What would you crochet?

[psychicpaper]

I am a reasonable capable crochet, and have made lots of projects for friends birthdays etc, but usually out of acrylic yarn etc.

Now I want to pick something to make, have no deadline, and enjoy using really great quality yarn.

i don't want to make clothes as I can never make them fit me properly, and we have a lot of scarves!

Any ideas?

Last year I made my step mum a ripple blanket for her bed using 100% chunky cashmere yarn. I didn't want to give it away at the end! Beautiful to work with and the finished result was gorgeous. I will never be able to afford to make one for me-in order to afford the yarn my brother, step sister and I all had to contribute!

Ouch!

Sounds beautiful Antoinette, but I think maybe maximum budget of £75 for yarn

You could get a fair amount of lovely merino with that...

where do you buy your yarn?

So far I buy it mostly in poundland, where there is very little Merino

Oh. I was going to say something really challenging like... a tea cozy. My mum crochets me a new tea cozy every year.

She also makes berets. I think a beret out of gorgeous wool would be very nice.

But you could probably knock these out in an afternoon

Nothing wrong with a tea cozy, but I don't have a teapot...

I was thinking something like a cover for our bed, but have no idea what yarn to use, or how much somthing like that would cost, or if I would get bored on the same repeat pattern for a long time!

There's a website called Luxury Yarns which I LOVE and perve over frequently but rarely buy from. I tend to either buy the very expensive beautiful stuff or stick to Stylecraft!

I have just finished a ripple baby blanket for a teacher at my son's school. I made it in Sublime Merino and even at baby size it cost £35.

It is lovely though and it was a real treat working with such lovely yarn.

if you aren't in a huge hurry Hobby craft have great sales, I got some beautiful yarn for pennies...mind you it was brown and for socks, but they did have lots of the same type in assorted colours.

Failing that lots of their normal stock is 3 for 2 so that saves money

As far as project goes, what about a lovely shawl...even full price I don't think that would break the bank if you went lacy style

I did do a star blanket a while back in cheapo acrylic but it has come up lovely after a wash or two six pointed star afghan

Love the luxury yarn site, think it might bankrupt me though!

I love this [http://www.redheart.com/files/patterns/pdf/WR1639.pdf pattern] but not certain if I can figure out how to change the pattern to make it double bed size, and maybe i want multiple colours.

Argh!

There is a Drops sale on at the moment, lots of online shops have it in stock. I usually use Wool Warehouse. The Drops extra fine Merino is DK weight and very nice to crochet with, it would be good for doing a Japanese flower shawl or blanket with. It's £2 for 50g at the moment so you could nearly make bedspread for £75.

I have also bought a load of Drops Eskimo which is extra chunky, I am planning to crochet a rug and felt it in the bath.

Japanese flower blanket scroll right down to the bottom to see it on a bed, amazing.

They used Drops Alpaca which is £1.90 for 50g at the moment, but it's only 4ply so would probably take a lifetime to make.

My biggest project has been a throw because its one of the few things I think that I would want, rather than making things for the sake of it. I looked for a simple crochet square (ravelry.com is fab) that I liked and then just kept making them! It did get tedious towards the end but if you don't have a deadline then you could just put it aside for a few months then pick it up again. Hopefully the pic has come out and I reckon that did cost somewhere between 75 and 100 for wool in the end. (can't remember exactly what the wool was but i think it had a high bamboo content in addition to real wool as i was looking for something that felt 'hard' and would withstand lots of wear if its used regularly as a sofa throw to sit on)
I buy wool from black sheep wools and will check their clearance for any bargains. Bonus for me is that its local so I can go and 'feel' the wool as well!!!

Use style craft DK chunky and do a lovely patchwork throw or cushion. ..attic24 blog has lots of lovely ideas! It's not going to break the bank and is still lovely to work with!

bouncin bean that is lovely

I made this one for my sister when she went off to uni

Ideally for the bedspread I either want just one colour, or four. Our bedroom is white furniture, yellow wall, white curtains with a pink rose pattern, and a duck egg duvet with yellow and pink butterflies.

whoops

Ahh so you're already practiced at throws ;-), that's also beautiful.
Seriously check out Ravelry - some great inspiration. If you are fancying a bedspread I'd go for a 4 colour one. I quite like a uniform pattern or stripe (that's my ocd!) but I've also seen some nice random type patterns that use different square patterns or sizes or both!

Have a look the Drops yarns. Great value merino etc.