HRYC
Next Steps Crochet: guest post by Sofia
Take it away, Sofia!
There have been several very successful 'absolute beginners' crochet classes held at HRYC now and I've loved how enthused almost every one of the newbie crocheters have got about the craft. One recent comment was 'if I'd learnt to crochet before knitting I can see I might not have learnt to knit'. I doubt that's really true though. I can now knit too, I've not knitted a lot, but I can do it and I intend to do more of it in future even though crochet is my first love. Trouble with crochet is, you have to learn much of the more advanced stuff by yourself, there's not many crochet classes beyond the beginner level but there are loads of techniques that can move crochet beyond the granny square and several techniques that I wish I'd been able to learn from someone in person. So I'm sharing my new found knowledge in a 'next steps' class suitable for those that can already crochet a little.
One of the 'must know' techniques we'll cover is a more advanced method of chaining called the foundation single crochet, it's much stretchier and so it's ideal for clothing, plus it gets rid of that frustrating 'first row' experience. Reading charts is another technique many people have mentioned they'd like to learn. There are some gorgeous patterns which make a whole lot more sense when charted thats for sure! Best tip I can give you is this; read your chart anti-clockwise or from right to left as that's how we create our 'fabric'. We'll also cover a few different methods for joining squares and something called an invisible decrease so hopefully there's a little bit of something interesting in there for a few of you.
I must admit, I'm really looking forward to it, I'm hopeful I might pick up a tip or two from those that come along as well!
Adventures with Spud & Chloe
When Spud & Chloe Fine arrived in the shop, I was more than a little taken by one of their colours: Glow Worm. You could go so far as to say I was quite enamoured with it. The only thing I didn't like was that, sadly, it doesn't glow in the dark. BUT IT LOOKS LIKE IT SHOULD.
Spud & Chloe Fine in Glow Worm
And you know what else I can't help myself with? Stripes. Why oh why do I do this to myself? Every time!
Spud & Chloe Fine in Wildberries, Lipstick, Glow Worm and Sidewalk
A conversation followed about how great these four colours looked together. And then I stumbled across the Nova Dress pattern. Fate? I'd like to think so.
It was a great, quick and straight forward knit - I made the size 4, and cut the yarn at each stripe change rather than carry four colours up the side (I felt that would be messy, and don't mind the weaving in).
Hooray! Finished!
The problem when the dress was all done though - the leftovers! Oh noes! They sat forlornly on the stash shelf for weeks. Solution: kid sized version of the Leftovers Cowl.
Instead of doing 70 stitches as with the adult version, provisionally cast on 50sts on 3.25mm needles, and follow the instructions for the bigger size. Easy peasy!
If you're one of the many many people now addicted to Pinterest - I've pinned a whole bunch of awesome Nova dress projects found on Ravelry. Great way to pick up ideas on colour combos and peek at cute kids!
PS - we're out of stock of lots of Spud & Chloe Fine colours at the moment, but a bumper order will be with us in about 2 weeks. Yay! Let us know (shop@hollandroadyarn.co.nz) if you'd like us to pop any aside for you when it arrives.
Incredible colourwork socks II
Okay, so I kept looking at colourwork patterns...I couldn't help it! Here are more to get excited over. I really am my own worst enemy when it comes to mentally queuing up things to knit. With all the spare I (really, really don't) have.
Kirkwall by Mary Jane Mucklestone
Wallflower by Stephanie van der Linden
Bumblebee by The Needle Lady
I'm done now. I think. Maybe...
A little bit of cake
Last week's Sat Sit & Knit saw us having a nibble on a lemon curd pound cake. It got me thinking, though: could I make one with the raspberry jam sitting in the pantry?
Hooray! Yes! It worked really well, so here's my recipe, adapted from this lemon curd pound cake from My Kitchen Snippets. Yum!
Ingredients:
115g of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp lemon zest
1 cup flour
1/3 cup desiccated coconut, plus extra for top
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
raspberry jam
Grease a loaf pan and heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
Cream together butter and sugar until light.
Add eggs one at a time, beat until well combined.
Mix in the milk and lemon zest.
Add flour, baking powder, salt and coconut. Beat until well combined.
Spread the mixture out in the loaf pan. Using a dessert spoon, add blobs of raspberry jam along the centre of the loaf. Sprinkle extra coconut along the top of the jam.
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool and then enjoy with your knitting! We ate it plain, but I think it would be delicious with a bit of cream or yoghurt on the side.
Incredible colourwork socks.
There are some seriously amazing colourwork sock patterns around at the moment.
I really, really don't need to add new projects to my 'desperate to knit' list, but all of these have me hunting around in my stash and dreaming up colour combinations...
Hot Crossbone Socks by Camille Chang
Fireweeds by Rose Hiver
Garden Gate Socks by Emily Johnson (i've wanted to knit these since forever)
Butterflies are Free by Rose Hiver
Zirkel. by Stephanie van der Linden
I really am never going to run out of things I want to knit. It's a little bit crazy! I know lots of people find stranded knitting a little bit scary - but it's worth a go. As long as you start with something that has no more than 2 - 3 stitches of a colour before changing to the next colour, you'll be fine. It's all about practice, after all.
