Crochet bag

I’ve finally finished making a granny square bag that has been in my head for ages.

I followed the instructions for this octagon granny square, which was really easy to follow with useful photos to show exactly what the instructions meant. I’d definitely use more patterns by this designer.

Once I’d made two squares and discovered they were miraculously the same size, I double crocheted them together and made a long handle so it can go cross body.

Because of the holes in the crochet I needed to line it and here’s where things went pear shaped! I Measured it, and measured it again, and laid the cotton squares (using up the last main bits of the butterfly batik 🙁) against the bag, and it looked OK. I didn’t want them too big as I wanted them to sit inside the bag neatly, but somehow they ended up with about a 2cm gap all round the edge. I was so frustrated and still don’t really know how it happened… I even thought I’d given a bit of a seam allowance.

But I fixed it a bit by crocheting together the gaps at the top either side of the lining so it doesn’t look bad…. It’s just not how I intended it!

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Snow days rock!!

Oh how lovely it was to have a Friday morning where I didn’t set my alarm, woke up naturally at 8:15, fed the piggies and took my cereal and coffee back to bed with me, read from two different books and caught up with blogs, and finally got out of bed about 11.30! I can’t really say I got up, as I’m still in my pj’ s now, but at least I haven’t been back to bed since then!

Then this afternoon held an unexpected surprise. My friend Adelina also works in a school and lives across the park from us. She messaged just to say hi and when I found out she was thinking of going out for a little walk and then home to do some sewing or drawing I suggested she could come here and draw or sew while I crocheted. With Mark being stuck in London since Tuesday I was beginning to feel the lack of social company.

Adelina came over and we started talking crochet. She’s done some in the past and it’s trying to work out how to get back into it. We talked about granny squares and she fancied making a blanket from lots of small squares. So we got out my stash and she found colours she liked, and we started working together on a square from a book of different patterns that I hadn’t got round to using yet. It was so much fun to share my stash in this way.

I made the swatch alongside her, and had my usual trouble of working out what is the first stitch of the row. Does anyone have a good explanation for this, or does it depend on the pattern which stitch they refer to as the first one?

Adelina wasn’t worried though as she was using this first attempt to get the feel of things. I’d suggested not making the chain too tight but then she felt she was crocheting more loosely than she’d like so she deliberately made it tighter about half way up.

It was so exciting and satisfying to help someone to explore crochet. I’ve helped her to learn double crochet, and treble crochet, as well as how to crochet into the chain, and how to count stitches. I’m really pleased with how her swatch has turned out.

Here’s mine too.

We’ll hopefully see each other on Thursday evening for a crochet session at my neighbour’s house, so we’re going to work on a traditional granny square together then.

In between rows, this morning and after Adelina left I’ve managed to finish off Emma bunny. Here she is exploring the piggies’ cage.

She’s decided she’d rather stay out here with me as I’m more friendly than the piggies, even if I do take cheeky photos of her bottom (I looked on line to try to find out what her tail is supposed to look like but couldn’t find any photos or instructions, so thought I’d show you how I did it!).

I’m really pleased with her and love how her ears flop.

That’s all my crochet sanctuary projects finished off. I might have to go back to spirits of life and see if I can get a bit more of that done, and I’ll keep the seaside stash buster blanket rows as a reward for later in the week.

Fingerless gloves

Woohoo! I’m so excited about this one! And i feel really proud of myself. I stumbled across a pattern for granny square gloves and fancied trying it out. But i wanted to include a hole for my thumb to go through, and not just have a long tube as the pattern showed. 

I chose my colours and got started 

I did a bit more another day 

I really enjoyed the process of deciding on colours of rows as i got to them, and deciding if i would do one or two rows of that colour. 

Yesterday i blitzed it and ended up finishing them! I did the bit for the thumb hole a couple of times as i was working it out as i went along, so had to undo it and remedy bits that weren’t working, but in the end i got  it so my thumb fits comfortably and it looks pretty neat…. I’m so chuffed with myself for doing that. Not only that, i remembered what I’d  done  and replicated it on  the other glove too! 

Then i followed the pattern to add the gorgeous top age bottom edges, and was left with THIS:

An hour later, after carefully threading (and  re-threading the ends i’d cut too short) each end, and finding ways to weave them in so they stay secure (a process i found unexpectedly therapeutic) i was left with this 

And a lovely new pair of gloves to wear. I’m off now for an evening walk to try them out!