Yarndale

I've been away on holiday for just over two weeks and visiting Yarndale was one of the last things we did before coming home. So, although I'm going to tell you a bit about our holiday, I'm starting with Yarndale. I had some scheduled posts while I was away; thanks for reading them and leaving such lovely comments. Unfortunately I haven't been able to read any of your blogs or leave any comments. As soon as I get everything organised I will be able to resume normal blogging activity.

We arrived at Yarndale about 9:30 on the Saturday morning 27th September - the first day of the show. We were parked at the back so I didn't get to see or photograph any of what was at the front of the building. There was already quite a queue waiting to get into the show so we joined the end. It was nice to see how many people had chosen to wear something that they'd made. Mostly scarves, cowls and shawls. I spotted someone behind me in the queue knitting away and wished I'd brought something with me to work on. The show didn't open until 10 so we had a bit of a wait until we got in. While waiting the Yarndale bus arrived - with more people to add to the queue!

When you pay your entrance fee you get a stamp on your hand so you can leave the show and come back again on the same day.

 

There were lots of visitors milling about so it was quite difficult to see everything. I wasn't really wanting to look at anything in much detail but just to get the general feel of the whole show and see round it all.

 

There were quite a few stands with spinning wheels and people demonstrating how they work. This is something I really want to try but I never seem to have time.

These gorgeous angora rabbits were at the show along with yarn spun from their hair. The husband wants to keep some - yet another plan for the future!

There were alpacas too. Ooops! Where did they go?

Ah! There they are.

Of course there was lots and lots and lots of yarn - mostly wool - in all colours imaginable.

And lots of colourful makes too.

These crocheted blankets are absolutely amazing.

My camera hasn't really caught the colours very well. Here's a close up of the previous blanket. Isn't it just beautiful?

I spotted some really incredible things made with wool.

There was also a display of lace and lace making. I didn't give it a go this time (with the bobbins) as I tried previously at Farfield Mill. These two items are both made of lace; incredible!
 

I realise now that I didn't really take an awful lots of pictures. I managed to get a (very out of focus!) snap of Lucy from Attic24 blog.

Last year I was an exhibitor at the show and my stand was next to the Biteabout Arts stand. Anna makes beautiful felted wool creations and has also started working with willow, making some amazing sculptures. It was lovely to meet up with Anna and Richard again.

The time flew in and we had to leave to continue with our journey. About two hours later I suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten to take a picture of me wearing the Yarndale skirt! Even though some people had commented on it and admired it! Fortunately we had planned to stop at Chesters by the River at Skelwith Bridge, Ambleside in the Lake District. If we're anywhere near this place we stop to have coffee and scones/cake (and sometimes scones and cake!). While here I was able to get a couple of pictures of me wearing the Yarndale skirt. Obviously I need to skip the scones and/or cake in future!!

We had a good time at the Yarndale show and I'm sure we'll go back again some time. Maybe even as an exhibitor again. If you were there then I'm sure you enjoyed it too.

Hopefully, once I get the post holiday mess cleared up, I'll get a chance to tell you about the rest of our holiday and what I made while I was away. I especially want to get back to reading and commenting on everyone else's blogs. I hope I haven't missed too much!

Good to be back.

Baby Blanket

There was some Rowan Fine Milk cotton in my yarn cupboard. It's a lovely soft yarn being a mix of 70% cotton and 30% milk protein. I have no idea how milk protein is made into yarn but it is! Although the result is beautiful, the yarn is quite hard to work with as it tends to split.

 

Anyway, this is really a baby yarn so I decided to make a small baby blanket. I wanted it to be lacy so I used a 4mm hook instead of the recommended 2.75mm. The pattern for the square is from a Reader's Digest book called The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches; the Daisy Cluster square. Using the 4mm hook these worked out at 4" square. I joined them as I went along, alternating the Snow (this is a soft off-white rather than a bright white) with the cream shade (sorry, can't remember what it's called), so as to end up with a bigger square made up of seven by seven of the small squares.

 

Using the cream, I then crocheted a border using pattern 93 from Edie Eckman's book Around the Corner Crochet Borders. This worked out about 2" deep, making the finished blanket 32" square. When I was crocheting the border I thought I was maybe going to run out of yarn. Ingrid, of the funkycrochet blog, very kindly checked where I could get more of the yarn; it has been discontinued. In the end I got the border finished without any problems.

 

There it is - a baby blanket that didn't take too long to make and is now finito. I'm going to give it to a friend who is expecting a baby early next year. I really hope she likes it.

Daisy, Daisy

Do you know this little song?

Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do.

I'm half crazy all for the love of you.

It won't be a stylish marriage,

I can't afford a carriage.

But you'll look sweet,

Upon the seat,

Of a bicycle made for two.

This post has nothing to do with marriage or tandems but rather another crocheted blanket. I didn't get a chance to show you its beginnings and now it's finito.

The blanket is made up of seventy two daisies and these are arranged in six rows of twelve.

All the daisies are made first and then joined using the green to make a leaf at each corner. Most of the daisies were made in the car and some of the joining was also done in the car.

Each strip of daisies has a round of raspberry pink done before joining the six strips of daisies into a blanket, also using the pink.

When all the strips have been joined an outer edging is worked right round the blanket using the raspberry pink yarn. So here's the finished daisy blanket. It isn't very big, measuring approximately 44" wide by 57" long, but it's big enough for the bottom of a bed or the back of a settee. I think this will make a nice present for someone special; I have someone in mind!

Here it is folded in my green work basket.

I love the way the sun is shining on the daisies in this picture.

Spread out over the back of a small settee.

There are too many shadows in this picture but one of the shadows is of the chair I'm standing on so I've put it in anyway.

 
This is the daisy blanket! The daisy blanket is finito!!

The pattern for the blanket is from a book called Crocheting Easy Blankets, Throws and Wraps. It was £2.99 in The Works so I had to buy it just because it was so cheap. Unfortunately the pattern has quite a few mistakes but I managed to get them sorted out.

The green yarn is Robin Aran, 75% acrylic and 25% wool, taken from my stash. The yellow is Stylecraft Baby Aran which is 100% acrylic. The white and pink are both Stylecraft Special Aran which is also 100% acrylic. The Stylecraft Special yarn is very soft and makes lovely blankets. Normally I would steer away from acrylic, preferring to use natural yarns such as wool, cotton, silk, alpaca, linen and so on.

Anyway, the blanket is crocheted using a 5mm hook. I used 1 x 200g ball yellow (used less than half the ball), 5 x 100g balls white, the equivalent of 3 x 100g balls of green (this yarn comes in 400g balls) and 4 x 100g balls of raspberry pink.

This blanket will be really warm as the daisies are very plush and deep. All in all it's a very squishy, chunky beauty!

I hope you like this garden of daisies. Let me know what you think of it please!

Bye for now.

Yarndale Skirt

So. Are you going to Yarndale this year? Last year I went as an exhibitor but this year I'll just be going as a visitor. I'm really looking forward to seeing round all the lovely things that I couldn't really see very well last year.

It must be almost a year ago that I decided to make some Granny squares as an edging round the bottom of a Boden cord skirt, to make it a bit longer. I made the squares, joined them and blocked the strip but it just didn't look right with the skirt.

The edging has lain in my bag ever since with the vague notion that some day I'd make it into a skirt. On my last trip to the hairdresser I called into my local wool shop first and bought the yarn I needed; it's Style Luxury DK which is 51% wool and 49% acrylic and the colour is Mink. At last I was able to get going on the skirt while my hair was being done.

This is how it is looking so far. I thought I would line it but then remembered that I have a brown merino wool slip that is perfect for wearing under the skirt.

I'm really hoping to have this finished very soon and I will wear it on the day I go to Yarndale. So. If you see someone wearing my crocheted skirt please stop and say hello. It will be me because no-one else would be crazy enough to wear it.

Hope to see you at Yarndale!

Butterflies

The husband was in the garden the other evening and couldn't help noticing how many butterflies there were. So he took some pictures and thought you'd like to see them.

 

 

The butterflies were so 'drunk' on nectar that they even came and sat on his hand.

I suppose it won't be long until the butterflies are gone from our gardens for another year.

All the best until the next time.