British Wool Weekend 2012

So, I'm home again after a lovely day in Harrogte at the British Wool Weekend.

It was held at the Yorkshire Showground, a huge exhibition area that's mostly fields. I don't have a car so I caught the bus to Harrogate and then a second bus to the grounds. The bus drops you off on the main road and it's a long, long walk to the actual building, but a nice walk.

£8 to get in, with some extra speakers on through the day. If you're going tomorrow, don't bother buying the programme. I bought one expecting it to list the extra events, but it is just a list of exhibitors and some adverts. In fact, the door security was so lacking I even wondered if it was worth buying a ticket, since no one checked whether anyone walking straight in had one! However, I did pay, since it's important to support British wool whenever possible.

I just want to give some quick notes on the day and go further into them in later posts (I have a new found determination to blog a LOT more).

What was big this year was big needles and hooks, and I mean BIG!

I appologise for the lighting on the photo, for some reason my camera was playing up and a lot of my photos are too messed up to show.

Do you see the log thingie on the right? That's the knitting needle. Yep, Huge. I think they're using strips of blankets as yarn.

This is The Big Knit fundraising event for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. More information is found here The Big Knit.

For a small donation you too, can do a few stitches on the worlds largest knitting needles.

Big knitting was everywhere. In some way I can see the benefit, a row of stitches is an inch in length, so people like me that don't like to make large projects due to the time. But I also see many downsides for me. I noticed the first stall selling a ball of ultra size wool for £30 a ball, yep, that price was right. So not a cheap knit. Also the crochet hooks were around 4-5 feet in length, not something you can slip into your handbag.

I seriously considered buying a hook, but only as a display on the stall.

The circular needles on the left seem to be wooden handles on a bit of hose pipe. For £20 I think someone's having a laugh.

I finally met April. I don't know if I've told you about her yet, so I won't say anything about her now, another day though.

Future blogs I plan from today include Angora rabbits, woolen duvets, football rattle spinning, luchets and finger looms, Purists and more about April.

Easy Baby Beanie

3.5mm Hook

Yarn used 1/2 ball of Sirdar Snuggly DK in White. Any white DK will work nice though.

The pattern is worked in spirals apart from the treble crochet rows.

Use a stitch marker at the start of rows if this is easier.

*If you don’t know how to make a magic ring there are some good videos on You Tube, but you can also make 2 chain stitches and put the first 6 DC into 2^nd stitch from hook.

UK pattern, US abbreviations in brackets:

ch – Chain (CH)                 dc – Double crochet (SC)

tr – Treble Stitch (DC)     rpt - Repeat

Beanie Pattern 

R1:                          Make a magic ring*, ch 1, 6 dc into ring and pull closed. (6)

R2:                          2 dc into each dc around (12)

R3:                          (1 dc in 1^st dc, 2 dc in next) x 6 (18)

R4:                          1 dc in each dc around (18)

R5:                          (1 dc in next 2 dc’s, 2 dc’s in next dc) x 6 (24)

R6:                          1 dc in each dc around (24)

R7:                          (1 dc in next 3 dc’s, 2 dc’s in next dc) x 6 (30)

R8:                          (1 dc in next 4 dc’s, 2 dc’s n next dc) x 6 (36)

R9:                          1 dc in each dc around (36)

R10:                       (1 dc in next 5 dc’s, 2 dc’s in next dc) x 6 (42)

R11:                       (1 dc in next 6 dc’s, 2 dc’s in next dc) x 6 (48)

R12:                       (1 dc in next 7 dc’s, 2 dc’s in next dc) x 6 (54)

R13+14:                1 dc in each stitch around (54) (2 rounds)

R15:                       (1 dc in next 8 dc’s, 2 dc’s in next dc) x 6 (60)

R16-18:                 1 dc in each dc around (60) (3 rounds)

R19:                       ch 4, miss next dc, 1 tr in next dc, *ch 1, miss next dc, 1 tr in next dc* repeat around finishing with a slip stitch in the 3^rd chain of 1^st 4 ch. (30 tr)

R20:                       1 ch, dc in each tr and ch around (60)

R21-23:                 1 dc in each dc around (60) (3 rounds)

R24-25:                 Repeat rounds 19 & 20

R26-27:                 1 dc in each dc around (60) (2 rounds)

R28:                       ch 3, 4 tr in same dc as ch 3, *miss next dc, 1 dc in next dc, miss next dc, 5 tr in next dc*, rpt around, Sl st in 3^rd ch of first 3 chi.

Finish off

Loop a ribbon through every second tr and tie in a bow, or add other trimmings to suit.

Final notes:

If this is for a boy you could miss out the frilly edge and replace with a few dc rounds, sometimes ending the last round in back loops only gives a nice finish.

This is the first time I’ve written a pattern down, I hope you will try it and let me know if you liked it or if you found it hard to read. Feedback will make any other patterns I write more easily for you to read.

If you want this pattern in a word document email me and I'll send it to you.

I’ve made matching booties and will eventually add this pattern, email me if you want me to let you know when this is ready.

Finally about selling items made from this pattern.

Feel free to print this pattern, pass it around, and adjust it. Have fun with it and credit me if you can.

Feel free to sell what you make from the pattern, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say.

Revamped Earring Stand

I was looking at my current earring a brooch display and figured it needed a new look.

Here's what I did, and how I did it!

I hope you like it.

I have an old earring stand that I made myself some time ago. It was quite cheap to make. I bought 2 cork notice boards and some small hinges from the local hardware store and put them together to make a free standing board. I spray painted it black in the belief that silver jewellery looks best on a black background. Not sure how legit that belief is.

As you can see, it's worn already, you can see the brown cork coming through where pins have been and on the top a half hearted attempt to write my name on the board.
 

I had some brown suede left over from making teddy bears and decided to use that as a background, so using double sided sticky tape I marked out enough for the board and stuck the suede onto the cork.

I tried cutting out the shape first but found it easier to stick the material down, then using a craft knife cut the material from the edge of the board.

Now for the edge. I have some left over decoupage paper, that has a brown crackle effect. I cut the paper into squares then used glue to paste it down all around the edge. I'm using decopatch glue and paper, but I think it's just the same as any white glue and tissue paper. decopatch though have many great patterns and well worth a look. I bought this from Hobby craft, but they have a website http://www.decopatch.com/

It looks messy, and it is! But it's great fun and a good way to decorate anything and everything.

After drying, it looks great, better than before at least. It only took a couple of hours. You can see below the one I re-vamped and one I've yet to do. I've also notices the suede hides any pinholes better than the cork alone, so hopefully it will last a lot longer.