friends

For months now there has been some conversation between myself and some friends at church about getting together for some yarn play. On Thursday night we finally got organised and four of us spent the evening together chatting, eating and more importantly crocheting!

The lovely B who hosted us had set the scene for the evening so perfectly, I don’t think I could have dreamed it up any better. It was the first time I had visited her house, which is a beautiful old farm house. I so wish I’d thought to take photos on the way in but when we left it was far too dark 🙁

We walked into her sitting room, full of exposed beams and a huge open fire place, and found a coffee table set with piles of knitting and crochet magazines and pattern books, some vintage and some modern.

At the end of the room B had baked up a storm and laid on a gorgeous spread of evening snacks across the sideboard. On top of that the music playing in the background included Doris Day – retro wonderfulness!

So we had been at B’s for roughly 10 minutes and I was already pretty ecstatic and we hadn’t even got out our hooks 🙂

I also wanted to share with you this quick snap (oh I should mention that it was late and all these photos are taken with my phone…) B presented me with a box file full of patterns that had been saved by her grandma dating back some years. There were sewing, knitting, crochet and embroidery patterns which I loved looking through…. but I’m always drawn to the old printed adverts for things like ‘Beechams Powders’…. which I completely failed to take photos of!

Right, on with the hooky stuff!

This is lovely F, who is expecting a beautiful, bouncing baby quite honestly any day now! Exciting! She hadn’t picked up a crochet hook until this week I believe. The natural starting point was of course a trusty granny square, and she is planning to make a large granny square baby blanket. There was some frogging but it was going really well 🙂

This is the lovely R, she has been teaching herself to crochet for a little while and wanted to move on from granny squares to something new. Specifically a chunky flower scarf pattern by Debbie Stoller from her book The Happy Hooker. I’m glad to say that R thought it was going to be more difficult than she actually found it to be 🙂

You can also see B’s project on the sofa, the red granny squares… she disappeared out of the room as I took a few photos though!

This was my little crochet corner… it definitely confirms that I’m a bit of a colour addict! Bright colours make me happy! You can see a bit of my mood blanket that I am woefully behind with – I actually think I am going to have to let the mood aspect go and just finish it off at random intervals. There are also some little african flowers for a new project I’m working on – as if I needed a new one – but it’s a surprise so I’ll share all in a couple of weeks 🙂

It was such a wonderful evening. I have been wishing for so long to find a knit & natter type group, and now we’ve formed one I am totally thrilled. Crochet, and craft in general, is so much better when it is accompanied by other people crocheting or crafting too. It is great to be able to provide and receive support, learn from each other and be inspired by other people’s projects and ideas.

The time absolutely whizzed by though and I think our husbands may have expected to see us a bit before half past 11 when we rolled in!!! I genuinely can’t remember the last time I was out of the house that late – especially without Vince. Ha! I lead such a wild life – and I love every minute 🙂

This is R’s two finished and joined flower motifs. She was so in love with her flowers and I was so so happy to see another person totally fall for crochet! A gorgeous scarf is under way and another crochet addict is born!