Category: Crochet

Crucial Crochet Cover-up

by Kay, posted in Crochet

Sounds dramatic but my little stool will soon have a new cover for the seat and once I can get some spray paint, a new paint job. It is small and fiddly and folds up so spray will be better than brushing.

I dithered over whether to do two rounds of yellow when the yarn decided for me by producing a knot as I got to the end of square round.  Teal it is then.

A large granny square from yarn I already had, a stool from a boot sale and hopefully some spray paint in the garage is making this a cheap project – just as well as quilting is proving to be expensive at the moment with my Pfaff still in for repair and new fabric purchased for the Farmer’s Wife 1930s QAL. Good job the RSC15, which I am also doing, only calls for scraps that I already have!

 

A Blanket is Just a Big Scarf

by Kay, posted in Crochet

DSCF4402

 

….is what I told myself when I started this blanket – you wrap them around you to keep warm right? A blanket can seem to be a large and rather daunting project when you haven’t been crocheting  very long. It is the craft I have learnt most recently, I have wanted to learn for ages and now there are so many great patterns out there that I couldn’t wait any more.

What is your craft history?

My mum taught my sister and I to embroider when we were 7 and 9 using cotton with a crinoline lady printed on it. I kept it up but my sister wasn’t interested. I also learnt to knit, sew and do English paper piecing before I was 10. My mum couldn’t crochet and it wasn’t until I was a student and working part-time in an art shop that I encountered crochet again. I went with my friend Nina on a ‘teaching adults art and craft course’. We all had to teach a 20 minute class in our chosen subject to our classmates and one of those we were taught was crochet. Alas both Nina and I were rubbish while Ray the radio ham took to it like a duck to water. I nearly gave up my dream of learning crochet asit seemed I would never master it.

Many years later, while I was back in the UK, another friend persuaded me to take her learn crochet at Violet’s, a wool shop that ran informal classes twice a week – this time I got it! I only went once as that class was in the UK but when I returned to Brisbane another friend showed me photos of her first crochet blanket and recommended the course at Knitch in Paddington. Three classes later I had made my first nine granny squares and backing for a cushion. A giant granny square cushion followed (purloined by the borrowed cat) and now for the blanket!

It is also the chance to practice new stitches using the excellent book by Sarah Hazell: 200 Crochet Stitches, a practical guide to swatches, charts and step-by-step instructions. the number of stitches on my hook mysteriously waxes and wanes but I am managing to keep it reasonably under control and also am learning why this is happening. A garment might be next!