Rustic Francais!!

Fresh from 10 days of paddling in the lakes of the Auvergne and I'm feeling refreshed, invigorated and with a head swimming with ingenious ideas for crafts. Spent most of my evenings in a rustic house, knitting or crocheting, pure bliss, and although I still haven't managed to finish knitting up the rib on my teal 70's tank (see below), I did start another tank, which began with a Wendy strappy top pattern which I've customised. I didn't want a plain tank so, have decided on chocolate brown for the edging and ivory for the main body, taking further liberties with the pattern, I decided to put shaping around the waist, all the better to enhance my tiny one!!
Also managed to make significant progress with the 60's couture crochet dress and am rather pleased with it, it's really easy just a row of increasing trebles in one stitch then a single treble, with a row of double crochet on top, the wool is much blacker than it looks in the photo and I know I'm going to love it, worn over a pair of hot pants and black opaques....so cute!! On the downside, the wool is Debbie Bliss Soft Cotton which I will not be using again, it's incredibly splitty and definitely not worth the outrageous price my mother paid for it. Shame, I was expecting it to be a dream to work with!!

Couture Crochet!!

If you're reading, you'll be familiar with my love for old things, (cutely renamed 'vintage' in the media, just so no one will get confused and think that you actually like things that someone else has used). Because I'm wilfully perverse, I actually love old things, things that someone else has loved and used and in this vein, I'm now finishing someone else crochet creation. This beautiful dress was started by my Mum from a pattern that she actually bought in the 60's, apparently she crocheted her original dress (actually in the 60's) in a two tone purple wool and has made many more of these in different colours over the years, including a silvery grey cotton one for yours truly. She decided I might like one in black, so started it a few years ago but sadly has never been bothered to finish it, (this is baby boomers for you nowadays, too busy gadding about enjoying the fruits of their pensions to think of the important things in life!!). This is actually a bit of a bonus as it gives me the chance to wreak havoc and unleash my limited crochet skills on what I consider may be an heirloom piece. Of course, when I first looked at the pattern my first thought was 'Oh heck, not a way in the world, I'm going to be able to do that', however I reckoned without the might of 'SuperMum' and her mighty tutorial of truth. Put simply, it's a hell of a lot easier than it looks and she showed me how to do it, one row is double crochet and the next is a row of trebles worked into the same stitch to make the pattern. Now I've just got to actually do it!!