Team Hooker - Welcome to the Hotel Crochetfornia

[SoupDragon]

You can check in but you can never leave...

Haha, Belinda!

I am currently finishing my first blanket. It is far from perfect but I have learned lots and I still love the colours. I'm really enjoying edging it :)

Am so impressed with all your advanced techniques. and thrilled to see new people starting to crochet.
I have just graduated from granny squares and learned how to crochet ripples! Managed to finish 2 scarves, just have to sew in the ends of the second one. I'll have to make another one, as it is a bit too 'busy' for the sober gentleman it's intended for.

Hello fellow hookers! :)

I have finally managed to see PantryBoy's spotty blanket, it's really lovely!

Where do you all buy your yarn from? Any recommendations for online shops? There is a yarn shop in my town but it's tiny and incredibly messy, it's almost impossible to find anything in there so I'm thinking I might have a look online.

I'm getting my hooking in now before PidjChick arrives!

Than you for joining support up thread. I am pleased to say that I now have nine squares neatly joined to make a Little Hug :) and very proud of myself I am too! I ended up going with the attic24 instructions purely and simply because I could look at the photos! I really appreciate your instructions Pidj but I needed the pictures to reassure me that I was doing the right thing. I think it looks fab, evn if I say so myself. I'm off to bed now and tomorrow's job is to begin on the edging, then pesky ends. I WILL make the next deadline and for a time I felt like there was no chance!

Hurrah! I don't really give a toss how you get there, only that you do iyswim :)

Will I got there and I'm delighted with it :)

*Well

Just emerging from my room to say....

I now have 6 little crochet people (plus 1 angel) for the nativity scene. They have hats and hair/beards, but no arms yet as these are just too fiddly. And now I've left it to the end I've got 14 of the things to do.

And baby Jesus, obviously, and the donkey.

Have started a blanket for DS too. Just a big granny square. Mindless crocheting, which is perfect for me in the evenings.

belinda I sewed in all the pesky ends of my very first granny blanket whilst feeding newborn DS. He complained a bit, until I learnt somehow to reduce the movement in my arms and use my wrists more, iyswim. Neglectful mother that I am!

[waves]

Crocheted nativity? Fabulous!

Somersaults, I think joining a blanket from written instructions when you've never done it before is tricky. Once you work out how the squares fit together, it's easier to see what written instructions mean. I have yet to attempt to join the Refuge blanket together - I've only ever joined one from loose squares so I"m not sure how that will go :o

I am currently working on Yorkhill Crafts stuff so the Refuge blanket will have to wait until after the deadline for that (unless I get my arse in gear and do a decent quantity of saleable items quickly!)

Pipe cleaners, Zwit? I'm impressed by the feeding-sewing combo, gives me hope for when PidjChick arrives :o

Soupy, is there an actual deadline on the Refuge thing? The website is rubbish!

I had assumed it was ongoing. I hope there isn't a deadline!

I have no idea, and don't buy any magazines. I'll ask at knitting group this morning if anyone gets it and if i can borrow a copy :)

i can hook over a feeding/sleeping baby.

it's actually really good for your technique - you're supposed to use your wrists more than your arms.

Ooh I did not know that - I guess my arms are all akimbo from years of knitting. (Very badly)

Pipe cleaners are a fab idea pidg (if I may call you that!). The shepherds crook is made from a pipe cleaner crocheted around so will experiment

what about using french knitting?

get a wooden bobbin, nail 4 nails in the top, get a needle and hook them all over.

you wrap the wool around the nails and then hook them over one by one.
and keep going.
i'll try to find a video

the bobbins they use are rather posher than the old-fashioned proper bobbins i use!

• sorry, then you put the pipecleaner down the middle of it to stiffen it.

Great idea - I have a French knitting doodah somewhere. Thanks Nickel

Pidj is fine, there are far too many PurpleWhatevers around :o

Are you implying I am common?

Yep, same as me :o

Hi can I join you? Been lurking for a wee while now, then discovered I couldn't leave... So thought it'd be rude not to join the conversation.

I've also got a newborn baby. Something about having babies, mat leave, and crochet? It is indeed possible to crochet and feed at same time, though tension goes a bit funny. Fine for granny squares though. Knitting is completely impossible, so my 2 needles projects are all entirely abandoned for now (appreciate this will cause scowls from a crochet forum, and possible eviction!). Working on a double beadspread in granny square alternating with circle-going-square thing. It's taking me for ever. Then I want to make the owl bag someone linked to from here to ravelry. And I want to make a wrappy cardigan I can feed round for me. And am a relative crochet beginner, so will be busy!

Re nativity arms zwitterion, isn't french knitting slooooow? Was when I was 6 which was last time I tried it. Might be fine with Grown Up fingers though. Other option would be (ducks for cover) (whispers) knitting i-cord. And pipe cleaners. Just a thought.

Anyway. Back to square number 62...

Hello Louper, and welcome!

No problem with ditching the knitting as far as I'm concerned, it takes me forever and I can never get the tension right. I'm very much a beginner and am also working on projects involving lots of granny squares, which I have been putting off a bit lately in preference of ironing of all things, so I think the granny squares are losing their charm a bit. Must get these finished before I can let myself start something else. I'd love to make myself a warm cardigan or jumper, as I could really do with some and just can't find any I like. Cannot imagine making anything that would actually fit and look right though.

Back to sewing in pesky ends of row 8 for me (or is it 9 now?)...