African Flowers and Upcoming Jingle Ball

Now that my Persian Tiles blanket is finished I'm itching to do more crochet while I watch TV. I happened upon this YouTube video  and became very intrigued with making the hexagonal blocks in the African Flowers pattern. There are several permutations - some with 6 petals, others with 8. Some with added embroidery, most others not. 

I'm using sock yarn so mine will be quite small. I used double crochet for the last round instead of single crochet like most patterns called for.

I'd have to make a zillion of them for an afghan for me but I think one for Daisy would be perfect. I'm not sure I have enough of this sparkly gold yarn for enough of them but I do have other yellow and gold sock yarns I could use. They stitch up very quickly. Stay tuned.

I missed the Jingle Ball, online stitching retreat, last December because I was enjoying my European Christmas Market Tour with Marilyn. However I plan to participate this year. 

Class listings are now up on the website. Tickets are $15US and entitle the bearer to participate in the Meet and Greets, shopping mall, purchasing of exclusive patterns, etc. All patterns are available in .pdf so if our postal strike is still on, we still have access. Kits are only available in the US but with the class information, we can kit them up ourselves.

Two that intrigue me are  Hello From Liz Mathews' Snow Globe class.

and Annie Beez Christmas Pears.

I scored some beautiful green evenweave at Elim last weekend which would be perfect for these. I'll have to check my fabric stash to see if I have any red fabric, too.

I have several of her pear patterns and actually completed one set last year.

I have another set underway but haven't worked on it for a while.

I also have a UFO from the 2023 Jingle Ball when I took the Hello From Liz Mathews class - Santa's Night Ride. I must haul it out and do some more work on it.

Tickets for the Jingle Ball go on sale on October 17. As it is a virtual retreat, the tickets won't sell out.

From past experience, it's a fun, Christmasy, stitcherly event you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home. 

Keeping on the Christmas theme, I remembered buying a Christmas mitten pattern several years ago from the Pastime Pieces booth at the Toronto Guild's BMO event. I've been hunting for it and yesterday I found it!  It's 'Smitten' by All Through the Night.

I need to get it kitted up, too. I doubt I'll do it on black or dark navy fabric but I'm sure I have something in my stash or something at Kimat Designs that would work.