Once upon a time...

... it was suggested to our local borough council that hosting a festival to celebrate all things yarn would be a really great idea.

Spinning Yarns; a festival of colour, creativity and craft comes to Antrim Castle Gardens & Clotworthy House this weekend. Open on both Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd September 10am - 6pm there will be fun for all the family.

But most importantly 'The Estate' will be on public display for the first time.  The Estate has been our largest crochet project to date, both in timeline and finished size, measuring just over 3m by 2m (9feet by 6feet) and nearly eight months in the making, we have created a 2 dimensional map of the Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough area featuring railways, rivers and roads and a range of historical, modern and mythical locations.












Come along and see how any you can recognise.

Temperature temptations, tribulations and trebles

I hope everyone had a quiet Christmas and that Santa was good.  Happy New Year to you all.

The ladies of the group all seem to have read the same Facebook and blog posts around the turn of 2017 into 2018 and the theme of a piece of temperature work has come up.  Enthusiastically last week we discussed the prospect of doing these and about six of us have got the ball rolling.   This is going to be a sort of CAL within the group but we will all progress at our own pace and at our own skill level. 

There are many blogs and Facebook posts about temperature work and Pinterest is chock full of photos for example The Crochet Crowd, Lion Brand, Simple Knitting, Sleepy Eyes, and photos on Facebook and Pinterest.  I have no affiliation to any of these sites but a good Google search will elicit myriad results to aid you in your research and give you lots of (too many!) ideas to get you started.

The idea is soooo simple …   Isn’t It?  The idea is that you work a set number of rows  per day of an item in a colour that co-ordinates with the temperature. You can pre-decide a colour range/chart using perhaps eight to ten different colors depending on your climate and as you work your piece, you will get a beautiful variation of colour throughout the year. Depending on the climate where you live, each color will probably correspond to between three and seven degrees.  If like me you live in Northern Ireland then temperatures will mostly vary between -5 to about 35 degrees.  However, you may live in a country where a temperature range of -20 to +40 is normal.  Choose your colours wisely.

And they’re off ...  

 

Or perhaps not …

Will I knit or crochet?

Will it be a scarf, a blanket or a tube scarf, a baby blanket? A cat? 

Straight lines or zigzag? Hexagons or circles?  Corner-to-corner?  Granny square?  Ribbed?

A straightforward temperature chart or a ‘mood’ chart, a weather type chart e.g. stormy, windy, wet, hot and sunny?

At what time each day should I take the temperature?  Max temperature, or at a set time?  What if I go on holiday, should still I record and use the temperature at home or the temperature wherever I am?  Do I use the highest temperature each day AND the lowest temperature?

How many colours each day?  Just one or two for the highest and lowest temperatures?  A granny square with three rows using white always as the middle row and the other colour as per the daily temperature?

Shades of the same colour such as a blue theme or a rainbow of colours?

DK, chunky or aran?  Use up my stash or buy new yarn?

Get myself organised?

Which stitch?  Doubles, trebles … Use the same stitch Monday to Friday and change for each weekend?  Use a different stitch each month?

Getting started was not as easy as first thought for many of us.  Two of us have frogged out the first 10 days and started over again.  One has taken a dramatic turn and halved the number of daily rows as her scarf was going to end up measuring over 3 metres/10 feet and another has planned a new colour scheme.  One other person has a spreadsheet to assist her with colours and moods together. 

One of our number, who lives at a great distance from the group but calls in with us when she can, will be working along with us and sharing lots of pics on Facebook.  Hopefully she'll get to visit us often throughout the year.

It’s so nice to see that we are all working differently, interpreting the challenge on a very personal skill level and colour preference.  Most of us are keeping diaries and I hope to update this blog monthly with pics of our work.  It's going to be very exciting watching all the pieces develop.

I thought I had made my mind up but time to cut the ties, I think, and start again …

(All pics courtesy of Pinterest and Google except for those depicting the work of ladies in the group.

Crafted Christmas

Hello readers

I hope you’re all feeling rested and have had an enjoyable festive time of mulled wine, mince pies and mellowness with your families and friends?

The decorations are (mostly) down, the wrapping paper and cards have been recycled and Christmas has been and gone for another year.  The frantic rush to shop for, buy and wrap presents; the food shop and then cooking the Christmas turkey is over for another year.  As Mags would say ‘And breathe .....’

I was wondering how many of you hand made presents this year, or in the past? Or who was given a hand made gift this year?  It doesn’t have to be knitted or crocheted but post your pics and comments below.  Let’s just share our beautifully made gifts.

I did quite a bit of my gift shopping at local craft fairs this year under the ‘shop local’ banner giving custom to local small business owners and crafters.  Whilst I didn’t by any means save money I supported the continuation of crafting skills and more traditional gifted goods. And because all of the items are hand made they are more labour and time intensive so cost more than a mass-produced item from abroad!  Only another crafter can appreciate this time and effort.

One of my crafted presents

I also made a few gifts, but not as many as I could have or should have because time didn’t permit. I’ll just have to start earlier for next year.

A completed chunky scarf

A work-in-progress

 

The scarves above are made with 4 strands of DK knitted together on a chunky needle and the effect is quite surprising.  The pink scarf uses a ball of Stylecraft Candy Swirl in Coconut Ice plus a ball each of the grey, white and pink.  The Candy Swirl gives the overall stripe effect. The blue scarf uses a ball of flecked green/navy/white/grey/mocha plus a ball each of grey, white and teal.

I know many of you have gone the extra mile and produced endless Christmas gifts from your hooks and needles because I have seen the final garments.  If you can, post your pics below, or send them to me and I’ll post them for you.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2018.

Hookery in the Bookery went to Bessbrook-ery

Supper and shop was how it was described, and who could resist?  What could be nicer than a wee festive treat for our ladies, a group excursion to a quaint little village tucked away in the Co Down countryside, to spend an evening at Crafty Wishes?  The welcoming Christmas windows were spectacular with an old-fashioned fireplace and a knitted fair isle Christmas stocking hanging on it.  Moreover, no parking issues, which was the icing on the cake.

Lorna advertised her November/December friendship evenings on 2^nd October and I think it took us all of 24 hours to book our visit.  We did not want to go too early because we wanted to be as festive as possible, but we didn’t want to get into the midst of the December rush and vie with other bookings that the women in the group might have had.

We set out from Newtownabbey at 5.40 and it took until 7.10 to get there - soooo glad I don't have to negotiate that rush our traffic every day.  the evening flew by and soon it was time to make the reverse journey but I imagine many of us will definitely be back.  I have my eye on the Christmas table cloth ....  Just saying.

Knitting, crochet and craft are all about sharing ideas and time, helping others or encouraging those who have lost their mo-jo, assisting the inexperienced and finding new challenges for the confident crafter to make or do.  It’s about the fellowship of time spent together, relaxing, the problems shared and the problems halved. 

A few of us have been there on a couple of occasions in the past, including for the Macmillan coffee morning in September, and we have found that the welcome is always warm and friendly.

This shop is a real treasure trove, a treat for the dedicated, enthusiastic knitter and crocheter, many beautiful gifts for sale, yarns to die for and patterns a-plenty.  There are seasonal Christmas patterns for festive characters and decorations, scarves and hats as well as all the usual array of patterns from all the major suppliers.  Accessories from buttons and bows to yarns of all ply, from the very fine to the super chunky.   And lots of already knitted and crocheted items on display, which give her customers ideas.  

Lorna also sells some costume jewellery such as brooches and long necklaces to adorn your yarny creations.  The shop even has a loyalty card!

We were presented with festive treats of (non-alcoholic) mulled wine, mince pies and other festive goodies.

It was a real winter's treat.  Thanks to all the ladies for coming along and than you Lorna for hosting. 





World Wide Knit in Public Day June 2017

Here we are at our 3rd WWKIP Day held once again in Yarns Coffee Halt at Theatre at The Mill, Mossley.  We held our WWKIP Day a week earlier than the official date because of holidays etc. among the group.  We had our WWKIP Day on Saturday 3rd June.

Our local Hookery Group were joined by some lovely ladies from
the Knitwits Group in Portstewart who went on to host their own WWKIP Day on Saturday 10th June on Portstewart Promenade. Thank you ladies for your support.   Maybe next year we'll travel
to the North Coast and join you for The WWKIP Day.

We also had some friends from Whitehead who joined us again this year. Thank you ladies. 

The staff at Yarns were very attentive as usual and thanks must go to the Duty Manager and to Heather in the coffee shop.  We had 36 folks who came along - women, men, adults and children, some who could knit and crochet and others who couldn't, some who were coming back for a second time and some who were new.

On the table in the photo above you can see some white pieces of work.  It was quite difficult to get a good picture of the white work.  One belongs to Catherine's great grandmother and was crocheted back in the late 1800s.  Catherine's grandmother worked in the local linen mills and she then attached the crocheted pieces to some linen.  The work is so detailed and one can't even begin to imagine the poor light that the ladies had to do the work and also the material is so white and clean.  Another couple of pieces belong to Helena's sister-in-law who crocheted collars and cuffs for Irish dancing tunics.  All of these pieces of work have Irish roses and shamrocks on them.

We decided on a floral theme this year and everyone pulled out all the stops to come up with unusual ideas for crocheted and knitted garments and other items on the theme of flowers.  The photos don't do justice to the work.

Ladder kindly loaned by Mags and the flowers and vines kindly donated by Judith, Niqi's mum.  Judith was tasked with crocheting 'just a few' while she was over on holidays a few weeks ago. 

  Doesn't Ermintrude look well?  This is one of the cows placed in public places around Northern Ireland.  This one is in The Civic Square at Mossley Mill.  Ermintrude's head was carefully measured to ensure a snug fit of her sun hat!

It was a warm day so Ermintrude didn't really need her blanket but there were a few very heavy showers of rain!

'THE Bernard' as it has become known was ceremoniously cast off on WWKLIP Day.  It had been cast on at last year's WWKIP Day.  

This is a very special little flower.  Maureen was teaching herself how to do this pattern when news came through about the Manchester Arena explosion.  After she had finished the flower Maureen decided to put a single pink button onto the flower to represent each of the 22 lives lost.  

 Some other flowers seen on the day.

On trend cacti ....  Have you noticed them everywhere in the shops, in flower shops, on clothes and in the home decor magazines?  Can you see the dinky red watering can tucked away in the background?  

Here's a cheeky little cacti man made by Chloe ....  And a bouquet of carnations made by me.

 The group are making a friendship blanket.  We have all made flowers according to a pattern from Crochet Now but have chosen our own two-tone colours.  Catherine has started joining them together and some of the rest of us will do some more of this.  It is our intention to raffle it off once completed.

 Meet the members of Hookery Group.  Elaine started to crochet in February and this is her first piece.  It's a labour-of-love blanket for her husband.  The Mayor came to pay us a visit too that day on one of his last official visits at the end of his term of office.

 Evelyn's smiley little happy flower, from an Attic24 pattern, resting against Niqi's Sunshine and Showers blanket.

Maureen's sunshine flower.

 We were lucky enough to have one of our Poppy Pieces on display for our WWKIP Day.  It generated lots of discussion from members of the public who were also using the coffee shop that day.

And so to rest ...