New Life

She has arrived:

Aemilia Lea 24/04/2009

Freeform course

Last week I participated in a small course of freeform crochet and knitting given by Prudence Mapstone here in Singapore.
We actually met two days earlier at a local knit out, where she showed us some of her marvelous creations as well as gave a demo of freeform crochet. In 20 minutes she came up with this and I was hooked:



So hooked that that night I stayed up very very late and kept trying to crochet very misshapen bullions.
I asked a lot of questions about Prudence's knitty-crochety life that evening ;) so that two days later at Betsy's place I was very eager to know the little tricks of freeforming. Prudence is such a marvelous teacher that the three hours just flew by and I continued crocheting my piece also at home.
We had a truly enlightening evening and hopefully I'll be able to meet Prudence somewhere else as well - after all, the world is tiny.



Anyways, after some ripping (yes, yes, I know this ought not be part of freeforming, but a wrong color choice and huge ruffles kinda didn't work for me at all) and some more experimenting I decided to finish my red explorations with this:



I'm currently working on another scrumble in blues and having great time doing it. Actually this is the downfall of the promise I made not to buy more yarn! And an invitation to avid knitters I know - if you have some yards leftover yarn then one way to liberate yourself of their existence is offer them to me :P (I do realize that what I just proposed is very outrageously naive, but it doesn't hurt to try).

When a great book is published

Then it must be bought. If the book has great instructions for the technique it describes and most beautiful designs then it is no wonder that nevertheless of the 2 kilos of lace yarn one has waiting at home, a new skein has to be purchased and new project cast on.

I bought Nancy Bush's "Knitted Lace of Estonia" as soon as I saw it on the shelf in book store and cast on for this beauty:

(At this moment I'm at the second row of Lilies and cannot understand where a mistake is hiding, because the chart is faulty - I haven't been able to find an errata on the web so I laid aside the piece for awhile and finish something else I started )

This lacy beauty is knit with Harmony needles, which means I do not risk taking them on board. And since I would go nuts on a 12-hour flight and since Silvia gave me 3 amazingly soft skeins of new yarn from Grignasco I cast on on bamboo needles for Lily of the Valley Scarf from the same book:



There are lots of nupps in this scarf but I must say that I've gotten them right in my hand and it doesn't take any effort to do them. The scarf is 137 cm long.



Pattern: Lily of the Valley Scarf by Nancy Bush
Needles: 3,5 mm
Yarn: Grignasco Mousse (50% soya, 40% new wool, 10% silk; 185 mt for 50 gr)

I used just a tiny bit more that 2 skeins.

My first...

I just registered myself to the first handicraft course in my life, mainly to use up these...

to widen my view on crafts, to create interest for myself in crocheting and figure out whether freeform crocheting-knitting could be part of my future hobby-life.
In the beginning of February, there is going to be Prudence Mapstone's workshop in Singapore, of which I got information accidentally on Ravelry. Life is full of strange coincedences and with this I refer to my last post and first comment on that post.
On 5th of Febryuary I'm crocheting!!