Knit, Crochet and Natter 7: the School of Stitchcraft and Wizardry

[lazylinguist]

A thread for woolly crafters of all kinds, from beginner level to advanced sorcery!

Previous thread here

Thank you @InTheNightWeWillWish. It's the guest with COVID not me. But my Christmas present was him cooking the dinner, so I've missed out there!

Lol at the crochet presents. People always want to buy me knitting related presents too.

Love the parrot in particular @DeadButDelicious

@InTheNightWeWillWish

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you’re all having a lovely day.

Everyone is terribly excited that I’ve started to crochet as it means they can actually find things to buy me now! I’ve got a neck, some Tunisian crochet hooks, a bag, some books including Edwards menagerie, an amigurumi fairytale book and the animal slippers book with sophs. Of course I’ve been very good this year, hardly swore at my colleagues (mostly because I worked from home ) so treated myself to some yarn that’ll turn up during the week. DH also bought this mug! I think he has more faith in my crochet skills than I do

Sorry you’ve got a positive Covid test Meryl. Hopefully you don’t feel too awful. Has that scuppered any plans?

Dead I love the hypbo toad. Missing the point entirely but is Mr Blobby back or is your DD just retro? I thought Mr Blobby disappeared when I was young.

He's in panto this year but I am entirely responsible, I played her the Mr Blobby song and an obsession was born 😂. She's 5 so prime age for loving that pink and yellow Bugger!

@MerylSqueak that's a bit rubbish. I guess he owes you a meal when he's better!

I got this rather beautiful ball of sock yarn from my mum! I'll never lose my feet with socks this bright

crochetbug that yarn is lovely!

Ooh that's lovely CrochetBug! Do you have a pattern in mind for it?

I keep stroking it I haven't picked a pattern yet @lucysmam. Having yarn that was this expensive (I don't know how much it cost but have a rough idea) is such a treat that I needs to be something special!

Crafting related presents sound awesome Lovely yarn CrochetBug! It's such beautiful colours!

Oh no Meryl I feel your pain, I had to tell my DM we weren't going to hers tomorrow because my brother with a vomiting bug was there today and will be back tomorrow...

Belated Merry Christmas everyone - I was in a house with pretty much non-existent internet access yesterday!

Sorry for those of you whose Christmas plans have been messed about by covid . We're fine for Christmas itself, but our NY is a bit in limbo, as my nephew tested positive. He'll theoretically be ok to come by 30th but only if he's testing negative and none of the rest of them have caught it!

Oooooooh @CrochetBug that yarn is gorgeous! Such lovely bright colours 😍

I hope you're all having a nice post Christmas lull. I'm sorry your Christmas plans were ruined @FlaviaAlbiaWantsLangClegBack and I hope you do get your New Year's plans @crazyjinglist.

Gorgeous colours @CrochetBug and it looks lovely and squishy.

I cast on my Umaro blanket yesterday. It's going to be a long knit! I'm not sure how I am going to manage it when it gets big. It's for our double bed.

I used my new neck light which I can thoroughly recommend for any sort of close reading or work. It's this one

Neck lights are great. Dh calls minemy boob light

I'm in the mood for starting another project! My only current WIP is ds' socks. I could start my fairisle hat, or the wrist warmers I was planning to make myself. Or something entirely different... At some point I also need to make my dsis one of those scrap yarn baskets which I promised her for Christmas/birthday. Her birthday isn't until May, but I am very slow at getting things done!

Hope you all had a good Christmas! We are on our way back up the rainy M6 towards home. A few days of healthy food and no booze before the NY festivities (if my dsis can come!).

Meet Albert (named by dd1). Finished him off this afternoon, ready for dd2's 12th birthday in the morning

Awww - Albert is lovely!

Great job on Albert @lucysmam your DD will love him!
I actually managed some crochet today, the green socks I gifted were very well received - so much so that the lady asked if I will make some for her DDs birthday in January! So I've nearly got one of the socks done today!

Albert looks like he has personality! He's cute!

Oh that's so lovely sophs, it's nice when gifts are appreciated!

I love your light Meryl I'm back to working on my black lace yoke ATM and that might be an eye saver. There's so little light at the moment it feels like I've got a window of a few hours to get a chance to knit it!

Decisions decisions lazy! I'd go for the hat for yourself, you might need it with the weather!

Meryl that’s the exact same beck light I got for Christmas too but I’ve not needed to use it yet. Good to know you think highly of it.

lucysmam Albert is lovely, I’m sure your DD will love him! And happy birthday to her for tomorrow.

sophs that’s great news. Hope it helps you find your crojo.

I’ve done the first 5 weeks of DD’s temperature blanket. I’m trying to do it as I go so I don’t have the crochet 365 days in one go because I know it’ll never get done otherwise. I’m also trying to maintain some sewing discipline and leave one week unsewn (the last week then I can tell which is the most recent). I’ve also been playing with my Tunisian crochet hooks and I’ve got a cowl on the go. I took the cowl with me today in the car while we went. The place we visited was 30-40 minutes away and DH asked why I was taking my crochet with me, how long did we think we were going to be out I explained it was still 60 mins of crochet that I could get done. As it was, we got stuck in traffic on the way home and so I was happily crocheting away and when DH complained he was bored of the traffic, I lifted my crochet and said I wasn’t .

Hello all - hope you've been enjoying some knitting and crochet in that gap between Christmas and NY!

The good news chez linguist is that everyone's tested negative, so my dsis and her family are en route to us today! So I won't get much craft time over the next few days. We often do a culinary theme when we're hosting each other, so we're doing a Japanese-themed few days. Dh does most of the cooking, but I'll be making a matcha cheesecake with blueberry swirls and also some sushi!

Uff! I typed out a post then managed to delete it 🙄

@crazyjinglist Japanese themed sounds fun! Dd1's enjoying cooking lately & a lot of what she's made has been oriental-ish.

I'm frustrating myself for a change trying to start these socks. Using a chain is gappy, and using their technique just isn't computing for me 🤷‍♀️ I wondered if anyone else has any tips up their sleeves? I'm considering just 16dc in a magic ring so I've actually started them 🤣

I've attached a pic of what's baffling my brain.

I haven't done much of anything. Being away from home for 2 days wiped me out!
Well other than frogging 10rows of the sleeve on my jumper because I'd made a mistake and it was annoying me, even though it wasn't noticeable
And stroking my lovely sock yarn

@lazylinguist we used to have "themed" evenings at my brothers house. They started as takeaway evenings but it started getting stupidly expensive so we changed to homemade. We did Chinese, Indian and then "comfort food". It was great.

@lucysmam I know what it's asking you to do, but can't explain it.
It's the foundation double stitch, but done in a circle.
Maybe look up foundation stitch on YouTube. Or just do normal DC in a magic ring. TBH I can't see the benefit of using the foundation stitch in this pattern. (It's usually done so you don't have to piss about with a chain).

Thanks @CrochetBug my brain just doesn't want to compute it in a circle 🤷‍♀️ I'll try again tonight, once with the chain, and once with the magic ring & then decide which to use. I have two balls of each colour so I could do them alongside each other, so will just see which I prefer. It's taken a rediculous amount of pissing about to get nowhere with them 🤣

@lucysmam Albert looks fab!

I'm currently crocheting a teddy bear for my daughter's first birthday. She's getting a play kitchen too (not crocheted ) and I enthusiastically told my husband I'll be crocheting fruit, veg and other food items to go with it. Maybe not...

Omg, I just do not think these socks are meant to be! I got three rounds into the first one...then forgot to replace stitch markers as I went, so lost track of where I was 🙄🤣

@StarfishDish you could just make food as you go along? A crocheted birthday cake with velcro-able slices would be fun! (Not to add any pressure at all 🙈). Or, start now for Christmas next year. You could have a reasonable selection by then, in between other stuff.

Not that I have several crochet food items pinned and no small children to make them for these days 🤔

Those socks look challenging @lucysmam!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas despite Covid. We are just about to get DD1 and her boyfriend from the airport so will be back to a full house for New Year. We have a local residents pass which means you can use the set down/pick up for a reduced price. You only get 15 minutes though so need to get the timing right!

Sounds stressful @NiceCardigan. I hope it all works out.

Yay for you @crazyjinglist. Have s great time.

@lucysmam @StarfishDish we had knitted food for DDS kitchen including the aforementioned cake and a full roast chicken dinner with detachable legs! It was fab.

@CrochetBug if it makes you feel any better about your jumper, I have knitted the first row of lace in my blanket twice now and it's still wrong. I don't think lace knitting and Christmas mix. People keep wanting to talk to me.

Hope everyone has a fab New Year's Eve. Mine will be making DDS birthday cake with her. Her birthday is tomorrow. 14! She wants to stay 13

The full roast dinner sounds ace Meryl!

Fingers crossed your timing's perfect NiceCardigan 🤞

I don't think we're doing much tonight - the girls want me to stay up with them . I'm going to while away an hour or two today re-writing my 'master list' for Christmas and inputting important things in my new diary/calendar. Oh, and washing...always more bloody washing to be done 🤔 I'm sure the neighbours must drop theirs in for me to do 🤣🙄