What I made, by Sharon

 As mentioned, after ten days in Queensland I came back for a week, and now I'm heading off to Geelong for a crafting retreat. I decided not to go back to work - it was only four days (Friday is a football related public holiday and Monday was Yom Kippur), so I figured just take the full three weeks. As well as going away and my usual activities (except no Pole, since I have a slightly torn tricep), I have spent my time engaging in some rather random crafting pursuits. I think we have to wear name tags at the retreat, so i made some out of polymer clay. I think they are pretty cute, particularly the pink one. I finished the crotchet baby jumper out of handspun: It's cute and functional, although I really struggled with the stitch count on the sleeves. At some point I'll crotchet a matching hat. I finished the spinning project I was working on - 185 grams and 417 metres of a light DK weight yarn. I'm probably going to use it as the contract colour for an argyle cardigan....

 In 2011 I made my mother-in-law a tea cosy . She drinks even more tea than we do, so it's had a lot of hard service.  You can't see it well in this picture, but the openings are stained with tea and starting to fall apart. I did attempt a new one for her in 2020, but that disappeared into history. So, when word came to me that she needed a new cosy, I got out my hook and got to it. I found t his basic pattern  and adapted it for her smaller pot. I can't explain what I did, it's crotchet and I free formed it.  I used left overs (of course) and fuzzy alpaca. I think it's quite ugly, but it fits her odd shaped tea pot well, and she seems to like it, which is the point.  I find making tea cosies very satisfying. They have a great return for effort, perform a useful function, are a fun crotchet project and make tea so much better.                                

 In 2021 I ran " the dishcloth experiment " to see if we liked crotcheted cotton dishcloths. We discovered that we did - and that we liked medium sized quite thick ones. We used my original crop every-day for nearly 3 years. They are now a bit sad - the colour has faded, some have holes and the cotton has gone weirdly stiff.  So I decided to make some new ones. These two are based on the gingerbread dishcloth pattern. It's got a lovely thick texture and nobbles. This one is the diagonal dishcloth, and proves that I still don't know where the edge of a crotchet row is! I chucked some trebles in the corner and it's fine - for a dishcloth. I've very happy with these, and even more happy with not having to buy sponges that always end up full of food and smelling weird.

Well final for the moment anyway! I pulled out my fancy blocking device to block some squares I knit for a blanket for April, who is moving away.  While I had it out, I decided to have a look at my crotchet squares. I've realised that  my ideal blanket will be organised in terms of colour, and some of these are very much "learning squares". Still, I blocked them and laid them out. I realised I need one more of the larger size to make up the centre of the blanket.  and then maybe two more of the smaller size. Or maybe nine more to make it actually symmetrical. Anyway I'm going to crotchet these together, put a border around it and then I'll have a finished blanket, instead of a pile of random squares.  Look how much flatter, neater and better they look after blocking. It really is magic.

Katherine is getting married and, as is the tradition of the Richmond Knitters, we are making her a blanket. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read this blog - and she knows in general terms about the project - she gave Katie the quiet word that she would like us to all choose our own square design and use yarn from our stashes. I've got swancho left-overs that I have been saving for the right project, and this seemed like the right project. I started by crocheting a nice, pretty square, and then I found I could not stop. So far I've made 4 squares - 3 from Swancho left-overs, and one from my handspun. It's probably time to stop, but although I'm more than happy (and have the yarn to) make a couple more if they are required. I could always go back to crocheting my own blanket. 

This was supposed to be a post about a hat I finished and a crotchet square. Here the hat. I dyed the yarn and I knit the smallest size of Sockhead for width and the medium for length and I love it.  And that all I have to say about that. The crotchet on the other hand... I made the Asterales square by Shelly Husband. I thought it might be nice to have a fancy, larger central square for my crotchet blanket. When it was finished it seems a bit lumpy. So I steamed blocked it, and it was magic. Look how much better it looks. So then i thought I would steam block some of my other squares. I know about the magic of blocking, but this is next level. It can't save a "square" that isn't actually square, but it can fix wonky edge. I also got to use my fancy crotchet blocker thing I bought when I was bored a couple of months ago. While I was playing I put together all my squares. There are 64. Considering how much time I feel like I spend crocheting, I thought there would be ...

  I just got out of COVID isolation, and it is so good to be back in the world. That said, I was lucky - although i was quite tired, I felt more like I had a (very) bad cold than anything worse. I was coughing and snuffly, but I didn't have brain-fog or exhaustion. And that meant i could indulge in some of my favourite things - reading, crocheting and knitting. I tested positive on Saturday night, and I'd just cast on the toe of a toe-up test sock by Kat . It used some very clever and simple techniques, and I really enjoyed knitting it this pretty Stranded-in-Oz yarn. It was a very relaxing knit. The pattern should come out in July and I recommend it.  When I wanted something that used a little more of my brain power, I crocheted squares from Granny Square Flair. I did 9 different squares. So fun and I learnt so much. I also finished the final square from Granny Square Academy. Now I have 30 squares done from there, and have realised that I Iike variety in my ...

 I was sick last week, with the terrible cold that is going around and then on Saturday night I tested positive to COVID. I'm basically fine, it's like a very bad cold and has just moved into a cough. I'm basically off work, just checking in with occasional emails and a couple of important meetings. This has given me plenty of time for reading and crafting and drinking tea. I'm reading Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.   Its a big, chunky meaty novel, which is perfect for curling up on the couch and really getting into. The perfect book for this time. After picking up the crotchet hook again last week  it has been a pleasure to have the time to crotchet. I'm again  working from Granny Square Flair , and have progressed to some of the "moderate" squares.  And I'm knitting a test sock for Kat . It's a fairly straightforward sock, which makes a good break from the more mentally challenging crotchet. And that's what I'm knitting, hooking and readin...

 A couple of weeks ago Chris Winediva suggested that the Richmond Knitters crochet squares, put together a blanket and donate it to Pam from the yarn shop ZigoZago , to raffle for charity. We took the idea with enthusiasm. The decision was to knit any squares we liked from Shelly Husband's Granny Square Academy or Granny Square Flair. Very convenient for me, since I had just finished working my way through granny Square Academy, and was all ready to crochet from Granny Square Flair. These squares were a lot of fun. I picked my favourites, and the simplest, from the 50 squares in the book. I've learnt a lot about  how squares are constructed and the marvelous things that can be done within a 14cm square. Now I've challenged myself to go on with my own blanket, maybe progressing to some of the more advanced squares in the book. I will also post a picture of the finished blanket here, once we have collected all the squares and put it together as a blanket.  ...

I got sick on Sunday - sore throat, headache,  cough, very tired. I did a RAT and it was negative, but I went and got a PCR, because I thought it might be the spicy cough. it wasn't, just a big standard very bad cold. It did mean I've been off work all week, and even though I've felt pretty cruddy I was not too sick to read and knit.  I'm reading the review book Drunk on All Your Strange New Words   by Eddie Robson. It's a murder mystery set mainly in a near future New York featuring aliens and translators  and it's really good. the aliens aren't the point, they are just part of the story. it's engaging and well written and the perfect thing to bury myself in while I   , 'm sick and it's raining. I have been knitting away on my cardigan, and will probably get the yoke finished today. Then it's just the button-band to go. It's an enjoyable knit, but now I'm at the "I hope it fits" stage of the process. I have also been croche...

You may have noticed I haven't talked about crotchet here since the fourth of March . I wish it was because I was quietly working away, building my blanket square by square, bu it's really not. I enjoy crochet because each stitch is slightly different and, at least for me tight now in my development, I have to pay at least some attention to what I am doing. so it is a thoroughly "stay at home" business.  But, at some point in the last six weeks I picked out a random braid of rainbow fibre and started spinning. I spin at home, so it occupies the same time a crochet would but a very different headspace. Add to that all the holidays , nightsout and weekends away we've been having and lets just say - I picked up my hook the other evening and had to remind myself which stitch is which. I'm always glad that knitting only has two stitches! Still, I might refocus. I'm probably half way to having enough squares for a blanket, and I ordered a crochet blocker from E...

 I bought 5 lovely shades of blue cotton to crochet the Granny Square Academy patterns. OK that a bit of a fib, I bought four lovey shades, and the one on the bottom left, which is a bit ... NQR.  Anyway, the other day I was in Lincraft, which is a "big box craft store". Much of what they sell is rubbish, but I pop in on my way to coffee, because it's a nice break from work. And they had self stripping cotton in teal. I bought a ball. The idea was that it will live at work, so that I don't need to drag my larger knitting  projects around on days when I may well not get a chance to knit anyway. That was the idea, but I've already managed to knit  7 of the Granny Squares from The Granny Square Academy.  I'm knitting at lunch instead of reading. I just can't stop. There is something so addictive about self striping yarn, and something so soothing about crochet. Particularly because Shelly Husband's instructions are so clear and empowering. I feel lik...

At some point every year I get the urge to crochet. It might be a baby garment, an amagurimi, or a scrappy baby blanket, but it seems to happen every year.  Late last year Louisa mentioned Granny Square Academy, a whole programme to teach 10 different granny squares, and all the tips and tricks you might need.  I bought 5 shades of Bendigo cotton in different shades of blue, an ergonomic crotchet hook, and the workbook. I started it last week, and have done the first two squares, 3 times each.  I struggled a little with the end of the rounds, so some of my early squares are a little ... not square, but I'm sure they will be fine when they are blocked. I've already learnt a lot, including some really basic things like which part of the stitch to crotchet into, and some not so basic things, like how to read a crochet chart.  Also how to spell crochet, since my instinct is always to spell it crotchet - like the musical note. I really am starting from basics!

  Like what feels like everyone else, I'm obsessed with Wordle . If you haven't come across it yet, it's a word game where you have 6 guesses to work out a five letter word. There is one game a day, launched at midnight. I started playing two and a half weeks ago, and so did Leon. When I saw that Ham and Eggs had released a c rochet pattern to make a Wordle , i couldn't resist.  I based the pattern off Leon's Wordle 215. Like the game itself, it was a pleasant, low-stakes whimsical thing to do. 

I had a gap between review books (nothing due until September!) and I decided to read the oldest - and longest - book on  my Kindle , The Far Pavilions   by MM Kaye, which I bought in December 2020, so I guess the turnover on my Kindle isn't as slow as I thought it was.  I bought it when it was the Kindle Daily Deal. But the reason I bought it was because, back in the old days, before Kindles, when I used to buy most of my books second-hand from op-shops, I had a copy of this. It was about 2006, and I lived alone in a little one-bedder, and I used a bookshelf to create visual separation between the doorway and the living room, and this book sat there, unread. It had a lurid cover, the same, or similar to the one above.  At some point I got rid of it, still unread. I hesitated to start it, because it's 950 pages long, and because I was worried it would be full of distasteful colonialism. It's fine, and asks the relevant questions (what right do English peopl...