Crochet Clinic At #BTHQ

Advanced or a beginner at crochet, everyone has something they need to brush up on or want to learn.

We are now offering ‘crochet clinic’ sessions at Beautiful Things where you can use the class to learn something new or have  refresher on something you need to brush up on! It doesn't matter if you feel your rusty with crochet, whatever level your at, we're here to help you feel confident with crochet. This class is great too if you've seen something in the past you've wanted to make, but haven't been able to make the class.

Whether you want to get confident with cotton or learn a completely new type of crochet stitch, just give us a call on 01277 811136 to book your place and discuss what you’d like to learn to make. You can view the dates for the clinic sessions here. A few ideas of what you can learn, can be seen below.

Beautiful Things Fan Brooch

I made myself this cute little brooch today.  I wanted to wear something that represented everything Beautiful Things had to offer when I visit the Make Good Festival in London this coming Sunday.

When I had made it I thought how nice it would be if all my loyal regulars and volunteers had one too that they could wear at events etc.

Then I took it one step further.  How fab would it be if people who love Beautiful Things all over the country could make one too that they could wear when they visited national crafting exhibitions etc.

Fancy bumping into fellow BTHQ fans at Yarndale in Skipton or the Big Knitting and Stitch Show at Ally Pally.  You'd be able to spot them straight away by their branded handmade brooches.

So........here's how it's done.

The little flower is a layered flower by the fabulous Lucy from Attic24.  You can find her step by step pattern HERE

(If you cant crochet, don't worry I have some solutions for you in a minute).

Hook up a little flower in chocolate brown, white (I used sparkly) and hot pink and then add two lime green leaves.  Stylecraft Fiesta is a fabulous pink shade and the brown is also stylecraft chocolate.  Sadly they don't do a lime green, but Meadow would be ok if you cant find a lime green.  I think my lime green is Aldi special DK!

Stitch your leaves and a few pink and green ribbon strands to the reverse, add a cute button and then stitch in your BTHQ tag (more on how you can obtain one of those later too).

Cut a circle of felt and either stitch or glue it to the reverse and add a little brooch back and TaDa!!

Take a snap of your brooch and either tag me on Instagram #bthqfanbrooch @Artyfartymack or upload to our facebook page and I will add you to the Pinterest fan album.

Then simply wear your brooch with pride wherever you go.

To top it off, if you spot another BTHQ fan at an event you go to, snap their photo and let me know and I will offer you 10% off your next class, either at BTHQ or redeemable on our online classes (coming soon).

So here is the nitty gritty for the non-crochetters and info re the tags:

Tags are available to collect free of charge from BTHQ, simply pop in to collect one.  If you need one posted to you then use the button below to order.  It will cost you £1 and this includes postage and paypal fees. 

TAG ONLY PURCHASE BUTTON

Non Crochetters have 3 options:  

1) You can learn how to crochet at BTHQ!! 

2) Ask one of our BTHQ regulars nicely if they will make one for you via our facebook group Beautiful Things Crafty Corner and be kind enough to offer them some pennies for the yarn and postage (recommended offer £3.50) 

3) Order a flower pack by using the button below.  You will receive a flower, 2 leaves and a tag and postage is included in the cost of £5

CROCHET FLOWER AND TAG PACK BUTTON

So what are you waiting for?  Get cracking and make those BTHQ fan Brooches, I cant wait to see the variations you all come up with and seeing how far around the country we can spread the BTHQ love.

Granny Challenge Blanket Ta Da!

On the 29th March 2013 I announced the start of the #GrannySquareChallenge with this little blog post.  Over 6 weeks many of you joined me in making a start on a blanket.  Some of you finished those blankets and others are still working on them. You can look at all the past Granny Challenge posts by clicking here

For me it certainly was a kick starter 6 weeks as it is now almost a year on and I have finally finished!

It's very hard to get a good picture of the whole blanket as it really has turned into a monster.  It entirely covers my king-size bed and is super heavy.

 For the last couple of weeks I've been edging it and carrying it about in my lovely new PiP Studio shopper bag which is just perfect for storing such a beast.

So here are the stats:

 

Made using all stash for the colour, mainly Stylecraft Special DK but a few randoms in there of no known origin too!  A 4mm hook and then joined with white Stylecraft Special DK which was bought just for the job.  I lost track of how many white balls but I am guestimating approx 8.  I do know I used 1 ball just for the scallop edging alone and another 1 and a half for the join as you go element.

So I started with 168 squares - 14 different colour ways reversed to make 28 different square designs repeated 6 times each!

These were laid out in a pattern (trust me, there is one, look closely).  My friend Saz sat with me one evening whilst I laid them all out on the floor.  Wine helped the process but you can see how I did it by reading my week 6 update

 

They were then joined together using Lucy from Attic24's DC join method and I chose to have my DC stitches showing on the front to give a bit of added texture.

Then I added some rounds of granny stripe to the edge before planning on a scalop finish.  

When I got to the golden coloured round I thought to myself.......'Do you know what Claire? Another round of squares would really finish this blanket off' I counted my clusters and did some maths and worked out that if I joined as you go I would need 64 squares to make an edge.  And so round 2 of square making commenced back in late November some time.

 

Once they were all done I drew myself a little join as you go map and set off hooking up a storm.  At the end of the first side I hit a stumbling block.  18 squares in and I realised I'd done the maths wrong :-(

 

 

Another round of granny clusters is all it took to fix it though so after another 2 hours crochet to put in the round I set off again adding my squares on.  That started last Sunday afternoon at my parents house over a cuppa and carried on into the evening in front of the telly and finally finished 5 1/2 hours of hooky time later just after midnight!

Over the past week I have added another 2 rounds of half trebles to edge and then a scallop border made up simply of 1dc and then 5htr into each stitch.  The scallops have caused the edge to ruffle which I really like and am enjoying piling up the fold to look at the border all together.

I don't really have the pretty shabby chic bedroom and bed needed to do this blanket justice in it's final photoshoot, so for now you will have to make do with it laid out on my average, day to day bed.  But trust me when I say it is lovely and without being too big headed I am very proud of finishing this one.

I would love to know exactly how may hours have gone into his challenge, but I dread to think!

I you were a #GrannyChallenger then please let me know how you've got on.  Share your photos with me and your story and I will happily link up to your blanket on the blog.

Vintage style hooky - starting out on my Ravelry journey

I was teaching a small group of ladies to read crochet patterns yesterday and as I was there more as a 'hand holder' rather than a teacher as such I felt the need to join them with a spot of my own hooky.

Having just finished my mammoth Granny Blanket (Ta Da post coming shortly) I wanted something small, quick and easy that I could pick up and put down as and when they needed my help.

I've been dabbling in using Ravely for a while now and have queued up a few projects in my queue including this cute crochet coat hanger pattern by Karen Anderson.  It looked simple and just what I needed for a morning of hooky pleasure.

I got out my scrap ball basket as I though it would be a perfect little odds and sods project.  It felt lovely to be hooking up rows of colour and joining the whole thing together was a breeze.

This really is a lovely project if you just want a hour or so in front of the telly with a cuppa one evening and I can just imagine  set of them tied together with lovely ribbons would make a super gift.

I have now added this project to my project list and rated it, added pictures and marked it as public, so I'm getting into the full swing of ravelry now!  Are you a Ravelry user? If so I think we can be friends. 

I'm so new to it, so send me your hits and tips, be-friend me and help me on my journey!

Elspeths Homely Blanket Progress

Back in the Autumn of 2013 I wrote a post about the Homely blanket and recommended it to some of you to give it a try.

I though you might like to see Elspeths progress:

Elspeth has been working hard on completing her squares  Some of the designs she has loved and completed half a dozen or more of. Some she did not enjoy so just did a couple and some she didn't even bother with.  this is the joy of the design you can really do as much or as Little as you like.

 The time came for her to join them all together and this is where she has got stuck! If you complete just one of each square you can simply join them up as you go and then finish off the edges by filling in the gaps, but when you have a few of each square thats not so easy.

 There was only one thing for it really...............a visit to BTHQ where we shoved all the tables out of the way, spread out on the floor and starting safety pinning the work together.

 Then came the joining..............a task of actually sitting on the floor and hooking each square together.  We found this tricky at times as there were gaps which simply didn't fill so we have had to do a spot of Join as You go to fill in areas with granny clusters.

 Elspeth has now taken her creation back home to finish, but I suspect we might see her back on the floor of BTHQ before long!

I will keep you posted on her progress.

 

Waltham Abbey Woolshow

Well I've had a lovely day today.  A few of us #BTHQ girls went on a little road trip in the trusty Dobby (My in-laws Fiat Doblo people carrier/van type vehicle) to the Waltham Abbey Wool Show. 

He got us there in great time and very comfortably and the pedal power of the ladies in the back certainly helped us get up the hills!

The event was being held at the Marriot hotel in Waltham Abbey and it certainly is a lovely hotel.  They were offering afternoon tea for £12 so it would have been rude of us not to partake!

The event was organised by the Crochet Chain wool shop who we had visited back in April last year.  They had advertised a funky hat competition so of course I had to enter my chicken hat.  It did mean asking the lovely Mrs Chicken from Chicken and Frog Bookshop if I could borrow it back again (it has been her Hannukah present) but she was quite happy to lend it back to me in order for it to potentially win a prize!

Well competition was stiff and I was also up against our very own BTHQ Belle Helen who had entered her pig hat! But...........I won 1st prize.  2nd prize went to a crazy pointy creation with lots of marvellous flowers and 3rd went to a lady who had made an awesome felted hat with matching waistcoat.

The competition was judged by the lovely Janie Crow (Famous for her monthly column in Simply Crochet Mag amongst many other hooky accomplishments).

I was lucky enough to win not only £30 worth of vouchers to spend in the Crochet chain but also Janies latest book Kaleidoscope which she has even signed for me.

Her work is fabulous and so amazingly neat.  

I was pleased to see she also loves the Clover Armour Crochet hooks which I was lucky enough to receive for Christmas and even stocks them in her online shop I would highly recommend these hooks, I can now crochet so much faster than ever before and get no aches and pains even when crochetting all day long.  We had a nice chat later in the day when the crowds thinned out a bit and it turns out she also has a little thing for PiP Studio.  I spied a rather nice handbag under her chair and if you look closely at her stall you will spot a box that could only have contained some china in the past!

There certainly were some other lovely stalls and demonstrators including the ladies from Gladrags who were demonstrating the art of rag rugging.  

Both Miriam and I had a go and it was a lot of fun.  It really is amazing seeing how they can transfer an image onto Hessian using just scrap fabrics.

There was yarns of all sorts available including these wonderful sparkly yarns.  Each one was hand spun and only 3 skeins of each is ever made.

Last but not least we spotted this lovely lady on one of the displays.  Isn't she amazing?

 

I'm looking forward to next year already.

#Crochetalong2014

Those of you who are users of Instagram may have seen this hashtag being used a lot in the first few days of the New Year.

It would appear that many of my fellow happy hookers are all joining in with a trend to make a new blanket during 2014.

There are lots of different patterns available on line but the idea is you make a stripey blanket using as many different stitches as you can.  Its a great way of learning lots of new stitches that you may not otherwise have come across.

You can stash bust (if you want) or you can buy new wool.  I may have done the later............woops!

A quick trip to my suppliers and I have now purchased my favourite rainbow combo of stylecraft DK.  I have bought 2 balls of each and am hoping there will be enough to also make a doubled up DK giant rainbow granny blanket but I expect I will have to add to my supplies at some point.

I really am naughty starting two other projects when I still have my #Grannychallengeblanket to finish but that's how us hookers roll!

Give me a shout if you feel like join in in too.  The pattern is by Hannah Davis and can be downloaded here and it has a fabulous PDF version with full step by step images too.  It is written in US terms but all the abbreviations are there for you.

You can also find it on Ravelry so you can add it to your queues here

Happy Hooking

x

A crochet suggestion for some of my regulars

I was chatting with Elspeth last week during an intermediate crochet session at BTHQ and we were discussing her plan to join together every little square, sample and flower she had made in class over the past 9 months into a blanket.

At first we both thought it was a wonderful idea, but then we realised that as Elspeth has improved her crochet skills in the past 6 months her work has now also improved.  She wasn't so sure if she wanted to include her slightly poorer work alongside what she is capable of now, so we reverted to a cushion for her older bits and I suggested a Homely Blanket as her next project.

What is a homely blanket I hear you cry................

Well it was started by the lovely Heike Gittins from Made with Loops as a square by square blanket to hand to her daughter when she moved out of home.  Lots of people followed her progress on Instagram and via her blog and soon lots more people joined in too!

Each week Heike publishes a new square pattern so you can learn lots of new stitches and designs whilst you peice your blanket together.

I've added this project to my growing list of 'want to makes' but for now I will leave it with you.

Instructions can be found HERE

I've found the best way to find each square is to google "Homely blanket square 1" etc.

Elspeth has ordered 8 balls of Stylecraft Special DK to work up into her blanket, here are her lovely colour choices all together and ready for her to get started.........

So if you fancy a go I'd love to see your progress.  Keep me posted and Happy Hooking

Claire

Granny Square Challenge - Week 5

Well we are almost at the end of our kickstarter 6 week challenge and a lot of us are slowing down.  Others are going great guns and we even have a couple of nearly completed blankets!

I am doing my best to complete the final reverse colourways on my existing bunch of squares and have 3 lots to go.  I have made a good start on the middles today during our crochet Class at Beautiful Things and hope to be done by next week

I think I am going to start joining my squares now to see what sized blanket I actually have.  After that I may add a few rounds of granny stripe to the whole thing and possible then some more squares but we will see.

I made a start on blocking some of my squares today, it's going to be a long process but worth it to get the nice flat shapes with straight edges to make joining easier

 Lets see how some of our other challengers are getting on:

We have blogs from

Christine

Sharne

Eva

And these fabulous pictures:

This is Helens wonderful blanket.  She has joined her squares an is starting  granny stripe edge

Helen brought her blanket into HQ to show me and I could not resist taking this picture outside in the sunshine

Dianes samples of her next 3 colours, she plans to make more on holiday this week

Donna has been busy it this selection

Wendy has joined her large squares and is now putting some granny stripe edging round them before adding some more blocks