Holidays and continued working from stash

Well, there hasn't been much to report craft-wise because the Cog and I had a lovely all-inclusive week away at Cala Canutell in Menorca. Despite being only a 3*, it was the kind of AI I can get on board with. Self-service juices and an amazing buffet three times a day (two cases were given over to dessert, that's all I'll say!), evening entertainments, pretty good weather, daily yoga and aqua aerobics plus various activities organised around the pool area, and a useful little shop for day three when I discovered that yet again I'd forgotten to pack any socks. The TUI organised trips didn't really work for us date-wise so we took the bus into Mahon on market day, and booked a harbour cruise ourselves, and hired a car to see a bit of the island (and no doubt saved ourselves some money). They really take siesta seriously over there, so an afternoon cruise was a good idea as when we got back to Mahon town it reminded me of COVID days - everything bar cafes shut (and yes I got asked to leave a museum, yes, siesta is that serious!). All too soon it was time to come home (and I did feel for the ladies of the Manchester contingent, who got out before the power cut cancelled all flights, sans their hold luggage, and had to wear the same swimsuit as the shop only sold the one style). The only thing portable enough was the last ball of cotton bamboo, where I crocheted a heart-shaped dishcloth - alas, not yet photographed!

A ball band dishcloth

A crochet dishcloth

More good news, the colour changer that went on a little holiday after my machine knitting event at the start of June has returned safe and sound, along with my ribber box. The boxes got mixed up by mistake at the end. I am relieved, because they command silly money on Ebay! On a less happy note, himself is still between contracts and is getting increasingly antsy about being kept in limbo. Hopefully we will have good news on that front soon.

Current mood: happy

Crochet and holidays

Apologies - I didn't realise it had been so long since my last post! Well, I have been away a few times - that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it! 

First up was the annual Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM. Four guest speakers, two elective classes. I took corner to corner crochet (turns out I could already do it, but never mind!) and mosaic crochet, which was definitely quite challenging. It made a nice change not being a teacher for once. I picked up some stitch dictionaries. I need to cull my craft books, I have way too many!

This scarf was inspired by the C2C class.

This scarf (upside down, sorry!) was one I started a while ago in arcade stitch.

This is my sample of mosaic stitches - the bottom one is made by working into the back loop only, then dipping into the front loop with a treble. The top one you "pre-plan" a gap using a ch space and then work into that gap a few rows later. I figured out how to do C2C in the round on the train home from my second trip (more on that later). I had to wait until I was home to get access to a multi coloured biro.

Our second trip was a three night stay in Gent. We discovered a brewery (see menu below, I love that their logo contains lots of local symbols) that we missed last time, as well as a tiny bar that sold 150 flavours of jenever (gin). We were incredibly lucky with the weather and needed sun screen, not bad for mid September. It only rained a little on the last day, and both times we were safely in place under awnings at two of the many outside bars.

Getting back to the UK came with a bit of a bump - it was wet and grey when we got back. I'm trying to resist the urge to hibernate - the nights are markedly longer already. Winter is NOT my favourite season! I made a start on a final (quite complex) cross stitch kit given to me by a friend, but already I have gone wrong. The dratted thing is 97 stitches wide when it should be 96. It might go in the bin at this rate. Pah!

Current mood: working

Gent, FO roundup and learning a new skill

Well, September flew by! I had a two day demo at the Alexandra Arts cafe, where I made two pairs of socks and a pair of fingerless gloves on the CSM and flatbed respectively. L helped me make some hats, which need a smidge of steam to control the flippy up mock ribs. Oh, and I made it to page 6 of the local newspaper, misspelt as usual (the photographer wrote it down correctly but someone always thinks they know better!) and not my best shot! 

The following weekend was the guild AGM, detailed in the previous post. Last weekend my partner and I had a short break in Gent, or Ghent (the H appears to be optional and doesn't appear in the train station name so I will go with the former!).

Gent was lovely, although someone narrowly missed hitting me with a properly dangerous full size umbrella, dropped off the bridge on the second shot (I was about level with the red life preserver at the time!). Not sure if it was an accident or a student prank, that bridge ballustrade is pretty thick! The weather was a bit hit and miss, but we loved the pavement cafes, cobbled streets, excellent beer and food, and the friendly people. We visited two of the churches and the bell tower, and I picked up a lovely tapestry handbag in the sale. Suitcase space was severly limited so we did not bring back chocolate or beer, alas!

This weekend I learned to do this:

I picked up a copy of "Learn Tunisian Crochet in the Round" by Sandy Walker at the AGM, along with two other tunisian books. The photo tutorial in the front was a bit confused - at one point it refers to working into the legs of the tunisian stitches, when you are still in the foundation crochet set up part of the pattern. Some of the pictures are clearly out of sequence, though that might be deliberate. I could not understand the bit about closing each round with a tks so decided to skip it in the end, having watched someone else do this technique on youtube - she did the corner increases differently - I might try that method next time, tss, yo and tss into the same loop is fiddly - and didn't join. I do wish they'd get such books read by a proofreader who tries the technique from scratch. It would also help if they'd put all the tunisian stitch diagrams on one page, instead of peppered throughout the book - this is an Annie's Crochet book and they have a comprehensive page of crochet stitches in the back, most of which aren't even required in this book. I did try and contact the designer via Facebook but you have to join her FB group before you can message her (and I haven't been approved yet) and anway, it's academic now... 

Anyway, those small gripes aside, my version is a true spiral - the lack of a join doesn't seem to be making a difference anyway! I love this technique and can see how I could rechart it for other designs - no idea what I'm doing with this sheep design but I'll figure something out! A cushion cover perhaps? It's supposed to be 16" square when finished though of course it's US DK which might not be quite the same as UK DK. There's an amazing fairisle sampler afghan in the back of the book - what a pity I'm mostly out of DK yarn, other than the two shades I'm using here! I suspect I might have to tackle that at some point, despite the fact I have no need of more blankets here! I just love making them and seeing the patterns appear, especially as in this technique the aspect ratio seems to be 1:1 so much easier to design things to come out in the correct proportions.

This morning we were greeted with this as we made our breakfast. Got to love those autumn sunrises!

Current mood:  impressed

Holiday and some finished objects

We had a short break in Yorkshire, as the not-driving meant a road trip to Belgium was a bit unfair on the Cog! We had two nights at a spa, three in Skipton, then two in Leeds.

Skipton Castle

Skipton woods falls - I found the huntress, the horse and the deer, of Attic24 fame!

Settle were having a flowerpot festival, flowerpot characters were everywhere!

This chap seemed determined to make us his new friends where we were staying!

A gymnast for the next local postbox topper, the theme is the Commonwealth games

Another sewn top, nice and light for the current heatwave. Feel like I am being baked alive currently!

Current mood: hot