Test Crocheting

Recently I have signed up to test stitch crochet designs on Ravelry and have been really enjoying these projects.  Having an absolute deadline certainly helps me concentrate on one project at a time!

I started with the lovely little Bunny Basket:

I did have the basket full of mini-eggs, but they all seem to have disappeared and with no-one owning up to eating them!

The same designer then asked if I'd like to test the companion Ducky Basket!  And so here she is:

And finally my latest test design has been a shawlette - more a scarf really.  Typically I have been stitching this in a mini heatwave!  Not that I'm complaining - seeing the sun again is wonderful.  This one has stitched up really quickly.  It took me only five days, I think.  Definitely one I'll be stitching again.  I think I'd like to try it in more spring-like colours with laceweight wool.  And guess what - that's exactly what's winging it's way to me in the post right now!  Here are a couple of photos:

Huge Catchup Coming ...

I don't know where to begin I have so much catching up to do!  Let's start with my latest projects - somehow I have got myself absolutely addicted to crochet.  Not quite sure how this happened.  A friend was expecting a baby recently - and with a week to go I decided to learn how to crochet properly (I've dabbled a little before making crocheted flowers) and make a baby blanket!

And here it is:

I had a little wool left over so I made a hat too:

And packaged them up together just in time to visit a lovely little three day old baby called Joshua:

I really enjoyed making these so much, that I decided I really wanted to make a much bigger baby shawl.  I managed to find a pattern I really liked on the wonderful website Ravelry and have been crocheting it non-stop for the last month or so.  I've even been stitching at lunchtimes at school and have enticed one of my colleagues to start on the same pattern. (She stitches amazingly fast so finished it first, but that's another story).  Anyway here it is - I finished and blocked it last weekend and am so delighted with the result.

That's all for now - more coming soon!

Back Again

This project took a bit of a dip over the past two weeks.  Funny how you get ups and downs, but possibly holidays and ill children just meant I wasn't in the mood.  I started stitching again over the past few days and am really enjoying it once more.  So here we are, only one more band to go!!

Anticipation

I love getting to this stage, with four boxes just waiting to be filled!!!

Autumn Promise Update

I finished band 2!!

I am loving working on this project and the threads are so beautiful to work with.  This band uses more Thread Gatherer silk on the diamonds and the little zig-zag band.  The blue / grey flowers are Kreinik Silk Mori and the pink is YLI 2000 denier silk.  This is similar to #8 perle, but is more like a silken cord, a really lovely thread.  Here's a close up of that area, you can see the little peach rice stitches too:

Autumn Promise

I had such a lovely day on Saturday.  I was lucky enough to go on a one-day workshop with Judy Dixon, stitching one of her new designs.  Six hours of uninterrupted stitching (apart from a quick half an hour break for lunch!) - how great is that :-)

Looking back at it now though I think - how could I have stitched all that time and have so little progress to show for it??  Here's what I managed on the day:

I have though made quite good progress since - maybe we chatted too much on Saturday :-)  :-)  (why can't you get proper smilies on blogger, it really annoys me).  Anyway here's the latest update - I've completed Band 1 apart from the cutting and beads.

It's been really challenging. The YLI silk (peach) is very fine and I had to work hard at getting it to lie flat. I thought I was going to love the Pearsall's silk (green). It's beautifully glossy and well, silky but I found it really difficult to work with as it's also very springy. I tried using some Thread Heaven with it, but it took the sheen away so I had to persevere without.


The variegated Thread Gatherer Silk n' Colors was a joy to use. Judy Dixon had suggested we should iron each individual strand before using it as the floss is quite tightly wound. At the time I thought that sounded ridiculous, but I tried it and could hardly believe the difference. It's well worth the little extra time it takes to do - athough when my husband saw me do it he thought I had finally flipped!

Hardanger Class Finished

Sorry, I should have posted this last week, but kept finding other things that needed doing - working so gets in the way of stitching doesn't it :-(

But I finished the Judy Dixon hardanger class from Classic Stitches and am now totally hooked on her designs.  Here it is with half of the cutting completed:

And now finished, complete with all the beads too.