New Beginnings

It's that time of the year when everything is new and full of possibilities. Resolutions are made with the best intentions, diets are started, goals are set. I'm not averse to this idea of aiming to improve aspects of my life. While I recognise that a lot of goals fall by the wayside once the reality of day to day life sets in after Christmas, the very act of assessing and reflecting can be a positive experience.

So what are my intentions for 2015?

1. Have a healthy pregnancy. Get my 5-a-day, drink less caffeine, go to bed early, take my vitamins. Seriously, I'm growing a little life inside, and it deserves a bit better than the After Eight mints, cheese and mince pies I've been gorging on for the last few weeks. Plenty of fruit and vegetables on the next Morrisons order and less dairy and fat will be a good start.
2. Enjoy my family. My little man is growing up so fast, he surprises me every day with the things he says and does. I love spending time with him and Ed, I definitely want to make the most of our leisure time this year. We have always been pretty good at getting out and about to be fair. Fortunately this goal should be easy this year as we were bought National Trust membership which will mean lots of days out on the cheap for us when maternity pay kicks in.
3. Get work into perspective. It takes over my life during term-time, more through the stress of thinking about it rather than the doing it. I'm going to streamline my marking to make it more manageable but also hopefully effective. I'm going to stop worrying about lesson observations or the elusive outstanding grade. I'm going to be more efficient where I can. I bought an app, iDoceo, which will hopefully help me keep on track with this. I have an iPad, I should make better use of what it can offer in my work as well as free time.
4. Make stuff. When I don't, it coincides with periods of increased stress for me. I don't know if a lack of creativity is the symptom or the cause of the stress, but there is no excuse not to do something I enjoy if it makes me happier in general.
5. Be grateful. I have a wonderful family, an amazing husband, a beautiful little boy and another little one on the way. So we don't have a lot of space to move in our little house? So what. This is not important. Sometimes when I get frustrated or start to compare my life with others, I need to remember all the great stuff I have going for me and smile.

Now that's blogged, I'll update a little about what is happening in my life as the holiday draws to a close.

Today (this wouldn't post for several days and was actually on Friday) we went here:

 

Baddesley Clinton, a Tudor property owned by the National Trust. The day was beautiful and we all had a lovely time wandering around the house, grounds and of course the cafe!

My blanket currently looks like this:

I decided to drop the dark brown shade as after completing half a row I realised the tone was too dark for the rest of the blanket. I'm happy with the rest of the shades though and get a row crocheted in each spare moment.

I also had this yarn arrive. The Knitting Goddess had a sale and I decided to treat myself to a Christmas present of some DK in this gorgeous plum shade. I plan to use if for Veera Valimaki's Coal cardigan.

 

My other treat to myself this Christmas was a pair of these in the sale at Clarks.

I think it is an unfortunate sign of age that I now find myself shopping for most of my shoes at Clarks, which has a reputation for quality and comfort. But my feet have had enough of cheap shoes! And the sale price is really not so bad. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Now for the madly depressing run up to Monday, when it's back to work and early mornings and rushing around. Hopefully I'll follow points 3 and 5 above though and deal with it positively!

 

 

 

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Simply Crochet Issue 2 Review

Last week the second issue of Simply Crochet became available to purchase on Apple Newsstand and I duly downloaded it, taking advantage of a subscription offer that gave you the first issue free which was very welcome!
So how is this fledgling magazine getting on now we have got past the excitement of the introductory issue? I have decided to continue buying it for a while to see how it establishes itself, though there are a few things that I hope will change in the coming issues.
First up, some of the things I liked. There is another lovely blanket, this time by Nicki Trench, which looks very attractive in the beautifully styled photographs. However, there are so many crocheted blanket patterns online, not least the ones on offer at Attic24 that I really wouldn't buy a magazine on the strength of this type of pattern.

One item that really appealed was a crocheted poncho by Joanne Scrace, which worked up in a lovely teal yarn in the photos looks very pretty. However, I wouldn't rush to start making it - so is there anything else that jumps out at me?

Again, the home items are far too twee and cutesy for my tastes - as I've said before, I'm all for a cute cushion or blanket, but jam jar covers and shelf edgings are not for me. I am highly unlikely to hook a lampshade of any kind either.
The Toft Alpaca bunny was incredibly sweet and I could see me making this for a new baby, along with the little baby bootees - they certainly look like a quick project too.

I also like the continued ideas for customising shop bought clothes with crochet elements, this time a pocket - a very quick idea and shown sewn up on affordable clothes for a mum on maternity leave - thank you New Look!

There were several interesting articles such as that on Freeform Crochet which pointed to what look like some really inspiring blogs on the subject.
But perhaps the stand out item for me in the whole magazine is the stunning crochet handbag by Erika Knight, worked up in superchunky yarn using a range of motifs stitched together and lined with a contrasting fabric. I have already priced up the yarn for this (and realised it is out of my current price range and I will have to substitute!). I know I have a hundred other projects to finish (and start!) but this will definitely get made one day.

Overall, the standard of the magazine wasn't quite up to the last issue - I really hope they include a few larger projects, particularly garments, in future issues, and not so much of the cutesy homeware items. Some projects from the Rowan crochet collections would be lovely. But this is of course personal preference as some people really go for that homemade style - I just prefer a more classic/contemporary look in my home.

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Jake's Stripy Blanket

So here, as promised, is the big reveal of Jake's Stripy Blanket, though a little later than I intended - somehow taking care of a 6 month old who suddenly decides he is not going to nap anymore can be time consuming! But normal service has resumed, little man is sleeping and I have time to write a post.
I started my blanket for two reasons - firstly, my friend Rach gave little J a gorgeous pram blanket when he was born, and it got so many compliments from my friends that I knew I wanted to make a bigger one for J when the little blanket became too small. Then one of my new mum friends asked if I could show her how to make one for her little boy. Of course, I agreed. I have a basic knowledge of crochet and knew I would be able to teach my friend who was a complete beginner, but I needed to make sure I understood how the blanket was constructed myself first. So, the perfect excuse to start my own!

I took a quick trip to my local yarn shop to pick up some acrylic in some nice bright shades. I went for two shades of Hayfield Bonus and two shades of Stylecraft Special - very economical and great for baby knits as they are easy to wash. I decided on a range of blues with a splash of yellow thrown in for contrast.
I followed the instructions for the Granny Stripe blanket on the Attic24 blog - this is an extremely popular pattern for a reason, once you get going, it is so simple and very 'moreish' if that is an appropriate term for a yarn project? You know what I mean anyway!

The blanket was so easy to pick up and put down to just add another stripe when I could, perfect for fitting in around little J's nap times. I decided to crochet until I ran out of yarn, but then typically I ran out of a colour in the middle of a stripe. So another trip to the LYS was in order, and I picked up another couple of balls so I could also add a border, which I hadn't originally intended to do. However, my tension had been a bit iffy over the course of the project and I thought the border might disguise that a bit. I am so glad I did! It makes the blanket, and really did sort out the slightly wonky edges. I just added a round of granny stripe all around the edge and a row of treble crochet, simple but effective I think.

I would love to make another one of these and probably will do in the future. My friend who I taught to crochet is already on her second! I love this - spreading the yarn love. But in the meantime, I had some of the extra balls of yarn leftover, so I decided to create a little blanket buddy to go with J's blanket. More on that another day...

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Simply Crochet

When I saw a post on Ravelry about a forthcoming UK based crochet magazine, I was quick to join the Simply Crochet group to find out more about the dedicated publication for this definitely under represented yarn craft. Although primarily a knitter I am always keen to learn new techniques and in recent years have taught myself some basic crochet, but it's often difficult to find interesting patterns that go beyond the traditional granny square. The magazine is produced by Future, who bring us Simply Knitting, The Knitter, Papercraft Inspirations and the long-lamented Scrapbook Inspirations, so I had high hopes for this new offering.

Today the magazine was released on Apple Newsstand, so I purchased a digital copy to have a browse with my cup of tea this afternoon.
The format very much follows its sister title, Simply Knitting, with various shops, yarns and books highlighted in the first section of the magazine. I quite like this section, as it draws my attention to some independent sellers and designers that I am often not aware of, and even if I couldn't afford to purchase some of the products showcased, it at least provides some inspiration.

So what about the patterns? My favourites include a crochet collar decorated with buttons which usefully includes suggestions for how to wear it, alongside a corsage which I could envisage me making out of some leftover Sublime yarn. I also liked the chunky cowl, which I'm sure would work up really quickly, the cute little Amigurumi dragon toy, the granny square beanie and the triangle motif 'Lecchi' blanket which appears on the front cover.

The patterns I was not so keen on were the bedroom items apart from the cushion covers and blanket - some of these were a little too 'twee' for me. I just cant imagine ever wanting to own a granny square covered lampshade, but maybe that's just me. Also the headphone cover is pretty pointless unless you know a music loving tweenie I suppose.
I also unfortunately wasn't keen on either of the full garments in the magazine. The adult cardigan looked a little bedjackety for me, and the little girl's cardigan a bit boxy. I think it's really hard to design truly wearable crocheted garments, though one designer who manages it admirably is Marie Wallin, and I hope the magazine will feature some of her Rowan designs in the future in the same way as Simply Knitting does.
All in all, I was impressed with this first issue and will definitely buy it again to see how it progresses. I hope they do improve the garment offerings and keep the designs contemporary and fashionable, as I think crocheted items can be really stunning to wear if the design is right - I still own (and, until the onset of breast feeding and massive boobs, wore!) a crocheted waistcoat which my mum bought in the seventies, which proves the longevity of a classic design.
All the images above come from a sneak peek available on the Simply Crochet website, so if you think this magazine might be for you, go and take a look.
In other crochet news, I have just finished a granny stripe blanket for the little man that I am very pleased with - I will endeavour to photograph and blog it over the weekend so watch this space!

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