Surprise Direction

At least it surprised me.

I've always enjoyed having some crochet to work on in between my knitting but I would never have said I was a crochet-er. I'm a knitter. Or was. I seem to be both now and although I don't think crochet will take over, it is certainly my current number one.

I really like using the gorgeous yarns of today and making looser, bigger stitches than is traditional to get much lacier, softer effects and of course the enthusiasm of fellow Ravelers has played a very big part in getting me hooked - er - sorry.


I've joined Queenieamanda's English Country Garden cal on Ravelry and now can't stop making motifs. There will be one crochet flower motif pattern every month until September - and sometimes two. All the motifs will be hexagons and can be joined together to make whatever.

This is the first motif - Jonquil



The one at bottom left is exactly as Queenies pattern, the other two have got a bit of extra in the centre.


Here's the second - Begonia, March 2



Only the first five are Begonias, a Jonquil has crept in at the end.

And third - Daisy. I think this one is my favourite ...




The yarns are the same for all - red and darker purple both Fyberspates Unicorn. Bluey/purple, pink and the variegated one NDS Dazzle HT.
Hook - 5mm
These are all the daisies I've made so far.




And this is a mixture of Jonquils and Begonias



I'm not sure if they will finally be a sort of shawl or a bedspread thingy. But I don't need to make that decision just yet.

One motif at a time is good for my current short attention span.

Twisted Stitches

I'm really loving working twisted stitch patterns so imagine how excited I was to find this book. What a fantastic resource!! There are 174 traditional Austrian stitch patterns and instructions for garments including stockings, sweaters and vests.

No, I haven't had time to use the book yet but these socks are definitely in the spirit.



They are the Bavarian Twisted Stitch socks from Cat Bordhi's "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles"with modifications to magic loop, toe-up and short row heels.



I used Dye Studio's "Unicorn" yarn, colour Starlight. It's the first time I've used this and I certainly wasn't disappointed although I think the stitch definition may have been even better with BFL.

I can't tell you Unicorn's composition because I don't know, in fact it's a secret until the end of the year. When you buy a skein - either from Natural Dye Studio or Fyberspates - you get a clue and in December if you can solve all the clues and sort out an anagram of the first letters of all the answers you end up with the compostion. And you can win an enormous prize....

Wel,l I've collected all the riddles so far but don't have the answers yet. Not by a long way. But it's fun.