Crochet and Pears

Rummaging around in the cupboard under the sink, I found the above bird feeder which we bought in the sale last summer. We promptly put an apple in it, hung it up in the garden and the apple rotted away without the slightest bit of attention from the birds. So this time I decided to put a beautiful blush pear in it (no because it looked too perfect to eat but because I tried one of these pears and it was like eating cotton wool - yuck!) and see what happens. Anyway, in the meantime...

I bought some cotton yarn from the charity shop a few weeks ago. Four balls at £1 each - bargain. I pondered over what to make. Initially I considered a stash bag to keep some unfinished projects in, but I wanted to make myself something, something pretty. So I flicked through my crochet book (thanks Mum!) for inspiration.

There was a photo of a shawl in the book which was stunning, but there was no pattern for it - it was just being used as an example to show you how to join individual blocks. There were some close up photos of the shawl and I thought I would just have a go at copying the pattern as it appeared fairly straight forward. No harm in trying, is there?

And this is the result, after a couple of attempts I had got a version I was happy with and just kept making them, joining as I go. This is addictive crochet, that's for sure and it won't take much longer to finish. I have worked out that I have enough yarn to make 30 of these (hopefully) so it will be a shawl of three rows of ten. Knowing my luck, I will end up with 29 and have to take it all apart and rearrange it - I have already checked and this yarn is now discontinued! As you can see, it definitely needs blocking which I really dislike having to do as I'm lazy, but needs must. If I remember, I will post about blocking, as maybe that will spur me on to do it, rather than squirrel away the almost finished shawl in the unfinished projects cupboard.

And yes, the pear got nibbled, but we still don't know who did it. I keep looking out to see if there is a bird on it, but nothing. Will let you know (and try to get a photo) if I see birdie's mealtime in action.

Have a great day. xx