WIPs

January 17, 2015January 20, 2015 ~ solrencoret ~ 2 Comments

I would like to thank the nice comments I got for my resolution’s post, I really appreciate the support! I have made some progress there and will share it in due time. Today I would like to share what is in my hook these days or my works in progress (WIPs).

I usually love most of my crochet projects but I am particularly happy with my WIPs this month since they all happen to be my own designs and have worked out great (so far).

The first is this cowl inspired on the beautiful cobbled streets you can find in Edinburgh. Even though I am always tripping or getting my shoe in between the stones I am in love with cobbled streets and this is my tribute! I am not sure if this will be a very short cowl or more like an infinity scarf, I will work on the pattern until I ran out of yarn and then decide.

I am using that lovely Madelinetosh yarn I shared with you recently and I think it gives the exact effect I was looking for: that change in colour but also a bit of shine which reminds me of cobbled streets after the rain (which of course happens very often in Scotland). Once it is finished I will post pictures of the finished sample and a picture of my inspiration as well. This has been my “train project” lately and it has been such a joy to work on, simple pattern in a beautiful yarn.

That gorgeous yarn bowl in the pictures is a present I received from my sister for Christmas. Isn’t the most beautiful thing ever? I love it! If you are interested in buying one of these beauties here is the Etsy shop where my sister bought it from, I had a little browse and wanted to buy everything to be honest. *I just found out that my sister actually asked the shop owner to make this baby seal yarn bowl specially for me! She has the design on other products but not yarn bowls, best sister ever 🙂

Also, I am working on a bag pattern, my first bag! It is very early on but so far it is turning out as planned. It uses tapestry crochet and is inspired on this picture I found on Pinterest.

No pictures of this WIP yet but will keep you updated as usual.

I am also working on a pattern for a workshop, I am so excited and scared at the same time when it comes to teaching, definitely more excitement than fear though so I think we are good! It will be a very simple pattern to learn how to crochet basic tunisian stitches and a couple of more advanced ones, it is blocking at the moment so almost finished.

Also on my blocking mat is… my tunisian vest! This vest… OMG, it really needs to get done. It is looking good, though I will probably have to add a bit of length to it with a few rows of ribbed crochet to make sure I actually wear it. Just some sewing and those few rows to add length and I’ll be done. Pictures coming soon!

Those are my WIPs at the moment, I will start swatching soon for a sweater by Doris Chan for a new Interweave class I purchased, and I bought the yarn for that Piped Petals pattern that I shared on my queue post so I will have to start that soon as well.

A lot of crochet in my life as usual but so happy with all my projects. The whole process from the inspiration for a pattern, to choosing the yarn and then making a sample is just so satisfying and it is definitely the kind of things that I try to fill my mind with when I start getting too worried or anxious. I just go to my happy place where I am just crocheting away, surrounded by beautiful yarn and with not a worry in the world.

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Sol

Yarn and more yarn

January 10, 2015January 9, 2015 ~ solrencoret ~ 8 Comments

Hello my dear readers! How is 2015 treating you? Life has been quiet around here, it was hard to get back to work and the routine after the holidays but I think I am finally settling in again.

I did a bit of yarn shopping in December so wanted to share my latest buys with you. I have decided not to buy any more yarn until the Edinburgh Yarn Festival (EYF), the vendors have been announced and there are so many stalls (so exciting!!!) so I want to save some money to get some lovely things there. Now, I won’t buy more yarn but I will use a gift voucher for a local yarn shop that my lovely boyfriend gave me for Christmas. I think that now that yarn is taking over the flat he finally realised that really all I want in life is yarn 🙂

If you are planning to go to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival let me know if you would like to meet up, we can do some yarn shopping together, wouldn’t that be lovely 🙂 I am also thinking to take one of the crochet classes so give me a shout if you are thinking the same, a class buddy is always necessary!

Now, about my latest yarn buys, I will begin with this beautiful Madelinetosh yarn, is Merino Light 4ply in a lovely greyish colour. I bought this at Be Inspired Fibres, there are so many beautiful yarns from all over the world in this shop and they will be at the EYF as well. It is already being worked into a cowl and I am loving how this looks with tunisian crochet. The cowl is inspired in the beautiful cobbled streets in Edinburgh, will post pictures and pattern soon!

At Be Inspired I also got a bit of Artesano Alpaca and Alpaca Silk in 4ply, I believe this will become that honeycomb cowl that sparked the idea to start my tunisian crochet tutorials, the colours are the same as my tunisian vest and of course only realised once I got home… 😛

As part of a yarn exchange we did at my knitting group Christmas party I got this lovely Noro yarn, I see some tunisian fingerless gloves in the future! I think tunisian simple stitch would look great with the colour changes in this yarn.

I also got this lovely Brigantia yarn in DK weight at Ginger Twist Studio, I have been eyeing this yarn for some time so happy to finally get to work with it. I am doing a sample for a class project, this New Year may bring some teaching opportunities so will keep you updated but it is all so very exciting!

Finally I also got this from Jess at Ginger Twist: an adorable crochet for my keys! I love it, for me it is only decorative but you could actually use it in those times of crochet emergency 😛

I’ve been hooking away these days and loving every minute of it. It has given me a lot of time to think about what I hope for this year, do you think a New Year resolutions post is too late? I think getting it in writing will help and one of my resolutions is to expand this blog and talk a bit more about life in my corner of the world. I think I will just start working on it and hope you will forgive me for being a little late to the party (or boarding the bus using the back door as we would say where I come from).

I have enjoyed every minute of this blog journey and want it to grow (and me alongside it), I hope to continue to interest you with patterns, colours and yarn goodness if you allow me since it is an honour to have my blog be a small part of your day or of your own crafty journey. Will be back soon with those resolutions…

Hope you have a lovely day!

Sol

Yarn therapy

September 16, 2014September 21, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 1 Comment

Hi everyone! Did you have a great weekend? I hope so. Days are getting shorter but for some miracle we have had some really sunny days in my part of the world which have been even more bright recently by some well deserved yarn therapy.

Meet the softest, shiniest and prettiest of yarns: Ginger’s Hand Dyed Splendor 4 ply in the colour Wine o’clock (love the name by the way).

Hand dyed by the lovely Jess from Ginger Twist Studio it is 50% silk, 50% merino and just so soft. I have been dreaming about buying some of Jess’s yarn for months and months but couldn’t really afford it with my old salary without feeling extremely guilty. Also, where I come from spending anything more than 2 pounds on a ball of yarn is qualified as expensive (warm country, mostly acrylic yarn) so it felt crazy to spend that money.

But the truth is, some things are more expensive because they are simply worth a load more. This is the case for hand dyed yarns like this one: good quality yarns with unique colours created by very talented and dedicated people. So after receiving the first pay for my new job I decided to treat myself with this beauty, and I didn’t feel guilty at all! I know I will make something with it that will last me for years to come, I actually already started (couldn’t help myself). My next pattern will be a shawl using this yarn, I am taking a break from colourwork and trying something more simple this time.

Since this yarn may be a bit too expensive for some (as it was for me only a few months ago) I will do a bit research and look for some nice substitutes at different price ranges. I will keep you updated on my progress 😉

So that is it for now, my next post will be the Creative Blog Hop that has been going around, Jess actually nominated me for this in her blog and I have really liked reading other people’s answers to the questions so very excited to post something myself!

Sol

A thumb-size problem

July 23, 2014July 23, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 6 Comments

I am not sure why, but in the last few years I have felt a pressing need to be efficient and productive with my time. When I was at university I wouldn’t mind spending a whole weekend in bed watching TV, it was actually one of my favourite ways to spend the weekend. Now, every spare moment of time I have I feel the need to squeeze as much out of it as possible. It is not healthy but I can’t seem to shake it off.

If you follow my blog you will see I have started to create my own patterns, which has brought much joy to my life. A lot of people (maybe most of them) create patterns because they can’t help it, they are creative beings and ideas and colours are floating in their minds all the time: it is just natural. For me, I am designing patterns for the exact opposite reason: it is really hard for me. I see everything in black and white and 2D, I am horrible with colours (though Pinterest is helping) and I am the less creative person I know. I have been dancing for years and I can learn a choreography very fast, but if I just put the music on and try something on my own nothing comes to me. The patterns on this blog are the result of long research (what stitches to use? how do you mix colours?) and a lot of time and effort. So I am doing this as a challenge to my natural way of being, and oh boy, it is a challenge.

I have been working with colours lately and have fallen in love with fair isle patterns. Have borrowed all the books I could find in the library and I think I have finally found a stitch that allows you to see the patterns clearly on the fabric like when knitting. Since I can’t knit this is the only way I am ever going to do fair isle. So I looked for some patterns I liked and assembled them into what it would be a pattern for fingerless mittens. It started off great, I actually love how the colours look together and have been trying for ways to use them for months so it is a YAY! for me. But then… there was the thumb. What you see in the picture is what is left after I pulled my thumb attempt apart (yes, I was mad). I also realised the mitten was going to be too small and need to do it bigger, but since the pattern is a repeat of 12 st it will have to be a lot bigger and all this discouraged me so much.

Spending so much time trying to come up with a pattern when I could just follow another person’s pattern is very contra-intuitive for me and harder than I thought it would be. I was ready to throw it all in the bin last night, but today I have decided to persevere. Yes, there are some lovely patterns out there but not this exact one, and if I actually crochet something nice like this I will be so happy with the end result that all this will be worth it. And I will try to convince myself that I can take as much time as I need, there is no deadline, no rush: this is not a job. Finally, I will remind myself that I am doing this not only for the result, but for the journey. A journey to a more creative and colourful life 🙂

Sol

Trial and error

July 12, 2014July 23, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 2 Comments

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven’t been posting much this week but I have been very busy, it was my boyfriend’s birthday a few days ago and there has been little time to crochet or update the blog. We had a lovely time and the weather couldn’t have been nicer, I even made a cake and it turned out so good I will have to have an excuse to make it again before next year!

Lately I have been working on this geometric pattern I showed you last week, but had to start over after some problems with the tension. It will be a little purse with a fabric lining and a zip to store some pens, I am really liking it so far but I realised that the technique to keep your seams straight when working on the round works much better when you do stitches on the back loop only.

I have been doing the same technique as the wrist warmers on this project but the seam keeps moving, not as much as it would without it and it is less noticeable, but it is definitely a diagonal. I would work on the back loop if it weren’t for the dark green colour, it is too contrasting and the shapes of the triangles are not as clear when you work on the back loop but have bought lighter yarn to give it a try with a different sized purse.I think the shapes would be clearer if they were bigger but I wanted small triangles.

Working on the back loop only will also fix the slight tendency of the shapes to lean to the right side. I know I should’ve just started with the new purse with lighter colours and back loop only but it will be a good exercise to see the final result with both techniques. So, lord give me patience to finish them both!

I get so impatient when I spend too much time on a project, specially when it is small. This pattern is deceiving because all the colour changes make it more time-consuming than it seems, but I still love the final effect. I will keep you updated on my progress, the seam is just turning enough to start showing at the front so will see how much that bothers me soon 😛

Hope you have a great weekend!

Sol

Indie Burgh Yarn Crawl

July 1, 2014July 1, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ Leave a comment

Hello there, thank you for visiting my blog on this lovely day! It has been so sunny and warm in Edinburgh today that no one can talk about much else. I never thought that blue skies would be such a topic of conversation but if you live in Scotland you understand that once the sun is out everyone will comment about it wherever you go. I am even wearing shorts! (it took a while to find them). Ok will stop about the weather now, told you it’s all you can talk about…

In this post I wanted to share with you some of the lovely yarn I bought while participating in the first ever yarn crawl in Edinburgh. If you don’t know what a yarn crawl is, it is basically a pub crawl but instead of shots you buy yarn and instead of a headache the next morning you get that amazing feeling of new yarn under your hands.

The yarn crawl included three shops in town: Ginger Twist Studio, Be Inspired Fibres and Kathy’s Knits. They are all lovely shops, each with its own unique identity and beautiful yarn. I joined a lucky dip group so we went to each shop together which I thought was loads of fun.

If you read my blog you know that I have set up a challenge for myself to use up my yarn stash and buy less yarn, BUT I thought that such occasion as a yarn crawl was clearly an exception since there was no way I was going to go to three yarn shops and not buy anything. So I set a budget, then increased it of course once I was there and ended up buying some beautiful yarn so I thought I could share it with you guys. I bought all of them for Be Inspired Fibres.

First, I wanted some lace since I have an idea in my head for a shawl ever since I started downloading japanese crochet books and fell in love with a stitch pattern in one of them. The yarn is called Holst Garn and it is SO soft, 100% pure thin alpaca. It smells amazing as well, reminds me of the south of my country.

Next, I wanted some cotton yarn for another project I have in mind for a pencil case (details to come!). I wanted bright, fun colours and these ones are perfect.

Finally I ended up picking up this superwash yarn called Jawoll by Lang Yarns, I just fell in love with the colours and thought they would make some lovely fair isle wrist warmers.

I am in a chart mood lately, I have been playing with my colours trying to put into paper some of the ideas I have and can’t wait to start swatching!

Sol

Little squares of joy

June 29, 2014July 1, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ Leave a comment

I have never been good with colour. From my clothes to my crochet projects it has always been hard to put them together, and I usually end up mixing two tones of the same colour. I think that is one of the reasons why I always used to crochet projects in one colour, well that and having to hide all those ends of course.

A few months ago I saw this blanket while browsing patterns in Ravelry and I fell in love. After avoiding colour for a long time I decided to take on the challenge of a granny square blanket! Crazy, I know. I was determined to get through it because of the beautiful end result but I didn’t think I would enjoy the process as much. I decided to go with the same colours as the pattern since picking so many colours on my own would take me years, bought a big storage bag to put it all in and set off.

It took only a few squares to realise how wrong I was and to name this project as my happy blanket: there is no other way of describing it as colour happiness. Every time I make a square there is this happy, cozy feeling inside and a smile on my face. 5 rows of squares later and the feeling hasn’t gone away, and I think I will actually finish this blanket one day!

And that’s not all. I am already looking for more blankets to do!

Sol

Killing my yarn stash: Excelana 4ply

June 26, 2014June 26, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ 2 Comments

As with most things, this pattern didn’t start the way it ended. I bought this yarn from the lovely Jess at Ginger Twist Studio with the idea of doing some tapestry crochet in the shape of diamonds, little woolie style. I bought a yellow colour along with the blue and light blue but they really didn’t look well together. The navy blue was too contrasting to carry it inside the stitches without being WAY too obvious.

I was thinking that the two tones of blue looked well together and started scratching my head looking for ideas. That is when I thought they looked like night and day and the pattern started forming in my head. I bought a notebook with little squares, loads of coloured pens and started to make a chart for a random transition from night to day.

Now, let me tell you that coming up with a random pattern of dots is actually not random at all and takes loads of attempts. When I was finally satisfied I thought I would do it with tunisian crochet and frame it for my wall (I have some granny squares framed and they look lovely, pictures soon).

If you have done colour changes with tunisian crochet you know that it can be done but if you have to change colours too often in a row it becomes a bit of a challenge. Fair isle crochet came to mind, but of course, this works much better in the round. So my nice “crochet painting” became a pair of wrist warmers, and I LOVE THEM. I really never expected they would turn out this nice so I am really proud and a bit more confident in myself and this little project of mine.

I have to write the pattern for these as well, though it might take a bit. I need to do the chart and probably add a few more columns since my wrists are incredibly small, I guess they are OK for a child size though 😛

If you are interested in fair isle crochet I used the tutorials from Crochet Ever After, as well as her technique for changing colours when closing each round so that it makes an almost invisible join.

Sol

Killing my yarn stash: Yeoman Yarns Red Lace

June 26, 2014June 26, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ Leave a comment

Hope you are all having a lovely day. Following the introduction of myself and my yarn stash killing project I thought you might want to see what I have accomplished so far. My first project was to find a purpose for a red lace yarn from Yeoman Yarns. They have some lovely colours if you want to check them out. This yarn is not soft, but not too scratchy either. I bought it to make a shawl for a friend, I used the pattern Love is a Prism by Julia Wardell (beautiful!) but got loads of yarn left.

I wanted a really simple project and remembered that I had really liked the tunisian crossed stitch in the shawl pattern so decided to use that and just simple stitch, I really like the result. I used the biggest hook I had to make it lacy.

It looked boring without some fun edging, I knew how I wanted it to look but couldn’t come up with a way to do it so finally I found a pattern in a Japanese crochet book that is very similar to my mental image and I think it really adds to the final result. I will write up the pattern and post it soon, if you have not tried tunisian crochet this is a very simple project to start with.

By the way I still have yarn left! I could’ve made it longer but I was getting bored… I know, should’ve just used it all but too late now 😛 If you are in need of some red lace yarn please let me know.

Sol

Me and my yarn stash challenge

June 26, 2014June 26, 2014 ~ solrencoret ~ Leave a comment

Wow, I can’t believe I actually started this blog. Weeks and weeks the idea has been circling in my mind until it has left several holes that won’t allow for concentration on much else.

I guess I should start by introducing myself, my name is Sol and I am a bit obsessed with crochet lately. I learned to crochet when I was about 10 years old and have had periods in my life when I haven’t touched a hook for years and others when I need one every day. These days is mostly the latter, and I have to say it is the longest I have been crocheting without getting bored and moving on to other hobbies.

So why did I start this blog you may ask? Well, I like writing and crocheting so blogging fits, but the main reason is because in the last month I have left my comfort zone and started challenging my creative side (fingers crossed to actually having one). I have started playing with stitches, patterns and colours mostly because of my personal challenge to start using up my yarn stash. I am sure I am not the only one that looks at the piles and piles of yarn in the corner of the room without much guilt (I mean it’s yarn, you are supposed to have loads and pet them every once in a while) but a tight budget has forced me to use up my stash and with that I am pushing my logical, linear, black and white mind to the limits.

And then I thought, why not blog about it? An engineer trying to mix up yarns, find or even create new patterns might be of interest to some and if you guys like them I can post them for you to enjoy.

So if you are not totally bored by now I will show you the current suspects…

I am not crazy about this yarn, a friend left it for me after she moved back home. It is nice enough but I wish it was more pink and less brownish. Anyway, I am already swatching some ideas with tunisian crochet and if I find anything I like you will be the first to know 😉

Have a great evening x

Sol

a crochet journey

Tales of my journey to a colourful and creative life

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