Simply Crochet: Has Crochet Finally Got Hip and Groovy?!

Oh people, people, PEOPLE!

Those creative types at Future Publishing have had a busy couple of years dragging craft and the delights of domesticity from the depths of frumpishness into the bright lights of contemporary trendiness.

First off was the launch of Mollie Makes in May 2011 with a focus on craft. This was followed by bohemian bourgeois lifestyle mag The Simple Things and a highly desirable baking publication called Sweet in September 2012. 

And now they've got crochet in their sights. AT LAST. Someone to save us from the horrors of What Not To Crochet.

I can't tell you how pleased I am that the granny square is about to get the skandi minimalist / bokeh-laden / urban hipster / sleek-design-blog treatment.

In fact I am so excited I can't remember how to use a hyphen correctly when deploying an ambitiously long compound noun as an adjective.

But back to subject at hand...

In January a new magazine entitled - suitably enough - Simply Crochet will hit the shelves at a reputable newsagents near you. 

You can have a sneak peek here.

Crochet might finally be getting as cool, hip and groovy (I shall withhold the bold statement adjective of "sexy" for a couple of editions) as knitting.  

It's time to sharpen up the Tulip Etimo Crochet Hooks, arguably the Lamborghinis of the crochet hook world. 

They even come in "go faster" pink.  

Well, if I owned some I certainly would...

(Image: Simply Crochet)

Things wot I have finished

 


It's been a busy couple of months what with the day job and mothering. Nonetheless, I have been on a mission to finish two projects that have been languishing at the bottom of a basket. 

It is a very fine  and visually striking basket. 

Well, it would have to be as it's become such a significant yet unintentional design feature in the chaos of the living room.

Various knitting needles and crochet hooks poke forth from the basket. Squishy balls of yarn have acquired colourful, knotty tentacles that look as if they were trying to escape.

This miniature, wool-based interpretation of John Wyndham's The Kraken Wakes arguably detracted somewhat from the loveliness of the basket. That and the layer of dust.

Something had to be done. I tentatively reached into the bowels of the basket, swearing upon all that is good and cake-based to finish the associated projects of whatever yarns came to hand as long as I actually got that hand back.

Luckily for me, the hand emerged in one piece and clutching 3 balls of Artesano 100% Alpaca DK in Cornflower blue and a largish ball of an unknown chunky yarn in a sort of burgundy hue.

And Lady Luck was smiling down on me as both projects demanded crocheting. If I was truly honest when I swore that oath to all things good and cake-based, I couldn't quite face a knitting project. Free time at the moment comes in bite-sized chunks and tends to cease with no warning at all. Not ideal mid row of some complicated cabling. And it's such a pain to unravel a gazillion rows for one slipped stitch born of a distracted moment.

And here are the results. The first is a relatively intricate shawl with the alpaca DK and is the first woolly thing I've completed for myself in an age and a day.  

Another bonus with alpaca is that those afflicted with a wool or lanolin allergy can wear this yarn. No longer will they suffer like Griffolino and Capocchio in Dante's Inferno (Canto XXIX; 73-99 in case you're wondering). Which can only be a good thing.

FYI Cheri McEwan's Fantasm pattern is a freebie on Ravelry.

Oooh. Crochet shawl. Lovely.

 

And the second is a whizzy, easy and satisfying snood. For those tempted to stray from the straight and narrow of knitting in order to try the dark arts of crochet, this is a great starter project.

It's a snood. A chunky snood. Ooooooh.

The tension is a bit tighter than the original envisioned by Kirsty of Kotoyoo, but the sculptural quality is rather fun. The recipient is a dear chum who totally rocks a leopard print dress in her role as a rather serious corporate lawyer. Now imagine this cowl with the leopard print dress.

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Are you imagining? Good. It's an amazing thing to consider, no?

Hopefully there will soon be photos of this spectacular combo.

(Images: Zoë F. Willis)