Spitting Yarn

Spike is not a hat fan. He’s not a scarf fan, either. Also, gloves don’t really rate with him. In fact, if it’s woolly and warm, he doesn’t dig it. Deep inside, I know this is because he is clever. He is taking early, but necessary steps to avoid embarrassing photos returning to haunt him when he brings his first sweetheart home. He knows that given half a chance, I would smother him in “cheerful”, mama-made knitted goods and take lots of photos “for my blog”.

Well, he can’t get through winter without jumpers, so there is still a window of opportunity for me. I’ve been eyeing up Five Fruits for ages and finally dug some appropriate yarn out of my stash and got on with it. The pattern is quite straightforward, although I made a pig’s ear of the button placket (the buttonholes ended up on the bottom flap of the placket), the buttonholes themselves (I am apparently unable to follow seemingly simple instructions) and the hem of the body (it flipped like crazy so I unpicked it and let it roll). Anyway, it’s finished! My version is more Three Blues than Five Fruits.

I always intended Three Blues to be a dry run because I don’t love the colours, but it was all I had in my stash. Blue – meh. I have cast on for another in rainbow colours, which Spike loves. I think I might get some embarrassing photo mileage out of that one.

In my last post I mentioned a sneak peek I wanted to show you. This was a very fun crochet project. I can’t say more as it has not been passed to the recipient yet, but I can heartily recommend a really bright project to get you through the dour winter months.

Cheers me up just looking at it.

I been on a bit of a crochet binge over the last year, but I think my affair with the hook may be over. True, it is quick, but I’m looking for a challenge and hankering after the fine structure and detail you get with knitting. I’m also thinking of knitting some – gasp! – flat garments. By that, I mean garments not knitted in the round. I’m tired of all the interesting-looking projects disappearing from view when I click Attributes/Construction/Worked in the round in Ravelry’s search facility, but my sewing up sucks, so I really need to address that. I will shortly have the pleasure of teaching a friend to knit in weekly lessons and have chosen Debbie Bliss’ Boat Neck Sweater as a suitable project to learn with (after a practice square) and will take the opportunity to perfect my mattress stitch. After that, Ravelry is my oyster.

In my final piece of craft-related news, I got the Gocco out again.

I’m trying to be economical with my Gocco prints because the supplies are super-expensive. I am so sad that this amazing machine is becoming defunct. This card was an attempt to be creative with my self-imposed limitations on use – a multi-purpose card. To make the most of each screen, I always make at least fifty prints. I’m hoping by the time I come to the end of my supplies, someone will have seen sense, realised that there is a thriving market for the gadget and thrown some money at it.

That is all.