Menokreatikkul; Stitch Kerazy

Yes, the crochet hook continues to work away restlessly. It's interesting... as mentioned earlier, I have been crocheting since about the age of eight when Granny MacLean helped me produce my first classic square, and then another and another... and I made my first little blanket in what most know as the Afghan style. For many years and projects, I continued to work only with the three basic stitches: chain, double (single US), and treble (double US). In my late 20s, after a five-year break from hooking yarn, I picked it up again and worked some double-trebles (treble US) and puff stitching. Exotic. I started to practice circular work and 'in the round' (not the same as the former!) I also produced my first-ever garment. It was a cardigan that I wore until it disintegrated. Mostly, though, I stuck to beanies and shawls and blankets.

Until 2020, when incarceration found me seeking respite however I could. I learned how to make slippers and did some yarn-bombing sort of stuff, and, well, the crochet totally hooked me once more. In truth, I had been starting to make works entirely from my own design and utilising some of the immense haul of inherited homespun almost as soon as I landed back in the Bonny Land. A large amount of Mum's stash got used up in the knee blanket project for my siblings and late niece... long-term readers may recall this from Christmas 2014 -

Apart from Amy's, I resisted my urge to add splashes of colour and used only the natural tones Mum had favoured. Some was natural to the sheep from which the wool was shorn, and some was hand-dyed by her. 

I held back a few skeins for my own use. Until the recent Pink Hiding Hood project, it has been left untouched. I want to honour the yarn. It was Mum's passion. As I touch it, I feel her hands at work on it. I smell and feel the lingering lanolin ... and the Love. I snuggle into my hood shawl now, not simply because it is lovely and cosy, but because it is like being hugged by Mum. And that only used a portion of my allotted share, though it worked so well with the acrylic pink that one can hardly believe their different provenance.

Anyway, the next few skeins of dark yarn are in the process of being used. Shawl fiend that I am, you'll have a notion of what's happening. No surprises there, then. However, it is entirely my own design again, and I am blending in some bright colours from a new batch of yarn.

Oh, yes, *cough!* When checking my stash when Mac1 was here, I was surprised to find that my inventory was actually dropping quite low. There are, of course, still two or three bagfuls, but honestly, they could be more inspiring. I needed a yarn boost. Black Friday sales at various yarn outlets attracted my eye. More on that tomorrow. Suffice it to say for this post that when my new haul arrived, I fairly wriggled with glee. I matched some bright alpaca/wool blends with Mum's dark Merino and am working on a highly textured stitching pattern. Here's a teaser...

This image doesn't give the depth of colour any credit - the brown is more chocolate, and what looks grey is a deeper taupe, the yellow more gold and the orange more rust. 

The stitches I am incorporating are treble and double treble (double and treble US), working one stitch, one chain, and then some back and front looping for a lattice effect, as well as some round post work. More detail when work is complete.

At the start of this year, I set myself a goal of advancing my stitching techniques and learning how to create reproducible patterns. I am mostly succeeding in that goal (again, those who've been paying attention might recall I began with some courses from Domestika). I have also been watching a lot more crochet videos on YouTube. I have been building a folder of 'crochet candy' vids with interesting stitches and inspiring projects. I have two favourite vloggers, one well-established and the other only started in the last couple of months. The former, I will tell a little more tomorrow, but the latter is Juan The Yarn Addict - and I am now addicted to him!

Inspired by one of his stitching patterns, I picked up a hook and the yarn to hand and produced another beanie. This one is super chunky and actually came out a little over-size. However, I've found it fits over my other beanies to double up on particularly cold days. The cream for the crown and trimming was a ball of Mum's that had nothing else going for it, and this was all it could do. I then used three other yarns together to match its weight and girth. It doesn't really show up the lovely pattern that Juan devised, so I will have another go at that, but meanwhile, there's this...

I won't be wearing that one 'oot and aboot'... jus' sayin'

To round off today's post, I have also learned how to put fingers on mitts...