Zoe's Beautiful Necklace Pattern

This is the blog to accompany Zoe's vlog for Vlog a Day April. She was inspired by the gorgeous new Rico Fashion Jersey to make some lovely necklaces, so here's the pattern and if you follow through onto the vlog then there's a how-to video (the first instructional video we've made, so be gentle).

Materials:

About a third of a ball of Rico Fashion Jersey or Fashion Jersey Prints. 
6mm double pointed needles (or a size you have, down to about a 5mm, up to about a 7mm).
Some beads with big holes (we suggest heading to the Bead Shop Nottingham because they're wonderful!)

Gauge: 

Matters very little. Get on with it. 



Pattern: 

Cast on 3 sts and knit an icord until it was about 120cm. (Maybe a little less if you fancy. Maybe longer!)

Make a slip knot about 16cm from one end. Using your fingers chain for about 16 chains then knot leaving about 16cm from the other end. 

I then threaded beads, with a big hole, on each end.  

Tie the yarn ends together to wear or sew together and sew in ends. 

Bish, bash bosh!!

How simple is that!? Boom!

Love Eleanor (and more importantly, Zoe).

Crowdfunding!

Ahhhhh the blog as an escape. If you've been following the vlog or the facebook and twitter over the last day or two you'll know that it's been quite a rollercoaster! I now have the biggest headache and the shop has been fabulously busy (thank you!) so, once again, tidying has been left to the side and I have a lot of shop to tidy!

Hopefully soon much more shop to tidy!

Which is where you lot come in. This crowdfunder wasn't my original idea but I've been absolutely taken aback by the response to the new shop and the offers of help I've had. In terms of physical help, I'll be putting calls out later, but right now we need a financial boost. I have saved a lot and I was intending to borrow (sensibly) but I've already had people sending me money via paypal and now I just need to put it on a more formal footing.

You can read all of the information on the crowdfunder itself as well as on the accompanying vlog and I'm sure I'll talk more about it as we get there but essentially, if everybody that follows us and has had help from us puts in a fiver, we're there. We're more than there. Put in what you can and if you can't then do what you can by sharing the crowdfunder and related posts and talking about us to your friends and family and buying from us and coming to workshops and hopefully, with a little help, we'll soon be the most central independent yarn shop that Nottingham's had for YEARS!

I love you alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. Once more - the crowdfunder is here!

King Cole Zig Zag

Oh I do feel like I've neglected this little blog but I'm coming back to you! I have stuff to say, I just feel like I've had no time to say it! It also helps that I worked an 11 hour day yesterday on my day off so I'm kind of up to date with the time sensitive stuff that I need to be, well as up to date as I can be before other stuff turns up, so today I've been nicely relaxed, chatting away to customers, doing a bit of knitting and listening to podcasts (naughty, shouldn't do that in the shop...). I've also eaten a lot of skittles and here I am, full of sugar, ready to talk about the King Cole Zig Zag as if it's a new yarn! Well, it kind of is... let me try and explain.

Zig Zag was one of the things that I needed to get from King Cole when we first opened. I'd tried it before and was blown away by how well it knits and wears and the colours and the price. It was, in fact, the first thing that I wrote on my first order form to King Cole and we've had it ever since. King Cole have really got it right on this one, you get it in packs of six rather than 12 and this is great because mostly, people want one ball (occasionally two and some brave people take more for garments etc.), and as King Cole (mainly, gah!) sell to independents they've really got it right because most of us can't store that amount of wool for that amount of time. I love it as a knitter/crocheter and as a retailer. Brill!

Over the years they've come up with new colours and designs. It's called Zig Zag because all of the original colours ended up looking like this:



I went on rav to see if I could find any examples to borrow photos of (linked and requested obvs) but I found loadsa photos of the Zig Zag made by my regular customers so now I don't need to request because I know they'd say yes and they'd bloody better or they're banned from the shop. haha. Anyway, these are Sarah's Zig Zag socks in the Rhapsody colourway which is one of the ones that has recently been discontinued and I am so sad because it's the first Zig Zag that I ever bought and the reason I fell in love with it in the first place.

It deffo shows why the yarn is called Zig Zag in the first place. Lots of short sections of colour that build up on top of eachother in slightly mismatched ways and create and actual Zig Zag. Until you reach a heel where the stitch count changes and all of a sudden colours are on top of other colours and it looks like a whole different yarn. This will make you feel very excited (me) or horrified (Sue... haha).

Anyway, then they started making stripes, I think when the cottoned on to how popular socks are, the first set of those was released around the time of the Jubilee so we ended up with this:



By Ollie aka Joxter on Ravelry (who is sadly no longer a customer because he moved to London and hasn't updated his Rav acount since summer 2014 - he'd better still be knitting, such a talent).

This stuff sold really well for us and I was very pleased that they'd come up with new colours after so long.

And then! Out of nowhere, they came up with six new colours that look like this:

Again borrowed from the lovely Mrs Hirst. Can you see how different these stripes are? Love them! This was also the point when they changed the make up of the socks from 50/50 wool/nylon to 75/25 wool/nylon. I actually quite liked the 50/50 stuff, I couldn't tell a difference in the wearing or washing and it just somehow made it a little different to the other stuff on the market but bringing it up to a 75/25 mix does make it a very definite, identifiable sock yarn. Meh. Not much in it. What was important to me was that the price didn't change. Yes. 25% more wool and the price didn't change. Another reason to love King Cole - good to the knitter, good to the retailer (kinda, sometimes, unless you're bothered about them being in John Lewis. Gah!).

Anyway, at the time when they brought out that, they brought out five other colours all beautiful. AND THEN THEY DISCONTINUED THEM! GAH! King Cole! But it's okay, don't worry, they brought out six more new colours one of which was this beauty:



Beautifully knitted by the lovely Claire. The stripe sequence changed again and I loved it!

AND NOW THEY'VE DISCONTINUED THIS LOT! But it's okay! They've brought out this lovely lot:

Calypso - Stonewash - Caribbean

Crush - Majestic - Camouflage

Now, I suspect that the Crush, Stonewash and Camouflage will be stripe sequences that we've never seen from King Cole before, very subtle, very soft, perhaps not even striped. And I suspect that the brighter colours are BACK TO THE ORIGINAL ZIG ZAG STRIPE THING! Which I have missed and I'm excited about.

If you've followed the many, many links through to the Zig Zag over the blog you'll see that some of the older colours are still around. I have a theory. King Cole are doing what I do with the Regia Sock yarns; getting a certain amount of stock in and once it's gone, it's gone. I imagine they're doing it on a bigger scale than I do though, hahah. This works for sock yarn because once you're a sock knitter, you're a sock knitter but it'd be rare for you to use the same colour more than once (apart from like reasonable colours like black) and therefore, you can go a bit wacky with the colours, sell it all through and then get more in. It makes sense and it keeps it fresh and exciting! If only we could do the same with marriages ey? Much less divorce if we all did it the Knit Nottingham way. I haven't been told any of this, I just have a hunch and I think it's a good idea so I hope I'm right. It does mean though, if you're in love with any of the older colours then you need to get in there quick sharp because they'll almost certainly be gone at some point. And it also means you want to get the new colours in sharpish too. However, King Cole obviously take a lot longer to sell through their sock yarns because the last time they released colours was in Spring 2015 and it's only just run out (ish) so you have a little time.

I just want to share this one photo of the new Crush colourway:



How fit is that? King Cole should totes hire me as a photographer.

And finally, I should tell you, I just can't resist my own yarn. Everything I sell here I'm desperate to work with. Everything. I don't just write these blogs or film the vlogs to tell you about wool to make you spend money on any old shit, it's always stuff that I love. Anyway, shut up and show:

This is the new Majestic colourway in the Zig Zag and it will be a pair of socks for Christopher for his birthday... on Saturday... what's the betting he'll get socks still on the needles? It's suitably bright but boyish but I know he would have preferred the Crush, it's just that those will be mine all mine. Ahhhhh. So excited to see how this works out!

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxx

p.s. I forgot to tell you that every ball of the Zig Zag comes with a free pattern for ladies small socks through to big ol' mens socks. How cool is that?

King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Tints

Hi Blogettes,

Apologies! HUGE apologies! The blog has suffered in the maelstrom that has been my life since I got back off my week away (and that's not much different to how it was before to be fair...). It's exactly two weeks since I last wrote a blog post but fear not! I have four (maybe five) blogs to write today. This is my one and only job. Kind of. Once I've got this one done, I'm going to check e-mails and sort orders and then I'm back writing, writing, writing. They're all salesy kind of blogs but I'll try and keep it light so it's not all like 'gimme your money' but naturally, gimme your money. Haha.

It's been a funny kind of two weeks - it's payday and it's October so everybody's up and knitting but we've had the scaffholding up for a week and two days now (helpfully put up during a lesson - bang, crash, wallop and builders singing badly to radio muzak. Ugh). So, I've had lots of regulars coming in and not many people off the street which has been a sweet kind of catchup for me. Often, nowadays, I'm too busy with customers and other stuff to take time to chat. I kind of miss the first few years where I spent a lot of time knitting and hanging around and having fun. But there was always a nagging feeling that I should be doing *something* even if I didn't know what it was. Now I have less time to knit and chill and there's a nagging feeling that I should be doing *something* and I know exactly what it is - recalibrating internet stuff, writing blogs, filming vlogs, making orders, writing patterns, tidying, accounting. Ahhhhh. A million things that don't even get done when they're written on a to do list. IMAGINE THAT! There's a relaxed sweetness to knowing that I can pay my rent though, which was nowhere to be seen when we first opened. Ha. Swings and roundabouts.

No idea where that little tangent came from. Shall we talk about wool?

 

King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Tints

And I love it. LOVE IT!

When I first opened the shop I was all about 4ply, even 2-ply. I still am to an extent but I also have noooooo time now. And sometimes it's just good to finish a project isn't it? And one that looks this good:

Boom. (Toni is thrilled about that angle...). This is the pattern number 4286 and I love it. I didn't realise whilst knitting and making up and even admiring it on Toni that there is a secret owl. Well done Jazz for pointing it out!

How cute is that?

I've already done a vlog about this - it's here. It's much easier to smash out a vlog and then have it uploading whilst I'm doing other stuff (sorry, blog readers, but do subscribe to us on Youtube because it does seem to be the way I'm going right now...). I did that when I first got the yarn so excitement was high but I hadn't yet had time to actually play with the yarn. And none of you lot had either. So it was me talking about the wool and the colours and hoping for the best. Now I've had time to actually work with it I can confirm how much I love it. Oooooh, I can also share a top tip for super chunky! It is possible to thread this onto a sewing up needle - you just have to squash the end so it's like a flat point - but I don't even bother with that. Usually, the gauge of the piece is such that you can use your fingers to push and pull the yarn through to sew it together with your fingers! Certainly means that You can get a little sewing up done in the most unexpected of places - in a queue, on a bus, waiting for the nephew to finish on the loo... All sorts of places and then it gets done! Woo!

Anyway, the colours are superb. I was a bit put off by the browny one - Cappuccino, but I've now seen it worked up along with the Autumn Leaves in a chunky striped garter stitch blanket and I like that too! Talking of blankets, new crocheter, Rachel has used it to make the most perfect blanket: 

That's the Thistle colourway, just under ten balls for a single bed size blanket in the Granny Stripe pattern with a lovely, subtle shell edging. Heaven. I just love how she's presented it too. Ahhhh.

I've got a few new customers recently that are smashing out the crochet.  Really exciting to meet people who have a natural talent so that you have no idea where they'll end up. Rachel is definitely one of them. :)

So you can see, the stripe it pretty subtle. And I think that's what makes it work. Super chunky has a tendency to look brash and chunky-crayon-y, do you know what I mean? So combining it with these lovely subtle colourways just calms it down a little to make a useable and relateable yarn. I know it's become one of my favourites because if somebody comes into super chunky it's not necessarily the first thing I go for - this means it's a staple, something that's here for the long run - it also means I don't have to sell it, which is great because I hate selling - I like chatting and imagining and daydreaming until a new project just pops out of the ether. Ahhhh.

Now, you can find all of the colourways by clicking here - King Cole Big Value Super Chunky Tints.

And you can find the appropriate patterns that King Cole have provided by clicking here.

And if you want to hear me chatting more about it, and going through the colourways one by one - click here.

And I think that's it! There's probably more to say about it but basically, it's beautiful, it's soft, it's kind of stripey, it works for knitting and crochet, it's very popular. That's all you need to know aint it?

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brand New Bumper Boucle

I am absolutely overwhelmed by the response to yesterday's post. It was really hard to write and it was a long time coming but the amount of people that have read it it astounding and the people that took time to comment and come up with suggestions really made my day. I must admit, everybody around me is pleased that I did it, Chris in particular. He gets the brunt of hungry, tired, overworked me and I'm pleased to be able to do something for him. So far it's worked! Only one lady was here when I got in a few minutes early and she's not a blog reader so... we can but hope that this is for the long term. Fortunately we've also been pretty busy in the shop so the tidying isn't where I hoped it might be but I have managed to get something pretty cool on t'internet so let's move this on shall we??

WHAT DO WE WANT?! MORE BLOODY WOOL!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT?! NOW!!

Okay!

Cygnet Bumper Boucle!

How cute is that? It's got to be the most beautiful colour that I've ever seen in my life. So beautiful I had to cast on a jumper:

It's taken like.... two days? Spread over a few days because of how manic the shop is and teaching a lesson and... stuff. But seriously. 12mm needles? Cropped jumper? No excuses not to get in done in less than a week, no matter how slow you are.

There's no pattern for this and I don't suppose that these photos make you want to jump up and cast on straight away but if you want to know how it was made. Well, my gauge was 2 stitches per inch. I measured my wrist and multiplied that by two to get the amount of stitches to cast on. Then I measured the top of my arm and multiplied that by two to work out how many stitches I should end with. And I knew I ought to get my increases done pretty quick, so I increased at each end of every 4th row. When I got to the length that I wanted on my sleeve, I cast off three stitches at each side and then decreased a stitch at each end of every right side row until it seemed like the right length for a raglan. That turned out to be 7 sets of raglan decreases. Which meant that once I'd made my other sleeve, I could start the body really easily. Measure my bust, multiply by two for the cast on, rib a bit, knit a bit, cast off three stitches at each end and then work seven sets of decreases for the raglan. For the neck I cast off a few stitches in the middle of the of the row when I first started my sleeve shaping, then decreased on every right side row at the side of that and at some point, between the neck shaping and the sleeve shaping I ended up with no stitches and I fastened that off and boom. Then I sewed up a sleeve to the front and the front to the next sleeve and that sleeve to the back, basically everything but one raglan seam, and then I picked up stitches all around the neckline, decreased a little bit on the first row of rib (thought I wish I'd decreased a little bit more), another row of rib and it was ready to cast off. Sew up the final raglan seam, sew up the sides and sleeves, sew in the ends, take some stupid photos. And boom.

Anyway, that's the jumper and it's lovely and warm and I can't wait to wear it with a skirt that it actually suits and maybe get some proper photos (me and Chris are going on a date on Saturday so maybe I'll persuade him then...).

Back to the wool. This is super chunky. This is super bloody chunky. And I love it! If you've worked with the Gypsy then it's a similar sort of weight to that and actually, the texture and colours are not dissimilar but it is very much softer. OOOOOOOOOH. Soft. This is the thing that sells this wool, how bloody soft it is. Like a cloud! Like a baby's bum! Like an angel's armpit hair!

Bluegrass - Cracker - Frisee - Tea

Kale - Waterweed - Dock - Willow

How cute are those colours? But so much richer and more gorgeous in real life, I'll try and show you:

Phwooooooooar!

I think lots of experienced knitters are almost a little scared of superchunky. Metre for metre it's not the most cost effective way of knitting, but it is super satisfying and sometimes we need satisfying. Like a good kebab or a bottle of wine or a second bar of chocolate. It's naughty. It's not right. But sometimes it's just what we need. So I've done a rav search for you which you can find by clicking here.

But here are a few that I think stand out:

Quick Slip Cowl

 

Broomstick Lace Infinity Scarf.


Hanging Basket.

Sentiment Shawl

Oohoohohoh. It's been a while since I took some time to wander/wonder around ravelry. That website really is bloody good isn't it??! Especially when you know how to do it well - have you seen out vlog about it?

So that's it! A brand new super chunky - Cygnet Bumper Boucle - 100g - 60m - £4 - beautiful colours - stupidly soft - boom!


Love Eleanor. xxxx

Eleanor's Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeek - Fantasm Shawl

Summer can be a difficult time of year for knitting and crochet. The sun's out and we're off on holiday (well, you might be... I'm not), other things take over and it gets just too hot to have a heavy thing in your lap. But now is not the time to stop. Now is the time to start. Now is the time to practice stitches and techniques that the long, dark, winter nights render impossible. Now is the time for fancy schmancy shawwwwwwwwwwls! I've been busy ferreting behind the scenes this week, so personal knitting or crochet that I can actually show you is thin on the ground, and therefore I'm going to share with you one of my old favourites. Which is great because I get to show you this photo which honestly makes me want to rip everything I've ever made out and just do this forever:

This is Bethan's Fantasm Shawl in the Rhapsody colourway of the Riot DK and it is beautiful.

I love this shawl. I discovered it waaaaaaaay back when and I've made a lot of them! It's simple, easy and works every time. This is the first one I made:

I was struggling a little with what to do for a top tip today because for me, this pattern was simply, work row by row until you get it and then you're off! It's really simple to see the pattern emerging because it's essentially four rows - the first one you make the shells, the second one you make them a bit bigger, the third one you create some loops and finally you have a really easy rest row where you make loopy loops allllllll across and that sets you up with your spaces to place the shells. I don't think the written pattern makes that very clear at the start but once you've got past 12 rows or so you're set.

Sooooooo, I thought I'd take this right back to basics and talk about shawl shapes. This is a really standard top down triangular shawl. I think before you start making shawls you assume that for a triangular shawl you'll start at the bottom and increase outwards working back and forth until you get the length and the width that you want. Some shawls are written like that, for example the Skulls Shawl.

 

But that's not how most shawls are made. Most shawls start with a few stitches in the middle and then you work back and forth increasing at the beginning and end of the row and also in the middle. This changes the bias of the fabric and makes it hang better. 

 

 

So, this is is Sue's beautiful shawl in the Patons 100% Cotton 4ply.

Look a bit closer:
 

The yellow spot is where the shawl is started and the red lines are where the increases happen. And that means that the bias runs in two different directions which means it can wrap easier around the body, we're not a flat shape after all. If you ignore one half of this shawl, you get the kind of shawl we've seen above - the bottom up triangular shawl:

So the purple lines (which don't show up great apparently. Sorry) show where that kind of shawl would start, and two increases on each side and then the bias. Just one bias throughout the shawl. It will hang, especially if you use a big hook and a small yarn like Sue has here, but not in the same way.

(This all means, incidentally, that you could double (roughly, might not be perfect so have a think) the initial amount of stitches, join in the round and make a square thing out of a triangular shawl if you want a blanket or a table cloth or..... omg. I've just had an idea. I'm not giving it away I'm going to sell it to King Cole. Fml. WHAT AN IDEA! So much to do, so little time.).

You don't have to worry about this. This is all written into the pattern and it will be in each top down triangular pattern that you come across but it's always worth trying to understand what's going on so that firstly, you can choose the pattern that works for you and what you need it to and secondly you can see if things are going wrong. And also, just in general, knowledge is power.

That's it. I'm off to tidy a little more, prepare for the lesson tomorrow (Learn to Knit Two - the ladies last week were brill but bloody chatterboxes. Haha. That's the way I like them :) ), and then I can carry on with my latest project:

 

Which, I know you're thinking it, isn't knitting or crochet. It is in fact beading. I am sooooooo bored with it but the final product is going to be the most beautiful and the most useful thing in the world so I'm keeping going. I can't wait to get back to the myriad projects that I have on the go and my new idea! SO MUCH TO DO!

AND WE'RE ADOPTING A CAT FROM THE KITTY CAFE TONIGHT. BOOOOOM!

Love Eleanor. xxxxx

P.s. You best have bloody voted for us. OR ELSE.

Kirsty's Earphones

*****And now I've added it to rav because I really am that sad.*****

So, on Sunday I taught a lesson on how to make my beautiful Bobica. Two people had cancelled on the lesson but because I rarely cancel unless I absolutely have to (once in five years!) it went ahead as a nice relaxed almost private lesson and it was great. About half way through, just after lunch, we settled down to actually start the shawl after we'd practiced all the stitches and talked about the pattern and I got on with my shawl in progress. Kirsty, one of the ladies that was on the lesson, and I got into a conversation about hand dyed yarn (she's obsessed!) and the problem of what to do with them when you buy a beautiful one and it doesn't work out when it's actually worked up even if it looks beautiful in a skein and what you do with the leftover bits that you don't want to waste because it costs so much and you love it with all of your heart. She pulled out of her bag some beautiful earbuds covered in Verity's OMFG. And it was stunning. I wish I'd taken a photo. I did take a photo of her crochet though:

 

That's a gorgeous one off hand dyed yarn that she got dyed based on a picture of somebody's eye shadow. I'm sure we'll get an update of the final thing so worry ye not.

Anyway, she pulled out these earphones and I couldn't not start (and finish) straight away! I chose the most mental colour that we had in the shop - the Poncho colourway of the King Cole Zig Zag - it makes me heart siiiiiiiiiing, chose a smallish hook and got going.

Obviously, because it's like the best thing I've ever made, I posted it to Facebook and Twitter and Instagram straight away and everybody seemed to love it so I'm going to show you how I did it. But I do want to make clear that this isn't my idea at all - it's Kirsty's and she got it from Pinterest and I'm just spreading the joy. Also, I don't want to patronise anybody, this is literally just double crochets (US singles) around a wire. If you can do it - go for it - if not, do this and you too could be as cool as me:



So, grab yourself some yarn that makes your heart flutter, a hook that's a bit too small for it and your wire of choice. I might add in here that I have all sorts of wire-y things that I shouldn't be using because the rubber thing is broken or whatever - don't cover this is wool - that stinks of a bad idea. Haha. Make sure the wire is in tact. How do you know that the hook's a bit too small? Well, look at the ball band if you've got one and use a hook a size or two too small. Ooooooor. 4ply - 2.5mm ish, DK - 3mm ish, any thicker yarn and I think it wouldn't work but go ahead and ignore me. I'm more than happy to be ignored. :)

 

So, I used some leftovers of Vezza's 4ply sparkle yarn (no idea the colourway, probably isn't one anymore given that this was one of the first that she ever dyed. Friends in high places). Probably about 5g of it. And a 2.5mm Rainbow Smoosh hook made my yours truly. And my brand new phone charger.

Make a slip knot and pop it onto the hook. Hold the hook under the wire and the yarn over the top.

Grab the yarn (any which way, it really doesn't matter for this but keep it consistent) and bring it underneath the wire and through to the front. You'll have two loops on your hook.

Then, yarn over (or hook under) and bring the yarn through the two loops, leaving one loop left on the hook. 

 

Keep doing this. Hook under the wire, yarn over the wire, grab yarn and bring back through, yarn over and bring through two loops. It'll look like this:

 

Keep smooshing the stitches down, you want more rather than less I reckon. Keep it going, going and going. Stop and make a cup of tea at exactly this point:

That's a very important part of the pattern and keeping your sanity in tact.



Keep smooshing down and shoving more and more stitches in. If you're doing headphones then you'll come to a 'Y' junction at some point so carry on dc'ing all the way up one side to an earbud and then once you're sure you have enough stitches just add one or two more and fasten off by breaking the yarn and pulling the end all the way through the loop on the hook and pulling tight. Then come back to the point where the ear wires separate off, join to the end of the main wire with a slip stich (i.e. shove you hook into something and hook the yarn and bring it back through then carry on with your life) and work all the way up the other ear wire.

You'll end up with something like this:

And then you can do something about your ends. I guess I suggest that you weave the ends in but to be honest I've ended up chopping them off because if it doesn't hold or only holds for a bit then that's fine - it's quick and fun enough to knock some more up in a whole new colour. Woohoo!!

I'm absolutely thrilled with this little idea! I love how somebody comes to the lesson to learn something new and it's me who ends up learning. It's a bit like when Allison came to the lesson just before Christmas and taught me how to make a paper star. I bloody love my customers.

 

I hope that some of you 'non-crocheters' give this a go because it's really very simple and it showcases perfectly one of the most popular aspect of crocheting - it's speed.

Love love love love love Eleanor. xxxxxx

Pattern of the Weeeeeeeeek - Great British Granny Shrug

BRILLIANT VIDEOS!!!! BLOODY BRILLIANT!

This week I'm talking about the Great British Granny Shrug. Full disclosure - it's one of mine - but because I got the idea from around and about I put it up for free. I'm featuring it because a version of it has made it into the window once more:

Just below the ceiling tile where the leak was. Ahhhhhh. Lovely.

Now, this is a very easy pattern. Even if I say so myself.

 

It's essentially made out of two granny hexagons. So if you've managed to make a granny square (for example if you've been on one of our Learn to Crochet One lesson....) then you can make this. All you have to do is start with six shells in the middle and then move outwards with six corners. Twice. Dead easy.

What does make people struggle, is the putting it together so I thought I might explain that a little better now with some of my beautiful artwork. So, you'll end up with something like looks like this: 

 

The coloured dots are simply where you fold it. You can fold the blue corners to eachother or the green ones or of the purple ones. (Just to be clear though, the colours in the corners don't appear on the work - this is just two show you that you have options which is perhaps why it's confused people doing the pattern.) Any will work. I used the purple ones:

 

Once you've folded the purple corner onto the other purple folder you'll get a 'T' shape as shown by the light orange dotted line. Dead easy. Then you need to: 

 

 Sew the red line to the equivalent red line on the other granny hexagon that you've made, making the back and that's when it looks like this:

 

 Can you see? And finally:

 

 You sew the tops of the arms to themselves and  that gives you the basic shape. It'll look like a much more beautiful version of this:

 

 Yeah!?!?!?!?!

Lots of people have worked it out but I thought I'd make it super clear. I hope that helps.

Now, more about the actual pattern itself. I used the Fashion Aran when we used to stock in in 100g balls because I'd made a Union Jack hot water bottle cover and had loads left over which meant that the original uses a 4.5mm hook and aran weight yarn. BUT YOU CAN USE WHATEVER YOU WANT! The hexagons have to be the same size of course, otherwise they won't sew together nicely and you'll have one arm longer than the other but you can literally use sewing cotton and a .000000000005 hook if you wanted. You shouldn't want to do that though and if you do you need seeing to... If you look at the projects that people have made though you'll see they've done it in all sorts of weights.

Now, limitations. There are limitations to this pattern and that is that the chest/bust size decides the width and length of the arms and the body. 

  

 So the purple line indicates a quarter of the bust measurement. The orange line between the purple and blue ones indicates the length of the sleeve and the green line indicates the length of the jacket from below the arm. The relationship between the blue and the green line indicate the half width of the sleeve (which I think means that the crucial measurement of the length of the purple, blue and green lines is the width around the whole of the sleeve but don't quote me on this, all of a sudden it's got very mathsy in here...). Anyway, essentially, you don't have a choice, once you've got a bust/chest measurement, what anything else is doing to do. Only, you kinda do..... 

You can add on to the bottom of the cardigan or onto the length of the sleeves, really easily. Especially the sleeves, just go round and round in granny stripes. The bottom is a little hard because you'll have to work in rows which means you'll have one row of front facing trebles and one row of back facing trebles if you decide to go back and forth. If you've done one row stripes anyway and are therefore having to break your yarn at the beginning and end of each stripe then just make sure you're always working with the right side facing. If you're not doing stripes then decide whether you're ocd enough to care about that. OOOOOOOOOOOR. You can start from the very beginning of the hexagon, flipping after the sl-st at the end of each round so that you're kind of working back and forth and kind of working in rounds. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR you could just think much less about this sort of thing than I do.

But! If you decide to do any of this adding onto anywhere, there is the added (and probably very slight or even unique to me) disappointment in losing the sheer simplicity of a bloody cardigan made out of two hexagons.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS DEAR READERS. 

And that, as they say is that. Although, you probably need a proper photo of the thing don't you? Haha. 

 

Lovely ain't it?

Love Eleanor. xxxxxxxxxxx