Fun at Fibre East

Hot day but a great show, lots to see, and lots to spend your money on...

Saw a sheep shearing demonstration, and much more, from the guys at the Sheer Sheep Experience 

Tried my hand as spinning, both on a wheel and with a spindle (and came home with a  basic beginner's spindle!)  then bought some un-spun wool to try with it.

Saw lots and lots and lots of beautiful yarns, knitted, crocheted, woven items galore.

And bought some home with me, this is my stash from the show:

Note the hand-spun wool on the new spindle :)))  next job to make it up into something, watch this space.

Mandala Love

Made this from the pattern on Lucy's blog, is off in the post this weekend for the Yarndale event she is organising. Lucy's mandala

I love the colours, just scraps of what I had leftover in the acrylic I made my first two blankets out of, but together it reminds me of a stained glass window.  Lucy is right, they are addictive, I shall be making more for myself....

I followed Lucy's pattern except on the very last round instead of double crochet I made a narrow border by slip-stitching into the back of each stitch from the row below.  I like this finish with the stitches facing you on the the edge and have used it before.  

First crochet garment :)

I did it!  Crocheted and finished without too much pain.  Doris Chan short cardigan, from her book Everyday Crochet.

Modifications: extra row of pattern under the arms to give more room in the  arm hole, length is longer than the Mei Mei pattern, shorter than the Soft Serve, short sleeves and a different shell edging along the bottom and front edges.

It was too small when just off the hook  but I knew from my swatch it was going to stretch with blocking - and it has!

So happy!  Here it is, still blocking, more pictures when it is dry.

Vertical Stripe - finished

I haven't posted any pictures of the wip but but here it is finished already!  Started on 15th 

November, finished on 5th January it is my quickest blanket yet, but the pattern is so simple it is excellent TV crochet.

Facts:

8 colours, (shades 132, 140, 117, 142, 137, 118, 181, 149) Jarol Heritage dk yarn 100g balls, I bought two of each colour but didn't start the last two balls, total weight 1250g. Size 5mm hook.  It's 55% wool (not 30% like I thought) and 25% acrylic, 20% nylon so I am hoping it will wear and wash well.

Pattern - 204 stitches, 40 stripes, each made up of 3 rows of US half double (UK half treble) stitches, I think this is my favourite stitch.  It gives texture and thickness while growing quite quickly.  Two rounds of colour in the same stitch as a simple non-fussy border for my teenage son.  About 25,000 stitches in all ( scary!)

Size 150cm x 100cm  (that's about 5 by 3ft) so not massive but large enough to snuggle under.  

I used a foundation single crochet for the first time with this blanket and I think I will use it again.  It gives a neat foundation row, neater than my usual chain stitches anyway which can vary in size if I'm not careful, giving an uneven edge.

It's been a bit grey and rainy today so yet he pictures aren't great, the colours are closest in the first picture if not quite right in the the others. But here you are:

The finished granny blanket

Finally found time to take some pics, bit of a grey day but at least it isn't raining, for once.  We've had floods the past few weeks round here and never-ending rain.  Back to work today, and it was dry ... Typical!

Here's the stats:
64 granny squares, joined -as-you-go.  Total size 115cm square  (45 inches)
Yarn -same acrylic I used for the ripple, left over colours from the ripple plus a couple of new ones, pink and turquoise.  8 colours, 600g in total.

I made all the squares up to the last round, then joined them using the colour of the second round one row of squares at a time.  Bordered with a simple shell edging  ie (US) 5DC, Skip 2, SC, Skip 2 repeated

It has seen some use and has kept its shape and washed well.  I am a little disappointed it has gone a bit flat. The blanket I'm working on now is 30% wool so I will be interested to see if it keeps its bounce.

And just cos they are so cute, here's a picture of the chickens we have staying at the moment....