While it wasn’t quite as hard work as Ellis was making out in the first picture, I did recruit him on my seasonal foraging duties. There is a hill near our old house where it is plentiful, but we struggled to find it in our new area.  A few patches here and there on one of our favourite walks was all, andI was worried we hadn’t brought home enough Wild Garlic. But 2 large pots of pesto and a massive batch of cheese and wild garlic biscuits/scones later, I am confident we will have our fill…and that we will repel any Vampires from the entirety of Central Scotland.

I didn’t use any recipes…the pesto is cashews, parmesean, olive oil and a ton of wild garlic (maybe too much, it is POTENT) and the scones are just my standard American biscuit recipe that I use for everything and can’t remember where I know it from:

500g/4 cups of flour

3t of bicarb (baking soda)

125g/8T of cold butter

250g/ 1cup of grated strong cheddar cheese (the eye-wateringly strong the better)

100g/1/4 cup of wild garlic pesto

200g/ 2 cups of chopped wild garlic leaves

120ml/ 1/2 cup of milk

Mix flour and baking soda. Chop butter into small pieces and work with fingers into flour until it becomes crumbly. Mix cheese into the dry mix, leaving a bit aside to sprinkle later. Add milk and wild garlic. Work with hands until it forms a dough, adding a bit more milk or flour if needed. Roll or pat out onto a lightly floured surface and cut out circles.

Sprinkle with a bit of left over cheese and bake at 180C/ 360F for 8-10 minutes. Makes 24.

Although I am quite severely dairy intolerant, these were simply too good to pass up with tomato and butter bean soup.

So, here is the thing – I feel posts like this MAY give you a false impression of me.  Yes, it used to be that I spent a lot of time cooking, foraging, growing my own veg, but since I started my business, this has happend:

(today’s Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week Challenge is to make an infographic)

As time has gone on, the amount of time I spent cooking has decreased in direct proportion to the amount of time I have spent crocheting. In fact, I forget to make dinner at least 3 times a week and we eat peanut butter toast with apples or bananas.  Ellis regularly tells me, “You used to be such a good cook, mom.” or “Remember when you used to make x, y, z?”

Yes, I remember. But who wants to cook when I can have yarn and hook in hand? And so this week, we have eaten pasta with bacon and wild garlic pesto 3 times…and its only Wednesday. Sigh.

Today’s  4KCBWDAY2  challenge is to design the house mascot, but truth be told, my head is simply too full of another design to work on something new. So, as the point is to “ blog about the journey which inspiration and investigating patterns, yarns, stitches, (etc) can often guide you through”, I thought that rather than an abstract design I might make one day, I would walk you through the process for my most recently published design: Aruacaria Cardigan from The Crochet Project (it is a botanical themed collection and bees are integral to botanics…its all related, see? )

In almost every design, I start with the photo I want to take of the design forefront in my mind. How will it look? What angles will I photograph the details from? What colour and shape will I use? Not to say that things don’t change as I go, but I am definitely a product person in the “process versus product” design discussion.

I knew I wanted a teal green for the cardigan, to add some darker colours to the palette for the rest of the designs. The yarn is Sublime Cashmere, Silk Merino DK.  I just found out the other day it is being discontinued *sob* but the baby version will continue *yay!*. I really love this yarn – it has great stitch definition, drape and twist to make really lovely wearable garments that you want to put on and feel special in. It isn’t cheap, but from experience the silk and twist of this yarn help it wear really well, and I think that is crucial when making a garment…as it takes so much time to make, it is worth it to ensure it will last.

The original design had a cabled collar on the edge. However, to achieve the feminine shaping we were aiming for, a flowing cabled shawl collar proved difficult to get right. After many failed swatching attempts (and even dreams about how the design might work),  it was back to the drawing board…or rather the well-thumbed stitch dictionary.

I have written before about how important I find stitch dictionaries to my work.  I simply could not live without them. However, it still often takes a ton of work to get from chart in a book to a workable stitch for a pattern – there are so many considerations – gauge, increases, round vs flat. I recently found a great stitch I was desperate to use for a cardigan, only to realise it really can only work in the round, and hard as I tried, steeking wasn’t oing to work for a full cardi. But, all that aside, stitch dictionaries are invaluable.

In looking through, I found a pattern that I had actually earmarked for something else, but it looked so like a peacock, I simply couldn’t let it go (the original name  of the cardigan was Peacock in the Garden). It was doubly ideal, because it was worked from the edging out in rows. This meant I could work it all the way from bottom front edge, up around the neck and down to the other bottom front edge in one piece, which is really ideal for the drapey shawl collar I was after.

The construction of the sweater is a seamless, set-in shoulder, adapted from Barbara Walker (with help from Joanne Scrace). It starts at the neckline, with the back worked on one side of the foundation chain, then the front pieces worked on the other side of the chain, then joined at the underarm. While it doesn’t work well for every garment, a seamless construction fits in well with the ethos of The Crochet Project – with its emphasis of lots of drape and flow. As the design uses short row shaping at the back and in the shoulders, I needed a main stitch that would hide the gaps and also have a right side that wasn’t too different from the wrong side. I chose to use angled crochet, which works well to hide the gaps short rows can sometimes leave, and its back and front of the stitch are virtually indistinguishable.

Because I’d never made a seamless set in sleeved cardigan before, I actually wrote and graded the pattern as I made it – not really the best practice when designing (it usually involves less ripping if you plan it out first), but I simply couldn’t picture how it would all come together. I only had a week from starting the cardigan to finishing the design for the photoshoot, so I really had to move on it and this approach, while intensive, did mean I was finished in 7.5 days!!

In the end, I have to say I am very pleased with the results.  It is easily my favourite design to date, as I just love how it all came together, and it made the model VERY happy when she got to keep it as a thank you!!

(The pattern is available on Ravelry: buy now. You can also read more about and see the rest of the designs in The Crochet Project here)

Having always found out too late about the annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging Week in previous years, I am very excited to take part this year!!

KCBWDAY1 The House Cup:

The challenge for day one, for those of you not taking part, is to determine your “house”  - namely what group of crocheter or knitter do you fall in to?  I used to be a one project at a time kind of person – never casting on until something else was finished, but recently, I tend to have multiple projects on the go.  Am I, like Sarah, polywipamous? Naturally, no.  In fact, I actually don’t like my attention being pulled from any one thing. I want to get lost in a project, throw myself in it completely and not look at anything else until it is done.

However,  a look around the studio will tell you a different story.

This is just my deadline swatches – 4 for this month’s book project target and 2 for other publications.

And then there are my current works in progress:

Each serves a purpose:

- one for the car and cafes

- one for reading emails

- one for TV viewing

With another yarn delivery expected this week, no doubt there will be at least one more WIP on the go. Could I leave the new project until the one in the middle is finished? Probably.  Will I? Probably not. For as much as I want to be someone who stays with one project until the bitter end, I fear I have become a bit of a new project addict – loving the initial swatch and design stage and then having to slog through to get it done.

So, as much as I want to be a Monkey, I will be joining the house of bee.

Today marks the official release of Crochet at Play! Yay!!

A few of the patterns in the book…

And to celebrate (and to keep with the rhyming!) we have a giveaway!!! 

The fox stole was the firm favourite after the video was released and also has a special place in our hearts. At first, I wasn’t going to include him because there are a couple of well known patterns for fox stoles available, but (after alot of tweeting with Joanne), we decided that one simply could not have a crochet book with a dress-up theme without a fox stole.

Once decided upon, Kevin was sent to the wool shop to pick out said wool…on his own…with the children….(huge thanks to the staff of Mcarees in Stirling for all of their patience and tolerance of my family when we went on wool runs.  Maybe one day I will tell them what I was doing with it all).   And then, poor Joanne and I spent AGES checking and double checking that his little face was written correctly.  Oh, and I have been told by Kat I may not see him again after filming the video.

Anyway, now you can make a little foxy friend of your own! Deramores will send one reader 4 balls of Adriafill Regina in the Rust, Black and White and I will send you a copy of Crochet at Play!! Wa-hey!

To enter, just leave a comment below. Both Deramores and I will happily send the book and the yarn to anywhere in the world!

Don’t crochet or *gasp* don’t like foxes? No worries, they have also kindly given me a discount code to share with you.

Next week marks the start of the bloggy book tour as well and Crochet at Play will be popping up around the internet over the next few weeks.

Monday 22nd April – Natalie from Bambino Goodies

Friday 26th April – Sarah at Crafts from the Cwtch

Monday 30th May – Kat from Housewife Confidential

Wednesday 2nd May – Joanne from Not So Granny

Week of the 7th of May – Rachelle from Ted and Agnes and Emma from Silver Pebble

Week of the 14th of May – Amanda from Kitshycoo

And the winner is:  Kristina who said : I really want to win! I really want to win! I really want to win! I really want to win!
I really want to win! I really want to win!
I really want to win! I really want to win! I really want to win! I really want to win!
I really want to win! I really want to win!
I really want to win! I really want to win! I really want to win! I really want to win!
Pick me!! Love your blog! Awesome mama XX

(I think she really wanted to win!) You have email, mama.

Competition Terms and Conditions:

• Giveaway is open worldwide.
• Maximum of one entry per person.
• Please leave your email to make sure we can contact you.
• Entries must meet the entry criteria or will be void.
• Giveaway will close at 9pm BST on 25th April 2013.
• The winner’s details will be shared with Deramores who will post out the yarn.

Discount Code Terms and Conditions: One use per customer. Ends midnight BST 2 June. Excludes gift vouchers. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, promotion or discounted item.

Buy now!

A few stitches here and a few more there and my knitting is coming along nicely. I decided to scrap any ideas of using my own pattern and, since the stitch counts were nearly identical, I have decided that I am making Kniterella’s Chevron Stripe. The change in pattern won’t be discernible to anyone other than me and quite frankly sometimes it is nice not to think. It is that nice kind of knit, where it is can just be picked up and put down, but the combination of colour changes and pattern mean that it doesn’t get boring. I am getting close to the next colour change, I need to switch the charcoal (as I am almost out) and I will be using pink or orange as the contrast colour…or maybe back to yellow…you can never go wrong with yellow.

——

Tomorrow is Official Release Date for Crochet at Play!! Make sure to stop by as there will be a party!!