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

@lazylinguist

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!

I don’t live in the UK (just outside) this is our second week out of lockdown and I’ve already been to one of our local craft shops, it’s lovely but I’m really looking forward to being able to come to the UK and go to a craft shop there! Even when it’s the same yarns as back home, it’s lovely being able to buy something and know you bought it on holiday! I went to a lovely yarn shop / animal sanctuary a couple of years ago, haven’t ended up using the yarn yet tho

Well done to your DDs @bruffin and @lazylinguist

I decided to organise the cupboard. Big mistake I need more boxes. Mum said she'll take me to the range tomorrow to pick up a couple. I've got a whole bag of lableless yarn, which I need to work out what it is. On the plus side I had loads of lovely stuff that I forgot about. Lots of plans of what I can make

I still have my Mother's Day vouchers to spend - dd2 keeps reminding me

I'm very tempted by the 3d squares book I've seen, or the Sophie's Universe book, or the dragons and unicorns one.

Do any of you have any other pattern books you really like?

OMG... squeeeeeeeeeeeee
I'll take some proper photos later when I'm not just out of the bath

@lucysmam I don't really use books, I've got a crochet doll one, and one of flowers but rarely get them out because it just seems so much easier to use my phone and the row counter app. That way I can keep count of where I am in a pattern as well.
The Works have some books so you could look there? Or if you like making amigurumi the Edwards Menagerie are meant be good. (No idea how to spell menagerie)

Some lovely colours in your delivery CrochetBug. I particularly like the orange in the front bag & the pink in the one above that.

I get what you mean about the books; I think that's why I haven't actually bought one yet. In my head I know they're unlikely to get loads of use but they're nice to browse.

I love this crochet squares book, @lucysmam. It's got hundreds of different squares, ranging from quite plain to very fancy, rated by difficulty level, and lots of suggested designs of how to combine squares into a blanket or other things.

Omg @CrochetBug how bloomin exciting  I'm excited for you haha! you must be jumping with joy! do you have any projects in mind for any of it or?

@lucysmam I got both Pica Pau books by Yan Schenkel (thanks to @tizwozliz) and I absolutely love them! they're such lovely books and I'm currently making an elephant out of one of them! They seem to be cheaper on Amazon!

The bags have got another layer of yarn behind what you can see, I'll take it all out later after mum has been and gone.

Some of it is for a baby cardigan in Tunisian crochet. Some for a blanket my friend has asked me to make. Most of the rest I have a few blankets I want to make for my shop.
Anything left after that we will see.
The Hayfield bonus feels nice and soft which is good as that's mostly what I ordered.

Wow @CrochetBug - looking forward to full pics!

lucysmam I’ve got the book that lazy linked and I agree it’s a nice book. I’ve not made anything from it yet but I like the various combinations and the different blankets all from granny squares. Obviously with granny squares you have sewing up though I’m not sure what you meant by the dragons and unicorns book. I’ve got a fairytale blankets book which I’m making a dragon blanket from at the moment (also has unicorn blankets). I think your dds might be older than the age she creates for but the dragon so far seems easy enough to expand for teens or adults. I imagine it’ll also be easier if you have your dds there to measure against them. I’m making a blanket for my friend’s little boy. I asked how tall he was and was told ‘mid-thigh’ but she’s several inches taller than me and finds long leg too short. I have the opposite problem and often short leg is too long so I’m trying to guess the height of a 3 year old against my stumpy little legs!

crochetbug wow, some lovely colours in there. Have they all got projects assigned to them?

Oh lovely @CrochetBug I didn't realise you had a shop!

Never mind a shop - I'm jealous that @CrochetBug has a cupboard! I keep trying to think of a cupboard I can commandeer in my house... The cupboard under the stairs would be perfect but it's already full of stuff!

@lazylinguist I know what you mean whoever built my house was a moron, we literally have no built in storage in the house, we have one tiny cupboard which stores all of our shoes/coats so I can't utilise that one for yarn.. I used to have my own craft room but DS is nearly at the age to go in his own room so I'll have to tuck all my yarn in any nook and cranny I can find

Looks like this is the weather @FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack encouraged by finishing off her jumpers, thanks again :-)

I've not been doing much crochet at all lately, life got in the way a bit. I picked up some cheap plastic eggs in tesco though and crocheted covers for them which was a nice way to use up some left over yarns.

Re: book recommendations - for amigurumi I generally prefer single author books rather than a compilation of patterns from different pattern designers. Other than the pica pau books already mentioned, I really like the books by Mari-Liis Lille (Cuddly Amigurumi Toys, Loveable Amigurumi Toys and Magical Amigurumi Toys). I'm not personally a fan of the Edwards Menagerie Books - I've only ever completed one pattern from mine, and I don't like the format (e.g. there is a generic body that a lot of the patterns use and you'll have to skip to the front to find that, then just do first 20 rows then skip back to the pattern page to find the next bit, I often photocopy a pattern from a book if I'm going away and it's not straightforward to do that.)

Generally I find buying books fairly good value in comparison to individual patterns, often it's cheaper than buying 2 patterns but you get 15 or so

I don't have a shop yet, I have half a shop. Just trying to make enough things to open it.
I have plans for most if it, although there's a bit of "do I make that one or that one" going on.

I've just bought 3 more boxes to store yarn. That gives me 5, which is 1 per 'weight'. Hopefully that will make it easier to know what I have

Thanks for the book recommendations; I'll have a look at them shortly, with a glass of wine, in the garden.

We've tidied up out there today & it looks much better. The bottom fell out of the burning bin though which is a pita as we've a large pile waiting to be burned & a cabinet underneath it all that I want to see if I can salvage (sp?). If I can, that's going to go at the top of the stairs & the shelf unit that's there will become yarn storage.

Crochet Errol has his wings now to finish him off. Nowhere near as pretty as the real thing but dd2 is happy with him.

Tiz Quick, make the most of it, I've picked up my last remaining WIP, a t-shirt in lace weight with eyelets. It'll snow now those eggs are beautiful!

CrochetBug wow, that's some box! Love that green and the cream together!

So this is about £70 worth. Mum spent £20 and took her yarn home, and I bought some hooks and needles too.

The bottom row is all Stylecraft Aran and its for a baby blanket along with some yellow and a darker blue that I already have.
The white and the some of the brighter ones are for a baby cardigan.
The others are for about eleventy billion things that I need to narrow down to however many I can make with that much yarn.

@CrochetBug that's so pleasing to look at 😍😍 such lovely colours! lucky lady!

I want a wool mountain 😂 so jealous

Can't wait to see how you get on with the tunisian 😁😁

@CrochetBug

So this is about £70 worth. Mum spent £20 and took her yarn home, and I bought some hooks and needles too.

The bottom row is all Stylecraft Aran and its for a baby blanket along with some yellow and a darker blue that I already have.
The white and the some of the brighter ones are for a baby cardigan.
The others are for about eleventy billion things that I need to narrow down to however many I can make with that much yarn.

Very aesthetically pleasing!

This popped up on my Facebook memories today, my first lockdown crochet project!

@tizwozliz we've got a couple of those lying around somewhere.
I found a nicer pattern though and made those instead.

Tunisian crochet seems to be working out well. Although starting with an 'intermediate' level project was interesting

@CrochetBug was it you who had started the Dream Catcher shrug cardi? How's it looking IRL? I'm considering starting it with the yarn cakes I bought with my birthday money.

You've some really nice colours in that wool mountain. The brighter ones really appeal to me!

I was planning to finish the right front panel of the cardi today then block it but dd2 has decided we're going for a wander to the local park instead 🙄 & starting growing sugar crystals again - the last lot didn't actually grow 🤷‍♀️