) making 8 dcs into these stitches. The rest is 1dc in each dc.

Complete the scarf at row 13 when about a quarter way along the side by working a slip stitch per dc in about 10 stitches , pull yarn though loop and cut yarn or if you are using pom -poms at the ends finish at an end. Sew in ends.

Make either 1 large or 3 small pompoms for the each of the ends and sew them on.

Variation 1:

Alternatively you can work the scarf as a rectangle working back and forth in either back loops only or both loops or a variation which keeps all the ‘’lines’’ on one side of the scarf.

Variation 2:

You can work the scarf as a rectangle cross-wise across by using a start chain of 24 sts and working back and forth, keeping edges straight Work as many rows as desired and finish with fringe at edge.

Snow,hats and a bit of recycling

Snow, snow, snow everywhere again, a couple of feet ( 45-60 cm) deep this time.It's all so very very PRETTY!! Idyllic really- just so festive and enchanting!!! Chance of a truly WHITE CHRISTMAS very good indeed. The above is at the Celtic Manor House Hotel in South Wales just across the new Severn Bridge, this weekend.

Oh no! I did not mean to look this grumpy, but maybe it was a premonition of what was yet to come???( see A 34 BELOW) Show the snow I said, while JJ was complaining for us to hurry up....

Even sickly Miss E just HAD to pop out of the car and record the sheer snowiness of it all.

We'd all been to a Christmas party at the above hotel, where dragons dominate and where despite the 5 star rating the Christmas party food was abysmal and they made us share double beds with our children???? A family room consisted of 2 double beds apparently: hardly comfortable with 2 children along who cannot share? JJ slept on the floor in the bedspread and I had luckily brought along a spare duvet so just about managed to share with Miss Y, but she tossed all night so very little actual sleep was gained. Miss E was full of cold and sneezed her way through the night: alternating between asking for extra blankets and standing on the - lovely- balcony to cool off. The breakfast was delicious and in a lovely setting, to which the sunshine and deep snow contributed but still: FIVE STARS?????

This is my first aran cabled hat: crocheted from a pattern by Aaron Matthew Asmussen and made from navy wool from THE HEMA!!! That will mean something to any Dutch folk reading this. This particular wool was posted to me from Holland in the early 1980's, most likely between 1981 and 1983. And has lived in storage ever since. I was only sent 5 or 6 balls of 100g of what is porbably an aran thickness.

This one took a large part of the 100g, I used a 5mm hook and followed the pattern to the letter.

It fits me and reached just halfway across the ears. Miss E also has been wearing it to school- before she caught her bug- it's ''cool'' enough for a preteen of 12.5 at a smart grammar school for girls.

It's really lovely to make and it is the FIRST pattern I have BOUGHT on RAVELRY. It amazed me how easy the purchase was! The pattern- along with another 5 or 6 of his other textured relief pattern hats has been lurking in my favourites files on Ravelry since about February of this year..... The navy hat weighs 86g, the yarn was 152m to 100g so it took 131m of yarn.

Here's the almost vintage wool: it was 4.75 guilders a ball, way before the Euro replaced national currencies. It has the most wonderful slogan on the ball-band:

BOL OVER,GELD TERUG, which means if you were left with an unused ball you could take it back and get a refund for it. Aaaah, bless those were the days.

Actually I do think Masons in Abingdon do the same in 2010?! They also put wool by for you.

This hat,modelled by a large pudding bowl, was made in ''baby aran'' , 100% acrylic but I had to use a 5.5 and 6 mm hook to work the cables and it's still pretty stiff: it stands by itself! If you see the yarn as a strand it look more like a chunky yarn and a big one at that, aran indeed....

Lovely crown pattern isn't it?

This one's a Christmas present, I just hope it will fit the recipient!

Then with a 5.5mm hook and an Cygnet chunky yarn from Mason's I made this burgundy one: from a ball of Cygnet 75%wool and 25% acrylic chunky yarn. I gave it a crabstitch border and may well line the bottom 50% with a fleece fabric. It reaches below the ears
as in this very cold ( -6C) weather you don't want your ears exposed!!! For a shorter hat you can turn the edge into a brim. This yarn was 148m in 100g and the hat weighs: 86g

Something happened with the camera- this one's a deep green! but I showed the picture as the cables show up so well? This hat was made on the A34 as yesterday we drove home from South Wales and a 2 hour yourney took over 8 HOURS!!!! 4 or more of which were spent in a queue of cars on the northbound A34 just South of Oxford. Luckily the kids had a movie to watch on the I-PAD and I read a novel and then made a hat from scratch. JJ e-mailed on his blackberry and complained a lot. We subsisted on buns and pastries ''liberated'' from breakfast - which JJ had laughed at but was only to happy to EAT later...- and we had lots of water due to my hoarding instincts I had brought them along. '' Just in case''.

In one part it was 1 jack-knifed lorry in the snow- but further up it was 5 such lorries and they closed the road for 3 hours.So this is the A34 snowbound hat. Same yarn as the burgundy but in a lovely deep dark green. Somehow this one weighs 92g. Same chunky yarn and 5.5mm hook. Looks slightly longer and narrower than the burgundy one ...

Here they all are: ta dahhhhh. 2 more to make before Tuesday for my presents. One in a navy tweed aran and one more. For a family of five. The HEMA hat stays with us. I may make one with earflaps next, shorter but with flaps and a cable running down the centre of the flap....

And I may make a beret too. Just maybe. Do they need bobbles adding do you think? Or shall I keep them as beanies? Finally bef0re I got sick with this ''throat and fever and chestiness'' bug - which I had for over 2 weeks and then I had an adverse reaction to Erythromycin as well- awful stomch cramps and I still have pains now whenever a meal is due: ie when my stomach is empty.

Anyhow I was saying: BEFORE all the illness I made a new seat cushion for my computer chair- which is a lovely whicker armchair meant for a conservatory someday- I cut a thick pad of foam in the right half moon shape and then sewed a cover for it from old jeans in the attic.

Cut into strips and joined lengthways.

I played with the colours and the side strip is of darker jeans. There's lovely memories here:

I included jeans of my girl's as 4 year old toddlers and my maternity jeans too! There's a zipper in the back part and it fits both the foam pad and the chair beautifully!

No more woven reed patterns on the skin of my legs and ...!

Piccie of completed cushion in chair to follow soon.

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR with lots of happy baking, making and crocheting in 2011!!!

I may be back before then but I can't say for sure as it's the school holidays now.

Have FUN! AND LIVE WITH PASSION! ( so yes OK , I have new 6 CD set of dear ol' Tony Robbins)

Learning to draw week and Christmas box gifts

What a busy week! Spent a lot of it drawing things as practice as I really could not draw but have been learning with the aid of a book: Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. Also because on my course the tutor did say that my sketchbook and general lack of drawings was a ''WEAK'' area and needed a lot of work!

First things first though: here are the leaflet details of the Christmas Boxes we do every year.

I made a scarf and hat this week: similar to last year and using the same yarn and the same pattern- from my blog this time last year-here- but finished the scarf with a fringe instead of pompoms and the hat with a big flower and button.

The button ''here'' above takes you to the FREE PATTERNS FOR THE HAT AND SCARF if you would like to JOIN IN?!!!

For the flower: with 7mm hook and Marble Chunky: Chain 3 and join with a slipst.

ch4 and work treble into circle,*ch1,tr1,repeat from * until you have 5 trebles, then chain1 and slst into 3rd chain to close the round.

Now you work the petals: I did: 1dc,1htr,2tr,1htr,1dc in each of the 6 chainspaces thus forming 6 petals. Finish off with a slipst and sew in the ends. Sew onto brim of hat but only through the upper fabric so the brim remains adjustable and add a sewn on button.

Should fit most girls aged 4-9.

Then I went shopping today and bought the other gifts: pens,pencils, a ball, paper, coloured paper,felt pens,crayons,soap,colouring pencils and a few hairbands. A crocheted puppy will go too. I'll wrap it all up tomorrow and show you before it all goes to school on Monday.

Oooooh I have spent ALL the hours the kids are at school DRAWING this week! Mind you it DID get more fun as time went by but it didn't start out as fun...

First a sheep drawing from Henry Moore: it was a set excercise so I had a go after googling this and printing one out. Top is the real macoy and the one below is my efforts at copying it!

By hand! A LOT of sweat and tears... Learning to switch my left brain OFF!!!

Ta Dah!!!! Actually I'm just a bit oh such a bit, very very pleased with it. Just about 90 minutes of studying and sketching.

Then we had to do ''HUMAN FORM'' from an art period- so I spent happy hours browsing in Modern Art books and the internet- googling images again- before choosing the above: 3 women by Picasso in his Cubist period. NB All the previous and next drawings look too pale BUT they are CLICKABLE so you can see it properly if you CLICK on the picture......

We had to do 45 minutes, then 5min, then 2 and then 30 seconds....

Well I got fed up after 35 minutes so having done the sheep for so long I called it a day and did the quick ones: BOY that was REALLY HARD! Especially the 30 seconds: it's really NO TIME at all! I 'd set my kitchen timer and nearly had a heart attack when it went off!!!

To stop me smudging and adjusting I used a felt pen for the 30 seconds one, far right.

Clockwise from top left: the original as photocopy from a book, my 35 min, 30 seconds, 2 minutes and 5 minutes.
I also did another Henry Moore- lambs this time and some nudes which are to be used for collage....
As is this Igor Stravinsky portrait below by Picasso again. A 45-60 minute copy of it in pencil on loose cartridge paper-sorry the photos are bleached a bit by the flash but turn very yellow and more blurred without...

And a 5 minute one to be used for more collage techniques.

Still can't decide, which is better, with or without flash, but no worries I'm not showing anymore!
On Friday I was painting fabrics and constructing cloth with bonding methods and on Monday I spent the day monoprinting.
Social activities included a lovely walk on the South Bucks Way on Thursday with a friend and fellow dogs- they actually got on very well together- !!!Friday attended a school function and got blown across a car park it was sooooo WINDY!

Still working on the cowl for the magazine and the santa bear suits.....Will share soon if College homework permits...

Happy Hooking and Stitching! ( maybe I should be adding Sketching too!LOL)