WOYWW 747 Books, shells and borders

Hi all, I’m back for our weekly peek at each other’s desk care of Miss Julia at the Stamping Ground blogspot. 

My chevron blanket is coming together as I join on more and more strips. 

I love using my olive wood and teal pearl crochet hook on it and the way the blues and greens swirl along the chevrons. 

It’s so hard to measure the strips accurately because of the stretchy rib but I’ve devised a way of allowing adjustments. The chevron pattern can only be adjusted from the top. I do the white border around except for the top, join it to the next one from the bottom. When I get near the top I can adjust the length of the chevron stripe before completing the border. 

It’s cozy to work under as Bella and Gracie agree. 😻😻

Last week’s drawing class was on shading of marine items. It’s still a work in progress but this is where I’m up to. I’ll replace the top stone, which I don’t like, and have still to do the cockle shell. 

Our tutor, Claire Adams, suggested we look at an exhibition by the Society of Marine Artists at https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/. There’s some fantastic work on there. I love these STITCHED mussels: 

As well as these: 

On Saturday we had a good day at the Canterbury Food fair. My publisher and my creative writing tutor visited. Here I’m with Fran, my tutor. 

It was a good fair with good food from all over. We had duck & hoisin sauce wraps. 😋😋. There were 2 music stages, steampunks, people on stilts and lots of people there in the sun on the Saturday. 

On Sunday we went for our covid jabs first thing. The weather was cold and windy in the morning and wasn’t a good day from the booksales point of view. The stall was free so it was still ok & we had nice chats with other authors. 

And finally…

We’re at an appointment tomorrow, Wednesday, so won’t be able to comment till later

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xxx

WOYWW 746 Borders, books and shading.

Hi all, back for our weekly blog hop courtesy of Miss Julia at the Stamping Ground. 

I’ve finished all my chevron strips and am now doing the borders prior to joining them up. 

Bella is snuggling under them to ‘help me’ 😼.  It’s nice how the border smooths the strip and reduces the curling. I’m doing a ‘join as you go’ crochet join:

It’s cool, windy and very rainy here today so my timing’s good for joining them up. Fingers crossed that it will be as sunny as forecast on Saturday, though, as I’ll be selling my book in the Authors’ tent at the Canterbury food and drink festival. 

Gracie is extra keen on cuddles as well now it’s colder. 

They both send purrs to all your cats. 

I enjoyed my first drawing lesson last week. Nothing much to show yet as we were practicing shading techniques. 

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx

WOYWW 745 Hook porn and Tunisian temptation

Hi all, I hope you’re all well. I’m glad the heat is abating a bit. 

The title of this post might be a bit disappointing for some😉. I’ll say right now it’s about crochet and crochet hooks! 😀🧶

I’m very nearly there with my chevron blanket strips. 

Julia commented on last week’s post about whether I’m using variegated yarn so I’m showing both types below. 

Yes, they are variegated but with a 12cm wide strip they wouldn’t change colour enough so I switch every few rows. 

You can also see my latest hook above. It’s a 4mm olive wood ‘hybrid plus’ with a styled thumb rest. The one I showed you last week made the gauge for this project too loose but I’ll find a use for it. The slightly shorter hook is better for me as a leftie than the longer one, and the styled (larger) thumb rest is brilliant. I’m getting B to buy me a couple more for Crimbo and am hesitating between handle colours. There’s a huge choice of woods and handles but I want some finer gauge hooks, and though my cats don’t chew wood, I’m avoiding the ones that would be toxic, like yew, African Blackwood and laburnum. So it’s brown ivory wood for the 3mm with a root beer handle 

For the 3.5mm I have more choice. I like the birds eye maple but which handle goes best? What do you think? 

This one is called mojito. 

All photos are by Henryetta’s Hooks

I’ve been watching Tunisian crochet videos this week on Facebook: Asli ile sanatsal tasarimlar Tunisian crochet. It’s a bit of a mouthful but they make Tunisian crochet look so quick and easy. I will NOT start it before I finish my blanket..NOT NOT NOT! I think I’ll have some cake yarn left over from the blanket do I can use that. I’ve found a Tunisian crochet video for lefties Here. Just a little test:

That will be put to one side till I’ve finished the blanket. 

I’ve also joined a writing group called ‘Write by the Sea’. We have meetings where there’s an invited speaker and others where we share our writing on a given theme. Last week was travel and I wrote a short story on arriving at the vineyard. I’ll put it on my writing blog. Send me an email to lmcollis@icloud(dot)com

if you want to read it and don’t have access to the blog. 

If you read my novel and liked it, please, please put a review on Amazon review. It’ll help me get an American publisher 

Many thanks. 

Bella and Gracie send purrs to you all. 

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW to you all. 

I’m off to read your blogs, courtesy of Miss Julia at the Stamping Ground

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xxx

WOYWW 744 chevrons and hook porn

Hi all,

Sorry I didn’t get round everyone last week. More migraines, I’m afraid. 

Neet asked what the final chevron blanket would look like. 

Here’s a photo from the paid pattern from Mary Maxim. 

I’ve done 9 x 2m strips out of about 12, I estimate, and then I have to join them up. 

I wouldn’t pay the high price for the Mary Maxim yarn (about £12 a ball for acrylic when imported from the USA), so I’ve used a mixture of King Cole Bramble and Harvest, switching every so often with a magic knot. 

I’ve been distracted this week by hook porn, buying one of the gorgeous crochet hooks from Henryetta’s hooks. They have a Facebook page and the man who makes them switches from working on orders all week (about 8 weeks wait for one) to making random ones for pleasure at the weekends. Such dedication! If you’re quick you can buy one of the random ones and receive it in a couple of days. Mine is 4.5mm zebrano with a Rain forest pattern acrylic handle. It’s glorious!

I’ve a system to avoid these hooks going into black holes, as displayed by Bella. I use a green glasses cord on the hook and attach it to my piece by a gorgeous little orang yarn stitch marker that was one of the set included with my hook. It’s the Librarian, Jan! 

Gracie and Bella both send purrs

And finally…

Take care and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts xx