Good intentions, but ridiculous

Posted on May 6, 2024 by The Little Room of Rachell

Vicki and I have followed each other on social media for years. I read her blog long before Instagram. And once volunteered to test a crochet sock pattern for her. I don’t dwell on that really; since my stitch count definitely did not tally with the pattern’s. I kept on thinking it would magically resolve, but we all know how that ends. I remember giving up and embarrassingly bowing out with a “Well, you’ve got plenty of other testers, oops!” The fault was all mine.

I’ve been promising to visit her newish shop String in Cheltenham, a town in Gloucestershire, for ages. Saturday was finally the day. I went with excellent intentions; I would have a look around and introduce myself, but not buy any yarn. For reasons of stash. I crumbled. How ridiculous to go to a beautiful shop like that and not buy any woolly products! I don’t know what I was thinking really. It would be like going to Italy, and not eating a single bite of pasta or pizza…

As you see I didn’t crumble spectacularly, but I love this skein of DK ’Hendricks’ so much that I’m already anticipating my next visit to String. It’s a bright space filled with very good things! (And a very nice maker, designer and shop keeper too.)

Here’s Vicki’s site, Vicki Brown Designs where you can make heart eyes over her small batch hand dyed yarns. She’s also to be found on all the socials.

I then took myself off for a walk in Cheltenham’s most beautiful park. I have family connections to the town and a visit without a wander around Pittville would feel lacking.

Information about the history of the park and the Pump Room

Lovely to see the candles on the horse chestnut trees. Everywhere is looking so lush and green now. England in May is spectacular.

Eye catching planting

*Cheltenham is the most complete Regency town in England and one of the few English towns in which traditional and contemporary architecture complement each other.*

http://www.Cheltenham.gov.uk

A Victorian postbox. VR for Queen Victoria which stands for Victoria Regina. Regina means Queen in Latin

And now I shall put my beautiful skin of Hendricks away, hopefully just for a little bit, while I finish my blanket and shawl.

I’ve had a hiatus in crafting lately, but I feel inspired again after a visit to String.

Have you been on any trips lately? Met anyone in real life you’ve ‘known’ online for years? How did it turn out?

Progress

Posted on May 17, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

Well it is progress, although very very slow!

In between putting the sock down and nearly admitting defeat I darned about 3 ends of the baby hexagon piece. And that was the sum total of my crafting for the last week. Do you also sometimes find that a setback can put you off doing anything at all, until you figure out what to do?

Instead of doing a tension check, stupidly being a bit lazy to, I upped to a 4mm hook instead of 3.5mm at the start. I always find my tension comes out tighter than required when I do check it. Yesterday I realised that if the foot fits perfectly then that suggests the tension is right, but halfway through crocheting the gusset the sock was huge on my foot. So I undid what I’d crocheted to the end of the heel piece, counted my stitches three times and went with my hunch. I swopped to a 3.5mm hook and all is well. It was obviously me and not Vicki’s pattern at fault.

Rather than frog the sock and use the yarn for my first pair of knitted socks I picked it up again and I’m glad I did. It’s the first time I’ve tried crochet socks and I want to crack it, plus I feel my honour as a pattern tester is at stake. Saying that I’ve probably already failed as I didn’t check my tension, but it’s been a very good lesson. I’ve ‘helpfully’ been reminded that this is only one sock, so I’ll need to make a second unless I want to hop. Grrr! There are a few other progress photos, including the ridiculously long one on IG if you want to see them.

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along once again. This is a library book I grabbed on impulse, I had taken a friend to change her books and saw it on the Quick Choice display just inside the door. It’s one I’ve heard good things about, so I had to take it. By page 53 I’d laughed and cried so much so that I recommended it to my sister in law for her book club. It’s really funny, so far, in a gut wrenching kind of way. If you like the Irish humour of Roddy Doyle’s books you’ll enjoy The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes.

A First

Posted on May 4, 2016 by The Little Room of Rachell

I’ve never crocheted socks before, to be honest I’ve never knitted any either. When designer Vicki Brown put out a call for pattern testers for her new sock designs, I was there like a shot. I really fancy trying new things this year.

I bought a ball of King Cole Zig Zag 4 ply, it’s suitable for socks according to the label. Last night I started the Fallen Leaves design. It’s slow going because it’s crochet’s equivalent of moss stitch, with alternate htr and ss, but the toe looks good so far.

I haven’t done a tension test, but knowing my work is usually on the smaller side when I do; I just decided to increase the hook size automatically. I’m using a 4mm. It fits my toes fine so far…

Isn’t the yarn perfect for the design name? The colours are exactly how they look on the yarn ball here, but oddly my crochet looks much brighter.

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along again this week. The Complete Uncle Silas Stories by H.E Bates are a delight. If you’ve never come across Silas before then I thoroughly recommend him. In a nutshell: he’s an elderly gent, living in the rural countryside of Northamptionshire and is what people would call a ‘character’. Silas is aged around 95 in lots of the stories and always working in his garden, or at some other pursuit (he’s working at digging graves in Silas the Good.) He drinks a bottle of wine a day, often homemade Cowslip, eats very well and very much still likes the ladies.