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Sunday 28 December 2014

Unfinished Business

So it seems that carrying over a Christmas Crochet Project from one year to the next is now a tradition of mine.

Instead of the piles of green yarn and hooks on the side table next to my chair there is now hot chocolate and minced pies.

I came so close to finishing my wreath, but not quite. I reckon another six inches of stripes and then the sewing onto the polystyrene half wreath and I would have been done. I'm choosing to see this not as a failure, but as giving myself a big head start on next year!

At least I got all of my crochet baubles done. I've really enjoyed looking at my woolly tree this year, so much that I think they may become permanent features in years to come. Perhaps I'll add some gold lame string next year for a bit of extra sparkle.

Am I the only one who didn't manage to finish their whole list of things to make? With New Year almost upon us I'm already thinking about my next non-festive project, as well as having a big Spring clean and re-organisation of how I store my yarn and craft bits and bobs. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thursday 18 December 2014

Furls Crochet Hook Review



So I'll come straight out and say it. I love love LOVE them. A month ago I hadn't even heard of furls crochet hooks then I saw a video on AllFreeCrochet's channel about the Alpha Series hooks, which are the wooden ones. 

They were so beautiful and looked like a wand from Harry Potter and I knew these hooks had 'chosen' me and I had to try them! 

When I went to the Furls website I saw they also made the Candy Shop hooks that I ended up purchasing. The shape and the idea that they are hand-friendly intrigued me, but the pretty colours and imagining how smooth crocheting with a hook coated in luxury car paint would be swung it for me. 

I ordered these two on Black Friday and waited like a giddy child for them to be shipped to the UK. I nearly kissed the postman when he knocked on my door with a parcel with a customs label on it!

 Furls send out each hook with a ball of yarn matching the gauge, which is such a lovely extra. 

Also, I know this doesn't really matter, but each hook is boxed. Normally when I buy an individual hook it's just on a piece of card and that's fine, but seeing the lovely black boxes gave me the same feeling of treating myself that I get when buying a high end mascara. 

I bought a 4mm and a 5mm hook. My only negative is that they don't make a 4.5mm in the Candy Shop series which is my most used hook. I have quite tight tension so tend to use a 4.5mm when a pattern calls for a 4mm. They do make them in the Alpha series though, and I intend to purchase one in the future. 



As soon as I took one out the box and held it in my hand I just thought, 'Ooooh, that does feel better' and after a few rows of my still unfinished crochet wreath I was fully converted. 

They just feel so nice in the hand and the stitches slide on and off like a knife through butter. I can't say I noticed that they made my stitches any more even, but as I mentioned before I crochet fairly tightly anyway. Perhaps if you crochet a little looser this might be more apparent.

I do think they are a joy to hold though, and anything that prevents wear and tear on my hands and wrists is a win in my book. They actually come with a $500 hand-health warranty. Yes, they are a little pricey compared to other hooks but on the whole crochet is a pretty darn cheap hobby so for a hook that will last you a lifetime I think it's small change in the grand scheme of things. 

Edit March 2016

Although I do still like these hooks, I realised I have barely used them because the lovely silky paint on them that makes the stitches slip on and off, squeaks against a lot of the yarn I use. The noise and feeling just goes through me. If you've ever got changed under a towel at the beach and held it with your mouth and it's squeaked on your teeth you'll know what I mean. Perhaps it's because I use a lot of budget friendly yarn with acrylic in it, who knows, but just something to bear in mind.

Thursday 11 December 2014

Christmas Cards


I had a quiet hour to myself today, I probably should have got on with finishing my crochet wreath but I had a glue gun that I'd bought but not used and it was calling to me. So I sat down on a big cushion on the living room floor and spread my random crafty bits around me.

I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I just experimented and had fun. When we moved house I had put some of my craft supplies away at my Grandad's until I'd sorted our storage the way that I wanted it. That day has not come yet, so half of my craft bits and bobs were missing.

I'm like a magpie. If I think something could be used for a project in the future, I save it. One day, I will have a whole room just to have as my craft den...


Back to reality, I just made do with what I did have. Buttons, pipe cleaners and pom poms mostly.

I figured out the best way to use a hot glue gun as I went along as I've never had one before. The results? Mixed. I thoroughly enjoyed myself though even if I did end up with hot glue on my shellac nails!

The hour spent relaxing was much needed and now some of my nearest and dearest can have a laugh opening their cards this year as they truly do look as though they were made by a six year old. That's the look I was going for though, honest.














Wednesday 10 December 2014

My Tree is Up!



My woolly tree is finally up! I love my crochet baubles and chains so much. I originally planned to intersperse them with traditional baubles, but once I got going I realised that I liked them on their own and I had made more than enough to fill the tree with just fibre festiveness.

I am aware of how awful I am at taking photos, so I think a New Years Resolution for me is to take some kind of night course at my local college. 

Everything looks so much prettier in real life than in my dodgy pictures. I added my three favourite Father Christmas ornaments and a little robin up at the top, but other than that it's all wooly.

I got the tree up on Sunday and since then have been adding other festive touches around the house and frantically hooking away at my wreath. Almost done! I'm hoping by the weekend I'll be fully decked with boughs of crocheted holly.






Sunday 30 November 2014

A Little Bit of Everything

This week I've been hopping from project to project. The table next to where I sit on the sofa has pretty much looked like the photo on the left the whole time. 
I worked a very little on the infinity scarf for my sisters Christmas present which is the maroon chunky wool, then I decided that I can spend my time doing the that once the decorations are all put up next weekend, so I switched to working on my crochet wreath. 

The green wool is for that.I started off leaving my tails with the intention of sewing them all in at the end. I think I'd just got into the habit of leaving them. Before starting my Christmas crocheting I was working on a scarf in the moss stitch and I'd been leaving them to make a fringe. Then I remembered how much I HATE sewing in ends and started working over them. I'm just going to leave one really long one at the end and use it stitch everything together at the end. Much less faffing about.

As I'm going to put the tree and decorations up next weekend that gives me a week to finish my wreath. Once I've done all my stripes I plan to do a few leaves of holly with some berries and then I should be done. Fingers crossed I finish in time.
I really want all the decorations to be as home made as possible this year, so I plan on making paper chains as well as snowflakes and little houses for the window. I just think Christmas and home-made go really well together.


When I got a quiet hour after my big Sunday tidy I decided to start on making my paper snowflakes. To have enough to cover my entire dining room window will take some time so I'll be squeezing a few snowflakes in here and there as well as making stripes in the week.

I've always loved making random cuts and seeing what unfolds . It reminds of how much I loved making them as a child, and how exciting Christmas was then. My little boy will be fifteen months by Christmas time and although he won't remember this year when he's older, I will. I feel like I'm on the edge of making happy traditions for my own family. Perhaps in future years we can make snowflakes together.



Knowing that he's going to have so much fun tearing wrapping paper, playing with new toys and getting fussed by family is making me feel excited on his behalf. I can't wait until he comes home after his visit to his Great Nan's next week and see's the tree all sparkly and paper chains everywhere. If I finish everything in time....



Sunday 23 November 2014

Sunday Funday








Normally on a Sunday my other half takes himself off to his Nan's house with my little boy for a Sunday dinner. They leave around eleven, come back around five, and I spend almost the entire time cleaning. 

As much as my twenty year old self would have laughed you out of the room if you suggested that the day would come when I would be genuinely thrilled that I would get to spend uninterrupted hours putting away a mountain of clean clothes that had gathered on the tumble dryer throughout the week, it's true! 

I love Sundays. I spend all day headphones on, dancing about in my pyjamas, hoovering, changing sheets and putting washing away. I seem to need at least an hour to put all the things in the wrong place, back where they belong.

After I've done all my housework I have a deliciously quiet bath, where I read, and nobody shouts for me to come and do something else. I should probably worry that I enjoy this so much.

However, with all of my crocheting reminding me that Christmas is sneaking ever closer, I decided it would probably be wise to practice doing a roast myself as it's now so infrequent that I do. I tried my hardest throughout the week to put the clean washing back as soon as it was out of the tumble dryer, and I mostly succeeded.

This meant that there was a moment today when my little boy and his Dad were having a nap upstairs, the roast was in the oven and there was nothing more for me to do, so for forty minutes I curled up on the sofa and crocheted. Still wearing some jazzy flannelette mind you.

I'm currently working on two projects at once, always a wise decision I know! A maroon infinity scarf for my sisters Christmas present and a woolly wreath. She asked me to make it, so it doesn't matter if she sees this . I want as many decorations as I can manage yarn bombed this year.



I started off with a simple shell stitch, then I frogged it and last night switched to Claire from bobwilson123's lazy cluster scarf pattern. I just amended it slightly so that every fourth row I'm doing a cluster, chain one and skipping a stitch. So far I'm happier. That's it above, in case you couldn't tell from my appalling picture taking.

For the wooly wreath I'm just doing different sized stripes of single crochet(US)/double crochet(UK) in different shades of green. I'm soooooo impatient to finish it. Is anyone else working on more than one thing at once? Usually I'm pretty restrained, but Christmas makes me giddy. 

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Christmas Crochet Baubles

It's almost a year since I last wrote. I'm in a new house now, I have a new job, and my little boy is 14 months old, which I can hardly believe. Day to day life hasn't had much time for crocheting, but I'm always thinking of ideas.

Ten minutes here and there on Pinterest and The Crochet Crowd Facebook has given me bags full of inspiration, but until last month I haven't had the time or energy to pick up my hook. I think the change in the weather perked me up. Being incredibly ginger, Autumn and Winter have always been my favourite seasons. Far less chance of getting sunburn and the colour palette is just much more me. 

As soon as I realised I was now getting a whole hour of free time for myself of an evening, I started on some crochet baubles. I've wanted wooly ones for soooo long!




My last big red one has just had its ends sewn in. There are twelve of those and they're my favourites. Perhaps because they came out like I imagined them in my head, which is one of the reasons I love crochet. I wish I could draw, but my hands never translate what is in my brain on to the paper. With crochet it usually comes out like I was hoping. 






I used the remainder of the red wool from last years crochet 'paper' chains. I ended up with about thirty and this year as we are in a new house I thought I would put them on the tree so hopefully having the red baubles in the same wool will look like I meant that to happen!





It doesn't show up too well with my dodgy photo taking, but I found this lovely wool with a gold silk thread and gold sequins running through when I was mooching about the wool shop so I decided to make some little baubles too. I ended up with twenty four little ones. They were probably the most fun as they worked up so quickly. 



And finally I made two of these green, sparkly monstrosities. I had a packet of sparkly pipe cleaners in my craft box that kept shimmering at me, so I experimented. They look very ropy and home made, but I sort of like that. Not enough to make more than two though! I think they look like something that Mrs Weasley might decorate The Burrow with. 

My next task is a wooly crochet wreath, but my delivery of lots of lovely shades of green wool is not due for another few days so I thought I'd use tonight's hour of free time to re-join the online craft community. 

How is everyone else doing with their Christmas making? I love this time of year for idea swapping. Winter really is the best season.

Christmas Crochet Baubles



It's almost a year since I last wrote. I'm in a new house now, I have a new job, and my little boy is 14 months old, which I can hardly believe. Day to day life hasn't had much time for crocheting, but I'm always thinking of ideas.

Ten minutes here and there on Pinterest and The Crochet Crowd Facebook has given me bags full of inspiration, but until last month I haven't had the time or energy to pick up my hook. I think the change in the weather perked me up. Being incredibly ginger, Autumn and Winter have always been my favourite seasons. Far less chance of getting sunburn and the colour palette is just much more me. 

As soon as I realised I was now getting a whole hour of free time for myself of an evening, I started on some crochet baubles. I've wanted wooly ones for soooo long!




My last big red one has just had its ends sewn in. There are twelve of those and they're my favourites. Perhaps because they came out like I imagined them in my head, which is one of the reasons I love crochet. I wish I could draw, but my hands never translate what is in my brain on to the paper. With crochet it usually comes out like I was hoping. 





I used the remainder of the red wool from last years crochet 'paper' chains. I ended up with about thirty and this year as we are in a new house I thought I would put them on the tree so hopefully having the red baubles in the same wool will look like I meant that to happen!




It doesn't show up too well with my dodgy photo taking, but I found this lovely wool with a gold silk thread and gold sequins running through when I was mooching about the wool shop so I decided to make some little baubles too. I ended up with twenty four little ones. They were probably the most fun as they worked up so quickly. 



And finally I made two of these green, sparkly monstrosities. I had a packet of sparkly pipe cleaners in my craft box that kept shimmering at me, so I experimented. They look very ropy and home made, but I sort of like that. Not enough to make more than two though! I think they look like something that Mrs Weasley might decorate The Burrow with. 

My next task is a wooly crochet wreath, but my delivery of lots of lovely shades of green wool is not due for another few days so I thought I'd use tonight's hour of free time to re-join the online craft community. 

How is everyone else doing with their Christmas making? I love this time of year for idea swapping. Winter really is the best season.