The Split Poncho

Hello strangers πŸ™‚

OK, so we know about the Ponchette, right? And that you can now make it for yourselves? If you visit here, I wrote the pattern up at Black Sheep Wools’ request and it is available as a free download on their website.

But the thing is, I have a nipper I struggle to keep up with. And ponchos always leave me a little restricted in the arm department, so this needed some thought.

Here it is in pictures and I just might, at some stage, write it up so you can have a go too πŸ™‚

splitponcho7splitponcho6splitponcho5splitponcho4splitponcho3splitponcho2splitponcho1I have a couple of crochet blankets on the go, too – so more anon!

Hope all is well in your woolly worlds <3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new skill… almost

Well, Easter is upon us and it’s time to get together with family. Fortunately for me, that means spending time with my fabulous mother-in-law, whose yarn skills leave me in awe. Since I’m off to stay with her and don’t want to fill the entire car with my works in progress, I have started something new. (Don’t tell Bertie, because it’s not the crocodile… that’s next – promise) I spent much of my free time yesterday looking at broomstick lace crochet, found a tutorial and tried to follow it, worked out too late that it was written for left-handed people, and gave up. That’s for another day.

But on my travels I came across somebody called Luz, who has a facebook page, blog and Etsy shop. I splashed out on her pattern – this one here. It makes this beautiful cowl. (Go and check her out – she has some truly beautiful things).

Luz Patterns stunning cowl
Luz Patterns stunning cowl

I have some yarn for it already, and thought I could give it a go whilst staying in the rural wilds of Norfolk.

Thing is, my youngest decided to throw himself at the wall earlier on – he is a terribly fearless and intrepid two year old, the like of which none of his four older brothers has been – and is sporting an egg on his forehead bigger than any I have ever seen in my 13 years as a mother. So he couldn’t be left alone. So I kept him company and picked up the crochet.

This is where I’ve got to.

My first attempt
My first attempt

I’m clearly going wrong somewhere, and it probably has something to do with the acronyms bpsc and fpsc, which I guessed at rather than looking up and have therefore not got anything like the definition she has. I’ll look them up for my next attempt, but I’ve come too far to go back now! πŸ˜‰

And I love it. It’s more complicated and beautiful than anything I’ve attempted in crochet so far, so I’m really looking forward to the finished product and incorporating the pattern into something else, too.

Right. See you the other side of Easter. Have a lovely week wherever you are… πŸ™‚

Squares and Hearts and…

It may not surprise you enormously, even at this early stage, to hear that there is another blanket in the works that I haven’t mentioned yet πŸ™‚ It is also of the granny square variety, but using a much heavier weight yarn than the waistcoat. This yarn is Sublime chunky merino tweed – 80% merino wool.

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It’ll be much quicker to make a blanket with this, given the difference in size. I took a picture of the two types of square it feels like I’m mass-producing at the moment:

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which, since it takes roughly the same amount of time to make them (15-20 mins depending on the number of children at home and the number of interruptions from start to finish), illustrates the point doesn’t it?

I embellished another little hat when I went to bed last night. I love these little crochet hearts. I found them while cruising for crochet on Pinterest, and it’s only fair that I share the tutorial here.

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My baby jacket is coming on quickly, in spite of the near disaster it encountered yesterday. My unsupervised toddler managed in the few moments I was out of the room, to remove the needles. Suppressing the inclination to flap and panic, I threaded each stitch back onto the needle as slowly and calmly as possible. Note to self: never leave littl’un and work-in-progress alone in the same room πŸ™‚

I have some birthday cards to make and have found another fabulous use for those hearts

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In other news, Norfolk Beard Oil co-founder, Marek Duchnowski has been bigging up my chunky-rib masculine Rowan Big Wool neckwarmers as his neckwear of choice:

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But perhaps most excitingly of all…. Tomorrow I pick up my spinning wheel!! Hard to express quite how excited I am πŸ˜‰

TTFN