WOYWW 760 Brain twisters and Christmas

Hi all, I hope you had a great Christmas. It was just us two and the cats, a haunch of wild boar, some good French wine, B’s mince pies and my Christmas cake. 

 I finished B’s slipover so it became a Christmas present, switched with his birthday present for the end of January. 

I had some excellent crafty presents:

Crochet hooks from Henryetta’s Hooks

An alpaca wool bag

And a curious but useful wool holder, as well as jewellery and clothes. 

I set myself a right brain twister for Twixtmas. 

This cowl looks so pretty. It’s a double sided crochet, worked on both sides alternately. I thought it would be nicely intricate. 

I treated myself to some fancy Uruguayan 4ply yarn ( my annual present to myself in memory of my Mum) and set to. The trick I’d learned for not twisting a long chain came in handy:

avoid twisting crochet chains 

Rows 1 and 2 were ok, but then came the dreaded row 3. There are even blogs about how horrendous it is. https://cup-of-stitches.blogspot.com/2019/07/dotty-cowl-free-pattern-and-tutorial.html?m=1.  It is quite the worst-written pattern I’ve ever tried. 

I think I eventually got through row 3 and am now on my um 5th try at row 4! The trouble is that those who’ve succeeded have made a beautiful cowl. It’s not going to beat me 😡.  Bella’s helping 😻

Bella and Gracie had catnip mice for Crispmouse and really like them. 

I haven’t managed to snap Gracie with one yet, but they both wish you all happy Crispmouse and all the best for the new year. 

And finally…

A happy and healthy new year to you all, 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 759 Happy Christmas

Hi all, I hope you’re warm and well. I’d like to wish you all a merry Christmas and all the best for a happy and healthy new year. 

Brian’s slipover is nearly done. It’s for his birthday in January. This is the front. I’ve just the neck and arm borders to do. He’s not keen on having his photo taken 😘

My Christmas tree is up and it’s like welcoming old friends back. The fairy is as old as I am:

Our LLJ made the Christmas puddings for me

This lovely cracker was made by my friend Paula

This bird came from our friend, Liz with our card this year. 

We had a nice Xmas party with my writing group and partners, plenty of food and drink, with Xmas themed stories. 

Bella and Gracie send purrs to you all and hope you have many crunchy mice in your midwinter feasts. 😻😻

And finally…

See…😹😹

Merry Xmas and happy WOYWW 

Hugs 

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 758 books, logs and crochet.

Hi all, 

I hope you’re all well? I’m coughing still but I’m ok. On Sunday we had a good day selling my book, A Sense for Silver at Elham Christmas fair. I shared a stall with my friend, Kate, from my writing group. Her book is about our village and is a time slip novel between Saxon times and now, called the Garnet brooch. 

There have been some nice wreaths about, this year. I bought these two from our local farm shop:

My rusty jumper is growing, with Gracie’s help. 

And with Bella’s help, showing my zebrano crochet hook. 

Bella and Gracie send purrs to you all! 

On Monday we had a 3m cube log delivery. The lorry can only tip the logs into the middle of the drive so we then have to move it over to the logstore. It took us about 3 hours - our muscles are still complaining!

Here, we’d nearly finished. 

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xxx

WOYWW 757 Nostepinnes and old WIPs

Hi, I haven’t a lot of craft to show this week. I unearthed another forgotten WIP and had to do detective work to find which stitch and hook size I’d used. 

The colour of this is much brighter and nicer in daylight!

I’ve bought some stitch counters with hook sizes and stitches since from Jessies Crafty Hands on Facebook to help in the future with picking up older WIPs: 

A few people asked about my Nostepinne last week. It’s a traditional Norwegian tool (now, now LLJ, no sniggering at the back!) used for winding wool. Traditionally, a young man would make one for his beloved to show his woodworking skills. I get them from Les Smith who turns short ones for me. Details in http://lynnecrafts.blogspot.com/2022/08/woyww-689-tizzy-home.html?m=1

 We had a good day at Wye craft market on Sunday but I presume it’s there or a supermarket in Maidstone where caught my rotten cold, sniff, sniff, atchoo!🤧

I was so glad to see Lindart and Susan Renshaw saying they’d bought my book last week. I’m fascinated to understand how sales outside the UK work. Did you buy the ebook or paperback, and from where please?

Remember, all (good 😉) Amazon reviews of A Sense for Silver are welcome! Here’s the UK link: A Sense for Silver: 1 (The Ellyn Boswell Paris silversmith series)
A Sense for Silver

Gracie and Bella send purrs to you all and ask if you can stop their Hoomum from making these nasty sneezy noises that make them jump off her lap. 

I’ll be commenting late tomorrow as I’ve a hospital appointment and then B has the dentist, all in Canterbury.  In the meantime, I hope you all stay safe, well and warm. 

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 756 Rusty crochet and art classes

Hi all,

I hope you’re all well and keeping warm. It’s gone very cold here. 

I’m struggling a bit with the arm reduction on B’s rusty slipover.

The pattern had me decreasing too many at the armpit and left the back too narrow so I’m busking it. 

I also had to wind a new ball of the pepper alpaca. Bella has been helping. 

I do wish they’d sell it in balls instead of hanks. It worked with using crochet hooks attached to the arms of my chair with elastic bands. 

All done!

At art class we did charcoal drawings of birds. 

We’ve now started a still life with a book, an orange and a mug. Of course, I used my novel, A Sense For Silver, for the book. It’s a tricky drawing as perspective has to be taken into account. 

We’ll be doing more work on it on Thursday, our last class of the term. 

I bought some more Inktense pencils from a company called Art discounts. There was supposed to be a 5% discount but I couldn’t find the window for the code. Anyway, after a bit of to and fro they gave me the discount retrospectively. They have good prices, if you need anything:https://artdiscount.co.uk/

On Sunday this week, we’ll be selling my novel at a craft fair in Wye. https://www.fighutdesign.co.uk/product-page/wye-village-hall-3-december-2023

Gracie and Bella send purrs. 

And finally….

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xxx

WOYWW 755 Rusty crochet, Inktense and books

Hi all,

I’ve been working on my rusty slipover this week, with help from  Bella and Gracie.. 

They both send purrs to you all. 

At art class I finished my sea cave painting in Inktense pencils:

I’m pleased with it. 

Last weekend we stood market on both Saturday and Sunday, selling my novel, a Sense for Silver. We had good sales but it was tiring. If you’ve read it and liked it, could you put a review on Amazon please? Diana wrote a lovely one, thanks so much xx

At the craft market on Saturday we were opposite a stall that sells painted leather hats. I fell for this one but it was too small.(Just as well as it would have cost all our profits!) I’ll mention it for a character in my next book!

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs 

Lynnecrafts xx