I like crochet too!

My earliest crafting memory is being taught to crochet by a friend's mother when I was about 10. I'm not sure if the lesson stuck with my friend (who went on to become Australia's Strongest Woman!!), but it certainly stuck with me, and for the next 15 years, crochet was my fibre-art of choice. A recent find reminded me of some of the weird and wonderful things I made as a child. Most impressively was this Santa, which I made without a pattern when I was about 15. He's starting to get a bit tatty with age (after all he is around 25 years old now!) but we still bring him out every Chrissy and he sits on our mantlepiece.
Actually anything I made during those years was made without a pattern, a skill that I seem to have lost as I've aged. I never developed an obsession with crochet, like I ended up developing with knitting, but it was always something that gave me a lot of pleasure when I did feel crafty, and decided to dig out the hooks..

Crochet took a big backseat when I learnt to knit. I really don't think I've done any substantial crochet since 2004, but in the past couple of weeks I've developed a real big crochet-love. I've long admired some of the clever Amigurumi I've seen around Craftster and Ravelry , but never had the desire to do any... UNTIL NOW!

It started a mere 9 days ago, and this is what I have produced:
Tree Frog

Bender
Christmas Puddings (x 3 for school teacher thank-you pressies)
And Finally Max King of the Wild Things, who I hope to have finished for another special Max for Christmas.
YAY for crochet!

Christmas Panic!

I'm so very disorganised. Normally at this time of year I would have the Christmas knitting well in hand, but apart from 1 pair of socks that I finished several months ago I have nothing! I've managed to reallocate a couple of things that I've knit previously and had put away (sob.. goodbye knee-high socks) , and in a major panic-induced fit of startitis I have cast on 7... yes 7, individual socks. I'm not sure why that seemed like a good idea, because really it's not. Focusing on finishing 1 pair at a time would be sensible, but where would the fun be? After turning the heel on the Baudelaire I cast on, I realised I'd be lucky if it fit a 7 year old and promptly frogged the whole lot in a fit of spite, but the other 6 are travelling quite well considering I'm spreading my time across them all.
I'm hoping to have at least 2 of those sock-pairs finished for Chrissy, but really I'm not hopeful considering I just got a lovely new shipment of Wollmeise and this pattern is beckoning....
(oh yes, and I fell off the wagon long ago.... might have forgotten to mention it though)

Finishings

After realising how many odds and sods I had on the needles last blog post, I dug in and managed to finish 4 of the 5 that I committed to, and it's not yet a month past! I think I'm doing well.

First off the needles was a yoke neck sweater. A tiny little thing, probably a size 2. It has no intended home, and was really just an experiment to see how far that 100g skein would stretch. I don't even have a picture to share, you'll just have to trust me that it is very cute and is now tucked away awaiting a new owner.

Secondly were the awesome Ornette socks. Knit in Wollmeise 100% in Safran, these were complex, yet highly intuitive - Cookie A is a sock-designing genius, and of course the colours of Wollmeise cannot be beaten (even if you don't like yellow, you can't deny the colours of these is stunning!)
Thirdly were my knee-high socks, which were began way back in May. These were a labour of love and I'm glad they're finished, even though I probably won't be able to wear them for another 6 months!
Lastly is the Bramblewood vest, which is lovely and warm and snuggly and I sweltered in it today to bring you these pics (34 degrees C and I'm wearing wool, and I'm not looking happy)In all the excitement of finishing 2 pairs of socks, I have cast on another 3 pairs - hopefully I'll have all these finished by next months blog post!

WIP Wrestling.

Apparently I'm quite good at deceiving myself. If I was asked about the number of WIPS (works-in-progress) that I currently have, I'd normally answer, "Oh.. about 3 or 4". But I was forced to confront the truth this morning, when I decided to have a bit of a Spring clean. There are 14 (!!) unfinished projects waiting patiently for their turn in the sun... (Unfortunately there are at least 2 of these which are destined to never see the light of day again, may they Rest In Peace)

So after sorting and frogging and reassessing all day, I now only have 4 projects in legitimate hibernation, I have frogged 5, finished 1 and have plans to finish another 4 in the next month. Phew! I feel so organised!

Vintage Button love

I've been wanting a pretty vintage brooch for a little while now, and have hunted without success through the local oppies. A spur of the moment idea turned into just what I was looking for. I have an enormous box of vintage buttons that were collected by my Great Grandfather during the first world war. The story my grandmother told was that these buttons were stripped off old clothes which were then used to manufacture paper. I love that there are buttons here potentially 100 years old - Wonderful history! 3 buttons of diminishing size, squished together with hot glue and a brooch fixing on the back equals this:



I love it! You can see it's holding my lovely Twilight shawl closed, notice how beautiful the colours are - this is a much better photo of it! Also notice that perhaps I was a bit heavy handed with the glue - next time I'll be more sparing!

A Busy Month.

Nearly a whole month has passed, and the blog didn't cross my mind once until this morning! School holidays and short getaways have been the predominant activities around here, but I do have 2 new shawls to present.

Firstly the Twilight Shawl which I mentioned in my last blog post.

Pattern: Twilight/Gloaming Shawl
Started: September 6th 2009
Finished: September 14th 2009
yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight in "Korppi" from the Ravenclan series.
needles: 3.5mm KP options



A Woolaholics KAL inspired the second shawl

Pattern: Traveling Woman
Started: September 14th
Finished: September 28th
Yarn: Knit Picks Merino/Silk Fingering Bare, dyed with landscape dyes
needles: 3.5mm





Still plugging away at the Ornette Socks and Bramblewood Vest and enjoying both!

Extreme cast-on!

When RoseRed first mentioned her 'Grand Plan', I was immediately swept away with the excitement of it all. Her plan was to cast on one new project every day with the added bonus of them all being knit in Wollmeise, one of my very favourite yarns. It was so exciting! So extreme! So extravagent! Straight away I knew that I would struggle with the idea of having so many projects on the go, but I seriously contemplated challenging myself just to see how I would cope. In the end I decided that I wouldn't commit to anything (typically!) and vaguely decided that I'd cast on a 'couple' or maybe a 'few' new projects just to try to add a bit of spice to my somewhat ailing knitting mojo. I'm pretty confident it worked! I cast on 3 new projects starting with the Bramblewood Vest in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in a bright spring green. This got tossed aside after day 2 due to the lack of an 80cm knitpicks cable, which I know is attached to a hibernating project around here somewhere.....

Secondly I cast on this gorgeous Baby Surprise Jacket. This is the second one I've knit and it really is an enjoyable pattern. I couple of modifcations I made this time were to change the double decrease (sl1, k2tog, psso) to (ssk, k2tog) around a centred marker. I also made it a bit shorter, which I think look better. The yarn was my real inspiration to knit this. After digging it out of the stash for Jack to use to cast off her Ishbel, I decided to keep it out and use it up. Luckily I caught up with a friend I haven't seen for many months who is now 4 weeks away from having a baby, so the fact that I now have this unisex little pressie for her newborn-to-be is definitely kismet!

Lastly I cast on a shawl in one of my most prized sock yarns. It is the first time that I've used Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and I think it could very easily become my new favourite (shhh... don't tell that to my Wollmeise stash...)The colours in the Raven Clan series are just amazing, I'm currently knitting with 'Korppi' and I will definitely stock up on some more of this once I've knit down the current stash a little. I have visions of a very cool jumper in the Ravenscroft colourway.... next year of course!