Wow! It's been way to long since I've visited my blog and it is looking very neglected!!! If I'm being honest, I simply haven't had time to miss my musings. The reality of my teacher training has taken hold and I've been working 14 hour days and sleeping very little. The children barely recognise me and the Sicilian and I just pass first thing in the morning and late in the evening! But, my first two phases are complete and I can take a big deep breath and reflect on everything I've learnt - mostly taught to me by the kids I've been 'teaching'. Yes, I'm shattered and there have been times when I've wanted to throw in the towel, but being the age that I am, life has taught me resilience and I never have been a quitter. So, I'm at my next school, preparing for the new school year and I just can't wait. I've got time now and in between lesson planning, reading and writing assignments, I am determined to pick up my hook and press on with my cotton blanket. And, whilst I haven't been 'actively' hooking away, the wheels of craft have been turning in my absence. A project I completed a couple of months back will be coming up in 'Inside Crochet'...
Yep, you know how I love a doily! And, after a very long day at school and a particularly difficult lesson, I arrived home to a delightful parcel from my publisher - my book, in Swedish!!!
I had no idea it was being translated and printed in Sweden, so that's five languages now - English, US English, Spanish, French and Swedish! If only I could read them all ;) xxx
It's tough isn't it?! I'm looking at going back to teaching but instead of secondary history, I'm going to go down the primary route. I've been doing supply and ta work in my daughter's school and am loving it, but it's still exhausting! x
Posted by: Georgina | July 12, 2014 at 08:42 PM
Gosh, I couldn't have maintained a blog during teacher training! It is tiring, but oh so worth it. And really, it will get easier as you get the chance and confidence to become the teacher you want to be. Good luck! And enjoy the summer...
Posted by: mrs robinson | July 23, 2014 at 09:38 PM
Help! I bought this because I particularly liked the Lacy Scarf pattern BUT I'm really struggling with the first two lines (and I see from Ravelry that others have had the same problem). Am I reading the pattern incorrectly, or should I be chaining a different number for the starting chain. It says to chain 100, but the Foundation row appears to require multiples of 15, which would be either 90 or 105. (I wondered if perhaps I should start the foundation row by chaining 5 as a turning chain and then to start the *2tr etc at the 6th chain from the hook?) My other suggestion would be for your publishers - it's a beautiful book, but it would have benefitted from some sort of contact at the end for people to notify errors or clarifications to patterns.
Posted by: Alison Morris | October 24, 2015 at 11:45 AM
Hi Alison, I agree, it would be fab for the book to have direction for readers to 'pattern updates', unfortunately the publishing world moves very quickly and my book is a distant memory! However, as and when lovely readers like yourself contact me, I review the patterns (which were edited several times, but errors still occur!) and post udates on the blog under 'pattern updates' in the left hand bar. The update for the scarf is there, but just in case, here it is:
pg. 134
Lacy Scarf (thanks to Liz in Dorset)
Row 1 3 ch, * 2tr, work 2 tr, 1 ch, 2 tr into each of next two 1-ch spaces....
Row 2 3 ch, * 2tr, work 2 tr, 1 ch, 2 tr into each of next two 1-ch spaces....
Just ignore the '2 tr' at the beginning of each row. When I first wrote the pattern I said to work the 2 tr, 1 ch, 2 tr into the 1-ch space between the first 2 tr, which is where this extra 2 tr comes from! As my patterns were edited and refined, my flowery style condensed, most of my superfluous crochet speak disappeared, but on this occasion an extra 2 tr snuck back in! Row 4 is spot on.
Hope this helps, if not, let me know! If you look at the actual blog post it is clearer with coloured text, I think!
Good luck, Sara x
ps. I'm quite envious, I haven't had time to pick up a crochet hook in 2 years!
Posted by: Sara | October 24, 2015 at 01:38 PM
Many thanks for such a quick and helpful reply - off to try again now :-)
I know what you mean about finding the time though - it always takes me a very long time to finish anything because life just gets in the way!
Posted by: Alison Morris | October 24, 2015 at 07:24 PM
Oh dear - it's actually the foundation row I'm stuck in... I have 100 chains; I skip 5 at the beginning, the end section is over 11 chains making 16 but the pattern repeat is over 15 chains. I'm sure I must be misreading something somewhere, but I'm not sure what!
Posted by: Alison Morris | October 24, 2015 at 08:03 PM
Ignore me - I've realised what I was doing wrong! I was doing the first 2 tr into a chain each instead of doing the whole of the first group into one chain - so sorry to bother you with my stupidity!
Posted by: Alison Morris | October 24, 2015 at 08:17 PM