Lopi yarn

March is almost gone so I thought it might be a good time to give you an update on what I am working on at the moment and what I plan to start soon as well. First, my Lopi shawl is finished and I love it so much! This pattern is the Warm Winter Shawl by Patrick Hassel-Zein and it is not the best pattern out there, not many explanations and I never understood what the designer did for the edging so just did my own thing, but if you are comfortable with tunisian crochet you can figure it out quickly from the pictures.

The best part about this shawl is that I am wearing it! I wear it at home mostly but have also ventured out with it so I am really excited 🙂 You may be wondering what happened after my blocking panic which I shared a few posts ago… well, it did smell horribly of conditioner once it dried so I had to ventilate it for a few days to make it go away but it is fine now. It is not extremely soft, but still wearable around the neck for me even though I mostly wear it as a shawl around my shoulders. It should also soften with use and washing so it can only get better now 🙂

After the EYF I started working on the Alyssium cardigan by Joanne Scrace, which I actually tried on at the Crochet Project stall, very exciting! It is coming along nicely and so far the pattern has been very easy to follow, I am using the exact same yarn as the sample which is Eden Cottage Yarns Pendle 4ply, a lovely hand dyed merino yarn in the colour Dusk. This cardigan fits so nicely with my new aspiration of a handmade wardrobe, I am sure that once finished it will get loads of use, can’t wait to wear it.

At the EYF I mostly bought yarn for garments that I have had my eye on for a long time, so hopefully I will slowly start building a collection of handmade clothes and accessories that I love to wear. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I am even considering to take some sewing classes to broaden my skills to create my own clothes (and project bags!) but I am not sure if it would be very wise considering the little time I have available at the moment. I will let you know what happens…

Finally, I have been experimenting with tunisian crochet in the round, this is my first attempt at this technique and of course I couldn’t just do something simple… I had to do a stitch pattern that changes colour not only for the forward pass but also for the return pass. It is not bad, but I am not sure I could make a pattern for this since even though it is simple, it is very difficult to explain in a written form. I can of course just make it for myself but I feel like if I design something I should be sharing it, not sure where this comes from but it is how I feel.

I am struggling with that a lot lately, since I can’t just post a pattern for you guys and hope you will figure it out, that is not how I like to do things. I want to make sure that you can follow it and that you can easily refer to a good tutorial (mine or someone else’s) if you get stuck.

I am having that problem with my Moroccan bag pattern at the moment since I feel like I should explain how tapestry crochet works and do a tutorial for the bag but that will delay the pattern quite a lot and it takes such a long time to shoot pictures for tutorials. This perfectionism with my patterns is what is making me design less and less since I just can’t find the time anymore, but we will see, maybe I just need to post less patterns and dedicate the time I need to get them the way I like it, no matter how long it takes me to finally get the instructions here. Do you mind waiting? I would really like your opinion on this so let me know what you think.

Those are my current projects, I will be adding one this week since Laura from Made in Oxford and I will be working on the Freyja shawl together, I am very excited to have a crochet partner for a pattern like this, I have a feeling I might get stuck on a few things but I am sure the finished product will be worth all the effort and having company will make it all much more enjoyable. I am still deciding on yarn so will share that with you once I make up my mind (so many choices!).

Hope you are having a great weekend, looking forward to a short week and some extra hooking time during Easter 🙂 Take care!

Sol

Hello there everyone, how was your weekend? Mine was a bit more social than usual which is always a good thing and today has gone just like every other Sunday, in a flash! Sundays are one of the hardest days of the week for me, not sure why but I always get quite anxious and struggle a lot between wanting to do nothing and wanting to be very productive and use my time wisely. Do you struggle with that as well?

Maybe it is just me feeling bad for not having accomplished something each day, and I think it has gotten worse with time. Anyway, my two accomplishments of the day today have been to get back on my hypothetical yoga mat again (I don’t have one yet so just use the carpet in the living room) and writing this blog post. If you remember my goals for this year you will know that giving yoga a try was one of them and I had been doing quite good until a couple of weeks when I started to feel a bit bad and couldn’t find the strength to do yoga after work.

However, I have been feeling better this week so there were no more excuses. I am still working the complete beginners workout by Yoga with Adrienne, it lasts 20 minutes and it has a few challenging parts for me but not too difficult so that I end up feeling like I didn’t really do anything properly. I always feel great after this practice, not only because I feel more relaxed but also because I actually found the motivation to do it, getting on the mat is actually the hardest part.

The instructor is great and she talks a lot about finding this “sense of ease” in each pose instead of looking for perfection. This has stuck with me since it is actually a great way to see life in general and not only yoga. My latest project has really been about finding that ease, something comfortable to put your effort and love into. Remember my obsession? Well… the shawl is almost done! One week and I am on the last stripe and then all that needs to be done is the border and blocking.

This Icelandic Lopi yarn is like nothing I had ever worked with and like nothing I ever thought I would like to work with as well. As yarn enthusiasts I think we are always looking for that soft and bouncy skein, and this is nothing like that but not short of amazing either. It feels rustic but so incredibly close to the sheep to which it once belonged to. It is incredible warm and once it blocks it will get softer and nicer to the touch.

While I as looking for more information about this yarn I came across a blogger who was talking about the little bits of vegetable matter that you can find in the yarn and how much she loved that she was actually holding a bit of Iceland in her hands brought to her by the sheep itself. That is a lovely way to put it.

Aside from my shawl there hasn’t been many more updates on the crochet front, my Doris Chan top is finished and in my closet where it will probably stay for a long time… but anyway, it was a nice project to work on. My Moroccan bag is close to being done and just in time for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival… can’t wait! Still working on my shopping list which is getting longer by the minute.

That is me for today, hope you all have a lovely week! I will be back soon with my Moroccan bag finished and of course my experience in my first ever yarn festival 🙂

Take care!

Sol

a crochet journey

Tales of my journey to a colourful and creative life

March WIPs and FOs

A sense of ease