New skills in crochet and cooking experimentation

 My latest project is this dachshund from Knitting magazine September issue 106, i only bought the mag for this pattern as I had a picture just like it in style from a crochet artist for many years now and had meant to have a go at copying it but you know: there's never enough time! Then I saw this pattern for the exact same thing and there you go: HAD to have it. I'm doing it in Anchor magicline as I had lots in my stash.

 The body above is this really weird shape but a lady on Ravelry has also made it already and her shape was the same so it must be OK.

I'm also finishing the NORO boxy jacket this weekend because I finished the second sleeve last Friday and the yoke on the Saturday and even the front edgings have been done, I just have to finish the sleeve edges and sew all the ends in and locate the perfect button.

I've a ticket to a BALL next Saturday and it got me thinking about this dress I bought last year but have to do some re-making on. Not that I can get it done by next week but for the next dance  or Ball maybe, it's that season now isn't it? The dress is black strips of satin with net and it flares superbly but I had to remove the nylon lining as I'd be allergic to it and I plan to re-line it with royal blue cotton in the bodice- nice and cool for dancing- and royal blue satin lining for the skirt. And of course having bought it to fit snugly last November it's now a bit big as I've gone from a 14- 16 to a size 10.

I digress: I tried it on the other day and the girls said it was horribly ''GOTH'' so I got to thinking that I need to tone down the black even more with 'something'' down the 18 bands of satin.

I was thinking applique flowers or simple but striking embroidery? Or suddenly this morning I thought: BEADS! A crocheted beaded trim!

So off I went- away from my textbook on statistics I was supposed to be studying-to find my book on beaded crocheted edgings: Oya as they are called in Turkey.

This is the book and although I have had it for ages I have not as yet made anything from it.
I used Rowan knitting beads- again from quite a few years ago as I could not find a fine needle that was NOT a beading needle, and this allowed me to thread the beads with a fine tapestry needle. I used DMC BABYLO 20/12 and a 1.25 mm hook. I could face the 0.75 mm recommended in the book.

 A bit tricky and fiddly to do at first but I rather liked the result, except that the edging in the book was too unidirectional to be applied to a ribbon so in the bottom sample I present my own adaptation.

Am really pleased with the result, although it may need 8 beads in the centre , I will decide in the morning with daylight whether I like the effect on the ribbons. I would need to repeat my sample 72 times at least and for this will need more beads also.

Meanwhile we've been cooking up a storm at weekends as we don;t go out to save money etc etc. Austerity don't you know.

 This is my own recipe: totally three bean lasagna with a creme fraiche and grated cheese topping. Before and after oven shots.

 Got rated very highly and all dissappeared into family tummies pronto. Then there was the NIGELLA macaroni cheese a hot fave we haven't enjoyed since 2011.

the top one has bits of bacon added and the bottom one was made in a cake form so I can freeze it for the girls when I stay in Oxford for dancing.

 Divided into 4 for freezing as portions.

 Turkey meatloaf didn;t look so good but tasted just fine and dandy.

 This is a WW recipe and this is what is was supposed to look like:

 And here's me saying cheerio in a mohair cardigan I crocheted in early 2005, it's a bit big on me now but a great warm one for these chilly days! We haven't got the heating on yet.

Noro photos coming soon.

Noro JOY again

This is a sleeve I am working on at the moment, in fact I put it down just to blog a tiny bit before going to bed as I'm petty exhausted. Life at the moment is all work more work and very little play.

JJ needs a lot of help and support in his business and I have been working 10 hour days during the week and all day at weekends for both Sunday and Saturday to do his bookkeeping and the accounting .

And I have started a MSc in Public Health which is pretty amazing and great fun but also very hard work and intense studying.

The sleeve is worked in the round from the wrist upwards.

This is loosely based on  the NORO BOXY jacket from the CROCHET NORO book, I have manged to read the pattern online from the preview pages of the book. I had pre ordered it and it was due in November but now it's due in February and I simply could NOT wait! It's that picture in lime green and black that I showed in my last post, the one about the NORO HAPPY FEET sock-slippers.

I am using a 3.5 mm hook and have adapted the pattern to suit me in that I don;t really like too many trebles so I use more half trebles and my tension was way out so I have recalculated all the maths.
I do love the look in the book but doubted that black and lime green would suit me . besides I haven't seen that colour mix for sale anywhere here in UK so I've bought the S373 shade on impulse as these are SO MY colours!!!!And I'm absolutely loving the tweedy yarn and the sublimely subtle colour changes and the STRIPES! I love stripes. Simply love'm.

It's SILK GARDEN SOCK in case you hadn't guessed : 40 % wool, 25% silk, 10% kid mohair and 25% nylon. It's pretty scratchy and itchy but I'm trusting it softens in the wash with plenty of fabric conditioner in the rinse?
So I just wanted to say that THIS is what's keeping me same, a few simple crochet moments with a lovely new yarn to play with. There's so much difficulty and bad news or just sheer monotony - that's the boring bookkeeping!- that these moments are precious.

Luckily the rest are dancing of which I still do a lot, wearing all my size 12 or size 10 clothes as I've now re-shaped by just over 2 stone !!!!!! HIP HIP HOOORAY and also can now eat a tiny wee bit more as I no longer need to shave any more lbs off- a perfect BMI of 22 is now mine.

  So at the weekend when there was 3 days ( inc Friday) of bookkeeping boredom we watched NIGELISSIMA the new Nigella cooking prog and I baked her Italian chocolate cake.
YUMEEEE . Recipe free from website just google it.

I used what I had handy : so 100 g almonds, 50 g SR flour, 4 eggs and vegetable oil , the rest was as the recipe. DELICIOUS! Very moist and not too sweet and it was all gone in 2 days between the 4 of us.

Happy Feet

THESE ARE HAPPY FEET, not least because they are wearing happy feet slippers from the NORO knitting magazine. I bought this in June but only just completed the slippers. They are soooo comfy! And WARM! Which is good because my feet are always cold. ( except in Corfu)

 I made them with NORO Kureyon bought especially in London and a 3.5 mm hook and made one slipper which I then frogged completely as it was way too big. See photos later on. I decided I needed a 23st start chain thus having a core chain of 22 sts. I followed the pattern for the toe and heel shaping but reduced the DCs in between accordingly. The top I kept the same except for working to 24 rows and increasing to 22 and then 24 sts at the last few rows. ( most of it is at 20 sts)

 I like it both the right way out : ''proper'' and inside out, when the edge trim disappears or appears as ''teeth''.

 I added a bit at the back to make them more comfortable. I can't keep ''slip-ons'' on my feet very well....
Just a few rows going back and forth in D.C. and Half trebles linking to the top cover panel each time and decreasing a bit to keep it all nicely snug.

Here they are inside out. Now you can't see the outside trim edge. I like them this way too.

 See teeth!

It's colourway 311 with the pinks and greens in the sole and the blue/ terracotta on the top. It's really fun seeing the colours developing.

 I used the 5 rows from the pattern for the sole and for the 6th and final row I worked mainly dc with a few half trebles ( UK) in strategic places to even out the curves for a better fit. 10 Half trebles in fact, just before the outward sweep of the toe shaping curve.

And here is the first attempt: following the pattern and only reducing a few stitches here and there.

 The front of the foot felt fine but there was too much sole at the back....
I have such small but very wide feet. A size 3  U.K.or European size 36.

 I measured the excess and measured what the 5 cm meant in dc terms: that meant taking out 8 dcs.

 It was a cold and miserable weather sort of day with much torrential rain hammering on my poor car's roof.

I had hurt my left knee and hip in London lugging my laptop case about and was resting it in bed with hot compresses. A perfect day for crochet.Cold and wet and still in August too.
Talking of crochet: I have finished the rainbow cowl and been wearing it, not yet photographed it though.
The circles lace has come along too , I'm making fingerless gloves to match the cowl but ran out of yarn so I must order some on-line as the shops didn't have the shades I need. And I visited the crocheted LIONS outside the Natural History Museum , albeit briefly and have some hazy photos... Or google Shauna Richardson and see a whole lot more including a video of her making them!
All of this and catch up on St Andrews and Corfu still to come.

And I have pre-ordered the NORO CROCHET booklet/ magazine and await it eagerly in November!
The previews are up to see online and look amazing: diagonal miniskirt, necklace, lovely elegant cowl and stripey jacket cardigans...

How exciting!  But no NORO or other yarn slippers for the family, they almost killed themselves laughing at my slippers this evening. Apparently and I quote: ''  I'd rather have breadsticks for X-mas than those slippers...''. Uh oH. Cries quietly in corner. My lot do NOT appreciate the fine ART of crochet.
Still I was happy to listen to the giggles and laughter after all it IS the best medicine. And JJ bless him wasn't as disparaging as most. Even played a - slippers on the hands- clapping game with me that had us ALL collapse in giggles again.

Crochet in August 2012

At last an update albeit a brief one as I will need to go acquire some sleep soon. ( 8 minutes before midnight)

Crochet that joyful pastime for me has been rare of late mainly due to the WW programme which encourages ACTIVITY such as walking or cycling rather than sitting still and crocheting....

Can't complain though as I have reshaped by just under 2 STONE and feel ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS as a result. Back to crochet: partly no time as above but also because I do like making garments I have slowed down as I sinply no longer have any space at all in my wardrobe for the crocheted jackets to lay while awaiting being worn.

This is partly due to new clothes for my new size (10 or 12 ) and partly due to dance dresses acquired for my increased participation in Scottish Country Dancing.

So If the jackets have nowhere to go then it's better if they stay in the work basket?!

Anyway back to crochet: I have the white SALICE jacket 89% finished and a white 4 ply circle top on the go but also took 1250 g of cotton and bamboo yarns to CORFU on holiday, thinking with a WHOLE WEEK of nothingness I might get a lot of crochet done?

Not so! At 32- 38 degrees C in daytime and 28-30 degrees at night It was TOO HOT to crochet and to stay cool I was mostly to be found IN THE SEA. Swimming or floating or walking or just treading water...BLISS but no crochet.

I did attempt a bit as you can see and a very sandy sweaty effort it was too. To amuse myself I tried a few gauge samples to learn the stitch patterns of the sweaters in Dora's new book. I took a Bamboo cotton King Cole yarn DK and a 4mm hook and started with the shawl collar tunic on page 63.

And that was it  just too hot and sandy. I did read a book every 2 days though so that was 3 books read.

On the flight home I thought: well let's try an experiment. I 'll take ONE hook and see if it's confiscated and at £1.25 it might be worth a try. I took yarn and the book and guess what: IT WAS ALLOWED!!!

Please note though I didn't bring scissors and ensured I could break this yarn by pulling it firmly. 

So on the 3 hour flight home on Easy jet I crocheted THREE yes 3 gauge samples with other stitch patterns from the book.

Here are my projects, book, yarn and hook and sweets all ready to go.

Easily accessed on the plane 

First sample was the crossed trebles one but I'm not sure I like it in a plain yarn, that mini mochi really makes it sing.It's Fiji on page 81.

THEN UPtown on p 111- I LOVE this stitch pattern! The vertical lines are subtle and take a while to appear, in fact they are more pronounced when you stretch it widthways.

And finally just before landing: the hug shrug and my start chain was too tight so it buckles a lot. Probably my tension reflected the landing process? This was the fastest 3 hours ever, it FLEW by pardon the pun.

The Shrug hug sample was done with this view as below:

And this is the hilariously over estimated amount of yarn I took to Corfu:

This amounted to 1250 g i.e. over a kilo of my precious 20 kg allowance. For once I didn;t go over being 19.2 kg on the way OUT and 20.5 on the way back ( But daughter was under 18 kg so it was OK)

I brought home just 5 samples for the 7 days away. The pale blue DK COTTON one was from page 71 the IN VEST which I did on Friday night in the hotel room and on the balcony in the balmy evening/night air.

Working with the Baby Bamboo smiley stripes had been going awry when I tried to do flowers or motifs as the colour change repeat is too short and it looked all patchy and just plain ''wrong''.
Until I hit upon THIS pattern stitch- I thought of it as I studied a stripey scarf knitted in tis yarn by a child- it suddenly struck me that I wanted those same stripes to appear in MY CROCHET.....So I needed a very short or small stitch to allow STRIPES to develop. VOILA:

That was what I started and then I got ''hooked literally'' as it's such fun watching the colours juxtapose differently on each row.... Very '' MISSONI'' I think?

So that's all folks, it's just turned 20th August and that's all the crochet that's been happening so far.
I have had the immense pleasure and am hugely grateful for having been able to go dancing for an entire week as well as visit the lovely town of St Andrews AND as mentioned above been to Corfu with Miss E and photos of those jaunty happenings will be appearing in a while.
Grateful. Blessed. Had so much fun! Thankful. Blissful .The past 4 weeks have been PURE JOY.

Local walks, Local growth and a muddy dog

Local walks with local growth, the above were taken on 26 May 2012.
And here is what it has looked like since;