Get this book - Hallo, Crochet! / Hallo, Hekel!

What is brilliant?

When three of your hooky friends publish a big, fat crochet book, full of beautiful patterns, that is brilliant.

Hello, welcome and thank you for Hello, Crochet! / Hallo, Hekel! by Cornel Strydom, Elsbeth Eksteen and Anisa Fielding, three beautiful, creative hookers, each with a very unique style.  The result resembles all of them: contemporary neutral, romantic arty and bright, bohemian quirky. 

Hello Cornel, Elsbeth & Anisa!

The book is divided into four main sections: Contemporary, Arty, Romantic and Bohemian, each showcasing this specific style in terms of colour and styling.  

Contents (Afrikaans version)

A variety of patterns are included, eg. a tea cosy, 2 blankets, scarf, wrist warmers, shawl, toy, three different bags, a skirt, a placemat, a children's jumper, a dress, a hat and top in the Contemporary section.  Paging through Arty, you'll find similar, but different, plus a beanie, a coat, a doilie and mini-shawl, and this continues through Romantic and Bohemian, a total of 64 patterns (yes, there's enough patterns!).

Then you realise that these 64 patterns are made up of 11 motifs, 4 written patterns and 2 diagrams...that's the cleverness of this book! One diagram can be interpreted as a neutral, basic shawl; a chunky mini-shawl/neckerchief; a romantic summer shawl in pastels and a bright, gypsy-like shawl with pom poms - and they all look different. 

The layout is clean and fresh without being clinical.  Each pattern has an information box that includes an indication of the skill level required, recommended yarn (used in the example), hook size, completed size, special abbreviations and tools needed.  Some also included diagrams of joins, pattern repetitions or simple motifs to to include, or instructions for assembly, all hand-drawn by Elsbeth (as is the pattern diagrams in the back of the book).

A Bohemian baby cardigan

I quickly tested the Amber mini-shawl in both Karoo Moon handspun and Malabrigo Silky Merino. It worked up easily to a nice neckerchief size.  I did prefer the softer Silky Merino that also drapes better, but a bigger hook size might have served the Karoo Moon well.  

Blocking the Karoo Moon mini shawl

Done in Silky Merino, it came out a bit bigger, with better drape:

One can almost see the softness of this yarn!

I thoroughly enjoyed making these quick projects and look forward  to working through more of the book (8 yellow Post It Notes mark those that required earliest attention!).  I can really recommend this book as a versatile pattern book for the intermediate hooker, showcasing the best of South African yarns (this is such a bonus - we now have beautiful yarns available and patterns were designed with these in mind).  Even just reading through it takes  me back to the good old Craft Share days at Cornel's dining table!

Well done,  ladies.  There was a gap in the market and it was waiting for you!

(Next up: Review of Beatrix Snyman's Afrikaans book "Raak Hekelslim", soon to be available in English as well)

Create - a new yarncraft mag on the block!

What is great?

Welcoming a new yarncraft magazine, that is great!

Create Magazine is a new digital offering, fantastic in a time where beloved magazines close down one after the other, where print magazines are often so frustrating (try to decipher the index?  I dare you.  If I have to page through the whole bloody magazine because I cannot determine from the index what is knit/crochet/mosaic/clay/paint/rubbish...then I just don't even buy it).

Available online at www.createmag.co.za , Create Mag is a collaboration between some of the most talented ladies on the South African scene and is edited by Lauren Redman.

Issue 1 (76 pp) contains ...

- a review of 8 local and international yarns, dye and a Scheepjes pattern bookazine.

- an interview with Carlé Dehning, creative mind behind Nurturing Fibres

- an overview on recent and future yarn related retreats

and

- a whole TEN patterns: knitting, crochet and Tunisian with really wearable/usuable projects.

Get it now!   It really is worth your R100.

(R100 = €7= £6 = $7.5 = AUS$ 10 at This Moment's exchange rate)

What I'm working on in March

...NOTHING!!

Oh my soul, this is horrid.  

Well, almost nothing.

Just when I thought that all busyness would come to a stop, that knitting is good for the trigger finger and I could knit away at speed, I woke to the fact that March is the month of all kinds of orals and assessments at school for the little one, a public holiday and long weekend with no knitting, countdown for the husband's Ironman this weekend and Test Cycle for the eldest..and some more in between. And suddenly my myasthenia eyes kicked in after years of no symptoms, so I've been cross-eyed with double vision for a week now.  Back to meds, realised I'm actually over-medicating and it's happily slowly returning to normal.  

I worked up to Section 7 of the Find My Fade.  

Had to balance on the couch to get this photot!  It will be enormous, I'm just past halfway. 

You know, this pattern...isn't a difficult pattern, but it could have been written better.  Very simple issues makes it very frustrating at times and more experienced knitters have thrown it down.  I do love how the colour melting is developing and think I should have added the greyish colour I discarded, but all is working out fine.  There might be a small yarn stash growing in similar colours, for myself...and there might even be another pile being assembled...for myself :-D  I saved Malabrigo sock for almost three years now, waiting for the perfect pattern!

Fearlessly frogging.  Weekly.  

There was some simple sewing.  That familiar story of buying the fabric, taking the old cushion covers off...waiting three years to take the next step and then completing the job in half a morning!

The back of a curtain panel for the landing window - No other photos :-(  So marvel at my neat folding and ironing, and behold: no pins ;-)

And this year we happily subcontracted our Ironman supporter's t-shirts to a friend whose business is branding...I might have driven them slightly mad with changing font size and spacing until I was happy!I love the pow they added and we'll be some very visible supporters on race day Sunday.

The lime green ones - that's us :-D

I have no hope that April might be better...my sis is coming to visit for three weeks! We WILL get to visit Linda's Treehouse, a lovely local dyer, during which more yarn might be acquired...we WILL find time to sit down ;-)

What I'm working on in February

...except that February is already a thing of 7 days past!

The month is too short.  And hot.  A filled with athletic meets and swimming galas and school outings.  

But I did progress with a few items!

The Parallelogram is done!  Except for the ends.

Progress on the cowl - I'll need one more round.

I started to practise to Find Any Fade...rest assured, this was version 3 or 4 of maybe 37

The Fade started to resemble a sheep's scull.  Or a bovine uterus.

I'm actually getting somewhere!

Well, there is progress...and I decided that life is too short to attain perfection on this project, so I'll live with the imperfections, such as the dropped stitch (I rescued it in some way), the colour change that happened too early, Lace Play 2 and 3 that Do Not resemble Lace Play 1...but it's laceish.  And the shape is following the plan, sort of :-D

When I finish this, I'll redo it in Proper Yarn!

(I also sewed a skirt for a friend who's even more challenged that I am, sewing-wise...but we did it.  It looks like she planned it, it can be worn in public :-D  )

What I'm working on in January

Down here we are veeeery slow coming out of a summer holiday Christmas...we must have had the best weather ever, making these bodies and minds so lazy and full of sun and sand we didn't want to go back to school and work and life  :-D

But the new school year tends to get you from 0 to 100  in a few seconds and here we are in the second week of school and getting back to choosing extra-murals and prefect-challenge duties and what not!

I had grand plans of finishing a project or two during December, but having spent half my time at the lagoon and the other half in the waves, there was little hooking done.  I did start with a neutrals stash buster in the form of Yuli Nilssen's Moon Tide Scarf - except that it's a cowl, not a scarf,and my second take on this pattern.  

 Ever since I've seen this pattern the first time, I wanted to make an ocean-inspired scarf with it, in the colour of the sea as you take the slow turn at Die Bakke just before Mossel Bay. The water there has so many blues and greens and turquoise and silver like you can't believe...and Vinnis Serina has the colour, in Java Jade.

Except that the pattern then got lost in the colours :-(

That was then...

And two panels through a 3-panel scarf, I called it An End and frogged the lot.  

So, hence the neutrals stash buster, trying to use the basic scarf instruction and just joining into the start to create a cowl.  I'm aiming for five bands of colours, as I like an uneven number, but I'll see how it goes.

...this is now!

I am going very slow, as I'm sitting with a troubled right hand and stubborn trigger finger that might have to undergo surgery, so I'm alternating with The Dark Side and finally turned to my Voolenvine Smitten DK Outlander, of which I have One Skein, al the way from NY via Ireland, to the Garden Route!  I really want to be really sure of what I'm going to make with this, so surfed patterns for ages on Instagram, Ravelry and Pinterest.  This was narrowed down to Something Knitted, more specifically a scarf, either shallow or asymmetric triangle, in colour blocks of stripes.

Easy, eh?

Except that my top 5 choices seemed to be in Finnish with no English translation to be found On This Planet.  

But then I found the Different Lines pattern, oh yes! Except I've now also visited Linda's Treehouse just around the corner, and there are so many temptations lurking, so there's two colours more to be added to the Outlander and the cowgirlblues Airforce I planned to use with it...So now I'm on Parallelogram with five colourblocks and 724 false starts until I figured out what a yo.x is (newish knitter) and that I would actually like to do it in stocking stitch :-D

The play of these three yarns with each other!

And the Different Lines has another set of special yarns already waiting in the wings...

So I'm busy with those two, mainly.  And reading...reading off  my challenge list, of which I finished two Theme books:

1 - Antarctica - Die sneeu bly altyd wit (Morkel van Tonder) - short, but intense description of Scott's doomed race to get to the South Pole first.

2. Poetry - Katalekte (Breyten Breytenbach - not you typical beach read, as I did; a melancholic, self-depreciating collection of poems by this ex-exiled poet looking at his place in South Africa as he's ageing. 

3. A (younger) classic - That was then, this is now (S.E. Hinton) - I missed the age-rating of this move, when it was released, and because The Outsiders was always one of my favourite books, I was really happy to find this one lurking in a second hand store.

I think that's enough for January.  Together with moving furniture around and throwing things out (my equivalent of spring cleaning usually happens between Christmas and New Year!) and general decluttering/re-arranging/putting up shelving etc.

Knitting happens every second or third day and from now most likely while waiting for a school sport to finish!

And reading sometimes on the beach :-)

i(shall)Read 2017

Ek lees wel baie (mos) (nie net eenmaal in 5 jaar nie ) (iRead 2011)

Ek skryf net nie (altyd) (alles) op nie.

Maar ek hou wel van die uitdagings wat ons die laaste paar op Lekkerlees Boekrak gehad het - Nuwe Skrywers/Nuwe Genres in 2015, 6 Lande/6Skrywers in 2016 - daar het ek by Maleisië, Malawi, Ierland en Australië uitgekom.

Die nuwe uitdaging vir 2017 - 7 Style/7 Dekades.  Of 'n kombinasie van die twee.

Dis maklik, ek het 'n groot boekrak wat vol is.  Daar's een hele rak in die kamer wat nét ongeleesde boeke het, so ek moet eers daar gaan 'koop'.

So gesê, so gedaan, maar die stapel raak effe hoog en dit begin groeperings kry en die uiteinde is my eie uitdaging: My 5's.

So lyk dit:

Verskillende hopies van 5.  Net om afwisseling te behou! En al wat 'n nuwe en maklike boek is tussenin.

5 (Outo)biografieë
1. Ek's g'n Slams - Fatima
2. Native Nostalgia - Jacob Dlamini
3. Let my people go - Albert Luthuli
4. Good morning, Mr Mandela - Zelda la Grange
5. Verwoerd, Mandela & me - Marianne Thamm

En wat ek ook moet kry...My land van hoop - die lewe van Beyers Naudé

5 Afrika-stemme
1. Radiance of tomorrow - Ishmael Beah
2. Coconut - Kopano Matlwa
3. Tjhaka/Chaka - Thomas Mofolo (ooooou Afrikaanse en nuwe Engelse weergawes)
4. Americana - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
5. Black Diamond - Zakes Mda

5 Klassieke boeke
1. This is my God - Herman Wouk
2. All is quiet on the western front - Erich Maria Remarque
3. Polfyntjies vir die proe - C Louis Leipoldt
4. Iliad - Homerus
5. That was then, this is now - S E Hinton
6. The man from Snowy River - Elyne Mitchell

Eeh...dis meer as 5.

5 Engelse Suid-Afrikaanse stories
1. London Cape Town Joburg - Zukiswa Wanner
2. The adonna of Excelsior - Zakes Mda
3. Spilt Milk - Kopano Matlwa
4. Recipes of Love and Murder - Sally Andrew

Mmm...hier kort een

5 Sosio/polities/geskiedenisboeke
1. Of warriors, lovers and prophets - Max du Preez
2. Die VOC aan die Kaap - De Wet, Hattingh & Visagie
3. Imperiale Somer - Karel Schoeman
4. Soos Familie - Ena Jansen
5. Die geskiedenis van Boerekos - HW Claassens

5 Temas
1. 'n Boek wat afspeel in my dorp: Die Sideboard - Simon Bruinders
2. Kortverhale: Fools & other stories - Njabulo S Ndebele
3. 'n Struggle-boek: I write what I like - Steve Biko
4. 'n Reisverhaal: Suid van die wind - Elsa Joubert
5. Poësie: Katalekte - Breyten Breytenbach
6. 'n Boek oor Antarktika - Die sneeu bly altyd wit - Morkel van Tonder
(7. Kaaps: Hammie - Ronelda Kamfer)
(8 Resepteboek: Eet saam met Leipoldt - Peter Veldsman)
(9 'n Onlangs oorlede skrywer : Watership Down - Richard Adams)
(10 - 'n Voorheen verbanne boek: Kennis van die aand - André P Brink)

Uhm.

En 5 van die Seun se Boekrak
Vier Assasin's Creeds
En die eerste Lafras Kuyper

Gelukkig wag daar ook afwisseling in die vorm van Chanette Paul en Isa Konrad!

En daar is genoeg ander afleiding:

Hef aan lê voor.  Party van hierdie boeke lê al vyf jaar in daai rak!

Too much frogging going on

I seem to be hiccuping a bit, not much going on at the finishing front here!

Two are two biiig wips hidden in my closet, one of which really hurt my shoulder last year, so it's hibernating a bit.  And I tried all kinds of other things, that doesn't work like I want it to.

I saw a really beautiful shawl, the Dragon Wing/ Lizard Shawl  by Jasmin Räsänen...ooh, I wanted to start immediately, and did so...and couldn't find joy.

I think it might have been the ridges.

...I frogged it here. 

I started the Monsoon Shawl twice now (no, correction, the yarn changed twice...) - first in dark navy Vinnis Serina - which didn't show the stitch pattern.  The I added Ivory.  Then I frogged and added jewel colours.  Then I frogged,

And started again, in the new Moya Caresse.  The colours worked beautifully...but I didn't like the pattern.

(Love the shawl, not the pattern?  Yes, that can happen).

But - frogged

Then I had coffee with a hooky friend who made this most beautiful scarf/shawl - I might have been a bit overcome with admiration, because she gave it to me!  Her work is always so beautiful and I'm truly honoured to show this off:

Simply Crochet saved my crochet drought with this little amigurumi packet and I quickly could make a little bat for my batman-besotted youngest one :-D

Mouse ears...on a bat?

It was a simple, easy pattern, even when doing it late at night by a fire!

And now I started with Cherry Heart's Painted Roses Throw.  This was why I bough the Moya Caresse, after I've seen the colours.  I really wanted to try in old, faded, vintage colours.  There might be one or two brighter ones in my selection already,  but things look promising!

Here goes...hoping to be finished by Christmas!

A tiles-inspired blanket

And finished is the Tiles Blanket!

Freshly off the block

This Tiles Blanket was started impulsively and grew quickly, until...April happened, which is always a huge, busy month for us, with my sis coming to visit, Ironman, 361 and all kinds of things happening, and bags with crochet projects in them are taken off the table, to a shelf, to a wardrobe, to the back of the wardrobe...until the day you clear up and Oh My Soul here's the Tiles Blanket!

Only to realise the clear-up also included two boxes of yarn that might have contained the yarn needed to finish this...and I didn't want to buy more...so it ended up a bit smaller that planned, but exactly the right size for a wheelchair user, or a baby, so all ended well.

While joining (with wip stitch) I realised:

1) I should have used join-as-you-go, because the white row plus join was now a bit wide

2) The white row had 4 stitches per wide grey space, but that was one too many for the join and then it ruffled. 

But I had already joined two strip of 5 squares, so no unraveling was going to happen, and it really isn;t the end of the world.  

And then I love borders, so I couldn't wait to grab Around The Corner Crochet Borders to choose one, eventually deciding on nr 34 without the last row of SC.
(Ok, I actually lost yarn chicken ;-)
(And it's grey, because that was the only colour yarn left, and it worked out quite fine!)

I really love how the colours worked out.  I did play around with 2 or 3 more, but settled on the 4 used here (and now I'm wondering how this would in hand-dyed Vinnis Nikkim!).

Off the blocks (yes, the acrylic did block nicely) it travelled al over the house, draped here and folded there...

Outside on the stoep table

It nearly stayed in my house , but it was a promised blanket and I'm happy that it already arrived at Maak 'n Verskil, from where I hope it will make the recipient happy as well.  

Early-morning light is the best

A beautiful, easy pattern, nice yarn and pretty colours makes for an enjoyable project that I might even duplicate at some stage!

All the info on my Ravelry page.

Kry dié boek - Vrouekeur 50 Hekelpatrone

Ek is mal daaroor dat die oplewing in hekel ook beteken dat daar 'n oplewing in die hekelboekbedryf beteken!  Elke nou en dan val 'n nuwe hekelboek op my rak, waarvan Vrouekeur s'n die mees onlangse is. 

Vrouekeur 50 Hekelpatrone

Vrouekeur is bekend vir die hekel- en breipatrone wat gereeld in die tydskrif verskyn, asook die klein hekel- en breiboekies wat die afgelope paar jaar verskyn het.  Hierdie boek is 'n welkome byvoeging en het 'n lekker verskeidenheid om uit te kies.  

Baie hekelboeke het 'n afdeling voor of aan die einde met 'n verduideling van a) hoe om te hekel en b) 'n verskeidenheid steke.  Dit regverdig (myns insiens) eintlik 'n boek op sy eie omdat dit waardevolle patroonplek in beslag neem.   Hier het Vrouekeur reg gedoen en gebruik slegs een bladsy vir patroonafkortings met kort verduidelikings.  Die patrone het elk 'n duidelike, groot kleurfoto, met ekstra inligting of wenke waar nodig.   

Die boek is verdeel in vyf afdelings: Hoedjies, Skoentjies, Dogtertjies, Vrouetruie en Komberse - baie duidelik pienk en vroulik. En hoewel ek nou nie regtig in die skoentjie/dogtertjie-mark val nie, is daar wel mooi patrone in wat ek definitief sal maak!

...die volgende babatjie in my groter vriendekring kry dalk so hasiehoed. Of die padda op bl 11!

 Of die harlekyn...of die katjie...hei, wat van Pippelotta!

Die Skoentjie-afdeling begin met 'n nuttige gids tot verskillende groottes skoensole, wat dan gebruik kan word vir die verskillende patrone: plakkies, sandaaltjies, verskillende tipes sokkies en moccasins.

My belangstelling lê by die Kombersafdeling, waar daar regtig heelwat mooies is.  Ek het sommer vinnig blokkie B van die Nostalgie-kombers probeer :

Een proefblokkie - effens aangepas

Patroonlees kan moeilik raak: baie afkortings en baie rondtes raak besig op 'n bladsy, maar die patrone is eenvoudig en maklik beskryf.  Ek hou van diagramme, wat hierdie boek ongelukkig nie het nie, maar sommige patrone het wel 'n uitlegdiagram. 

Tussen die 55 patrone sal daar definitief genoeg wees om die gemiddelde hekelaar gelukkig te hou, veral iemand wat baba/kinderkleertjies maak.

A dark-side cowl

This whole winter I longed for a cowl around my neck.

Polo-necked sweaters just don't work anymore, and although there's a neat basket full of various types of scarves, I. Wanted. A. Cowl. 

A twistie cowl, almost à la Crochet in Paternoster.

A double cowl to go around my neck twice.

A snug enough cowl that would not sag down to my breastbone, but actually cover my neck and throat.

Obviously there were many starts and stops and hiccups , but then I found the Kartopu Ketenli in the yarn shop...

20% wool, 10% linen, 70% acrylic

I totally love the look of this yarn, that is also available in a handful of other colours, but the black, oh, the black is mine, with the specks of whitish yarn, and it is soft enough to go near one's neck...

Clearly the Ninja likes it as well.  No knitting on the bed while the cat's also snuggling there.

Ah - make that "both cats".

Chloe is just too cool to pretend to want to play with yarn

Okay so, when knitting, I actually only like moss stitch. Stockinette is beautiful, especially with a variegated yarn, but the sides curl.  And garter is easy peasy (and would actually also have worked with this), but.  Moss is my favourite.  Totally love the texture. 

Here's my moss.

The knitting is straight forward. I cast on stitches until I thought it was wide enough, knitted until it was long enough to wrap double around my neck, twisted in and slipstitched the ends together.  Then I thought I'd like to try a lacy pattern around the edge, just to see what it would look like...a small one.

All done and edged

Here's the lacy border - #115 from  "Around the Corner - Crochet Borders" by Edie Eckman. I did make a slight change and used SC instead of DC in the first round.

The border is small enough not to be bothersome, but you can see it :-)

Happiness!

It looks quite snug, but it's not tight, and relaxes through the day.  Lessons learnt from cowls past ;-)

And it still is cold enough that I could wear it this week, and there's a promise of a cold weekend coming. 

Lacy twisty cowl

At last, a Summer Throw Completed

At last, at last, a final post about the Summer Throw, that has actually been completed so long ago and is in use on the bed, even as a winter throw, but oh, the shame...because there was still more than a few ffffrafels* to work away...

But luckily I have a wonderful aunt, who came to visit, and she loves helping out with predicaments like these, and she Sat Down and Worked All The Ends Away.

I have shown most of the blanket before, but here's some more :-)

Sometimes it's folded on my trousseau kist, and Chloe Cat** wil curl himself up on the softness.

Most often it lies in a crumpled pile on the bed, after one or both of the boys came through our room

I've long stopped trying to straighten it.

It's just easier leaving it on a friendly, crumpled heap.

...because this lasts only a few second for the purpose of this photo.

...then I fold it back to start folding laundry, and the boys come in, and start jumping/playing...and off we go again :-)

Here's some of the history, since this throw has been coming a loooong time:

First, I did it the proper way and made a mock-up, a trial version, to get the colour patterns right. 

Then, over some months, I hooked furiously, then let it lie, then planned a house, then moved across the country, hooking in between, and at some stage when it was begin enough, started using it, with fffrafels all over the place and no edge.

Here I explained my colour placement.

And now it's done, with unedited photos (I forgot) at various light levels and what not, but at least it's on the bed.

The pattern was the Sorbet & Lace Square in the Ideas Crochet magazine available on Zinio.

The yarn was the lovely 10 ply Colours of Grace Magdalene, sadly discontinued, but soon to be followed with something new...

I think I used a 4.5 hook...but there might have been a 4 and 5 appearing sporadically...

The edge - Edge nr 22 from Around the Corner - Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman

 *fffrafels = those ends.  Or where you joined yarn.  Anything that needs to be worked away. "Frays", in Afrikaans it's "rafels",, but then one becomes a bit bit agitated and adjectives are added...

***Chloe Cat = Chloe is actually a male, but when he arrived at the mine where he worked as a Mouse Catcher, it was thought that he was a she.  Which he wasn't.  When the mine closed, all the cats had to be re-homed, and my resident geologist chose Chloe, whom then flew 1500 km to his new home, and might forever still be address as "she", even thought Chloe O'Reilly is "he".

Catching up and taking stock

Time flies, eh, when...

a) you're having fun

b) but actually get busier with the boys at school

c) and really shut down most everything while the sisi is visiting here from Eire

d) and then it's crunch time when the man of the house does Ironman (2h20min improvement!) and a week later the 361 MTB Challenge (finished in 27h30min) so we all just crash for a while

e) but actually after 18 months you're still not totally in love with the Mac (So I don't work on it every day0

:-P

f) AND: Inflamed labrum. Tennis elbow. Pinched nerve. Trigger finger.  All On The Same Arm.

So everything is happening very slowly here. And the attention span is also prone to jumping all over the place, therefor some crossing to the Dark Side happened (that helped while nursing all the injuries).

Some WIP's, longer and shorter term...

The first ever meant-to-be-a-blanket!

When I first learnt to crochet,  way back in 2012 (2011?), I immediately wanted to make the Vintage Stripe Blanket. Having no idea of yarn type, thickness, quality, hook sizes, stitches, nothing.  The only Known here, is that I used some Elle Rustica, and started with a chain.  Whatever combination of stitches I thought was making, no one will know.  And then I realised the edge was so uneven that ragged did not really describe it :-D

SO - swiftly abandoned, but not destroyed.  I firmly believed that it could be saved in the form of a cushion cover, or wrap (for a while) or poncho (for a while) and it wil now be transformed into the final version of...a poncho!  And might get an extra edge. Can't get rid of it.

#memories

Tiles Blanket

This is a recent starter - blanket inspired by tiles...ooh, haven't done a thing since my previous post.

#horror

Baerenwolle Linus Scarf

This is actually my third Linus! My sis gave me this beautiful Baerenwolle red yarn and it's all rolled and ready, but I'm stopping and starting and stopping and starting while I should be doing this with my eyes closed.
#alwayshopeful 

A cycle beanie

Black yarn.  Black yarn should be banned.  One should have to apply in triplicate before starting anything in black yarn! This is for a cycling friend who needs something thin underneath her helmet for those cold days, hence Thin Black Sock Yarn.

I've been working on/avoiding this for Almost A Year.

#willifinishthis

A Japanese Scarf

Beautiful yarn (Nurturing Fibres in Driftwood), beautiful pattern...fussy pattern.
#yarnmightgointoblanket

Malabrigo Linus Scarf

Oh, what a JOY it is to work with Malabrigo, even in sock yarn, and this colourway (Zarzamora) might just be one of the most beautiful I've set eyes on! This Linus Scarf took a long time, because of the thin yarn, but I love, love love it.  Just needs a small crochet border, and then I'm ready for the cold weather that just descended.

#absolutefavourite

Sampler Shawl

It's upside down.  Nothing in this world will rotate the photo.   This is al beautiful, simple pattern, and in Vinnis Nikkim and some I Love Yarn, it will feel like a hug around my shoulders. it's also my current WIP, whilst ignoring the others :-D
#workingreallyhardonitthough

There were/are others.

There's an Elise Shawl V3 (don't know where!).  But that's where the injuries started, with V1.  And there's been a cowl, and a bunny beanie that became a Yoda beanie (for that matter, some more beanies), another Linus Scarf, ah, a Graceful Shells Cowl that was finished (photos still downloading).

I'll catch up.  It's winter holidays soon.  Let's just get through the Gr 6 test cycle, eh?