FAN SHAWL

Rummaging around in my sample boxes again found a half finished Fan Shawl...almost completed it and sharing a few pictures today.

Alize Cotton/acrylic yarn in a shade china blue colour, my favourite colours at the moment, all shades of blue...

sc, dc, front and back post stitch, 

4mm hook

Alize 55% cotton/45% acrylic yarn, this crescent moon shawl measures approx. 6' unblocked and is a symbol of new life, new beginnings....a crescent shawl always hugs your shoulder beautifully.

Quote from The Power of the Crescent Moon

 Crescent Moon should be viewed each month as a potent symbol of where you are giving “birth” to new areas of your life. This is when you welcome your new creation for your life and cradle it to maturity.

China Blue motif

Throw of one square, same colour

DC, DK and a 4mm Hook

Blocks in a square...

Variation on a Granny Square

NEW MAGAZINES and G STAR/STRIPE

Looking for something new to read this weekend i came across a number of new magazine that i had never seen before. Something more than most women's mags i read and discard after one look.

 Plenty to read in these 2 beautiful to look at mags.....mindful ways to live your life...all about wellbeing, mindfulness (such a lovely word), creativity and escaping, we could all do with an escape every now and then. 

I bought the one because of the wonderful illustrations and art work, there are pages of beautiful prints i might be framing and hanging on the wall by Becki Clark the Art editor on the magazine. Becky hold workshops, might be signing up for one later in the year BECKI CLARK WORKSHOPS link for more info

Some of Becki's surface work HERE  

Both are full of interesting articles, crafty inspiration, short stories and no rubbish like you get in most women's mags

An 8 Point star developed into a Geometric Stripe Blanket

G Stripe

G Stripe

FLOWER BLOCK

Rummaging through my samples i found this small block of flowers, sharing what it could be...

repeat of 3 colour ways of a flower from my book and repeated

Block of 9 flowers and repeat the block

pick just one colour way and repeat

CROCHET PARASOL...

Ever had a go at making a crochet parasol, most circles, hex's or octagons depending on the frame you pick can be used. 

I made a motif in this yarn, fab yarn by the way, as it grew it just said parasol. 

so i bought a child's umbrella to try...

But thought cotton yarn would be a better choice so i started again with cotton dk. 
TIP: use 4ply might take you a bit longer to make but dk is very heavy unless you use a very open lacy stitch.

My first attempt...

got to this stage and ran out of this colour, plus it wasn't big enough to cover the frame, so unpicked the edging and added a few rows of dc, in different colours but think it would look better in the same colour and the plain rows are bit boring. At some point i will unpick the plain dc rows and add some more decorative rows and stitch the piece together...And of course try again in a 4ply as dk cotton it's very very heavy...

this first version is completed but not totally happy with it, so i haven't got around to removing the Umbrella cover and sewing the crochet parasol to the frame, might need a rethink on this design so, no pattern but a few tips shared.