Hook and Needles

Hi everyone.
Gee time has been flying by. It's nearly 2 weeks since my last post. After my very busy few days in Melbourne it took me a few days to regenerate the batteries and feel normal again, then my usual end of week activities (netball and craft group) kept me busy. Anyway I'm back now but I have been torn between this post, that I had started to do before I went away, or filling you in about all that has been happening. I decided to go with this one, because after all it is already half done, and hopefully I'll get time over the next couple of days to do the other one.

When I'm crocheting a large project, like my Granny rug (blanket), I usually have a smaller quick project on the go as well. You know, so I don't get bored, and I feel like I'm accomplishing something. Or sometimes an idea will hit me and I have to experiment straight away. That's what happened with this next project.
While I was searching through my stash for wool for the Granny rug I came across this piece of crochet.

I think I started it 10 plus years ago with grand plans of making a baby blanket or shawl but realised fairly early on that I didn't have enough wool so it got tucked away with all my other UFOs(Unfinished Objects). 

I thought it might look nice in different colours, so time to experiment. 

I like it, but then I remembered this scarf.

It is from 'Better Homes and Gardens' magazine a couple of years ago. I have made a couple of these, in different colours for friends. I really like the variation between the solid and two colour circles. Time to experiment again and this is the result.

A pretty scarf, isn't she lovely? The colours are really closer to those in the magazine photo but I couldn't get it to photograph the true colours, but you get the idea.

The completion of the scarf coincided with a friends birthday so she has gone off to a new home.

The other small project (or projects) I have been working on was a request from my daughter Heidi. She spotted this slouchy beanie in a shop.

She liked the look of the beanie but wasn't sure about the wearability of the colour and it was made with acrylic wool (we like pure wool better). So it was "mum do you think you can make me this in wool?"
As you can see it is made with fairly chunky yarn and I only have 8 ply(sorry not sure what that is in non Australian terms but it's not chunky) or thinner in my stash so I thought I would do a trial using 5mm needles (normally I use 4mm) with  the 8 ply to see if it achieved a chunkier look.

I was pretty happy with the end result considering I didn't have a pattern. Just needed to be a little longer, so it would slouch more, and the crown needed some tweaking as well but the fit was just right, not too tight and not to loose.

I showed Heidi while I was in Melbourne and she quite liked the colour but preferred a chunkier look so we went shopping for some thicker wool. We couldn't find a suitable pink so she decided on a grey because she will be able to wear it with anything. I bought 2 balls of 12ply and a set of 6.5mm needles.

When I got home I knitted a sample and worked out how many stitches I thought I needed and started knitting the chunky trial.

This is first trial but I decided it might be a bit tight (Heidi likes her beanies loose) so I started another one (I will still finish this one) with more stitches and it turned out just right. I think she will be happy with it.

The great thing about chunky wool and bigger needles is that beanies don't take long to whip up. I also love using 4 needles, no purl row, no seam to sew up and only a couple of ends to sew in, YAY! 

If anyone would like the pattern for the beanie (or the scarf) I can have a go at writing it out and I'm only too happy to share, just leave a comment. Some people are having trouble leaving comments here so if you do, you can leave the comment on my Facebook page. It's a public page so even if you're not on Facebook you should be able to access it via the link.

In other crochet news I have nearly finished the Granny rug. I have all the squares crocheted together but I have to order some more black wool from here so I can do the edging. I have something a bit different in mind for the edging. Something I came across when I was blog surfing but you'll have to wait and see. 

And some show and tell from Craft Group.

Sally brought in this crocheted christening bonnet and bootees.

The bonnet is about 100 years old isn't it gorgeous.

And 

Diane as been experimenting with her crochet and using whatever wool she had to make dolly's blankets for her grand daughters.

It's a great idea for sampling stitches and I think she will be a very popular Gran, though I'm sure she already is.

Well that's about it for today.

Until next time

 TOODLES

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