crochetime | So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time: story of my hooky life.

Time 2020-11-06 09:08:23

Web Name: crochetime | So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time: story of my hooky life.

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crochetime ~ So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time: story of my hooky life. Amigurumi monsters! In pink! That s what I ve been making the past two weeks. Who would have thought?! I m not a pink person and I don t have children so why you ask would I venture down the pink children s toy path? It s because I m one of the lucky bloggers in the blog tour for Kerry Lord s new book Edward s Crochet Imaginarium, published by Pavilion Books Books.Monty Knits blogged her review yesterday, which you can read here and today it s my turn to share my review.If I can sum up my experience of using this book and making my amigurumi toys, it s this: fun.The book is fun, designing my monster toy was fun, the Gallery of monsters is fun, making the monster was fun. Fun, fun, fun.Edward s Crochet Imaginarium is very different to the average crochet pattern book. It has a clever flip-book section which allows you to play around with different head, arm and feet combinations. Add to that the six tails and eight colour change patterns, the book allows for your imagination to run wild.The book is aimed at beginners and seasoned crocheters. All the basic stitches and techniques are clearly explained and photographed, and you can even watch tutorials on the TOFT YouTube channel to help you through all the steps of making monster.Here are just six of the 40 monsters in the Gallery. Photos courtesy of Kristy Noble. The designs are so varied, and options so many, you can really spend your whole life crocheting and still not have made all the variations. No. 25 Bella No. 27 No. 30 No. 28 No. 29 No. 5 Dylan The two monsters I made are going to be gifts for 3 and 5 year old girls. Their mom said it had to be pink, and they couldn t differ too much from each other lest one might be judged prettier than the other, but they also couldn t be identical lest little madams confuse which toy is theirs. A tough brief to follow.It took me three days to decide what I wanted to make! I was continually flipping between the Arm, Head and Feet pages. Just as I thought I knew what I was going to make, I flip a page and then everything changes. Such Fun!!!In the end I decided on Arms and Feet no. 2, and Head no. 15 but in stead of only making hair spines around one ring on the head, I did four rings of spines and crocheted them in two shades of pink.The colour shading of my bodies are that of Gallery Monster no. 20. To set the two monsters apart I made half of one arm  one leg in 1-row bands of pink and white, and for the second monster I used 3-row bands of pink and white. I also used slightly different shades of light pink yarn.Something I found especially useful were the instructions for the order in which to sew on the arms and legs to the body, and placement of the legs so that your monster will not fall over when sitting down. Those instructions, and the flip book section for Arms, Feet and Heads, were the highlights of the book for me. Seriously clever and useful!There was only thing I did differently to Kerry s instructions: the eyes. I struggled to get my eyes to look friendly when I did it as Kerry suggested in her book, so I settled for shaped eyes.  This is not a reflection on Kerry s instructions it s totally down to user error/incompetence.Fingers crossed the little madams like their Pink Monsters. If they like it half as much as I liked designing and making them, they ll be a mammoth hit.There are two more stops on the Edward s Crochet Imaginarium book blog tour. Tomorrow you can read The Twisted Yarn s review and then the book tour ends on Tuesday with The Little Room of Rachell.The book is available to purchase on Amazon or from Toft for £14.99. If you buy it directly on the Toft website, you will also receive a free and exclusive pdf that includes bonus patterns.***GIVEAWAY***Leave a comment below telling me about your experience of making amigurumi toys and I will pick a comment at random and send you a copy of Edwards Crochet Imaginarium! (UK residents only.) Entries close at 12 noon on Sunday 18 September 2016. The lovely people of Mollie Makes magazine sent me the bookHow To Crochet, published by Pavilion,to review here on my blog.I have to apologise to the publishers that it has taken me this long to do the review, but I wanted to do the review justice by completing one of the 20 projects featured in the book.I chose to make the Granny Square Blanket With Edging, designed byAnita Mundt. You guys know how I love granny squares! They are my all time favourite thing to crochet. For Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 I made two2-colour 6-round squares inblueand in pink, and in 2013 I crocheted a traditional granny square blanket for a friend and even posted on my technique for choosing random colours.I started the blanket on the 30th of June and finished it today. Precisely one month! This granny square blanket will also be my contribution to the charity crochet campaign, Crochet For Kidneys Part 5. I had two weeks in that month where I was on sick leave so I had bit more time than usual for crocheting. (I had an operation to my foot on the 18th of June. The cast is coming off on 13 August and a month or so later, it will be the turn of my left foot to go under the knife and stay in a non-weight bearing cast for 8 weeks expect a few more blanket ta-daaaah blog posts over the next 3 months!)I really enjoyed following the colour schemesuggestion inAnita s pattern. I know how to make a granny square so I didn t need the pattern for that, but Ifound thatfollowing the designer s colour scheme took away all the worry that I may get my colours wrong.In this pattern the colour combinations are partly fixed and party random.Rounds 1, 2 and 6 are fixed colours, round 3 is random and 4 5are alsorandombut you use the same colour for both rounds. Once I had decided on the colour for rounds 1 (green), 2 (white) and 6 (Parma Violet), there wasn t much randomising left to do. Choosing my colours for each squarewasreally quick and I think I will stick to this partly fixed, partly random, colour scheme for all my future granny square blankets!The colours I used were: Stylecraft Special DK in White, Saffron, Wisteria, Spring Green, Citron, Cloud Blue, Parma Violet (for the last round of each square) and the bright green was James C Brett Supreme Baby DK in SNG7. I really love that Parma Violet shade. It s not grey, it s not purple, it s just a beatiful tie-it-all-together shade.Please excuse the wonky photo but it s difficult to get a blanket to lie flat and take a perfectly straight taken-from-above photo when you have only one leg to balance on!For this blanket Ialso didn t have to go looking for border like I do with my other granny square blankets Anita s border was just so perfect I just had to follow her pattern.The team from Mollie Makes (the UK s most successful lifestyle and craft magazine) hand-picked the projects for this book. All the patterns were designed exclusively for this book by the team sfavourite crochet designers:Ilaria Chiaratti, Emma Lamb, Beata Basik, Cara Medus, Pip Lincolne and Anita Mundt. Apart form the Granny Square Blanket With Edging which I made, there are more fun and beautiful projects like the adorable set of Russian dolls from the cover photo, Bouquet of Flowers, pocket placemats and Monster Gadget Covers called Chomper, Nibbles and Tryclops. How To Crochetcontains all the techniques you need to get started with crochet, with step-by-step instructions and clear, beautiful illustrations. Each of the 20 patterns have a Crochet Story which I really enjoyed reading even if I weren t going to make the project.How To Crochet is available onAmazonfor £9.99.If however you don t want to purchase one, why not enter my giveaway!I m giving away two copies of How To Crochet by Mollie Makes. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blogpost telling me what your favourite time of day and/or week is to crochet. There s no special reason why I ask this question, I m just interested to know when my readers sit down with their yarn and hooky stick. The winners will be drawn randomly and announced on my Instagram feed (natasjaking) and crochetime Facebook page on 7 August. Good luck! John, my brother and I just got back from an European road trip of two weeks. We had the most amazing time driving through Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and back to Belgium.You can see more photos on my Instagram feed.While in Germany we drove over the border to Austria to visit Innsbruck for the day (amazing that you can do that!) On our way there we stopped at the side of the road where John took these photos to show you my Buttercup cardigan.The navy cardigan over white t-shirt looks just like the snow covered mountains, don t you think?I was knitting like a lunatic the three days before we left on holiday I just had to finish before the road trip!The pattern for this beautiful cardigan is  Buttercup pattern from Marie Wallin s book Filigree. This is my second project from Filigree, the first being the crochet top Rose which I absolutely adore.The nitty gritty of my Buttercup cardigan:Pattern: Buttercup from Filigree: Collection Three by Marie Wallin. The pattern for Right Front is missing from the book but you can download it from the errata page on Marie s website here.Yarn:  7 balls of Rowan Summerlite in Navy Ink shade 492Size: MediumKnitting needle size:  3 mmModification: I lengthen the cardigan by adding a 6th crochet square motif. That meant I also had to lengthen the back to 37 cm in stead of 29 cm, before doing the arm shaping.I m really in love with the crochet and knit combination. I combined the two in my Kimono Cardigan, but  I definitely think Buttercup combines crochet and knitting better.I think I have a pattern crush on Marie Wallin. As soon as put down the knitting needles on Buttercup, I picked up the crochet hook to make my second Belle top from  Rowan Holiday Crochet. The second top with the same pattern! That s how good her designs are!  I ve been wearing my Belle since May 2015 about once every two weeks. No wonder I need a second one.If Belle is anything to go by, I m going to need a second Buttercup cardigan again in a few years.Thank you Marie Wallin for designing the most amazing knitting and crochet patterns. Do you have a yarn that you love so much that you will search months and months on end for a pattern just so that you can use this yarn? A yarn so soft and light, yet warm in the cold and cool in the heat? A yarn in the perfect shade of grey that will match almost everything in your wardrobe? I have.  It s Gardnstudio Drops BabyAlpaca Silk in 8465 Medium Grey.I bought 12 balls back in August 2015 without knowing what I wanted to make with it. That s unusual for me because I always find the pattern first and then look for the yarn. I thought I found the perfect crochet pattern in the Samira sweater, and I got halfway through the back when I realised this wasn t working. The back loop only SC was creating a fabric with so little stretch, I would have had to modify the pattern so much and buy more yarn, that I just frogged it. You can see the frogged project in my Ravelry Projects here.The fantastic Drops pattern database also didn t have anything suitable for Babyalpaca Silk that I particularly liked.What to do now?I just made up my own pattern. And it s mostly a knitted pattern.I used Babyalpaca Silk for my Whispers cardigan which is crocheted, so this time I wanted to see and feel how the yarn looks knitted. I m so happy I did it this way this yarn looks better knitted than crocheted I think.As for a pattern, well it needed to be super easy because I m no good at shaping for knitting and especially not if I have to dream up the pattern myself!  Straight sides were what I needed. That made me think of a kimono because isn t that really just a bunch of squares and rectangles? Surely I could manage that.Turns out a kimono is exactly that: squares and rectangles. I used the plus size DIY Kimono pattern of Nina Scott-Stoddard, as my guide for the pattern pieces.But, me being me, I couldn t just knit a cardigan. No I needed something crocheted for a bit of flair. That s were the the Zen lattice pattern from Robyn Chachua s book Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia came in. It was the perfect type of lace stitch and also perfectly name Zen. Zen crochet border for a knitted kimono cardigan. I mean really! Match made in Japan.I also added two rows of SC in a contrasting colour before I started the knitted section. Just because I can.Below is the pattern for my Knitted and Crocheted Kimono Cardigan. I m saying pattern because it s really just a loose record of what I did. Not technical at all. I m sure many knitters out there would be able to do a much better job of this than me, but I m giving you the pattern so you can use it as a starting point.I m using US crochet terms.BackWorking from the bottom up you start with the crochet border. Chain 114  (14 x 8 + 2)  with 3 mm crochet hook.Row 1: SC.Now follow rows 1 12 of Zen lattice from Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia. In the last row, make 3-chain in stead of 5-chain.Row 14 and 15: change to new colour and make 2 rows SC 2. Cast off.Start of knitted section:Use 3 mm knitting needles to pick up stitches through front loop of crochet. (This was the only way I could work out to switch from crochet to knitting. I picked up the stitches with the same size knitting needle as my crochet, and then used a bigger size knitting needles to knit the first row.)With 4.5 mm knitting needles, start the stockinette stich by knitting the first row, then purl the second row. Continue in in stockinette stitch until desired length.Front panelsFollow the same instructions as for Back, but cast on 58 stitches (7 x 8 + 3).SleevesFollow the same instructions as for Back, but chain 92 (11 x 8 + 3).It s crucial that you block the pieces before sewing them together. In the photo above you see how the Zen lattice looks before blocking. You can t even make out that it s crochet! Below you see the lattice stretched out to it s full potential. The KnitPro t-pins were real life savers for the blocking.I have to warn you though that when I started wearing the kimono cardigan those crochet borders lost their openness , so don t rely on the crochet to add length to the cardigan it will jump back to almost pre-blocking width. If I knew this, I would have made my knitting much longer.As for sewing up the knitting, I can t get over how amazing the mattress stitch is for this. It really creates an invisible seam. This video is what I used to see how to make the mattress stitch and how to sew in the knitted sleeves.I love wearing my super soft kimono cardigan, but I do know I could have made a better job of it by 1) creating shaping for the neck and shoulders in the back and 2) by making the body longer. Because of the short boxy shape I also have to think a bit about what I wear it with because it can look very unflattering if you don t have the right layers underneath.The yarn is this kimono cardigan s saving grace it s so perfect that I don t even mind having to think a bit harder about what I wear with the cardigan. I ll even go clothes shopping to find the perfect thing to make this kimono cardigan look its best. I want to wear my kimono cardigan every day! Three months and one week at my new job and already everybody knows I m a crocheter!The internal communications team did this fun piece (their words, not mine) on me today. I had to bring in as many crochet items as I could and posed with reindeer antlers surrounded by my wooly projects. Such fun! (If you re a Miranda fan, you will have the voice of Miranda s mom in your head just about now.)I m hoping that this piece on the Sky intranet will generate some interest in a crochet knitting group. So far four ladies have shown an interest in getting together once a month for some hooky and knitty action. There are around 10,000 people at Sky HQ in Osterley, so I m hoping that with time a crochet and knitting group will grow to a few more. Surely there must be more than just five out of 10,000 who like to crochet or knit I think a yarnbomb might be in order to raise awareness . Right? Well what have we here? A ta-daah post for a completed yarny item? Yes indeed!  I knitted a Super Stripy Snood to match my grey winter coat, and I love it!It all began on the 9th of August when John and I took iVan (which is for sale by the way in case you are interested in purchasing a super awesome campervan) to Brighton for the day. Before we left the house, I Googled yarn shops in Brighton (as you do) and came across Yak a lovely little yarn shop in Gloucestershire road. We wore our flip-flops thin to find Yak so when we got there John was adamant I should at least buy something to make it worth the effort. And yes, I did make a mental note of husband s fortuitous statement and will in future always select the yarn shop furthest from where we parked the car.Seeing as I was now forced to buy something at this great little shop joy oh joy I went for 8 balls of MillaMia Naturally Soft Merino in shades to match my grey coat blues and soft greyish shades. They are:Shade 121 PuttyShade 102 StormShade 120 Forget me notShade 161 Seaside (I mean really. How perfect?)I don t usually go for these muted tones but that s what was needed to match my grey coat. Yak had many other gorgeous bright shades of MillaMia which were so tempting, but I had to stick to my plan of finding something to match the coat. Of course blue matches grey and it would remind me of our day in Brighton so adding the Seaside shade was a no-brainer.I didn t start knitting until October, but when I did boy it was gooood! I chose the very simple and soothing knit stitch for 90% of the snood. The other 10% was stockinette stitch for when I was using Adriafil Knitcol shade 55. Like I said, I don t usually go for muted shades and felt the need for something in a darker blue to break up all the muted-ness. I had long ago fallen in love with the crazy beautiful things people were knitting with Knitcol so here was my chance their Renoir shade matched my MillaMia shades perfectly!Throughout October and November I knitted and knitted. The sweet receptiveness of knit stitch, mindlessly changing colour whenever I felt like it, mixing solid bands of colours, 2-colour stripe combinations and sections of the self striping Knitcol to make a super stripy snood.I finished the snood just in time for the cold English Winter and wore it for the first time last Monday.You probably want to see more of the stripes of this Super Striped Snood. Here it is. (John took the photos on our way to work. Can you spot the heron in the background?)First HalfI repeated three of the sections of colour twice, but apart from those repeating bands there isn t really a pattern. It s just randomly knitting stripes.Second HalfWith so many stripes and different colour combinations the snood can look different every time I twist it around my neck.  I love it!I can highly recommend knitting a Super Striped Snood or Scarf. It s the ultimate easy project for playing with colour and it looks great! It s also a great stash busting project. Or you can do what I did and go on day trip and park the car as far as possible from the best yarn shop in town. Did any of my lovely readers receive the Inside Crochet magazine newsletter today? Did you spot the Complete Guide To Crochet Volume 5 bookazine? I did . because I recognised my Iznik Cushion on the front cover! Yeah baby!The pattern was initially published in issue 68 (read all about it here), but now it has also been republished as one of the 50 patterns in the bookazine (bigger than a magazine but not quite a book) Complete Guide To Crochet Volume 5. So chuffed!The Complete Guide to Crochet: Volume 5  is now available for pre-order for £9.99. It is the perfect Christmas gift for crafters and features a wide range of projects, from childrenswear to homewares, fashion garments and smaller accessories.Order by 30 November 2015 with voucher code VOLUME5 and save £1 (plus free P+P for UK residents)! We are back from dropping off the 27 blankets (one more is on its way from the USA) to the Renal unit of the Royal London Hospital.At the hospital John had his blood  urine samples taken and blood pressure measured as part of his living donor check-up. We will get the results of his creatinine (the chemical waste product in the blood that passes through the kidneys to be filtered and eliminated in urine) and GFR (a measurement of how much liquid and waste is passing from the blood through the tiny filters in the kidney and out into the urine per minute) by post but we already know that he is in peak health and we are very grateful too!Nurse Lillibeth didn t have time to immediately look at the blankets, but as we were on our way back home on the train she called John to say how beautiful the blankets are and to thank us again.These 27 blankets will be distributed between the hemodialysis patients, the peritoneal dialysis patients and also the failing kidney transplant patients, many of whom are elderly and also have cancer.It s very sad for me to think that there are people who have gone through a kidney transplant operation only to have the organ fail. I think I always thought of our blankets giving hope and comfort to someone in the same position as the recipient of John s kidney someone who is going through dialysis but who will receive a donor kidney and be well again. It never occurred to me that there is not always a happy ending.The blankets of Crochet For Kidneys, and the message behind it one of comfort and hope has taken on a new meaning for me today and I will do my best to make Crochet For Kidneys grow so that we can reach more people.xxxxxCrochet For Kidneys Part 5 will officially launch at the beginning of June 2016 but you can start making and sending blankets from now. Blankets should measure at least 90 cm x 135 cm. Any colour, any design as long as you use acrylic yarn. I ve been telling you about the beautiful crochet blankets donated for Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 since June 2015. I ve showed you photos of all the blankets, told you who made them and where the makers are from. I ve thanked everyone for donating their skill, yarn and time to this project.Yet pretty crocheted blankets is not what Crochet For Kidneys is about.Crochet For Kidneys is about doing something for the people currently going through dialysis.  John donated his kidney to a friend because we heard and saw what 3 4-hour dialysis session a week does to a person.In writing this post I realised I had to find a first-hand account describing what it is like going through dialysis. I found a few articles and a NHS video which gave the impression that you can have a very normal, active life. This may be true for a lot of people but it wasn t the impression I got from the man to whom John gave his kidney back in 2012. Yes, he was able to go to work and lead a relatively normal life, but he certainly did not feel like a million bucks after a dialysis session. The limitations of what he could eat and drink affected his life, the timings of the dialysis session and the after effects limited how much time he could spend with friends and family (and indeed his wife), not to mention the psychological toll.I then came across A Rookies Take On Dialysis: Ten Things I Have Learned So Far a blog post by Tim Bergman of Ontario, Canada.Please read his post. It s an eye opener and gives a true sense of what it is really like being on dialysis. Tim s account of dialysis is much closer to what the recipient of John s kidney experienced and will give you a sense of 1) why John decided to donate his kidney and 2) why I felt I wanted to do something for dialysis patients.Wait until you get to point no. 4 in Tim s post   Crochet For Kidneys will make total sense. The big day for Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 is almost here! John and I are taking the blankets to the Royal London Hospital on Tuesday so this weekend was spent writing note cards, putting the right card to the right blanket and updating the Facebook Group with all the blanket photos.Each blanket has a notecard with the following message: I hope that you will feel the love that I put into each crochet stitch of this blanket, so that it may bring you hope and comfort. Love [name of crocheter] On the opposite side I wrote: Care instructions: Wash at 30 degrees on gentle wash. Do not tumble dry. and Feel free to join the Facebook Group Crochet For Kidneys if you want to get in touch. Here is one of the notecard, attached to Sue de Vos s blanket.Look how many beautiful blankets we have! The sun was shining into our apartment while I was folding and tagging blankets. I took that as a good sign.I m so proud of what you guys have achieved here. None of you skimped on creativity, quality of the yarn or the finish and some of you even made two blankets. You posted them from as far as Portugal and the USA without any thought to the cost of postage. Thank you so much.Isn t this a lovely sight? Nevermind the telly or the view, look at all those lovingly made crochet blankets for 27 dialysis patients!I ll update you all on delivery of the blankets, after Tuesday.

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