Hope all you Mum's out there had a great day Sunday?

 Thanks James a favourite colour combo and such a pretty card..Love you Lots x

 hugs to all Mums x

Eric's Seat Cover needs more squares...

All 40 put together but only big enough to cover a dinning chair, so at least

another 60 needed...I guess

Turned a bit grim when I got home today after a lovely sunny morning so the pictures aren't the best

Pity I wasn't making a dining chair cover, it would have been finished now.

Yes to those that asked it's a version of 'V' stitch to put them all together.

I like the way the v stitch makes the solid granny square look like a square flower.

I FOUND A BOX OF GRANNY SQUARES....

......from a project a couple of years back. Stored in a box, I couldn't decide on how to join them together, now i knew exacly how to join them together....with black, V stitch

made with all the colours of my Stylecraft Special colours and a sock yarn,

 mixed and worked together as one yarn to give a little texture and a 5mm hook.

 

 I had put a couple of the squares together when Phil arrived home last night, he took one look at it and suggested it would make a great blanket/throw for Eric,

his new Classic VW Variant that he bought the other day and is now ready for an MOT and a touch of crochet for the back seat

 It needs to be 4' or 1.22m wide and about 10 squares long so....

  I will need to make a few more to cover the complete seat but for now I have 40,

20 already together and I love it...it would have made a great wrap too...

 

but Eric won.

 

 

 

Happy First Day Of Spring....

 

The tulips are now open and have gone an even paler shade of pink

 

I don't have a view from my kitchen sink but it is still full of colour....

 

Washing all the cat bowls this morning made me smile..

Ikea colour by the bucket full

and my plastic picnic/garden plates have been washed ready for days in the garden to come......I hope.

All the cat blanket and the crochet chair covers washed.

 

The warmth of the last few days...has made me feel Spring had arrived but are we in for a cold snap and snow even?

 

There's a warm glow of colour inside anyway.

 

Happy First Day of Spring

 

ALPACAS....sooooo cute

And the yarn is yummy too...

I bought some gorgeous cream Alpaca from a lovley lady who spun it herself

and I managed to cochet up a large Rhombus in motifs, almost 100g last night.

sory cant show you the motif....might go in the the new book

BUT LOOK AT THESE CUTIES...

 Two Breeds of Alpaca.....Huacaya and Suris

 

 Short and fluffy and Long and silky lol

 But aren't they adorable?.....how can something so cute not be cuddly?

They aren't great on cuddles I'm afraid, they really prefer you to keep a respectful distance, although I did see one or two children very close to their pals in the show ring.

 

And one or two were more interested in the camera than others.

Sorry the pictures aren't the best, but it was quite dark in the show ring area and I didn't want to upset any of these gorgeous beasts with a stupid flash.

 

Thanks Leslie for a fabulous day out...did you manage to have a little go with the Alpaca yarn last night too?

Phil was presented with a present of Alpaca sock too...he loved them in a purple/plum colour.

We will both be taking a trip to

Mulberry Alpaca Farm soon..one of our local Aplaca farms

Thanks for all the info, very interesting

 

 

THE TWO BREEDS OF ALPACA

Huacaya (pronounced as wuh-kai-ya) have fluffy fiber. Huacayas are the most common and popular type of alpaca. Their popularity is largely due to their cuddly, teddy-bear look. They achieve this look because their fiber stands upright, perpendicular to their skin. Huacaya fiber is popular among spinners because it is easy to spin. It is also easier to weave, making beginning weavers more productive. A dense Huacaya may shear up to 10 pounds of fiber per year.

Suris are rare, unique, and more elegant alpacas. They are also more expensive than Huacayas. This is largely due to their rareness. Suris have long, shiny, locks of fleece which are both soft and wavy. Suri fiber is also more valuable than huacaya fiber. Many beginning spinners mix Suri fiber with cotton, wool, or silk because suri fiber is much more slippery to spin. However, experienced spinners prefer Suri fiber because of the extreme luster. Suri fiber is quite long and has an almost string-like appearance. High-quality Suris have tightly twisted locks with very high luster.

To feed or not to feed?

 

http://www.tulipsinthewoods.com/bulbs/13-ways-to-get-your-tulips-to-come-back/

I'm no gardener and was wondering the other day if my pot of black tulips needed feeding?

Just found the above link so may be they do.......with minerals?

 

Really busy here with all sorts of exciting things.
Keep an eye open for a piece about my crochet felting in Designer Knitting, it is called
Vogue Knitting in USA.
Not sure when it wilL be avaliable here, around May time I've been told to look out for it,
but if you take the magazine let me know if it is on the stands with you?..thanks

I' ve been adding a few variations to block st this week....not sure if all the variations can be lumped together as block st. if I can, I try to find the original source of a stitch.
Victorian  origins usually for most stitches, but this version turned up in my research.....


Couple of interesting Block Stitch links to look at...
Link to Tamara's Design from 2013 below
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leaping-stripes-and-blocks-blanket
When the interlocking block st is used in a tonal way with just 2dc and 2ch between tamara has called it leaping stripes and blocks
By  Tamara Kelly

Here is an interlocking block st felted bag another option for block st.
Done in 2010

http://www.myiartflirt.com/2008/11/first-post-on-new-blog-free-crochet-bag.html

must try this one out soon

INTERLOCKING BLOCK STITCH COWL PATTERN

With it warming up a little I had a clear up and moved back into the work room yesterday...well over due.

Back in my cosy litttle nest of woolly things and colour.

INTERLOCKING BLOCK STITCH COWL

 Interlocking block stitch Stripes and Checks...

 Loving the Noro Yarn

INTERLOCKING BLOCK STITCH COWL PATTERN

COWL: 74 stripes x 2 dc each =148 base ch,
Its quite a big cowl with 32 rows

2 x 50g Balls of Noro or 100g of space dyed Aran yarn
1 Ball of plain Aran weight yarn 
5mm hook 

US TERMS UK Terms in brackets

BASE CHAIN: 1st col. 148ch,[ even number of sts, if you want it bigger or smaller], sl st, into a circle. [148ch sts] 

ROUND 1: cont. in 1st col. 2dc [2tr], 2ch miss 2sts, repeat to the end, pull yarn through st and hold. [74 blocks 74 ch2 sp]

ROUND 2: Att, 2nd col. to the first st, of an unused base ch st, [ch2, counts as first dc], dc [tr], over the ch sts of first row into the 2nd unused base ch st, ch2, dc, into next 2 unused base ch sts, ch2, repeat to end, sl st to complete, pull yarn through st, and hold. 
[74 blocks, 74 ch2 sp]

ROUND 3: pick up col. 1, in a ch sp, ch2, counts as first dc, dc in next st, covering the ch2, of previous row, ch2 repeat to end, sl st, pull yarn through st, and hold.
 [74 blocks, 74 ch2 sp]

ROUND 4 - 32: Repeat round 3, alternate the 2 colours will give you vertical stripes.

NOTE: To Do Checks 

Do 2 rounds in col. 1, then 2 rounds in col. 2, repeating the same stitch to get a checked version.

Loopy edging stitch.
ROUND 1: Att yarn in any st, ch2 counts as first dc, dc in next st, ch5, dc in next 4 sts, ch5, dc in next 4 sts, repeat to end, finish with dc in last 2 sts, sl st into first st, cont.
ROUND 2: 8dc into ch5 loops, sl st between the pairs of dc, repeat to end, sl st to complete

1000 Pictures and Beth's Blue Blanket...

The big plan for this blue creation was to finish it in about a month, but with the new book and more Stylecraft designs to do I'm afraid its not growing as quickly as I'd hoped...

Taken and collaged about a 1000 picture this week for the book.

 

Beth's Blanket grows about 3 inches in 2 hours every now and then...sorry Beth.

 At that rate it is going to be a long time in the making...7' wide and needs to be at least 5 maybe even the 7' long

About 17inches made at the moment...a loooong way to go.

 

Hope you all had a good day in the garden yesterday...wasn't it gorgeous most of the weeds have been sent packing in our garden.

And Phil bought himself a rare Classic VW Variant 1974 car yesterday...excited wasn't the word, lol

Not a bad deal at all well done you.

When Eric has had a good clean I will add some pictures, he is on SORN at the moment until April when he will be tax exempt.

 

INTERLOCKING BLOCK STITCH

Link to interlocking Block stitch stripes post here

the original Interlocking Block st. post has had just short of 59,000 page views so I thought I would do a new post with the same stitch.

 

HAPPY HOOKING