Out of hospital

Dear blog friends,


This will be a hard blog post for me to write. Not just because of the subject matter itself, but also due to the fact that I can only use my left hand and I am naturally right handed.

Well I will do my best. What happened is this: last Saturday I fell down the entire staircase. With the result of breaking my right arm in 2 places - the wrist and the elbow.

I was admitted to hospital and received treatment. My arm had to be operated upon and a plate and pins inserted. The wound is fastened with over 20 metal staples and my arm to be kept immobile.

I was allowed to leave hospital on Wednesday.

Next week I will receive a plaster cast. There is still a lot of swelling. My right side of the body took the impact so there is a lot of bruising still.

My partner has taken over my care.

For me it means lots of rest and coping with the pain.

I'm pretty much devastated that this has happened now, but of course there is never a good time. I was so full of new ideas and projects. I only started a new crochet shawl the day before my accident.

I know that it was only right to tell you about it, so you would understand that the next weeks will be very different. I cannot use my right hand.



Thank you all for your support - sorry if I cannot acknowledge each comment individually.

Purple and Knitting - Totally Triangular Scarf

Hello dear blog friends,


Hope you had a nice weekend? Here the weather has been very good*, so we visited my youngest daughter and went for a nice long walk in Gentbrugge, but outside the city, walking in the country side.


Thanks again for all your kind comments about my latest project, I enjoyed reading them.

After concentrating so hard on my recent Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl, I did little bits here and there on my other crochet wips, but nothing really grabbed me.

It was a recent comment by Jodie from the blog https://lupeyloops.blogspot.be  that sparked off something new in me. I had been reading how she was making crochet scarves from mohair yarn. I have got some wonderful Rowan Kid silk Haze mohair which I treasure! It's as soft as a feather!

Then I happened to come across this designer : Leah Michelle of leahmichelledesigns.com. You can find her also on Ravelry under http://www.ravelry.com/designers/michelle-krause . I think I found the ideal garter stitch scarf!!!


The scarf/shawl that I have started to knit is called:



Totally Triangular Scarf

You can find a direct link to the free pattern page here. In total there are 5 simple knitting patterns that you can find on her website for free : 3x shawls, 1x hat, 1x Cowl.

These are very easy patterns, great for beginners! :) I highly recommend that you take a look!


I only have got a single 25g ball of Rowan Kidslik Haze Eclipse in a lovely purple colour. I wanted to make one of these garter stitch scarves/shawls where you get to use the entire ball by weighing your yarn during the project, you keep increasing until you used half the yarn, then you start to decrease! No more guess work!!

Whilst the pattern is easy, I find it takes concentration to keep track of which row you are in, for example when you get interrupted etc. So I am writing this down. I also got a nifty row counter thing!

I learnt something new: the scarf is made in garter stitch (Knit every row), but the last stitch (edge) is purled, not knitted. Then the first stitch of the new row needs to be slipped onto the needle. This makes a wonderful edge, I really like it.

I don't have much to show yet, here are a couple of photos, the first one shows the first 62 rows (which I did last night), the second one my progress since (up to row 109 today). It's about 46 cm long x 24 cm wide. Due to the slow increases the scarf will be narrow and long in shape.

I am using the mohair yarn double with large 6mm needles. I knit nice and loosely, it makes for a good flexible fabric! What is more, this yarn has got a little bit of a glitter thread and it has a wonderful fuzzy 'halo'.



Row 62

Row 109

I love how this yarn goes so well with the pattern - purple perfection!!!

And, coincidence or not, I finally got a pretty purple Lupin flower which I only photographed yesterday in the light of the evening sun!




My purple Lupin flower

Hope you enjoyed reading this, perhaps it has given you some new ideas? You might want to do a crochet version perhaps? (I know there are quite a few to be found on Ravelry!

* Since starting to write this, we just had 3 hefty rain showers here, so I'm off now to start singing 'Purple Rain, Purple Rain...'

Leave me a little note below, and thank you so much for visiting!

My finished Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl

Welcome back, old friends and new,*


After 10 busy days doing the Crochet Along for the Bubble Gum Shawl, I finished it last night!

I am really pleased with it, and due to the many colours I have renamed it:


My Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl


Here are some photos to show it to you!

It looks equally good worn at the front or the back

10.07.16 My finished Rainbow Bubble Gum Shawl

 

 

Nearly finished all the yarn!

Side Edge detail with the smaller 'bubbles'

my growing shawl - curling inner edge

 

Splicing the yarn colours

One side edge with spikes

You will have to excuse me not blocking my shawl, but I just couldn't wait to start wearing it already... It might possibly be my most favourite shawl that I made so far, but on the other hand that is a difficult statement - I made so many lovely shawls and I love them all!

If you want to see some of my shawls, check out this blog post here if you haven't read it before.

For more information on this project, read my previous blog post here and also here.

For those of you on Ravelry, you can see my completed project (again) on this page. You will also find the original pattern link there. Please note that this pattern is no longer free, as the CAL 2016 is finished. I do hope you managed to download this pattern for free like I did!!! Even so, it is a wonderful pattern and well written out, row by row, so for a small charge it can be yours! The designer is called Katia Loeffler.

I found this pattern easy to follow, you will soon get into the rhythm of it. Instead of the 16 spikes in the pattern, I worked 20 spikes as I wanted to carry on until the yarn ran out more or less.

The side edge has a similar pattern with smaller bubbles which adds interest.

In order to achieve my rainbow of colours, I just looked at the yarn and decided to splice it by starting a different ball of yarn in similar colours that carried on to a different range of colours. If you look very, very closely at the photos, you might see the yarn ends which I left so you could see where I started a different colour way. Now they are all sewn up, you cannot guess where they were!


* and as for 'old' and 'new' friends, I wasn't referring to age, but more to longstanding followers and to the amazing influx of new followers I have - wow, thanks for signing up! Hello also to my lovely followers on instagram and your unwavering support there as well! I'm just so happy to have found so many like minded people!

My little instagram page is here!


I hope this has provided you with fresh inspiration! Thanks for your visit, please write a little note in my visitor's book below, I love reading your comments!

Making progress on my Bubble Gum Shawl

Happy weekend everyone!



Just a short post for now. I just want to share my joy about making the Bubble Gum Shawl, it is such a delight. I let the photos speak for themselves!


My Bubble Gum Shawl - taking part in the CAL 2016

 Bubble Gum Shawl 02.07.2016

 

Yesterday afternoon at Nata's in Antwerp with a friend

I met my friend in Antwerp and we had some lovely Portuguese coffee and a nata which is a scrumptious little custard style cake served hot. Absolutely delicious! We had a lovely time catching up and my friend snapped this picture of me whilst I was working on my Bubble Gum Shawl!




Thanks for your visit, feel free to comment below and enjoy your weekend!