Some thoughts on my newly rediscovered love of crochet

Posted by louisa on Friday 28 January 2011 in crochet & knitting, making | 11 comments

After a break from crafts for a while, I’ve got back into crochet with a vengeance recently.

I found it hard to like crochet at first – the first tutorials I did were boring, just creating a stiff solid fabric – and it wasn’t until I made a “net” shopping bag and granny squares that I saw the value of it over knitting. If I was teaching someone how to crochet, I’d start with granny squares which I’d use for the base of a “net” shopping bag/fruit bag – I liked being able to make something actually useful very quickly.

I love the many “sense of completion” moments when making granny squares or similar patches. My first big project was a hexagon hearth rug. I got a small buzz after completing each round, then each hexagon, then each colour combination set, then all the hexagons… Great motivation to keep me going. By comparison, my current stripes project (above) is very slow going and not that rewarding – it takes about 25 mins to finish each stripe and then it’s only one more stripe in a blanket of a hundred (and it’s even more when I do the wrong colour combination and have to frog over an hour’s work). It’s a nice yarn to work with though and when it’s finished, it’ll be lovely.

My favourite stitch is a HTC (HDC in US terms) – the ease of a DC (SC) but with extra height. Is it wrong/nerdy to have a favourite crochet stitch?

Craft procrastination = Procraftination

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 19 January 2011 in making | 4 comments

Except for the crochet blanket that I started at the weekend, I’ve not done anything crafty for ages. And I’ve not finished anything for even longer – probably my water flask holder in September. I’ve had writer’s block for crafting.

To combat this, I’ve come up with a procraftination project for myself: 15 super quick projects to beat the meh.

The criteria I’ve set down for myself is:

• They must not take more than a couple of hours each in total from start to finish
• They must cover a range of skills/techniques because I heart variety
• They must be do-able from the sofa because I’m lazy and there is often a dog, cat & blanket on the sofa and I like spending time with all three.

Most of them are also practical or upcycling/revamping something I’ve already got but that’s more of a coincidence than something deliberate.

1. Make a new purse (crochet or sew)
2. Embroider fun retro designs onto some boring plain knickers
3. Crochet a bookmark/book thong
4. Revamp turquoise handbag – replace white leather strip with copper wire
5. Remake/revamp my dangly button earrings
6. An hour of drawing
7. Finish sewing the dot-to-dot patterns I bought ages ago from Leethal FINISHED!
8. Crochet some mini storage baskets
9. Knit the ribbed hat I saw on CRAFTzine a few months ago
10. Make a pot holder/oven mitt thing
11. Upcycle/lengthen my stripey polo shirt that’s been in my sewing pile for months
12. Crochet some butterflies
13. Make some more wire bugs
14. Spin some more yarn
15. Make new black bead earrings based on necklace pattern

This post is more for me as a to-do list than for everyone else – but if anyone has any other suggestions of things I can add to my list, let me know!

The weekend’s pottering

Posted by louisa on Monday 17 January 2011 in meta | 10 comments

Some of the things we’ve done this weekend:

• Started crocheting a new blanket – I got some “kool kotton” yarn a few months ago and think it’ll make a lovely blanket. I’m doing a granny stripe, about 5ft long — not sure I’ll have the patience to make it 5ft square (it takes nearly half an hour to do each stripe!) but if I get it to about 3ft wide, it’ll be perfect for using on the sofa. (I’ve already doubled the stripe count since I took this picture.)
• Took two boxes of books and misc stuff to the charity shop – they’ve been sat in the dumping ground on the landing for about three months. Would be nice to get that space decluttered and usable!
• Chopped down a sycamore tree – we planned to cut it down about six weeks ago when it lost the last of its leaves but weather & illness stopped us. It’s now cleared the way for an apple tree.
• Bought two blackcurrant bushes – for some reason blackcurrants have been popping up in conversations recently and I felt inspired to buy them. I’ve realised I left a few decorative shrubs in the garden last year – they can come out and be replaced with fruit bushes like these. I’m also tempted by some raspberry canes – it’s definitely going to be the year of fruit this year (or more accurately, fruit year minus one, since things will need time to get bedded in).
• Sorted out my seed box – cor, I’ve apparently got high hopes for this year! Lots o’ seeds! I’m going to try to be realistic about my space/workload – I’ll give away some seeds now and probably some seedlings too, depending on how germination goes. Some stuff needs to be started in January – so I guess I’ll do that next weekend, weather permitting.
• Restocked our spice cupboard after a trip to Pakeezah – been running low on a few things – should be good for a few months now and at a fraction of the cost if we’d bought them at one of the big three supermarkets.
• I was at a drama rehearsal until 10:30pm on Friday and John cooked spare ribs for when I finally got home – they were pretty good and we’ve got some ideas on how to make them perfect. Every now and then I get severe cravings for good ribs and up til now, they’ve been one thing we can’t really cook at home – will be good to crack them!
• Had Kheer for the first time yesterday – sweet, creamy rice pudding with cardamom and pistachios, and John thought some rose water too. Yum! Will have that again – and will see if I can work out a recipe as well.
• Finally caught up on the sleep I’ve missed out on over the last fortnight – woo!
• Got overly proud at finding 5 eggs in the nest box yesterday morning – either Lime is back laying again after her moult (unlikely at the moment) or both of the new batch Black Rocks are laying now. We’ve had 4 eggs a day for the last few days, so going up to 5 was a thrill. Just Buff – who will lay white eggs – to debut now.

Aside from that and some other good eating, it was a lazy one. Was good though :)

Quick crocheted flask/water bottle holder pattern

Posted by louisa on Thursday 30 September 2010 in crochet & knitting, making | 0 comments

My building plans for last weekend (the mezzanine level thing and a mini ark for quarantine/broody hens) fell through because I felt ill so aside from a walk/forage at Bramley Falls park on Saturday and the sheep & goats in Calverley graveyard on Sunday, I spent most of the weekend sitting. I like sitting but it was frustrating to think of all the to-do tasks building up while I was lazing around.

In an effort to achieve at least one thing, I decided to make a flask holder/carrier – because I like taking a water flask out with me when we’re walking the dog but quickly get bored of carrying it.

It’s an adaptation of my never-fails crochet shopping bag pattern (which I should write up over here sometime) and is pretty quick and easy to make – an hour or so, maybe a little longer including the long strap.

Crocheted flask/water bottle holder pattern

Note: this pattern uses British crochet terminology. North America readers (etc) should revise accordingly: our DCs are your SCs, our TCs are your DCs etc.

To make this item, you need to know how to chain, DC, TC, join stitches to finish rounds and tie off. It’s not complicated at all but I fear parts of the pattern are a little confusing – let me know if you hit any problems.

Yarn & hook
This is a great project for using up the ends of yarn balls – it only uses about 20g. Choose a strong yarn, 4ply or DK, and a suitable sized hook – I think mine was a 5mm.