Crochet decorations

The Christmas decorations are all packed away for another year in readiness for welcoming in 2018. Before they all got sent off to the loft I managed to snap a few photos of some of my crochet (and one knitted) decorations.

These little thread crochet stockings may be the first tree ornaments I ever crocheted and were simple to make up with a heel worked in too. The pattern is by Karen Perkins.

These ginger bread men are also some of my first - you can tell as they date back to when I only ever worked in one loop so my crochet in rows looked corrugated! Pattern by Priscilla Hewitt.

This is my crochet poinsettia - made using the lovely pattern by June Gilbank but with thread instead of yarn so it would fit on my Christmas tree.

I've made so many of these lovely crochet granny squares over the years, they look very lovely in crochet thread and also show up beautifully on a tree when made up in white cotton. 

Pattern by Michelle Kludas from the Royal Sisters blog.

Next up are these very quick and satisfying to make simple crochet baubles pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

These little Christmas trees were designed by myself 10 years ago - one of the first patterns I wrote up and shared. Pattern can still be found here on the CrochetMe site.

Aww - this little bear bauble still makes me smile each year with his snuggly blue striped scarf wrapping him up. Pattern by Stephanie Jessica Lau.

Another favourite are these snow men ornaments - they turned out so very cute (unfortunately I didn't think to keep any for my own tree, all of these made friends in new homes). Pattern by Audra Brown and available as a free Ravelry download - you may need a Ravelry account to access this one.

This is one of my few knitted decorations - made after my visit to the first Yarndale back in 2013. Pattern was published in the Yarndale program that year. I really love this pretty bauble and if it hadn't taken me about 5 hours to make I would have covered my tree with more :-)

Last decoration now - these are the holly leaves I made up this year as presents (as well as making up so many felt hearts) - simple and pretty from the holly pattern by Lucy of Attic24.

Knitting?

Looks like I may be converting to the dark side... I've finished off the pretty bauble (though it is more egg shaped than bauble shaped) I started work on at Yarndale.

Then I went and made another... and this one even came out round!

Knitting with 4 needles is properly tricky but strangely addictive and I've had a brilliant time making these (pattern by HomeBakedOnline) and may even try something more challenging soon :-)

To finish off I wanted to show you the few pretty bits I bought myself from Yarndale.

Clockwise from top:

Pretty mercelized crochet cotton by Rico
Lovely dark blue flower buttons from Injabulo
Yarndale program
3.5 KnitPro crochet hook (my favourite size)
Antique bone crochet hook
Antique pink needle case with thimble at top
Beautiful grey porcelain flower pendant by Susan Sharpe Ceramics
Yarndale pin
Yummy cake stitch markers by The Undercover Owl

Yarndale

For those of you who haven't been aware of the much anticipated 'Yarndale' festival then let me fill you in...

Yarndale is a new event that took place for the first time this September at beautiful Skipton in Yorkshire. The event was held over 2 days in Skipton auction market where the usual attendees are sheep and other cattle. For Yarndale though it had been transformed - incredible amounts of crocheted bunting had been strung up all around, different areas had been yarn bombed and even the Yarndale bus proudly wore some bunting.

The brilliant colours and beautiful items being shown and sold simply cannot be described.

So much delicious crochet goodness in one place had me almost giddy with excitement and itching to get my hands hooking away.

After a quick wander through some of the stalls and a hasty purchase of the Yarndale bag, pretty Yarndale pin and Yarndale program we headed off to the workshop theatre where we had glimpsed some tempting knitting kits for the Christmas bauble knitting workshop.

I'm not really much of a knitter but with a little help from the lovely Hannah of HomeBakedOnline I had managed to wrestle my four double pointed knitting needles into making the start of a bauble without injuring anyone nearby. Three hours flew by and after a much needed visit to the toilets we headed off to explore further.

We came to this crochet corner of loveliness - a little oasis of crochet and knit comfort where you could sit and try out any new purchases of yarn while having a chat with any other crafters who wandered through.

We also met the wonderful Lucy of Attic24 and had to have a photo with her. Lucy was one of the very hard working organisers of Yarndale and also responsible for getting all the crochet bunting sent in as well as putting together the knit n natter lounge.

We all had the most fantastic day and though exhausted from all the shopping and talking we had enjoyed every minute. Yarndale - simply put was brilliant and I cannot wait until the next one!

April's craft: Knitting

Just managed to squeeze in my new craft for this month - only just though!

This little knitted heart is the first thing I've knitted for over 15 years! I taught myself to knit as a teenager and could do the basic stitches as well as a little shaping, but apart from making a couple of teddy bears I never got around to doing much with my new skill... then I started to crochet and that just took over!

I've been meaning to pick up my needles again for a while though and after figuring out how to cast on (such a fiddly thing to do - reminds me so much of playing cat's cradle) it all came back pretty easily. Making this heart took a good couple of hours though and left me with very sore and crampy hands, so I'm not sure if I'll be doing any more knitting any time soon!