Crafty crochet happenings

As I have mentioned, one of the things I tried to do in my holidays was a bit of crochet. I searched far and wide throughout the world wide web for a pattern for a pinafore for a little girl, after seeing these cute ones in Urban Oasis, then decided to have a go at this one (very sweet pictures over there), and use up left over wool by actually making it in different coloured stripes. However, because American patterns never mention the ply of the wool, silly me just assumed, for some unthinking reason, that this was 8 ply. It soon became apparent that I had that wrong and so I googled the brand of wool mentioned and discovered it was 4 ply. I pressed on for a while thinking it might still work, but then realised it was going to be very wide, very heavy (for a little person) and just not suitable, so I unpulled it all. But I will start again some other time. At least now I have mastered that puff stitch, which is not for the faint-hearted because you end up with 9 loops on your hook to manoeuvre (though, now that I think about that, it might be a lot easier with 4 ply than 8 ply).

When I was up in the blue mountains with Mum we went into a second-hand book shop in Wentworth Falls and to my delight I discovered that they sold old crochet (and knitting) patterns (just to add to my magnetism to old book shops!). So, I pulled out a few. The guy at the counter cracked up laughing when I went to buy them, which was an appropriate response because the crochet tennis shorts are really something, but you just have to see past the whole 1970s style and the colours they use - and forget about making matching shorts. That and switch genders. I found this hilarious old book of crochet for men. If I was a guy I wouldn't be seen dead wearing most things in that book, but I thought a couple of them might be rather cool for me eg a long vest made of granny-squares with a zip up the front (only mine won't be brown and orange) and a tunic with a belt around the middle (which looks seriously funny on the guy with sideburns standing in a row boat).

I also found an old book of crochet toys and have picked out a rag doll and a toy soldier for my niece and nephew for Christmas, and something doable to make for some of the 18 women having babies at my church this year, but that shall be a secret for now!