Tunisian Mitts

Hello All,

I can finally take a breath as I have completed all of my Christmas knitting. I am looking forward to the open day at TOFT alpaca on the 20th December and I hope to see you all there. If you are a little behind with your knitting and need a place to go with lovely cakes, I suggest that you go to TOFT's knit night. At the moment it is on every Thursday 4pm-8pm to provide you with time to catch up with your festive projects.

The Christmas stocking bunting is on my fire place ready for Santa. Maybe as there are so many mini stockings I will get loads of gifts this year. I feel this was one of the cleverest schemes that I have hatched muhahaha. ......... Unless I have been naughty which means there will be a lot of coal for my fire place........


The final project that was published in Inside Crochet was Tunisian Mittens. This was a good challenge that I had set myself as I used a special way of crocheting. I have used this technique before and it involves a long crochet hook. With standard crochet you would work with one stitch at a time. However, with tunisian crochet you have a front pass where you pick up stitches on the hook, this means there could be 20 stitches plus on the hook at one time!!!!. You then work a back pass where you remove these stitches so you are back to one on the hook. You never need to turn the work and the stitches can mimic knitting stitches. There are not many books out there to provide guidance on this technique but I recommend a workshop with City Knit's In Birmingham. The courses there are a reasonable price, the tutor Kate was lovely and extremely knowledgeable and it is a good excuse to visit the lovely shop in the gorgeous area of Bournville. 


As I am a beginner at tunisian crochet, I wanted a project that did not require increases or decreases. I have learnt three stitches which were a standard, knit stitch and purl stitch and wanted a project to combine them together. This is where is the mitten was created. I used the wonderful Erika Knight's yarn. I love the texture and colours and feel this really added the the project. I also wanted to use different colours which is again another skill. I really enjoyed making this project and I hope that you do too. I feel that if you are new to tunisian crochet, this is a good place to start. 

I have added a couple of new patterns to my Raverly page so please check it out. There is not a crochet mug cosy and a knitted Christmas gift bag.

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Christmas is around the corner

Hello all,

I seem to have lost the month of November due to my rapid Christmas knitting for family. I love having a skill which means that I can provide truly unique gifts for my family members. I often look to Ravelry for knitspiration and find projects that suits everyone perfectly. Last year I was able to find a pattern for a toy Starship Enterprise and made that up for my dad as he was a Star Trek fan. He loved it and it is proudly hung on the Christmas tree.

You'll be happy to know that I have almost completed all of the required items and I can start focusing on designing and knitting for myself again :) I am really into cable knitting at the moment. I love the effects that can be achieved using this technique and I am hoping to be the proud owner of some new fingerless mittens soon as mine are pretty done for.

I will be displaying my handmade Christmas bunting in my home in preparation for the big day. Inspiration came in the middle of summer (bit odd but there we go). I started to thing about my holiday projects and dreaming about advent calendars. I thought about how I would love to have bigger chocolates each day as opposed to the tiny ones found in the shop brought ones and the only way around this would be to make my own advent calender. I didn't have a stocking as a child and I felt to make it up to myself I would make 24 mini ones as a bunting. 

I found the gorgeous Milla Mia yarn and a beautiful bunting was born. The pattern was in last months Inside Crochet and I really like this piece. I will be putting it up very soon........I don't want to wait for 12 days before Christmas 

I hope all of your festive projects are going well. I will be going to TOFT's open day on the 20th December with the family. It looks great as there are many demonstrations and also the opportunity to halter walk alpaca's (how exciting). The Cornflower Cafe is also amazing and well worth a visit too. I am hoping to be there with a lovely cream tea or a salted caramel cake..............perhaps by that point I wont care and I'll have both. 

Right...back to these mittens!!!!!!!

Until next time

Happy crafting

Sarah

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Lounge Around Socks

Hello all

As you are all aware I have the curse of the freezing cold feet. I do love a pair of socks to chill out it and to keep my toes toasty. 

I felt that I had understood the basics of knitting socks that I wanted to challenge myself further. I had never crocheted a sock until I created this pattern. I very quickly found that the knitted and crocheted sock rules differed. For a start, with a knitted sock you tend to need to use smaller needles. If a smaller hook is used, the sock would become so tight that you cannot get it over your ankle!............which I sadly discovered by experience when I managed to cut the circulation from my foot. The only solution seemed to be to use a much larger hook size than recommended with the yarn. 

When crocheting, the pattern forms a spiral which was apparent in the yarn that I used. I absolutely love West Yorkshire Spinner's yarn and wanted to make a pair of socks in the bull finch colour. The way to compensate for this was to make the first sock starting with the hook on the inside and then have the hook on the outside for the second sock. That way the decreases and the stripes were on opposite sides so that they looked like a pair. 

I love the pattern as it combines working in the rounds with working straight which makes it really interesting. Hopefully, it will avoid second sock syndrome. 

The socks are really comfy and I was chuffed with the end result. I want to thank Inside Crochet for publishing the pattern in their latest magazine. 

I am truly in the knitting festive spirit. I have ordered some of my family members yarn and began the Christmas projects. Hopefully I can get them all dome before the big day :s

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Chunky Cable Slippers

Hello All,

I have returned from my holiday in the caravan and I can confirm that it was freezing at night. I was extremely grateful for my holiday socks but still felt that I needed something more for my little toes.

I had some wool in my stash that I should have used a long time ago to treat myself with but I never got around to using it. I decided that now was the time to treat myself.....and my poor freezing toes. 

One of the reasons for putting off this project was that it involved using cable knitting. This is creating a 3D pattern that you often see in aran knitting and it creates a lovely effect. This involves slipping some stitches onto a cable needle and placing them at either the front or back of the work. You then continue to knit a few stitches from origianl needle and then knit the stitches from the cable needle to create a raised effect. The pattern used was from Toft alpaca so check out their website if you would like to purchase a copy :)

The pattern was challenging as this was a new skill to me but I was pleased with the results. I have also learnt that by holding the stitches on the cable needle to the front of the work it makes the cable turn to the left whereas if the stitches are at the back it makes the cable turn to the right. 

I have used chunky yarn which means that my slippers are extra thick and my toes are lovely and warm. I have enjoyed doing a cable pattern so much that I have booked myself onto a course with Knit Nottingham. 

I have started work on another animal so I will show you all when it is completed :)

Until next time

Happy crafting

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Edward's Menagerie

Hello all, 

I don't know about you but I love it when a new great crochet or knitting book is released. Not so long ago Toft Alpaca released their amigurumi book full of adorable animals. If you are unfamiliar with the term it basically means a crocheted toy. They are great as you can get patterns of anything from zebras to Minions.........I know as I have made many. Some of my original amigurumi patterns can be seen in my Ravelry shop. 

I love the story behind the creation of 'Edward's Menagerie' and all of the patterns in the book itself. The designs originated from when Kerry Lord was pregnant with her son (Edward) and this is when she first picked up a crochet hook. From this point she made up the patterns of the lovely animals and they have finally been published in this adorable book. I have been really looking forward to this and was fortunate enough to attend the magnificent book launch....which included a piñata full of knitting goodies :) 

I love this book as it provides clear instructions for all the techniques needed to make the animals from the book. The patterns are also divided into varying levels of difficulty which is great for beginners and more advance crocheters. I love the shapes of the animals and they are sooo hug-able. Another special touch is that all of the animals have their own names and a back story. If you have never picked up a hook before or have been crocheting for years I would recommend this book! 

The one animal I had to make from this book was an alpaca called Seamus. The pattern was easy to follow and I loved that the book also includes sewing up instructions as these are often left out or extremely vague. I quickly made him up and I am chuffed with the results. If you love Seamus as much as I do and you would like a copy of the book, check out Toft's website. 

If you need additional guidance on how to crochet or would like some tuition onto how to make the animals, Toft runs many workshops to provide brilliant hints and tips. These are well worth attending.

I have a few more animals that I would like to make from this book and I will post the results when I have completed them.

I am back from my holidays and I happy to say that I was in much need of my holiday socks as in the evenings it was freezing!!!!!! However, I have a seen a lot of knitspiration and I will hopefully be working on more of my own original patterns soon. 

Until next time

Happy crafting. 

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Hyacinth Cowl

Hello all,

Just to let you know that another holiday project has been completed :) and my holiday socks have been blocked perfectly. 

I attended a workshop at Toft Alpaca and it was brilliant. I was intrigued to master the hyacinth stitch as they had a pattern for a beautiful cowl. The workshop was ran by the lovely Caroline who is a great teacher. The workshop was relaxed and delicious cake was provided. The pattern suggests to use fine yarn but I wanted to treat myself and I splashed out on extra fine yarn so the cowl would be really soft. i would recommend anyone to attend a workshop held by Toft. Not only are you surrounded by beautiful alpacas but you are also provided a high quality session with teachers who know what they are talking about. 

 The stitch comprises of 6 rows that are repeated. The pattern contained a p5tog which I had never came across. This proved difficult until I learn the trick of slipping 4 stitches purlwise, purl the last stitch and then pass the 4 slipped stitches over. This made the project build up much quicker. 

The pattern also contains a row where you wrap the yarn three times before you knit. This is where I went wrong many times and had to begin my project once again. I learnt the magic of a 'life line' which is when you thread a piece of yarn through the stitches of a row where you can pull the work back to if needed. This gave me the confidence to persist and finish my lovely soft cowl. 

This is now another piece to take on holiday and I think I have now hit the limit of what I can make before I go. I have decided whilst on holiday to take a break from designing and to make a couple of animals from the new Edward's Menagerie book. I am a big fan of these designs and I already have the yarn sitting in my stash. 

I am plotting out where the yarn shops are whilst I am away on holiday. I will be in the Hastings and Rye area so if you have any recommendations please do let me know :)

Until next time

Happy Crafting

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Holiday socks

Hello all,

I love summer holidays! Enjoying the sun and wearing all your favourite summer accessories. However, when I go away with my family it is never in the summer. Cost is always a factor and so our holidays tend to be towards the end of September. Not only do we go when it's colder...but we also like to stay in a freezing cold caravan. However, there is a positive spin to it all....it makes the time leading up to the break brilliant for a knitter. 

Most people going on holiday will shop for new clothes or accessories. I on the other hand find lovely things that I would like to make. I have a long list of things and I hope my poor hands can endure then endless projects I want to knit. 

I am happy to announce that my freezing feet will not suffer in the caravan as I have knitted a new pair of socks. The gorgeous yarn was from West Yorkshire Spinners and it is the in the Country Bird range. My particular socks are 'pheasant' as apparently the colours seen are similar to this bird. The magical yarn stripes itself creating a great false fair isle effect. I used a basic pattern provided from Rachel Coopey at a brilliant sock workshop I attended at Guthrie and Ghani. I have booked myself onto their knitting in colours in the round workshop which I am really excitted about by the way. 

It was not all plain sailing. I completed the first sock and noticed I was 2 stitches short. After I had grafted the end........disaster struck!!!!! I could see the 2 dropped stitches quite early on in the piece. This brought much sadness as I had to frog (unpick) my work back to this point to repair. Most knitters have second sock syndrome. In this case...........I had third sock syndrome.

I worked on these socks at the Toft knit night and at another knitting group I attend called Sip and Stitch. This is on a Saturday 11am-1pm at Stitch Solihull. This is a gorgeous shop which is even open on a Sunday!!!!!!. It stocks high quality yarn and knitting supplies. Check out their website for more details and look at the workshops too. I am hoping to go to a more advance Tunisian crochet workshop soon. Eventually I had made my beautiful socks. I now need to meet with my sister to find a new set of pyjamas that will match them. 

As it will only be slightly colder it's too soon to wear my Super Moss stitch cowl...................maybe I need to make another cowl before my holiday. Now I did attend that hyacinth cowl workshop at Toft and I do have the luxurious extra fine yarn to make it up with. Check out the end result next time. 

Until then

Happy crafting

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