Baby Shower

Last weekend I had the pleasure of bringing the knit into a beautiful baby shower for one of my oldest and best friends. It reminded me that I never posted about this gorgeous, summery baby shower of another childhood friend and as the weather is so bloomin' cold at the moment, it is the perfect time to draw a little warmth from the sunshine in these pictures!
My beautiful sister made the amazing cakes and threw the party to surprise her best friend, Dominique. One of the things I so loved about bringing this blanket together is that for the first time since I have been making baby shower blankets the baby's dad also knit a square. He knit as a child, and as dad to four boys (the bump is the fourth!) getting back into it is a great example to set. Knitting and crochet are categorically not reserved just for women, but some of the comments I get these days seem to suggest that a lot of folk now believe that is true, so anything that goes against that stereotype is fabulous. Anyway, before I get too high on my horse, I have to say that I love how this blanket turned out.

The colours chosen were bright, so I made some floral granny squares to make use of the gorgeous shades. The squares were also all really different sizes, so I decided to work a crochet granny edge around each of the squares - both knit and crochet - to make it easier to join them and I love the final effect! Gorgeous Rocco - the babe born shortly after this shower - is now one (look how behind I am at this posting lark!) and hopefully still using his beautiful blankie.

healing crafts

Apologies in advance for the length of this post, but I have finally had to make the admission to myself (which you may have already gathered yourself from my previous sporadic posting!) that I am a blogger of very good intentions but a lack of time to actually dedicate to posting! I don’t want to make excuses, but since my last post, added to all the regular work and life stuff, there have been other reasons for my lack of presence.

Looking back at my last post, all the way back in March, it feels like such a short time ago, but in that few months so much has changed for us. I don’t usually talk about personal things on this blog. I try to keep to the yarny stuff. I find that comes more easily to me. But recently there seem to be a lot of stories on the web about craft as a powerful healer and I have found crafting (and talking) has helped me through a hard time this year.

Recently I had a lovely chat with the gorgeous sisters behind the yarn company Millamia, which is experiencing its own transitional year in many ways and it made me think once more about my experiences this year and was the motivation for writing them down here. When I wrote that last post in March I was in the middle of writing a new book (due out next year) and I was making a soft, pretty granny blanket for it using the gorgeously squishy Millamia Aran weight.  When I began making the blanket it was a daily reminder of the impending exciting, positive changes I had to look forward to this year. I enjoyed working on that blanket so much, the yarn is a pleasure to work with and the colours are so calming. As anyone who follows me on Pinterest or Instagram will know, the greyscale and pop of warm ochre is one of my all time favourite colourways!

In the week following that last March post, two things happened – I got very ill and we moved home. Not just to a new house, but a new county. I have always lived in and around London, but this confirmed big city gal has overcome her vertigo and moved (slightly) north! Away from friends and family for a new adventure. Despite my initial worries, I am finding that I enjoy the slower pace of life, the serenity of the surrounding countryside and the large network of families who surround us. The most joyous thing is seeing my daughter play in our street with her new friends, which she never did in the city.

The blanket, meanwhile, became something different – it was a symbol of the hopefulness I had felt before that fateful week and a soothing project I needed to work through to help myself heal. I needed to finish that project before anything else. It needed ‘closure’. As I worked, I posted a picture on Instagram, my little reach out to the world. I mused about how many different, conflicting emotions could be captured in a project, entwined in the rhythmical knotting of one long piece of thread. I thought I was being cryptic enough to protect my own privacy, but a good friend insisted that we meet to talk. I was moved to tears. The healing had begun. I am now looking forward to hopefully having that blanket returned to me once the book is published as a tangible reminder of all I have been through this year, in the hope I will never forget the myriad of important emotions I experienced. Much like a Crochet Mood Blanket, it is more powerful than even a diary from the time could have been, when I couldn’t phrase all the things I needed to say, pick out the important stuff from all the thoughts rushing through my head.

I know that the way I have used crafting in my life to work through problems is not unique. I have heard many similar stories to mine over my years working with yarn, especially when I worked in Loop. Our ancestors knew all about yarn, crafts and their healing, commemorative properties, about the love that can be shared through one piece of fabric. I have discovered, from my own experiences teaching textiles, that groups of people crafting talk about things they would not usually share with strangers, a phenomenon that I have read people have utilised in therapeutic ways. I feel almost like an online crafting, creative community has also aided my own healing and I want to say thank you to all the people who have generously shared their own stories directly with me, or indirectly through sharing with the Internet at large. You have been a great help.

Normal service will continue shortly. Hopefully with a new-look blog and a rejuvenated approach. In my time away I have been planning more tutorials, free patterns and content that I hope you will find useful. I am now starting the process of teaching my little one to knit, which I shall also share here to aid you with teaching your own little ones. I am hoping she will enjoy it and use it as a tool for relaxation, creativity, healing – whatever she wishes. Perhaps she will even think fondly of the craft as a link to me, in the way that I feel I have a link to my own mother, and even my great grandmother and the generations further back that I have no knowledge of who passed down these skills. These are the things I love about yarn crafts. The things I am endlessly interested in. I hope you are too. I will never tire of talking about them, and want to encourage this talking, crafting and perhaps even healing.

new issue

Cover, image by Lucy Williams, cowl Emma Varnam

New issue alert! 
Issue 63 of Inside Crochet is out now and it's a corker this month! I love the cover image for this issue, taken by Lucy Williams, which features a beautiful cowl by Emma Varnam.

Rooster by Shannen Nicole Chua, Image Claire Montgomerie

The Rooster on the cover is a project perfect for Easter, designed by the very talented Shannen from Sweet n' Cute Creations and made by me for my littlun - that's her little hands in this picture. She loves him, he now has a new home in her doll's house! 

Eggs by Nicki Trench Image by Claire Montgomerie

Talking of Easter, there are some very cute eggs to make with the pattern in Nicki Trench's column this month, which the littlun has also taken to playing with - in the basket they are pictured in above. I think this will be a popular egg hunt on Easter Sunday this year, mixing the crochet and chocolate eggs up so that she doesn't get a tummy ache!

Folk Art Jewels by Esme Crick, Image Lucy Williams, Model Frankie Moore, styling Claire Montgomerie

One of my favourite shots in the magazine this issue is the above Folk Art Jewels shot, project by Esme Crick. I do SO love that ring (and yet another of the littlun's fave things to play with!) and I am particularly enamoured with a breton stripe, red lip combo. So wish I could get away with a casual red lip every day...

Hirst blanket by Loopsan, image by Claire Montgmerie

Finally, there are tonnes of projects I adore this month, but this blanket is going to be so popular with our readers this spring, what a perfect new baby present or lap blanket. San Bee of Loopsan has a great eye, I adore every pattern she submits to the magazine. When she submitted this idea, I instantly saw it in the colours of a Damien Hirst spot picture, so I sent her some yarn in a selection of gorgeous hues, and she picked out the perfect selection to produce this little stunner. I am going to make one as soon as I have time - it is great for using up scraps, just buy yourself a base white or cream yarn and have fun with colours from your stash! 
Don't miss this amazing issue - there is also the final part of a gorgeous blanket CAL and a basic broomstick crochet tutorial amongst tonnes of other great stuff, even if I do say so myself...!

tapestry crochet blanket

I have just received my early copies of the latest issue of Inside Crochet and had to share the blanket I have designed inside. I have been meaning to master tapestry crochet - the art of colourwork patterning within crochet - for a while and have been toying with the idea of a geometric triangle pattern. Triangles are everywhere in homewares at the moment and I thought it would be perfect in a blanket for my littlun. So here it is! 
Using Sublime Merino DK, which is beautiful and comes in an array of gorgeous colours, this is my new favourite project, it was a joy to make and snuggly to use - I have to say I have used it more than the littlun! If you haven't had a go at tapestry crochet before, do not fear, the Polygon Blanket is published alongside a straightforward how to guide. If you aren't a subscriber, the issue is on sale in all good newsagents and supermarkets from the 23rd April.

Baby Shower

Today I finally handed over the beautiful blanket I sewed up for my little friend Emmi. She is the beautiful daughter of one of my best friends and late last year her friends and family knitted a bunch of squares at her baby shower to go into a blanket that I hope she will have always. I think this is the best blanket I have ever pieced together, what a gorgeous bunch of colours and textures and haphazard shapes. Sorry Gemma and Emmi that it took so long, but the weather today was almost autumnal, so perhaps it is good timing...