Hazelnut Hot Choc

Hazelnut flavoured hot chocolate with lots of mini marshmallow. Mmmmmmm.

OK, enough with the drooling over my hot choc. Let’s get back to crafty suff. As I mentioned previously, I’ve been busy with my hooks making loads of squares.

I made my squares for my SIBOL Swap partner, as well as her little gift.

Jan/Feb 2012 SIBOL Swap

And I’ve been making squares for my Art of Crochet Throw. You can see my first lot in this post. Here are the next half dozen

I’m also in the process of making a lap blanket to send to SIBOL. I have a fair bit of old acrylic yarn dating back to the 80s. Different colours including black, which is perfect for this type of project. I know there are lots of yarn snobs out there but let me tell you that the acrylic available now, compared to the 1980s version in my stash, is like chalk and cheese. Quite literally, the old stuff would “squeak” whilst knitting or crocheting and was quite scratchy. Not so today with the likes of Stylecraft Special or King Cole Pricewise. Very soft and smooth to work with. I have some newer acrylic but not much. Something that I will have to remedy this year

Till next time. Keep warm. Wear something knitted!

As I mentioned in my last post I’ve been quite busy this month. I’ve been mainly doing crochet squares for my throw and various swaps. They’re not quite proper “makes” in the sense of completed projects, so I’m not too sure whether they would count for “A Monthly Makes”. However, I did make a little gift for my swap partner.

Lacy Crochet Hearts

It’s this that I’ve entered in January’s Monthly Makes. It’s a free pattern I found on Ravelry called Lacy Hearts by Daniela Herbertz.  They’re very easy to make. You could make them all one size and make a pretty garland with them. Just the thing for Valentine’s Day, or as I did, as hanging decorations.

I must admit, it’s the perfect excuse for just sitting down with some yarn and hooks n sticks. I’ve been working on a pair of socks for my daughter.

Tiger Socks

As you can see, I prefer to knit 2 socks at a time, that way there’s no dreaded ‘second sock syndrome’. I’ve turned the heel and I’m working on the foot part, so it won’t take me long to finish.

I’ve also been crocheting some squares for the ‘Vintage Square Throw’. As some of you may know, this is the throw that is included in the Art of Crochet partwork. I’ve not been keeping up to date with the throw and as the first dozen or so squares were my first attempts at crochet, well, they weren’t too brilliant. As expected, my tension has changed, I also know what I’m doing stitchwise. So whilst I’ve been lurgyfied, I unpicked them all and started again. This time, however, I am substituting some of the squares. Over on Facebook, there is an Art of Crochet group which I’ve joined. A lot of the members have done a similar thing, whereby they’ve altered the squares with cross stitching/embroidery . Quite frankly, it is very awkward to cross stitch over trebles (US double crochet). The finished patterns don’t sit properly as trebles are tall stitches. They would’ve looked better worked over double crochet as this is more of a square stitch.

Here are my first 6 revised squares

The original squares were 13cm (5″ square, but as I’m using some of Jan Eaton squares which are 15cm (6″, I’m having to bump them all up to the larger size. I just hope that the free yarn will stretch to cover the extra dimensions.

Till next time when hopefully I’ll have rid myself of this bug once and for all.

Keep on crafting xx

I thought I’d give you a bit of an update on the Vintage Throw featured in The Art of Crochet partwork. I’ve subscribed to the series since it began and I’m about 2/3rds of the way through. It’s what prompted me to try to learn to crochet for the umpteenth time and it finally clicked with me.

The thing is I’ve not really been keeping up with the squares. I’ve been side tracked with other projects, as you do   I’ve made about 20 squares but to be honest, my tension has changed so much since then that they just look, well, amateurish.

I’m also not too keen on some of the designs. They’re mostly repeated squares and there’s a few with embroidered cross stitch on them.

Treble square with cross stitch diamond

half treble square with Aztec embroidery

There’s something awkward about cross stitching over treble crochet. The crosses just don’t seem to sit right. So, I’m going to go through my squares and probably redo them all. I’ll also be substituting some of the square designs with those from Jan Eaton’s 200 Crochet Blocks. I know of a few people who have done that, with some really nice results.

I just need to have a good look and decide which ones to make. So many to choose from. Decisions, decisions.

I received my October SIBOL Swap squares on Tuesday. I didn’t have time to take piccies as they turned up as I was just about to leave for my knit ‘n’ natter. So this is what I received from Joanna

from Joanna

The light isn’t too brilliant so you can’t see the colour properly but they’re done in coffee and cream colours. They are lovely Joanna. Thank you so much.