Grrrrranny Square Jacket tadah!

You would think from my latest posts that I had given up on crochet – no mention at all, that would be WRONG!

The trouble is I have so much else I want/have to do that the hooky bit gets somewhat crowded out.  Here then is one of my latest finished projects – the first actual garment I have ever crocheted.  Then I created my own edging, collar and lined pockets (everything has to have pockets) – fun to do and I really love it.

The basic pattern used is taken free from  Ravelry and is very easy to make. You need to be a member of Ravelry to  use their site but it is so worth it.  So without any further ado -

fire time..

I am eating one of the apples off our tree.  It is the kind of apple that when you bite the red bleeds into the white, which is kinda cool. I am also drinking a mug of tea – a new type of PG Tips that I got free in a mag, it is surprisingly nice, or maybe I am just really thirsty..

Two days till Mabon, or if you like – the Autumn Equinox and you would need to be blind not to be able to tell that the year is into wain.  I presume that even if you were blind you would be able to tell the special smells that go with this season. One of the few smells I really don’t care for is that of coal burning and I have had a whiff or two of that in the last couple of weeks.  We have already had one load of wood delivered and another arriving next week, it will feel nice knowing that if all outside power sources go we will still be able to keep warm, cook food and have hot water and light.

Fire, my favourite element?  Mmmm..  Certainly will be for these next couple of seasons..

I have a little shrine on my lounge windowsill and  on it I have  one of the cards from the Goddess Sabbat Cards set designed by Wendy Andrew that grace every seasonal celebration.  At the moment it is still showing the harvest card for Lammas on the 1st of August.

 

I have been unwell again, as you might have noticed by the dearth of blog posts, none for September so far.  Feeling ok today however and more inclined to reach out to you lovely people again.

We were supposed to be going to London for a week at the beginning of October to celebrate my birthday but have called that off as I cannot be sure that I will have the energy to do all the things that one does in London.  Instead we have taken a caravan at a place called Pennard Cliffs on the South Wales coast and will relax and walk the dog ragged (some hope with a terrier).  I am looking forward to it, instead of being anxious about it when London was still the plan.. I have been assured that London will still be there when I am more able.

I am working on far too many crochet projects,  I broke my own rule and now have seven items which need finishing, including my Japanese Flower Shawl which I should have finished months ago.  I have this idea that if I sewed all the motifs together and blocked it I could wear it on my birthday!  Just a week and a half to go, we will see..

wot i is woking on

 

Flowers from Mr T to brighten my day..

 

a laptop and a lapdog

 

 

chain reaction..

I came across Mark Steel when we moved to the UK the first time in 2003.  He was on the radio with a series called The Mark Steel Lectures where he argued for the importance of particular historical figures, fascinating AND funny. I loved it.

I would have posted a video of one of the  lectures  from the t.v. version off You Tube but it won’t let me embed for some reason, so you will have to check them out for yourself.

Today we tuned in to listen to Chain Reaction on BBC Radio Four and were pleased to discover that Mark Steel was being interviewed by the equally brilliant Kevin Eldon – if you are in need of a laugh you can find it here for the next 6 days.

Oh and a photo of me wearing my latest creation

My neighbour who obligingly took the photo had just said "Nice tits"

i love my town..

I am a crocheting fool this evening and then later T and I  are off out to the Open Mic Night at Kilvert’s to meet our friend Leslie.  Hope it will be a good night – doesn’t really matter, it will just be nice to be out and have a lovely pint and great company.

I have been crocheting these..

It’s a African Flower/Granny pot holder – pattern taken from the Crochet With Raymond blog.  There is a great tutorial if you feel like trying your hand. I gave this blue beauty to my mother -in- law Coral and now am over half way through my second one (purple).  Lots of fun.

Just before I go I have to show you this lovely face cloth that my friend M gave me – she is very clever and I am a lucky girl

Cotton owl dish cloth - cable knit

By the way – I have just got hold of the programme for the philosophy and music festival called How The Light Gets In that runs during the Hay Book Festival but is based at The Globe on the other side of town – OhMyGod!!!!  It sounds amazing…  If you ever get the chance to come to Hay – come at this time of year, it’s going to be brilliant.  If you’ve got time click on my link and check it out.

crochet post alert – look away if allergic to hookers..

So most of you out there will not have heard of the Japanese flower motif, and there is absolutely no reason why you should have.  Except that this crocheter has been amazed by the way word has spread in the hooky internet world in the last couple of months.

I saw my first Japanese flower courtesy of Lucy at Attic 24.  She had been looking for some time for a suitable motif to make a shawl with – and being picky it was taking some time.  Finally she came across two French blogs this one  and this one from which she downloaded the (french) PDF file and then she blogged about it.  Lucy’s blog is extremely popular and I and about a thousand other readers of Attic 24 also downloaded it – the pattern had gone viral.

It then occurred to the French woman who had put the PDF file up for download that maybe there might be a small copyright problem with doing that.  Being that she had originally taken the pattern directly from a Japanese crochet book – Pattern Book Vol 4.   She had the pattern on her blog for the last two years but hardly anyone had paid much attention to it so it all seemed ok – now every person and their hook was visiting and it all seemed to be getting out of hand – so she took it off.

But it was way to late, way, way ,way too late.

And now it is everywhere – like some weird weed that keeps popping up month after month.  And what a beautiful weed..

One would have thought that now the only way to get the pattern would be to buy the original in the Japanese crochet book (expensive) or to know someone who had got in on time and downloaded the PDF,  BUT  the wonderful Elizabeth Cat stepped in and posted a tutorial on her blog – slightly different from the original but it looks pretty much the same.

Since then I have seen references to this motif on many  blogs including Crochet with Raymond, one of my absolute favourite crochet blogs whose author hails from Wellington, New Zealand – my home town.  Also  I have found a Ravelry group who have been making this shawl for the last couple of years. If you are after inspiration check them out.

I am not going to comment on the copyright issue except to say that hopefully once all those thousands of crocheters get exposed to the incredible lovely crochet (and other craft books) that come out of Japan, support for the designers will go up hugely.

One of my favourites - this one is by Adelaide and can be seen on Ravelry

The motif was originally created by Mayuko Hashimoto （橋本　真由子） and pretty damned cool it is too.