Leprechaun

 I get the strangest requests from our customers and one of the most recent was 'Can you make me a leprechaun?' there was a pause while I thought about it.

    December is one of our busiest times of the year, when we have to concentrate on getting out as many orders as possible as quickly as possible, and so right now was not the best time to be making a 'one off'. Especially one I would have to research and had never made anything like it before.

    As I hesitated, the chap continued 'I don't mind what it is made out of. I know you like these little challenges.'

    Meanwhile Graham had realised what was going on and was hissing at me 'Say no! We are too busy!'

    So I compromised (ish) and said that I would make one, but I couldn't guarantee he would get it before christmas.

    Anyway, I had a look on the internet at leprechauns which could be crocheted, and decided that the patterns were either too complicated, or too pared back, or too big. I wanted something simplish and not too big. So the only thing I could do was have a go at it.

    I decided the head would be the awkward bit, as I needed it to be small but round, and it would really determine how big the body would have to be.

    I must admit I had several goes at this, and they ended up huge, the size of a tennis ball, or weird shaped - I had one that looked like a rugby ball and would have made a good 'alien' head. Eventually. after much pulling back and starting again, I managed to get a head the shape and size I wanted (I even managed to give it a bit of a neck, which I was quite proud of).

    Once I'd got the head made, I started on the body. The chest and arms were two 'T' shapes which I joined together. The legs were a bit more complicated again, as I wanted to make them in one piece, but with a bit of thought, and some more pulling back, I ended up with a pair of legs I was happy with.

    I stuffed all the pieces and joined them together, then had a think about finishing it off.

    According to some accounts leprechauns have red hair and beards, so mine had to have that, but I decided he would be a bit unkempt and wild looking. I also gave him some eyes. Then decided to have a go at making him a sort of top hat, with a buckled band, and finally a belt with a buckle too.

    The very last bit I did was giving him some hands, peeping out of the ends of his sleeves.

    I am quite pleased with the result.

    I think he is about 8" tall in total (20cm).

Jumper!

 About a month ago a young lady contacted me through facebook, saying that she had seen some of the pictures of my crocheting, and really liked them, so would I consider making her a jumper?

    Well, I was a bit taken aback. Astonished, flattered, gob-smacked, all those things, that someone had liked my stuff enough to want me to make them something. I didn't really know what to say, as I have only been crocheting for a year or so, and wasn't sure that I could make something that she would like.

    Also I had no idea how long it would take me to make a jumper (never having made one before) - it could be months!

    Anyway, the young lady was very kind and told me that she wanted a garment that was big and sloppy, but colourful, and told me the colours she liked and pointed out one of the blankets I'd made which she liked the pattern of. So I said that I would be happy to give it a go, but I didn't know how it was going to turn out.

    As it happened, once I got started, I really enjoyed it.

    The main pattern is what I call my 'circle to square', with colours fading from dark to light in the circle bit, then light to dark in the square part. I tried to make all the central circles slightly different from each other, but kept the outer squares in the same colour configuration to give the garment an over-all harmony. 

    The first part of the pattern was easy: going off the jumper I'd made earlier this year for Graham, I started by making four blocks of nine squares. One block for the front, one for the back and one for each arm. And to further harmonise these blocks, the central square in each block has sunny orange and yellow colours. When I'd made those blocks I then had to figure how they were going to be joined together.

    I went for the shoulders first and made two more of my sunny blocks, which joined the front and back squares together into a sort of tabard.

    Then I had a measure and realised that I could really do to have a few more inches on either side of the body, but not enough to make a whole square, so instead I made long rows of the colours I'd used for the edges of the squares. Once I'd done that, I then had to join in the arms, but because the body was now three and a bit squares wide, and the arms three squares, there would be a gap underneath the arm. I filled this by making a triangle at the top of each striped row, so that I could join the arms to each side of the triangle, then close them into a cylinder as they met at the top of the triangle.

    That worked out smashing, and was a lot less fiddly than I'd imagined

    I tried the jumper out on a hanger and realised two things: the neck hole looked far too big and the proportions of the body weren't quite right.

    I decided that another row of squares around the bottom would sort the proportions out, but I decided to simply join each square at the top to the body and leave the sides open. That would give the jumper more movement, give it the length of a mini dress and also mean that if worn with leggings etc, you would get flashes of the under garment between the squares as they moved.

    The only trouble was that I also had a gap at the side where I had made my stripes. So I adapted my circle to square pattern, keeping the circle part as usual, but making the overall shape an oblong, to fit the space.

    To make the neck hole smaller, I made four quarter circles which I fitted into the corners of the square neck hole, which would give a sort of 'sweetheart' neckline which is quite a flattering shape.

    The whole process was a lot quicker than I expected - but once I get stuck into my crocheting, I tend to do a bit whenever I have a few minutes spare.

    Happily when the young lady saw the results, she said she was pleased with it

Oh and by the way, when got home from shopping on Friday we found a parcel outside our front door.

When we opened the door and went inside, there was a card on the doormat, which was headed: 'Where's My Parcel?', and the box marked 'Porch' was ticked.

Nice to see the delivery people have a sense of humour.

Crocheting Squared Circles

I have just finished this bedspread/blanket.

As you can see, it is colour-tastic!
The pattern for most of the squares is a very simple one, three rows of circle, then a row which changes it to a square, then three square rows.
     As you can see I made this one is blocks of nine squares, and each block of nine uses four shades of a single colour. The central square of the outside circles has a flower in it and I tried to make all of these different. There are three 'cosmic' blocks in the central row which are a little different. The rainbow squares have seven colours, representing the rainbow colours, but it is surprising how different they look when you just put the colours in a different order. These alternate with red at the centre and purple at the outside, then purple at the centre with red at the outside.
     I have used this same principle of colour variation in each of the blocks, the colours of each nine square block are the same, just used in alternate orders
     Then we have the Sun block and the Moon block. I actually started this crochet by making the corner squares for the Sun block because I wanted to try the pattern of offset corner squares. But I was a bit disappointed that I had to applique the stars rather than working them in the squares.
     The central Moon square, on the other hand, does have the Crescent Moon as an integral area of the square.
     I really had fun with the colours on this blanket. Each of the squares is 6" across, so each block is 18" making the total width four and a half feet, and the total length six feet, the size of a standard double bed. But I think for practical purposes it would look better on the bed if you put it on sideways - which is why I've got two pictures showing it in both orientations.
      Graham is holding the blanket upside down in the long ways pic though - well I think of the rainbow square as being at the 'top'.
      Lol I have just noticed that we have some lovely pictures of our re-cycling bin included!

      Oh and here is a picture of Tallulah, because you can never have enough pictures of beautiful dogs.

Of course after I'd finished this piece, I then decided to have a go at doing a few close ups, so here they are.

Crocheting in the Garden

It was another beautiful day yesterday, so after lunch Graham and I descided to take our mugs of tea out into the garden. I took my crocheting with me as well, so Graham was in charge of the tea.

The grass in the front garden in nice and flat to Graham put the mugs down beside him as he sprawled there. The dogs took the opportunity to peer through the front gate and bark at the neighbours in a happy way.

     So there we sat in the sunshine, chatting, watching the bees in the cotoneaster, Graham drinking his tea while mine cooled on the grass beside him.

     Until he said, 'Looks like you won't be getting your tea.' Because there was Bridie with her head stuck in my mug, having a good long drink of my tea. In fact she drank the lot, then looked at Graham as if to say 'Have you left any for me?'
     We have a new little flowerbed at the right of the front door, as you come out of the house. We had bought some new plants (mail order) and then had to find somewhere to put them. There are some lavender plants and one or two others. 'The Pudsey is doing well.' said Graham.
     'Pudsey?' said I
     'Pugsley?' said Graham, 'Something beginning with 'P', I think.'
     'Peony!'
     Yes, we have put a peony in the new flowerbed. It arrived as a piece of root, with a tiny bud showing at one end. Graham planted it, then we read on the internet that one of the mistakes people often make when planting peony is that they are planted too deeply. So Graham dug it up again and planted it barely under the surface of the soil, and in a couple of weeks, it has started to push up leaves. We don't expect it to flower this year, I think it is far too late for that, but we are pleased to see that it is alive!
   
     When I am crocheting, I don't always work on huge projects (although I do like to have something on-going). So here are a couple of my latest pieces:

Graham fancied a long, colourful scarf and he particularly likes the 'basket weave' stitch, which is thick and dense. So here is the one I made for him. Of course it is no use until Autumn/Winter.

     Then I was sat one night and my toes felt cold, so I thought I'd have a go at making myself some crocheted slippers.

     I have used one of those wools that changes colour to give the variagated effect. I didn't use any pattern to create these, I just descided to have a go and started crocheting.

     I started with a spiral, which I knew would become the sole at the widest part of the foot, then created the rest of the sole by crocheting rows until I got to the right length - I used one of my shoes as a template and measured it against my foot too. When I felt that the sole was the right size, I simply worked rows around the outside edge without increasing the stitch number, this gave a 'boat' shape which I then crocheted across from side to side to fill in across the top of the toes. I had thought about continuing up and around the opening, to make more of a 'boot' shape, but for the time being these are just what I needed.

     I think I made the slippers in an evening, so it didn't take long at all.

WOOL!

I was so excited by my ideas, for my crocheted bedspread, that I had to try and explain to Graham what I wanted to do.
     He was also full of enthusiasm for the Project and could see the possibilities also.
     However, for what I had in mind I was going to need a whole lot more wool!
     And not only in the bold, rich colours I had already selected, but in lots of shades, dark and light, deep and pale. But also, unlike a straight forward item like my poncho or shawl, I was not restricted to using lots of a single colour needing many balls of wool all the same, I could use odds and ends. Odd balls of wool, or even little bits and pieces left over from other work.
     The obvious places to look for odds and ends of wool, especially on a restricted budget, were charity shops and Boot Sales.
     Graham was a man on a mission!
     In my wheelchair it is very difficult for me to go round Boot Sales as these are often in fields or other surfaces where my wheels simply dig in. So Graham was going to have to be my eyes, and go in search of wool.
     Now, when Graham is fired up and pointed in a particular direction, that is where he goes.
     Forget everything else, nothing exists for him but the search for wool!
    So after several Sundays visiting various Boot Sales, we now had three huge bags full of various kinds of wool, in a very wide variety of fibres and thicknesses.
     I was delighted - even though a lot of the stuff I had no idea how it could be used.
     Tallulah was also delighted, as I have already written about in my post 'What Tallulah Did Next', and her joy in demolishing any unattended balls of wool resulted in us buying some huge lidded storage boxes just to keep her nose out of it.

The most worrying buy were three large coils of very thick rope, which looked like they would be used for tethering a ship. I had no idea how I was supposed to incorporate these in my work.
     'No, No!' said Graham, 'These are for battling ropes!'
     Ah! Something for his home gym - you grab the ends of the ropes and try to make waves along their length (I think)
     Phew! That's a relief.

Crocheting - The Project!

So, last time I told you that I am now the proud possessor of quite a few large balls of brightly coloured wool* So what was I going to do with it?

     I wanted to make something big, bold, bright and colourful.
     And the obvious choice was - a bedspread!
     So far, so yawn.
     I could make squares, triangles and circles - with exciting forays into wonky hexagons and an experimental oblong. So my first thought was a bedspread made of random squares and triangles.
     Then I realised that when you looked down on this patchwork of squares and triangles it was like looking down on a patchwork of fields.
     Suddenly the bedspread became a landscape!
     The joins between the fields were obviously walls and hedges. And if this was a landscape, then it could be an island surrounded by the sea, with shades of blue squares around the edges.
     And in the fields could be flowers and trees.
     Then I took another leap into the world of magic and realised that as I was crocheting, I could be working magic into the bedspread too. So that when finished the bedspread would not only be (hopefully) beautiful, but also a magical object which could help you with magical dreaming, spell work and astral travel.
     I wanted this bedspread to have many layers.
     Layers of crochet, crochet on crochet, but also layers of meaning, symbolism and use.
     It would be a warm and practical (ish) bed cover, but then you could enter into its magical landscape. You could explore the scenery, visit a particular place, swim in the sea. Maybe meet creatures who inhabit the landscape. The bedspread was going to have to have secret pockets in it with hidden objects or creatures.
     Suddenly it had become a wonderful and exciting Project, full of amazing possibilities. It could be as interesting and elaborate as my skills would allow.
     I wanted things not to be in proportion or scale. so you might have a field with huge flowers or trees. Some things would be flat, others three dimensional.
     So for a person who up to this point could only crochet circles, triangles and squares, this was going to be quite an undertaking.
     But one I couldn't wait to get started on.

* I know technically these should be referred to as 'yarn' as this covers all forms of fibre used in creating these balls of thread whether it be wool, polyester, viscose or whatever. But in the UK these are always called balls of wool, because wool was the stuff we used for thousands of years. So rather than putting wool (yarn) I shall just use whichever term appeals to me at the time, and I'm afraid you, dear reader, will have to make your own mental arrangements.

Crocheting

I have mentioned that I have been doing a bit of crocheting recently.
     I haven't done any for years. The last thing I made was a throw, which was basically a spiral square, where you just add another colour in and go round and round and round until you either run out of wool, or the square is big enough.
    And crocheting squares was really the extent of my crocheting knowledge and expertise.
    Then a few months back I had the opportunity to buy some very cheap wool - a local shop was closing down and selling off all their stock. Now the colours were limited, the choice was purple, black and white, so I bought all the purple and black I could and carried it home in triumph.
     I had fancied a poncho, but couldn't find one I liked for sale, so thought this was an ideal opportunity to have a go at making one. The only problem was: I could make squares, making two triangles to fit together was way out there! This was quantum crocheting, as far as I was concerned.
    So I had a look on the internet and found a lovely tutorial on how to make a simple triangle. I watched carefully, took notes and had a go, and found that this was as easy as making squares.
     I had more black yarn than purple, so I used the purple to make pattern elements, and I am very pleased with the result.  (Graham decided to help me display my finished stuff)

I felt so chuffed with the result that I wondered if I could make other shapes based on the same simple principles, and decided to try hexagons for a start. These are a bit more complicated and were more fiddly than I expected. But I was having a bit of a play and an experiment - and basically using up the remaining wool.  (Man, the Mighty Hunter modelling hexagon wrap)

I really enjoyed the crocheting, and was pleased with the results too, so I thought I would like to carry on and make more stuff.
     So when we went to the Humber Bridge Farmer's Market, there was a stall selling all sorts of big balls of brightly coloured wool (yarn) and I fell upon it like a starving chocoholic on a box of Mars Bars. I bought one of lots of different colours, then Graham picked out a few more. So we ended up with a bag full of brightly coloured yarn.
     'What are you going to make?' asked the lady on the stall.
     'I don't know.' I replied truthfully

     The crocheting world is my oyster!

     And as for coloured wool (yarn).... More! I want MORE!

I also made a shawl, which I wasn't going to mention, but my lovely assistant insisted on displaying it for me

The bottom pic shows off the tassle ....


Next time - The Project!

What Tallulah Did Next

Tallulah is just about a year old now. And has grown into a sweet, loving, entertaining, enthusiastic, funny and friendly dog.
       When Graham takes her for a walk in the morning, she is liable to be hugged and petted by any number of people. Including the man who doesn't let his own dog jump up but seems to be reduced to a mumbling 'Ooose a widdle, cuddly wuddly girl den?' as he is Tallulah'd.
      Friends often ask 'What has Tallulah been up to?' because she finds many ways to entertain herself (and us). She loves digging holes - particularly when the ground is damp and muddy.
She has various favourite places in the garden, she likes to sit on the ivy, or hide behind the coal bunker. This is usually when she has taken something out into the garden, which maybe, perhaps she didn't ought to have done.
     She is friendly with the neighbours on all sides. Which is just as well as she has tried digging under the fence into the garden at the back, and spends much time peeping over the fence at the side wagging happily at the people next door.
     The only trouble is she can't tell the difference between what is a toy, and what is not a toy.
     And likes to transport items outside, and back in - often after having been dragged around the garden a few times. She is fond of shoes, and socks, and anything she can find in the clean washing basket.
     Now it is difficult to be cross with her, because when you say 'Oh no! What have you done?' ginger dog looks at you with her ears down and her big brown eyes, and you know full well that whatever it is, she won't be able to resist doing it again, because it was such good fun!
     The latest toy-which-is-not-a-toy is my crochet yarn.
   I have a big project on (which I shall be blogging about shortly so watch this space) which involves lots of big brightly coloured balls of wool. Up to now these have been kept in two large carrier bags in the living room, so I can just grab one when I want one.
     But, unfortunately Tallulah thinks these are large squashy balls of fun.
     Our 'office' is upstairs in the house, so I very often am upstairs working, leaving the downstairs a human-free zone - and therefore a doggy playground. Last Tuesday, while Graham was out helping our son dismantle a chicken shed, I went downstairs at lunch time to see a trail of blue wool leading across the bottom of the stairs. I found the start of it in the living room and followed the trail, winding it up like Theseus in the Minotaur's den, through the kitchen, under the open bathroom door, through the dog flap and outside. And there was an unattended ball of wool on the back doorstep.
     Not a culprit in sight.
     I wound the wool back up again and put it back in the carrier bag.
     Now you would think that that was a good enough hint for me that perhaps the carrier bags were now considered a 'play' toy. But no, I am a bit thick at times.
    So, last night I went downstairs after a game of WoW* to find SEVERAL strands of wool leading across the bottom of the stairs. And a tangle of multi-coloured wool in the kitchen, and half a ball of wool. And yet more strands leading out through the dog flap and into the back garden where it had been wound round the clothes prop, dragged through various greenery, moss and leaves and finally deposited in a large, happy tangle. It looked very like Tallulah had plunged her head into the bag of wool and tried to grab as many balls at once as she could get in her mouth, then galloped outside with them, giving them a good shake every so often, and chased around the garden with them before flopping in her favourite place to pull the balls apart.
     I sighed and gathered the damp and slightly muddy armfull up and took it inside where I could remove the garden and twigs from it, untangle it and wind it back into balls.

     Today we have been out and bought two very large plastic storage boxes - with lids!

*World of Warcraft