Day 7 Fight Dementia Challenge I crocheted my cortex!

 No. Really. See?

 I really did crochet my brain

My brain is plastic - crocheted from recycled plastic bags. Because your brain has a plasticity that is inspiring. You can mend it and bend and tangle it and untangle it - you can improve your brain no matter what age you are. I've enjoyed challenging my brain each day with crochet during Alzheimer's Awareness Week. Craft has endless ways to extend our skills and take us on a ride on a steep roller coaster learning curve.

So keep challenging yourself and trying new things. It's exciting! Love your brain!

Day 6 Fight Dementia Challenge.

I should have realised this one was going to be hard. All the other patterns in the book have only one picture. This one had three! Such sweet looking flowers though, and the pattern was innocuously called "little flowers". How hard could it be? It was more like the "brain frying flowers of doom from the planet of crochet crushing confabulations". Or just "Doozy Daisy".

HOWEVER! After about FIVE attempts and a very concentrated reading of the pattern over and over - aloud, to the kids, to the wall, to the sky, to the visiting magpie - it all eventually fell into place like a magic puzzle. Da daaaaa!

The language of these patterns reminds me of the complexity of reading piano music - and I'm sight reading my way through. There is an element with this stitch of having to trust the pattern and follow the instructions even when they seem quite strange and from the planet of tricky tangled twine. There were all sorts of symbols and repeats. And the pattern folded back on itself and grew in a strange unconventional way, rather than row by row. At one stage I had 12 loops on my crochet hook!

This much was from only working through the five rows twice! After thinking this stitch was going to be my nemesis, I've grown to like it's prickly charms. It grows quickly (like a weed)and looks great. Worth the trouble?
 

Fight Dementia Challenge Day 5

This "Simple Crochet for Beginners"  book is from the 1940’s and I'd just like to say that people must have been a lot smarter then. Because, beginner crochet people, this book has no diagrams, mystifyingly brief instructions and a presumption you are, in fact, already completely brilliant at crochet!

"Delicate Lace Revers Give An Enchanting Finish To A Little Dark Dress"
Never heard of "revers" but glad to make them, wear them. Bring back the revers I say.


 



This is my first attempt at filet crochet.

 

...a style of crochet my Great Grandmother was a real star at. You can see more of her World War One commemorative quilt here.

Great Granny's Quilt is incredibly detailed and intricate. I now have an even better appreciation
of how much work this must have been!
I used  thicker cotton than the very fine cotton suggested by the pattern (for so called beginners!)and a small metal hook and my "rever" turned out to be rather large. So if I attempt to reproduce it I will use thinner cotton – and now I have the hang of it I think I could. It’s wise to start with a thicker yarn so you can see the chains and loops more easily. I’m excited to have worked out a filet pattern. It’s a style I like. And I have some wonderful patterns including a crazy squirrel design.

Fight Dementia Challenge Day 4

In the very first line of this pattern I came across a crochet term I had never encountered before. A quin treble. A few lines after that was another - a triple p.

This elaborate edging was a learning curve for me but once I got going, referred to a few diagrams in the glossary of the book, had another cup of tea, squinted, paused, sighed a bit and then tried again...it all made sense.

My crochet challenges are certainly living up to their title. Today I could feel my neural pathways stretching and growing. I can imaging that they are elegantly rearranging themselves into this pattern!

 
I used my favourite neon pink builder's string today which stays very firm. 
Once I finished my sample I decided it made a good necklace. What do you think? 

Fight Dementia Challenge Day 3

Okay so I reckon the degree of difficulty of today's stitch was only about a 2.5.

I went easy on myself and used this gorgeous 20 ply - yes that's right, 20 ply - wool from Nundle Woollen Mill

But now I plan to do a scarf from this stitch in very very fine orange cashmere...

So today's stitch is:

Webbed arcs

Multiple of 8 + 1

ROW 1: 3 ch *1 tr, 3 ch, miss 3 sts, 1 dc, 3 ch, miss 3 sts* 1 tr

ROW2:  2 ch * 1 tr in tr, 1 ch, 1 dc in 2^nd ch, 3 ch, 1 dc in 2^nd ch of next space, 1 ch* 1 tr

ROW 3:  2 ch, * 1 tr in tr, 7 tr in 3 ch space * 1 tr

ROW 4: 2 ch *1 tr in tr, 3 ch, 1 dc in centre of shell, 3 ch* 1 tr

 

ROW 5: Repeat from row 2

For those wanting to break the crochet code here are the abbreviations:

tr = treble

dc = double crochet

ch = chain

sts = stitches

And you repeat between the asterisk

Got that?

Fight Dementia Challenge Day 2

Well I thought maybe I was cheating with this Day 2 Challenge to fight Dementia by challenging my craft skills. This pattern isn’t exactly a new stitch – it’s all just double crochet. But it’s  a completely new technique for me.

Man was I wrong that it wouldn’t be a technical and mental stretch! My neural pathways are more tangled than my six...hang on make that seven....balls of very thin bamboo  yarn.

 

The geometric pattern is from this great eighties pattern book (which I’m hoping to plunder for great patterns to make!).

 

You read the graph across left to right then back right to left but your first row from left to right is your wrong side and the right to left is right side...right???

Single colour project tomorrow me thinks.....

In-tricky-ate crochet for Brain Health

This is my first attempt at an open work lace pattern crochet from this old well read book I inherited from my Mum.

I’m crocheting in fine yellow cashmere.Can you believe it has taken almost THIS many rows before I could FINALLY do it without referring to the book? I find the complexity of the pattern very therapeutic. It takes concentration and that in itself is meditative.It's good for the gaskets.

Dementia Awareness Week  starts today, with World Alzheimer's Day. The theme is Brain health - Making the connections. So I'm going to challenge my brain and try a new complex crochet pattern  (complex for me anyway!) each day.

Join in! What do you do to keep your brain active?

Here's today's pattern for Day 1:

Openwork stitch:

uses a multiple of 7+2

row 1: 2 ch *2h.tr, 3 ch, miss 2 sts, 1 dc, 3 ch, miss 2 sts* Finish row with 2 h.tr

row 2: 2 ch, * 2 h.tr, 3 ch, 1 dc in dc, 3 ch, 1 dc in same dc, 3 ch* Finish row with 2 h.tr

row 3: 1 ch, 1 dc in each h.tr of previous row, *1 dc in 3 ch space, 5 ch, 1 dc in next ch space, 1 dc in each 2 h.tr*

row 4: 1ch, * 2 dc, miss 1 st, 7dc in 5 ch space, miss 1 st* Finish row with 2 dc

row 5: 2 ch *2 h.tr, 3 ch, miss 3 sts, 1 dc, 3 ch, miss 3 sts, * Finish row with 2 h.tr

row 6: REPEAT FROM ROW 2