Sunday 17 September 2023

Mint Summer Shawl

Hello and thanks for visiting! Back in August I signed up to do a pattern test for Yulia of Semklitas_stitch. The Mint Summer pattern was for a shawl using one ball of Scheepjes whirl yarn, and I had a couple in my stash. One was called Minty Black Velvet and so this seemed perfect for the Mint Summer shawl. I worked on this the first week of September and had it competed in a few days. Its quite a dense pattern in that its not lacy, there are very few holes, and so there is a LOT of stitching.


One of the stitches was this groovy thing where you work a dc2tog into the stitch itself and the next stitch, I have never seen this done before so this was a new one to learn. With a 4 row pattern repeat and no counting it was fairly easy, and an adventurous beginner could easily tackle this one.


I love how the colour changes so gradually in a whirl, its very clever how its done. And when blocked it has a beautiful drape.


I used a 4mm hook, and ran out of yarn so I suspect I should've used a 3.5 mm or smaller. But running out of yarn doesn't seem to have affected the outcome, I think its gorgeous and its a lovely light, breathable shawl as its a cotton-acrylic blend.


I'll be back soon with a lovely scarf to show you, see you then,

Jillxxxx

Podcast Episode 7

Hello and thankyou for visiting! Episode 7 of the Emerald Cottage podcast is now available, and you can find it here.

Patterns I mention: 
Mint Summer Shawl - this is in testing so no pattern available yet
Papyrus scarf - this is in testing so no pattern available yet

Podcasts I mention:

Books I mention:

Etsy Shops I mention

Friday 1 September 2023

Dr Dog

 Hi lovelies,

Just a really quick post from me today. Last week I pattern tested "Dr Dog" for the lovely Olga of @crafts_by_olga on instagram. Isn't he cute ?


He was made using Ricorumi 100% cotton with a 3mm hook. Here's a photo of me with my new Ricorumi set ...


... I treated myself to the Ricorumi pack specifically for doing amigurumi, the pack contains 60 x 25g balls in every colour imaginable. Divine! I found it quite hard to break into it as I just wanted to gaze at its beauty!

Anyway Dr Dog was very quick to make: head, ears, arms, tail all separate and then sewn onto the body which was all one piece with the legs. His coat was then separate and the pattern called for a little name tag to be hand embroidered ...

He even has a little stethoscope (which was very fiddly to do!) ...


.. and his glasses were fashioned from some jewellery wire that I had sitting in a random box in my craft room. They're a bit skew-whiff but I think it adds to his character. Overall I totally love him, and he has already been claimed by child number 2 (who is now 18 by the way!).

Til next time,

Jillxxx