back on track

What have i been up to creatively since the last entry? Mish-Mash of creative activities to be honest; there ARE a few patterns lurking in the murky black waters of my to do list; for example, meringue stitch adapted into a pentagonal stained glass inspired blanket and summer cotton over-sized hats (watch out! it is never to early to start preparing for the next summer…). Worth mentioning is that I have made a seventies inspired tea cosy for a present following a fabulous Ravelry pattern which was well received and is pictured below…

I have been mostly delving into some more sewing and customising projects in the last year, items that needed a bit of sparkle, and general repair jobs…. The tote bag idea has stuck with me and if you are a FACEBOOK follower, you would have noticed the post where i decided to make them from old table cloths, in the spirit of reuse and recycle old materials… I am considering getting the pattern together for that and maybe some workshops, so if you are interested, please CONTACT ME for more details. 🙂

I am glad to say however that i am now back to crochet on regular basis… Somehow i got sidetracked in the last twelve months and forgot how much good comes out of crafting with crochet and that it has a pride place in my world. So alongside making and transforming everyday items and adding glitter and bright colours to the projects wherever possible, The Creative Hook is once again Hooked on Crochet!

Future development wise, the patterns have been doing quite well, so i shall persevere with them (as mentioned above there are some to look out for and will appear in RAVELRY store as and when they are ready). I have also started doing projects just for me. In line with the FREEFORM crochet movement i looked into a little while ago, some of these are explosions of colour and texture. This is kind of expected, if you know my work from the past…. So there is a colourful sampler make-it-up-as-i-go blanket in the making…. The shape of it is a long rectangle, rather than a square, which is a new thing to me and it presented itself as an option after seeing one of my grandmother’s creations in that shape, almost like an oversized scarf/ blanket double… and that multiple use suggested by the shape was quite irresistible to try and have a go at…. No pattern for this one, but if you fancy having a go look into FREEFORM CROCHET and see if you have any luck… Alternatively look at my PINTEREST walls for some more inspirations… Feel free to share any comments/ updates/ frustrations with me on any SOCIAL MEDIA that is closest to your heart.

Another new avenue i am tentatively walking down as well is trying out something quite opposite to the colour explosions, yet somehow relates to some of my earlier work when i used mostly monotones of yarns… Black Lace has been interesting for me for a while, but as you can see in the photograph below, and as some of you may know, black is a tough one to work with as a monotone, mostly because you cannot see the stitches. So i caved and added another colour just to break it down – better luck next time, hey? So these two new projects are just for fun, although the MERINGUE is my own pattern and you can purchase it on RAVELRY if you fancy having a go yourself!

It just wouldn’t be one of mine if it did not have lumps and bumps and you did not want to handle it upon Seeing!!