New arrivals ..

I have a new house guest:

Well behaved.
Quiet
Tidy.
A good listener, too.

Meet Betty:



Bless 'er.
She looks dead bored.
And a bit cold too.



That's better! Nice and snug now.
This wool is a Sirdar chunky something-or-other from a charity shop. It crocheted up quite nicely on 10mm hooks. It is verrrry chunky, but will keep someone warm in arctic climates, methinks.

It's official. I've gone a bit mental.
The weather here today has been a balmy 20+ degrees and me and Mister&kids have been to the local village fair and yet, I'm contemplating cowls.

I think it's something to do with it being the summer holidays, and needing an easy, mindless project (which doesn't involve counting stitches, or doing clever things of any sort) and which I can pick up for seven seconds and put down again. Regularly.

Sorry, Betty, what?
You have more cowls to show us?



If you've visited here before, then you will have read about my mahooooousive Noro stash from the local charity shop- I'm not kidding, 50p a ball and I must have grabbed about 20 balls ...
Anyhoo, this was my first attempt at making something with some Noro Iro.
Simple. Double crochet (US)around.
I have to admit, although I love the colours, it's still a bit clunky. I may frog this and start again, but I have to say, I have loved working with this yarn - just watching the colours and textures change through my fingers has been therapeutic.

Pardon, Betty?
More to show?



This one is just plain, cheap old chunky-ish acrylic (found in local hardware shop for a quid a go) still lovely, but quite dense in texture. Inspired here.

Next, Betty ...



The same wool, but Navy.
This time have solved the dense/clunkiness problem- use a bigger hook!!!
Genius.

This gives a little more air throughout the piece and gets a bit more from the ball of yarn too.

Last thing:
A couple of little roses from here, which are seasonal, at least.



Have a good weekend!
Xx

Wonderful woolly world

So there's a story behind my latest crochet project:

Being new to the wonderful world of wool, I had no idea what I had stumbled upon when I picked up a few balls of Noro Iro at the charity shop.
When I saw it, I thought it looked gorgeous- loved the colour changes and could see from the label that, being wool and silk, it must be good quality.



I wasn't sure how well it would crochet, or what I would do with it, so bought it home and had a play.
Hmmmmm.
Very nice, I thought.
I shall make myself a cowl or something.

Later on that evening I decided to do a bit of Googling to see what I could find out about this Noro stuff .. . and.... Bejaysus!...how much?...!...

I had paid the princely sum of 50p a skein and this Iro wool sells for over 10 quid a go!

Suffice to say, I was back to that shop the very next morning to buy up everything they had:



And wow! It is lovely stuff. I've nabbed some more Iro, loads of Silk Garden and a couple of skeins of Kureyon too. (see, I'm an expert now).
I think the lady in the shop thought I was a bit mad, trying to cram a gazillion balls of yarn on the top of the buggy (cue wails of unhappy child underneath the woolly mountain) and attempting to steer it with one arm (the other trying to keep the gazillion balls of yarn from spilling all over the shop).

I have no idea what to do with all of this just yet, I'm sure the inspiration will come. I feel very grateful to the lady who donated this and will do her proud.

And so, to begin, a one skein cowl, made from the Noro Iro.




I just love these colours.
I have to admit, it took a fair few goes to get this right; too long, too dense, wrong stitch etc. I finally arrived at a dc-ch1-dc (US) solution, which I think works well.





Very seasonal, I know.
If the rain keeps coming, I shall wear this tomorrow.

Xx