By Helen

read all about it, read all about it...

I have a confession to make.  I am a magazine junky.  There I admitted it.  I am sure that I am not alone in this addiction.  To try and curb my habit: I limit my visit to WH Smiths to once-a-month, and go armed with one ten-pound note.  April’s visit was such a success, I can’t tell you how pleased I am with my purchases.   Well, that is not strictly true, as I am about to tell you.  I came away from the shop with two wonderful magazines…

I was a stranger to Mollie Makes , and was only tempted to buy this issue because of the free (yes free) crochet gift on the front cover.  The magazine is just b-r-i-l-L-I-A-N-T.  Not only have the lovely Mollie Makes’ team provided the pattern, hook, brooch back and yarn to make a delightful flower brooch, the rest of the magazine is just fabulous.  The magazine doesn’t limit itself to one craft so there are an array of treats waiting for you within it’s cover.  There are patterns, reviews, interviews and inspirational photographs.  The whole magazine is a delight.  I can’t wait for next months (which is out next week) where the free (yes free) gift is a set of vintage buttons.

One of my monthly stables is Inside Crochet.  I buy the magazine out of habit and because it is the only UK crochet magazine that the shop sells.  The magazine usually has two or three patterns that I can’t wait to follow.  This month…

...is different.  I want to crochet ALL OF THEM.  I can’t remember the last time Inside Crochet was this good.  Although I will spend a happy afternoon checking out my back issues just to make sure.  I don’t know which of the patterns to start with.  Should it be Lynne Rowe's Skinny Scarf?  Or perhaps Christine Harvey's cheerful spring flower pots?  Or maybe Helda Panagary's  funky hibiscus coasters?  If I am feeling ambitious Sian Brown's beautiful lace trim top? 

There are so many wonderful, amazing, fabulous things out there, thank goodness for the long weekend.  Here’s to spending time curled up on the sofa flicking though magazines and crocheting…

March's flower of the month, continued…

Where had I got to?  Oh yes, crocheting the Daffodil’s trumpet.  I switched colours and began to play.  After a few attempts with different stiches, settled upon a happy combination of doubles, trebles with picot to make the rufflely end…

After crocheting the picot into each of the trebles, I had something with that (I think) resembles a Daffodil’s trumpet…

I sewed the crochet parts together and, ta-dah…

A crochet Daffodil!  I played about with colour, and came up with a few different crocheted Daffodils, Narcissus and other Daffodil inspired flowers…

I have to say I am really pleased with how these looked. I know that I have only three crochet flower of the month, the Snowdrop in January, the Rose in February, but I think that this is my best yet. 

I can’t wait for next months…

March’s flower of the month…

For the past few days I have walked home from work around the City Walls  just so that I can see the Daffodils zinging in the sunshine...

They surround the mount that Cliffords Tower stands on…

They look so lovely: they just had to become March’s flower of the month.  I gathered together Daffodil coloured yarns, and started to crochet.  I began with crocheting the petals…

So far this is what I have got…

I’m pretty pleased with them.  Now I just need to work out how to crochet the trumpet…

Note: I should point out, to any plants people, that I am using the term Daffodil quite generically for all of these happy, cheerful flowers, and am quite aware that some of them are in fact are Narcissi and some are just going to be a product of my imagination:-)

crochet for the Spring equinox…

Spring is definitely here!  We have passed the Spring equinox, the day when day and night are the same length as each other, and now our days are longer than our nights.  The equinox is any time between the 20^th and 22^nd March, depending on what source you read. 

I thought that I would crochet something for the occasion.   I could have crocheted something Spring related, but I am saving that one up.  I decided to crochet something that mirrors the equal length of day and night…

These were inspired by the two-colour spiral pattern in Melody Giffiths’ 201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas.  The pattern was easy to follow (as all of Melody’s tend to be) the only tricky bit was taking the crochet hook out of one colour to continue working with the next…

Should have thought about that a little harder before starting, and popped a safety-pin in the loop which came off the hook.  Never-the-less I am pleased with the results…

Now I just need to work out what to do with them.  I think that I will make them into a decoration for the window.

crocheting tiny blocks, an update…

Do you remember the crochet tiny blocks that distracted me, a few days ago, while I was having my stash Spring sort out?  Well things didn’t go quite to plan.

Remember that I mentioned that they were quite addictive to crochet?  So small, so quick to make.  I managed to make lots of them, all tiny, all regimented blocks, all in different tones of similar colours, all using up the odd ends of my stash.  All was going well.  I decided to turn them in to a cushion cover.  Either make 120 (yes 120) of them, for a pillow shaped cushion or make a Granny Square concoction out of them.  I don’t think I would have enough left over yarn for 120 tiny blocks: and the idea was to use up my stash, not buy more yarn.  So I decided to go with the Granny Square concoction idea, so I set about joining them together…

And working them into a Granny Square…

So, what was the problem?  I hear you ask. 

Quite simple.  I don’t like them!  To make it worse I don’t know why I don’t like them.  I like the colours.  I like (no love) Granny Squares.  I like making them.  I don’t even mind weaving in the ends.  Okay weaving in 120 ends may have tested my resolve.  In theory I should like what I am making.  I don’t.  I guess this will be put back in my stash draw, until the next big sort-out.  By the time that clear out comes along, I might have fallen back in love with this project.  So, until them…

crocheting tiny blocks…

With Spring comes the inevitable (or at least my inevitable) need to tidy and sort out.  I decided to tackle my yarn stash.  So far it is not going well: I am far too distracted by all those half-finished crochet projects that I keep coming across and the odd ends of yarns that I have kept just in case.  Just in case of what exactly; I am not sure. 

I decided to start to use up some of those odd ends of yarn (see there was a reason for keeping them) and crochet these tiny little blocks…

And so the tidying stopped, in favour of crochet!  These tiny blocks are quite addictive, you come across yarn and you think I’ll just make one more.  Then the same thing happens again and again and again.  I am not sure what I am going to make the tiny crochet blocks in to: but I am going to try really hard not to pop them away until the next big sort out!  I will let you know…

a quick crochet project (from a few weeks ago)…

Time seems to have run away with me this week, and I don’t really know how we got to Sunday.  A Sunday in March!  I haven’t spent much hooky time this week: I guess we all have weeks like that?  This was partly because I was waiting for some yarn to arrive.  I had vastly underestimated the amount of yarn I would need for a crochet project that I am working on at the moment: fortunately the yarn blends in colour so dye lot doesn’t matter too much.  And partly because life has simply got in the way! 

So I thought that I would share with you a crochet project, which I worked up a few weeks ago…

The pattern for the little birdy , is from the lovely Lucy at Attic 24.  The pattern is great, as most things by Lucy tend to be, easy to follow, takes very little yarn and is started and finished in an easy couple of hours.

I made a second…

I decided to leave the dangly legs off the project.  I have made them as pram toys for two brand new babies.  I thought that the dangly legs had too much chew potential and the chance of yckiness was high!

Looking out of the window the weather seems to have turned back to cool and wet.  The perfect excuses (not that one should be needed) to spend to serious time with the hook this afternoon…

February’s flower of the month…

As promised here is the crochet flower of the month for February…

I decided to continue the Valentine's Day theme, with a crocheted red rose.  The truth of the matter is that it was my intent to crochet  myself a dozen red roses for the days itself.  As ever, life and living got in the way and I ended up with seven! 

The rose is crocheted using the super soft Debbie Bliss eco-baby yarn...

The rose is sooo simple to make, it really is.  All you do is crochet a long chain, and then work your way back along the chain using the taller stitches of trebles, double-trebles and triple-trebles.  This naturally makes the rose coil…

Give the coil some encouragement and secure with some stitches through the bottom.

I don’t think that this rose is a bad representation of the real thing….

What do you think?

crochet stitches...

I suspect very many of you are like me: and have shelves and shelves full of books.  It has been my thought to gradually, over time, to blog reviews of each of them (well the crochet ones: other wise reviewing ALL of them would be a whole new blog).  So far in the year (yes it really has been almost a year) of blogging I have reviewed a grand total of one book that is devoted just to crochet.

So, here is number two...

This is one of my favourite, fall back books.  When you are reading a pattern, or wanting to crochet something beautiful, this is the book that takes you back to basics and offers you an array of stitches to chose from.  It has an amazing illustrated stitch index, making it really reader friendly.  Each stitch is then explained in detail and charted.  My only negative here is that some of the charts are printed in yellow.  Yellow on white printing, is something which I struggle with. 

On one of those mad days I did come up with the idea to crochet my way through the book.  Then after mastering each of the 200 stitches (including the section on Tunisian crochet) I could call myself a real-life, proper, grown-up crocheter.  Need-less-to-say this is one of those things that I haven't yet got around to doing!

This book should be on all crocheters' book shelves, as it is brilliant as a book for beginners and equally good for those with more knowledge. 

Go on treat yourself Now...

 

a belated happy Valentine’s day…

Well who needs just the one day to share the love?   I thought that I would crochet a decoration for Valentine’s Day.  It is based on the tiny hearts, which came from the wonderful Attic 24, that I made way back at the beginning of my blog.  I added a couple more rounds, so the tiny hearts got a little bit bigger….

They were then blocked, using the water and glue method, like I did with my Starflake…

Stitch three together…

And ta-dah…

A decoration to hang on your door.  Or you could make lots and lots and make them in to bunting, but that is for another day...