Lorna update

I finished her last night :-)
My arm isn't too bad this morning, so all is good.

She hasn't worked quite as well as I'd hoped, but I'm still pretty pleased with her.
Here she is blocking and drying in the dye room.
She is huge!!!
The blocking board measures 47 x 30 inches, which will make Lorna about 70 x 30ish inches when she's dry.
Not really shawl shaped, more like a wrap, but lovely and snuggly, I think the real Lorna would of been happy.

Hurt arm

It was freezing over the week, so I snuggled into the sofa and crocheted all weekend.
I hate to think how many hours I spent, but it must of been at least 10 - 12 hours a day.
This has resulted in 2 things happening.
A - I have nearly finished Lorna
and
B - I have bad RSI.
So when I get home from work today I will be dosing myself with extra stong ibuprofen and crocheting all night until I finish her.
Then its sewing in the ends and blocking.
I can't wait to block as the pattern will (hopefully) open up and I will see if my idea's have worked.

I don't have any new photo's, but here are some gratuitous Great British Wool photo's.
My Lorna is made with the Wensleydale/Zwartbles - which is out of stock, as I needed it all to make Lorna.
There will probably be 1 skein left to go back on line.
I'm using my 4th skein, I have my fingers crossed there will be enough to finish her.

But you will be able to make Lorna in any of our Great British Wool's as they are all spun to the same specification..
I was very tempted to use Wensleydale/Bluefaced marl for Lorna, the only reason the Zwartbles won is because I already had a skein at home when I started crocheting.

And I think October's GBWC will make a stunning Lorna.
October will be in this week's update, we have dyed some and left some as its natural colour as it was so lovely.
There will be photo's of October in the very near future, maybe today, maybe tomorrow.......

Lorna & NDS update

I love reading, I read every night when I go to bed as it helps me wind down and go to sleep, its my only real hobby outside what I do for a living.
I'm a big fan of historical literature, especially Victorian novels.
So when we came to live on Exmoor I knew we were moving into Lorna Doone country.

Lorna Doone is a victorian novel, set about 6 or 7 miles away from where we live.
The story is a breathtaking romance, and well worth the effort of reading.
But if you don't fancy the read, there have also been several films and tv series made.

So I decided I really needed to make a shawl for Lorna, its wild and windswept on the moor and she would need something to keep her warm.

Her shawl would have to be made in Exmoor Horn, or one of the Exmoor mules (cross breed sheep).
I'm going to make a test shawl in one of our Great British yarns and then get some Exmoor/?? to use for the real thing. I'm using Zwartbles/Wensleydale.
Last night I started crocheting Lorna's shawl and this morning I don't want to do anything else except crochet..
Not very good photo's, but I'm sure you'll get the idea.

But today is update day, so I can't!
Most of the yarn is Dazzle (Sock, HT and DK)
And it will be HERE at 7 pm tonight
Don't forget our YARN of the WEEK will also be revealed.

Originally there was a lot of Precious lace, but unfortunately for you we had a big wholesale order in over night and its now destined for a shop.

I'm also going to publish Ermintrude, she will be available as a kit or pattern.

RSI & new projects.

I've just finished crocheting 2 blankets in 6 weeks.
The first is Ermintrude, whose pattern will be published in Thursday's NDS update.
There will also be kits available.
Or you could get a head start and start collecting GODIVA MERINO SINGLES DK now.
She takes 9 skeins of Paracombe and 9 skeins of mixed colours.

I'm not 100% happy with the main photo, so I'll be taking more later.

The second is a secret blanket that will be published in a magazine soon, I'll tell you where and when later.
Last week it was half finished and I had a deadline of 10 days to finish crocheting, write the pattern and get it sent to the magazine.
So I spent 4 days sitting on the sofa crocheting like a mad woman.
The result is a mild case of RSI and a finished blanket that I'm really pleased with :-)
So the RSI doesn't really matter.

I finished on sunday afternoon, so had sunday night to sit and play and see what I could come up with.
After hours of playing and swatching I came up with nothing.
I guess I was all crocheted out and was totally blank as to what to do next.
All the colours I put together looked rubbish and the motifs were just the same old thing I had done a million times before.

But I'm glad to say yesterday was a much better day.
Last night I played with swatches for the new magical mystery blanket club, I chose the colours or rather the colours chose themselves.
I have several persian carpets, my all time favourite is a small slightly grotty anitique carpet, but its a Turkmen nomadic carpet and is over 100 years old and dyed with natural dyes.
I like to look at it and wonder where it has been and who used it.
I'm afraid I don't have a photo, I really must take some.

My other 2 favourites are modern carpets chemically dyed and only about 20/30 years old.

Both have very modern exciting designs and lovely colour schemes, so I have decided to use them as inspiration for the club blanket and use the same colour palettes.
They are slightly different palattes, so I have plenty to choose from.

There will be lots more about the club as soon as I get my ideas and designs into order