I spent my Friday evening crocheting this jar cover while sipping Lady Grey tea. I’d decided to give alcohol for January so was feeling very cleansed and virtuous. That was until, fast forward to Saturday lunch, The King’s Arms in Oxford when I finished my lovely cool pint of lager shandy and looked at my friend in horror; I’d totally forgotten I wasn’t meant to be drinking! After the 3 mile walk into town it had felt like the perfect drink. Oops.

I would really love a perfect bottom (hey, don’t we all?!) but it takes practice I guess. I am perfectionist and there are a few flaws if you look carefully.I made my own wiggly up and down pattern for the top: 3 trebles then 3 doubles repeated. The start of the design was from a Let’s Get Crafting pattern for a crocheted ‘jar’ by Lynne Rowe, but you can see where I carried on crocheting and got carried away from the white sticky outy row onwards, it’s meant to be where the last two rows of crochet fold over at the top. I kept the textured sticky outy bit (technical talk?!) because I liked it. I think I’ll do that again. You basically stop going around and around, turn the crocheted so you are now looking at the inside or the outside and go into the back loop only for the stitch. There are possibilities for more texture in dimensional projects me thinks….

The yarn, by the way, was horrendous to use as it kept splitting. It seemed more man-made than anything I’ve ever used before. But I like the colour combination. It’s very seasidey.