It's Crochet, Knit & Natter 9: So Many Projects, So Little Time. (Oh well - I almost made it rhyme!)

[Fairislefandango]

A thread for woolly crafters of all types and levels.
Previous thread here

Oh, I have a friend who had something like that, @Fairislefandango - it looks great and she got so much use from it!

@Fairislefandango I think ever since these threads were started you've been telling us you want to make one of those. I think you should bite the bullet and make one to show us also multicoloured sounds great, but I know you like more neutral so do you think you'd get much wear out of it?

I've got a pattern for a Shetland lacy one of thos I could take a picture of if you fancy it @Fairislefandango?

You are absolutely right on both counts, oh wise @sophs29 ! It's a false economy really, to make something that I'm less likely to wear. It's just that every time I think about buying yarn for a biggish project, my stash sits there mocking me .

Time to spend a little more of my not-yet-earned salary on some lovely neutral-coloured wool, I think. And maybe start another little project with some yarn from my stash too, to assuage my guilt!

Yes, I'd love a picture of your Shetland lacy one, @MerylSqueak - I'm not absolutely wedded to the one I posted. It's just the best one I found on Ravelry! Thank you!

I'm back in surprisingly hot Cumbria now, so I also need to get back to some spinning before I get rusty. Still got a bit of white BFL to spin and then plu with my last lot of colourful Corriedale, then the rest of that alpaca to deal with! I might as well make the most of my remaining holiday time before I'm too busy yo do anything but teacher stuff! Although I have two sets of guests coming to stay, back-to-back this coming week!

Has everyone still got boiling weather? It's supposed to cool down here from tomorrow, I think. Then back to the fairly standard Cumbria summer after that (17-19 degrees with regular rain!).

Well according to a random but timely post I just saw on Instagram..."In case nobody's told you yet today, you're beautiful and you deserve unlimited yarn". Not so sure about the beautiful part, but the yarn part I can definitely work with

I'm thinking of maybe Drops Puna if I go for the pattern I linked. All neutrals to choose from, and sounds lovely and light and warm. I love Drops yarn, but I've never used Puna. Has anyone else? It's 100% alpaca.

My favourite thing I ever knitted is in Puna : an old shale stitch shawl I made for a friend. It's a lovely yarn but I personally think it works better with a textured stitch. It holds shape really well and the scarf looks great after several years but I've never been happy with it in st ocking stitch.

Will look out the pattern a bit later.

It’s still boiling here (33 today) but we are forecast some rain next week. Fingers crossed we actually get rain! I’ve just been in hobby craft this morning stocking up on temperature blanket yarn and I saw some lovely fuchsia Cotton dk that I now really want. I’m sure I can find a pattern for it probably crochet rather than knitting.

Here's the picture @Fairislefandango I added the blue one too just in case. On second thoughts it might not be exactly what you want.

Blue one. This one is more like a cardi with wrappy bits

Thanks @MerylSqueak ! I like the first one better, with the tighter sleeves. I think on balance I still like the styling of my original one best though. Interesting what you say about the Puna - I might have another look at yarns!

Has anyone used Drops Sky? Quite fancy that.

So I bought the pattern, then chose 5 balls of Drops Sky in Pearl Grey Mix, which is a kind of beigey grey. And then in my irritation at YET AGAIN finding I didn't have the right length/size circular needles for the pattern (in spite of having a huge bag of them), I somehow accidentally added a set of interchangeable KnitPro Zings, even though none of the sets have the 50cm cable I need for the pattern, so I needed to buy a separate interchangeable 50cm cable In my defence, they were in the sale and reduced by £20!

I lay the blame for my extravagance entirely at the feet of @sophs29 for galvanising me into action by pointing out how long I've been banging on about making one of those sleeve scarf thingies.

😁😁😁 I'm excited to see how it looks @Fairislefandango also you'll have to let me know what the yarn is like, I've also eyed up Drops Sky before!

The Drops Sky looks really soft @Fairislefandango. I might be tempted when it turns autumnal!

I wanted something a bit fluffy and airy without being full-on hairy iyswim! It's hard to even think about wearing fluffy things right now - I'm looking forward to it being cooler!

Anyway... I'm still unpacking, but with the assistance of a nice, cold beer (gluten free due to my ongoing, irritating and as-yet undiagnosed stomach issues)! No knitting or spinning today - too hot!

Thunderstorms here at the moment! I hope that’s the hot weather broken.

I’ve used drops sky @Fairislefandango it’s so light and so soft, really lovely to wear.

We had some thunder and lightning last night too, plus some brief but heavy rain. Still feels pretty heavy and hot today though!
Glad to hear that about the Drops Sky,@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound - sounds like just what I was looking for!

It's still horribly hot and sticky here in London. We're forecast some drizzle today and tomorrow, and then apparently we'll need an Ark on Wednesday! Our biggest challenge is getting heat back out of the house. It takes days after a heatwave, because of all our lovely modern insulation! We can't even open the upstairs windows wide, because the idiot cats will just fling themselves out, despite having a perfectly good and safe catflap to use on the ground floor.

No further crochet for me over the weekend - I couldn't bear the idea of having yarn on my lap, and my fingers were way too sweaty anyway. We're away on holiday visiting family next week, so I think I will take it and try to crack on then. Though that is a whole other group of people to train not to talk to me while I am counting!

We had the opposite cat problem last night, @QuantumWeatherButterfly . Our little monster spent all night breaking into our bedroom through, variously, the skylight and both the windows, causing a very broken night's sleep! We normally only have the skylight open and he doesn't usually bother trying to get in, but I guess he fancied a bit of company after a week in the cattery! He is not a restful sleeping companion! <props eyes open>

I'm away with work for a week next week so thinking about a crochet project I can take with me that's not going to take up too much room. The correct thing to do would be to take a single colour and make up a load of hexagons for my 2021 temperature blanket rather than start something new. I'm not sure I want to do that though :-)

We have rain and storms forecast this evening, it's definitely more humid today so they better arrive and freshen things up.

I saw a very cute crochet project the other day @tizwozliz - little ammonite-shaped bags.

I managed to get two more squares joined into my bag last night - 7 down, 6 to go!

The main thing I am struggling with is working out which way round to hold the squares so the raised bit of the seam between the squares is consistently on the same side. I've managed to do it with some taking back involved, but not always with the 'nicest' sides of the squares all facing the same direction. I doubt anyone will notice, but something for me to work on all the same.

I'm vaguely wondering whether to take a second project with me when I'm away next week - but that might be overambitious, given I think the border and handles will be the hardest bit. I'll see what I can rustle up!

Those ammonite bags are cute, @Fairislefandango !

Oh dear. I went looking for what that second project might be, wondering if I'd pinned anything fun and forgotten about it, and found this poncho - which I would absolutely love. But - I don't have any suitable yarn, so I really ought to look for something else. Perhaps I'll have a dig through the Crochet Society beginners box I got for my birthday - there are definitely things in there that I haven't tackled yet.

The ammonite bags look great @Fairislefandango I’m tempted!

I really like the poncho @QuantumWeatherButterfly the colours are lovely. I’m not sure what to make for my next project I do quite like this cardigan www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/a-good-vintage-cardigan