Basket Weave Stitch in Crochet

This is one of my crafting catch ups of the things I've been up to but not blogged about. I'd no idea you could do basket weave stitch with crochet but God bless youtube's wee cotton socks. It had a fabulous tutorial and I had some Wendy Serenity super chunky wool and a 10mm hook so it was not long before a very nice relaxed basket weave was created. This stitch had crocheted up very loosely and I am not sure whether it is due to the actual stitch or the manipulation of how I was working it so it could perhaps have taken a 9mm hook.

This was intended as a dining room chair seat but the inner is so pluffy* it was headed for the sofa. However, as all three sofas are groaning under the volume of cushions, and cushions-to-be, and are becoming all but unusable as they now only have room to accommodate the skinny pussy cat having a doss! I crocheted the back in treble but if I did it again I'd use a closer stich like double or a smaller hook. Luckily my Mother really liked this one and she is now the proud owner of it.

It has been great learning and trying out new crafts and techniques over this last ten months or so but if my knee doesn't start improving properly there is a chance there is not going to be any house room left for the inhabitants.

*Pluffy - one of our house words merging 'plump' and 'fluffy' and relates to something huggably soft. It is also used to try to alliteratively define the bizarre noise my Mother used to make when she fell asleep in her chair while watching tv and her breath burst out from her closed lips in a 'pluff' noise alerting us to the fact she'd dozed off. TMI maybe but you kind of get what you get with me!

Yarn Lust in Glasgow

Maybe it was the first onset of autumn or just my love of soft tactile textures but when I had a little annual leave in August my yarn lust was awakened again. It started when I saw some Rico Pompon wool in a craft shop in Hillington. I decided it was too expensive at nearly £10 a ball. I looked online but with the dreaded P&P the price was just about the same and the more I thought about it I just had to have some. In the meantime as I was looking for advice online as to how I might knit with it, I browsed around and decided to visit a couple of wool shops locally.

After visiting a friend for lunch on the Southside I popped into Marjory's Wool Shop. I now know what it feels like to have shrunk and have landed inside a knitting bag. This tiny shop is stuffed full of the most glorious yarns in every conceivable colour and type and the lady was lovely and so generous with her advice. 'Aruba' and 'Nina' scarf yarns came home to stay and will feature in another post now they are all made up.
 
The following day the next shop I just had to visit was Yarn Cake in the West End, which I'd been meaning to visit for so long as it looked intriguing. This is an eclectic shop which sells yarn and cake. It has a much smaller selection but has the most amazingly soft hanks of alpaca or llama blended with mulberry silk, Drops yarn that I am now in love with and small run wools from local producers like New Lanark. When I visited I was greeted by the owner, Antje, who was chatting with some young women who were sitting knitting and enjoying cake and coffee. Everyone was so relaxed and friendly it was impossible not to get chatting and I had a great laugh. Antje, explained she was following the Great British Bake Off and making the challenge each week. However, as the latest one was Floating Islands and she didn't have a hob in store then she'd made chocolate roulade from an earlier series. The cake was divine, and I was delighted when she asked if it was ok that the coffee came in a cafetiere. I'm really fussy about my coffee and frequently disappointed so anywhere serving good coffee is music to my ears. A lovely time was had and some beautiful soft Drops Nepal wool/alpaca blend and New Lanark Chunky was eventually selected.

So, what of the pompon wool that started this woolly exploration off? Well, that weekend I was meeting up for afternoon tea with my ex-colleagues and friends and, as the designated driver, I managed to persuade my human sat nav's to agree to let me swing past the original craft shop to get some pompon wool. Now, from a purely financial point of view, if I'd just bought the ruddy pompon stuff in the first place it would have saved me a fortune. Instead I managed to awaken my old yarn lust which was definitely NOT the cheaper option. However, if I hadn't used some of my time off to explore a little of Glasgow's wool landscape then I'd never have visited the brilliant shops above and re-engaged with a craft I used to love. There are many more woolly tales to be told and I'll endeavour to get all caught up again.