A pale green and pale purple post

There's something so calming about this colour combination. My eyes find it soothing.

These ones have CiM Dirty Martini cores encased with a thick layer of Effetre pale emerald green 031 and the polka dots and spacers are Effetre light lavender blue (which is sometimes called pastel ink blue which was its original name) 247.

These beads are available in both my Etsy shop and my my webshop.

I made a confession to my sister yesterday. We've always loathed Crocs and swore we'd never own any. I've been mercilessly rude about them and I think they're one of the ugliest items of footwear ever created. Yesterday I had to text Sally and tell her that I've bought some and guess what? So has she!

It started when she bought her husband a pair of what she called 'Mocks' (imitation Crocs) from the middle of Lidl. Sal said she'd started slipping Paul's Mocks on whenever she needed to pop into the garden. I said that Chris could do with something similar as he kept treading mud into the house on his trips to and from the garage so Sal bought Chris some too and then I started slipping his on whenever I needed to pop into the garden.

Obviously Chris' ones were too big for me so I looked on Amazon for some Mocks of my own but the reviews were scathing and some pale purple actual Crocs were on offer for just a couple of quid more than the imitation ones, so I got them.

How are they so hideous?

Oh my word, they are as comfy as every Crocs wearer has ever told me they are. Humble pie well and truly scoffed. I still think Crocs are totally fugly and I will never wear them out and about but they're really good garden and shed shoes.

Talking of the garden, my sea holly is making a comeback. It didn't flower last year so this year I gave it some fresh soil and fertiliser and it's doing great.

You can just see its blue tinge starting to appear. I love this plant and so do the bees and ladybirds.

In crochet news...

I've got nothing to show you today. I've got a shawl on the go but it's a very lacy, slow-growing one and it's black so it just looks like a pile of black yarn at the moment.

The yarn for an octopus for my nephew is arriving today. He asked for a bright purple one so I was very chuffed about that.

And I'm working on finalising my first crochet pattern. It's for a shawl that I designed last year and I wrote a rough pattern draft, moved on to a hundred other things, and now I'm back writing it out properly. It's got a chart and everything. I've enlisted a few testers to help me make sure the pattern works and then I'll send it out into the world.

Stitch markers

I kept a few Lonelies to one side to turn into stitch markers. That section of my shop has been sold out for a while so I've given it a little restock.

This time around I've given people three choices of fitting.

With the lobster clasp you can mark one individual stitch and if you a crochet you can use it on your working loop when you put your work down so that it doesn't accidentally unravel.

The leverback clasp works for both crocheters and knitters because you can attach it to one stitch or slip it onto a knitting needle.

And the ring is for knitters and will fit needles up to 7mm.

These are all available in my shop. I'll add a few more when I get some more leftover beads.

It may be a Bank Holiday but it's been a normal sort of Monday here, just pootling around the house. The weather is sunny one minute and raining the next. I should have popped out between the rainy bits to mow the lawn but the day has sort of dissolved into a nothingness of endless little tasks.

In crochet news...

I loved Otto so much, both the making of him and the finished item, I decided I needed an octopus too so this is Ringo and he's now living on top of the tall bookcase in my crochet nook.

Pattern: Anchor the Octopus by HumbleChildCo

Yarn: YarnArt Dolce in colours 770 and 753

Lots of Lonelies

I've cleaned and sorted my Lonelies this morning. I'm always surprised at how they mount up. A lot of them are duplicates from other sets where I'll have made three of one style because initially I wasn't happy with a dot placement or it ended up a millimetre smaller or larger than it should be. Then next morning when I take them out of the kiln I can't see the dot placement issue and the size difference is barely visible so I end up with more beads than I need for a strand so into the Lonelies pot the extras go.

I've divided this batch of Lonelies into two strands and each one contains five pairs.

These are for sale in my shop at the time of typing.

In crochet news...

I've put a couple more shawls in my Etsy shop and webshop.

This purple and yellow one reminds me of irises.

The pattern is Sunset Boulevard by LisasAttik and the yarn is YarnArt Flowers in colour 307.

The second one is bright orange and very summery. This tangerine colour is super zesty. 

The pattern for this one is V For Vintage by Mijo Crochet and the yarn is Hobbii Twister Solid in colour 151.

Both of these shawls are on the larger side. I seem to be averaging about 1200 metres of yarn per shawl. Gradient cakes are normally 1000 metres but I find the extra couple of hundred metres makes quite a difference in the coverage and swoosh departments.

Still polka dotting

I've said it before but I love the calming feeling I get when I make polka dot beads. Every one has forty-five evenly sized dots, evenly spaced, and I love the rhythmic motion of melting the stringer to get just the right size dot and then putting it in just the right place. Each one is a little challenge.

These 'Rainy Day' ones have Effetre dark grey 252 cores encased with Effetre pale aquamarine 038 and the polka dots are Effetre light turquoise 232. The beads are for sale in my shop.

I've got an overflowing jar of lonelies here so my next bead job is to clean and sort those.

In crochet news...

The octopus is complete! I took a couple of photos of him before I sent him on his journey to Northern Ireland where he's been named Otto and is now living on my sister's bookcase.

Otto ended up about 70cm long so he's a sizeable chap. The pattern is Anchor the Octopus by HumbleChildCo.

He was a very fun project and I might already have the yarn to make another one...

A bit more polka dottiness

Yet more polka dots, this time in a very Slytherinesque colour combination of black and green.

Opaque greens tend to react with themselves when used as stringer which means lines and dots develop darker centres which can look great.

These 'Malfoy' beads have Effetre black 064 cores encased with Effetre light emerald green 028 and the polka dots are CiM Weeping Willow.

The beads are for sale in my shop and tumble-etching is available at no extra cost.

In crochet news...

Tentacles!

My littlest sister asked me to make her an octopus like one she'd seen on Instagram so I found the pattern on Etsy and last night I made a start on him. Emily wanted her octopus to be burnt orange with green suckers so that he matches her living room decor. 

The pattern is Anchor The Octopus by HumbleChildCo and the yarn is YarnArt Dolce which is a chunky and very soft chenille.

Good old polka dots

I'm going to ignore the crazy long gap between this post and the previous one and just launch into writing this post.

I recently got a new oxygen concentrator. The old one was only just hanging on, puffing out next-to-no oxygen, and one day I realised that my bead making had slowed to my Hot Head torch days speed. I mean, I know I work slowly but this had become utterly ridiculous and making something as simple as a spacer bead was driving me mad. Encasing anything had become an almost impossible mission.

The new (well, reconditioned) oxygen concentrator is a beast. It's like having a new torch and it took me a while to get used to it. The flame is actually hot!

Last week I made some of my favourite beads - red with white polka dots.

These have cores of CiM Foam which I encased with a thin layer of Effetre red 076 and the polka dots are Effetre white 204.

I made a few of my 'classic' sets too. 

These green ones are CiM Peat Moss over CiM Foam with decoration in Effetre white...

...these ones are Effetre steel grey 088 over CiM Foam, again decorated with Effetre white...

...these lilac ones are CiM Yours Truly over CiM Gelly's Sty with decoration in, you guessed it, Effetre white (it's a favourite of mine)...

...and to mix it up, these have Effetre black 064 cores enacsed with Effetre light blue 052 with Effetre light periwinkle 360 decoration.

Some of the above beads are still available in my shop.

In crochet news...

I'm fully addicted to making shawls now. I crocheted my first one just over a year ago and I've not stopped since.

I like the way that a shawl can double up as a scarf but the best bit is how they make you feel all period drama when you drape one over your shoulders. They make you want to say "A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!" in your best Mrs Bennet voice.

All of the shawls pictured here are currently available in my Etsy shop and in the crochet section of my website shop. In both cases I'm set up to ship within the UK only but if you are outside the UK and you'd like to buy one, do let me know and I can give you a postage cost.