October 18 was very creative around my workshops table, full of cotton yarn-y goodness, cotton colours, crochet, socks knitting, and many happy chatty moments. It’s been a while since I last visited here, as it took me a whole lot longer than I imagined to write a new blog post. Ever since we came back from our dreamy vacation in Vietnam, things were utterly busy here and I’m still struggling to get myself into my normal balance. It feels very good and special to finally be here again at my little blog corner, with some of those happy October moments. flowers crochetflowers crochet squareslove garden crochet blanketsflower crochet squares gardenStarting with those cheerful Love Gardens in progress, I can’t imagine any other project to start with. The Flower square pattern is a pleasure to work and turning it into a Love Garden Sq. in the next step is so fun and easy to do. ES is just starting to learn how to Flower Sq, for the first time while GA has all the Love Garden squares ready for  Joining. This special project spreads it’s calm energies into our workshops every time one of the girls brings it to the table. This is such a blissful project and it means the world to me to see the joy it brings while working on it. The Yarn Pack is available in my Etsy shop.crochet bag patternyellow cotton yarnHello Yellow bag was made by a first timer here in my workshops – always exciting to have a new member around the table. This young lady has done quite a nice job. Look how balanced her sts are, can’t wait to see her finished bag and to share her progress. And ho YES some good news: The Hello Yellow bag is now available at my shop as a separate PATTERN and not just as a CROCHET KIT.

amigurumi bear patternamigurumi bear pattern in progressCotton yarn amigurumi patterncotton yarn bear patternBenji the Bear, YA is working on her 2 Benji bears closing up the last head sts, connecting the ears and jumping right into the making of a woolly knitted scarf . She used some sock yarn oddments and my bamboo sock DPN’s. Just like I made for one of my Benji bears, she started with cast on 22 sts on a 2.5 mm hook, followed by stockinette st all the way back and forth till she’ll reach the desired length for the scarf. You can see more of this mini knitting on my Monday’s posts.

cotton yarnSee my Benji with his woolly scarf? sitting right next to the cashier at the corner of my little candy shop? Told you, this bear it very good at maths and all kind of accounting things, he is a big help. cotton yarnHL is turning the Alice Blanket Pattern into a shawl using Granny Kit cotton colour Denim. It’s not an easy job to turn a blanket pattern into a triangle shape but we she did great after just one short explanation and her WIP looks so delicious.cotton yarnML has been working on few projects and one of them is this cotton-y Flower Tote which is a free pattern on Ravelry. She used Granny Kit cotton in colours: Spicy for the base (she needed 1 ball for the base) and Alice colour for the flower pattern (I think she’ll need 2 balls). We will add the handles once she’s ready. I also made one and a few of the Monday girls made one, it’s my Yoga tote for the last few weeks and I really enjoy using it. So, in total you’ll need 3 cotton balls to make it, if you think of giving it a go. cotton yarn crochet blanketEN has just started up her new Soft Ripple cotton blanket, while at the same time she is working on socks. of course. We all love to have a few WIP, it makes us feel a lot better to have a few on the go projects. crochet workshop tableThe table is happily busy and I really love (if I have a moment) to stop and take a picture like the above one, where you can almost smell the coffee and hear sound of the girly-hooky-chat. There were a few Vietnamese treats on the table during October workshops. Here you can see YA’s hands in the front, staring up her Granny Kit cotton socks and she just got her new copy of Lazy Sunday socks by lovely Jane, VERY yummy. Talking about socks, we had quite a lot of sock making here lately. crochet workshopFor quite a while, our table is a mixture of both crochet and socks knitting, which really, I can’t believe I’m writing it. It’s like a dream, it really is. It started up with a little group of my students that stood up with a strong demand to have a sock knitting workshop with me, which at first made me a little nervous, to be honest. But not long after, they were sitting here casting on their very first pair of socks. It was about a year ago and after a while more and more students wanted to join my sock table so my workshops slowly became a mixture of both crochet and socks knitting. So, let’s take a look at some loopy socks moments.sock knitting socks yarnWe had many things ‘sockish’ going on here during October. On the above pictures I teach how to Afterthought Heel, Which is fascinating. We use hand dyed wool for our sock knitting as well as some industrial painted wool. On the above photo RT uses a BEAUTIFUL Must Stush Yarn which I can easily see as a blanket colour combination or sequence. I would love to tell you more about it… maybe in the future. There are so many things on my ‘want to wrote a blog post about it’ list… socks knittingYL has been following the (one more brilliant) Cable Socks Pattern form clever and generous Christine Perry. LOVE these sooooooo much. Thank you Winwick Mum. Just in a quick but very important note, I learned how to knit socks and all the super important things about it from Christine’s Super Socks book – which I strongly recommend you get yourself a copy if you don’t have one. You can read all about it in my socks knitting journeysock knittingAs for this first socks group, we still meet for socks once a month, can you tell? these fabulous ladies made me start up my socks workshops and a lot after they learned how to knit the basic socks they still come to learn more and more new things. So, for our October meeting I purchased each and every one of them the pretty Souls Sisters pattern by Jooles Hill & Ami Lowden to learn for the first time how to TOE UP socks!!! YES and they did quite well. At the above pictures you can see how lovely and precious is the very start of the toe on their DPN’s. You can also see the brilliant needle cases my beloved mom made for them when we just started up our socks meetings. My sweet mom was the most creative person I’ve ever met. crochet workshopAnd here is this ‘start-up group’ all together around my workshops table, learning how to Toe Up socks, enjoying each and every moment together. We plan to meet again this Friday to continue the Soul Sisters pattern. This time we’ll meet mainly for the heel making because in this Toe Up pattern it works in a new way for us. Love love L O V E learning and teaching new things. Can’t wait to show you the new pattern I’ve purchased for them, it’s a secret for now, but once they get it I will share some photos on Instagram, plus some happy moments from this upcoming meeting on Friday.
Just one more thing before I’m off to my motherly activities. I thought you might need to get prepared with some gifts for Christmas so I had this idea that might help you with this mission. During November, I will run a special pattern sale in my Etsy shop and it goes like this: Every few days, during November, I’ll put ONE of my crochet patterns for 1$ ONLY. ONE pattern for 1$. Every few days I’ll put ONLY ONE of my patterns for ONLY 1$. So make sure you don’t miss this opportunity. Don’t worry I will post on both my Instagram and FB pages every time I have a pattern is on special, to make sure you don’t miss out. What do you think? Will that help you a little to be prepared with Christmas gifts? I’m sure your crafty hands can make some Angie Bunnies gifts or Chamomile bouquet… or….OK OK you got my idea already. SO, starting Tuesday Nov 6th Ending Friday Nov 30th 2018, ONE pattern for 1$ ONLY, one at a time. See you soon at my Etsy sale, xxxMo