Category Archives: Crochet

This Way…or That Way?

I’m rather hoping with your help I can find out a little something I’ve pondered on off and on for years. Nothing major, just a little curiosity.

I think I’ve mentioned the Knit and Stitch Group I started a couple of years ago in our little village. It started off at my place, outgrew the parking spaces, moved to the larger home of another member and out grew that and we’ve ended up in our new, quite swish, straw bale Village Hall. If you look at the picture on the link you can see the round Meeting Room where we now get together every month. Last night we had the best attendance yet!

We didn’t want to limit to a ‘Stitch and Bitch’ type knitting group, we embrace stitches of all sorts, knitting and crochet, needlepoint and cross stitch, patchwork and applique. We are pretty cosy in our round room, and very nearly lift the roof off with our nattering – in fact last night the Yoga teacher had to put her head round the door to shush us so they could get into their ‘cool down’ zone…. woops!

We had a crochet class last night as quite a few members were keen to learn, or brush up their skills and this is where my question comes in. I have taught knitting over the years, and although I am left handed I knit in just the same way as right handed people so it’s never been a problem. But crochet is a different matter. I just don’t do it like anyone else I know. I was taught by my left-handed grandmother, I don’t know who taught her. So it was left to Claire the Crochet Queen to impart her knowledge to the group. However, I have found that if someone struggles with the conventional method, my way seems to work. My solitary pupil was going great guns the unconventional way by the end of the evening. The thing is, it doesn’t actually look any different to the ‘real thing’ and seems so much more logical.

So, I’d love to know if anyone else does it my way..is anyone else weird like me?!

This is the ‘proper’ way…

…the left hand holds the work and the left index finger feeds the yarn round the hook.

For the life of me I can’t do that , I get in such a tangle. Inexplicably my grandmother’s ‘left-handed’ way does everything with the right hand, holding the yarn as in knitting…

I can’t be the only one, can I?

I love to find out!

And we had a new member last night, the lovely Gabriella Buckingham, who blogs here, sells here, and learns to crochet in a straw bale building!

Aah, I’ve spotted a small dog, hinting that it must be time for , whisper it, w.a.l.k.i.e.s. and by the look of the gathering clouds, I’d better do it quickly…

Looking forward to your comments!

P.S. I’ve just found out I’ve been nominated for the Dorset Cereals Little Blog Award! It would be SO lovely if you could vote for me, there’s a voting button at the top of the right hand side bar. Thank you so much x

A Wave in Passing…

…to Handmade Monday! I shouldn’t really be here…I’m packing….. but I just had to fit in a quick post before we take off for a few days at the seaside.

I do seem to have packed quite a lot of little projects to take with me, you know, just in case. It would be terrible to have idle hands!

So, there are the birthday socks to finish…

…a few more squares to add to the blanket…

…and if I need a change, something warm and snuggly to made from this, I haven’t decided quite what yet…

as well as a couple of books, my camera, notebook….

I’ve just time to share the birthday cake, (well, pictures of it, that’s all that’s left!) which I made for a friend’s birthday party over the weekend. An extremely clever friend who built his own car….

…like this…

When I come home I will share the recipe of this, the most chocolatey chocolate cake in the world…it’s called Clovis cake!

All will be explained…..

So do pop along to Handmade Monday 31 to see who else is joining in. Sorry to be so brief, Higgins and I will be back soon with tales of holiday fun….

Byeeee! xx

More Hearts…More Pompoms…

Hello!!! Is it Thursday already? This week is galloping by. Firstly, because I know you’ll want to know, Henry is still doing nicely. The medication has been finished, and as I write he is snoring contentedly, in his bed. This is a relief, as when he first came back the only place he wanted to be if he couldn’t have a warm lap was a warm keyboard.

The only little cloud on the horizon is the visit to vet next Monday for the removal of the stitches. This will probably require the entire squad of nurses and maybe one or two brave volunteers from the waiting room as he will NOT be a happy bunny!

Oh, and some hair restorer…

His tummy was shaved for the ultrasound, his head was shaved for the spinal tap, patches were shaved on his legs for the drips, and his throat was shaved for the operation. Thank goodness it’s summer, I don’t think he’s be happy in a jumper, however beautifully knitted!

But pompoms, I hear you cry, you said there were pompoms!

There are SO many pompoms! I found this wonderful gadget…

Do you remember the Heart and Pompom bunting…

…which I made in January?

I still love it, but I made the pompoms with a little gadget which my mum had given me because she wasn’t very happy with her results. Well, I tried really hard with it, and made so many pompoms using up my leftovers…

but they were never as firm and fluffy as I wanted them to be.

Now I have found this gadget…

…and it is wonderful! The smallest sized one makes a beautifully firm pompom in just few minutes and it is so compulsive I had to pack the gadgets up and put them away as there was a danger that my entire stash would be used up!

The solution was to make a larger version of the Heart and Pompom Bunting – the tutorial for that is here. I just worked the last row in the pattern in the main colour and added an extra row in the contrast colour to make the hearts bigger and made the joining chain slightly longer between the hearts so I could use slightly bigger pompoms.

Would you like to see?

It was hard to find the best way to show you. When I hung it up inside I realised how much my house needs redecorating, and the light wasn’t right so here it is outside the studio…

There’s actually a bit too much light here, it rather bleaches the colours, but I’m not going to complain about sunshine! (If you can’t find the pompom maker locally I got mine from Clothkits thank you, Kaye!)

Now we have another sunshiny day I’d better get out into the garden. All the strong wind over the last couple of days has blown my little plastic greenhouse and flowerpots all over the garden. (Higgins has done his best to round things up but the toothmarks are a problem…)

Talking of Higgins, he’s rather had the spotlight taken off him with recent events but if you were wondering…he’s fine…

You see…?

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Lifting the Gloom with Hearts and Pompom Bunting….

We really need something a little cheerful at the moment don’t we? January is such a gloomy month. Higgins and I went for a ‘squelch’ this afternoon and although it quite mild, it was what my Mother calls a Tupperware box day, and no one’s taken the lid off.

But, the days are getting longer(by about one and a half minutes a day apparently) and I have little daffodils bursting into bloom in front of me as I type.

I was really lucky to receive a lovely gift at Christmas, a beautiful jug which I have been coveting for about five years. Do you remember this post when I was given a pretty little mug for my birthday? Well my clever Daughter-in-law tracked down the very jug I have been hankering after all this time from the same designer, Gabriella Miller.

And I’ve found the little notebook I mentioned in the other post, where I had expressed my desire to have some Gabriella Miller pieces as well as all sorts of useful notes and pictures.

However, I’ve been working on something to cheer up the gloom, and the bareness left now the Christmas decorations have been consigned to the attic for another year. I’ve been playing around with a crochet hook and the yarns left from the cushion and blanket project which are a real splash of colour in themselves. And with February round the corner, and Valentine’s Day there are hearts, and I still love the pompoms so I thought Hearts and Pompom Bunting…

I’ve been fiddling around with the pattern and written it down which I’m really proud of because I got so excited about the whole process, and the prettiness of all the colours. I’ll do a few photos as soon as possible to turn it into a tutorial if you think you’d like make your own version but in the meantime, want to see some more?

(By the way, do you like the cup, saucer and plate on the top shelf? Another Christmas present which I love!)

And finally, bringing all the cheeriness together… Planet Penny Hearts and Pompom Bunting

A cheerful note on which to start the weekend! Have a lovely one, I hope the sun shines for you. See you soon x

Ed to add: You can find the pattern for this bunting here…

Cup Cakes – or Fairy Cakes?

I’ve had a rebellion about the whole cup cake thing. When I was child, we had fairy cakes, and butterfly buns and that was just what I made for birthday parties when my children were small. I think it was Nigella Lawson in her Domestic Goddess role who started the whole American cup cake thing in Britain. Now, I’ve nothing against having a cultural mix on the culinary front, in fact I think the national dish of Great Britain is actually Tikka Masala. But I don’t see the point in renaming an English teatime classic in order to making it appear, I don’t know, more fashionable? if I went to New York I would be so happy to seek out a cup cake (or two?) but I like the whole English Vicarage tea party idea of the fairy cake or the butterfly bun.

But I was happy to enter a cup cake competition which was in aid of Children in Need which was what my friend Emmeline at the Cherryleaf Coffee House in Norwich was running this Sunday. We paid to enter four cakes, one was tasted by the judges and then the rest were sold to raise money for this amazing good cause.

You know, I haven’t done the butter icing thing for ages. These days I tend towards a more grown-up icing sugar/lemony thing on my little cakes but I decided that I would fly the flag on the whole fairy/cup cake thing and make butterfly buns and you have to have butter icing for those. Now, Nigella appears to waft about the kitchen in her dressing gown whipping up tasty morsels. Me, in the kitchen with butter and icing sugar probably needed industrial protective clothing.

And it probably wasn’t a good idea to pop the icing sugar and butter (and it was chopped and softened, I’m not completely stupid) into a bowl and switch on the food mixer. Once I’d cleared the fog of icing sugar ( and removed the sneezing pets) I could see that the icing was actually blending together nicely, and was ready to be piped. I could only get the syringe type of icing equipment when I dashed to the local supermarket, just the same design as the one I threw out in disgust years ago. And it had all the same design faults. The collar which attached the nozzle didn’t quite fit and the thread kept crossing so it popped off. The syringe part didn’t quite screw in tightly so it fell off at crucial moments. By the time I had created four buns out of the twelve I had made which were worthy of public scrutiny I had butter icing over everything. The work top, the floor, Higgins, (Henry ran off at the icing sugar cloud stage) my clothes, hair….

Oh, and some buns…

…butterfly buns… They taste fine, I put lemon juice and zest in the cake mix and orange juice and zest in the icing.

We got the buns to the Cherryleaf this morning. There were lots of entries, and I know that to date £90 has been raised for Children in Need which is fantastic.

Back home, I can now reveal my sixth and final cushion. This time I went for zigzags, and I’m really happy I did. It took a little time to make the colour sequence flow, but I think this is my favourite of all. I like it even more than the fair isle ones, there is something really zingy about it. What do you think?

I’m feeling bad because I have been promising for ages to post a zigzag tutorial, but it is under way and will be here hopefully this week.

I have been overwhelmed by the lovely comments I have have had over the last months, thank you all so much. It’s wonderful to feel I have made so many new friends in Blogging Land, both in cyber space and in reality. I’m also SO excited to see something I have devised and written a pattern for being made by someone else. Do go over to Penelope by the Sea’s blog to see her version of the Christmas Bunting. I’d love to see other versions if you have made them.

I must away now, I have a date with some robins…

Curious?

Come back again and find out!

In the meantime, there is also a little bit of butter icing to chip off the kitchen door!

P.S. I’ve just found out I won the prize for the best looking cupcake. Wow!! First time I’ve ever won a beauty contest!

Christmas Bunting Tutorial

A very short post today,just to tell you that the tutorial for the whiter cotton bunting is all done and dusted and can be found in the tutorial section of Planet Penny, which is here, or at the top of the page. I’m sorry I had to have a rather gloomy background, but as I’ve got a very light, bright look to my house,I couldn’t find a location with a strong enough background colour to show off the detail.

I’m not going to be around for a couple of days. We’re having a bit of a family get together which is involving a six year old, two four year olds and a four month old baby plus assorted grownups ! Higgins is really looking forward to it, no-one has told Henry the cat yet!

Happy Halloween, see you all soon x

p.s. Higgins has asked me to point out that the picture of him in his coat in the last post is suffering from bad lighting. It is not a PINK Coat, it is a RED coat. It is a very manly, soldierish RED COAT… He is very upset that people think he would let himself be dressed in a PINK COAT… that would be silly ….