#Handmade Monday - easy knitted wrist warmers make it to New York!

These aren't actually for me! I was just having a cheeky wear of them here before I sent them to @copperspiral in New York. She's already got them - so now I can publish this picture of them! They were super easy to make and I was rather sad to let them go. The pattern is from Bronwyn Lowenthal's Love To Knit book. They're made of Louisa Harding 'Thistle' yarn bought from @CafeKnit - and I made both gloves rather surprisingly out of one ball. The yarn is really lovely and soft and they were quick to knit on four 6mm needles. They were, er, even quicker than the pattern suggested because I made them a lot shorter in the arm. The ones modelled in the book came nearly to the model's elbow and were all bunched up - but I did about 23 rows then did the thumbs. For the thumbs, I used the 'live stitches' method rather than the method described in the pattern. It may well have worked fine, but I couldn't figure out how - so I stuck to a method I know works!

These are a really good gift for a friend - though I do have enough wool to make myself some now...

In other news: teaching crochet @cafeknit on Saturday was really good fun. I had really lovely students and everyone got to make at least part of a granny square, and tried chains, double crochet and trebles! It was interesting teaching crochet to knitters - it reminded me how different the skills are in some ways. I think a good time was had by all!

 

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#WIP Wednesday and a review of 'Simple Crochet'

How nice to find a new crochet book in our local library!

I spent a very happy hour this afternoon reading Sara Sinaguglia's Simple Crochet. The tag line, 'With more than 35 vintage-vibe projects for your handmade life' was rather off-putting because I find the possessive 'your' as well as the ubiquitous word, vintage, rather irritating, but I'm really glad I persevered. The book has a lovely, informal tone and is peppered with details about the author's life and why she first made some of the projects in the book. As always in crochet books, there's a little too much in the How To section - this sometimes puts me off buying crochet books as it's rather repetitive. There is quite a lot, though, on something i really want to try: crochet edging on linen or cotton, so that part of the How To is quite eye-opening. Anyway, the book is themed around different rooms in the house and I was pleased to see that I'd make at least two things from each section. What I also enjoyed about this was that quite a lot of the projects involve sewing as well as crochet - the iPad cosy, for example, is made of fabric with crochet motifs sewn onto it - and these projects look really good. This book even had me contemplating crochet washcloths - and that is no mean feat! The photography is gorgeous, too. So - definitely worth a read.
And now for the WIP: so far, my preparation for teaching my first crochet course for Cafe Knit has only stretched to deciding what the wear. But then I thought I'd better write my pattern for crochet bracelets, which I hope will be easy for beginners to make in under three hours! Here they are so far:

I hope my crochet classes go well - it's hard to gauge how much a random group of people will be able to make in three hours! Still, at least crochet is east to unravel and quick once you've got the hang of it. Wish me - and my students - luck!

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Yep, All I Do Is Drink Coffee & Knit.

 

We started Christmas shopping sensibly early this year, as we send a package to Australia. The Craft Fairs run by the March Hare Collective have really nice things - and lots of lightweight things suitable for posting! Jane Crick prints badges, journals and papers and we bought some jewellery from another stall too. Since I've started selling my knitting (in a very small way!) I've become much more appreciative of the time and effort it costs people to make such good quality things themselves, so I was glad we supported this. It was really busy and had a lovely, jolly atmosphere so I hope they all did well.

 

I feel I've spent most of my time recently squirrelling away Christmas presents and having coffee in various places, like our local Costa:

 

 

But also the lovely Coffee House where they had some fab KeepCup decorations:

 

 

I've managed a trip to Lavenham, too, to Cafe Knit, where Victoria had a gorgeous, Christmassy window display:

 

 

Crochet snowflakes on the left, knitted trees on the right . . .  beautiful! Victoria had some new Artesano yarn, made from British wool - it looked gorgeous and the colours were really luscious, dark, rich shades. A nice pattern book, too. It's a bit too late for my Christmas list, sadly, but if I get a voucher, I may be heading back for that lovely wool.

 

I always pop into Lavenham's St Peter & St Paul's church, too, and this week they have a really lovely but slightly sad memory tree in the churchyard:

 

 

In the wooden box are gift tags and a pen, so that you can write the names of people you remember and tie them to the tree. Lots of people had done this, and I wrote one, too. A really nice experience, and a poignant one, too, among all the excitement and bustle of shopping.

 

I feel I should mention the Works I Currently Have In Progress - but it's clear from this post that, er, I've been out and about rather than getting on with my Christmas knitting! I have finished a couple of things, so will write another post soon with some pictures!

 

 

A British Wool Week Trip to Cafe Knit, Lavenham. Oh, and a Chunky Snood #FO!

 

Lovely jaunt through the Suffolk countryside today, along beautiful autumnal country roads to Cafe Knit. Somehow, courtesy of HeartFM, this journey was set to an 80s/90s sound track of the Pet Shop Boys, Simply Red and Tina Turner: not my usual choice, but I was singing at the top of my voice as I hurtled along.

Cafe Knit never disappoints: a lovely cappuccino with good conversation from a friend and the other customers. We had a good rummage around the Debbie Bliss yarns and looked at Louisa Harding's hat patterns - I really want to make one these, and what a good cause:

http://www.louisaharding.co.uk/macmillan/

Indecision prevented me from buying wool today, but I will be making the pompom hat soon . . . or the green heart cable one . ... or the beret-style green one . . .

I did buy a great shawl pin for my Sarah Hatton jacket: picture of this to follow. This means the jacket is finally wearable - a genuine FO!

Oh, and Louvera The Sheep is outside the cafe to celebrate British Wool Week!

 

In other FO news, I made this snood for my sister's birthday last week:

 

 

It is a version of the hugely-popular Gap-Tastic Cowl by Jen Geighley over at Ravelry. It's a lovely dark teal colour - not as navy as it looks here. She was very pleased with it (or very polite!) so I hope she enjoys wearing it!  Still, what with that and the crochet snowflakes for the Workwise shop, I'm rather behind on my Lady Friend's jumper... better get to it!

 

Wednesday's #WIP, Graffiti Knitting & More Adventures in Haberdashery

So, here is my current #WIP: a jacket, for me. It's a Sarah Dallas moss stitch jacket from Rowan's Scottish Inspirations, using lovely Debbie Bliss Glen  wool I picked up in the Cafe Knit sale. It's beautiful wool; I'm just hoping it knits up like the pattern as I was too lazy to knit a tension square . . . am I the only one?! I am rather too near the sea in North Norfolk in this picture - I had to shift back a bit a few moments after I took this. I'm rather pleased with my cheapy jelly shoes, too!

Norwich  library has a fantastic selection of knitting and crochet books - and look what some knitters have done to the section!

This probably isn't technically yarn-bombing, actually, as it's to advertise a new Knit and Natter group they're starting up there - but it looks great.

No trip to Norwich is complete without a rummage in the haberdashery department of Jarrolds, and here is one of my mug huggers en route:

They have some gorgeous VV Rouleaux ribbon on sale which i'm rather regretting not having bought: lace plus velvet . . .  hm, maybe I can give them a ring. . . .  ;)  I did manage to buy some red "Live...Love...Laugh" ribbon and a Rico Aran pattern - they had lots of lovely things.

I wonder if I can take a break from the jacket - much as I love it - to have a go at the crochet necklace and collar I've Tweeted about . . .  they're beautiful and there are so few crochet things I actually *know* I will use....

Jubilee Weekend Knitting and General High Jinks

Yesterday's trip to Cafe Knit was inevitably rather Jubilee-tastic. I'm sure Suffolk has the highest concentration of Union Jack flags and bunting in England; Cafe Knit had some fantastic knitted bunting as well as the great tea cosies in the window. I treated myself to some delicious Debbie Bliss 'Glen' wool to knit a Sarah Hatton cardigan - the pattern looks brilliant, and nice easy moss stitch too - perfect TV knitting. Victoria has 15% off in celebration of the Jubilee, too, so it felt like a great bargain! She has some great Lavenham Blue yarn, too, bred and dyed in Suffolk - I wish I'd bought some of it ... might have to ring and order some ... but how many WIPs can one person have?! There is an excellent review of the Lavenham Blue yarn on another East Anglian knitter's blog, which you can read here: http://annidomino.blogspot.co.uk/  . Anni tests the yarn's tension and colourfastness and has good close-up photos of it, too.

Saw this rather unlikely headline on the way to the car. There's no tradition of Jubilee spoof headlines, is there??

This picture was last weekend, knitting on the North Norfolk Coast, with Sirdar chunky yarn from Sheringham's Creative Crafts. I'm sure the Queen would rather have had her Jubilee in the 27 degree heat of last Sunday, but I was quite happy knitting and drinking coffee on the beach. So different from today, when our street party had to take refuge from the rain in the church - quite medieval, in its way! A brilliant occasion, nevertheless. Now - TV and knitting are calling!

FO Friday! One Debbie Bliss knitted mug cosy complete!

Just a quick post  -  but it's not often I have a Finished Object on a Friday, or at all, really - so I just had to post today! You can see this on my Ravelry page, too: it's from Debbie Bliss, The Knitter's Year, though I had to adapt it a bit to fit my sister's travel mug. It's called a Mug Cosy - but I prefer my sister's term, mug-hugger! She sits and drinks from this while my nephews play at the park or on the beach - aaaah.

This weekend, my WIP is bootee number two! Was rather relieved to see Victoria's WIP bootee at Cafe Knit this week, as mine was looking rather odd. Now I see it's all going to work out fine ;)

Also planning some blog posts for next week's Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2012. It's the first time I've done this, so I need to think it over.

So, plenty to occupy me this weekend!

Debbie Bliss Crochet "Darcey" Dress - Complete!!

I am *so* excited - and also rather relieved. The Debbie Bliss dress I offered to make to wear as a bridesmaid's dress is finally done. I bought the wool rather spontaneously on a trip to Cafe Knit, on a wool-cafe-I-can-crochet high... then felt quite worried about whether I'd get it done in time for the wedding this Saturday. Everyone I mentioned it to gave me a rather concerned look - particularly when I went back to Cafe Knit on Tuesday and they clearly expected me to have finished it ;). Still: all was well, after a TV-athon yesterday (just how many episodes of Lip Service, Desperate Housewives and, er, Corrie does it take to crochet a dress?!) and sewing up of seams today:

Here's one piece on the floor! I was really glad I'd made it two pattern repeats longer than the book said; when I held it up against myself last week, it was rather too baby-dollish for a 38 year old  bridesmaid, in my view.

Although I was suddenly scared the pieces were going to be different sizes, all was well...so: TA DAH!

I have a multitude of coloured slips to wear underneath - the bride can choose. Phewwwweeee. I am going out tonight just to celebrate its completion!

Buying Local in Lavenham

My resolution to buy local was so successful in Lavenham yesterday! I needed a day away from the crochet dress, so decided to go to Lavenham. As I've mentioned before, Cafe Knit on the High Street has skeins of knitting wool spun - and, in fact, reared! - in Orford, Suffolk, as well as offering delicious carrot cake made locally too! But as this was more of a sight-seeing trip with my Mum and Dad, after a trip to the cafe, we went to the Tourist Information office and came away with the lovely terracotta plant markers above - made in Suffolk - and soaps from Watkins, a company based in Woolpit. It was a beautiful sunny day to see the Guildhall and the church, too - both built as a result of the town's medieval history as a 'Wool Town', spinning, weaving and dyeing cloth until Dutch cloth became more fashionable in the seventeenth century.

Sadly, my seeds seem in danger of being washed away in the rain so I might not need the markers after all! 

But I wonder what else I should be buying locally?

New Knitting Wool - and Spring Flowers!

This is the yarn for my baby jumpers, heading for Cavern4. Each jumper will be mostly cream, with stripes of either Mint or Mulberry - I hope they'll be nice. Mind you, they are currently taking second place to my on-going crochet dress project. I'm hoping that this evening's trip to Knit and Natter at Lavenham's Cafe Knit will help me to make headway! Easter seems to be looming large and I don't want to be crochetting in the passenger seat, while the Lady Friend hurtles along the A428....

Mum's daffodils  - and sticky buds! A family tradition - and what you get for being the daughter of a primary school teacher! The buds are from the horse chestnut in my parents' garden and are, along with the daffs, such a lovely sign of Spring.

I Venture Cross-Country to Cafe Knit!

Yesterday, I headed off, clutching my OS maps, for a trundle around Suffolk (partly unintentional), to meet up with my friend, Steph Knits,  in Lavenham at this gorgeous cafe.  Victoria Beech opened this cafe, on the High Street, in November and it is just lovely. I don't know Lavenham that well, but it was beautiful on this sunny, Spring day: all gorgeous, ancient, timber framed houses and wide, grass lined streets - and it has masses of free parking! The cafe is in a prime position, looking out on picture-postcard houses.

Inside, the walls are lined with wool, tending towards the classier makes: Debbie Bliss, Louisa Harding etc. In this picture, just by the till, are balls of fantastic DK wool produced in Orford, by sheep farmed (I think) on National Trust Land. I saw these advertised on Cafe Knit's website and I want to plan something to knit with them: it's a shame if all wool comes from Turkey or Peru. Lavenham's history is in the English wool trade, so it seems appropriate that Victoria stocks local wool!

Now: the coffee. I'm always apprehensive about this part - I really want to like a cafe, especially if it's an independent - *especially* if it stocks wool... but I am prepared to make a mental note to have peppermint tea next time, rather than endure watery, murky 'coffee' .... but, luckily, Cafe Knit did not disappoint - phew!

Can you see the word, "Gaggia", on this machine?! Hooray! The cappucino was just what I was hoping for: dark, bitter and strong. Fabulous. I'm glad I didn't wimp out and opt for a lemonade. I didn't have a cake because I'd, er, only just had a few pains au chocolat for breakfast - but they looked lovely too.

Back to the wool: lovely leaf-green Louisa Harding wool for gloves in the sale? Check. Pattern for crochet bridesmaid dress currently under discussion with bride? Check. Unnecessary but cute reuseable cloth bag advertising said cafe? Check.

Steph Knits goes pretty much every Saturday; the Lady Friend may not agree, but  -  I want to join her! 

http://www.cafeknit.com/lavenham_suffolk_yarn_shop.php