IDC catch up.

Since my last post things at BL head quarters things have been a little busy... Lots of travelling and lots of crochet and knitting in the run up to Christmas. Socks galore and some scrappy yarn projects as I could not justify adding more to the stash....

 

Scrappy socks!

Scrappy gloves

A trip to Cornwall

More socks!

Spain

More Spain

And 12 days hiking in the High Atlas mountains.

After I sent off my last samples I was a little anxious as I felt some of them were not quite right. Well I did get some back to resubmit but they were not always the ones I expected. Such is life! 
So I've been working on my resubmits and my first project. Apologies for the poor photographs...it's November and we don't get much natural light in the valley at this time of year. 

My first project is a lace weight shawl. This covers the use of a light yarn and the following of a published pattern. Well I have to say lace weight is not my favourite. The texture of the yarn and the softness of the shawl is beautiful but it took an age to make. I used Drops Lace in Alpaca and Silk. It was very inexpensive and was nice to work with ( all be it slow, or was that me???) I'm happy with the resulting shawl but it needs blocking. I think it fits the tension but we shall see. The yarn was very fine so I think it may be smaller than the original. The yarn used for the original was very expensive though thus leaving me no option but to try something cheaper.

I chose to make the Crochet Project shawl from Raw. The Abberley Shawl was worked on a corner to corner principle which I had never tried before. It proved to be much easier than I had anticipated. 

Some of my Tunisian samples needed to be resubmitted. I had obviously, once it had been pointed out, had tension issues. I have tried to correct these but for some reason I seem to be tight on the right hand side of the work and loose on the left particularly with the textured piece. I tried the honey comb stitch this time which is just a series of simple stitch and tunisian purl stitches alternating. It gives a lovely finish but I had to make the sample three times and I'm still unsure how it will do. I used Drops Karisma for these pieces. It is 100% wool and a little rough. It is best worked in a 5mm hook rather than the usual 4mm as it works up quite thick and can be a little stiff. It is very reasonably priced and can be washed in the machine. There are a nice range of colours, I particularly liked the blues and greens.

My 4 stitch textured piece needed to be redone because I had misinterpreted the question. I had really liked the effect I had used with the multiple stitches but the double crochet stitch did not count. So it was back to the drawing board. This time there was no agonising over the stitches and trawling the internet to find a stitch pattern. My confidence had obviously increased and I just made bobbles using half trebles, trebles, double trebles and triple trebles. The result is large assymetrical bobbles with an open texture. Once gain I'm unsure if this is what is required but hey ho give it a go! I used Stylecraft for this. In knitting I'm not a big fan of acyrlic but this DK works a dream when crocheting and can easily be purchased online from Wool Warehouse. ( Or most LYSs if you have one)

I've still to resubmit my bars and lacet piece which was spoilt by my amature blocking. The bars and lacets were commended but the piece was not square. I'm still struggling with this and have bought new thread and a range of smaller hooks to try and over come it. Back to the drawing board. May be I should go the other way and try it with a large hook and some brightly coloured yarn to make a more modern looking piece.
I've also had a go at hairpin lace. Well it's early days and my technique has much to be desired. They could be worse...lol!

This is my hairpin piece with a double crochet centre. I'd show you my attempt at a two double crochet spine if it wasn't so bad!

So now it's back to some Christmas crochet. Cushion covers for my daughters new boat and a Coast Ripple blanket for my dad. Best get cracking as at this rate I'll be writing IOUs!