Quick progress report

I have been seriously caning through these granny squares...Okay, "caning through" them for me is a snail's pace for most of y'all, I'm sure...

Just thought I'd give you an update. Here's a big stack of 'em, complete with a few of the little Irish rings that I'm also making to use up some yarn. I got them from the pattern in Textured Crochet (see my Amazon store).


noisypitta.etsy.com

Why Corporate Meetings Are, Yes Kids, A GOOD Thing

I would like to tell you kids a story.

I woke up this morning at the proverbial butt-crack of dawn, half past five, to arrive at work at half past six and drive three hours to an all-day training course that was completely irrelevant to my job.

But guess what? I got two new designs for plushies out of it!

Now, if only I could figure out a way to actually generate and store TIME while I'm sitting in these meetings, that would be great.

noisypitta.etsy.com

New Customised Amazon Store

Hi y'all! Don't know if you've noticed, but I have a new banner at the top of the page here...I hope that it hasn't ruined your enjoyment of my little corner of t'Internet, but I couldn't manage to find a widget that looked right in the sidebar and blah-de-blah, I'll stop boring you with the geeky stuff. Anyway, Amazon offers a service where I can create my own little mini-store with all the books I recommend, so I've done that. I've included some books on amigurumi, some crochet technique books, and some other books with different kinds of patterns, mostly garments. I've completed at least one pattern in most of them, or had them highly recommended to me. So have a quick browse if you like, and I hope it helps you sort the wheat from the chaff, as it were, since there are so many crochet books out there to choose from!

noisypitta.etsy.com

Even the Experienced Ones Screw It Up Sometimes, Don't They?

I would just like to confess that I've been diligently crocheting granny squares for a few days now...I have five lovely, identical (except for the yarn) pieces. As I said below, they were all in the standard double crochet open pattern...

...but...

I have just, right this second, realised that I've actually been doing an extended double crochet. So now that I've realised, I have to do the rest of them the same, AND, it's going to continually bug me that I've screwed it up from the beginning.

From now till I'm finished, you can picture me crocheting granny squares, with a quiet snarl under my breath. Grr.

noisypitta.etsy.com

Crochet Ain't Just For Yarn, Ya Know!

I spent the Christmas break this year with my husband's family, in Warwickshire. As per usual, we spent Christmas Day at my in-laws' house, and on Boxing Day we made the hour-or-so long journey to Northamptonshire to visit Auntie Val and Uncle Trevor's house and see the extended fam. Amongst the revelers was my cousin-in-law Julia, with whom I proceeded to TOTALLY GEEK OUT over crochet! Julia does a lot of her crochet in natural alpaca, which she gets sent from Stick Chick's Etsy site in America. However, the most interesting of her crocheting endeavours is what she does with various types of wire.

"What's that you say? WIRE?!?! Why, I've never heard of such a thing!"

You better believe it, buddy. Actually, I have seen wire crochet around several places, but I've never met anyone who does it. Until now, obviously. Anyway, she does lovely jewellery pieces that are unique and stylish, for example, the bronze wire and satin ribbon cuff below:

Ooh, or this butterfly hair clip:

Have a look at her other creations in her Etsy shop, juliaemily.etsy.com.

I know what you're going to say next: okay, NP, so when are you going to start crocheting crazy metal stuffed robot things?! Uh, probably not soon, especially as I'm still grannying. But I will definitely have to keep it in mind...Hm...

noisypitta.etsy.com