Crocheted glass (and you thought Wollmeise was hardcore).

OK. First wanted to say, thank you to Craft Corners for featuring me in their best of the web – go and have a look and admire how I am not very good at writing a blurb about my blog ;-), also the other blogs featured do look rather nice (one of them makes lingerie! I have on occasion made my own knickers but I have to say to you that mine are functional rather than attractive like that).

Second, I wanted to share with you an artist I discovered while I was in Derbyshire at New Year. I was sitting in the B&B one night, feebly eating a ginger biscuit and flicking through a little book on local artists and I thought, wait, can that really be… crochet rendered cunningly in glass? So I wrote the website address carefully down in my diary and checked when I got home and yes. This is Catherine Carr glass, and she makes the most beautiful things.

They are made from a recycled glass product and she actually crochets the glass. Her granny taught her to crochet (and these are her patterns!) and it’s a way of honouring her grandmother and keeping alive craft traditions, and also celebrating the history and skills of women workers in northern textile mills (Derbyshire is a big area for textile mills and if my dad had a blog he would tell you all about it). They’re based on pineapple crochet patterns, which I really like, and the skill involved in crocheting them out of glass must be amazing (my crocheting doesn’t look even like this when I’ve done it in wool and blocked it, thinks she looking ruefully at the cushion cover she has just finished).

I think these bowls are really wonderful, and I have added them to my mental list of things I will buy next time I have spare money, although that will probably also have to be, spare money and a table/ sideboard to display them on. Therefore, spare money, a table/ sideboard, and a house big enough that all flat surfaces are not immediately colonised by Partner ambling along with a pile of papers. But if the stars ever align and circumstances come together I would just love one of these bowls.

Thank you very much, Cathy, for letting me show your beautiful work. Next time I am in Derbyshire I will see if you are in any exhibitions near me and come and look (don’t be scared). Do have a look on Cathy’s website as it is all very impressive and there are many more pictures - for some reason I'm having trouble uploading today.

OK. Back to spring cleaning (I know it’s only January. I’ve been clearing out the cupboard under the stairs. Do you know how many empty jam jars we had got? I could have opened a shop. A very boring shop. This is what happens when you aren’t organised, you acquire duplicates, then 3 years down the line you end up on Hoarders in a room full of unopened boxes from QVC. Lucky I’ve nipped it in the bud, isn’t it?)

Throws I love, reprise

Just wanted to add a throw to my previous list of Throws I Love - look at this one, isn't it amazing.

Look at the colours! Amazing. Photo/ project by franknjim i.e. not by me, I am not sure I am clever enough at crocheting for this yet

This is the Cathedral Rose Window Afghan, and this lovely version is by franknjim on Ravelry, thanks franknjim for letting me use your photo! The pattern is available here, and it's actually based on a window in Notre Dame, Paris. This means that my mother, who went to Paris with me this year and has also been telling me how she has not got a crochet throw, ought to start work on this one immediately. If I might recommend Stylecraft Special DK, mother, and a 4mm crochet hook, and we will all admire the finished article when you send me a photograph. I would have thought you would have had it done in a couple of weeks and it should certainly take your mind off your labyrinthitis (poor mum has got labyrinthitis, it's very nasty. What she needs is a good complex crochet project. Cures all ills).

Throws I love

OK (gathers thoughts). So, first, I wanted to say, thank you in particular all for the lovely thoughtful comments on my last post, I really enjoyed reading them. I sometimes think we have reached a critical tipping point on this blog and now the comments are better than my posts, unfortunately for you all though this does not put me off, and you will have to put up with my ramblings about cats (and what a cat I have for you today) and the black squirrel for a while yet. Secondly, my poor brother Dan has got a bad tooth and his face has swelled right up, this is what I can gather from talking to my mother although I cannot hear her very well as she has labyrinthitis and can only put me on speakerphone as if she puts the phone near her ear it makes her dizzy and she falls over. So could we all shout together, Dan, get well soon. Thank you.

Readers, I have throws on my mind, and in my perambulations around the internet I have found a couple of really pretty ones which I wanted to show you. Thank you to all the people I bothered who have given me permission to show their throws! I have a slight ulterior motive which I will declare now, and it is, that all these throws I am going to show you would look fabulous if you made them in Stylecraft Special DK. So if you have spent all your money on Christmas, not been thrifty like me (oh, ha ha) and unravelled things to knit socks for your mother, rest assured you are only about £25 + cost of pattern off from being able to produce something enormous, bright, and utterly, utterly unique (and possibly cheaper if you buy it from here or are cunning). And Stylecraft Special DK is always the same colour wherever you get it from, so you could spread the cost over the year, or, £2 a month! (Stylecraft don’t pay me. I just like it. The colours are so intense they glow. Look, you know me and subtlety).

First, a throw by that Dominatrix of Modular Crochet, the Gingerbread Lady. Pattern here.

Photo by the Gingerbread Lady. I want a sexy stone wall to drape things on (I wonder if they'd arrest me if I draped my stuff over one of the colleges? I wonder if I'd be got by a Proctor?)

Realta means star in Gaelic, and I think this throw is stunning. Let me just advise you from current bitter experience that if you are going to join black crocheted bits together, I would do it in July’s bright sunshine, not the half hour we get in December (7 rows down. 5 to go). Not only am I in awe of the Gingerbread Lady’s pattern writing and colour combining ability, I am also in awe of her eyesight. I think this is the kind of throw where you could really play with colour combinations and backgrounds.

My next is a free pattern, from Tangled magazine, which I had never heard of but is definitely worth a look: Bullseye. Lovechild’s is my favourite version (and thanks to Lovechild for permission to use the photos). I just love the way she’s used the colours on the grey background, it really sets them off:

I actually really like that headboard as well

And so does a certain other creature, proving again my law that where a huge complex crocheted/ knitted item is, there will a cat be. This cat is called Mr Darcy, and with this picture and that information I feel Lovechild has essentially won the internet.

It is a truth commonly acknowledged that a cat in possession of a hugely furry underbelly must be in want of a crocheted throw

I loved this version of the Sunflower Afghan – I think this is an absolutely beautiful throw.

Partner has instructions to stop me ever crocheting a throw again. Every time I show him a pattern for anything he looks nervous and says, but would you have to crochet squares?

I am not an advanced crocheter, but this is on my list for if I wake up some time next year and think, hey, I have not embarked on a ridiculously huge epic project for a while (look, this is going to happen, indeed it will probably happen around March). This is KaliKong’s project (and thanks, KaliKong, for permission to use your photo) and I am very jealous of it! Pattern is here. I could also see this in really seventies-style oranges, browns and beiges.

Now let me show you a throw from a duo whose designs I really admire, and if you have not looked at their other designs please go and look now, gasp, and then return. This is by Pat from Woolly Thoughts, and their website is here (and here are some more Woolly Thoughts illusion designs on Ravelry).

I want this throw and I also want an empty room with tiles

This is the loveheart throw. (Do you have lovehearts in America?). It’s an illusion knit, so, if you look at it full on you don’t see the pattern but if you look at it askance you do. I have dipped my toes into the waters of illusion knitting in the past (the alien illusion scarf from Stitch 'n Bitch) and, although the patterns are complex, the actual knitting is not difficult so long as you don’t mind following a chart (I love a chart). So this throw would be very doable. I couldn’t resist showing you another Woolly Thoughts design, this time by Steve, although it is not strictly a throw (a small throw perhaps? Or knit a big border?) – the Marilyn Monroe illusion.

Knit your own picture! I think this is great

Isn’t that just amazing? I love this pattern (pattern here) and it’s on my list of things to get when I have a bit of spare knitting time (I would do a cushion to start with). Not to bang my drum, but I actually think a really bright neon colour of Stylecraft Special DK would work particularly well with this. In fact, I believe that if Andy Warhol were around today and had taken up knitting, Stylecraft Special DK is what he would be using. Indeed, I am sure of it. I hope that encourages you.

What are your favourite throws?

(I am thinking now, Partner is actually a fellow of a college, I wonder if we could just nip up when I have sewn my epic thing together and drape it over their walls for a few artistic photographs? They have got some nice walls. It is not as if he is much trouble generally, he does not go to high table or bother the porters unduly. I may broach that one when Partner has opened his Chardonnay. I would be like Kaffe Fassett with his quilts but with slightly more dubious legality).

Please Knit These Mittens For Me

Could you possibly say the title to yourself to the tune of, Save All These Kisses For Me? Thank you. That's very helpful.

Now, here's the thing. Since I started with the colourwork knitting thing I have this mad obsession for mittens. One of the things you do not realise if you are not a knitter is that there is this subculture of things which are popular to knit because either they are fun or showcase techniques or patterns etc (like lace shawls. Non-knitters, have you any idea how popular lace shawls are? Don't talk to me about neon or colourblocking or pencil skirts or whatever. Lace shawls are where it's at). Anyway, mittens appear to be another popular thing to knit and I love them. I favourite them, I queue them, I am never going to have time to knit them all, so I want to share some of the amazing mitten patterns I have found with you and then someone else might get the mitten-knitt'n (see what I did there?) bug and I can live vicariously through them. Look: it's mittens, not ketamine, I'm a good person.

This is a selection of my current favourite mitten patterns. Note: THESE ARE NOT MY MITTENS, I have not knitted them, the mitten designers have very kindly allowed me to use their photographs (if they were mine they would look a bit wonkier). I'll tell you where they come from so you can download the pattern if you want to. Also, it occurs to me that I've mostly picked pay-for patterns, I went on Mittens I Think Are Cool At This Moment, but there are also lots of free ones out there - can I point you towards Mystery + Manners by Spillyjane, for example? Or these free Cthulu mittens which are on my list to knit next?

Skulls & Flowers Mittens, by Jennifer Thompson

OK. Now, I am on my third pair of mittens and that makes me an expert, so I am going to give you some Mitten Knitt'n Tips. Firstly, the easiest kind of colourwork chart to knit is one that has repeats, like the delightful Skulls & Flowers mitten above, because this also makes it easier to see if you have gone wrong and then you don't have to undo as much and swear. However, look at that cuff: three colours in a row. Ladies, this is the PhD, the zenith, the Nobel Peace Prize of colour knitting, and I think these mittens would be an excellent way to learn three colours in a row. You are only having to do it on the cuff, it looks very effective so that would motivate you, and also there is a special two-colour-cuff option for if you are a big girl's blouse. Look at Jennifer's Unalakleet as well, isn't this beautiful? I wish I had more hands.

Kaleidoscope Mittens by Meghan Jones

Aaaah, these Kaleidoscope Mittens I love. This is colourwork for those of you (do you exist? says she, imperiously) who don't like stranded colourwork, as I strongly suspect those honeycombey sections to be done with a slip stitch technique which is straightforward. These are made with KnitPicks Chroma which we can't get in the UK but you could sub with Mini Mochi or something like that. I like the idea of knitting everyone in the family matching bright mittens like this and making them wear them when they go out together. Those of you who are my vintage may remember Howard and Hilda in Ever Decreasing Circles, well I think we have had enough of Audrey Hepburn as a style icon, yawn, and should look further afield. (Not Richard Briars though as I find him sinister).

Top Mittens Evah. Hippocampus by Torirot Design

These are Hippocampus, The Mittens Which Made Me Learn Colourwork. I have knitted one and the pattern works and is easy to follow, unfortunately my mitten looked like an alien not a seahorse due to my appalling colour choices, if you use nice colours which go together these mittens will look lovely. I love the lace cuff particularly, also note the tasteful use of 2 contrast colour-changing yarns, this is Kauni Effektgarn, which you can get here and is not too dear so I just pass on that information. This is a free pattern too, yay, thank you Torirot Design (look at her other patterns too - I also like the crochet/ knit cowl).

Deep In The Forest Mittens by Tuulia Salmela

How cool are these Deep In The Forest Mittens, hey hey? We are now entering the realms of complicated pictorial charts with no repeats, and, I will not lie to you, you will not be able to knit these very quickly as you will be glued to the chart. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing, you may really enjoy it. I find I (despite having no patience) love a really, really complex colourwork chart, I sit there knitting away crossing rows I have done off with my biro, and having an excuse to not listen to Partner's artless chatter. These mittens have a braided cuff which is also a technique I want to learn, and I think the idea of trees against a winter sky is just fabulous. If you look at the project page as well, there are some really interesting interpretations, with graduated-coloured backgrounds.

Kissing Koi Mittens by Lisa Perusse

Koi fish! Kissing! I am increasingly suspecting this is the closest I am going to get to a tattoo. I love these mittens and I have some yarn that would work for them, bites lip. I think the cuff is kind of turned under and knitted up, so that would be yet another mitten technique I could learn and possible justification for starting these lovely mittens.

Sluggish Mushrooms by Jessica Fielder

I am loving these Sluggish Mushrooms ones too because they are so unusual, and because the picture works so well with the shape of the mittens. I have not shown these to Partner but he would like them very much. After I cocked up the seahorse mittens with my mad colour choices, Partner has appointed himself Stranded Knitting Colour Consultant despite being very colourblind and also (says she tactfully) having Very Different Taste To Me. Anyway Partner has suggested all colourwork should be done in black and white 'like those charts you print out' so the combination of proper colour choices and a slug would pretty much finish him off.

Owlie Owl Mittens by Betsy Farquhar

Look, everyone loves owls, and you will be excited to learn that you can also have these Owls on an Owlie Owl Cowl. I am unable to resist this designer's patterns and am currently knitting her gnome mittens, I can say to you truthfully it is the most fun I have ever had with double pointed needles in my hands, if she has turned me into a process knitter I shall be cross and may sue. (Joking). Look at her pillow patterns as well, lovely. I looked very carefully to see if that was woodchip on the wall in the above photograph but sadly I must conclude it isn't and that I remain alone in my affliction.

Does anyone have any mitten patterns they want to share? (They don't have to be colourwork). Because, you know, I don't have enough on my list. Bring them on!