Daffodils, daffodils and more daffodils! It is my firm opinion that there can never be enough daffodils, just as there can never be enough snowdrops, only they're on the iPad so I couldn't upload them for this post.
It has been a weird couple of months, I ended up spending more time in London at the start of the year than I ever expected and then there was a travel embargo... Yay \o/!! Nobody happier than me! Unfortunately I couldn't embrace the time at home as I wanted because after a visit to the folks I returned with what a friend of mine called "the proper flu". Well this was proper alright, I was off work for 3 weeks. 3weeks!! I haven't been off work sick for 3 weeks for years. I felt so bad I couldn't even crochet, must have been bad. Anyway it is on the wane now thank-goodness.
It was Mum's birthday in February, what do you get for the lady well on into her nineties? I genuinely had no idea so I made this...
And told Dad to put it in the middle of the dining room table with a vase of flowers on it. He did. It looked okay. Job done. February was also Valentine's Day so I made a flower heart for himself...
I added a little wooden sign to it...
He liked it and hung it on the "death riding a motorcycle" on the shelves above his desk. I'm calling it a win!
I also made some Mother's Day mandalas but put them in the post without photographing them so there are no pictures sadly.
However, the really big win on the crochet front so far this year is my absolutely favourite sweater. At the start of the year I was trawling through some of my favourite blogs and came across this post from Vanessa. I decided I wanted to make the sweater, so a bit more trawling back through her archives brought me to the pattern. Oh dear! As with a lot of the best crochet patterns out there it was Japanese and of course designed to fit someone a quarter my size, but I was determined. I found a moderately priced yarn that I knew I could wear comfortably next to my skin (I didn't want to risk expensive yarn on a pattern I wasn't sure I could make work) and sat down to do some serious swatching and the accompanying maths. It took me an hour or so but eventually I had the maths done and I got started. It was always going to be a long project. I prefer to crochet in the round, in 3D and this pattern was 2D and more like a knitting pattern, where you make the flat pieces and then join them together. It took longer than I would normally ever take to make a garment but the result was soooooo worth it.
I love that neckline! :)
And finally, here it is, full on...
I had to lengthen, and widen it and then I had to make the collar fit my additional dimensions but it was all worth it and I now have a lovely sweater that has already been worn several times.
I intend to make another in pink and try and get it more lacy, a bigger hook and a lot more maths in my future, I guess!
Love O. xx