I have so much to write about as its been a busy old week, and a very eventful one too.  Its going to take several posts though to cover it all, so this one is just the opener.  

I’ve spent the last week in Scotland with my family, awaiting the arrival of a new baby (more soon) and its been very, very cold and a bit snowy.  Fortunately we didnt experience the severe snowy weather that some areas had this week.  However, I live as a ’soft southerner’ (their words, not mine) now so I found it very cold.  Now I’m back home in Manchester, not a snowflake in site and I’ve got a cold – but my own bed will make it a lot better I’m sure.

I spent the first half of the week with my sister and her family and loved just hanging around with them, taking the kids to school, family mealtimes, homework, cbeebies etc. 

My sister has a lovely new coat and when we were out shopping she spotted a yarn, Patons Smoothie in Red Mix which matched it so I got roped into making her a scarf, in the same style I made for my niece and her cousins earlier in the year.  Its a pattern from The Happy Hooker  book and is a bit of a staple pattern for me.  I completed it in one evening so it is definitely a quick and easy project.

This shade is Red Mix, but I’ve called it Blood Orange as I think that’s exactly what its like, not quite orange and not quite red.  There’s also a little bit of steel grey, plum and coral in there too.  The pictures may not do the colour justice I’m afraid!

Here’s the end result

Being as critical as I am of my own work I feel obliged to point out my own mistakes!  My sister insists she cant see them, and that they don’t matter, but I know they’re there.  Are you like that?  Do you look at the things you’ve made and look for the mistakes?  Anyway, after the first row we decided the scarf wasn’t long enough so there’s an ‘extension’ which is only noticeable in the middle of one row, but it is there.  That’s one of the things that’s so great about crochet though, you can add on with great ease.  Also, I ran out of yarn about 12 shell loops from the end!  Luckily I’m using the same yarn for another project (details soon) but from a different dye lot.  The shade difference is very subtle, but its there!

Despite its faults my sister is delighted with the result and it has been much admired by her firends.  Orders taken girls!!!

Just one final thing for now… I LOVE LOVE LOVE Patons Smoothie and I’ve used it for quite a few things recently – its great for crochet for so many reasons.  I think it deserves a post all of its own, so watch this space.

Happy New Year to you!  I hope 2010 brings you good times, good health and lots and lots of craftiness.  Those are the things I dream of for the year ahead anyway!

I’ve had a busy couple of weeks with my birthday, Christmas, New Year, visiting family  and lots and lots of snow! I spent Christmas at home with Caveman then we went off to Scotland to visit our respective families and most importantly see my nephews and niece.  If there was one thing would make me move back to Scotland it would be them.

The weather was a real challenge, with near knee deep snow in places, frozen roads and sub zero temperatures at all times. The coldest I was out in was -9°c at 9pm one evening, so I can only guess how cold it got in the middle of the night.  Brrrrrrrrrrrr…

And now that the gifts I have made have been given I can share what I’ve been working on for the past few month or so:

A teal / green curly wurly scarf for Rhona:

 A flowery scarf for Jemma (a fellow crocheter):

 Button heart for Rhona:

Spiral brooches for a few people, in different colours:

A ‘made it up as I went along’ bag for Lucy (age 5 ¾):

with a sherbet scarf to match:

A butterfly hair clip holder for Lucy:

The sherbet and flower scarves are variations of patterns from my favourite crochet book The Happy Hooker, about which I have lots to write at a later date.

I hope all your crafted gifts were well received, and maybe you even received some yourself too.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the Dr Who Tom Baker scarf I knitted for Caveman.  We met 2 years ago next month and I knitted it for our first Christmas together.  As you can imagine from the timescales of October to Christmas I started knitting it pretty soon after we met to get it finished in time!  In hindsight that was a pretty tall order and perhaps just a bit presumptuous in a new relationship!  But here we are still so I can tell the story with a smile!

Anyway, I wanted to share the pattern I developed for the scarf.  Caveman is a massive fan of Dr Who and Tom Baker was his favourite.  I did lots and lots of research, looking at pictures, colours, film etc and developed this pattern.  I used Sirdar Country Style yarn which I have found in the past to be a very standard double knit and stable and easy to knit with, using 4mm needles.  I also have a very standard and even tension, which does help.

Here are the colours and rows you will need to knit.  (Note that the inch / cm measurements vary slightly from each other just because of rounding)

Changing colour every few rows became a bit of a pain at times so I’d recommend you sew in ends as you go along.  Needless to say I didn’t!!

When all the knitting is done make tassels in each shade to finish about 6inches long each.

I have tried to find the ball bands from the yarn I used to give details of shades but just can’t track them down, although I am sure I kept them.  If they turn up I will blog details.  I’ve given the rough type of colour above and the pictures may help.

My final tip: if you are knitting this in secret for your beloved find a good excuse for the amount of time you will need to spend at home knitting.  They may become suspicious if you say you spent the evening knitting and have nothing to show for it until you present them with the fruits of your labour.

I’ve been putting my new-found crochet skills to good use and completed my first project.  My Curly Wurly Scarf is a variation of lots of twisted crochet items I’ve seen and developed to form this pink and grey scrummy scarf just for me!

So here’s how it came about:

Materials:

Pink Double knitting: not very much, enough for foundation chain and one double crochet row

Grey Double knitting: not very much, enough for 2 double crochet rows

Pink/Cream/Grey: I needed just over one ball but would probably make scarf a little shorter next time and use just one ball.  I used Sirdar Crofter DK Fair Isle

Make foundation chain, to length you want scarf, in pink (mine was 72inches but would probably go a bit shorter next time)

Row 1: 1 turning chain, then start dc in 2nd chain and dc in each chain of foundation chain, turn

Row 2: Join grey. 1 turning chain, then start dc in 2nd chain and dc in each dc, turn

Row 3: Join Fair Isle. 3 turning chain (counts as 1tr), 2tr into same place, then 3tr into every dc, turn (I did try just 2tr into each dc but found in this yarn it didn’t create any twist)

Row 4:  4 turning chain (counts as 1dtr), 1 dtr into same place, then 2dtr into each tr, turn

Row 5: Join grey. 1 turning chain, then start dc in 2nd chain and dc in each dtr, fasten off.

That’s it!  A curly wurly scarf!!  I have lots of ideas on curly wurly colour combinations so there may well be more.  It was fairly quick to make, although row 4 took quite a while to complete.

I am delighted with the result of this and look forward to wearing it with lovely grey woolies this winter!