Virus Shawl 1

 Its 2024 and I'm very late to the party, but I've just finished my first virus shawl!

I joined in with a crochet-along, you can find it if you go on Instagram and search for #anniversaryvirusshawlcal. Its hosted by Lisa of @lisapinenotes and runs every year in April.

There are lots of different stories about the virus shawl's origins, some say its a vintage pattern, some say its called the virus shawl because it went viral a few years ago. There is a pattern on ravelry here by Julia Marquardt but I don't know if it is her original pattern or if she's just written it up? If it is then I don't know why she's not being credited for it more often??

Anyway. Its a really easy pattern, a 3 row repeat which is very rhythmic, although the groups of trebles are in 10's and counting to 10 repeatedly in a crochet pattern is quite unusual. So whilst its a great TV pattern, you do have to keep counting all the time, so prepare to not have a clue what any of the characters in your show look like!

I made mine in Yarnsmiths Pebble Haze Prints yarn, in shade Saltburn, I love how the soft pinks and yellows merge together. Isn't it so pretty ?

As I said above, this was my first virus shawl, but I don't think it will be my last!

Til next time,

Jillxxx

Marguerite Bag

Hello and thanks for visiting! Its been ages since I did a "proper" blog post - all my recent ones have just been to tell you about my podcast, but I've really missed chitty chatting so I thought I'd rectify that with a post today.

We're just back from a lovely dog walk at Greys' Court, which is a National Trust property. We didn't go into the house, or take many photos, as we had a reluctant teenager with us, and had to keep moving, but here are a couple of pics of the bluebells, which was our primary reason for choosing Grey's Court.

Back home, in making news, I have finished a beautiful bag, the Marguerite Bag. It's a pattern by Emma Wright, as featured in issue 166 of Inside Crochet magazine.

The pattern called for Wool Couture Cotton but I used Drops Muskat, which is a mercerised cotton, in colours Denim, White and Sunflower.

I blocked all the squares on my lovely wooden blocking board, by simply spraying them with water and leaving to dry. Once blocked I was able to really easily assemble them into the bag shape, which is such a clever design.

The next job was to add the straps. I went a bit off piste here - the pattern called for a chain of 64 stitches for each strap but I wanted my straps longer so I did 130 chains. Then I felt like it needed to be wider than the one in the pattern, so I added a row of trebles all around. 

Finally I chose some lovely bright fabric with which to line it.

I used the sewing machine to make a rectangle taller than the bag, then I cut down in a big zig-zag around to mirror the points and dips of the squares (diamonds ?). I ironed a seam allowance and then hand stitched the lining in place.

And here is the lovely Brenda modelling the final result...

I'm totally in love with this bag, I love how summery and bright and sunny it is. Now we just need some weather to match!

Til next time,

Jillxxx

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

3 Little Pigs - plus a few more

Hello and how are you all ? I am very well and have had a great week of crochet - more about that in a minute. Its a very rainy day here at ECHQ, I'm going walking with a friend later so I'm hoping it clears up. This week I've been enjoying these beautiful pink roses which are very appropriate for the crochet I've been doing as you will see shortly. I've been crocheting for a local charity, The Cowshed, who describe themselves as "a new charity which provides support to people of all backgrounds in a time of personal crisis".

The support they provide is largely by way of items of clothing, and they take donations of good, pre-loved clothes which are all washed and ironed by a team of volunteers who do an amazing job getting the clothes ready and displaying them beautifully for clients (who are referred to them) to come and choose from, and try on. They also provide toys for children at Christmas and have a wishlist which you can find here. I've decided this year to buy three items from the wishlist and buy less for my own three children as they already have so much.

The Cowshed also raise money by doing craft fairs, and they have a craft club which I've been to a couple of times and made bunting for stock for their stalls. Doesn't their stall look great ? I'm not in the photo by the way. Helping at their craft fairs is something I intend to do next year.

Anyway, onto the crochet! So I've been crocheting little pigs in blankets ...

Just look at him! How super-cute is he! My local crochet group, The Barkham Hookers, asked us to make these for the Cowshed so I set to and managed to get three out of the yarn which they had provided ...

These three have gone off to the Cowshed already, apparently they have lots of orders to fulfill. I then posted about them on facebook and have had orders for another 7! Luckily I had more pink yarn so I've been non-stop piggy-making all week, with a little production line going for things like noses and ears ...

Here they are, starting to take shape ...

I ran out of the Christmassy red and green yarn for the blankets but I think the purple and blue ones are just as nice ...

They've such funny little faces, I'm sure they each have their own little personality ...

The pattern is by A Right Good Hook and you can find it here on ravelry.

It was a great pattern to follow, very well written and no mistakes! Lots of fun to crochet, but I must say after doing 10 of them - yikes! - I am now looking forward to moving onto another project. 

Til next time, hope you all have some crafty fun,

Jillxo

Carcassonne Crochet Retreat

During the first week of October I was lucky enough to go away on holidays to France on my own for a week. I say on my own but actually I was with my bestest oldest friend (we have known each other for 49 years!!!) and a group of 12 others on a lovely relaxing crochet retreat. The retreat, which was organised by Stitchtopia and run by the wonderful Lucy of Attic24 fame, took place in the beautiful city of Carcassonne in southern France.

We set off very early (I got up at 2:30am - yikes!) on a Monday morning and got off to a great start with bucks fizz for breakfast at the airport...

We met everybody at the departure gate and before long we were touching down in Toulouse to beautiful sunny weather. An hour or so on the coach and we were afforded our first view of beautiful Carcassonne...

... and yes it really does look like that - just WoW - a beautiful, historic, medieval, walled city perched on a hill surrounded by rolling green fields. (Well on a few sides anyway, there is also a newer area of town but we'll come to that later.) 

Entering the city is by way of a huge gate which would have had a portcullis and drawbridge, as there is a dry moat ...

Once inside the city, which is made up of lots of little winding roads and alleyways made of cobblestones, its very peaceful and quiet as there is no traffic (hence no traffic noise), and of course everywhere is safe for pedestrians. Everywhere you look there are little restaurants and boutique shops, its just so quaint and pretty.

Our hotel was actually inside the walled city so it was very handy for all the restaurants, and lovely and peaceful at night. We stayed for 6 days - 4 days of crochet (yippee!!!) and 2 days sight-seeing (with a little crochet added in of course!). During our crochet days we had workshops run by the lovely Lucy, who taught us about colour theory, and then gave us a wonderful pattern to follow for a cushion cover. We were challenged to be bold and brave with our colour choices, and to step outside of our comfort zones. And how lucky were we - we were each given a pack of Scheepjes minis to work with (photo nicked from Lucy as I was to excited and forgot to take one !) ...

Ooooh my! Amazing! Such gorgeous colours and such cute little balls, just such fun for messing about with and playing with colour. The front side of the cushion was a little experimental with some blending first of all ...

 

... and this soon grew into nearly a competed front cover ....

... it was wonderful to see how everybody else's cushion covers were so different despite working from the same palette...

... we added some little flowers to the middle of the front, here is mine completed ...

... to be honest I'm not wildly happy with it, too much orange maybe ? But here is the reverse and Oh My GoSh I LoVe It ...

I feel with the front I let myself overthink it whereas with the reverse I just went with the flow a bit and as a result it feels much more balanced. Or maybe its just that I love brights so much! Nevertheless the workshops were such fun, lots of lively chatter and laughter, and soooo good to spend time with like-minded people, and during down time we could relax in the sweet little hotel garden ...

We had a couple of days of sightseeing, and the old town of Carcassonne is so beautiful - I took a gazillion photos. One lunchtime we went for a tour of the chateau and ramparts - the walled part of the city consists of over 50 towers, and its possible to walk around the ramparts a fair way. 

We made it into the new area of town as well, and had a lovely afternoon shopping ...

... and we went on a little boat tour too ...

On our second sightseeing day we went to Lavantel to the Musee de Textiles .... 

... and we saw some fascinating spinning and weaving demonstrations ...

Over the week we had lots of lovely food and of course vino!

But all too soon it was time to go home again. Going back to the reality of laundry and cooking was a bit of a shock to the system, I can tell you! 

I've been a terrible blogger this year, but am hoping to get things started again with this post - so watch this space and next time I will have some crafty happenings for you.

Til next time, hope you have some crafty fun,

Jillxxx