Attic 24

I haven’t posted much about my new hobby of crochet, mainly because my current project isn’t that photographic, it’s just sort of getting longer!

I started a ripple blanket over Christmas. I saw the Coast Ripple on Attic 24 a few months ago and decided I needed to learn how to crochet in order to make one. I learnt to crochet at the WI Tea and Tents Camping Festival in July, I bought loads of wool at Yarndale in August, but it wasn’t til Christmas that I finally got myself organised!

I want to make one in heather colours, so I’ve now got a bag of wool in lovely heathery colours, however I decided to learn the pattern first on some spare wool I had in my sewing room, its aran wool in navy and teal. A practice blanket was a good idea in theory…but maybe something a little smaller might have been a better plan, rather than twin bed size! I’ve decided I’ll be happy to get it to square, learn how to finish it and then start the heather one.

I only had two large balls of the teal and about six of the blue, so I crocheted teal stripes until the first ball ran out and now I’m making a long stretch of navy ripples before starting with teal again for the top…well that’s the plan! I’m making good progress, I’m just impatient to start the heather one!

Dodepus Scarf

My other woolie project is some weaving. At Yarndale last year I fell for a pin loom made of cherry wood. The stall had a beautiful blanket made of squares from the pin loom. When I had some wool left from making my Dodepus scarf I decided to have a go with my loom.

The instructions take a bit of understanding, the wool is woven across the pins three times altogether, two warps and a weft (the only way I can remember those two is that the weft goes from weft to right!) The weft is then woven using the weaving needle. It is a seriously big needle!!! It took a bit to get into the rhythm of needle weaving but I got there in the end!

The wool is a beautiful mix of plum and slate grey/green, I love it and it made a stunning scarf. At first when I wove with it I wasn’t too sure about the effect, as the variation in colours seemed to get lost in weaving. Although it is a chunky wool it wove fairly loosely too. It wasn’t until I took it off the loom (rather nervously!) that I loved it. It’s like a soft tweed fabric, beautiful! I went back to Fletchers on Leeds market and bought the rest of their stock (all of two balls!!) and a couple of balls in silvery/pewter grey shades from the same range. They are very big balls so I want to see how many squares I get from this ball before I decide to order more on line. My OH isn’t quite sure what we’re going to do with all these blankets and quilts, but it’s certainly more practical than pictures!!!