Tag Archives: All At Sea shawl

2015

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It’s that time again; the last day of another year. Are they flying past, or is it just me?

I can’t believe that today is my blog’s fourth birthday! I didn’t have a long-term plan when I started this; it was simply to record my makes as I learnt to crochet. I haven’t had to make myself carry on, or set up a blogging timetable, it’s just happened organically. Admittedly joining in more regularly with the weekly Yarn Along and Taking Stock posts, every month, has helped to keep to keep the ball rolling lately; as I’ve had little new to show, with bigger projects taking time to complete.

2015 really did turn into the Year of the Blankets, despite the fact I’m sure I’d resolved not to make many. I wanted to learn some new skills, make some small things and get my sewing machine out again. I can see a 16 for 2016 list happening…

Here are some of my favourite makes and highlights of the year:

I’ve just had a little look at my previous end of year galleries in 2012 2013 and 2014. 2012 was a busy year for the country with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics. Looking back has reminded me of my 200 Blocks CAL. I was still very much a novice crocheter and learnt much more through organising and taking part in the CAL. If you’re fairly new to crochet then I’d really recommend working through a book of crochet blocks. It gave lots of us a really good grounding in reading patterns, trying new stitches and experimenting with colour combinations.

Thank you for reading and for your comments over the last year. Have a very Happy New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, wherever you are in the world.

All At Sea Shawl II: blocked, lacy & ready to wear

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 For years I’ve read about people blocking their crochet and knitting. They rhapsodise about how lacy it becomes, because it really opens up the stitches. From the way people write you would think blocking almost transforms things into mystical items.
I have never felt the need to do anything, apart from perhaps a quick steam block.  Recently I felt quite adventurous leaving the Catherine Stitch Dolls’ blanket pinned out on the ironing board to thoroughly dry! But I could see that the thin mystery yarn of the All at Sea Shawl was going to need something a bit more professional to unscunch it into maybe a thing of lacy beauty.

 Foam mats from The Early Learning Centre are, I was told by my crochet blocking guru, a good alternative to overpriced craft blocking boards. On reflection those purpose made with lines and measurements on them might be preferable, but my plain mats did the job well enough. It is actually quite enjoyable pinning and stretching the crochet, I was quite surprised how much I liked it. My knees weren’t so happy, but that’s too bad! Look how much it has opened out the stitches? I’m so pleased. Oops! A huge gust of wind carried it off sideways. I didn’t realise I’d captured the moment on my camera until later. It’s been so windy here that I had to close the bedroom window because of the noise last night. I heard things in the garden being blown over and got up to peer out the window a few times, then decided enough was enough. Time to sleep and I’d right it all in the morning. It is a triangular shawl but this was the only way I could get it to stay in one place, even then it flapped up into my face several times. The severely pruned buddleia looks bare and deadwood-like, but it will come back and the flowers will be covered in butterflies again in the summer.

In summary: proper grown-up professional type blocking really does work, although it gets boring to read posts like this (!) and I did enjoy it. Also, the mystery yarn is wool, or partly at least, because it definitely had that wet sheep smell.

All at Sea Shawl II 

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It’s so sunny today! A really beautiful morning.


Aren’t the colours in this yarn lovely? I reckon it’s sock or lace weight as it feels quite a bit finer than the 4 ply I used for my Raspberry scarf.

I decided to crochet another All at Sea shawl as the first one I made was with DK and I fancied another go with (probably) the correct weight yarn. The pattern by Elisabeth Davis de Herraiz is available here on Ravelry, or in Simply Crochet 22, if you have a shelf of past issues like me.

I’m going to have to go back to print versions of crochet magazines I reckon; I’m behind with the last two issues of Inside Crochet. I just don’t pick up my ipad and stick to reading them on there; I get distracted by other sites, usually social media. Digital versions are good on the space shaving front, but I do like to see curly page markers poking out of back issues. It’s so much faster and easier somehow to grab one and just think ‘I’ll make that today!’ than to scroll through digital versions. Wow isn’t life hard these days?! It’s all the choice.

This is turning into a ramble when it was meant to be one of those sharp and to the point posts, but I’m re-reading The Thorn Birds and life in outback Australia in the early 20th century was so hard. It’s strange re-reading something I haven’t read since my teens. What I really remember is scenes from the tv series: that white shirt, the ashes of roses dress, Mary the dragon, Fee with the careworn face, the run from him on the beach, Luke/Bryan the b****** who ended up marrying Meggie/Rachel in real life afterwards, though at the time I couldn’t understand why…. Skipping the descriptive passages then to get ‘to the good parts’ means that it’s quite a different read this time around, especially as I’ve spent lots of time in Australia. It’s a good book actually, much better than I expected.

It’s noticeable that when an author dies their books leap up the bestseller lists. I bought Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (surprisingly humorous given the subject matter and the fact that it’s semi-autobiographical) and The Thorn Birds for this reason; seeing that they were suddenly in the eye-catching Kindle top ten sellers.

I’ve completely lost the flow of this crochet post now and am thinking about The Thorn Birds book, combined with mixed up memories of the tv series!
In summary: This is my new make and I’m re-reading a long-ago-read-book. I now need to decide what kind of pudding I’m making for family dinner at the weekend!

What are you making, reading, planning?

ETA: Apologies – Judith Kerr is still among us! See comments below. 

All at Sea Shawl ….finished

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I’ve really enjoyed crocheting this V stitch shawl, I haven’t felt this keen for a little while. You know that ‘I’ve got to do just one more row before bed’ thing?

The pattern’s by Elisabeth Davis de Herraiz and is in issue 22 of Simply Crochet.

I used Lang’s Tosca Light DK with a 4mm hook instead of the lace weight merino used in the mag. You could make a really chunky version too. That might be really snugly for freezing winter mornings, or maybe nights on the sofa when you feel a draft on your neck or shoulders?

My shawl is larger as I wanted it to be big enough to wear around your shoulders, granny/hippy style or like a scarf with the triangle part to the front and the long ends wrapped around the back of the neck. So for R50 I just repeated from R14 onwards until I ran out of yarn after R37 which was clusters. Boo! This was annoying with only 11 more to go to complete my repeat of R14 -49, but I quite like the frilled top edge so I fastened off, darned the few ends and it was over.

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Look at what I noticed as I was unhooking the shawl from a tree…..

And last night on a very old episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads….

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It doesn’t look Grannyish or exactly Hippyish, but I won’t be going out in a maxi dress and big cream shawl anytime soon!