Crochet Part 3 – Yarns across Europe!

As mentioned in my last Crochet post, I have recently taken a little trip with some friends to Mayrhofen, in the beautiful Ziller Valley in the Tyrolean region of Austria. My friends are keen snowboarders, but I was there more for the ‘apres’, rather than the ‘ski’, if you see what I mean!

I took my crochet with me to occupy myself whilst they were drifting and sliding all over the place up the mountains in the daytime. I made some good progress, and also found some fabulous craft shops, both in Mayrhofen and in the nearest city, Innsbruck.

Honouring my resolution to only buy souvenirs that can be made into something, I thought it was only fair that I stocked up on some yarn :)

Not a bad view from my crafting balcony…..

Two of my bessies were with me, Alex and Cat, and they were both curious at my crafting, and expressed an interest in learning! We trooped down to the local craft shop, armed ourselves with new hooks and a few balls of wool, and had a fantastic evening of girly laughs and crafting fun.

Alex had knitted before but wanted to give crocheting a go. She picked it up really quickly, and started on a lovely square for a blanket.

Cat was a self-confessed novice with all things textile. Nevertheless, by the end of the evening, she had made her very own bracelet, and started on a matching headband!

Super impressed with my friends’ skills – definitely one of my happiest memories of the holiday :)

Well, you can’t begrudge us a little drink to celebrate?!

Anyway, on with the crochet. I actually managed to get quite a few done whilst I was there! Firstly, I was too excited to use my new yarn, the first ball of which was half wool, half acrylic, and chosen purely because of its gorgeous appley colour, rather than the texture or diameter of the yarn. It was too big for me to do anything too intricate with! So I simply made a granny square, which, conveniently, is exactly 4 times the size of a regular square. New blanket centrepiece perhaps?

The second yarn I bought was my first textured yarn. I’ve never used one before and thought it might be fun! This is a mix of alpaca and lambswool, and I was fascinated by how a chain of stitches of it expanded and narrowed before my eyes. Very pretty. Given this effect, I thought it would be best shown off in a big, loose stitch, so for the first square, I simply did double trebles, separated by a single chain stitch.

Anyway, onto the new stitches:

18. Hot Cross Bun Stitch. Topical on the run up to Easter! This is the first stitch that I’ve done where you cross the stitches – it was a little tricky but I eventually got the hang of it!

19. Thistle Stitch. Apparently. To me, this looks like bunny ears! I saw it in another Erika Knight pattern for a clutch bag, and decided to make it into a square. I do think it’s very pretty though.

20. Sedge Stitch. This is one of my new favourites –  it’s simply one double crochet, one half treble and one treble into the 3rd stitch along, repeated. It gives a lovely texture, was so easy and I think it looks beautiful. This is a stitch I can definitely see myself using for a scarf or bag in the future.

21. Wedge Stitch. I found this really challenging! All the way through, I felt like I was going wrong, and that it was all misshapen. However, once I finished, I fell in love with it. It reminds me of leaves, so I think it would look great in a darker, yellowy green. I ended up making one in my new textured yarn too!

22. My final stitch for the week was Connected Spiral. This one was pretty tough too, but I persevered. The picture doesn’t really do it justice, but the twists of yarn between each row look great in real life!

If I count the big green one as 4 (as it’s MASSIVE) I guess this takes me up to 49. I think that warrants a “woop!”