LornaJane

If you've been following the previous entries in this series, you'll have seen how to start to crochet, and if you've followed the instructions you should be able to add another couple of rounds onto your project and end up with something that looks like this:



There are a number of things you can do with these little squares. They're a very traditional form of crochet (and a really good way of using up odds and ends), you can see the kind of thing I mean if you search for "granny square" on flickr. When I was first learning to crochet I made myself a coding blanket that I still love!



Crochet doesn't have to be square and it doesn't have to be traditional - I've seen everything from the subversive (crochet covers on parking meters) to the cute (amigurumi). I'm currently working on (currently in the sense that I've begun and I haven't finished yet, rather than it being truly ongoing) a set of hexagonal string coasters. The idea is that they will tesselate and form either a big placemat to put hot pots on or several smaller cup-sized coasters. They're not radical, but they're not really your traditional granny square either!



I'm sure there are many more uses of crochet in general and granny squares in particular - answers in the comments please :)

Recently I was shopping for an embriodery hoop and I saw that you can buy ones which are ready-made picture frames, you literally put the fabric in, embrioder, then trim off the outside and tidy up the back. I decided that this would make a great basis for an earring tidy - I try to keep my earrings linked together in pairs, but it depends what kind of butterfly they have and whether I remember! Some days its a real challenge to find a matching pair at all, and looking for a particular pair of earrings is usually a waste of time.

Enter the earring tidy, my 3-minute craft project! Take some fabric ( mine is linen, so its easy to put the earrings through ), put into the hoop, trim. Now add earrings!



It would be cool to categorise earrings and embroider in some outlines and labels, but I didn't bother. This now hangs by my mirror on a piece of string so I can pick it up and get the earrings easily.

Here's the last in the crochet tutorial series, showing how to fit a second round of granny square onto the existing "granny's daughter" that we made previously. I'll have to take some photos of stuff I've done with this pattern to give you some ideas of what can actually be made from this very simple pattern piece. Anyway, enough waffle, here's the video:



If you get this far - definitely let me know :)

I am a habitual chunky-yarn knitter. I will go all the way down to double knit weight, but beyond that I find life is too short to bother :) The upshot of this is that my projects get very big very quickly. I have a few trips coming up where I have long flights, and basically with an 18 hour travel time, I can knit about one hand-lugged-sized quantity of wool!! So I've been looking for something more portable to take as my project.

I've got this laceweight mohair from http://www.thenaturaldyestudio.com/ and its absolutely gorgeous. The pattern calls for Rohan Kidsilk Haze, which I know is lovely but it really is quite pricey.



One of the skeins (I have three!) was wound into a ball by friends when I took it to the knitting group, its 400 yards per skein so I can't imagine I'm going to manage to crochet all that while I'm away.

The pattern is "Beaded Cobweb Wrap" from Erica Knight's Essential Crochet, uses a 6mm hook so the pattern is more space than yarn anyway, and it looks quite easy once you've done the cast on - its crocheted longways, so there's a mad long chain that you have to hook into to start with, something I always struggle with. I've been assured it'll look like chewed string until I block it and that I should just carry on regardless - I'll let you know how I get on :)

New crochet lesson, and today it really gets interesting! I decided to film the whole row to show you but flickr only allows 90 seconds playback so its in 2 halves :)





Any questions, please feel free to comment here or contact me for help! It does go by quite quickly so do pause and re-watch as needed. And don't be discouraged if the end result is a bit lop-sided - the aim is to have the foundation ring you started with in the middle, and 4 distinct holes around it. Anything better is a bonus but entirely optional :)

There's been a wool shop on Tong Road in Leeds for years, and its always been pretty good. Last year I heard it was closing, the lady who ran it was retiring. To cut a very long story short, it hasn't closed!!

I've been in to inspect and its had a real clean-up, new paint, carpet, better lighting - but its got the same good choice of wools and vast quantities of things being produced from the back room :) Its the same "go and ask at the counter" format but the new owners are nice and enthusiastic and quickly becoming experienced knitters themselves. I dropped in for something and was there for easily 20 minutes! The details are:

The Wool Shop
Whingate Junction
Tong Road
Leeds
LS12 4NQ

Tel: 0113 263 8383

Its on the main bus route, and is easy to park.

Opening hours:
10:30am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday - but they run another mail order business from the premises and are often there much later on, so give them a ring if you want to pop in after 5pm.