Remember that Crocheted Waistcoat...?

it's finished.

In fact, truth be told it was finished a good few weeks ago, but I'd not got around to putting the ties on!  It has been languishing on my chair in crochet corner waiting patiently 'til now.

What do you think?

As it's been such an age since I started this waistcoat project, I cannot remember how much I spent on wool, except to say it was less than the one for sale that originally inspired me to make this one!  I used Rowan Handknit Cotton for it, but if I were to make another one I think I'd pick a slightly lighter yarn.  Cotton is quite sturdy, and I think a more floaty kind of wool would look quite good too.

But here's the thing - the fact is, I probably won't be able to make another.  I tried to write a pattern, and at first it looked as if it were going swimmingly - and I was so excited as I reallly thought I could share it with you.  Then it got tricky...and oh my, tricky like you wouldn't believe.  I spent a while frogging and re-doing bits over and over until they looked right.  Even now, there are parts of it that to my eye look ever so happily wonky and not exactly matching...but hey, it was fun to do.

So, (and I dread you reading this bit) I am very, very (truly) sorry...but I do not have a pattern to share with you after all. Writing all the complicated bits down and reading through it made absolutely no sense to me at all afterwards, and even though I tried writing it out three times, it wasn't convincing me that it was easy enough for folks to understand, and to publish on a blog to share with a squillion people.

Will you forgive me?  


I have to confess that I've had rather a hiatus from crochet of late.  I've been much to busy with other projects and come 8 o'clock I've been too pooped to do much else apart from flop.
And then I read a post over at Coco Rose Diaries about a new magazine, with some rather fabulous crocheted apple covers featured.  You can have a peek into this new magazine here too, it looks really good.  Vanessa's post and this magazine combined got me itching to get hooking again.

I think it was a much needed jolt to remind me to get the mix of business and pleasure balanced evenly.  Despite my attempts at balancing life (as described in my last post), I realised that I was actually still feeling pretty frazzled and worn out which is a major kick up the butt for me to reaaaalllly slow down.  I realised that peaceful creative pursuits must be allowed as well as all this studying, drawing and writing that I'm doing, so I've started to do my yoga again (just gentle bursts of 15-30 minutes each evening) and plan some crochet time too; for me this is such a relaxing thing to do and like reading, it helps me to centre and unwind after a mad day!  My other stuff has now been re-scheduled so that my self imposed (rather tight) deadlines have now been gloriously extended!! Hurrah, sighs of relief and more time for the fun stuff.  Why didn't I just do that in the first place???!!

I want to say Thank You to everyone who left comments on my last post too - it was great to read all your ideas on dealing with overwhelm.  It was also interesting to see how many of us go through the same processes, thank you so much for sharing.


Before I scoot off, I just want to tell you that I am in the process of creating some new card collections for my website, which I'm really excited about.  If you want the heads up on these (that is, an exclusive preview with a nice discount) then all you have to do is sign up for my email newsletter which you can do here!  Just scroll down the page, fill in the form and that's it!!

Sending you love for a happy week, 
Julia x