On the hook, Off the hook

This week has been pleasantly boring. I've been determined to have a quiet time after the madness of birthday/Easter/deadline in the last few weeks. So I've been knuckling down and getting the house clean, done a spot of baking and this avo I'm going to do some boring errands in the sunshine. And perhaps a spot of chazzing, too! 

So in this quiet period I've been doing some haberdashery raiding, stash building and filling my head with stitchy ideas. 

I couldn't resist buying these balls of Stylecraft Special DK for a boy blanket- I'm hoping to share a tutorial on Free Pattern Friday so I can show you what it's going to be! I am loving the new shades in this popular acrylic range- the petrol blue, spicy orange and mustard gold are just perfect with the classic sherbert blue and silver grey. Mmmmmmm colours. I don't often buy acrylic any more, but I just love the range of colours in Stylecraft. And they're machine washable- essential for little boys! 

Another naughty purchase from The Village Haberdashery. I fell in love with this Elizabeth Olwen for Cloud 9 Fabrics 'grey abbey' collection, and I'm planning on making another Colette Sorbetto top with it. With a mustard collar squeeeaaaallll! This beautiful organic fabric is just some of Cloud9's amazing collection. I could happily give a home to all of it. I first saw Elizabeth's beautiful surface pattern design in Frankie magazine a couple of months ago, and I'm totally in love. More on that another time, I think. And these rose buttons? Well, they're destined for my current WIP...

A beautiful view of my geek chic cardi in progress! I'm making very slow progress on this; I realised on Sunday that I had been using the wrong size hook for one of the front pieces and back piece. Cursing, frogging and some measuring happened. Then I realised that actually my tension was spot on with a 4mm hook and I only needed to frog the first front piece I'd made. So this will be not be finished this week! Ah well. It will be worth it in the end. I have some emerald green wool I've had stashed away for ages, which would also look fab in this pattern. 

Yesterday I decided to use some of my growing haberdashery collection and give a vintage shirt dress a new look. I removed the chipped mother-of-pearl buttons, and unpicked a tab detail on the pockets. I then hand-stitched this red ric-rac onto the pockets and around the sleeves, and added this beautiful french satin ribbon that I bought from Liberty about two years ago. I also stitched some red vintage buttons onto the front. And I'm really pleased with it! 

In other news, I've recently joined Bloglovin'. And I'm addicted. If you're a member then please follow me on bloglovin', and spread the word! I'm so pleased there's an app so I can read my favourite blogs on my phone. I don't have an iPad or fancy camera, and have found it difficult to make the time to upload pictures from my iPhone onto my laptop to blog, and I so often don't have time to catch up with reading all my faves as well. I can't believe it's taken me so long to find out what bloglovin' is! So, yay. 

I'm hoping to make time to cut my pattern pieces for my next Sorbetto tonight. Whoop! So there we have it- some projects on the hook, some off. But always on my mind!

Happy hookery and stitchery chums

xxx

EASY PEASY chunky snood tutorial

Hello! Welcome to my new followers! I've gained many new faces here and over on Facebook and Instagram- thank you everyone for stopping by to take a peek into my little hooky world. Once again I find myself apologising for the lengthy gap between blogposts, but you guys don't mind, right? After all, it's quality you're after, not quantity. And today I have a little quality post for you all. Another FREE crochet snood pattern! This one is crafted in chunky yarn, with a nice bright border. And guess what? it takes hardly any time at all! If you liked the Wool and the Gang bright knitted cowl in Mollie Makes, you will LOVE this.

So here she is! 

 

Crocheted in lattice stitch with an extra chunky edge, this is quick, simple and so so pretty! Her name is Sarah, after the person who now has this lovely gift. 

FREE chunky crochet snood pattern:- 

I have used UK crochet terminology throughout.

Ch= Chain

Sl St= Slip stitch

htr= Half treble crochet

dc= double crochet

ch sp= Chain Space

2 x 50g balls of Chunky yarn (I have used Sirdar Click Chunky)

6mm Hook

Small amount of super chunky yarn in contrasting colours (I used Rowan Big Wool in grey and Patons Big Fab in neon pink)

8mm hook

To begin make 100ch, join with a sl st to form a large ring. 

Round 1: Working in rounds, 3 ch, miss 1 ch, *1 htr into next st, 1 ch, miss 1 ch. Repeat from * to end, miss last ch, sl st to second of 3 ch to join. 

Round 2 onwards: Sl st into first ch sp. 3 ch, 1 htr into next ch sp. *1 ch, 1 htr into next ch sp. Repeat from * to end. 

Repeat row 2 for pattern! I worked around 25 rounds of the pattern for a lovely thick band, that sits snugly around your neck, and can be pulled up over your ears to rest atop your hair. Fasten off and carefully weave in any ends.

To finish: Using 8mm hook and super chunky yarn, join in the yarn in any ch sp. 1 ch, dc into each ch sp around. Repeat using second contrasting colour. fasten off and weave in any ends. 

You should have something like this:

(OMG, it's so hard to photograph neon! Especially when I am using an iPhone on a dull grey day)

I hope you like it! It makes an ideal gift for Christmas, but there will be more about perfect homemade pressies next week right here. Enjoy your weekend crafting all. 

xxx