Stockton Crafts Blog

Oooooh dear....Website wobble!

Today's blog was meant to be about the new yarns being up now on Stockton Crafts, but the website is having a wobble and orders can't get through!  Apologies if this has affected you.. my web man is working on it as we speak... please be patient and come again tomorrow... 

Meanwhile look at the beautiful yarn which just came into stock:

This is 'Hand Dyed Grace' by Louisa harding... so far I have fabulous 'Festive' - a blend of hot pinks, red and deep purple (above)...

The dark, sultry 'Damson' below:

and finally the gorgeous 'Kiwi' green...

Hand-Dyed Grace is 59% Merino Wool and 50% Silk - you can imagine how soft this is! It knits on 4mm needles (US 6) or crochet hook 5.5mm (L) - 6.5mm (K). 

It's no good - I can't wait - I'm off to find a patttern...... I'll let you know what it is like to work with later...

Harvest time...

The weather in Suffolk this weekend was mostly glorious! I got just a little burnt at the edges just sitting having a cup of tea in my Father-in-Law's garden...No, no photos... it's not pretty! 

The eating apples....
The plums.....

All beautiful... now picked, and some of them cooked...

Freddie discovered a love of plums... it stared with throwing 'fallers' in the air, continued with eating spare plums out of my bag, and finally...he realised he could get them off of the tree sometimes!

The only disappointment this year were the cooking apples... there aren't many... and a lot of them are weird shapes...

We only picked a few... maybe they need more time to swell up... or fall off....

Never-mind...it will soon be Sloe time :) All around us the harvesters and combines were working late into the night as the farmers made the most of the sunny days.  

When I got back to Oxford guess what I found.... yep, the lovely Bryn bear from Julie at Little Cotton Rabbits... all packed up beautifully in his travelling box... he is so sweet...(Julie must put so much time into these little animals - they are really well made)....here he is with Ted..

Did you notice the granny square on Ted? I think he looks a bit... (Shhhh... )...bare! I think I'll make him a jumper too... after-all summer will be over by the time I get it done...Happy Tuesday x

Granny scarf W.I.P... or is it a cushion?

In April, lovely Alice from 'Crochet With Raymond' blogged about 'granny scarves, having made one of two (thanks Alice).... Have a look: 

http://crochethealingandraymond.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/do-you-dare-to-wear-a-granny-square/ 

.. here is the one that caught my eye:

I book-marked it and added 'Granny Scarf' to my very long list of 'Projects I WILL get round to...eventually...' (how long is your list?)

At the beginning of this week I was going through my stash and re-found some Noro yarn called Taiyo ... it is a glorious mix of cotton, silk, wool & nylon.  The ball I have in shade 11 has so many colours in... I decided it would make a lovely little granny cowl... so here is my latest W.I.P: 

Unblocked as yet....

Look at the beautiful colour blends...

You wouldn't believe they were all from the same ball would you!

Gorgeous! (Does anyone else have a problem with finding enough descriptive words when commenting on blogs??.. Gorgeous seems to pop out a lot for me! )

But I need advice... should I carry on and make them into a granny scarf... OR... they would make a lovely granny cushion wouldn't they... which do you think I should make? 

Blog Highlight! (2)

Blog Highlight!

This week I want to highlight Heather’s blog:  ‘Little Tin Bird’ at

http://www.littletinbird.co.uk

I have only just found this blog... and a few, “corr”, Woo” and “Oooo”s were heard from my little corner of bloggy land when I did.   Heather is from Yorkshire, Uk... and she seems to have very similar craft, colour and life tastes to me... 

Only today Heather had a ‘Ta-Dahh’ and revealed her tiny granny cushion – the grannies are tiny – not the cushion!  It must have taken hours and the colours are gorgeous.  The clip above is of the cushion..

Heather has also recently completed a red background hexi-blanket which her readers love but Heather isn’t keen on ....funny how some projects turn from be-loved to be-hated by the time it comes to sewing  in all the ends! Heather also gives some great tutorials on various granny squares and techniques... go and have a look.. I bet you click on ‘Follow’ on your  visit as I did!

 

Good News Week!

It is good news week!

 
Does Ted look excited?

He should do - he has a friend coming to stay....

Julie from http://littlecottonrabbits.typepad.co.uk gave a prize to http://www.savingrarebreeds.org.uk for their raffle... and I won it! Saving Rare Breeds does some impressive work in their efforts to help to preserve endangered livestock.  Go along to their website to have a look at all the breeds that are currently at risk....

The prize is amazing - something I have wanted since I started following Julie's blog a fair while ago...

Look who it is: 

It's Bryn the Bear!

We are going to need another rocking chair - Ted is 53 - that is pretty old in Teddy Bear years... and Bryn is a mere whipper-snapper, but they are going to get along really well.,...and me...I am chuffed! Thank you so much Julie x

AND.... as if that wasn't enough, my daughter, Pippa, rang me from Bangkok in Thailand - she is on holiday with her boyfriend of 4 years - and they have got engaged!  What a happy Mummy I am!

Hope you are all having a good week too! x

 

Blog Highlight!

This week's Blog Highlight:

http://annabooshouse.blogspot.com 

 

This blog is enchanting... from the vintage crochet phone case to the handmade vintage votives - beautiful recycled jars covered in vintage lace, string and crochet..beautiful in the day...magical by night. 

For me the highlights of the blog are the exquisite tiny crochet dolls / elves called 'Korknisse', (they have woolly, fly away hair like me), funny little cork people who make me laugh when they are all lined up like the Pontipines in The Night Garden :)x

 

 

 

 

 

New stock!

Now that Stockton Crafts have started carrying wool yarns as well as cotton, today we have new stock in of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino... Just 7 shades for now and see how we go... We have an introductory offer on for 1 week only - all colours are £4.45 including postage (RRP £4.95).

 

More crochet experiments...

Do you remember that I was planning a scarf for my Mum last week? ...well, at 87, if you think something is a waste of time, you say so... and apparently Mum doesn't need another scarf! Here are 3 more attempts at filet lace pattern anyway... luckily I didn't start the scarf...

  
The first is called 'Squares & Ladders' .... I could never make a whole scarf in this pattern... it would burn out all my concentration powers...and I think if done it would be best in a cotton yarn which would show the stitch definition better....

  
This sample is called, 'Track Stitch'... for obvious reasons... it was easy, grew fast, would be great for a scarf... but again, I would prefer it in a cotton or cotton mix.  This sample curled over and over until it was blocked - and it hasn't curled since I took out the blocking pins!

 
 Winkle Picot Stitch!  Forevermore to be called 'Winkle Picker Stitch' in my world! Easy, fast growing, lovely pattern, but definitely not shown to it's best in wool.

Anyway, the scarf idea has been ditched... more yarn arrived today for my Hexagons Blanket... so I am up for another "Ta-Dahh" in a couple of weeks.

On another note, CoCo Rose, http://cocorosetextiles.blogspot.com 

- recommended a book last week - "Cute & Easy Crochet", by Nicki Trench.  Mine arrived today and it is scrumptious!  My first project from it will be the fingerless gloves... the book recommends Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, but the friend I have in mind can't wear wool so I might use DB Eco Baby instead... I really should do the washing up first....

 

Sunshine, corn dollys and fruitiness....

I hope your weekend was as warm and sunny as mine.. Suffolk in summer is warm and breezy if you are lucky....and the fields stretch on forever...

 
 Freddie had a great time running along the field edges...

 It was hot work though... 
 
The corn was almost 'tipping' - see the ones that are leaning over? Well when lots of them do that, the corn is ready for harvesting....

 
Hubby is a grain expert  (no, really... he is!), "You roll it in your hand like this... then taste it... see it tastes milky"??

"Err...no... I can't taste anything"... oh the look of distain at my poor uneducated tastebuds!!

So he made me a corn dolly instead.. he hasn't made me one since we first met almost 10 years ago... (ahhh...)

 
 
  
 Beautiful! I am adding some crochet trim to it so it isn't quite finished yet.

 
 Fred & Molly had retired under a tree... Molly is eating a 'faller' apple... as promised some fruity updates... sadly the plums aren't ready yet... but all the fruit is showing great promise!

 
 Bramleys....Oooo I can already taste the apple crumble, apple pie, pork with apple sauce...

 
 Plums.....

  
 Pears.... we have never managed a crop of pears yet... they usually don't develop or they shrivel up and drop off! Keep your fingers crossed for these!

 
 Old fashioned Russets....

 
The wonderful sloes... darkening nicely thank you.  The sloe gin is calling......