I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who is following my blog. I’ve had quite a few new followers recently, so Welcome! Whether you found me through the YOP group or Blogville group or just stumbled across me, I really appreciate you being interested in what I get up to and love this community of crafters. This community has brought me so much joy and inspiration.

Crochet

I posted earlier this week that I was learning mosaic crochet and I’ve managed to do the sample from Tinna’s episodes for beginners. If you are interested, please check my earlier post where I have links to her YouTube channel and some patterns. (Her patterns are 50% off this weekend at checkout, no code needed). I just used some free acrylic yarn someone gave me, these are the worst 2 colours so ideal for just using in learning exercises. Acrylic yarn on my bamboo hook is a weird feeling, like rubbing your teeth with cotton wool, not painful but a little weird…or is that just me?

The pattern in this square is called the Apache tears. She didn’t name this pattern, in crochet it seems to originate from the 1970s. I’m always a little uncomfortable but interested when something is named after a group of people be it country, ethnicity, gender etc. which sent me down a rabbit hole of looking up Apache Tears and I found a 1700s ghost story, an obsidian rock, but failed to find more details on the crochet pattern. The border hides all the ends. It is simple to do, and I love the look of mosaic. I can’t wait to start on Havana but MUST resist buying yarn until 2021…resist resist 😂

Knitting

In short bursts, throughout the week, I have been trying to finish Reyna. My aim was to finish it in July but I finished casting it off on Saturday morning. It isn’t blocked yet so it will get its own post this week and we can look forward to the house smelling like camel for a few days. Here’s a quick snap, but it will grow and the curling edges should sort themselves out.

Next on my needles will be the small items in the Samoyed dog hair I spun for my neighbour’s family, so that I can be guilt free about how long it all took. Then maybe some Christmas presents or themed items.

Last weekend was the virtual Fibre East festival and Mothy and the Squid were holding a giveaway. You just had to name your favourite base and you could win a butterfly face mask and 2 skeins of a gorgeous red wine/purple yarn…you know the sort of colours that would go with every single one of my coats! It will also go well with the perky little hat I made with her hot chocolate colourway that was in chunky yarn. Well mid-week I heard I’d won and the yarn and mask arrived Saturday morning. Very exciting!

I cannot get a true colour of the yarn on my phone but it goes with every coat I own. I’m going to weave a wide and long scarf with it I have decided. I thought gloves initially as it is superwash, but nope a woven scarf. The yarn is very soft, softer than superwash sometimes feels. Her colourways are all influenced by a photograph so her website is like an art gallery too!

Sewing

Aldi had an online sale of Winnie the Pooh fat quarters at a bargain price, so I bought 2 packs of 12! They work out just over £1 each per fat quarters so amazing value and they’ll be ideal for practicing my sewing skills. I’m finding material is pretty expensive in the UK so if you know any good priced UK stockists I’d love to know. We don’t have a local fabric store anymore, nearest is probably 100+ miles away in Aberdeen or Perth.

Weaving

My weaving goodies arrived including the double heddle blocks (now fitted to my loom), pick up sticks and some extra stick shuttles. No weaving this week, I’ll explain more under other news. I did hand sew the hem of my tea towels though and they’ve been washed. The red ran a lot but I kept rinsing in cold water until it ran clear and then machine washed and they are looking good. Rather than write a post about them I have made notes on my project page on Ravelry.

This week I did 4 of Kelly Casanova’s online weaving lessons. I have made lots of notes, as when the 1 Year subscription ends you no longer have access to the lessons. Hopefully I’m making good enough notes that I will still be able to do the projects once I no longer have access to the videos.

I learned how to do waffle and honeycomb patterns and how to make a notebook cover and tote bag.

I found a few errors on the PDF files that would give a different result, so I flagged to Kelly which she seemed to appreciate. When the course period ends you only have the PDF files, so I think it’s important they give you the right settings. I missed my calling as an editor (except on my own typos😂 )

Other News

I mentioned earlier this week, I have a sore right shoulder (not crafting related). So, now I have limited movement but it’s getting better. I’ve been spending more time learning techniques and just doing small bursts of crochet or knitting or sewing and trying to ensure I don’t aggravate it.

On Saturday I had my first social gathering of the year! I went to my friend Wendy’s and two other friends were there and we sat apart and watched the virtual Belladrum festival live on YouTube. We ordered pizza and took our own drinks, so we all stayed safe. I’ve put a link to last year’s post about it. We went 6 days with no new Covid19 cases reported in the Highlands but then there was one on Friday so will still need to be cautious and follow the rules. We don’t get information about where in the Highlands they are so it could be 90 miles away or in my town.

I suspect during August there are going to be a few secret projects being worked on…so my posts the next few weeks will be shorter…thanks for making it through this long one.

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This is a Year of Projects post. Officially the Group is in its 10th year, but this is my 3rd year participating. To avoid confusion I am labelling my posts as YOP10. If you would like to find more about the Year of Projects Group on Ravelry* or you’d like to join in, please follow the link for details. To read what other members of the YOP Group have been getting up to please click on the latest weekly folder and follow the links to their blog posts. This is a friendly group with a wide mix of skills and crafting interests. The YOP year runs from July to June.

*Some people have experienced some visual problems caused by the new Ravelry style, so if you are prone to problems then I recommend changing to Classic Ravelry View.