Amongst my selection of lovely birthday gifts from Richard was a Mu plug - this is a normal 3 pin UK plug with a (literal) twist (the pins twist into a line so that the plug is much more compact for transporting). This is going to be incredibly useful for my train trips to the North to see Mum as I often plug electrical kit in on the train to get a bonus charge.

I decided that I'd make a sock style case for it. It took me 3 attempts to get it to the point where I'm happy with it and Richard did ask why I was doing this. Did I think it needed a case? Or was it more of a ”because I can” thing. I think it was mainly the latter. 

Ages ago I'd seen a pattern for an iPhone/iPad sock and it seemed simple. Obviously I didn't download the pattern, that would have been far too sensible, and I was in a holiday cottage with no internet. So I experimented and improvised.

It's made with Sirdar Snuggly baby bamboo DK (mainly tigger but also with a little bit of skittle) and has helped use up a bit more of my yarn stash.

I started off with a 4.5mm hook and did a foundation chain of 12 (initial attempts were 12 with 4mm, and 11 with 4.5mm before settling on this). I switched to a 4mm hook, and did a single chain and placed a marker here. I then worked into the back side of the 12 switches, and then back along the front side of the stitches to complete the loop, slip stitching into the marker. After that it was simple enough, single chain, single crochet into every stitch, measuring against the plug every couple of rows. The use of the marker was introduced on this, attempt 3, and made all the difference as on the first 2 attempts I couldn't quite work out where the starting point was which led to some really wonky edges.As the bag that this plug will mainly travel in is blue with an orange trim I decided to do this sock as orange with a blue trim.

And I'm rather pleased with it. I'm also quite pleased that I worked this out on my own, using trial and error, and a bit of logic. It would have been very easy to have relied on the internet or friends but instead I used my brain and that feels good. The only way I could explain this process to Richard was related to debugging an algorithm, when sometimes you just need to throw away what you had and start again building on what worked. And once you've got it sorted, you recognise it as being right (or right enough!).

The holiday cottage we'd rented on the Isle of White was reasonably well equipped, but had no dishcloth or jay cloth or similar. As it was pouring it down, and the idea of leaving the cottage to go in search of shops was unappealing, I decided to have a go at making one. 

With the absence of reliable internet, I improvised. I had a large bag of yarns with me, as I'm still working on my "odds and ends" blanket, and picked out my least favoured, most harsh, yarn - a redish acrylic thing (Wendy foxy DK in strawberry). I did a foundation chain of 25 and single crocheted for about 28 rows, until it was squarish, all using my nice new Clover soft touch 5.5mm hook. I did make a boo-boo of the first few rows and managed to end up increasing the width to probably around 28 stitches before realising what I was doing wrong. As it was just a dishcloth I figured it wasn't worth unpicking and starting again. This is why there is a circular gap near one corner - I figured if asked I could say it was a hole to hang it from! 

I edged it with one row of single crochet in the same strawberry yarn, and then finished with a single row of single crochet in navy blue (Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK in skittle). This was the first time I'd edged anything which wasn't already stitched all around (i.e. granny square/blanket) and I was kind of surprised how easy it was actually (I'd fortunately watched a YouTube video the previous week showing how to as otherwise I don't think I'd have known where to start). I do have to get better at making sure it ends up even and not too wonky. None of which matters for a dishcloth, but would for a blanket or scarf or something.

Still, not bad for an hour or two’s experiment, some more lessons learnt, and a resulting dishcloth to keep the cottage clean. 

Another bookmark - another gift for a friend. This time following draft #28337 over at handweaving.net. There were two good reasons for doing a bookmark as project #15. First up, I wanted something as a leaving present for a book-loving friend of mine as she leaves Madgex (a week before I go). And secondly, I wanted to do something that wasn't too ambitious whilst trying out the loom that my friend's Mum gave me.

The new loom has a label on the back which proclaims it as a Dutch plank loom. From the limited references I can find on the internet, like this example, the Dutch plank loom seems to be designed to be a tapestry loom and to work with fairly chunky yarns.

Determined to make it work for me, I had a couple of attempts warping it, before working out that if I just wound around every nail twice and then used the technique I've been using since weaving project #2 of using a separate thread and chain stitching the warp threads to get them to be more consistently spaced then it should just work. And it did. Phew! 

The pattern was, in keeping with some of the other recent ones, quite complicated and needed concentration, but I'm very pleased with the end result. The colour of the warp is a vibrant and shiny (more Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK) lime although the photos make it look a little bit more yellowy. The weft is a charcoal coloured Wendy Mode. This combination of yarns is becoming quite a favourite.

As I write, the Dutch Plank loom is all warped up for my biggest project to date, with 92 warp threads (previous maximum was 33 for weaving project #6) so I've chosen something relatively simple, but that I hope will be effective. I started weaving it last night, and then spent some time unweaving it as I thought I'd made a mistake, only to realise that it was right after all. Oh well, onwards and upwards...

I spotted this photo a while ago, and realised that I could do something similar with the granny squares I made earlier on in the year (they'd been sitting in a pile in my crafting cupboard which seemed wasteful). As my blanket got larger, the carrier bag I was storing it in got tattier and tattier, and I ended up using a black tote bag which didn't look very nice. So, I thought I'd see what I could make up.

I'm not a big fan of sewing either, so I thought I'd follow these instructions and crochet the squares together. This worked really well, the instructions were easy to follow, and it didn't take too long. The finished bag is 18 granny squares in size, with a granny circle for the base. 

The circle for the base I improvised, as I was away from the internet, and the end result wouldn't have been good as anything that needed to be flat - I got my increasing stitches maths all wrong - but as the base of a bag it works fine, even though it ended up being a bit big. What I should have done is counted up the number of stitches I needed based on the size of the granny squares. What I did is just keep on going till it looked like it'd fit - which ended up being way too big, and needed me to do three base stitches to every two granny square stitches to get it to attach. Still, it's all learning, and that's what it's all about right?

I decided that I didn't want a handle on it, but that I'd just do a drawstring with some ribbon so yesterday went and sourced some cream and grey ribbon which does the job nicely. Due to the explosion of colours in the squares (I was trying out lots of different yarns to get an idea as to which would work well for crocheting and which for weaving) trying to work out what colour ribbon to buy was a bit of a challenge, so I decided to go for something muted but with a little bit of character and it seems to look ok.

So here it is, my crocheted crochet bag :

It could be neater, and if I were to do another one I'd do it with less squares I think - it's more swag bag than bag - but it holds my yarn mountain and will do the job for storing blanket sized projects and is a useful thing to do with the pile of granny squares - only 2 are left and I don't feel bad about them sitting around unused.

Next crochet project: a stripy blanket which can happily be stored in the crocheted crochet bag whilst it progresses - it's currently 2 rows high so has quite a way to go yet!

At the weekend I did the final round of my rectangular granny blanket. It was based on the pattern found at Granny Square pattern, with pictures as I realised that I didn't actually want a square blanket!

It is an easy to follow pattern, and after the first couple of rounds was incredibly easy to do whilst watching the tv or listening to music or whatever. It didn't demand a lot of concentration and I enjoyed watching it grow.

The completed size is 78" x 60", and there are 56 rounds, not counting the middle strip. It is edged simply with a single round of single crochet.

I used a 4mm hook, and 3 different DK yarns:

• 6 balls of Wendy Mode Vapour blue
• 6 Wendy Mode Whisper white
• 7 balls of Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo in Tigger

It took a couple of months as a "whilst watching tv" kind of projects. The work took place mainly at home in Brighton, but also in Margate whilst visiting my in-laws and in East Yorkshire on a visit to see my Mum.

I have my next crochet project underway, which is a simple filler project to use up some of the mass of granny squares I made when I was first starting to crochet earlier in the year (as I've mentioned before I don't like wasting things). I am then planning to start on another blanket. This time my plan is to do something stripy so that I can use up some of the yarn mountain I've acquired in the past couple few months. Watch this space!

Whilst I was sitting one morning doing work on weaving project #13 I was thinking about the process of weaving and that, effectively, I'm building layer after layer of yarn. I started thinking what else was a stacking structure, and realised that it may be possible to do something with a bar chart and illustrate data via a woven fabric, and this seemed like a great idea. I remembered that in April it will be 100 years since the Titanic sank, and that on my pile of books to read is a book about the Titanic (a collection of stories from survivors). I started pondering what I could do, and continued to do so for the rest of the day, finding a helpful chart of statistics and sketching ideas in the pub we went to for Sunday lunch with very patient friends who encouraged, assisted and who got engrossed in the data too (and provided the idea of having percentile markings on there as well - thanks - that was a genius idea!).

As an aside: My interest in the Titanic, starts many years ago. Between Sixth Form College and University I was receptionist/office manager for a small Maritime and Architectural model making firm in Hull. There wasn't a lot of need for a full time person, as it was a new company with little passing trade, so I often found myself with time on my hands, and being in the time before the internet I worked my way through the bookshelf. Of the various books I read that summer, the Titanic ones were the one that captured my interest and left me with an interest in the subject.

Key:

Left to right (the warp threads) - there are four bars representing the 3 classes and crew - leftmost is 1st class, then 2nd class, then 3rd class (steerage) and finally crew.
Within each class there are three threads - blue for men, pink for women and yellow for children.
For the crew there are just two threads - blue for men and pink for women

Bottom to top (the weft) - starts with a pale grey/blue thread to represent the 0th percentile - this also appears at 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
Black is used to indicate death - note quite how few pieces of blue warp (representing men) can be seen on the finished item.
Blue is used to indicate the average rates - there are lines across each of the classes individually - representing the average death rate per class/crew, and one that goes across all classes at 68% which is the average death rate for the ship.

The best survival rate was second class children, where they all survived. The worst was second class men, where only 8%, or 14 people, survived. Only one first class child died, Helen Lorraine Allison, but that was enough to have a rate of 17%. (Encyclopedia Titanic has a whole range of facts about the Titanic - including survivor and victim stories)

From a weaving perspective, this has been a challenge as I had 4 different weft threads on the go at the same time. I created a google spreadsheet showing row by row what it should be, printed it out and checked them off one by one, but even then I've stopped and checked some of the data as I couldn't believe how bleak some of the chances were. It's a lot thicker than a normal bookmark, which has the benefit that hiding the ends of the threads is much easier. The warp threads were Jarol Supersoft DK and Sidar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK, and here I discovered that a good warp thread doesn't necessarily have the same characterstics as a good weft - the Jarol Supersoft DK is quite a fluffy yarn which means that the needle point got stuck in said fluffy bits quite often.

This project has taken a lot of concentration and has been more frustrating than most - with common problems being getting the various weft's tangled, catching the white warp thread with my needle, getting a black weft in the wrong place, and having warp threads get pulled together quite tightly due to the unbalance of the structure - still it's a remarkable stable piece of work, and serves it's purpose well.

Here it is, with the book that it was made to accompany:

Overall, I'm pleased with both the idea and the execution of the idea. I'm currently only on page 27 of the book, but already I've made use of my bookmark to remind myself about the various survival chances, so it's doing what it was intended for. I am also really taken with the idea of having a bookmark made specifically for a book, or for a subject; a bookmark that isn't just used for marking my place, but is also a reminder of something related. I thought this was very much a project for an audience of one, but the people I've mentioned it to as I've been working on it seem to like this as a concept. So, who knows, I may do more of this in my future. But next, next is going to be something bigger having gained a Dutch plank loom during the week from a friend's Mum.

I stumbled across Amanda's Weaving blog fairly recently, and have been fascinated watching her latest project come together.

It started here, where she outlines what she wants to do, progresses here, where she threads, then moves on to here, where she starts the weaving, to here, which features some beautiful progress photographs, to here, where it has come off the loom, and on to here, where it has started to be assembled in to the finished articles, and then here, where the first one is assembled with a cute little mane, to here, where there are three of the little fellas.

So, from

to

Truly a weaving inspiration. I love that these cute little fellas are made from fabric which Amanda has made herself, to her own specification. Too much sewing involved to make it on to my to make list, but delightful none the less.

After the relative success of weaving project #11, #13 is also a lavender bag. This time as a gift for my Mother-In-Law for Mother's day.

I knew I wanted to do something with different coloured warp threads to add variety, and so this limited the options for my drafts as I wanted something where the colour change became part of the design, rather than distracted from it. I choose draft 28369 from handweaving.net which is an 8 x 8 repeater, and set up the loom to have the pattern repeated 3 times across it.

As is becoming a normal part of my process, I started off by transcribing the pattern into my squared exercise book so that I could have it by my side as I started to weaving and then warped the loom ready with lovely, shiny, Sidar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK in Paintbox Pink and Sail Boat blue.

I decided to use a white weft and so ol' faithful Jarol Supersoft DK came out again. 

This draft took quite a lot of concentration, as there isn't a real regular pattern to it, unlike the last one which kind of flowed rather nicely. But like the last draft I chose, this has a 3D feeling to it, and I'm definitely beginning to be able to spot the ones which will do this. 

As with last time I made both panels on the loom at the same time, and the finished dimensions are 6.5cm x 6.5cm for the main panel. It took 3 - 4 hours to weave, and then a further hour or so to deloom, trim the edges, and sew it together. It is now sitting downstairs in a plastic bag waiting to be wrapped and delivered. (Note: this blog post is written on the 7th March but held from publishing until Mothers Day just in case my Mother-In-Law should stumble across it - unlikely but...)

I'm really rather delighted with how it has turned out, and like it even more than the last one. I also love the dual colours for this pattern, so there will probably be more of this to come, and am delighted that the white weft has muted the vibrancy of the shiny warp threads in a really pleasing way. I'm still a bit amazed that something like this can be created from some yarn, an old picture frame and a handful of nails actually.

On to project #14 which is going to be another bookmark, designed with a specific book in mind for it to be used with...

Earlier on in the year, a friend suggested another use for my little flower loom flowers - make a yarn wreath. She sent me lots of suggestions on flickr to look at and of I went. This seemed like a reasonably simple project to do, so I decided to give it a go with the aim of creating something for Mum for Mother's Day. 

Having had a quick wander around the likely looking shops in Brighton, I headed to the web and found a supplier of a wicker wreath, and ordered that. I'd originally toyed with the idea of using cardboard, but quite liked the idea of it being a bit more robust.

I bought some green and white Sirdar Snuggly Snowdrop chunky yarn to wrap the wreath with and this was my starting point. I'd planned out what I was going to do in my head, and started making flowers. Originally I'd selected a few colours that I was going to concentrate on, but in the event I liked the fluffiness of the Jarol supersoft DK white yarn with Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo shiny yellow middles and so just ended up making far too many of them, mainly because they were so cute.

As I've said before, me and sewing aren't best friends, so I sat down with some trepidation armed with needle, cotton and a stack of fluffy flowers. As is often the case, it wasn't so bad, and I managed to get the first 3 flowers attached along the bottom in pretty much the right places. After a big sigh of relief, the other flowers attached nicely as well. Phew!  All that was left now was to find some ribbon to sew on to the back at the top to hang the wreath from. I headed off looking for white ribbon and instead found some perfect little flower ribbon in almost exactly the right shades of white and yellow. So I bought that, and last night I could be seen battling to attach it in the right place, with the right number of flowers to make it hang nicely. And here it is, hanging up (temporarily) in my hallway so I could take photos of it.

So the end result is quite simple (which I like). It's a nice spring time set of colours, I'm very pleased with the textures of it and think it'll look lovely in Mum's room. It also helps that it is a good size to transport up to Mum when I visit her next weekend. I'm actually a bit shocked that I managed to make something that looks so cute actually!

Weaving project #12 is another bookmark, following the same draft as weaving project #11. This one designed and made with the prime purpose of being used by me. 

It only took me a couple of hours to weave it, and so it turns out that making bookmarks is a very good mechanism to determine how pleasing a draft will be to me. As you can see from the picture above I ended up with a wonky right hand edge. I know exactly why as well. Normally my right hand edge is the straight edge, and the left one is wonky. However, my warp slackened off towards the right, and, for me at least, a slack warp results in untidy edges.

It didn't look too bad when I took it off the loom but I thought I would experiment a bit and attempt to block it (my first ever try at blocking). It was raining, and I couldn't be bothered to leave the house, so I scrabbled around a bit to see what I could find. The end result was a tea tray, some cardboard, some brown packing tape and a lot of pins. I pinned the edges as straight as I could by eye, sprayed it with cold water, and left it to dry out. 

And here's the finished article - the colours in the top two pictures are a much better reflection of reality actually thinking about it. The blocking definitely has made a difference, although I need more practice at it and should probably get out a ruler and draw some guiding lines to pin against. Still, overall pretty happy with it, and am looking forward to using it.

The yarns used are Sidar Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK for the warp, and Wendy Mode for the weft. This turned out to be a really pleasing combination, so I've just ordered some more of both (lime green as warp and shale as weft) for a larger project to follow later in the year once I've got my larger picture frame loom set up.

Project #13 is already planned out (another lavender bag) and the loom is set up ready for me to begin and project #12 is just waiting for me to finish my current eBook so that I can get one of the physical books in my reading queue out and start using it.