Modular crochet shawl

Modular crochet shawl
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Started this in Holland (easier to pack, and easier to work on in the car). The motifs are from "Beyond the square: Crochet Motifs" by Edie Eckman, because that was the book I had with me. Will probably dig out some other books, too.

I especially like the second and third ones.

Squares coming out a lot smaller than I thought they would (it's the leftovers from Blusa Queen so 2mm hook and Clea cotton).

This will take a looooong time... (anybody get that comedy reference?!)

First csm sock with heel

First csm sock with heel
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

Started with waste yarn, mock rib hem top (I got out ot synch somehow so I must have missed a stitch somewhere). Heel done on CSM - heel spring very floppy so it kept dropping stitches/jamming the needles. But it's going better than it did before!

Made it past the heel around 10pm so stripped it off the machine and went to bed! Two hours is long enough!

Fibrefest review

I was still recovering my wits from a stressful four days working in Holland, when we awoke Saturday morning. I had planned to leave at 8am and should have stuck to that, but talked myself into leaving at about 10am (still desperately trying to catch up on housework). The M5, of course, was a nightmare after Droitwich, with what seemed like every caravan, lorry and car in the country trying to go south (the other side wasn't much better!). Foolishly we came off twice, trying to avoid the traffic, but discovered the bottleneck moving down the country with us. I should have insisted we started earlier and stayed on the motorway, and I should've booked a hotel for the night, but having only just got home I was anxious to get back to my own bed.

My beloved Cog got despatched with the camera, as I was already 10 minutes late for the 3pm CSM class I booked. So I'm not entirely sure what some of the mill equipment was for, but ultimately it was for turning fleece into yarn and then weaving it. The Cog didn't take pics of the stalls, because "you've seen them all before, I'm sure!" :) Not sure if that was a dig or not!

I don't have a picture of the weaving loom, but a video, which is sideways for some reason, so it needs editing.

So, I arrived all stressed-out for the CSM class. Luckily I've already had a go with mine, so I know a bit of what I'm doing. I made a hem and picked up part of it (I was dashing to keep up with everyone else) and went onto the heel part, which was the bit I was most interested in.

When working the first part of the heel, you pull down on the sock with your free hand, and adjust that every few rows - because, the centre of gravity is changing. Once you get to the "turn", you can hang your heel weights.

When working the second part of the heel, you need to hold the latch open as the yarn carrier comes around and then the stitch shouldn't drop. Worked great in the workshop, not so much at home (my heel spring is not very springy). The spring that holds the needles in place (a long spring with a clasp for joining it in a circle) was rather loose, so the held needles were all pointing inwards quite a bit (I suspect I could even have replaced a needle without removing the spring).
It all seemed to be going OK so I cranked merrily onwards until SPROING! Utter chaos! A nest of yarn and needles and spring. The teacher said she thought it was fixable. Um.... no.... I'm not THAT much of a masochist! And then it was pretty much time to go, alas!

Got some tips on starting the ribber as well. You cast on with every needle, and then transfer to one ribber needle and work a few rows, then transfer to a ribber needles each side (3 R needles in work) etc until you get the whole lot working. That's the next thing to try, I think.

Had a quick dash around the stalls and bumped into Nick at Uppingham Yarns (he'd had the good sense to stay overnight, haha!). There were some lovely stalls but panic sets in when you only have 20 mins to see the whole place. There were some alpaca and sheep you could buy out of the back. I did briefly consider whether we could get one on the back seat of the Fiesta but was given a Stern Look. Had a quick dash around the museum, which is well worth a visit! I especially liked the air raid shelter with emergency toilet (a bucket behind a curtain), and the fantastic steam engine, which was a later addition once they needed to produce worsted yarns. The mill shop is wonderful - I resisted buying a fluffy sheep. Then it was back on the M5, now back to normal. We headed to Glastonbury for a curry - the food was great, but the staff weren't exactly welcoming. Glastonbury is very pretty and a lot smaller than I imagined.


Water outlet at mill


Mill machinery


Mill machinery


Chimney


Water entering mill (I think these are called "leats")


The water wheel is under here


These plaster children were looking out of all the windows. I love the fact that he's wearing a hair net over his cap - have Health and Safety been around?! :)


Mural. This mural has been made out of lots of large pieces by the locals, and depicts the surrounding area of the mill. It's fascinating to look at and must have taken ages.


Close-up of mural

OT: Microwave chocolate pudding recipe

Somebody gave me this recipe at work, so I can't claim this as my own. Thanks, H, this is a great recipe!

This is really easy to put together and makes a lovely chocolate sponge pudding with
chocolate sauce:

Serves 4

Ingredients for pudding:
100g self-raising flour
100g caster sugar
50g margarine
25g cocoa
Pinch salt
Drop of vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons milk

Ingredients for top:
100g soft brown sugar
25g cocoa
150ml water (added at last minute)

Mix sugar, flour, salt and cocoa in a large* microwaveable bowl. Melt margarine in the microwave or on the stove, and stir into the mixture. Add the beaten egg and milk to the mixture. Beat well until everything's mixed in.

Pour into souffle dish (or leave it where it is and save washing up!)

For the top, mix all the ingredients except the water and sprinkle over the top of the mixture. Just before cooking, add the water over the top.

Cook in microwave on high for 5 mins (750W)

*It rises during cooking. You have been warned!

I usually halve this recipe (except for the egg) because it makes too much for two people and once it's cooked, it's so nice, I have to eat all of it! But you can refrigerate leftovers and reheat it of course.

I'm also guessing you could mix it up a bit (as I have done with white choc powder) and perhaps try it with coffee instead?

Fibrefest

Will blog about Fibrefest when I remember to unload the camera. Suffice to say, Fibrefest was great. My only problems came from my own lack of planning and poor sense of geography/distance. The M5 becomes a carpark most weekends during the summer - I had forgotten this, as I haven't been to Wales/Devon for quite some time. Took us five horrid hours to get there, so I only had time for my CSM class and a quick dash around everything else. So, no yarn was purchased (like I need any more, anyway!). Only took 3 hours to get home, and we stopped off at Glasto for a curry on the way back.

Next time I'll plan it properly and probably book a hotel down there. I had planned to sit down and think about it, but ran out of time with work commitments.

More to come!

Swatching about

Just in case you think I've hit a non-creative spot (lack of photos), you couldn't be more wrong!


Some swatches in fancy yarns for the neverending afghan


The back of a jumper in slip stitch crochet (from "Chain-free crochet"). The yarn is James C Brett marble chunky, last seen masquerading as a cardigan that went a bit wrong. Not sure I'll take this to Holland, the yarn ball is quite bulky


A passap sock, awaiting its twin

Q and A

Q: What do you do when you finally finish a long project (Blusa Queen, January to August)
A: Start at least two more, of course!

So I have decided to frog the large cardigan I made with slanted fronts, made from James C Brett marble chunky. It;'s an interesting design (the fronts are knitted on the slope) based on something I saw in Marks and Spencers, but that yarn was too thick and the design too long. I'm making the crocheted knit-look sweater from "Chain-free Crochet" (Belinda Carter), which is made entirely from B and iB slip stitch. It may end up becoming a cardigan, though, because it looks like it might turn out to be quite thick. Unfortunately, it rarely gets cold enough in the UK for thick sweaters, and at least with a cardigan you can take it off.

I've also started making two pairs of socks - one on the CSM, is going to be on the slouchy side I think. Ribs to be made by dropping and relatching, afterthought heels and toes. Yes, you read that right, I am reforming 5040 stitches. I must be insane! I'm not entirely convinced I'll have enough yarn spare to make toes and heels, so the ribs are going onto lifelines, and lett 'til last, for the purpose of "stealing" yarn from them if need be. Might try another sock with every 4th needle removed - 63 needles is nearer to the hand-knitting pattern I have for sock yarn. I suspect this CSM would rather use 2ply but it's not widely available in lovely instant-fairisle colours.

The other pair I started on the passap last night. A fairly simple pattern - probably shouldn't be attempted at gone 10pm though. Dropped a stitch near the welt and had the devil of a time trying to fix it.

I've vague plans to make a few pairs on the passap this weekend, as I'm being sent to Holland for four days next week, and I figured I could finish them in the evenings (two cast offs, two seams and some weaving in). So I could technically come back with more items of clothing than I left with, haha!

I've also got a vague plan to take the remainder of the Clea cotton and make random motifs and join them to make a free-form shawl. Because I don't think I can face acres of plain knitting on Kimi.

Ever feel like you probably shouldn't have started something?! :)

Mind you, there will be up to four of us over there next week, so I might not actually get much time - hey, drinking dutch/belgian beer on expenses is not a bad swap! :)

Took a first aid course yesterday, and my resuscitation doll was a bit duff. 30 compressions, replace head, 2 breaths, repeat. I bet that never happens to paramedics!

Oh, and I fell hard for that gorgeous mini-mochi sock yarn. Some vivid rainbow and babyface accidentally fell into my shopping cart. Because I need more socks, right?!

FO and errata: Blusa Queen

Original pattern here

Well, despite getting the pattern translated for me (thanks Wolf!) it's full of mistakes anyway - probably far better to just refer to the charts and work it out yourself.

Yarn: Clea from Yarnstick (Ebay) - luckily I got three balls, because two wasn't enough.

Modifications:

1. The motifs are not correct for the first four rounds - adjusted that for the sleeves
2. Continued to increase on the sleeves above the line of motifs, as otherwise they would never have been big enough
3. Added a further repeat of the pineapple pattern on both fronts so that they covered more of me :) In hindsight, I should have held the motif strip around me and added more motifs, and made the whole thing wider. Ah well!

Errata:

The motifs are incorrect as charted:

Ch6, join in a circle
R1: Ch5, (1dc, 2ch) 7 times, ss into 3rd st of ch5 to close (= 8 "spokes")
R2: Ch5, 1dc, 1ch into same space, *1dc, 2ch, 1dc, 1ch into next space, rep from * to end, ss into 3rd ch of ch5 to close
R3: 3ch, 1dc in same ch space, *1dc into top of dc, 2dc into ch space, rep. from * to end, 1dc into last dc, ss into 3ch to close.
R4: Continue as charted.


All in all, an interesting and challenging item to make. I'm tempted to make a freeform shawl with the remaining cotton (lots of different squares etc joined as I go). We shall see!

Blusa nearly complete

After a few false starts (I lost the stitch diagram) the final ruffle has been finished. Now I just need to figure out how to hide ends in something so lacy, and decide whether I want to add some sort of fastening. Back working on Kimi in the meantime.

Had an interesting visit to the Great British Beer Festival in London, and tried an excellent beer called "bananatana". Not so keen on the Oude Kriek (a lambic beer), a bit sharp for my sweet tooth. Came back to Rugby and had a few at the Merchant Inn before going for a curry. Sunday was spent buying groceries, mowing the lawns and baking bread, and then the almost obligatory fancy coffee in town.

Made marmalade ice-cream this weekend, alas it got eaten before I got it in the same room as a camera. Used a basic low-fat recipe from the 'net - light evap milk, gelatine, sugar substitute, marmalade - and found the gelatine coalesced into a large lump (guess who got that?!). Will try again and skip the gelatine - I don't think it's necessary.

Yes, I will post that chocolate pudding recipe. Bear with me, I am a crafter of very little brain sometimes.

OT: Scotland trip

In no particular order, holiday snaps from Scotland


Fallingoch falls


Urquhart castle, on the banks of Loch Ness


Balmedie beach nr Aberdeen


The Cog has a brother called Keith. The Cog thinks this is hilarious


Stone circle


Oban harbour

Quick Blusa update

Have added a repeat of the "pineapple" pattern (for want of a better description) to both front edges of the Blusa Queen. Tonight if nobody turns up for MK night, I shall start the last ruffle - which goes from neck, around front, along back and back to neck - so it will take some time.

30cm of stocking stitch for Kimi? Too tedious for words, ATM. Think I'll concentrate on getting Blusa out the way first.

Might pop and see the latest Harry Potter flick tonight. Back at work and up to my eyes, which makes a nice change. Looking forward to a visit to a beer festival on Saturday.

Back with electricity...

In case you were wondering why it's been a bit quiet on here lately, I've just come back from a week's camping trip in Scotland. No electricity and no internet.

I have to say, when I saw the car all loaded up, that instead of "getting away from it all", we seemed to be taking most of it with us. The Cog insisted on taking garden deckchairs, which are very comfy but not very compact. The first campsite was just north of Loch Lomond - it had a waterfall at the back of it (and one on the other side of the valley, too) which was very pleasant to listen to at night.

We spent a miserably wet day looking around the castle in Stirling - the prison tour (separate building) was far more interesting, hosted as it was by a guide who changed his character with the timeline. Must remember nothing happens in Scotland before noon on a Sunday, it was like a ghost town. We visited Oban and the beach at Ganavan - so windy, I could hold the windbreak up without my hands! We drove through Glen Coe and stopped off at Fort William and Inverness, and then camped for three nights on the outskirts of Aberdeen. It was a campsite given over mostly to statics and caravans, but with a very nice inn next door that did excellent food. We found a sheltered sand dune on Balmedie beach to sit behind (still very windy), and visited the Glen Fiddich whisky distillery in Dufftown. Found some interesting shops in Inverurie - they seem to go in for a lot more local/organic produce up there. Got my hair cut in Aberdeen. Decided to come home early as we hadn't managed to book a campsite near Edinburgh and wouldn't really have had enough time there to do it justice. Drive home was tedious - ended up getting off the M6 at J16 (Nantwich!) and cutting east across country for the M1, which did not have snarl ups and jack-knifed caravans on it. Highlight of the journey was visiting Tebay services, where they have a fantastic little shop (local/organic again) and even a dog-walking route!

Thomas seems very pleased to see us, although he spent a good few hours out in the rain today reacquainting himself with his favourite bushes. I didn't get much knitting done, as it spent most of the week at the bottom of my rucksack getting damp. Discovered a mistake in the Blusa and had to frog back about ten rounds of the cuff (the trip home allowed me to catch up again though). Managed to read three books whilst away - "Bollocks to Alton Towers" being the funniest, all about offbeat places to visit in the UK. Must put it on my wishlist!

Oh, and got bitten loads by the midges, despite applying tea-tree. I taste good to the local insect population, wherever I travel. Luckily these are not as bad as mozzie bites and are going down fast.