#NeedleworkMonday - A Return To Crochet

Hello fellow crafters – its been a while! Sorry for the long gap in posts again. I think going forward that this sporadic use of social media may be all I can commit myself to, but hopefully I can still spend some time to share my work and enjoy what other people are doing. I haven’t looked at the #Needleworkmonday tag for a while, and I cant believe how much the following has grown! A huge well done to @crosheille for starting this movement and keeping it going – I love how much crafting experience and variety of work there is out there.

I have to admit I had a bit of a crochet dry spell for most of the start of 2018. I have a busy, stressful job and for that period I just didn’t feel like picking anything up. I struggled to finish anything and could usually find something ‘better’ to do. I went through a spell of doing lots of jigsaws, and got back into reading a bit more, both of which are not bad, but I missed my crochet. I just couldn’t find the motivation to start anything new.

My boyfriends mother visited in March and she is also a big crafter, so that kinda gave me the shove to get crocheting more. She always buys me a crochet magazine and while she is around I try to finish one little project J

This visit she told me about a wonderful blanket pattern that she had tried, which turned out lovely. On pinterest the pattern is listed as ‘Call the Midwife – Baby Blanket’. This pattern is exceptionally simple, but the end result is gorgeous – and it was featured on the TV show. I done this pattern in a variegated baby yarn, which ended up looking far nicer than I could imagine! The pattern has a specific border on it, but I decided to finish mine of with a ruffle in a bold colour. The ruffle nearly ended me! Obviously as you crochet round, the stitch number is being doubled, so it took a lot of effort to finish this off. In retrospect a simpler border would have done just as nice, but I am pleased with the way the ruffle looked!

With the blanket finished I got a rush of ‘crojo’ and couldn’t wait to start my next project (although I do have several half started things that really should be prioritised!). Folks that follow my previous posts may be aware that my partner regularly gets me new crochet books as gifts, and Christmas 2017 he gave me Vanessa Mooncie’s ‘Animal Heads’. Previously he has bought me Mooncie’s ‘Crocheted Sea Creatures’, which I adore – the patterns finish up looking beautiful and realistic (if that’s what you want). So I thought I’d give the heads a shot. At first glance the patterns look complicated, but every step has a written and diagram instructions, so it is fairly easy to work out what’s what. Her step by step instructions are very clear, and while sometimes I sit looking at the step thinking ‘what are we doing here?’, when the piece is finished it is really well shaped, and sewing is minimal, because as many pieces as possibly are crocheted together or in one bit.

I started off with ‘Mouse Head’, which in itself is hilarious to me, particularly as my cats are going through a chronic mouse hunting period! I crocheted in a worsted weight yarn, so the finished item is bigger than the description in the book, but this is why I love Mooncie’s patterns – they work whether they are to the scale she draws them in or if you want to shrink/expand them, they still look amazing. When I done the sea creatures, I almost always completed in Aran weight yarn, giving a large stuffed toy at the end and can easily get £20-30 for them when put for sale.

The mouse head was very simple, with only a few rows to follow. The patterns use a mixture of crocheting in the round, followed by working in rows to seamlessly shape body parts – it is genius! I made a ‘back board’ with a couple of circles cut from a cereal box and starched some fine cotton thread to make the whiskers. I think the finished thing is so unbelievably cute!

Next I wanted a bit more of a challenge, so I started with the fox head. I thought this would take weeks to make, as there is quite a lot of shaping, which looks like a lot of steps, however once you get started with the pattern, you find it consists of a lot of short rows, meaning it knits up quite fast. I used a gorgeous Bolivian Merino wool for the upper coat, and an Aran weight yarn for the lighter bits (face is white, chest is light beige). The Bolivian Merino was a treat buy for myself, and what a joy it is to work with! The colours are beautiful and they look different depending on what light you are in, giving a very complex look to it. The fabric it creates is sturdy and thick and just feels lovely. I managed to get this on sale, but would jump at it even at full price! Luckily when I ordered I got a variety of colours, and lots of them, so I have a bit to play with for now!

The head of the fox is all made in one piece, with eyes, ears, nose and ruffle added on at the end. I admit to getting a bit confused with the ruffle pattern to start with and had to do over a couple of times, but once you get the hang of it, again, it just knits up really fast. Back board for this one was simply a thicker cardboard box cut to shape and size to provide support once hung. The pattern suggest buying brass rings for the hanging circle, but I found small packs of split rings work just as well, and are a perfect size for the piece.

After the fox, I moved straight on to the ram head – the crojo has been strong recently J I wanted to do something very different with this head and make it a bit more original. Frankly, the all cream pattern was a bit boring for me, so I jazzed mine up! I crocheted the base and head in light beige, then introduced a gold fleck yarn for the horns. Finally the fleece is a mix of red, yellow, blue and green for a huge splash of colour. I am really swithering over trying to sell him or keeping him for myself – this is my all time favourite make so far!

Finally, in my month of mad crocheting, I decided to pick up the sea creatures again. These patterns made big were so popular in our wee seaside town, and tourists snapped them up. Im proud to say that going back to this book after another year of crochet experience, I am faster and can master the more intricate stitches better. The octopus last time took a week or two to complete, however this week, with lots of ferry journeys and very little internet I am half way through this pattern and would hope to complete it over a couple of evenings. I used the Bolivian wool again in Chrysanthemum (top) and Iced Coffee (bottom) for this gorgeous finished octopus! I also started a Hermit Crab in the same colours to keep myself occupied on the boat!

The other half has been nagging me for weeks now to get the Nautilus finished – I started this 2 years ago and just never found the time to sit down and finish it off. Really all it needed were eyes and the surface pattern to complete. I had run out of the original colours, but had the Bolivian bright orange to do the patterns, and odds and ends for eyes, which match quite nicely.

I think having a wee unintentional break from crafting has been good – it has made me self reflect a little bit and I have finally determined that clothing and blankets are not really my thing. They are ok once in a while, but I tend to get bored with repetition and struggle to finish things. Amigurumi and toys are my forte and I think I’ll stick with those for a while.

So just before I finish my post I also just wanted to share a wee update on what else we have been up to! Alex and I have been busy turning our wee rental house in the middle of nowhere into a little wildlife sanctuary, and we are finally starting to see results! We have hundreds of little birds hanging about our house now, from the common species (coal tits, blue tits, great tits, robins, sparrows, chaffinchs) to the slightly less common goldfinches, green finches, starlings and siskins. Recently we had a new visitor – a long tailed tit and Alex spotted a couple of black caps, although we haven’t seen them again. We managed to entice a small flock of linnets – beautiful little song birds with a bright pink-red flush on their head and chest. Apparently these small birds used to be captured for pets, but we much prefer listening to them in the garden J A few months ago we had a bird of prey sitting just outside – unsure if was stunned or resting, but totally unexpected sight! We also have a couple of woodpeckers that occasionally visit our feeders, but when not we can often hear them in the trees around our house. The cherry on the cake has to be the couple of red squirrels that have started visiting us. Catching a glimpse of them is just amazing – I wish I could get a decent picture of them J Hopefully now it is clear why I spend so little time on the computer these days – we are glued to our back window!

We have started 2018 trying to be a bit more sustainable – we now have a small greenhouse with some seedling tomatoes, coriander, carrots and mini chillies – hopefully with a bit of experience we can expand that and start growing bulk of our own veg. We have also started composting, which just feels good. I hate throwing food away anyways, but throwing to the dump feels criminal. Hopefully we’ll get some nice potting compost from that in a wee while.

Anyways, I feel as though Ive rambled, but I realise its been a whole 3 months since I posted. Hopefully it wont be another 3 months until the next one, but I wont be online as regularly as I was initially. As I get older I find myself getting more and more techno-intolerant and just find it zaps so much time away with nothing to show for it. Hopefully anyone reading this will understand.

To all involved in #NeedleworkMonday – well done for all your hard work. The projects shown here are just fantastic and the support everyone gives fellow crafters is inspirational. Thanks for reading my ‘life update’ and please feel free to let me know what you think of my crochet pieces!

Much love and until next time