I haven’t posted anything in such a long time, Christmas was so busy and I haven’t been at my computer! As such, I thought I’d give a quick run down on what I’ve been up to.
Christmas was fantastic as always, I received some wonderful presents and enjoyed some good old fashioned family time. One of my presents was a lovely crochet book by Kerry Lord, Edward’s Menagerie. It has some really cute patterns in that I can’t wait to make, in particular Hank the dorset down sheep. He’s absolutely beautiful. The book is really well put together, and includes sweet back stories on all of Kerry’s characters. If you click on the book cover below it will take you to her website where you can see the list of animals included in the book.
I also received some fibre goodies, two new bobbins for my spinning wheel, dark brown Wensleydale fibre that I’m thinking of carding with alpaca to knit into a shawl, and a finishing brush for my carder. The finishing brush has helped me to make even softer batts, and pack quite a bit more onto the drum of my carder. Depending on the fibre I’m using I can get between 75 and 100g on there now. I spent quite a few days over the holiday carding up batts that I would eventually like to sell on Etsy. I have 6 or 7 carded up but would like to have more of a selection before I open the online store. Watch this space! Here are a few of the batts I’ve been carding, there’s all sorts of yummy fibre and goodies packed into them, merino, alpaca, shetland, sari silk waste, angelina to name but a few!
I have also spent a lot of time over the break getting back into my crocheting. Since learning to knit I have to admit that has become my chosen form of creating with yarn, but there are a few things that I think crochet is wonderful for, and I would always go for my hooks instead of needles to make children’s toys as the stitches are that much denser and hold together better over time. I also love the look of granny squares, and having not made any since I finished off my double bed spread size blanket over a year ago I thought it was about time to make some more! I’m making another large bed cover, this time in turquoise, cream, pink and dark grey. I’m using Drops Andes yarn which is fantastic to work with, it’s a mix of 65% wool and 35% alpaca which means it’s super soft. As always, Drops Andes is very reasonably priced, and even more so if you’re lucky to get some in the sales which is where I purchased mine. Wool Warehouse had a Drops yarn sale which ended on December 31st, so I spent my Christmas money on what I love most, yarn! The image below doesn’t really give you a sense of scale but the 4 completed squares across the top are 12.5 inches across, and the finished blanket will be 4 x 4 of these large granny squares. As you can see I’m almost halfway done, and I’ve only been making them for just over a week! The chunky nature of the yarn and the hook size have made my grannies squares are thick, cosy and scrummy!
That’s all from me for now! I will try and be much better at posting all my makings this year! x
alwaysfibre 