How to block your crochet

You might be thinking, what is blocking? Blocking is what you do once you have finished your project. It pulls out your work to the correct shape and size. You might find if you have been making granny squares for example, they are a bit wonky and curl at the edges. Blocking will correct this and leave you with a lovely flat square.

You don’t need anything too fancy to do this either. All you need is some foam matts, I use garden kneeling pads, a spray bottle and some kebab skewers.

Once you have finished your square or hexagon or whatever it is you are working on sew in your ends and you are ready to block your work.

Now you need to get your foam matt and pin out your work with the kebab skewers. It should look something like this…..

Next you need to spray your work with water until damp and then leave it to dry. The good thing about blocking like this is that you can stack your squares or hexagons.

Once they are dry they are ready to remove and they will be flat and in the correct shape.

Here you can see the difference between the blocked and unblocked hexagons.

And that is how you block your crochet

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Secret paths shawl. A piece of cake

This week I have managed to finish one of my many crochet projects. I have been working on the secret paths shawl by mijo crochet and I absolutely adore it.

This is worked in lion brand mandala shade Pegasus and I used around 1.5 cakes. I think lion brand mandala is currently my favourite yarn cake. It’s incredibly soft and the colours are just 👌🏼.

The pattern is easy to follow and there are stitch tutorials is you need them.

Here is a link to the pattern I used:

https://mijocrochet.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/secret-paths-tasty-nom-nom/

With the left over yarn I have whipped up a quick c2c blanket for E’s dolls. She is absolutely over the moon with it and is very happy her dolls are now nice and snuggly and warm

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Spinning a yarn

After yesterday’s beautiful yarn purchases I had some more arrive today. 4 balls of Lion Brand mandala to be precise. Lion Brand mandala is gloriously bright variegated yarn and I bought shades unicorn and Pegasus.

I bought unicorn because it’s called unicorn and who doesn’t love a unicorn 🦄 and Pegasus because it’s bright and beautiful and a little different to what I would normally buy.

I have started a project with Pegasus this afternoon. I am making a secret paths shawl and so far I am loving it.

My husband saw the my Hermes card when he got home from work and asked what I had, had delivered. I pretended I hadn’t heard him 😂. Anyways I probably shouldn’t buy anymore yarn for a while and I promise I will try not to but I more than likely will have a new ball to add to my collection within the next week. I probably need an intervention but it’s all so pretty and my theory is it works as insulation for the house. I’m not sure my husband agrees but it’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

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Blowing the cobwebs away

C decided that it was party time between 11pm and 2:30am last night so after very little sleep I decided we needed to have the cobwebs blown away. E had a dermatology appointment so after that we drove down to Felixstowe to have a wander. Thankfully a very grumpy C had fallen asleep in the car and I managed to successfully transfer her to the pushchair and keep her asleep. So me and E wandered through Felixstowe. She wanted a new pencil case for her pencils and crayons she got for her birthday and ended up getting a magazine aswell.

Whilst at the till I endured a threenager strop because I said no to chocolate. I’m pretty sure they put chocolate by the till to make parents seem evil to their children and they must love to hear the sound of children screaming “I want a chocolate egg mummy” at the top of their lungs.

We made it out of the shop and headed to Greggs for a sandwich. C was still asleep so me and E had a lunch date. I had a salad because I’m trying to be good and E had a ham roll. We resisted the baked goods. I also got my first shop bought coffee in my klean kanteen so I feel I have done my bit for the environment today.

After lunch we headed to the Thrifty Thistle. An Aladdin’s cave of haberdashery and yarn. E helped me pick the yarn I wanted and I was fairly well restrained and bought 3 balls of stylecraft special DK. It’s my favourite yarn and is available in so many colours and is so soft and versatile.

We came out of the Thrifty Thistle and E saw the sea and that was it. She was determined we were going to the beach. She loves the beach and she was so excited. We walked along the promenade and the cobwebs were definitely blown away.

After a little while E agreed that it was too chilly and we headed back up the vertical hill towards the shops and car.

Our final stop was the Wool Baa. A fabulous shop stocked floor to ceiling with yarn and they also serve coffee and cake. I got E settled down with a toasted tea cake and began to have a look at all of the different yarns. I was excited to discover they stock Scheepjes Whirl. A yarn I have been looking at for ages but not yet purchased. It was obviously fate and I just needed to decide what colour I wanted. Across the shop I hear the words every parent of a toddler love to hear – “mummy poo!!” At the top of her lungs. The whole shop looked. Thankfully there was a loo she could use.

Poo disaster averted and E went back to her tea cake and I went back to looking at the yarns. While I was looking E was chatting to a lady with a tiny dog called George who told me C was such a handsome boy. I then explained that he is actually a she and she told me she thought I had one of each what a shame. Ignoring that comment, I picked a black yarn with a silver sparkle and scheepjes whirl in Turkish delight and with that we headed home. Now all I need to do is decide what to make with the whirl and where to hide my new yarn 🙊🙊