Discarded Treasures

I love looking through charity shops, because you can find absolute treasures amongst the stuff that others have given away. Of course what is a great find to me will not make everybody else's heart racing, which makes it even more exciting when you find something that no one else appears to have any interest in.

Like these two books I picked up the other week for a mere £2.00 each 

The Crochet Scarves is a fairly modern book, published in 2005 and has a few nice ideas in it. To be honest, I mainly bought it because of the shape of the book and because I liked the pattern for the cover scarf a lot. For one pattern alone it would have been worth the price but there are a few others in there that I may try out too.

As for the Knitting and Crochet book from Good Housekeeping, now this is real gem. Published in 1979 you can imagine the images you would find in there, right?

Just like the wonderful vest and jumper for the hip young generation

But crocheting does take the crown in the "what-were-they-thinking" category. I would have disowned my parents had they put my brother and I and this wonderful set of  dungarees

Seriously, the pictures alone made me want to buy the book because I love a trip down memory lane. But the best bit of the book are the fantastic stitch patterns for both crafts. Not only that, this book explains everything you need to know for knitting and crocheting.

If you could only buy one book in your crafty life, this should be it.

Just look at how awesome the different stitches are displayed:

And for knitting there are even instructions for socks and mittens (with and without fingers). For crocheting there are many different blocks and stitches and I have found some bits in there that I intend to share via a CAL (Crochet-A-Long). Hopefully I will get permission from the publishers to share some of the patterns online.

Have you had any wonderful finds lately that made your heart skip with joy?

CAL a Cowl - YAY moment

You may remember that I was not at all happy with my first cowl for the CAl along with Rachel, right?

The post about it was HERE and the finished project can be seen below.

So shortly after I posted that, I decided to frog the scarf I made with the multicoloured yarn and turned that into a cowl within the matter of one evening...yup, that is how fast the cowl can be worked. and with this one I am totally happy!

CAL a cowl and FROG

Well, well I had finished my project for the CAL with Rachel about two days after I took the picture of the cowl in its beginning stages, but I usually forget to take pictures of my finished projects....

I think it may be because as soon as one is done, I hook up another and forget about the old one.

Anyway, my cowl is done and I can tell you straight out that I hate it - totally dislike it.

Full.Stop

Somehow along the way I managed to miscount and when I came to sew the edges together it was apparent that one side was about five hooks shorter than the other.

How rude!

And that was a mistake I never even made as a beginner. Now that I am classing myself as pretty advanced, something like that should not happen.

I thought I would be nifty and hooked up a lovely Japanese flower to sew over the seam so no one would notice the crooked edge, but I think it made it worse - have a look yourself

The flower is too bright and makes it more apparent that it is sewn on slightly crooked as well.

Ho-hum.

But anyway, what I am going to do it to take the flower off again and frog the cowl, start afresh:)

Talking about frogging....here's another one I started and half way through the shawl I realised yellow is NOT a good colour for scarves and cowls unless you are

a) really old

b) really young

And I also realised that using cheap yarn like my fave Stylecraft DK is not nice for clothing and accessories but much better for pillows and Afghans. I really dislike it for scarves and wraps and that's why I splashed out this month and invested in some Rowan Cotton and Patons Smoothie
(it's acrylic but feels and hooks like cotton)

Teaming those yarns up with my newest obsession, Japanese Patterns, I am in crochet heaven :)

Within two days I turned this WIP

into a gorgeous shawl (I have to block it before I can share a picture)

And I already finished half a stole with Patons Mirage, but (surprise, surprise) I am already tempted to frog that one. Multicoloured yarns don't seem to "do it" for me unless I turn them into socks. But I carry on with the stole for now and see how it looks once finished.

But there are some projects I actually finish and keep, one of them is a headband-turn-collar which I did about two months ago but forgot to take a picture of.

No instructions were used for that one, I just hooked up some Patons Chunky and did row after row until it fit my a big head, like mine :).

The addition of a crochet flower just set's it off nicely.

I added two rows of button holes as I was thinking of doing a few more of these headbands and have them up for sale in my Shop - but as not everyone has a thick skull like me, I wanted to try the option for two head sizes.
When I slipped the headband off, it fell around my neck and that's when I realised that you could easily turn it into a funky collar, just by buttoning it up another way...look here:

I was super excited with that "discovery" and have already got a few more projects like this in the pipeline.

So, what other hooky plans do I have?
There are two stoles/wraps waiting to be done and one super cute vest - all done after some Japanese patterns.

If you want a really good deal on Japanese Pattern Books - I got all mine as eBooks from this seller on Etsy. She also has bundle offers and delivery is almost instant.
Sure, you have to print them out yourself,but is still works out cheaper than getting the book at full price and with the shipping costs on top too.
I have ordered and received eight books from the above shop and only spent a total of  $16.98 on them...bargain.

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CAL a cowl - WIP

I almost forgot to show you an update on my WIP, for the crochet along with Rachel.

If you are still oohming and aahing about whether or not to pick up a hook and join the crochet brigade, I can only urge you to join is as Rachel's instructions are fabulous and the project she has chosen is perfect for beginners (and a lot of fun for advanced hookers *)

*) am I the only one who still giggles like naughty teenager when she calls herself a hooker?

Anyway, if you want to join in, start with this post and if you want to share how you have come so far with the cowl, check this post out. You can upload your pictures WIP and all to the Flickr group, Rachel created as well.

But enough talk, here is the cowl in its beginning stages, on my way home from work - a little hooky time on the ferry :)

**click on image to enlarge**

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CAL a cowl

I have so much yarn lying around, waiting to be used for the "right" project - so imagine my delight when I came across THIS  post today.

The utterly talented Rachel invites beginners and advanced crocheters to Crochet-Along (CAL) in September to create a snuggle Cowl - which will no doubt come in handy for the autumn months that are looming.

Even if you don't want to CAL I urge you to check our her blog HERE, as there is so much eye candy and inspiration.

Now excuse me while I get my yarn on.

P.S. 

I am back soon with a post about my current crochet project (never mind that I have finished two more which I forgot to take pictures off...d'uh)

P.P.S 

There is another website you really MUST check out - The Making Spot - offers "how-to" guides for all sorts of handmade crafts. I only browsed their blog for about tow minutes and found myself wanting to start a gazillion new hobbies already.

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