More time....

I follow some knitwear/crochet designers on Twitter, they talk about their new designs and pattern writing exploits.
A lot of them seem to publish new patterns every few weeks
I want to do that too, I wish I had the time, but I don't

I can't publish patterns every couple of weeks for two reasons.
The first is because most of my designs are blankets which take weeks and weeks to make.
I could get them made for me so I could design more, but to me they are like pieces of art and I don't know what they are going to be until I have finished them.
I change my mind about colours and stitches and shapes designing and refining as I go along.
So blankets are my first stumbling block.

The second is I'm too busy.
My mornings are spent running NDS and dyeing, in theory my afternoons should be spent designing.
But most day's my mornings finish at 5 pm and thats only beacuse we have to go back down the hill to the post office to catch the last post.
If it wasn't for the last post they would probably finish about midnight.
Occasionally I manage a whole afternoon and very very occasionally I manage a whole day.
So all my designing and crocheting is done in the evenings, we tend to stay up late, Phil knitting and me crocheting.
Not because we want to stay up late, but because we want to cram as many hours of playing with wool in as we possibly can.

I love my life and wouldn't want to do anything else.
I live the dream even though its hard work, every second is worth the fight.

But even still I get slightly jealous, every time someone talks about their latest pattern and shares photo's.
Wish I had more time.......

Spare a thought for Verity

I'm sitting here on my nice snuggly sofa crocheting in front of the fire.
From where I sit I can see the top of Summer House Hill, its not very summery today, its cold and bleak with horizontal rain, we have snow forecast so its going to be even bleaker soon.

The bleak coldness reminds me of the day we went to see Verity a couple of weeks ago, I meant to blog some photo's at the time, but then Ted got ill and died and I forgot.
But I've remembered now so here is the blog post.......

Verity is a 65 foot bronze Damien Hirst sculpture, she was stands at the entrance of Illfracombe harbour.
She was erected last October and we have been meaning to go and see her ever since.
We finally found the time just after Christmas when all our babies were here.
It was a bitterly cold bleak day, the sea was boiling, Verity must of been freezing, but I'm sure she's a lot colder today.

Orange Triangle Obsession

I promised a post about orange triangles yesterday, so here it is.

I am struggling with an orange triangle obsession, at the moment they are the only thing I want to make.
My first orange triangle's design was Lecchi that I also blogged about yesterday.
Here it is in case you missed it.

I finished Lecchi and immediately started on a new blanket, which at the moment is still secret so I can only show you tiny detail shots.
This new blanket started off with a Withypool/Woody Bay background.
It doesn't look too bad in the photo below, but this is the centre and the further out it went the worse it got.

I kept crocheting even though I wasn't 100% happy and eventually decided that I hated it so much I had to frog it, so I did and replaced all the Withypool/Woody Bay background. with Lundy (orange).
As a result I was a million times happier :-)
And I'm extra happy with the finished piece.

Number 3 design of my orange triangle obsession was frogged.
It was going to be an aran blanket, I tried sooooo hard not to use orange triangles, I wasn't happy so I kept frogging. Eventually the wool looked Like I had used it to clean the floor with and I still hated the blanket.
So I binned it all.
Sometimes things just don't work and I have found its better to bin and walk away than keep frustrating myself further. I hate doing it, but it always makes me feel better when the binning process is done and dusted.

I started crocheting number 4 design last night.
Its made with Dazzling lace, I didn't think I had a Lundy so thought I was safe with an slightly orange/gold instead.
But today I discovered some Lundy Dazzling Lace in stock that I didn't realise we had, so I'm taking a skein home with me. I'm kind of hoping it will be too bright so I can't use it..
The design will be a ripple scarf, sorry the photo is a bit rubbish, it was taken with my phone this morning.

The other thing all these orange triangles have in common is that they are the same motif, its very simple and plain.
But is perfect for colour experiments, but I'll tell you more about those another day.....maybe tomorrow......

Very proud day

I've been very quiet about my crochet projects recently.
You might be forgiven for thinking I had given up and taken up sky diving instead.
But I haven't, all my recent projects have been secret one's, these include 2 new blankets.

Today I can finally share the first blanket - Lecchi.
Lecchi was designed and started while I was on holiday in Tuscany last year.
Lecchi marks the beginning of my orange triangle obsession, which I will blog about in the very near future.

Lecchi has just been published in a brand new British crochet magazine, its called Simply Crochet and comes from the same stable as Simply Knitting and The Knitter.
I was asked if I would like to be involved months ago and I was delighted and excited to be part of it.
But I had to keep it a secret.
Today is the day that Simply Crochet is launched in the shops - so I'm doing a happy happy dance.
Not only has Lecchi been published, but its also on the front cover.

You can find Simply Crochet's website HERE