It’s been a while since I dedicated a blog post to a wool related craft, and I’m doing so as I’ve really enjoyed creating with wool recently. As you know I’ve joined a local crochet group who meet weekly on a Friday afternoon in the pub, and I go along as often as I’m able to.
As part of the village community we are dressing a tree with crochet wonderment, most of which I’ve not seen yet. Our ethos was to “throw colour at the tree” and I’ve already left some colourful, whirly garlands ready for the occasion.
Rather foolishly, and without a solid plan, I volunteered to crochet a pig garland I’m sure thinking how hard can it be! (Spoiler: it’s totally doable). And the reason why I’m crocheting pigs to decorate a tree in the orchard of the local Hall, is because pigs used to roam freely in orchards, which is why apple sauce is served with pork. So it seemed right to recreate that in crochet.
Or mostly crochet!
I couldn’t work out how to easily crochet the ears so dug out my knitting needles, and voila! I’m really pleased with how they look, and i think everything with googly eyes is a winner.
So enamoured was I by crocheting in front of the TV, I decided to wind some skeins for a crochet project.
The plainer mustard and the multicoloured skeins I dyed myself at a workshop in Nottingham, the next is one of Vicki Brown’s make 100 skeins from 2023, and the final one is the top-up skein I bought recently at the Newark Wool Show.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, in fact a lot of those neatly wound balls were a tangled jumbled mess which needed a lot of untangling. Quite a mindful activity, but something that took several attempts to resolve completely before I started to crochet.
But start I did, and it’s looking great - the main body is completed in one piece up to the arm holes and so I’m guessing when to stop and change colour so that I can replicate the colour bands across the sleeves. Or wondering if there’s another way to make it look like I had a plan all along!
But first I need to finish the last few pigs.
I’m so glad they worked, and actually look like pigs!