WOYWW 602 Beanies- no pom-poms

Hi all, back for another Wednesday sharing of out workspaces via the blog hop at Https:\\the Stamping-ground.blogspot.com

I’ve diverted this week into making beanie hats, using up extra yarn I bought for the vineyard shawl. The shawl was delivered, and much appreciated by my goddaughter and her partner, who models his beanie. 

B has kindly modelled one being made for a godson. 

I dislike pom-pond so I’ve made a little wool button to sit on top. 

Thea is happy on my crocheting cushion; the only way to persuade her to get down is to take her photo!

And sometimes not even then!

I’m waiting for the Christmas spirit to strike, but I have had one present, a very nicely wrapped magic carpet from Shoshi, thanks so much!

 I usually have to go out to get holly first but haven’t been going out. We’re in Tier 3 but covid rates are still just going up really fast here. 

They say there’s a new variant of the virus. Super scary. 

Our neighbour has a lot of exterior lights, all year round. It makes it hard to see the stars but there are supposed to be good meteor showers this week. There’s also a Jupiter/Saturn planet conjunction on 21 Dec, that may make an amazing Christmas star. https://earthsky.org/human-world/was-the-christmas-star-real

And finally....

Take care. stay safe and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts 

WOYWW 601 Post crop crochet

Hi all, welcome to my workspace this Wednesday, part of the What’s on your workspace Wednesday bloghop organised by Julia at The Stamping Ground . 

Wasn’t it good to chat together on Saturday? It was lovely to see those of you who could make it. Here are a few: 

I’m returning to an older WIP, a shawl I started a while ago. 

I’m trying to add a bit of an Art Deco top border. 

It has three colours together, dark green, malachite green and copper.  

but I ran out of the copper. 

It’s Sod’s law that the more expensive yarn is, the more likely it is that it arrives in hanks rather than balls. This is where I need Brian to stand with his arms out for me to wind it into a ball. 

 When he nearly lost part of it he said I looked like this   - it’s very difficult to untangle. Still we ended up with a nice ball.

Thea is alternating between cuddling up to me and to the radiator as it’s very cold here. 

I’ve had some back problems and am using a V pillow to support my crochet, so I’m not bending over it. I have to be careful as I’ve osteoporosis.  Thea thinks it’s there for her to stretch out on, of course! 

I’ve moved her tepee to next to the hall radiator - cat heaven! 

And finally, I swear there is a special black hole that eats crochet hooks in my house...

WOYWW 600 Yay!

Hi, and big congratulations to Julia and to us all for sustaining our blog circle at the The Stamping Ground to 600 weeks! 

My vineyard scarf is now finished. 

I added a grape-bobble border to the ends but have kept the side borders plain, as bobbles could catch in earrings. 

 Since then I’ve been struggling with chiral logic. I fancied these figure of eight gloves, but the pattern is only written for right handed crochet, and my spirals, in the first example, were going wrong. I still don’t have it right, but it’s an interesting little problem. 

The pattern is here: 

http://knitting-and-so-on.blogspot.com/2015/11/octavo.html

Thanks to all for your good wishes last week; B’s 2nd cataract op seems to have gone ok. He says he’s wasting a lot of time looking for glasses he doesn’t need, like when he wakes and reaches for them out of habit. He’ll still need reading glasses, which also get lost. In a few weeks he can get a definitive prescription. 

Thea is still very cuddly; hibernating is also a key occupation 😻

And finally...

Looking forward to seeing you all at the crop on Saturday 

Hugs

Lynne

WOYWW 599 When will I stop?

Hi all, This will be posted early as B has his 2nd cataract op tomorrow. 

This post is part of the wonderful world of Wednesday crafting, celebrated by sharing our workspaces via The Stamping Ground , hosted by Julia. 

I think I'm coming to the end of the vineyard scarf. B has kindly modelled it for me - how much longer do you think it should be? My goddaughter is about the same height as B but with longer legs and a slightly shorter torso.

 

I'm planning for the border; orange and purple, I think? I was carefully calculating how much wool I'd need by crocheting 20cm, measuring the yardage used then working out how much I'd need for the whole border. So many places are out of stock, due to the pandemic, but I surprisingly need less than I thought.

Some burnt orange is on the way from a small family yarn shop, woolfull.com, that is offering free postage with no minimum order.  It must be a loss leader. I found myself buying extra just so my purchase would be more than the postage. That's my excuse anyway. ;-)

Thea and I have been having lots of cuddles. She's off B at present, sadly for him,  but that will change in time.

Good new! Our case of Beaujolais nouveau has just arrived! North and South wines in London are now stocking it, and since we can’t go to France, we pay English (horrible!) prices!

As we’re self-isolating prior to B’s op, here’s a wonderful photo taken by my friend, Chris Farrell. This one, taken off the Folkestone area, was so impressive I had to include it, with her kind permission. 

And finally...

I’m looking forward to seeing you at our virtual crop. 

Take care, stay safe and happy WOYWW 

Hugs

Lynnecrafts x

WOYWW 598 Vineyard scarf and Thea

Hi all, I can’t believe we’ll soon be at the 600th What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday hosted by Julia at The Stamping Ground

I’m still working on the everlasting vineyard scarf. I reckon I have about a foot to go. 

 I haven’t sewn the leaves down yet; I catch them in the crochet as I go. Do you think they should be left free at the edges? 

I work on it all rolled up now. 

I’m really pleased with how the bunches of grapes have worked out. I did them in Aran yarn, Sirdar Jewelspun shade Nordic Noir, in 7-stitch bobbles so they stand out. I wasn’t sure of all the colours at first but even the light blue looks like grapes with a bloom on them from the wild yeasts. 

The leaves have been in a variety of colours, picked from Hayfield spirit and King Cole variegated shades. I adapted them from a maple leaf pattern 

How-to-crochet-maple-leaf/

Winding through the balls to find the bit of colour I want has left quite a few odd balls of subfusc colours. Not the sort for a repeat version, apart from a few maroons. 

Thank you all, for your kind words and good wishes last week. 

Thea has had lots of cuddles since. She’s also disturbed by the workers on the scaffolding outside as we’re having our gables attended to. 

She remembered and found a catnip fish she’s fond of this week and had several mad half hours playing with it before collapsing for another nap. It's just a £4 Yeooow Catnip fish but she loves it.

Too much excitement, Lynne!

I’m so thankful we still have her. Dino’s death has devastated us. We have to pick up his ashes this week. I’ve had my nose stuck in a book ever since. This is me:

Mind Games for distraction

Do you know how many words you can make from the word “beastly”? I had to have a root canal filling this week. My dentist is great, works hard to save teeth that other dentists would extract, but it means he’s v careful and uses a horrible rubber dam over my mouth when he’s clearing out the root. I got to 45 words made from “beastly” before I lost count. I then did world capitals alphabetically, and did them all except E and X. (I thought it was me but there isn't one, unless you count Edinburgh.) At least these mind games kept me away from thinking about the dentistry. It’s only my dentist who says I have a petite mouth 🤣

B’s 2nd cataract op has been confirmed for next Wednesday, so fingers crossed nothing stops it going ahead. The first one seems to have gone well. 

Things happen in threes - I hope

My old Peugeot has died and is too expensive to pass an MOT. We don’t need 2 cars now we’re retired, but it served me well. And, bizarrely, the inner pane on the double-glazing in the back bedroom has cracked and is crazed all over, but with no impact. So with Dino, hopefully that’s our 3 bad events. The money for scrapping the car will at least almost pay for the window. 

In my youth they never paid you at the scrap yard - the rising price of metal I suppose. Old man McGuinness in Stoke used to charge you £6 for a part if you could hold it in one hand or £12 if it took two. Happy days! 

And finally....

This one’s true even now I’m retired:

And this just made me giggle:

I can imagine my Mum enjoying that game!

Thanks for your visit; I’d love you to say add a comment if you can, thanks. 

Take care, all, stay safe and happy WOYWW

hugs

Lynne