Get Hooked on Crochet: April 2015

Sunday, 26 April 2015

So much YARN and so many HOOKS!!

Look at what my pupil turned up at class in!!

Isn't it super fab?

And

Then she produced this little dinosaur

from a pattern by DMC but made in Chunky for a first attempt at amigurumi

Amazing!

Here are my Sherborne Ladies at The Slipped Stitch learning the basics

And here are the mobile phone cases they made after lesson 1 - wow, didn't they do well!

In an Improvers course taken at my home classroom in Shillingstone, EB made this wonderful blanket

And here's JG learning how to wind a skien of cotton tape yarn

From a wool swift (top photo of these 3) to a wool winder

We made Forget Me Nots for Demetia Friends Charity

And Bear Fever is catching on!

Another Improver made this jumper from a recent issue of Inside Crochet Magazine. I just love the moss stitch.

It's been a busy few weeks here at Crochet Central !

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Stitch Away Stress - special blog post issue

Hi everyone,

This blog post is a special

Stitch Away Stress Issue

I am a great believer in how therapeutic crafting can be & I'll tell you why.

In the Tsunami of 2004, I was on honeymoon in Phuket & got caught up in all the panic, shock & of course - Sea in Tsunami mode.

To cut a long story short, something hit my ankle when I was knee deep in sea water. I will never know what the item was, but I now have a neuroma on my nerve as it damaged my nerve just above my right ankle.

On coming home, various tests were done, but it took 3 years until I had my first operation. They cut the damaged nerve and buried the ending into my bone. This operation lasted 6 years.

Unfortunately it "popped out" so I had to have another op in 2013. This time they buried the damaged nerver into my muscle. This op lasted 6 months & I am now on the waiting list for a third time lucky op this summer.

The moral of this story is that distraction can help with pain and stress.

At a recent pain clinic I learnt what I already knew. Distractions can focus your mind on something other than your pain or stress.

I am on more tablets a day than I care to take, but I have the "If I do nothing I am in pain, if I do something I am in pain" attitude, so I do as much as I can without being silly & getting to the exrutiating pain stage.

Needless to say my Crochet helps me a lot.

So crafting is not only a distraction - it's creative too!

More at the end of the post so carry on reading.

Just look at what one of my classes made the other week.....

It was a simply lesson in pattern reading & increasing / decreasing.

However they all went home with a lovely heart

The results from my sock workshop at Sparrow UK speak for themselves

One pupil chose to make a plain top on a mono colour pair

And another added a scalloped edge to her pink & blue socks

The sizes range from UK 2 to UK 6 !

This is a photo of my Crochet on the Go. I was a passenger in my husbands car on a long journey, so I took my Hexagon a day blanket alont with me & worked around 10 hexi's