Giant Octopus Rug!

Chunky crochet - it's something that I've only tried a couple of times, the main reason being that whenever I used a chunky crochet hook and some super chunky yarn, it always hurts my hand after a short while. Meaning that it can take ages to finish a project, and it makes it a lot less enjoyable than it should be. As it's my nieces first birthday in September, I wanted to make something special for her room. She loves a little toy octopus that I made for her a few months ago, and I'd just discovered the amazing patterns of IraRott. Huge animal rugs, cushions, and much more! I knew that an octopus rug would be perfect!

I was a little nervous that crocheting it would hurt my hand, but I bought a new crochet hook - a KnitPro hook with a soft grip handle. It turned out to work perfectly! 

To get these rugs super chunky, you use an Aran weight yarn and hold 3 strands together. This technique takes a bit of practise to get used to, but there is a great video on IraRott's website, where she shows you how to do this using only one ball of yarn. 

This was the end result! I am just so pleased with how this turned out, I had to wait to deliver it before I was able to take a picture as it is so big! It's so lovely and squishy too, using 3 strands of yarn held together works so well. 

June Update - Holiday, Vanajas Rucksack (Crochet Now) & Finishing Persian Tiles Eastern jewels Blanket - Finally!!!

The start of June passed by without much excitement, the days were turning warmer and sunnier, and I was itching to finish my Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels blanket. (I will now just refer to this as PTEJs as the full name is rather a lot to type every time!) I finished off all of the tiles at the end of May, and I decided to save them to put together on my holiday to Grasmere in the Lake District at the end of June. Two weeks before I was due to go, I got rather nervous and worried that I wouldn’t have enough time on holiday to sew all the tiles together, weave in all the pesky ends, and crochet 6 rounds of border. I decided to sew all of the tiles together and weave in the ends, leaving the border for my holiday project. I wanted to finish the blanket on holiday, as Grasmere and its surrounding areas is so unbelievably beautiful, I really wanted to get some photos of my blanket out there! 

Everything was all put together and ready 6 days before I went on holiday (phew!) then I realised that I still hadn’t quite decided which colours to use for the border. In the end I went for Fuchsia, Duck Egg and Sage as the standout colours, as these were my favourites out of all the colours. 

I packed it all ready in a rucksack that I had crocheted using a pattern from Crochet Now Issue 26 called Vanaja’s Rucksack. I used Aldi So Crafty cotton blend yarn, 7 balls in total bringing the cost of making the bag to £5.98 (what a bargain!) I had to adjust the pattern slightly, and make it larger as the yarn that I was using was thinner than the one stated in the pattern, all it meant was that I had to do a couple more pattern repeats to make the bag longer, so it wasn’t too bad. I also added a button to the front, and a button loop to the rucksack flap so that I could close the rucksack securely, and feel like my belongings were safe when out and about. I was so happy with the final product, it’s very cute and perfect for summer outings going to the shops. 

Our holiday in Grasmere was just perfect, the cottage we stayed in is in a fantastic location, and we did a few walks, the weather was so hot that it was hard to do any big walks. Walking around all day, and breathing the fresh air and seeing all of the little creatures doing their thing, was so calming. Usually, when I knit or crochet, it really helps me to de-stress and relax, but on holiday it was almost an effort crocheting, as there’s so much to see! 

I did finish my PTEJs blanket on holiday with 1 day to spare! I was so happy that it was finally finished. The Eastern Jewels colourway was released last Autumn, and I’ve had it since then just waiting to get started. It was until the end of February that I actually started it, but I was juggling other WIPs so it took longer than I anticipated. I’m so happy that it’s finally finished!

Mermaid Notebook Cover - Free Knitting Pattern!

Back in December, I was picked to be one of five designers to create a brand new knitted or crocheted item using Cygnet Yarns. This was a competition via their Facebook group, and I had less than a month to design and make something - anything! I was sent two balls of their Cygnet Utopia DK in the Fairy Glen colourway, one was to check tension and the other to make the actual item. The challenge was to only use 1 ball of the 100g yarn. It sounds like it’d be rather easy, but it was so hard!!! Firstly, I have never had to specifically design something. I usually use patterns and maybe alter them slightly, but there have only been a few times when I have created something entirely from scratch! Designing my own patterns is something I am actively pursuing but I need to practice more to get so much better to be able to feel like I can do this!

Secondly, the time limit was something that I haven’t had to really deal with in any of my knitting/crochet projects yet. In fact, I am so slow at completing things, I often get bored and start something else! My pile of WIP’s is slightly horrendous to say the least! 

I thought that I would design something quite simple, that wouldn’t really need the size altering, making it perfect for a beginner to learn a new stitch or two. I chose to make a knitted item, as I have more experience with knitting, although I am a lot quicker at crocheting! 

The colours of the yarn were so fabulous, and I tried out a few different stitch types to try and conjure up some inspiration! I found a scale like pattern that I loved, and it reminded me very much of the scales on a mermaids tail! Although I know that mermaids aren’t real (or are they?!) the mix of colours together made me think of a mermaid, different to the usual blue/green vibe. I found an old diary, and decided to make a notebook cover. Very basic idea i know, but I loved the idea of making something simple that could be knitted up quickly, and would make a perfect gift for someone. I love the page keepers that come with notebooks, but I wanted something a bit more bold and out there, so I decided to create a tassel shaped like a mermaids tail! Big, bold and with a lot of flare!

Once I had decided what to make, and the stitch that I was going to use, it was time to knit up some tension squares! I will admit that I am a terrible knitter, as I don’t think that I have ever knitted a tension square! Shock horror, I know! I never really got taught how to do them properly and what I was measuring for, and I have always just started a project using the needle size recommended. I’ve never made anything that was super fitted, so I guess that it’s never really been that much of a problem if a garment was too big or small. Publishing a pattern to be judged, and then released for other knitters to knit at home, meant that I needed to get this right! I did a lot of research online, checked and double checked my final  pattern until I finally got it right! 

As my pattern was quite simple, it was easy keeping track of what I was doing to write it down for the final draft. I sent the message pattern off to be judged and a couple of days later, all five entries went live to be voted for on the Facebook group. 

I entered this competition as a chance to be able to design something and be judged by complete strangers, the strict time frame meant that I focused a lot more than on something I’d make for myself. It was exciting and I couldn’t wait to see what everyone else had come up with. What I didn’t expect was the underhanded voting that went on. The Facebook group was meant for knitters and crocheters to be able to vote for something that they’d like to get the pattern for to make themselves, but one of the entrants decided to add lots of their family and friends to vote for them, which made it very unfair for the rest of us, and when they eventually won and were called out by the company for doing this, they accused the company of cheating. The comments that then came through were some of the worst that I have seen, and I have never experienced anything like it in the knitting and crochet community before. It put me off for a little while, which is probably why it’s taken me so long to write this! 

Overall, I really enjoyed this experience, it showed me that I can design something, that I can work to a strict time frame (!) and that it doesn’t matter whether anyone else likes it or not, because I was happy with what I created and it taught me a lot about how to design and write down a knitting pattern.

This is my design - the Mermaid Notebook Cover - it’s free to download on Ravelry! 
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mermaid-notebook-cover

February Update - Colour & Cross Stitch!

I’ve made a good start on the Persian Tiles Eastern Jewels blanket this past month. You’ve probably heard about this, back in September the Eastern Jewels colourway was everywhere! All over Instagram and Facebook, everyone wanted one! There was the whole issue with Tomato being out of stock (gahhhh!) and substitute colours! I bought one, but I’ve only started it in January as I had other WIPs to finish, and I was a bit nervous to start it! I don’t have much crochet experience, especially doing some of the fancier stitches and having to follow two booklets looked so hard at first! I did a tester octagon to work out how the pattern all went together using scrap wool, and after making a few errors I was ready to start! Have I said how much I am loving crocheting this blanket?! It is fab!!! I am also loving seeing everyone else working on this blanket, I joined a group on Facebook specifically for this project, and not everyone is making the Eastern Jewels colourway. Some are making the original colourway and so many others are making their own up! This is definitely one thing that I love about the crafting community, everyone being so supportive of each other’s work. 

Progress has also been slow on the Persian tiles blanket as I am also currently working on another cute little project - a cross stitch Peter Rabbit sampler for my niece! Bought on a very much spur of the moment thing, it was only £2.99 in Aldi and the quality is amazing! It’s a big complicated pattern, and I’ve never cross stitched anything this big before! This is going to take me a while to complete, but it will hopefully be worth it in the end! 

The end of February also marks something rather important for me too, 4 months since I have bought any wool!!! This may sound like a silly celebration but I am guilty of purchasing wool and I have so much that it’s going to take me ages to use it all. At the start of November I put myself on a wool ban - I’m not allowed to buy any for a whole year! Winning wool in a competition is a completely different matter however!!! When I went to the Manchester Christmas Markets in November I went into Abakhan to have a good squish of all the wool, and was very strong and bought nothing! I’ve also been into Aldi when they had the So Crafty wool in a few weeks ago, and again I resisted temptation! This may all sound rather silly, and I know that it is, but I’m so pleased with myself because it doesn’t take much to convince me to buy wool! 

In January I also published my first pattern onto Ravelry! Very exciting stuff! I was chosen along with four others by Cygnet Yarns to design something using one ball of their new wool Utopia DK. I have never properly designed anything before, it’s always just been me making it up as I go along and definitely ever writing anything down! This was a big learning experience for me, it was great to have a semi strict deadline to keep to, that definitely helped me to focus, and seeing what I could come up with using only one ball! I designed the Mermaid Notebook Cover, it has a scale-like pattern all over and a tail fin for a tassel to keep your place! I wanted to design something that would appeal to any level of knitter, but still look like something a bit fancier and learning a new stitch. The pattern is available to download for free on my Ravelry page and I am so excited to see everyone’s progress! That’s it for now, I’ll probably write a more in depth post about designing the pattern, because I’m about to get back on with the Eastern Jewels blanket!

Sock It To Me, Baby!

Socks. Some knitters love making them, and some just hate it! I can see both sides of this, when you are making them, they can get quite addictive, but for me that's usually only when making the first sock, and then the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome hits! The second sock seems less exciting, and you keep putting it down to start new things, and it gets a bit forgotten about! 

There's also some scary parts when making socks, the heel turn and the gusset! Both sound very scary, and when you're reading the knitting pattern, they can seem very confusing. I am always a bit reluctant to start these parts, as I know that it's a lot easier to knit them all in one go, so I can remember whereabouts I am. At the same time, I hesitate to start, as I know that if I go wrong, it get a bit impossible to frog back and try to pick up the stitches again. 

I've found that the best method is...to just go for it!!! You have to practise to become more confident, so why not just try it! 

Socks are a great project to take with you to work, or for commuting, being only one ball of wool, it's not too heavy and will fit into your bag! I use DPNs to knit socks, I've looked into the magic loop technique, but it seems quite confusing to me! Using four needles at once, it can be very easy to accidentally poke yourself, but after a while it gets a lot easier! 

One sock finished - now to start the second sock! Wish me luck!