Knit, Crochet and Natter 4 - Yarning into Spring

[lazylinguist]

A thread for knitters, crocheters and woollly crafters in general. All welcome, including total newbies! Previous thread here

Hair looks lovely @lazylinguist isn't it funny how we imagine how people will look? Haha! for some reason I pictured you with really short dark hair!

Thank you! It's funny you should say that though, because I was intending to go really short and possibly darker than my natural colour (which is light mousy brown, but I have quite faded, growing-out highlights atm from last March) when I go to the hairdresser's. So hopefully I will match your image of me then.

Looks great lazy! He did a good job! Though for the pixie cut, I have short hair and it's a bit of a pita during lockdown, it usually turns into Lego hair before I get fed up and get DH to take the clippers to it so I'd recommend waiting until we're reasonably safe from lockdowns before getting it cut short

That pattern sounds a nightmare lucysmam I'd suggest doing the side with the buttons first and placing the buttons so they look good, then using that to do the button hole side. I know in theory you can place the buttons and then mark where they'd go but it always ends up slightly off for me if I do it that way. Possibly I'm just a bit slapdash though.

Oh and I agree, your hair looks lovely @lazylinguist. Mine is well overdue a trim but neither of the boys are brave enough to do it! I might have to ask my mum to do it for me.

Yes, I was quite lucky that my hair was in a bob that could just happily get longer during lockdown. I didn't even bother having it cut when hairdressers were last open, so it's been over a year! I have decided to be optimistic about no more lockdowns though, so I'll probably go for it. If dh has to then take the clippers to it later, so be it!

@lazylinguist oh yes you will match my image of you 

@CrochetBug I'll attach one to this post if it works it's all cotton to practice my amigurumi and a hook that I didn't take out of the packaging incase my DS ran off with it

Ooo i love the turquoise colour! I've not used muskat, and ordered some cotton light not realising it's not 100% cotton . I have loads of the Drops love you ranges (I think they are discontinued) and Drops Paris though for my amigurumi. I've found them to be a good budget option!

@CrochetBug isn't it just! I don't think it's been tested very well at all.

@sophs29 I think I'm going to have to do it, to make it work iyswim. I can always rip it back if I need to. I think I'll use a combination of "wing it" and pins to mark where the buttons should be once it's assembled (and fingers crossed it works out ok!).

It’s quite frequent that I can go a year without cutting my hair but that does mean I didn’t have it cut before lockdown last year, it was about 9 months as we went into lockdown. I did get my hair cut during the break in summer but it was a new hairdresser and she was scared to take too k in off the length, despite me telling her my hair grows fast, I’m not that bothered if she messes it up as I was still working from home/I usually wear it up anyway. So it does mean I’m not getting as much time out of my cut as I might usually!

I had a weird dream last night, which in itself isn’t that uncommon with me but does involve yarn which is why I’m sharing. DH had gone away for the weekend and someone had broken into the house and was trying to steal the puppy. I’d managed to sneak down stairs and hit them over the head with the fire poker. I then decided to tie them up with what I had to hand, which as it turns out was yarn. So I’ve grabbed a couple of balls of yarn, dragged the guy to the oven (which is 1m from the puppy) and tied his hands to the grill, tied some yarn round his midriff to the oven door and then tied the recycling box to his feet. The thinking behind this was that he wouldn’t be able to kick me if he woke up. The police turn up and look at me a bit and at this guy tied up with yarn to my oven. In my chat with the police about what happened, I’m fixated that I’ve had to use my yarn and I had plans for that yarn! I told DH about my weird dream and he said “yep, I can see you doing that”

@CrochetBug I made the same mistake with the cotton light but it's only to practise really! And the turquoise is the one I wished to be more green but it is a really nice colour!

@InTheNightWeWillWish that dream is hilarious 😂

Brilliant dream, @InTheNightWeWillWish! I am famous in my family for having unbelievably boring dreams.

That's so funny InTheNightWeWillWish

I’ve finished my Easter things for the care home we volunteered at before lockdown. They wanted a few things for their raffle so they can do some activities when lockdown is over. One of the favourite activities for the residents was to go to Sainsbury’s followed by the pub. When they told us that it seemed very sweet that the residents most wanted a trip to Sainsbury’s and the pub. Now, I would probably give my right arm to walk round Sainsbury’s, just lingering in the home section, having a browse through Argos, then go to the pub. I originally planned the bunny Garland to be used in the home as a decoration but it might not be long enough. I’ll let the staff decide when I drop it off tomorrow!

And with that, I’m down to two WIPs

Left side is done! I cba to stand up to take a pic though 🙈 Funnily enough, the right side is written properly

I'm just debating with myself whether the ball of black dk I have will be enough, doubled up, for the strips on the border rows, or whether to order a ball of aran. I'm off to bed very soon so need to be quick deciding!

I'm expecting to have 2 full balls of the cream aran left over - I haven't even used 4 full ones yet and the pattern called for 11, for the XL/XXL size I decided to do in the end! I bought 9, having originally planned the M/L size Unless, of course, sleeves are massively deceptive and EAT yarn like it's going out of fashion 🤷‍♀️

@InTheNightWeWillWish they are absolutely lovely! well done you! such a lovely thing to do too!

@lucysmam I always find I never use the amount of yarn a pattern calls for, I used to think it was me doing something wrong

Well done for finishing the left-hand side, @lucysmam! And @InTheNightWeWillWish - what a lovely thing you did!

I'm counting the days until the non-essential shops are back open! I can't remember if I already mentioned, but there's a really lovely-looking wool shop in Lancaster (about 25 mins away for me) which I've been following on FB and really want to go to in person. I don't go to Lancaster that often, but I've got an extra reason now!

@lazylinguist I can't wait to go to my local fabric/wool shop! Before, I only ever went there to buy fabric for my sewing projects, it's been closed since I've been into crochet so I can't wait to look at the selection they have! Not long now

We have no decent yarn shops locally. Which is ridiculous as I live in the biggest town in England. We have a hobby craft, but they aren't exciting.

My WW order has shipped . No idea why the items are still showing in my online basket but I've stopped worrying now they are on their way.

How's everyone's KAL going? Mum is on her 2nd one, I've lost a needle somehow so have ground to a halt

I'm going soooo slowly with my KAL! It's partly because I'm also still working on my extended CAL, but mostly because I'm slow and not spending enough time knitting. I'm sort of on Easter holidays already (dh and dc don't break until Thurs, but some of my schools broke up on Friday) so I must let myself sit down and knit/crochet more. I feel guilty doing that while they're all working hard at school though! I also have my next job application to do!

I had a KAL binge yesterday so I’ve finished the front of the cushion. I think I’ll change the back to a button fastening rather than a zip.

That's beautiful, @NiceCardigan - I love the colour!

Thats a gorgeous colour @NiceCardigan
Ive finished the front and also going to do a button back. I really dont think i would make a good job of a zip.

I just had some fantastic news, my lovely dd is going to graduate this year and she has been offered her first choice postgraduate job , and she is on her way home. I havent seen her since NY

That’s great news @bruffin. We are meeting DS for a walk and a coffee on Easter Monday. I’m really looking forward to it as we haven’t seen him for three months.

I'm wondering about a button back too. I hate sewing and I've never put a zip in anything before! Neither have I knitted anything with buttonholes, but it can't be that hard, right...?

Awww that's lovely about your dd, @bruffin - what fantastic news, especially in these tricky times employment-wise.

My dd has been awaiting her mock GCSE results (which are a bit more than mocks really of course, because they'll be used to decide the teacher-assessed grades). She’s a bit anti-school and often comes home grumpy, but has just bounced in and told me in astonishment that she's got over 80% in her first 3 results!

Congratulations to @lazylinguist DD

Button holes arent that difficult , there are quite a few tutorials on line