Doodling...

I've been working too many hours at the charity shop and needed to restore the balance a bit. We finally have some new volunteers so I've reduced my hours a little. Apart from tackling the mountains of washing (football kit, cricket kits) I've also been able to pick up my hooks and doodle in wool.

The above samples are just two of many that I've made on these hooks and ripped back again. I'm trying to achieve a simple look using a loose guage and just these two colours of 4 ply alpaca mix by Drops. I bought them at the Knitting & Stitching Show. On another stand entirely I was most taken with some simple garter stitch shawls using something like 4 ply and I wanted to create something similar in crochet. The only problem is that dc or tr crochet fabric doesn't quite have the same beauty as garter stitch fabric, for my taste anyway, so it needs a little stitch detail.

I've been looking through my crochet books for inspiration and surfing to no avail. I'm sure something will turn up! This wool is absolutely gorgeous! It's so incredibly soft and light. I can't remember how much it cost but it certainly wasn't expensive. I very rarely buy or use such a fine weight of wool. As I've said before, fine hooks hurt my hands which is why I suddenly hit upon the idea of using a much larger hook than the recommended size. The wool suggests 3.5mm and I've used both 6mm and 7mm and quite like the look it creates.

I haven't made any new year's resolutions, except for a vague idea that I'd like to rely less on patterns this year. (I may even have said that last year). I'm finding that as I grow older I'm more keenly aware of what my tastes are, rather than being overwhelmed by the sheer variety of influences out there. It's only been in the last year or two that I've worked out exactly what floats my boat and why. That has helped narrow down what I make and what colours I want to use. I created a mood board of photographs of the type of things I might like to make this year (still haven't really taken to Pinterest) and so I'll be able to do a similar mood board (using a pic collage app) at the end of the year to compare with; see if I stuck to my guns or got sidetracked along the way!