Hello crochet friends. It’s a New Year and a fresh start. My resolutions have been written down, and of course immediately forgotten about – except for the crochet related ones, which are the only ones likely to stand a chance of being fulfilled. Let’s just forget the healthy eating/more exercise/less screen time stuff. I’ll get round to that another day. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the Woolthreadpaint Crochet To Do List 2024!
Let’s Go……
Stylecraft Blogstar
Top of my To Do list is to be a little more active on this blog. I do share plenty of things on social media already I know, but there are times when there seems to be more to say than an Instagram post will allow. So I had already planned to start with a monthly crochet round up, when the people at Stylecraft Yarns approached me at the end of last year to become one of their Blogstars. Well, how about that for a piece of news?
Of course I was blown away by the offer. Stylecraft Special DK, as I’m sure you are aware, has always been my ‘go to’ yarn of choice for my blanket patterns, and now I was being given the chance to rub shoulders with the greats of the crochet world thanks to Stylecraft.
You can see who I mean here.
Quite the stellar line up I’m sure you will agree. I’ve had some chats with these lovely people already, discussing yarns and patterns, and I can foresee a lot of benefit coming from this collaboration in the future, not just for me but for all my followers too.
Exciting times, so watch this space.
Taking the title BLOG STAR literally, I thought I should really get blogging! To be honest, this isn’t anything new. I’ve been blogging for a very long time already, just not about crochet. Way back in 2008 I started a blog about my life at the time, running a creative business from my cottage in rural Fife. It kept going for a number of years, and is probably still out there in the ether somewhere, although I haven’t been back for a long while. Then along came a blog about my Textile art and Embroidery work. It’s still around somewhere too.
But to get back to the point. My world is crochet now, and let’s stick with that. One day I’ll give you my life story but not today, although if you want to read about how my crochet journey started, you’ll find the whole tear jerker of a story here.
Let’s get back to my January round up…….
The Beach Walk Crochet Blanket, version 2
As I said I wrote out my To Do list, and launched into the New Year in a gentle way. After all the Christmas ‘hoo-ha’ I needed a little time to adjust my brain to thinking about new designs. So in order to give it some space, I started working on an old project which had been in my mind for a while – remaking the original Beach Walk Blanket and rewriting the pattern. Why?
Because it is still my best selling pattern after all, with Etsy telling me it that sales of it have reached sixty one countries.
Imagine that – a blanket pattern, whose design and colours are based on walks on a blustery Scottish beach, is being made in hot countries like Kenya (I’ve seen some photos), India and the Phillippines, plus not so hot countries like the U.S.A, Canada, Finland and Japan. And that’s just a few.
Anyway, this blanket had been a lockdown project which really took people’s attention, but the problem was I made it without having a written pattern in mind at the time.
Then many requests for a pattern came in, and so I sat down and wrote it up retrospectively. It meant that the yarn quantities had to be an educated guess at best, and there wasn’t the option for good step by step photo tutorials.
I was also a bit of a rookie crochet designer in those days, so all in all although I have tweaked it here and there over the years, I decided it deserved a whole new version now. I’ll talk more about that in another blog post, once the project is finished. As I write this at the end of January, I reckon I’m more than halfway through, and I’m taking LOTS of new photos along the way.
The new Beach Walk in progress
The Cloud Cover Crochet Blanket
A couple of weeks ago, we were staying at our daughter’s to look after the grandchildren while their mum and dad were away on business, and it gave me the chance to have a look at a blanket which I’d made for my daughter towards the end of last year. At the time I made it I was adamant that it was a personal crochet project which would not ever be made into a pattern. I was simply stash busting a load of yarns in different shades of grey, and I chose a very easy granny square layout.
It was a relaxation project for me after the intense time of writing the the pattern for the Winter Walk blanket. Yes well, I should have known better, shouldn’t I? Lots of requests for a pattern came in and were being batted away – “no sorry, no pattern”, “no it was just a stash buster”….
But then when I looked at it again after a gap of a few months, do you know – I REALLY LIKED it!
And I now think it deserves a written pattern. Can I not learn my lesson? Here I go again, writing a pattern retrospectively.
It was christened ‘Cloud Cover’ last week when I put it out on Instagram asking for ideas for a name. Hundreds of replies later, I chose the one that really jumped out at me. It’s perfect. Once the Beach Walk pattern is finished, next on the list will be this one.
And in the rest of January…..
While at my daughter’s, we had to batten down the hatches against Storm Isha, and it was indoor activities for the grandkids. Twelve year old Ewan simply hunkered down with his Nintendo Switch, and nine year old Leighla and I worked our way through some ‘crafting’. This was part of Leighla’s To Do List (she takes after Granny).
By the way, another item on the list was ‘dancing’, meaning she filmed a Granny/Leighla Tik Tok style dance routine, which I will most definitely NOT be sharing on here – before you ask. Sorry and all that.
So anyway, the ‘crafting’ was a pom pom making session to start with. That took me right back to my childhood. I used to love making pom poms.
This time, in the interests of science, we experimented with various pom pom making methods – a plastic pom pom maker (too small), a fork (too messy), traditional cardboard circles (too slow) and finally our chosen method for speed and fluffiness – the hand. How come we didn’t do this as kids?
We cut circles out of cereal packets back in my day, but simply wrapping round the fingers is a game changer!
We made a host of rainbow pom poms which I will have to string together to make a garland.
This is for a very special event happening in a few months – the arrival of long awaited twins in our family. Isn’t that exciting?
And with that in mind, I’ve also started a baby blanket using up some of my large stash of Deramores Studio yarn which was discontinued a few years ago.
I’m also mindful that with twins on the way, there will have to be two blankets. In fact two of everything – I’d like to do a bit of baby knitting as well – as if I didn’t have anything else to do!
So that’s January done and dusted. Tomorrow is a new month, and what will that bring? Hopefully the finished Beach Walk and Cloud Cover patterns, and perhaps something new, something free, something using a brand new yarn…..oooh, I’m such a tease!
Bye for now, Marion xx
PS In this world of social media, do we really need another Newsletter style blog post? Let me know in the comments if it’s something you would like me to continue to do on a monthly basis.
Most definitely yes, I have only just found your blog and blankets and it looks like my to do list is growing by the day x
Thank you x
Very inspirational. Thank uou
Definitely yes, I am fairly new to your designs and really enjoyed reading your blog post .
Oh my goodness, yes! I follow your posts on instagram, but a whole blog post to savor with a hot cup of coffee and a cookie (or two😉) is a real treat!
I will be crocheting for the rest of the year now .enjoyed reading your blog .
Loved it! Yes!
I love your work and enjoyed reading your story and this blogpost.
I miss blogs! Please continue. Now that I’ve heard you on the videos, I can actually hear you as I read your posts -I would miss your voice if you stopped the blog!!!😘
Aw 🥰
Yes please! It’s great that blogs are still around and I look forward to reading them. Much more detail than an Instagram post!
Yes please to the newsletter, I got rid of all social media last year and whilst I absolutely don’t miss it, I do miss the current yarn activities and chatter sometimes.
I must not have been the only one that came up with Cloud Cover. What else could it possibly be called?!
Yes, I would love to hear more about your crocheting ideas and plans.