Friday 27 June 2014

Winter days

Winter has finally hit Victoria and with a bit of a vengeance too.  Some days in May were quite mild  but now we have cold winds, rain and even snow in the high country which means the snow resorts will be breathing a sigh of relief.  

I've been making an effort this past month to get out and walk every day for my benefit and for my gorgeous Labrador Sophie.  Usually in winter I don't want to walk because of the cold so the purchase of some wet weather gear and making a few crochet items is helping to make walking more pleasurable.

Please excuse the quality of these next photos, it's a bit hard taking selfies when it's freezing and you can't quite get the angle of the camera right.

First up I made a scarf in an 8ply teal acrylic.  I chained 250 stitches with 4.5mm crochet hook, crocheted 2 rows of double, 7 rows of treble and then 2 rows of double.  I did a simple picot stitch around the edge to finish off.  This scarf started life as something else entirely but adjustments were made when I ran out of patience.

I'm thinking Stripey makes a better model than me.   :)



I rather fancied making a shawl or something similar to throw over the top of my clothes when venturing out.  I finally bit the bullet and purchased a pattern from Etsy that I fell in love with.  Big mistake.  Nothing is wrong with the pattern, it's wonderful but trying to find a similar yarn in the right ply was a nightmare.  I finally found (after spending about 1 1/2 hours in Spotlight) a yarn I thought might be suitable, Patons Midnight, an acrylic, wool, metallic polyester and nylon mix made in Italy.  The wool was heavily discounted at $5.00 for a 75g ball so it being the best affordable option for me, a purchase was made.  Trying to find a nice 12 ply yarn in this country for a reasonable price is rather challenging so I hoped my yarn which seemed more like 8 ply than 12 ply would suffice.  Of course the right hook size for the pattern wasn't in stock in Spotlight so I decided to wing it with 6mm hook I had at home instead of a 6.5mm.  I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to crochet but I did think to add more stitches to increase the size of the wrap.  My wrap is o.k. but it's not at all like the one in the pattern picture which looks soft and drapes beautifully.  I've opted not to use a button to secure it with, rather using a large kilt type pin I embellished a couple of years ago which doesn't show up particularly well in the photo.



Oh the joys of developing ones skills  :)

As our days are cold, gloomy and overcast I decided to bring a little colour into the house with these Camellias from the garden.

 
 I'm eyeing off the Daphne that will be in flower soon too so I can bring some of the fragrant blooms inside.

Have a lovely day everyone.

Anne xx

9 comments:

  1. Anne you have been very productive! Loving the scarf and the shawl - particularly the shawl I think, the colours look lovely on you. I am a keen knitter, but have yet to master crochet but hope to remedy that soon as I'm booked into a workshop at last! cheers Wendy

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  2. I think the shawl turned out great. Perfect color for the Fall time. Don't be hard on yourself. :)

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  3. Your work is beautiful, Anne, and the photos of you are lovely. I hope you enjoy your walks. Stay warm!

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  4. You should be as warm as toast now with your new scarf and shawl. Clever girl. Stripey doesn't look to pleased at being a model, does he?
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  5. Stripey looks very fetching in you scarf, hehe! I love the colour you chose for it.

    The shawl looks nice too, but I'm sorry it didn't turn out as you hoped.

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  6. I think both scarf & shawl are great & I'm really impressed with your efforts.
    Beautiful bright flowers to cheer a chilly day x

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  7. Love that pic of Stripey wearing your scarf Anne too cute....great colour and I love picot edging too.
    Your shawl looks great and all this crochet practice will stand you in good stead for future projects. But without doubt you will get plenty of wear out of these two pieces.
    Beautiful Camellias, so love them against the colour of your wall......

    Claire :)

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  8. You look gorgeous, Anne!
    Beautiful scarf and the shawl too.

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