After quite a bit of unpicking and re-doing (originally thought I was making a ‘top hat’ sort of shape, then a beret, but then finally what you see here), I’ve finished the hat I promised Pixie as a justification for buying the Glastonbury yarn. grin

The ‘Hazy Alpaca’ hat is double-crocheted in circles, increasing as necessary to make it the right shape, and I sized the hat for an adult because Pixie is growing very quickly and she gets upset when she grows out of things I have made for her.

Once the final incarnation of the hat was underway, I had developed the plan of making it look like the crochet had been done in vertical sections and then stitched together with the Kidsilk Haze. In reality, that would have been hard to achieve without a pattern because I would probably have ended up with an misshapen hat once it had all been sewn together! So… I started at the top of the head and then simply worked around in circles (not spirals), changing colour as necessary. This meant that I wouldn’t waste any yarn by leaving long ends, or have a screaming fit if I had to unravel some of the work because it wasn’t shaping properly!

Thus, the Inca Cloud colour blocking was done by dropping the current yarn and picking up the next one to change colour. At the end of each circuit, I chained three stitches and turned the work to pick up the right colour yarns as I came back the other way. To rotate the colours, I just crocheted on with the same colour I was using, passing passed by the colour I would normally have picked up. I passed the second colour up past the rows for which it wasn’t needed, and it seemed to work out OK because all the row-skipping yarn was passed up on the inside of the hat where it wasn’t obvious. I don’t know if this was the right way of handling the colour aspect, but it was certainly the simplest plan I could up with.

Once I was finished with the alpaca and all the ends were tucked in, I double-crocheted up the ‘seams’ with the Kidsilk Haze and then ran some more of it around the brim. Incidentally, I noticed the Inca Cloud yarn was slightly fatter/woollier in the Fuchsia than it was in the other two shades, but it doesn’t seem obvious when the hat is being worn. Texture-wise, I noticed a nice synergy between the Kidsilk Haze and Fuchsia Inca Cloud that suggested they’d like to get felty together. I might put them together again, as I have a good amount of each left over.

Oh, and I must mention the lovely tablecloth you can see here. We call it the Easter tablecloth because that’s when we use it most, but my mother used to bring it out on Sundays for tea when I was a little girl. It’s the most wacky design – lots of sunny yellow fish in silhouette on a bright white background. Completely crazy, but utterly fab!

Entry plonked in Crochet @ 9:48 pm
Tagged thusly: artesano alpaca, artesano inca cloud, Crochet, crochet hat, rowan kidsilk, rowan yarn

We went off to Glastonbury to visit my mother over the weekend. Her flat is currently chock-full of packing boxes as she is hoping to be on the move again soon, so we decided to ignore the rain and wander around the shops. Now, I do hold up my hand and freely admit to having an ulterior motive – I was on the look out for some yarn, hopefully hand-dyed and multi-coloured. Mm, perfect.

Unfortunately, although there were plenty of handmade crafts for sale (yay!), there didn’t seem to be any raw materials to be had anywhere. One of the charity shops had a bundle of knitting needles to choose from, but no yarn. Not even a single, 100% acrylic, pastel ball leftover from someones baby blanket project…

OK, confession time again. If you had opened up my handbag, you’d have found a skein of Debbie Bliss’ Maya (scrummy yarn from a few years ago, similar but nicer than Soho, in my opinion), along with some Sirdar of varying quirkiness and crochet hooks in assorted sizes. So… I guess I didn’t actually need any more goodies at that particular point. …But my bag was indeed capacious enough to accommodate quite a lot more yarn, and I did have a few coins set aside for spending…

Anyhoo, a lucky sideways glance at a shop tucked back from the main street set the pulse racing… Yarn. The good stuff. In the window. Right now.

Huzzah!

The manager of the little shop was attempting to lock up and leave for lunch, but she noticed us coming, and very kindly let us in. Inside there was a lot of (really, really nice) handmade stuff for sale, and garments were hanging all round the room, including over the doorway to the yarn section. Once aside, I rushed into the tiny room, all eager to forget the coins and instead to fumble in my wallet for The Naughty Plastic, but there wasn’t much there at all. Still, kudos to them for possibly being the only local yarn supplier to the crafting denizens of Glastonbury and I think they can order in any Rowan you might fancy.

I asked Pixie if she’d like another hat, she said she would, and so I ambled to the the till with some Rowan Kidsilk Haze in shade 590 Pearl, and Artesano Inca Cloud in 53 Plum, 57 Fuchsia and 61 Teal.

I’m afraid I’m not sure of the name of the shop, because the paper bag I was given (finished with a cute bow made of assorted yarn!) was plastered with inkjetted adverts, but I think the most likely name is The Cats Whiskers Clothing & Wool Co, which is a huge mouthful for such a tiny shop. Fab. Someone has clearly put their heart into that little place. …Not somewhere I would frequent for non-yarny purchases because I prefer to make my own handmade goodies, but there were certainly lovely things to see, such as dresses, accessories, and handmade fairy wings…

Back at Mum’s place, I started to crochet the lovely new yarn, and we chatted while the girls played with toys, fiddled with yarn and ate cakes, while Lam tried not to nod off (bless!). A perfect day with Granny.

Entry plonked in Yarn @ 3:24 pm
Tagged thusly: artesano alpaca, artesano inca cloud, glastonbury yarn shop, rowan kidsilk, yarn, yarn shopping