Ready to crochet again

Posted on October 16, 2023 by The Little Room of Rachell

The weather has turned much, much cooler after we’ve had a mini heatwave…in October?! Last Sunday we walked in T-shirts and shorts, sat under an oak tree for shade and drank lots of water during our six mile walk along footpaths and bridle ways. Afterwards I laid on a sun lounger in the garden, eating birthday cake, sipping tea and loving the sun. Actually I remember now that I had to go in to get something to shade my face, it was so baking on the patio. I could feel my cheeks burning. Now, a week later, it’s much more typical for the autumn season and is at least ten degrees cooler. (Last night we had our first frost and so I went out and cut the best of the lettuces this morning, just in case they keel over later in the week.) Crochet is suddenly looking really appealing. With something warm and woolly on your lap to keep you cosy, why wouldn’t it? In the last week or so I found I kept stopping at woolly posts on Insta and thinking ‘That crochet lark looks like a good thing. I used to do a lot of that, didn’t I?!’ I always have a hiatus during the summer, because it’s just too warm for wool, especially as I always have hot hands, but it’s been even longer this year…

So, I’ve begun to join my squares to make up my coast blanket. Started in 2020 when we went away on holiday, finally, after months of Lockdown, it really began life as an unplanned project. “Argh! I’ve forgotten to bring anything to do on holiday!” I had to buy a hook and whatever yarn the small local yarn shop had in stock in a town in West Cornwall. I wasn’t sure if it was to be a cowl, scarf or what. I ended up crocheting a basic granny square and was so taken by the look of the colour changes that I made another and another and ….

Do you remember how during Lockdown the urge to be creative and keep busy with crafting took hold of a great many people? I suspect crochet and knitting alleviated anxiety for many as well. I know I found it soothing when I felt caged and lonely at home. Because of the huge demand it became really difficult to get hold of specific yarn. Also when you’re living on an island during a pandemic and post-Brexit, shipments were (are still) often stuck in Europe. I ended up having to chop and change Hayfield Spirit DK colour variations. I just had to hope they would all blend in the end. I do think they work together. Also, the joining colours of the greys and cream should bring together all the others. My original intention was to have a blues and greys colour theme, so that they would match a Dorma grey flower king-size duvet, it’s rather more mixed than that, but this reflects the fact that it came to be during a very topsy turvy time. (I’ve paused to lay and light the log burner. It’s really getting chilly now. Chicken & lentil soup for dinner should help too.)

I really love Hayfield Spirit, it is fine and lightweight for DK, but with even only 20% wool content it’s really warm.

I crocheted eight large granny squares, many done during the subsequent Lockdowns when long calls became a lifeline to friends and family. Then the rest slowly followed over the last few years, in between other makes (remember my bobble cowl obsession?) The squares are made up of 30 rounds, after each round I flipped the square over to avoid tilting. I’m doing a continuous JAYGO (join as you go) method. It’s lush! (I always think of Gavin & Stacy when I say that.) There’s something really satisfying about the way it comes together without fuss. Less breaking and joining of wool while connecting the pieces should make for a stronger blanket too. It’s been a while since I did this method, so I needed to find a diagram to use as a map. Heather of The Patchwork Heart blog has a great photo to use as a guide. (Here, if you think you will need it I suggest that you save a copy of that photo since I’m sorry to write that Heather is struggling with ill health and has stated on Instagram that she’s going to delete her blog and social media accounts. She hasn’t yet, but may do in the future.) I saved and edited it; flipping it to a mirror image. We lefties crochet in the opposite direction and 99.9% of instructions are naturally for the 95% of right handers.

The blanket will probably need to have a good sized border because I want it to be a fairly large size to cover the bed.

I sent this photo to a friend who had helped me decide on the squares layout: “All four top squares are joined!”

As soon as I’d sent it I realised…Uh oh! That the grey block is the wrong side up. I want all the right side foundation rounds to be the right side up, and the yarn tail is on top. How can I have missed that?! Ridiculous as I definitely very carefully checked.

“Here we are! NOW they’re joined.”

Luckily I had the dulcet tones of Miriam Margoyles reading her new book Oh Miriam! To ease the pain of going around again. If you’re a Premium subscriber Spotify now includes 15 hours a month of audiobooks. (In the UK at least.) I’m so pleased! I’ve already listened to all of And Away by Bob Mortimer and a bit of something else, so I won’t be able to listen to much more of Miriam’s until the beginning of my new membership month, unless I can access to a copy on the library apps Libby or BorrowBox. But it doesn’t seem to be available on those yet. We went to see Miriam recently on her theatre tour. She’s absolutely fab, so quick and funny. But I’m warning you; the woman and the book won’t be for the faint-hearted. The faint-hearted will be missing out.

I’m deliberating whether to leave you with a photo of my Romaine lettuce pickings from this morning. It’s the first time I’ve grown them and I am VERY pleased with their crunch and flavour, but I think I should keep this a woolly post and you can see them later. Sorry to disappoint the lettuce fans!

How are you? What have you been making? Are you listening to any audiobooks at the moment?

Yarn Along – September

Posted on September 28, 2020 by The Little Room of Rachell

Yesterday, on a beautiful crisp newly minted autumn Sunday morning, I sat up in bed all cosy listening to Liza Tarbuck’s Saturday radio show on the BBC Sounds app and undid every single stitch I’d done of my Coast Blanket while in West Cornwall last week (I told you its name would probably change lots of times) and restarted it.

I don’t want the square tilting so I had tried three different ways of turning each round and have now found a method I’m much happier with. I don’t think you can see where I’ve turned the hook and square? Tell me if you can see, I won’t mind. I won’t be undoing it again as I’m happy. I know no one visiting me and snuggling under my blankets would have noticed unless they were really looking, and probably non-crocheters wouldn’t at all, but they were bugging me. I’m a sometime perfectionist.

I can hear you shouting the word “Swatch!” And I’m shrugging back at you.

I managed to redo this yesterday. Too much for my hands but I enjoyed it. Today Ouch!

I’m one of a group of people on Instagram who are currently making simple granny square blankets. Motif, tapestry and intricate showy-offy colourwork crochet is all very well and good, but they don’t make the heart sing as much as a good old granny square! Sometimes plain and cosy is enough and beautiful in its simplicity.

I feel like I’m spotting granny square blankets on nearly everything I watch right now. For example: The Duchess on Netflix and Doc Martin on Britbox this weekend. It’s really fun to shout “CROCHET!” at the screen. I’m not sure how anyone else feels about this habit. I’m not asking because I don’t want to stop…

I believe crochet originated as a thrifty way to use up leftover wool from knitting projects, or to reuse it from old garments. I love it when you see people doing similar with leftovers, albeit in these times of plenty. That’s how I came to be making my Tilted Squares Blanket actually. I wanted to use up the remnants of the one and only yarn pack I’d bought when I was a new crocheter, before I started to choose my own colour combos.

I know my Coast Blanket isn’t in the waste-not-want-not category in the slightest (See here ) but I’m absolutely loving this Hayfield Spirit variegated yarn. I’ve never used variegated for a blanket before. It keeps it interesting seeing the colours change. There will be lots of multicoloured rounds as it grows bigger, but it’s so pretty I don’t think it will grate. There’s going to be fewer weaker spots, because there won’t be very many ends to darn in all compared to changing yarns on every round. Hardly any darning = big win.

I think I’ve read or listened to everything Tracy Chevalier’s written. I love her blend of historical fact and real life people blended with fictional characters. You can visit or Google most of the places in her stories too.

I enjoy stories set in America, especially during pioneer times. When I saw this paperback in one of favourite charity shops for £1 I grabbed it for my holiday read.

1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their wagon got stuck – in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. They and their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of land, buying saplings from a local tree man known as John Appleseed so they can cultivate the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property. But the orchard they plant sows the seeds of a long battle. James loves the apples, reminders of an easier life back in Connecticut; while Sadie prefers the applejack they make, an alcoholic refuge from brutal frontier life.

1853: Their youngest child Robert is wandering through Gold Rush California. Restless and haunted by the broken family he left behind, he has made his way alone across the country. In the redwood and giant sequoia groves he finds some solace, collecting seeds for a naturalist who sells plants from the new world to the gardeners of England. But you can run only so far, even in America, and when Robert’s past makes an unexpected appearance he must decide whether to strike out again or stake his own claim to a home at last.

Source: GoodReads

I’m probably about 95% of the way through. It’s been a satisfying read, but I wonder if the story will abruptly end? There seems to be so much more to say and very few pages in which to say it. This is probably another way of saying that I don’t want it to end!

Joining in late with Ginny’s Yarn Along once again, but better late than never, right?

Coastal Crochet

Posted on September 15, 2020 by The Little Room of Rachell

Can you believe I forgot to bring any craft away with me, so the first thing I bought (apart from a pasty for lunch!) was a hook and 2 balls of yarn.

I know a nice little wool shop in the middle of Penzance so headed there first. The yarn I chose is Hayfield’s Spirit. It’s 20% wool and has a lovely soft feel. It isn’t the thickest DK but luckily works up well with the 4mm hook I bought. The colourway is ‘Breeze’, the blues and greys perfectly reflect the changing colours of the Cornish sea view we have from our cottage. It’s a few minutes walk from the South West Coast Path and overlooks the sea and a lighthouse.

I’ve brought my Tilted Squares blanket with me to snuggle under. That’s my one packing triumph this year; I always think I should bring a blanket away in September because it gets quite cool during evenings and at night. It’s such a cheery thing to see on a bed or sofa. All the complex patterns in the world can’t beat a bit of classic granny squaring! Ah! So why not make another?! I’m still deciding whether to go for a multi-square rectangular or one simple round and round you go square blanket.

My view as I sit up in bed in the morning:

It’s already named the Coast Path blanket, though this will probably change a few times. It won’t be tilting this time because I’m changing direction on every round.