yet another blanket...

Another (very old) FO - I made another blanket!

This was some time ago, but somehow I never managed to take pictures and blog about it. 

I made this one in thin strips, with alternating colours, then edged each strip with dark blue and finally sewed all the strips together. 

It was a stash-buster project because I'm still sort of drowning in acrylic and I don't use it for anything other than blankets (they do work best with acrylic yarn  because they need to withstand a fair amount of wear and tear and also get washed frequently). 

It's not a favourite and I don't consider it a particularly good-looking blanket. The strips were awkward, there was far too much sewing in of yarn ends, and the sewing together creates ridges that never look quite as good as you hope they will. 

It's OK, though, because it's soft and warm, and it's on rotation with all the other crochet blankets in the living room so it gets used all the time. All is well. 

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A Year of Projects

Little Things Thursday

A Year of Projects Update Post

I didn't upload anything last week, but hey, better every other week than never, right?

As usual, I'm finding it a little tricky to stick to a timetable. Will I ever learn? I'm in my mid-40s now so the chances that I'm going to completely change into an ultra-organised person are not so good I feel... But I have got better. I used to be notoriously late for everything, always apologising, always rushing, and my organisational skills have improved over the years. It's mainly down to having to balance kids and work I think...

Enough of that, though. Let's get to the main topic of this post - my Year of Projects update. I've not been terribly productive this past couple of weeks. Obviously I'm in Germany right now (though about to head to the airport), so there is that, but also, I suppose it's part of the whole summer holiday thing - the days stretch out and by now we are all thoroughly used to not doing very much at all (not D, though, he's back at work, poor thing). We get up late, have breakfast even later, tinker around the place, play a bit, perhaps see some friends, loll around on the sofa, and the boys have alternated between quite a bit of gaming but also quite a bit of biking. As I mentioned a few days ago, D has built a mini bike track in the back garden and boy #3 in particular has been going round and round on his little mountain bike.

I did get a few rows in on my mohair cowl, so I'm up to the armhole decreases now, and it's the only project I've brought with me to Germany so it's received at least a bit of attention. The yarn knits up pretty well, and considering how much this project has been carted around it also seems to wear fairly well.

Other than that, I've been thinking about projects rather than actually working on projects. I still have all this stash yarn, you see, and I think I've finally found a few projects that might work. Look at this, the Mohair Cowl Pullover. I think it will do really well for this yarn:

And this, the Grocery and Produce String Bag - I'd love to make a few, which will deplete my cotton stash a bit.

The Sunday Chunky Jumper might be just the ticket for the remainder of this rather scratchy bulky yarn that I still have lying around.

But then I also really fancy this Curvy Crochet Cowl? And I've never crocheted a jumper, so that makes it quite tempting too! Perhaps I have enough of this yarn left for it:

And what do you think of either the Frosting Pullover or Maria for this Fleece Artist single-spun mohair yarn?

I'm also contemplating another crochet blanket - perhaps another wavy one  - because of this:

I think there are just enough left-overs for a blanket - though I'm just as likely to run out at the crucial moment so I have to emergency-buy more yarn that I then have to use up in turn...

And there you go, I think you can see my problem. There are just too many potential projects! I'm obviously sticking with the blue Mohair Cowl that I'm working on right now because I want to see it finished in time to actually wear it in the autumn, but I think  I could perhaps add one more WIP to my current list - which one is it to be?!

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A Year of Projects

FOs and WIPs and such... A Year of Projects...

... Well, in my case more like half a year of projects. Not that I have that much to show for.

I have, however, steadily been working on and I do in fact have one FO. It's been a FO for some time now, but I never got round to posting about it. It's the Scheepjes CAL Dancing in the Rain blanket. I joined the CAL on Facebook and, apart from a few lapses, kept up with the pattern pieces pretty well. Some were tricky, others were not favourites in the making, but mostly they were fun to make, and always challenged my crocheting skills. It's been good to make this blanket, yes, and it's very rewarding to see it used by the boys every day. They really do love their blankets. The first thing they said when we got to our flat when we went on holiday a few weeks ago was 'but there are no blankets on the sofa!!'. I think my enduring love of blankets may be to blame. Clearly it's rubbed off on them...

Anyway, here we go - 'Dancing in the Rain', all complete and such:

The yarn is acrylic, which, considering the near-constant use this blanket is receiving, is probably an excellent thing, and after some initial teething problems I actually got on with it very well. There was a significantly more expensive Merino option for the kit, but I'm glad I stuck with the acrylic - it's soft, and light, and the blanket feels very snuggly.

I'm also slowly making progress on two projects that I've had on the needles for ages - Black Acer, and the Boneyard Shawl. 

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Keep Calm, Craft On

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Spring is here...

... and I'm back (I think).

Goodness me, that was a long hiatus. And I hadn't even planned on having one! Honestly, it just happened. 

Coming up to Christmas I was so busy, and then we had family over, and after that it was the New Year and I just kept on being really busy. My teaching resumed after the sabbatical that I'd had in the autumn, and then all the little ones were ill, and so were D and I, and well, I think you get the picture.

For a while there I was so busy that I had no time for crafting. None whatsoever.

Fortunately I'm back on a more even keel now and I have, ever so slowly, found my way back to all my projects. There are still a lot of WIPs around here from last autumn, I can tell you that, but I think my crafting mojo is coming back. A mum I know persuaded me to join in a blanket CAL - The Scheepjes CAL for Last Dance on the Beach, which is in memory of the late Marinke Slum, or Wink from the A Creative Being blog . You have to buy the yarn kit from Scheepjes, but the yarn is nice and the kit isn't too expensive, and some of the money will go to a mental health charity, so it's for a good cause. My box of yarn arrived a few days ago - there were three colour combinations to choose from. Since I have a lot of very bright-coloured blankets I went with the most neutral option - Dance in the Rain:

 Unfortunately the box of yarn has already been claimed as a cat bed. I may have a fight on my hands when I come to start the blanket...

In preparation for the CAL I felt that I should at least put one of my crochet blanket projects to bed so I focussed on the Weekender blanket that I had started oh so many months ago. After frantically crocheting and sewing on hexagons for a couple of weeks the blanket is finished. I added a thin dc border to finish it off and it's already in constant use by the boys, who love to snuggle up in the blankets on the sofa. I'm pleased with it, even though it's not a stylish project (a lot of waste yarn went in there, so there is no real colour scheme at all), but if I never crochet a hexagon again it won't be too soon. Honestly, I was so sick of them by the time I finally finished the last one!

Right now I am trying to make some progress on the Spice of Life blanket, also sadly neglected for months now. The new CAL starts on 20th April so I have little hope of finishing the blanket before then, but it would be nice to add a few inches so I can feel that I'm a bit closer to the finish line than before!

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Yarn Along

WIP Wednesday - a Spice of Life update

Since I am still in the firm grip of my current pottery fever, I have not been doing a lot of knitting and crocheting. I've also been fighting a cold, meaning that I 've not been terribly active in the evening, which is my usual time for crafting. 

That said, I have been keeping up with the Spice of Life CAL, and I'm enjoying it immensely. This is such a fun project, and all those colours are making me very happy. :)

Inspired by my recent quick project success with the slubby yarn hat, I've also cast on for a little crochet hat for my neice. I found this yarn at the car boot and got it for £1 for all three balls and I love the scrappy look of it. I judged it to be DK, but looking up (and crocheting with it), it works up as bulky, which is fine by me, as it makes for another very quick project. 

I cast on yesterday, but then seem to have lost the crochet hook - I assume it was in the waiting room at the doctors yesterday, but in any case I can't find it. I've ordered a new one, but it means that this project has now stalled until it arrives.

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Yarn Along

A Year of Projects

Stitch Along Wednesday

A Year of Projects Update

Since I've not managed a proper Wednesday update in a couple of weeks now (for various reasons, see my post a few days ago) I thought I'd do a Sunday crafting overview. 

Things are progressing rather nicely, actually. D and I have been watching House of Cards on Netflix, which has given me some time to get on with my many many WIPs and I do in fact have progress to report on all of them.

Do you find that when you have more than one project on the go you get really fixated on one of them for a few days only to then get tired of it and switch to another one that you work on frantically for a few days? This has certainly been my pattern these past couple of weeks. 

Of course I've created a situation that gives me rather a lot of projects to choose from...

For about a week or so now I've been quite focussed on the Weekender Blanket. I might have to re-name it the House of Cards blanket, I've worked on it that much while watching!

My obsessive hexie crocheting has led to good results, though - I've nearly doubled the blanket in size! 

Of course it's still small, but it's reached the width that I'd like it to have so I'm now working on finishing the straight edge so I can then work on its length. 

I've also finished the body of the Eyelet Yoke Sweater. I was rather nervous when I finally cast off and tried it on - after all, without any actual sizing in the pattern, getting the correct size was a bit of an experiment. It seems to have worked out, though. It's a loose fit, but in a good way, and I'm pleased with it. Now on to the boring sleeve knitting...

Liesl is nearly finished. I've  completed one sleeve and I'm about half-way done with the second, so one evening of concentrated work on it will probably get it done.

Because I'm clearly a little bit insane I've also cast on for yet another crochet blanket. We've started working properly on the inside of Matilda now and looking at her I felt that she really needed a blanket of her own.

For a while now I've wanted to crochet a ripple blanket, and I cast on with a few different shades of blue and some white. It's all acrylic, because this is a camping blanket that is probably going to get washed a lot, but I ordered the yarn, Stylecraft Special DK, is lovely and soft and I really like the way this is turning out. I'm using Attic 24's ripple pattern for this.

I've got some other projects on the go, but that's a topic for another blog post. :)

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A Year of Projects

Wool on Sundays

Sew Darn Crafty

It's Wednesday again!

Seriously, where do the weeks go? When I posted my update last Wednesday I thought, 'well, perhaps I get another post out before the weekend...'. Clearly I've been too optimistic!

Right now, we are all enjoying spring - how did it arrive so quickly?

So many flowers! And where flowers are not already out or about to burst open, there are plenty more in waiting...





Can you believe that the bluebells are already almost out?!?

The chicken ladies are enjoying the warmer weather too - dustbaths seem to be the way to celebrate when you are a chicken... ;)



Otherwise, life continues much as it has the previous weeks - busy, busy, busy. Boys #1 and #2 are back at school of course, and I do try to at least keep one day a week free to spend some time with boy #3, but apart from that it's pretty much been all work and no play. I do try to do a bit of knitting in the evening - if I am not catching up on more work, that is - but even that has been slow. Progress is made, but it's so gradual it almost doesn't seem worth reporting. 

I've tried to bring spring into the house whereever I can. A few days ago the boys came back from a bike ride and brought me this flower:



Isn't it lovely. Such bright colours!

I've placed it on the mantelpiece of the now unusable fireplace - a pair of crows have decided to raise their numerous offspring on top of our chimney, so warm weather or not, the season for cozy open fires is officially over...

I also got more of these lovely yellow blooms from a shrub at the back of the garden:



Looking at the photographs earlier I realised that I've subconsciously replicated the colours of the flowers and spring decorations and the colours of my knitting. Look at this:

OK, so ignore the mess, but look at the yellow/orange of Liesl, and the pale green of the Eyelet Yoke Sweater, and also the greens and yellows and purples of the mystery blanket in the background and compare them to the flowers? See what I mean?

Clearly I have spring on the brain!

In actual knitting news, I've done some work on Liesl - I've been trying this on as I've been going along, to see if I'm happy with the length and I think another 2-3 pattern repeats and the  body will be done. This has been such a joyful and quick knit - big needles, cheerful yarn, interesting but easy-to-remember lace pattern... What's not to like?

I have the sleeves to go of course. I'm planning on mid-length sleeves that end somewhere below the elbow.

I've also done more work on the Eyelet Yoke Sweater. I love knitting with this yarn, it's so soft. I've completed the yoke now and have separated the sleeves off. Right now I've done one of the required body decreases. I've tried it on too, and it seems to fit OK... Hopefully this will continue - will have to try it on again once I reach the end of the decreases I think.

Here it is, amidst all the chaos of our coffee table. :)

Close up of the neckline and eyelet pattern:

I've also slowly worked away at the weekender blanket, but I have no picture this week. I've pretty much given up on the add-as-you-go-along approach because swapping between different yarns all the time was so fiddly. Instead I've gone back to my trusted method of crocheting a few patches in each colour to add together later. This means that there is nothing much to show for, but I have actually finished quite a few hexies. I might try and add a few rows to the blanket this week so I can show some progress for the next update.

With Totoro such as success in our house (he gets a different bed to sleep in most nights), and with little desire to crochet another 2 large Totoros straight away, I've been looking around for other interesting patterns to try out. I've come across the Roly Poly Pill Bug pattern, which looks great. I've shown it to my oldest and he is already requesting one... I'm thinking this might finally be the project that will rid me of my Noro Silk Garden. This has been lying around for years and there isn't enough for a jumper. Plus, I'm not actually that keen on the colours but the different shades of brown and purple would be perfect for Roly! 

Anyway, watch this space... ;)

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A Year of Projects

Keep Calm Craft On

Yarn Abroad

Stitch Along Wednesday

Crocheting again...

I've joined yet another CAL.

Yes, yes, you've heard that correctly. I've just about managed to raise my head back above water and I've gone and joined another CAL. 

You can never have too many projects on the go, you know? 

OK, just kidding, but really, this one was too tempting.

It's another crochet blanket CAL, but it won't be nearly as stressful as the Scheepjes CAL because there won't be weekly pattern pieces. Instead you work on this one in your own good time, and once a week you post an update on Instagram or the Ravelry page for the CAL to show your progress. As I've been looking for another project that will allow me to use my odds and ends of yarn this one seems perfect.

There is no particular pattern that needs to be used, but as I quite like the look of it I've decided to go with the pattern that is suggested - the Weekender blanket. I really like the small hexagons, which make this a kind of crochet/quilting cross-over. 

(look, little hexies!)

I suspect that I'll be doing this for some time to come, because I'm not dedicating a lot of time to it. Also, I'm joining it as I go along, meaning that it very soon will become too bulky to be carried around. That's OK, though, I'm in no hurry. This family isn't exactly short of crochet blankets. 

Fridays are for FOs!

Yes, yes, they are!

It's been so long since I've been able to show off any finished projects on a Friday, and I'm so very happy with this project.

The Scheepjes Mystery Blanket has been finished for a little while now, but I never seem to get round to photographing it because either I'm at work, or it's in use, or it's too dark and dreary to get good light...

But anyway, here it is, in all its glory:

And another one for good measure... 

And from above... 

And if you haven't had enough now, here are some detail shots... 

I added the squares together with a single crochet stitch, which works quite well I think, because it adds a little raised frame around each of the squares but it is simple enough not to draw attention away from the individual squares. After some contemplation I added a plain single crochet border. I was going to make it wider, but D convinced me that it was good as it was and I was pretty sick of border crocheting by that point, so who was I to argue? ;)

Again, I deliberated for a while but in the end decided on a simple border because i didn't want anything too busy that would compete with the crochet squares. I really like how it's turned out and it's definitely been a success with the family, boys and cats and all - it's almost constantly in use, in particular as boy #1 seems to have kidnapped my granny square blanket for his own personal use in his room. Yesterday when I snuck up there before I went to bed he was all snuggled up in it. Much as I'd like the blanket back to keep in the living room I just don't have the heart to take it when he clearly likes it that much. Maybe I'll have to make another one...

I'm still waiting for the buttons for the Garter Yoke cardi to arrive, so I'll have to leave that FO for another post... 

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A Year of Projects