Project Update at bottom of article

DH purchased this fantastic book for me for my birthday. It's written by Loani Prior and is the second book in the series.  It's called "Really Wild Tea Cosies". I absolutely love the fabulous designs Loani has come up with. In my opinion she has excelled herself in this book. 

With Loani being an aussie all the patterns are made with locally obtainable yarns, which is a real treat. Most of the yarns used have come from Nundle Woollen Mill in NSW. The other yarns have come from a lovely yarn shop on the southern highlands called "Wool Addiction".

For my first project out of this wonderful book I have chosen to give Bells & Mexicans a go. So I have been very diligent and taken a few progress photos along the way.  Staring off with 2 sets of double pointed needles was a challenge because I've not long introduced myself to using them.  Casting on and working half the stitches on one set and the remaing on the other.

Once I was comfortable with the two sets of needles I started to zip along. What you can see is the lining or pettycoat as it's called that goes under the decorative covering and helps insulate your teapot. I have finished the lining and will take a photo in the morning when the light is good. I have also cat on for the main part. I guess I'll show you the picture from Loani's book and we can compare along the rest of the journey. Here is Bells & Mexicans.

O.K I have started the main part of the tea cosie. I wasn't very sure I would be happy with colour combination that the Noro Kureyon was going to produce, but once I had a couple of rows done I was happy to see a really popping mix happening.  Here is a photo taken 1.38pm Friday 22nd April 2011.

It's been a while since I picked up the needles for anything serious. This was a very easy piece to knit because it only has a twelve row pattern repeat.  I used Noro Kureyon which is a rustic type 100% wool yarn where the ply resembles hand-spun.

The colours are so wonderful and flow and change beautifully. I used 3 skiens of 50g for this project.

You can find the pattern by Ailsa Daly here Dragon Skin Scarf on Ravelry.

You need to join up and become a member, which is free to be able to access all the wonderful patterns, information, forums and ideas as well as keep track of all your projects and share and compare them with other members.

I found some chunky yan in my stash and decided to just wing it. There is no pattern to follow, I made it up as I went along.

I started with a chain as long as I wanted the scarf, then I did one row of broomstick crochet, follwed by a row of single crochet.

The finished scarf is 180cm long and 12cm wide. It is quite thick and warm, but at the same time it is very cuddly.

I joined the Crochet Dude's purse of the month club in July. Drew Emborsky is a fabulous crochet designer based in the USA. He provides a new purse (here we call them handbags) every month. The patterns are exclusive to the club and are signed and numbered for all the members.

The first purse is below. I haven't finished it yet. I'm finding the 240 odd lazy dasies a bit daunting.

I will link to a picture of Drew's Purse all finished so you can see what mine will eventually look like.