Celtic tiles coat - the end

Despite being crafted to the wearer's requirements, this coat became an unloved item of clothing! 

Oversize body and double-pockets notwithstanding. 

The reason, the sleeves were too wide and dangerous if worn in the kitchen, the whole garment was in general too big.

So it has been dismantled to its constituent parts and more squares made in order to create a couple of colourful pouffe's for the conservatory.

However, that didn't work out either! The first pouffe kept squashing down and losing it's shape, stretching the squares because it was stuffed so tight.

Again it has been dismantled down to a box full of celtic squares, waiting for it's destiny. 

Celtic coat progress

I've been doing a bit of research for when all the squares are done and I need to start joining them all into something resembling the shape of a coat.

Celtic tiles coat - the one that went wrong

I needed just one more square in silver grey and was two thirds through when I realised that I wouldn't have enough yarn!

Never mind, I thought, I will do a half red, half silver one. And it was looking good, though I wasn't sure if the red would last out either. 

When I ran out of red I went back to using the last few grammes of silver grey with my fingers crossed it would last till the final row. Phew! 

For the edge I opted to use emerald green, as I will be doing a round of green on each square before also joining them all into a coat with the green also. 

And the end result was surprising to me. I had in mind the Japanese Wabi-sabi way of finding beauty in flaws as a way of accepting this square as a unique one amongst the rest. And it may well end up being my favourite square. 

This is the square being blocked before all the ends are sewn in. 

Review: Sirdar Jewelspun Yarn

I have used this yarn in place of Moda Bouvardia to craft a hooded jacket.

The yarn is described as trying to represent a hand spun effect. As someone who has spun their own yarn in the past, I can confirm that this yarn does have this effect. However, it may not suit everyone's requirements as a consequence.

As you can see in the image above, some sections are over spun, while others are under spun. This is easy enough to remedy by making an invisible join, but becomes irritating when there are many sections like this. Also it is not a consistent (persistent) fault. 

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Another annoyance is the appearance of knots, sometimes only a short way into a new ball, and again seemingly random in regularity and frequency. Again resolved by an invisible join, but I don't feel that I should have to keep doing this, particularly when it does create a slightly thicker area in the item being crocheted. 

 

I would point out that there are a lot of images of Sirdar Jewelspun online and based on these I would never have used the yarn. I was lucky enough to be able to see some in real life (although the store did not have enough for my project) and went on to order some online as a consequence. It is definitely a more attractive yarn when you can see it for yourself. 

This is the exact yarn that I bought :- 

 

I have been wearing my completed coat for some time now and it is so lovely to wrap around myself. I really like it and am glad that I picked Jewelspun to make it with. 

Winding a yarn ball

This is me winding a whole ball of yarn on my winder...

Edging crochet with a border

I'm crocheting borders on my celtic squares and on row ends I've now worked out how to space my stitches to match the others

Celtic tiles coat - the beginning

Mr CTL needs a new jacket for prowling around the veggie plot here at Crow Tree Lane. He liked the celtic tiles that lillabjorncrochet.com used for her Celtic Tiles Blanket, so I have decided to work the tiles in double knit yarn that was already in my stash and create a bespoke coat for him. 

It started out as a rough sketch like this:

As you can see, the rough work keeps getting adjusted as I work through the design in my head. But I like to keep all my ideas and thoughts as they may prove useful later on. 

So far I just have a lot of squares in varying shades of red, blue and silver. I did give in and buy some emerald green in the same yarn for the background /joining yarn. However, I couldn't resist making some green squares to add into the mix as well! 

And I have added 4 plain versions of the squares without the celtic overlay to make some double pockets too. 

The main photograph at the top of this post gives a feel of how the coat may eventually look when it comes together. 

If you want to keep updated on progress, remember to follow me... 

Tulip Etimo Red crochet hook

I only bought this Tulip Etimo Red hook to try, as I really liked my rose gold metal crochet hook set, but was suffering with some pain in my fingers.

So, having heard others saying how good tulip crochet hooks were I took a look.

Buy me a coffee

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However payment to me is made via PayPal from Ko-Fi, and PayPal do take a fee (a percentage plus a fixed amount). 

Crochet Hooded Coat

For this coat, I started on the small size of the pattern, then tried medium and eventually settled on the large size. The sizing differences were probably due to using a smaller hook size and a very different yarn. 

Moda Vera Bouvardia is a discontinued yarn, however I wanted a look as similar to the image on the pattern as possible and finding a perfect match proved impossible. 

Sirdar Jewelspun is designed to be like handspun yarn, which means that it does have inconsistencies in thickness of thread which in some instances is very pronounced, this had an impact on the way the garment worked up. 

LAMXD yarn ball winder

I bought this yarn winder because I have a job lot of cheap yarn which continually knots up into yarn squids which makes crocheting (and more importantly, keeping an even tension) really difficult.

So far, I have wound a yarn-end with success, and subsequently a full ball too. Both (problematic yarn balls) required me to sort out the yarn squids as I was winding, but it had minimal impact on the yarn cake that the winder produced.

Having crocheted with the small yarn-end cake, I have found that it makes working the yarn much smoother and a great deal easier.

Crochet curtain tie-back with pompom tassel

Created by Julie Short www.crowtreelane.blogspot.com

I created this tie-back for a curtain which had none supplied with it. I liked it so much, I've decided to make more for the other curtains around the  house.

You can buy a PDF of the pattern from ravelry here:  http://www.ravelry.com/purchase/crow-tree-lane/748969

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Yarn: DK (Loweth Olympus Double Knitting 878 Pillarbox Red – about 10 grams) 

Hook: 4mm 

Terms: UK 

Pompom: pompom maker & some cotton thread 

NOTIONS 

Tapestry needle 

Stitch markers 

Scissors 

USEFUL INFORMATION 

First stitch is done into base of turning chain 

You can use any yarn that you wish or have available to do this tie-back, make sure that you use the appropriately sized hook and make your chain long enough to tie back your curtain in the manner that you like best.   

My tie-back measured 60cm long, approx 2.5cm across the centre part of the tie-back and 1.5cm across the width of the arms of the tie-back. 

Lacy Granny Beanie Hat

 

This beanie hat is worked from the crown down to the rim. And when you get to the rim it is possible to chose whether to have a ribbed rim or a delicate rim to finish the hat.

The finishing piece is the colour matching pompom on the top.

I used Stylecraft Naturals Cotton + Bamboo for this hat and this has resulted in a soft comfortable hat that I love to wear.

The pattern is on Ravelry for those who want to crochet this lovely hat.

Carpet bag

This bag started out as an accessory to an outfit for World Book Day.

I needed to dress up as a character from a book and was going to be Professor Trelawny from the Harry Potter books.

At first I wanted something quick and easy to produce, but as I got into my research and designing, it became something more. I decided to make the bag that I always wanted, that would fit in everything and be styled like a carpet bag.

I made it from the fabric of a sofa cushion, so that it would be durable and hard-wearing. That meant that I had to purchase a special sewing awl that enabled me to work the thread from both sides of the fabric:

 

Over its construction it evolved to have extras such as a pocket on the front and a shoulder strap to compliment the carrying handles.

It is something that I really enjoyed making in 2018 and today it is still my favourite bag for everything.

Crocheted Crows

I wanted to make a weighted creature to hold my door open so that it doesn't slam shut in a draught. 

As I rather like Crows and rooks and we have some round here that entertain us with their funny calls, I decided to make a corvus (Corvidae). And as I had some yarn that was not something I would ever use for myself, and that I only had a small amount of, I decided to make it from Sirdar Special Prelude.

It is not a yarn that I am aware is available nowadays, as it is one that I have had for over 10 years, since the death of my mother and I have no idea how long she had kept it before that.

Crochet project

Soon I will start posting updates on my crochet crafting.

I finished my Hooded Jacket crocheted using Sirdar Jewelspun on 9 August 2020 and will share the details with you soon, I hope 😀