My current “Icelandic project” has now got too big for carrying on the train for a commuting project (more of that later!).

What to do?…..

…Find something in my obese stash that’d be Okish?

……Stare blankly out of the train window and waste good knitting time?

………Rush out and buy a huge, new and  exciting project just for commuting?

Pah! I bet you can guess what I did!! 😀

I splurged…And it’s not knitting *GASP* 😳 – it’s crochet!

I realised, when making the Eurovision ABBA Hat , that my elbow and hand didn’t hurt at all. I have been avoiding crochet since 2007 when I went crazy making Granny Squares and gave my self tendonitis in my elbow. I ended up suffering and needing to strap up my arm  for years later. It returned if I crochet for more than about 30 mins 🙁

“Yippee!”,  I thought and started browsing crochet – The lovely Ben looked over my shoulder and said, “Wow, I really like that one!”  –  Decision made!!

It was Janie Crow’s Persian Tile Blanket, from a kit at Deramores for a very reasonable £39.99 🙂

Isn’t that fabulous?

I was a little dubious if my crochet skills were up to this as I’m not as experienced  crocheter as I am knitter. But, a very well written pattern makes all the difference. The pattern is 12 pages of clear instruction and well photographed, close up pictures of each stage of making the motifs – very nicely done Janie Crow!

The one negative I’d have is the yarn – it’s 75% acrylic/25% wool. I really don’t enjoy acrylic.  Also,  it is a little “splitty”. It’s not as terrible as 100% acrylic ( I really hate 100% acrylic!) but I like nicer yarn and would have happily paid more for a cotton or a wool cotton choice. On the other hand, this is a bit of an experiment to see if my elbow can sustain crochet again so I wouldn’t have been so quick to risk a more expensive project.

Having said all that – the synthetic yarn mean the colours are really strong and won’t fade and it should be easy to care for….maybe I’ll be an acrylic convert by the end of this project??!!

Pattern obscured by my first motif to protect Janie Crow’s copyright!! 🙂

So how am I getting on?

First I made the two main motifs to check my tension….

So excited – these came out great!

Then I set about creating a production line…

What a mess!

I’m doing all 16 large octagons at once so I can take just one ball of the current colour on the train with me – and it means I can memorise that part of the pattern. I have them on stitch holders so I don’t loose track of them!

I’m storming along with this – after only a week I have got a load done but I’m having to slow myself down so the tendonitis doesn’t return.

There may be more crochet in the future!

So far so good!